Page Two
JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN
Friday, December 16, 1966
Far-reaching implications
ISRAEL'S FOREIGN MINISTER, Abba Eban, has referred to the present Middle East situation as a "twilight zone"—^somewhere between war and peace.
Indeed, there is a corollary to Israel's reprisal on a Jordanian village on Sept. 13, and the subsequent condemnation and threat of sanctions against Israel by the United Nations.
The relationship of the Kingdom of Jordan and her young King Hussein to the rest of the Arab world, may very well hold the key to stability or war in the Middle Eastern sphere of the globe.
In his desire to have absolute hegemony of the Arab world, and a direct, unimpeded link with Syria, Nasser of Egypt desires to overthrow the Government of Jordan and incorporate the territories of the Jordanian Kingdom in an overall federation with Syria.
TO THIS END, Radio Cairo and Radio Damascus have for many weeks made ongoing and constant appeals to the Arab refugees residing in Jordan. These refugees, numbered at some 800,000, are being incited by Nasser to revolt against Hussein and to topple the administration and Government of the tiny kingdom on the east bank of the Jordan River.
Israel has a very marked interest and a deep concern in this situation. Heretofore Jordan has been moderate in its relationship with Israel. Should Jordan be overrun by Nasser, Israel would find herself encircled by a bellicose power, her security position intolerable, and the question of her very existence open to daily challenge by the Egyptian army.
Israel has made it very clear that she could not and would not tolerate encirclement by Egypt. An attack on Jordan by Egypt would almost surely necessitate a military move by the Israeli forces to frustrate a Jordanian overthrow by Syria and the U.A.R.
Strange as it may seem, if thesie assumptions are correct, we might very well have a situation where Israel comes to the aid of Jordan should she be attacked by her Arab "ally".
WITHOUT CYNICISM, it might also be ob-
served that in her rejprisal against Jordan last month, Israel did somewhat of a favor for King Hussein. The retaliatory raid on the Jordan village of Samua enabled Hussein to declare martial law, thereby gaining control in his own country, and at the same time made him somewhat of a "hero" in the eyes of his own subjects.
The presence of the American Seventh Fleet and the British Navy in the Eastern Mediterranean may bring temporary stability to the present crisis. Far-reaching and more permanent arrangements will have to be made if this area is not to become a perpetual thorn in the side of world tranquility.
In the first instance, it would be in order for the great powers to declare their intentions with respect to existing Middle Eastern borders. A joint declaration by Western and Communist powiers guaranteeing existing borders and ensuring their stability by threat of force, would go a long way in bringing about eventual peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors. It would at the same time eradicate the possibility of smaller and weaker Arab nations being en-gulfed> by Nasser's appetite for expansion.
AFTER ALLOWING THE ARAB REFUGEES to languish for 18 years in border camps, and be the recipients of the United Nations dole, the international community should take firm steps to permanently settle them.
The unrest and dejection of these people is the basic cause for mternal trouble within Jordan. The sorry lot of the refugee makes him an easy target for Communist and Nasser agents, who incite him to trouble.
There are vast areas of the Arab world which are underpopulated 9nd in need of pro^ ductive hands. Instead of taking the easy way out and providing a pittance dole, the United Nations, and those countries, which are paying the bill for refugee upkeep, should take positive steps leading to their permanent settlement, and the obvious alleviation of the agitated situation which now exists on the border areas where the refugees reside.
Foremost scholar says abyss separates Germans and Jews
NEW YORK—A leading Jewish scholar, writing in a recent issue of Commentary Magazine, has rebuked those who say that the new relationship between the Jews and Germans should be based on mutual love or mutual forgetfulness of crimes against Jews. To insist on these prerequisites would "poison" contact between Germans and Jews with "counterfeit formulas and demands," he holds.
The present relationship between Jews and Germans, according to Gershom Scholem, is characterized by an "abyss" which "can neither be measured nor fathomed."
He adds: "I do not believe that the only posdble means to overcome the distance consists of admitting the abyss into oar consciousness in all its dimensions and ramifications. For In truth, there is no possibility ... of nnderstandlng It perfectly and thus Incorporat-Ing it into our consciousness." Yet, Mr.  Scholem continues, "only by remembering a past that we will never completely master can we generate new hope in the resumption of communication between Germans and Jews and in the reconciliation of those who have been separated."
Mr. Scholem, who is generally considered to be the foremost Jewish scholar living today, is Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University. His article traces the relationship between Jews and Germans in Ger-
many from the latter half of the 18th Century to the Hitler era.
Of the beginning of this relationship he writes: "The Jews struggled for emancipation—and this is the tragedy that moves us so much today—^not for the sake of their rights as a people but for the sake of assimilating themselves to the people among whom they lived. By their readiness to give up their peoplehood, by their act of disavowal, they did not put an end to their misery; they merely opened up a new source of agony. Assimilation did not dispose of the Jewish question in Germany; rather it shifted the locus of the question and rendered it all the more acute, for as the area of contact between the two groups widened, the possibility of friction widened as welL"
What Mr. Scholom terms the "adventure" of assimilation on the part of the German Jews drew Germans and Jews remarkably close curing the first half of the 19th Century. However, "the imending Jewish demand for a home was soon transferred into the ecstatic illusion of being at home." The speed with which this transformation took place— that is, the rush to Germanization by Jews—struck the Germans as 'over-heated* and so aggressive as to put them 'on the defen-
sive,
The Germans were "reconciled" to the "political emancipation of the Jews," but "there was no corresponding readiness to accept
the xmrestrained movement of Jews into the ranks of the culturally active. However, the Jews, with their long intellectual tradition, thought of themselves as made to order for such an active role among the German elite. But this is precisely what stimulated a resistance that was to become increasingly vigorous and virulent and was finally to prevent the process of their acceptance from having any chance of completion."
