DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal
Page Ten
of Christmas carols and Hanuk-
kah hymns. "A Festival of
Lights," the script of which has
since been published by the Na-
tional Conference of Christians
and Jews, was first given in 1944.
Now it is an accepted part of
the Springfield Plan.
Bessie Geffen Wilensky, in a
letter to the editor of The Re-
constructionist last February, told
how th e Christmas-Hanukkah
program idea was introduced in
two schools in the South. While
Mrs. Wilensky was teaching in
an Atlanta public school eight or I
nine years ago, she presented a
Hanukkah program as part of
the school's Christmas celebra-
tion. It was so well received it
became an annual event. When
she moved to New Orleans, one I
of her colleagues, a non-Jew, con- 1
tinued the program.
In New Orleans, Mrs. Wilen- I
sky told the story to friends who
were surprised that the plan had
not been tried in that city. When
her own youngster entered the
public school for the first time,
Mrs. Wilensky visited the prin-
cipal shortly before Hanukkah
and told of the Atlanta experi-
ence. With the approval of the
a s s i s t an t superintendent of
schools, the principal urged Mrs.
Wilensky to try out the pro-
gram. As a result, the 1944
Christmas presentation included
a Hanukkah program, too. In
one classroom when a teacher
called for a composition on "Why
I Celebrate Christmas," • the Jew-
ish children were permitted to
substitute Hanukkah. During the
art period, Jewish youngsters
made Hanukkah greeting cards
while the others worked on
Christmas cards.
The Michael Driscoll School in
Brookline, Massachusetts, ob-
served the stories of the Nati-
vity and the Festival of Lights in
a production of two scenes pre-
sented at assembly. A mixed
cast of Christian and Jewish
youngsters of the eighth grade
participated. In some roles,
Christian characters were played
by Jewish pupils while Jewish
characters were portrayed by
Christian children.
Seattle Experiment
Seattle's Horace Mann School '
broke away from the traditional
Christmas porgram last • year
when the pre-Christmas school
assembly featured not only the
customary Christmas play but an
enactment by fourth and fifth
graders of the Hanukkah story.
Horace Mann has about 40 per
cent Jewish enrollment. The
Rogers Junior High School in
Stamford, Connecticut, gave a
different twist to the Christmas-
Hanukkah idea by presenting a
portrayal of "This S e as on
Throughout the World" at their
Christmas assembly. More than
100 youngsters of all races and
creeds, garbed in native cos-
tumes, depicted the Christmas
holiday customs of different peo-
ples throughout the world. In-
cluded was the Jewish observ-
ance of Hanukkah.
In the kindergarten and first
grade classes of two public
schools in Washington, D. C., the
story and symbolism of Hanuk-
kah were introduced into the
Christmas program last year for
the first time on the initiative of
parents. A number of public
schools in Cleveland marked
Christmas and Hanukkah by as-
semblies. Miller High School in
Detroit this past year initiated
joint Easter-Passover and Christ-
mas-Hanukkah programs, with
displays explaining the various
ceremonial objects employed in
the observance of the holidays.
Individual schools in New York
City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and
Columbus, Ohio, have also ex-
perimented with similar pro-
grams.
o1945
•
NOROY LE BOURG. IN ACTION 3
DAYS LATER, HE GAVE HIS LIFE:
ZUSSMAN
ENTERED ARMY
AT 23 AND BE-
CAME INSTRUCTOR
IN "STREET
FIGHTING"AT
FORT KNOX...
PREVIOUSLY WAS
STORE CLERK AND
NIGHT STUDENT
AT WAYNE UNIVERSITY
IN NOROY LE BOURG.
AFTER SMASHING :0
THRU BOOBY-TRAPPED
ROAD BLOCKS,WIPING
OUT MACHINE GUN NESTS,
BLOWING UP ARMED CARS AND
KILLING OR CAPTURING NUM
OUS NAZIS, ZUSSMAN ADVANC
ALONE AGAINST A HOUSEFUL
OF GERMANS AND
THO ARMED ONLY
WITH A TOMMY GUN
HE FOUGHT HIS WAY
THRU THEIR RIFLE AN
GRENADE FIRE AND KILLED 0
CAPTURED THE ENTIRE LOT
H
SENT OVERSEAS, ZUSSMAN FOUGHT IN
ITALIAN CAMPAIGN AND WAS WOUND-
ED AT CASSINO. ON RECOVERY WAS
MADE LIEUTENANT AND SERVED AS
AIDE AT ARMY HEADQUARTERS. REQUEST
ING ACTIVE DUTY, HE WAS ACSIGNED TO
+h
that Yale required Sunday ('hare; i
attendance, so fully half of th e
Jewish student body chose a brief
service at the Synagogue in 1, h , l-
creme to a Christian Church Or
College chapel, But just as ,,on
as the Corporation relaxed ik re_
quirements, the Jewish stud en t
service was promptly given up.
But that was twenty years ago.
