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DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronic::

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

blish id Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Oublishing Co., Inc., 525 Woodward Ave., Detroit 26, Mich., Tel. CAdillac 1040

SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 PER YEAR, SINGLE COPIES 10c: FOREIGN, $5.00 PER YEAR

trtered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, a
t the Post effIce at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879

Editor-in-Chia, LOUIS W. ENFIELD

Vol. 48, No. 15

Publisher, CY AARON

Managing Editor, NATHAN J. KAUFMAN

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1946 (NISAN 11, 5706)

Festival of Freedom

GUEST EDITORIAL

By RABBI MORRIS ADLER

Once again the people of Israel marks
the festival of freedom. We shall seek
once more to render vivid our historical
memories of the enslavement of the Israel-
ites in Egypt. At the Seder, we turn our
table into a stage on which we symboli-
cally reenact that distant event in our
past. On the table before us, we have the
Matzoh, the bread of affliction which our
ancestors prepared in their haste; the
Moror, the bitter herbs suggestive of the
bitterness of Israel's lot under the task-
master's lash; the Charoseth, a fanciful
mixture of wine, nut and apple, repre-
sentative of the mortar with which our
enslaved ancestors were forced to build
fortresses and pyramids for Pharaoh.
How pale the symbols of the past
seem before the realities of the pres-
ent. The bread of affliction and the
herbs of bitterness are once again
the steady diet of numberless multi-
tudes. The daily newspaper brings to
us an account of misery and subjec-
tion besides which Haggadah of old
becomes pale. Until recently a Phar-
aoh of our day spoke with a thunder-
ous roar of hate, alongside of which
the voice of the Egyptian tyrant was
like a whisper.
For Passover, the season of freedom, is
marked by us in a world in which victory
on the field of battle has been achieved,
but liberty in the realm of daily life is
still far from being a fact in the case of
millions. As long as men are enslaved by
hate, tyrannized by greed, savaged by a
lust of power, and self-imprisoned by sel-
fishness, Israel cannot be fully free. Hence
in our day we must devote ourselves with
a zeal that is intense and personal to the
strengthening of ideals of international
morality. We must place ourselves firmly
on the side of the movements and policies
which aim to implement the great prin-
ciples of the Prophets. When men are still
manacled by poverty, fettered by fear,
ridden by insecurity and weighted down
by the yoke of injustice, they are likely to
make of their frustration, chains with
which to bind the minorities. Fearlessly
the Jew in conformity with his tradition
should take his place in the struggle to
improve the lot of the individual, the man
in the street, the great mass of the anony•
mous John Does of the world. We have
reached a stage in history when we must
understand freedom not only as political
independence but also as economic oppor-
tunity, social equality, and the develop-
ment of all conditions that encourage psy-
chological and human dignity.
The freedom of the Jew is destined
to remain an ideal or at the very best
a fragmentary and insecure thing as
long as our status as a group in the
midst of the nations of the world is
ambiguous and uncertain. Our hope
for Palestine as a homeland of the
Jewish people and th e Jewish spirit
is an integral part of our historic
struggle for freedom. Our loyalty to
our own tradition is in harmony with
the basic principle that man is free
only when he lives in consonance with
what is deepest and truest in his char-
acter as an individual and as a group.
May Passover, the festival of perrenial
hope, strengthen and renew within us the
faith that freedom can be achieved, and
the determination to play our part nobly
and fully in its achievement.

It Starts Again

Last week, in the American zone, Ger-
man police broke in a DP camp to find
some evidence of black market activities.
Thay had guns and dogs just like the
Gestapo of the hellish bygone days. Like
the same Gestapo, they beat the unarmed
Jews. Like the same Gestapo, they shot
and killed one defenseless Jew who was
manacled.
In two Hungarian towns, Jews were

Detroit 28, Michigan

driven out last week. They were not al-
lowed to take their baggage. They were
not allowed to take what money they had.
Naturally, their homes were looted.
In a freedom loving country like
America, one would have expected
that the cause of helpless sufferers
would find champions even when the
victims are poor and helpless, even
when the victims are Jews.
But no. These anti-Jewish excesses
are reported in the American press
as straight news, much the same as a
fire or a hold-up. Nowhere do we find
a word of condemnation, nowhere is
there a protest, nowhere any demand
that these long suffering Jews be al-
lowed a little peace. There is a mild
sort of wonder that such things should
happen in countries conquered by
America. Of indignation, of resent-
ment — nothing.
We recall how the anti-Jewish barbar-
ism of the early Hitlerian days was re-
ported. Then too it was reported as
straight news. The pogroms were not por-
trayed as savageries. They were reported
as occurrences. Readers could draw their
own conclusions.
One conclusion is inevitable. There is
no place for Jews in any of the Nazi coun-
tries in Europe. Jews must leave. Wher-
ever they are allowed to go, they must
go, to Palestine, to this country, to any
place where they may rest their weary
bones. But go they must.
Let each Jew who sits down to his Sed-
er and says, "Next year may we be in
Jerusalem" say it with meaning and em-
phasis. For Jews in Europe, there is no
other place.