Therefore, Mr. Scholem writes, "by and large the love affair of the Jews and Germans remained one-sided and unreciprocated ... If Jews did on occasion meet with gratitude they almost never found the love they were seeking."
For, he adds, "no benefit redounded to the Jews of Germany from what today, tmder very different circumstances invests them with positive significance for an important part of the world and brings them special consideration: I am thinking of the widespread current appreciation of Jews as classic representatives of the phenomenon of man's alienation from society. The German Jew was held to blame for his own alienation from the Jewish ground that had nourished him . . . and was blamed even more for his alienation from the bourgeois society which was then in the process of consolidating itself."
INDOOR VARIATIONS OF GOLF
By RABBI HAROLD KUSHNER Temple Israel, Great Neck, N.Y.
From United Synagogue Review
GOLF, I HAVE DECIDED, is
a religious game. It is religious not only because it is often played on Saturday mornings, nor even because of the sacrifices people make for it and the single-minded devotion with which they regard it.
It is religious because the basic idea of the game is a spiritually sublime one. In golf, as most golfers of my acquaintance play it, the object is not so much to defeat the other player as to improve yourself, to do better today than you did last time.
At first you struggle to break 100; when you can do that regularly, you try to whittle it dowii to 90 or even 80. You analyze what you're doing wrong, and try to correct the little faults that ruin your score. And if your partner is going around in fewer strokes, because he's been playing longer or has more ability, that doesn't upset you; you concentrate on knocking a few strokes off your own score, and if you can do that, you're exultant.
Now wouldn't we be at the threshold of the Messianic Era if people who accept these notions so blithely on the golf course would extend them to other areas of life as well: that the goal is not to outdo the next fellow, but to improve your self, to correct a few faults and be^a Jittle better than you were yesterday. In golf,
Friday night serylce;at Conf gregation Beth Israel .w411 com; mence at 8:15 p.m. with Rabbi Wilfred Solomon officiating and Cantor Tibor Moses chanting the liturgy, assisted by the Beth Israel Choir, imder the direction of ; ^r. S. Pehnan. The service will include the dedication of a Torah mantle presented in honor of Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Libby, by their children Keith, Freya and Harold. The Oneg Shabbat will be hosted by Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Libby.
On Friday, Dec. 23, the Oneg Shabbat will be hosted by Dr. and Mrs. M. Dodek, on the occasion of their son's Bar-Mitzvah.
During the Sabbath morning service, Saturday, Dec. 24, Peter, son of Dr. and Mrs. Morton Dodek, will become a Bar-Mitzvah. The. service commences at 9:15 a.m., with Rabbi Solomon and Cantor Moses officiating, assisted by the Beth Israel Choir. Mr. Joseph Siabo will read the Torah. Following the service, a Kiddush will be given by Dr. and Mrs. Dodek in honor of their son.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
from the TALMUD
"Thou Shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Pesahim, 75.
nobody says, "Since I can't be perfect and shoot a hole-in-one every time. I'll be satisfied with remaining the way I am." They work strenuously at improving even a little bit.
With this in mind, may I propose the following indoor variations on golf, suitable for inclement weather when the course is inaccessible:
1. ETHICAL GOLF: in which people will ask, not "Am I no worse than my competition?" but rather "Could I—with some effort and practice—be a little bit better, more honest, more sensitive, tomorrow than I was yesterday?".
2. STATUS GOLF: in which nobody will worry about keeping up with the Joneses, but people at all times will ask "What is my real level? What's right for me?"—^never satisfied to be less than they might be, never longing to be more than they have the capacity to be.
3. SYNAGOGUE GOLF: in which people will rush up to the local pro (read: rabbi) and ask bim urgently "Please tell me! What little things am I doing wrong, so that I can correct them?" and then rush out to put into practice the advice he gives them.
People who are capable of such saintliness on the golf course should have no trouble transposing these same attitudes to the bopie, the shul, and the office.
Fore! '
Results from Bulletin!
Dear Mr. Kaplan: . ^ ^ .; . J iyn wnting" -£o ejq^r^ss lAiy arpazement at the res'ponse I received from the insertion of my advertisement (Nov. 25) in your weekly newspaper and at the low cost of $38.
I paid $178 to advertise (exactly the same advertisement) in the large daily and the result was dismal—"flop" would be a better word, but don't quote me!
May I again thank you for the added write-up and I express my thanks to all your readers for their wonderful co-operation on this charitable drive. For us at this time, who have so much, to give just a little to those who have nothing, makes us himian beings that can face ourselves in the mirror each morning.
LOLA, Lea-Bryant.
JEWISH CALENDAR (LUACH)
Candle Lighting
DECEMBER 16, 3:58
1967
TuB'Shvat_______________Jan. 26
Pnrim _____________Mar. 26
Pesach__j_Apr. 25
Israel Indep. Day_May 15
Lag B'omer-------_ JM[ay 28
Ali holidays begin the preceding eve at sundown.
THE JEWISH
mmnN BUimiH
Official Organ of the Vancouver Jewish Community Council
Friday, December 16, 1966
Published weekly every Friday at 32t5 Heather Street, Vancouver 9/ British Columbia.
SAM KAPLAN Editor and Publisher
WILLIAM CELMON President
ALEC BECKER Publications Chalrffian
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