Pago (i - Tlie Canadiaiv Jewisli News, [-riday, February 20, I'^O
THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
by North American Press Ltd. .
MAIN EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES: , 3433 Bathurst St.. Toronto 19, Out. Telephone: 789-1895 MONTREAL OFFICE: 6338 Victoria Avenue, Montreal (252). Que. Telephone: 739-3630 M.J. NURENBERGER Editor and Publisher
DOROTHY C. NURENBERGERAssQCiate Editor ELI OVADVA, General Manager
VOL. XI; No. 8(570)
Subscriptions $5.00 per year, $12 - 3 years; U.S.A. $7.50 per year. $18.00 - 3 years: All other countries $10 per year, $24 • 3 years. Second Class Mail Registration Number 1683
CANADA'S LEADING JEWISH NEWSPAPER IN ENGLISH
The Canadian Jewish News cannot be held responsible for the Kaslirut of products advertised as i;osher, nor will it be held accountalile for financial losses due to
printing errors in advertisements. __
~^ ' HEBREW CALENDAR ~ Friday. February ZOth, 1970. r4th day of Adar 1. 57.>0. _ Portion of tlie week: Te/.avcli Candlclighting: Toronto 5;36;Montroal ."^i 10 _
WHAT-A HIT!
SENSELESS AlJACKS
END THE SLAUGHTER
In the Munich air terminal last week, an Israeli passenger threw himself upon a grenade and was blown to bits. By this heroic act he saved the lives of hundreds of innocent bystanders. Thus a terrible calamity was averted. Perhaps it is significant and symbolic that this young Israeli named Katzenstein, performed his life-saving deed in the city where National Socialism was born.
The young Israeli has proven to the world that Jews are capable of terminating wars, even with their worst enemies. Peace in Hebrew means peace.
No one rushes to condemn the dastardly attack carried out by fanatical Arabs against innocent passengers in a European airport. No comment is forthcoming about the killing of seven old men in a Munich resting home. Yet the ire of all "civilized" people is immediately directed against Israeli pilots who accidentally bombed a munitions factory in a Cairo suburb.
No one has as yet editorialized about Defense Minister Moshe Dayan's unprecedented gesture in warning the Egyptians to dismantle a time bomb which could have killed hundreds. This is
A MAJOR PROBLEM
One of the most fractious issues in the Jewish community is the problem of public relations. We are all vitally concerned about the image of Israel which "has of late, become a caricatured picture in some "objective" presentations of the case for the Jewish state.
To some, the idea of public relations, or of improving the image of Israel, means simply getting something off one's chest, seeking self-satisfaction through witty remarks or often the repetition of obsolete PR slogans. Others are very happy when a leader is quoted about what the Jewish position is, or supposedly is, on Israel.
Yet most of us forget that Israel is not a uniquely Jewish, issue; it has become one of the paramount international problems. At present, in fact, the Middle East is a very serious point of contention between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the problem might appear impossible to solve, (even more complicated than Berlin, for example,) it is not so. It isn't as complex as central Europe because Israel,
•as a state, did not exist at the time of the Yalta agreement, and thus was not incorporated into any/Zorie~ of influence. Moreover, in the\^eo-politics of the Yalta period, \the Middle East was considered part of the eastern area of influence. Thus Moscovv cannot claim any committ-mept-"on the part of the western powers with regard to the eastern Mediterranean. \ Moscow accepted
4f)e American ^intervention in the Lebanon and never officially fought
the American or British efforts
additional proof of Israel's good faith and of the truthfulness of her statement that the bombing of the munitions factory was an unfortunate accident.
We regret the death of the seventy Egyptian workers who died during this unfortunate incident. Butthose Arabs were not the victims of Israeli aggression but of the megalomania of their own leader, Abdel Gamel Nasser.
Israel does not want this war. As Abba Eban said on Sunday in Amsterdam, Israel wants a ceasefire, negotiations with the Arabs and peace. Those who keep up this absurd war, this tragic confrontation between two Semitic peoples; those in Moscow who arm Arab highjackers and armies, are the real murderers of those who died in the suburb of Cairo and who perished in Munich.