Character, Not Reputation

Jews are just as capable of false pride
as any other group. The desire of Jews
to "keep up with the Jones," to put on a
front, to get their full share of honor and
glory, a very human trait, is just as strong
among Jews as it is in any other group.
Among other places, this has manifest-
ed itself in the synagogue. The particular
manifestation in this regard has been in
the assigned pew system. On the high
holy days, when the synagogue is crowd-
ed with those who want to worship, pews
are assigned or sold on the basis of price,
length of membership, standing in the
synagogue or community and various oth-
er standards.
This is wrong. There ought not to
be any standards as regards worship-
pers. There should be no poor man's
corner and no rich man's corner in
the synagogue where a man comes to
humble himself in the eyes of God.
At the turn of the century, Temple Beth
El, under the leadership of Rabbi Leo M.
Franklin, became the first synagogue in
the 'United States to adopt the democratic
unassigned pew system on the basis of
first come, first served.
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, a Con-
servative synagogue adopted this system.
Today, the newest convert to the theory
of democracy in worship is the orthodox
synagogue, Bnai Moshe. This makes De-
troit the only community in the country
where orthodox, reform and conservative
worship is done on the unassigned pew
system.
Bnai Moshe is to be congratulated
on this step forward. All other syna-
gogues are urged to follow suit. The
assigned pew system is undemocratic.
Attempt is made therein to assess a
person's character and accord honor
in keeping with that character. But
too often, that character is based only
on wealth or reputation.
It has been said that "Character is what
you are, reputation is what people think
you are." Let us not have the synagogue
as a place of false standards. There are
other ways of according people honor on
the basis of real character, real worth.
The assigned pew system is an attempt to
assess character. It is based on a false
standard and should be abolished.

Friday, April 12,

1946

Personal Problems

ly W. A. GOLDBERG, Ph.D.
Director, Counselling Service

Copyrighted, 1946, by W. A. Goldberg, Ph.D.

All rights reserved

Your questions in personal problems will be answered

by mail as far as possible or in these columns. Send

your question and a stamped, self-addressed envel-
ope to Dr. W. A. Goldberg, 1314 Eaton Tower, De-
troit 26, Mich. or to the Detroit Jewish Chron-
icle, 525 Woodward Avenue. Detroit 26, Mich.

Falling for the Other Man's Wife

PART I

This is the first in a series on "Guideposts to a happy Mar-

riage, as requested by a number of readers. The complete

series, with additions, will he available in booklet form.

Are you an easy mark for a smooth story told by an "abused
wife?" Do you like playing. the knight in shining armor charging to
the rescue of a damsel in distress? Do you believe that the fields on
the other side of the stream are really greener? Then listen to this
composite story which I have heard, in many versions over a period
of time.

Gordon B. is a successful business man. He worked hard to build
his business, travelled much. He is on "easy street" now.

During the first years of his marriage, he lavished his love and
attention on his wife. Before the children came, she went on all his
trips. While he worked hard, they had the physical presence of each
other as compensation for their trials. As business was built up, he
showered his wife with expensive trinkets as a peace offering for be
ing away so much. In his unthinking way, he tried to make up for
his absence. After some time, his business kept him too busy and
tired to do-more than come home to change his clothes.

The wife had servants, all her creature comforts were at hand.
She had less and less to do. She drifted into an easygoing living. Her
thoughts were mostly of herself and her children. But as the children
grew, they threw off her control, as do all growing children. She
leaned on them, for want of the presence of her husband. So her
thoughts turned to herself, how lonely she was. Her refuge was in
self-examination of a pitying nature.

Mrs. B. spent her abundance of time in expensive taverns. A man
admired her dress and her figure. Mrs. B. believed these compliment.;
subtly worded and often repeated. If she doubted their sincerity at
first, she enjoyed being described as an attractive person, which she
was. So she drifted away from her home, from her husband.

Gordon, away from home on sales trips, had time between trains.
He found his diversion in an attractive convention girl. He fell for
her line of flattery. He enjoyed again being a conversationalist, that
is, a person permitted to do all the talking. This acquaintance wrii
married but her husband "abused her."

In common with its many counterparts, each partner in this mar-
riage was occupied with something other than marriage, his marriage
The wife had a friend, the man a business and a friend. Each wift
drew into himself. Each one was sorry for his state.

The Monotony of Life

The everyday life of most people is dull, has little adventure, IRE. ,
romance, little danger. Monotony is the rule. As compensation, each
one of us likes to build himself up to heroic proportions. Most men
would like to believe they are crusaders, defenders of injured
womanhood, standard bearers of chivalry. The husband looked
forward to his trips, combining business and romance of a sort. Ti;'
wife, too, was pleased at these times because she had time for her
companion.

We are often asked: "When is a marriage situation hopeless?" The
answer is always "Never." Any marriage can be set back on the right
track. There is a strong condition, that the partners in a marriage
are willing to make the effort, after they find out what they want.

Perhaps the hardest work in the treatment of human problem';
comes from these aspects: 1. No one likes to admit that he "acted
like a fool," and, 2, being able to acknowledge, even to an outsider,
that a man or woman of importance needs help with personal prob-
lems. Without such recognition, the best counsellor's words and serv-
ices fall on deaf cars.
(Continued next week)

(Dr. Goldberg is available to clubs and groups of parents for dis-
cussion of personal problems. Write him directly at the address above,
or in care of this newspaper.)

Bread Upon The Waters