America apish Periodical Cotter CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO • 31 YEARS OF SERVICE TO DETROIT JEWRY • 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.