A merica lewisk Periodical Cotter
CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 30, OHIO
This Section Is Devoted to the Activities of Yeshivath Beth Yehudah
on the Occasion of Its Campaign for 535,000 for a New Building
Detioit Jewish Chronicle
and The Legal Chronicle
SECTION TWO
THIS PAPER PRINTED IN 3 SECTION.
10 Cents Single Copy; $3.00 per Year
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1941
-
VOL. 43, NO. B
Yeshivath Beth Yehudah's Need for a New Home:
A STATEMENT BY THE BUILDING COMMITTEE
I
.
The new home for Yeshivath Beth Yehudah
is a communal necessity. The decision to launch
the present drive for $35,000 was reached after
careful consideration, and constitutes a step of
far-reaching significance for the spiritual develop-
ment of our Kehillah. The initial response of
local Jewry has been reassuring. The very propa-
ganda for the project is serving a useful pur-
pose. It has focussed public attention upon one
of the basic, albeit neglected, needs of American
,
Jewish life.
From the first to the twentieth century, in Pal-
estine and in the Diaspora, the existence of a
Yeshivah in a community has characterized the
normalcy of that Jewish settlement. Its heads
and students, as well as the educated laity grouped
about it, have always been regarded as essential
to the composition of the ideal Jewish society.
No Jewry has ever come of age before the estab-
lishment of Torah-centers in its midst, quite
apart from elementary educational institutions.
„
A thousand years ago, coincident with the
dissolution of the ancient Jewish centers in
Babylonia, history records the establishment of
new Yeshivoth in Spain, France, Africa and Egypt
by refugee scholars from the historical Academy
• }
at Sura. American Jewry today experiences a
similar rebirth through the renewed interest in
Torah. What is happening in Detroit has its
counterpart in such central Jewish communities
as Baltimore, Boston, Kansas City, Denver, Los
Angeles, Seattle. We are witnessing a historic
process which transcends local significance.
Universal education in the public elementary
and secondary schools, which occupies the aver-
age Jewish child for the major portion of the
day, leaving brief and unsuitable hours for Tal-
mud Torah attendance, has been responsible for
the creation of Hebrew day and afternoon
schools in many cities. Yeshivath Beth Yehudah,
likewise, serves our community through such a
program of maximum education for a selected
number of students, and is not duplicating
the work of schools serving the larger community.
It is this specialized, intensive education, leading
to higher learning, that will produce our leader-
ship for tomorrow. Yeshivath Beth Yehudah has
already given us a large number of alumni active
in local Young Israel and other communal circles
or pursuing more advanced studies in the larger
Yeshivoth of New York and Chicago.
All of our activities for the relief, reconstruc-
tion and resettlement of European Jewry, for
Rabbi Ashinsky
To Address Rally
Sunday Afternoon
An Institution of Communal Character
By RARBBI DR. SAMSON R. WEISS
Dean, Yeshivath Beth Yehudah of Detroit
I
victio bout religious training the
While the curriculum and the drift of Jewish young men and
entire spirit of Yeshivath Beth women
towards
strange
ideas and
movements
cannot
be averted.
An
• -
Yehudah, as manifested and laid education based upon Israel's s
down in the official program, oic history, which is presented as
aim for the development of the a continuing tradition linking the
Jewish personality in accordance present with the past, will eventu-
with the traditional conception, ally give new members and new
1. e. the ideal synthesis of knowl- workers to Jewish communal in-
edge and observance of the writ- stitutions. The sense of sympathy
ten and oral Jewish - religious for the persecuted and of faith
law, it is nevertheless true that in the good; the spirit of justice
and honesty, of charity and mod-
esty, which emanate from every
n•ge of the Biblical and Talmu-
dical literature, will build char-
acters motivated by that great
power of endurance which has
been responsible for our existence
amidst persecution and dispersion.
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Yeshivath {Beth Yehudah Calls
Delegates of Synagogues and
Organizations for Public Meet-
ing at Home for Aged
To give expression to the com-
munity-wide interest in the ex-
pansion of Yeshivath Beth Ye-
hudah, Detroit's Hebrew Talmudi-
cal Academy, and to mobilize sup-
port for the new building which
History and Achievement of Ye-
shivoth Beth Yeltudah
0
is
the ability to suffer for their con-
The Importance of Religious
Education'
•
The story of Yeshivath Beth
Yehudah is closely related to the
growth of Detroit's Jewish com-
munity. Its founder, the late Rabbi
Yehudah Leib Levin, was not a
rabbi of one synagogue or an-
other, but Detroit's "Rau Hakolel"
i. C. the rabbi of practically all
Jewish congregations, with the
exception of Temple Beth El. He
served and ministered to the fol-
lowing congregations: Mogen
Abraham, Beth Jacob, Beth Abra-
ham, Bnai Moshe, Shaarey Zedek.
tend others. When he established
the Yeshivah, which was subse-
quently called "Beth Yehudah" in
DR. SAMSON R. WEISS
the school is an institution of his honor, he did so with the con-
m_ sent and the co-operation of the
communal character and ca
entire community.
me.
unal importanc
During the . 25 years of its
There
is
today,
in
all
circles
of the American Jewish corn- existence, Yeshivath Beth Yehu-
munity, a general acceptance of dah has already produced many
See WEISS—Next Page
the need for religious education.
