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Detroit Jewish Chronicle
VOL. 48, NO. 39
(Section Five)
and The Legal Chronicle
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1946
10c a Single Copy; $3.00 Per Year
ROSH HASHONAH 1947 SPEAKS TO A SICK WORLD
By RABBI LEON SPITZ
0
Over in Eretz Israel the voice
of Jerusalem," the radio voice of
Palestine's Underground Youth,
speaks In no uncertain words to
Imperialistic Britain. That may be
characterized as the truth note
of the Shofar, the voice of Israel
militant. The broken, sobbing note
of the shevarim still reaches out
to us from European post-war
concentration camps. American
Jewry, likewise, makes its appeal
to fellow Americans on behalf of
the martyred segments of our peo-
ple• This is the tekiah, the Call to
the Conscience of Civilization, and
represents the last of the three
Shofar notes. Thus the Shofar
sounds every one of its notes on
Rosh Hashonah 1947 perhaps
more insistently and more strid-
ently than on many, many other
Rosh Hashonah's in the past.
And yet this writer doubts
whether this is e n o u g h. The
thought was expressed the other
night by a colleague that Judaism
should once again become a rats-
:lionizing movement and should
march forth on a well planned
Crusading campaign of conversion
to our faith. Once before in our
history a handful of Jews did
sally forth into the pagan world,
and gained hundreds of millions
for Judaism's daughter religion,
Christianity. Almost a thousand
years later, Judaism (and several
individual Jews too) likewise ven-
tured forth into the Arabic world
and Islam, another daughter re-
ligion, was catapulted into the
world. This time my colleague
feels we Jews ought to missionize
amongst our fellow men, perhaps
in the Vast reaches of India, and
China, and Japan and Africa
among the tribes and the races
and the peoples which adhere to
no other formal, ethical religion—
and receive them into the folds
of an unadulterated Judaism. We
Jews need numerical strength, my
colleague opined with some show
of logic, to help us fight our
enemies.
Halevi wrote his famous book of
the Kuzari and proclaimed the
superiority of Judaism, yes to
Christianity and to Mohammedan-
ism, and to contemporary philo.
sophy; and he wrote h!s book in
the Arabic language so that his
Arabic detractors would read it
and be damned.
After all has been said and
done, Judaism does have a pana-
cea to offer to Mr. and Mrs. World
for all that ails them in our post-
war era. That panacea is our Ten
Commandments. If the world
would actually take time to hear
Its simple precepts there would be
no wars, there would be no theft,
no greed. There would be honest
thinking. Economic justice would
be the order of the day. Peace
on earth and good will to all men
would dominate the world scene.
It has been said, and with quite
a good deal of historic truth, that
the Goyish world took over the
Jewish Bible and left us, the Jews,
the Talmud.
But If the world borrowed our
Bible from us, ours still remains
the right and the duty to demand
that it be kept decently and be
used properly or we have both the
right and the duty to demand its
return to us, the original owners.
History does not record that we
Jews ever came to the Moslems
and Christians and said to them,
"Here, we give you permission
to borrow our Bible and to do
whatever you want with it." The
Bible was and has remained ours.
Jewry has never given up its
copyright to its Bible.
And all this is not merely a bar-
rage of words. On the contrary,
conviction dictates to American
Jewry the altogether justifiable
strategy in our dealings with both
J. D. C. Newsreel
GERMAN PRESSES PRINT
JEWISH PRAYER BOOKS
MUNICH (WNS) — After four-
teen years of burning Jewish lit-
erature German printing plants
are again producing Jewish books,
it was declared here by the local
office of the Joint Distribution
Committee in a statement disclos-
ing that the first part of a print-
ing of 50,000 High Holy Day
Prayer books, to be distributed
chiefly among Jews in DP camps.
Hebrew in America and
American Higher Education
An Interview with Dr. Katsh of N. Y. U.
By LIBBY LAZARSON ZARITSKY
There was turmoil in Jerusalem being" immediately to their Gen-
two thousand years ago. Conflict eral.
followed conflict. Engagement suc-
Rabbi Joachim stood before
ceeded engagement. The siege was Vezpasianus. He conceded that
the last stage in the battle, the the Jewish land was rost. He con-
hopeless battle to preserve the ceded defeat. He knew the Jews
Jewish nation. Outside the gates would be scattered and so he asked
of the beleaguered Jewish capital, to be granted one request. Outside
the Roman officers were busily en- Jerusalem there is a little town
gaged planning the final attack. called Yavneh. "Spare this little
The troops were merry. They town." The General puzzled over
sang. They drank. Tomorrow vie. this request; couldn't understand
tory would be theirs! Inside the the interest of the conquered in
gates the scene was desolate. The a mere trifle. But In a spirit of
soldiers manned their positions condescension he granted it.
but they knew its futility. There
Yavneh, however, was no mere
was no food. There was no drink.
trifle. There the Hebrews trans-
The populace was sick—sick in
ported their seats of learning.
body and soul. Tomorrow would
There they built up great univer-
bring defeat! So the night was
sities. There their culture flour-
spent. Revelry from wit hou t.
ished. Palestine fell. The people
Mourning frkm within.
were in bondage. But the Jewish
But there was one among the culture, through Yavneh, was pre.
