December 24, 1943
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
REFLECTIONS
Continued from Page 2
lions and waiting for the Syrian
death.
They would have put on a fine
display of faith in Divine interven-
tion, bereft of their own efforts
—and they would have placed the
destruction of the Jewish state
some two centuries earlier in his-
to•y.
It may be quite true that the
establishment by Jochanan ben
Zakkai of a seminary at Yavneh
was as important for Jewish sur-
vival as any defense corps, but
the resourcefulness of a band of
Jewish militants in 167 Before
the Common Era was the histori-
cal necessity for the e:ectiveness
in 70 C. E. of that academy.
There has been a constant dif-
ference of opinion in Jewish life
over the emphasis, or lack of it,
with reference to militancy in
Jewish life. The argument has
often been confused by placing
it in terms of Judaism of the
spirit as against Judaism of the
solid, the secular. It took many
forms, did this controversy, and
early Reform, with its rationaliza-
tion of denationalized Judaism
was one of the manifestations.
Ghosts Take Council
It is well for us this
Chanukah
to admit that the ghost of early
Reform clangs on the ramparts of
American Israel, and to restate
its fundamental misunderstanding
of Jewish history.
The fact is that both extreme
Orthodoxy and extreme Reform,
the former in practice at least,
and the latter in theory also, sub-
Sincere Chanukah Greetings!
ordinated the role of nationhood in
Judaism to that of priesthood.
That both segments proved even-
tually unable to meet the chal-
lenge of the times indicates the
historical inadequacy of any con-
cept which attempts to negate,
purposely or by passivity, the role
of nationalism in Jewish life.
The Chanukah story is one of
the best examples of this inter-
penetration of the two dominant
forces that make up the Jewish
people. The Maccabees are remem-
bered not for any theological dis-
putations nor for their pursuance
of any "mission of Israel." They
were, from one point of view, a
secular force, moving to maintain
the integrity of a political entity,
the Jewish people and the Jewish
state. Yet the symbol of their vic-
tory was the re-dedication of the
Temple in Jerusalem.
At the same time, if the Temple
as a purely religious motivation
had been their only concern, it is
doubtful • whether they would have
ever resorted to armed defense
against the agressor. or, if they
had, whether their militancy would
have had the intensity which prim-
itive concerns of protection of
hearth and home afforded.
This is not to minimize the role
of the religious ideal in Jewish life;
to do so would be to distort our
historical position. But the essen-
tial fact to be remembered is
that that religion was indissolubly
intertwined with consciousness of
folk and passion of nationhood.
If this appears to make religion
a mere utility of nationalism and
tied to earthy things rather than
divine, it is because the observer
does not understand the unique-
ness of Judaism, that very uni-
queness which has precluded suc-
cessful imitation or duplication.
No "Pie in the Sky"
Judaism as a religion has been
able to influence as much as it
did—or. to be more accurate, has
been able to challenge the con-
science of mankind as much as it
has—because it is firmly rooted in
the here and the now, centering
in its origin around a life-situa-
tion which demanded reforms and
progress. The ideal social order
of Judaism is not a "Kingdom of
God" in the Renee of a Utopia af-
ter death but a system upon earth,
having meaning in time and in
space.
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Nationalism, then, is integral to
the complete Jewish genius; it
gave direction and immediacy to
what might otherwise have been a
dream-pattern woven out of a fab-
ric of gossamer.
There were apostates in the
days of the Maccabees. There
were timorous Jews, who must
have felt undoubtedly that the
Hasmoneans were uncouth barbar-
ians and social introverts, unwill-
ing to accept the judgment of the
times, paving the way for Hellen-
ist inroads upon Jewish culture,
on the heels of Syrian inroads
upon Jewish nationhood.
They very probably considered
•
JEWISH SPORTS WORLD
By VICTOR WAYNE
themselves "emancipated" Jews,
capable of the most liberal Juda-
ism which would not stick its neck
out for the defense of earthly
symbols.