There is only one way to end this chaos; to realize once and for all that the time is long past when Jews could be killed indiscriminately. The Jewish people will not abandon Israel nor will the Jewish state be forsaken by all those in this world who pursue justice and peace.
It is up to the Arabs to end this bloodbath.
to organize politically that part of the world.
If the Soviet Union is now pressuring the United States to change the map of the Middle East, the Americans can easily "demand" a similar change in central and eastern Europe, and especially in Berlin.
Russia and its sattelites are now negotiating with Bonn about a new deal. The main point in these negotiations, is the demand that the Western German government accept de jure the Kremlin's de facto subjugation of all peoples living in the so-called eastern sphere of influence. It insists that Koenigsberg remain a Russian city and in fact all Germans have long been expelled from East Prussia.
Many people, moreover, understand the communist contention that since the Germans lost the war,- and since German minorities acted as Trojan horses for Hitler's imperialist policies, the transfer of populations was a necessity. Also, no one demands the liberation of Czechoslovakia. All this was accepted in central and eastern Europe despite the fact that Germany, : the country that lost the war, had surrendered unconditionally.
It is only in the Middle East where the Soviet Union, acting as the agent for its Arab clients, its new sattelites; issues the strange demand that those who have lost the war are no longer under any obligation to accept peace and that ' they have the right now to dictate unconditional surrender to the win-.ner. ■ : . •■■ -
This is only one example of our failure in the area of public
WANTED
f
A
They will really be looking for him in New York.
c
UJ
c n O
3
ZAHAL - ISRAEL'S DEFENDERS
Zahal is the affectionate acronymn for Zva Haganah L'lsrael, the Israel Defense Forces. For one of Israel's most marked achievements was to create one of the finest military forces in the world without becoming a militaristic State; It has done so without according a single privilege to the officer corps, and produced some of the most highly trained soldiers in the world soldiers who are never reticent about revealing their innate distaste for soldiering.
Israel has achieved the highest rate of volunteering in the world for military service and this by a population which daily prays for peace and loathes war; a people which, while exposed daily tothe threats of annihilation by the Arabs, continues nevertheless to maintain civilized and close economic ties with its Arab population; a nation organized and ever mobilized for war which has retained its essentially civilian character, and in which the military as sucli wields little or no influence.
PRIVATE ARMIES The Israel Defense Forces were officially established in May, 194ff. In fact they had been in the course of formation for some 40 years, from the inception of Hashomer, the Jewish defense organization, through the Jewish Legion in the First World War, the Irgun, the Stern group, but above all the Hagana, the Palmach and the Jewish units of the Second World War in the British Army.
The establishment of this national force was effected against the background of discord and an almost internecine struggle between various "barons" determined to maintain their private political armies. One of the miracles of the modern Israeli revival was the fact that the leader of the national struggle for mdependence was David Ben-Gurion who, apart from other very historic decisions; decided, against considerable opposition, that anything, but an apolitical national army.sub-ject only to the orders of the civilian authority, would be a disaster.
RESERVE DUTY Zahal is composed at any given time of three main ele-
ments -- a comparauveiy small core, of regular officers and riCOs, conscripts serving for three years, and reserves, who are called to the colors for varying periods of service, either for training or for active duty along the frontiers, i^eserve duty is required now, as a result of a recent amendment, up to the age of 55.
Its training system encompasses all the militaiy requirements ofa modern army from basic recruit training up to and including staff college standard, or that of a modern jet fighter pilot or senior naval commander. Few of {he senior officers are left who served in the British Armv in the Second World War, but most of today's commanders are graduates of the French Erblede Guerre, theBritishStaffCollege at Camberley, the US Command and Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, or the US Marine Corps School at Quantico. Indeed, Israel invariably retains a number of senior officers for training at these and other centers of higher military training.