Jews who refused to mourn. He served—preserved to be a present
was busy making plans—plans on to world civilization.
how to escape the city—on how
"The most exemplary contribu.
to gain an audience with the Ro- Lion of Judaism to world civiliza-
man general. Only the dead were tion is the Bible," Dr. Abraham I.
allowed out of the city. So it was Katsh, professor of Hebrew and
announced that Rabbi 'Joachim Jewish education and executive
Ben Zaccal had died during the director of the Jewish Culture
night. His followers dressed him Foundation at New York Univer-
in the traditional white burial sity, told this writer at a recent
clothes. He was laid in the coffin interview, "Indeed world culture
and amidst tears and blessings has its roots in the Bible."
led out of the city.
All modern literatures have bor-
Once outside Jerusalem, he rose rowed unsparingly from the script-
from his coffin. The mystified Ro- ures. The teachings of the Bible
man soldiers did not tarry long (its morality, the feeling of broth.
and brought this "supernatural erhood of the prophets) have
found their way into every hu-
man heart.
The American people especially
owe more to the Ancient Hebrews
than to any ancient peoples. The
founders of America were guided
by the Mosaic rulings In' their
Colonial legislation, legial ation
from which grew the system of
constitutional law of the present
day. The first code of laws drawn
up at the general court of Mas.
sachusetts was taken entirely
from the Old Testament. It Is
interesting to note a case where
the court was divided over the
ownership of a cow. The question
of precedence was raised whether
a small number of magistrates
could lawfully hamper the deci-
sion of a large number of depu-
ties. Wiinthrop wrote a thesis on
the deputies, claiming "that were
the magistrates forbidden to veto
the action of the deputies, the
colony would not be a democracy
and there was no such govern-
ment in Israel."
"The spirit embodied In the
scriptures," continued Dr. Katsh,
"finds ample expression in Amer-
ican life. The abhorrence of mon.
archy expressed in the Old Testa-
ment had its influence in the
establishment of the government
of the United States of America.
Inscribed on the Liberty bell is
the Biblical verse taken from
Levitious, "proclaim liberty
throughout the land and to all the
inhabitants thereof." Columbia
university has chosen the Hebrew
Tetragammatan Yahveh as its
emblem.
The influence of the Hebrew
language has found its way into
American speech. About half the
verses of the book of Psalms have
virtually become English Idioms.
Almost all the phrases of Pro-
verbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ec-
clesiastes and other have been'
domesticated by the English
speaking peoples. For example:
"A voice cries out in the wilder-
ness"; "the four corners of the
Jewish Survivors Helped Enter U.S.;
Torahs, Kosher Meat Sent to Europe
Fanciful as this thought un-
doubtedly may be, Jewish history
does record that in Biblical and
likewise in the first thousand years
after the fall of Jerusalem, Jews
still kept on proselyting, and at
times on quite a large scale. Jew.
Ish history does in fact record
that entire kingdoms such as
Adiabme in Arabia, Yemen, and
Chazars accepted Judaism.
Nevertheless, when this writer
has entitled this article Rosh Ha-
shone 1947 speaks to Mr. and Mrs.
World, he entertained no expecta-
tion of springing upon a postwar
II world a program of world-wide
proselyting.
The fact is that Judaism has
preClaimed, perhaps 2,000 yzars
ago, that "every Goy will have
a Stare in the Can Eden," on a
par with us Jews without even
Making a formal application for
admission into the synagogue.
Still there is a compelling need
for the Jew to take up once again
his ancient mission to preach the
programme of Judaism to the
-tiorld, for Judaism has and al-
a31 did claim to have two de-
aents, the national and the uni-
versal. It is to propogate among
our fellow men everywhere the
ethical and universalistic elements
of Judaism that constitutes the
Jewish Mission.
It is in the present day crisis
when Jewish morale is so very
low. that the religious leaders of
J ewry must raise aloft with even
a greater pride the Banner of
Judaism. It was when Spanish
Jewry lived under the hand of a
fanatic Arab dynast, that Yehudah
the Christian and the Moslem
world. The ancient, the eternal,
the chosen people of God must
proclaim on Rosh Hashonah 1947
anew its prophetic mission on
earth—"Justice, Justice shalt thou
pursue."
Whether or not the nations of
the world will immediately heed
Israel's voice does not excuse Is-
rael from speaking out. The
prophets of olden days were more
often than not abused and derided,
jeered and denounced. And yet,
outwardly at least, the civilized
world today pays formal homage
to the flaming utterances. The
prophetic people must carry on
in our generation the prophetic
tradition.
The Rabbis have incorporated :n
the Rosh Hashonah prayer book
that this is a day of remembrance
on which, not alone every Jew
but every man created in his
Maker's image is dutybound to
search in his heart and render an
ACCOUNTING of his way of life.
And this goes for nations and
races as well as for individual men
and women.
Rosh Hashonah 1947 speaks to a
sick world—even as the psychi-
atrist to his patient—In terms of
spiritual and intellectual healing.
The Joint Distribution Committee's
far-flung relief activities provide as-
sistance among distressed Jews in
nearly fifty countries. Abdve, Jewish
immicranta from the D., P. camps
land an New York aboard the Ma-
rine Flasher. The J.D.C. in Europe
handled immigration papers, ar-
ranged passage and/ paid or ad-
vanced travel costa for more than
1,500 Jews who have immigrated to
so far this year. Above
the U.
right, ink firemen, Germany, the lat-
est J.D.C. shipment of kosher meat
for Jews'- In the camp. arrives.
In the first six months of 1946, the
J.D.C. sent more. than 190,000
pounds of tinned kosher meat into
Germany and Austria alone. Right,
in the Grand Synagogue of Paris,
two French rabbis hold new Sefer
Torahs contributed by American
Jewish congregations through the
J.D.C. to replace Nazi-destroyed To.
rahs. The J.D.C. receive+ its funds
the United Jewish Appeal.