The experiences of the last decade
have proved that no education of
Jewish youth can succeed unless The Yeshivah Has
it provides a sound and healthy
Fine Possibilities
background of historical and
spiritual truths and attitudes.
By DR. A. M. HERSHMAN
Only such a training will pro-
duce Jews that are conscious of
A short time ago I spent a
their noble heritage and willing pleasant afternoon at the Yeshi-
to carry its responsibilities. The vath Beth Yehudah, visiting the
vital powers of religion, com- classes and seeing the good work
bined with respect and reverence the pupils are doing. I feel that
for the great characters of our .the Yeshivah has fine possibili-
people and for our great spiritual ties and deserves the support of
heritage, will generate la
youth the spirit of sacrifice and the community.
the upbuilding of Palestine and for the defense
of the Jewish position in America will not bear
fruit unless we make a serious effort for the
deepening of Jewish consciousness in the second
and third generations. Alongside the physical
facilities we are providing in Detroit and else-
where for the social and recreational use of our
youth, side by side with the organizational frame-
work and machinery we are developing for Jewish
communal functions, there must also be created
an educational instrument for the nurturing of
Hebrew culture and for the development of a
full-grown Jewish personality.
That the Yeshivah is filling a long-felt need in
Detroit today has been amply proved by the
rapid increase in enrollment during the current
school term. To stifle the institution's possibilities
for further growth and development by denying
it the modest home it now seeks to build, would
be detrimental to the very future of the com-
munity. The condemnation of the present quar-
ters of Yeshivath Beth Yehudah by city au-
thorities, the congestion caused by the influx of
close to 100 new pupils and the need for normal
expansion under the guidance of an expert staff,
make the erection of a new building a matter
of urgency.
THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
I. STOLLMAN
The great vision of a torah sincere lovers of their people and
heritage.
center in Detroit has neared reali-
The only people in the world
zation. One of the strongest foun- to have risen to eternal great-
dations of our community life ness and integrity drew its
has been laid. A new epoch in strength from the great genera-
the communal life of Jewry in tive force, the Yeshivah—a force
uniting God, man, Torah, wisdom
Detroit is being ushered in with and universality.
the formation of plans for a
At one time the home prepared
newer and larger Yeshivath Beth the material for the Yeshivah.
Yehudah in Detroit.
Rich and abundant have been
the gifts of the Yeshivah to
Jewish life. Not only has the
Yeshivah been the mother of our
Gaonim and Tsadikim—the giants
of Israel, but it has been the
source of the strength and intel-
lect which have disseminated light
and genius in the world.
The Yeshivah has ever ben
the devote mother, furnishing
educational needs, inspiring the
pecple, and giving hope and fa:t'i
to its family, even to those who
have forsaken its reaches in later
life. The Yeshivah has fostered,
arang its great scholars, true,
By RABBI
gogues and Organizations Com-
mittee headed by Isidore Sosnick,
RABBI ISAAC STOLLMAN
chairman and Morris Mohr, co-
chairman.
Workers report meetings in the Today, in our contemporary life,
yeshivah must now achieve
drive. which is to conclude March the
ends: to give the student a
9, will be held under the chair- both
manship
of David I. Berris, head foundation for Talmudic study
-
of the Building Committee at the and to give him afterwards an
RABBI A. M. ASHINSKY
Young Israel Synagogue, 2691 advanced education. In the Ye-
shivath Beth Yehudah, thanks to
is to replace the present structure Joy Road, at 9 o'clock, Thursday an excellent faculty and to the co-
condemned for school use, leaders evening, Feb. 27, Tuesday eve- operation of Torah minded Jews,
of all congregations and organized ning, March 4, and Thursday eve- classes have been organized for
communal groups will meet next ning, March 6.
both young and older children.
One hundred fifty men and
. wo-
Sunday afternoon, Feb. 23, at
Grave are our problems today,
men
have
been
enlisted
in
the
2 o'clock in the Jewish Home for active work of the campaign, to but even graver is that of a pro-
the Aged, Petoskey and Burlin- raise $35,000 required for the con- per Yeshivah education. With this
game.
struction of the Yeshivah's pro- conviction of the Yeshivah's in-
Rabbi A. M. Ashinsky of jected new home at the northwest portance, with the great faith in
Pittsburgh. formerly spiritual corner of Dexter and Cortland. the eternity of Israel's task, and
leader of Congregations Beth Ja- An initial contribution of assets with the full cooperation of our
cob and Emanuel of this city, amounting to about $20,000 has Jewish community, we have ap-
outstanding rabbinical personality been made by the trustees of the proached the historic task of con-
and honorary vice-president of the
Mogen structing a newer, greate
Congregation
Mizrachi Organization of Amer- defunct
which housed the Ye- shivah building, which will give
Abraham,
which
ica, will be the guest speaker.
romi en in
shivah in a special annex of the our cit new life. n T
building
There will be
th
Street
Shul
during
the
ish
educational
and thee general public is Farnsv‘•or
must take
we should
funds, and
invited. This function is the first early stage of the development of in which
f o rah and
public rally of the Yeshivah the academy, founded by the late part—the home
for YestAvath
the
e—is the
Beth
Building Fund Drive and will be Rabbi Yehudah Leib Levin, of it; peopl h.
Yehuda
under the direction of the Syna- blessed memory.