In addition, the IDF, as a matter of policy, maintain a fixed quota of officers, senior and junior, at universities in Israel and to a lesser degree abroad.. Thus, the curi'ferit Chief of Staff, General Haim Barlev, i§ an econorhics graduate of Columbia Uni-
versity, while the noted armored commander. General Israel Tal, holds a master's degree in philosophy from the Hebrew university.
The IDF is for obvious reasons very security-conscious, and does not publish figures of strength or orders of battle. But Israel is generally estimated to be capable of raising a force of some 250,000 in the event of total mobilization.
A growing percentage of its military equipment is being supplied by Israel's expanding military industries, but for major item? Israel continues to be dependent on supples from abroad. The armored forces include Brit-tish Centurion tanks, American Pattons and Soviet equipment taken in the Six-Day War. (Britain has so far refused to supply to Israel the new Chieftain tank.)
The Air Force is equipped with American F4 Phantoms and-^ A4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers and with French Mirage fighters, although these will obviously be phased out in view of the current French embargo.
The Navy consists primarily of destroyers and submarines pfBritish origin, but it is beihg reequipped with small, fast vessels.
COMBAT TRAINING Outwardly the IDF lacks spit and polish. Indeed, the
rnKTBEHABBr
———■ JdBfeatwrtf
How would yoii regard lalnnidic iittcrani'c.s which,arc at variance wilh Ihe ethics of liidaism, eft " It Is iincrilorious to kill an Am Ha'arclz on Vorii Kippiir when it falls on Sabbath ' (Pcsachim 49b)?
Some of Die medieval Talnnidic comincntatoi-s.' .bolbcrcd by this question, tried lb suggest that the passage quoted refers to an Am, Ha'aretz who is a ruthless bandit with many murders on his Jiands and Iicnce a danger to the com-nuinily. But surely the ele-nimt of l)yi)erbole is so blat-anl hero "that il cannot be iiiKigiiK'd that .we have anything like a practical ruling. To sec it otherwise is akin to ilrawin.i> conclusions on social (Oiiditions in Japan from the Mikados: "Somelhing linger-}]):'.. with boiling oil in il, I fancy.''
Salomon Siliochlcr has remarked apropos of such passages : " The greatest fault to bo found with those who wrote down such passages is vlial thoy did not observe the wise rule of Dr Johnson who said to Bo.swcU on a certain occasion, • Lot us get serious for there comes a fool.' And the fools unfortunately did (■ome. in I he shape of certain Jewish commentators and Christian lonirovorsialists, wlio took as serious things which were only the expres-.sion of a momentary impuLse, or represcntod the opinion of •some i.solaled individual, or
were nicanLsimply as a piece ()! luiinoroiis by-play, calculated 1o enliven the inlcrcsl of a languid audience."
Vvbal is the purpcsc' of such rabbinic laws as that a man should sleep on his left side at the beginning of the night, and on the right at the end ? Have they any religious meaning ? Medical men I have asked can't suggest anv health reason.
The simple answer is tliaf such advice, though found in the rabbinic literature and so forth, reflects the state of medical knowledge in an earlier age and are not to be seen as " laws.'
What is parev ? Do we need three sets of utensils ?
Parev is food that is neither milk nor meat, vegetables for example, and hence can be eaten with either milk or meat. \o third set of utensils is required but parev cooked in a milk i)of must not be eaten wilh meat and vice versa. The olymology of the word has been frequently but inconclusively discussed in this paper. Any novel. suggestions ?
There arc wany pathwaiji leaflimj tonnrds hcare7i: but Uicre la only one (jate~the honie-openiiio into heaven.
Natl-.an Marcus Adler, Chief Rabbi.
West buropean eye, accus-" tomed to military spick and span might be misled by the outward appearance of some of Israel's reserve units. If necessary, as for Independence Day parades, the IDF can turn out and march as well as an average British
(cont. on page 8)
Letters to
the E
FRENCH BOYCOTT
Dear Editor,
I would like to inform my friends and all those who are opposed to the French Middle East policy of supporting the enemies of Israel witharms, that I have instructed by travel agent not tobook meon any French airline or shipping company.