This is a degenerative process
of conciliation, whether it appears
in Aancient "Code-Syria" or in
modern America, and it must be
fought in Houston and Philadel-
phia, for example, as it was
fought in Modin.
Fortunately, the people of Is-
rael, in the majority, remain stiff-
necked. For if one can adjust him-
self to the belief that Judaism can
survive without an independent
Jewish national existence, he grad-
ually becomes accustomed to the
rejection of all other symbols of
Judaism, relying on the Jerusalem
of the spirit to be sufficient for
survival. This the ,profanation by
the men of Antiochus of the Tem-
ple, holiest of Jewish centers,
must have been rtionalized by the
weak in this way: "Just as the
THE CREAM OF THE CROP...
The Japs had better watch out
because it looks as though our
Navy will soon blossom out with
a new fighting "T" formation.
That wizard of the forward pass
and mainspring of the Chicago
Bears, Sid Luckman, has recently
been sworn in as an ensign in the
U. S. Maritime service. However,
it is not known yet when Sid will
be called to duty.
This star quarterback who start-
ed his football career at Erasmus
Hall H. S. in Brooklyn and then
marched ahead to All-America
honors at Columbia, stated that
he does not know when or for
what type of service he would be
called. However, rumor has it that
he will be stationed at the Sheeps-
head Bay Maritime Service School
and will probably be an athletic
officer.
Sid wound up his football ca-
reer as he came in "in a blaze of
glory." The Bears won the West-
ern Division champonship of the
National Football League for the
fourth straight year by defeating
the Cardinals 35 to 24, through
the passing of Luckman. The
Bears will lose a grand player
and the Navy will gain a top
notch fighter. Good luck to you,
Sid.
THE BROTHERS BRODKIN.
HAROLD AND BOB . . .
There are two lads in Uncle
Sam's Army who have been men-
tioned before in these columns.
Both were top notch athletes in
their college days and both are
top notch soldiers today. Bob for-
merly of Guadalcanal and now
with the Marines in Hawaii, was
once a crackerjack performer for
the University of Pennsylvania.
His brother, Harold, a whiz at
the winter sports while an under-
graduate at Dartmouth, is now
with the ski troops manuevering
in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Both of the Brodkin brothers
were good copy whenever the talk
would drift to Jews in sports.
simply because Bob was one of
the fastest humans in the indoor
and outdoor pools, while his broth-
er also preferred the water—but
in a more solidified form. Harold
was one of the country's outstand-
ing skiing and skating specialists.
When the war broke out, both
tried to get in, but only Bob suc-
ceeded, because he was of age.
Harold has only been in for the
past six months, and already he
has been showing the lads. ca-
vorting in the snow-clad hills of
the Rockies, how effectively a ski
patrol can meneuver. Of course,
there is one distinction between
them other than the fact that Bob
has already seen action in the Ma-
rines on Guadalcanal and has been
cited for gallantry under fire. Bob
plans to be a song writer while
brother Hall leans to detective
fiction.
Jewish state is not indispensable
to the survival ow the Jewish
ethic, so the Temple is not indis-
pensable for it is, after all, only
an edifice housing the symbols of
an ideal which can persist after
edifice and the symbols have dis-
appeared."
Yavneh and Modin
And so, in spite of Yavneh and
spiritualize(' Judaism, the rabbis
incorporated into the prayerbook
the thrice-daily reminder that Zion
is indispensable, and students in
the musty yeshivot of Europe
studied the Talmudic laws of the
priestly sacrifices — and Jewish
mysticism, Kabbala, was strenu-
ously opposed.
Yavneh has meaning for sur-
vival in dispersion; Modin has
meaning for integrity in restora-
tion.
Chanukah is the people's holi-
day. the commemoration of a
healthy, earthy, unqualified Juda-
ism. worth living and worth dy-
ing. for!
BEST WISHES FOR A JOYOUS CHANUKAH!
• We extend our wishes to all
the Jewish people of Detroit
For A Joyous Chanukah.
•
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