What is the situation now? Last
year, the writer — a Rabbi —
was greeted by student audiences
averaging a hundred, at Salhith
Eve services conducted -- under
the supervision of a HMO kabbi
— by a student reader, a student
cantor (who chanted in Hebrew)
and a student choir. The choir
leader, incidentally, proved to be
a Christian member of the De-
! partment of Music. The sanctuary
' in which the service was held was
the Community Church Auditori-
um. In view of there being a sum-
mer school, Sabbath Eve servic es
I are held at this University with-
The Reconstructionist, a jour- ut interruption throughout the
nal of Jewish religious opinion I year, Each meeting is invariably
representing a segment of con- followed by an oneg-shabbos, with
servative Judaism, welcomes "the a free-for-all discussion of the
recognition of Jewish festivals in lecture, and a social half hour
the schools" and urges that it tea, talk and tarts.
become widespread "on condition
Hillel Auspices
that our rabbis and educators
To re-emphasize the point we
play their proper role in this in- are making: It is now accented
tercultural education." By which as the normal thing for the Jew-
The Reconstructionist means that
Jewish religious leaders and edu-
Back up the righting Men.
cators should begin supervising
the Jewish aspects of the pro-
gram.
Rosh Hashonah Greetings
One of the teachers who par-
ticipated in the development of
the idea in Springfield epitomized
the whole theory underlying this
aspect of intercultural education
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8788 Linwood
when he said, "You don't have to
teach tolerance to children. All
See Us First for
you have to do is keep them the
All
Your Drug Needs
way they are."
Perhaps the idea born in MM-
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neapolis and now taking root
elsewhere may become another
•
milestone on the hard road to-
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ward making America safe for
differences.
This writer has had an unusual
opportunity to observe both con-
tinuously and at first hand the
Jewish student life as it reveals
itself on the campus of a State
University with a Jewish student
clientele of perhaps five hundred
(including the military student
unit) which number constitutes a
third of the total student enroll-
ment.
Since this institution represents
the diversified aspects of the typi-
cal State University of America,
it will serve as an accurate lab-
oratory for the study of this ques-
tion.
The heartening fact about this
Jewish student life is its normal-
cy. This writer still recalls how
during the first year of his min-
istry at New Haven — in 1923 —
fully 150 Jewish Yale men used
to attend Sunday morning Jewish
services quite regularly. The rea-
, son for this seems to have been
EST DECORATION FOR MILITARY
VALOR-THE CONGRESSIONAL
MEDAL OF HONOR-FOR EXTRA'
ORDINARY GALLANT ACTION
ON SEPT.1841944, IN KILLING.
17 GERMANS, CAPTURING 92 AND
LIBERATING FRENCH TOWN or
ARMY AS TANK PLATOON LEADER.
SPEAR DRUG CO.
RUSHING UP THE ROAD MINUTES LATER
HE ATTACKED A TRUCK LOAD OF FLEEING
NEMY TROOPS AND BY THE TIME HIS LEAD
ANK CAUGHT UP HAD CAPTURED THOSE STILL
LIVE,2ANTI•TANK GUNS &MUCH EQUIPMENT.
As an outgrowth of a project
initiated by Rabbi Solomon J.
Moseson, counselor of the Bnai
Brith Hillel Foundation at the
New York State Teachers Col-
lege, Albany, New York, joint
Christmas-Hanukkah and Easter-
Passover programs will be held
in most of Albany's public
schools. In place of the usual
Christmas program, Rabbi Mose-
son last year persuaded the Col-
lege authorities to sponsor a
Christmas toy shop and candle-
light service with a portion of
the program devoted to a por-
trayal of the Hanukkah candle-
light scene and narrative. Short-
ly after this presentation, Rabbi
Moseson had inquiries from prin-
cipals of two elementary schools
and one high school as to why
he had not passed on the idea to
them as well. The end result is
that the Albany public schools
are now preparing to sponsor
joint programs for Easter-Pass-
over and Christmas-Hanukkah.
Feared By Some
The number of public schools
utilizing this form of intercul-
tural programs and the number
of children involved are, of
course, still too limited for any
real appraisal of its effective-
nees. No is the re yet, a unani-
mity of opinion among Christian
and Jewish religious leaders as
to the desirability of this kind of
program. Some see it as an en-
tering wedge for religious teach-
ing in the public schools. Others
are concerned lest it lead to a
syncretism of Judaism and Chris-
tianity.
ir
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SINCEREST HOLIDAY GREETINGS TO MY JEWISH
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CARLTON W. GAINES
Wolf Sanitary
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By LEON SPITZ
LT. RAYMOND ZUSSMAN;
27 YEAR OLD TANK OFFICER
FROM DETROIT,WAS AWARDER
POSTHUMOUSLY, AMERICA'S HIGH-
Season's Greetings and
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Jewish Life on
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ING FOR AMERICA
6q Leon Blehaid
Friday, September 7, 1945
Chronicle
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