He told me that he had received similar requests from other clients. I think all of us should express our disgust with Pompidou by taking similar action.
Joseph Fried
Montreal.
SHMUEL YOSEPH AGNON
A personal reminiscence by Dr. Arnold Ages
The news of the passing of Shmuel Yoseph Agnon, at 81, the 1966 winner of the Nobel prize for Literature saddened me greatly. Agnon was without a doubt the greatest Hebrew stylist in more than a century. His books, written m a neo-classical Hebrew idiom, were warm recollections of Jewish life both in the disapora and in Israel.
The first serious reading I ever did in modern Hebrew literature was from Agnon's "T'mol Shilshom". It was over a decade ago that under the tutelage of my wife, an accomplished Hebraist, I was first exposed to Agnon's extraordinary prose. In his
mastery ol Hebrew, 1 saw an exquisite blend ofTalmudic lore, Zionist longings and universal values.
Kurt Leviant, Agnon's Englist translator once told me that working on one of Agnon's books was far more than a simple linquistic experience; it was an adventurous journey into the soul of the Jewish people.
In 1959 I met Agnon personally under the most unusual circumstances. I was sitting in the library of the Hayim Greenberg Institute m Jerusalem when the door bell sounded.
I could not contain my astonishment when I found Agnon at the front door ask-
ing to see one of the young ladies studying in our institute. He had heard that she was born in Bucazc, his own home town, and had come to exchange some memories with her.
For an hour he stayed and chatted not only with the young lady in question but with the twenty or thirty students who materialized immediately upon hearing that the great S. Y. Agnon was there.
relations. Despite its victory, Israel never speaks of its Arab neighbours in terms of enemies, it is the Arab rulers who speak of :lsrael as an enemy; Every Israeli government has declared its readiness to discuss with each Arab nation the solution' of the Middle East problem without imposing a priori conditions of surrender or the acceptance of humiliating terms.
In his latest interview with James Reston of the New York Times Nasser very adroitly endorsed the Al Fatah demand that Israel as a Jewish state must be eliminated. He said this, according to Reston; when he made the following point about one of the conditions of peace:
" .The creation of a non fanatical multi-religious Israeli state."
Although the phraseology somewhat more delicate this is the same demand made by Arab ter^^ rorists. - '
These facts and factors involving our public relations can onJv be .brought to the attention of public opinion by those :who understand public relations. Adding one more organization to the existing Jewish groups In the country
will not improve our public relations activities;
We regret to say that, while Israel is carrying the burden of the Jewish struggle for survival/while young men and women in Zion are sacrificing their lives for the future of Israel reborn, petty poll-tics are still being played by those voluntary organizations in Canada.^-and elsewhere who claim to speak" for the Jewish people.
There is no effective public relations because there is no real understandingof this problem. What we have, regretably, is a parochial attitude on the part of some self-appointed leaders who would like to eat their cake and have it, wanting, as they do, to keep all the ancient outmoded community, structures and argue about who will/ bethespokemenfor the community, r
The time has come for aV change. The question is whether a man can come forward from "^our Jewish community whojuvill rise above all this nonsense and once and for all call for the creatioh of one modern, streamlined public relations Instrument aimed not at -pleasing some influential members ' of the community, but at doing the job.
,S.Y. AGNON :
Agnon spoke Hebrew mucn like he wrote it,, in rich allegorical flourishes and Biblical imagery. Despite the fact that he was modern Hebrew's greatest writer_he spoke the language with a pronounced Ashkenazr accent.
This, of course, didn't bother those of us who sat around him for over an hour, hypnotized as it were by the majestic^simplicity of this -man. \
There was ahunWous side to his nature. I remember asking him at the tinie whether it was'' true,'' as some-critics ifad suggested, that he had been inspired in his approach to literature by the example of Kafka. He smiled and answered quietly: "I rather doubt that this is so for the very simple reason that I haven't read Kafka.'' Shmuel Yoseph Agnon is no more. But his name will live forever m the annals of the Jewish people.
KEEP-SMILING
SOME DIFFERENCE!
Irving was deeply engrossed in a book on astronomy one evening when he came upon a startling passage. "Grandpa," he exclaimed, looking up, "it says here the world will end in a billion years."
"What did you say"?" cried Grandpa, his face ashen.
"The world will come to an end in a billion years."
"Oh," replied Grandpa breathing a sigh of relief. "I thought for a moment you said a million!"
spent their time on the boat.
"Throughout the voyage," Dr, Weizmann replied, "the learned professor kept on talking to me about his theory of relativity,"
"And what is your opinion about if:>"
"It seems to me," concluded Dr. Weizmann, "that Professor Einstein understands it very weU."
NOT WORTH IT
A science major,, proud of his vast knowledge, was bragging to his grandfather. "And furthermore," he went on,. displaying his intimacy with interstellar physics, "did you know that an astronaut's space suit costs over
MAJORITY OF ONE
Some years ago Professor Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weizmann sailed together to America on a Zion- $60,000?" ist mission. When they ar- "It's too much," said rived in New York City, Dr. grandpa placidly, "consider-Weizmann was asked how he ing that it only comes with and the famous savant had one pair of pants."
Sermon for fhe week BEFORE GOD AND MAN
The special Scriptural reading for this Sabbath is the injunction ever to remember the perfidy of Am-alek. His completely unprovoked attack on the children of Israel when they emerged from bondage mokes him the prototype of the irrational antise-mite. It is more than doubtful genealogy which came to see in Homan his descendant. The spiritual descent is more authentic than the genealogical.
And yet, despite this emphasis in the Bib'e in both passages dealing with it, of the unwarranted nature of this attack, the rabbis seem to feel that the suggestion that the Jew is always but the blameless victim of this manifestation of Amaiek constitutes a spiritual challenge to the Jew soberly to examine himself and to consider whether in fact he may not in some way contribute towards it. In both passages of the Scripture dealing with his perfidy they clearly lay down the challenge. In the first, by a ploy on the word "Rephidim", where the attack took place, they comment, "Amaiek attacks when the hold of the Jew on the Toroh Is weakened." And since the verse which precedes the special portion which we shall read deals with the duty of commercial prch bity and integrity, they comment that debased standards of conduct on the port of the Jew create, just those conditions which moke the terroin of the otttock favourable to Amolek.
These two comments complement one another. The one enjoins certain standards of conduct upon the Jew in relation to himself, in what ore called "the duties between man and God"; the other deals with his conduct in his relations with his fellow-, men. The lowering of one's spiritual sights in each of them opens the dcor to the nefarious machinations of the Amoleks of oil ages. Both the Jew Wsho is unworthy of his-spiritual heritage and the Jew whose conduct is a matter for reproach prepare the ground for Amaiek. .
If the Jew is enjoined to maintain a high ethicah standard, and to open his soul to Divine inf'uences, it.is-not because of the consequences which his failure to do so may bring upon him, at the hands of his fellowmen. Such a hedonistic and utilitarian op^ proach to ethics is foreign to the spirit of Judaism, which demands standards of conduct for their own soke, and not because of any benefits which he may derive from them. It is because this is the way of life enjoined by. God, even if, os so often happens, : it redounds to his own material loss and disadvantage; That:certainly(was the cose with Mordecoi. If his proud refusal to bow before mortal man brought about the enmity of Hamon, thgfwarno^reason for a lowering of these standards. 'jThe only rnotive behind one's actions should be"tl^Qt ye be blameless before.God and man." y \^
But offer all that has been said, surelv there is\a^ gnomic wisdom in these sober observations of our v rabbis, even though it be but a sefcondory considerd-tion. The Jew who holds on the Toroh is^weakened, the Jew whose lack of commerciol probity- brir(Q.« him into disrepute provides a welcome rationale • for the irrationol dislike of which he has been the victim throuohout the ages. Fortunate indcpd is thot Jew who with a cleor conscience con soy, "Nothing that I hove done hos contributed towards the winds of tll-wlll that blow."
2974