Onetime Home
Hails Hebrew
Radio Stars Aid Fight on Bigots
• • •
BEYOND IIERZL DREAM
NOT EVEN A VISIONARY like
Dr. Theodore Herzl who imagined
that it would be possible to trans-
plant the whole Jewish people with
all its resources to Eretz Israel, in
a peaceable fashion in a short
time, without unusual historic re-
verberations, a visionary who
imagined that the Jewish Home-
land would be completed In the
early twenties of this century —
even he did not dare tell us that
the Jews there would be using the
Hebrew language daily.
That an ancient difficult, ori-
ental language would be capable
of revival—even his fertile imagi-
nation could not fathom. Our great
Hebrew writers, even the most
prominent among them, had their
doubts, and looked upon the at-
tempts to revive the Hebrew lan-
guage for daily use as a waste
of energy.
Suffice it to name such writers
as Ahad Haam, Frishman, or Men-
dele. When the latter recreated his
novels from Yiddish into Hebrew,
little did he think that he was
creating a living tongue, soon to
become a spoken language. Indeed
it is not easy to picture the re-
vival of spoken Hebrew without
the contribution of Mendele, al-
though I never heard him make
an attempt to speak Hebrew.
• • •
NO CHANGE FEARED
THE REVIVAL OF the Hebrew
language in the school, and in the
street, on the farm and in the
factory, at the office and at home,
is an elementary fact, so thorough-
going, that no change will occur
should in the shortest possible
time all 600,000 Jews enter Eretz
Israel as we hope they will.
There is less of a risk to pre-
dict that all collective farmers will
revert to the form of private en-
terprise, or that all private en-
terprises will go collective, than
that the Hebrew language will be
supplanted by another language.
JDC Maintains Long Supply Lines
to Meet Food, Medical Needs of DP'
A RAG DOLL, little Sonya
L IKE
sprawled across her small cot
Palestine Linguistic
Melting Pot for Jews
By DR. NATHAN ECK
THE JEWISH renaissance move-
-I- ment set for itself from the
very beginning, very high goals in
every phase of Jewish life. It is
erroneous to say that only now,
when we are in the midst of at-
taining those goals, are we fully
aware of the difficulties which
did not appear to be insurmount-
able when our program was mere-
ly wishful thinking.
Not only was it thought that
the difficulties would be what they
are, but that they would be even
bigger. The majority of the Jew-
ish people considered the program
of the renaissance movement im-
possible of realization.
There is one field where our
goal has been attained in full. We
are referring to the revival of the
Hebrew language. Let no one think
that in this field the outlook was
more promising, or the doubts
fewer.
Friday, December 20, 1946
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
Page Fourteen
Doing their bit to oppose religious bigotry, Jinx Falkenberg, (left)
and Tex McCrary, (right) husband and wife team currently star-
ring on the radio program "Ili: Jinx," appeared as featured speak-
ers at a recent luncheon forum sponsored by the women's division
of the Joint Defense Appeal. Mrs. Joseph S. Berenson, (center)
was chairman of the event.
Eretz Israel became a linguistic
"melting pot" for Jews, more
potent and effective than the
American melting pot for its ra-
cial strains. That is true not only
about children, but about adults
as well.
The latter struggle with the
Hebrew language no more, and
perhaps less than they do with
English in the United States. In
short, in the field of Hebrew all
our dreams have come true.
As yet the full importance and
consequences of this fact for the
Jews all over the world were never
fully appreciated. The time is
coming when the Hebrew langu-
age will become the strongest
positive link among Jews. Who-
soever will not possess the knowl-
edge of Hebrew, will be like the
Jews of a hundred years ago, who
could not recite the prayers.
• • •
OPPOSITION VANISHES
EVEN TODAY—it is noticeable,
it is harder to get along without
Hebrew in secular Judaism than
in religious circles. The most po-
tent and dangerous enemies of
living Hebrew were not the radi-
cal secular Yiddishists but the
strictly orthodox Jews.
This opposition has all but dis-
appeared. In short: "It is diffi-
cult to be a Jew" without Hebrew.
It is, therefore, high time that
those parents who wish to pro-
vide their children with a Jewish
education, should realize that there
is no such thing as Jewish edu-
cation without living Hebrew. It
should be further realized that,
to acquire the knowledge of Heb-
rew, an hour or two a week will
not suffice.
SACRIFICE NEEDED
THE AIM SHOULD be that the
student acquire in due time the
ability to read a Hebrew book and
a newspaper, as well as to con-
verse in Hebrew.
This cannot be achieved by peda-
gogical black magic. Jewish edu-
cation whose central theme is
Hebrew, is a serious and Impor-
tant matter for which an appro-
priate price must be paid. The
price consists of the readiness to
sacrifice sufficient time, infinite
patience, and painstaking effort.
Without a complete Jewish edu-
cation, without a sufficient knowl
edge of the Hebrew language and
literature, Jewish children will
grow up to be not full-fledged
Jews, but half-Jews or less.
The last few years have graphic-
ally demonstrated the fate of half
or quarter Jews. They had only
one thing in common with full-
fledged Jews, namely persecution
and degradation. They shared with
them in their sorrow, but never
in their joy.
that first night in the Joint Dis-
tribution Committee's reception
center for refugee children in Linz
Too exhausted to eat, she fell
asleep, even while the JDC work-
er washed her wan little face and
removed the torn sandals Sonya
had worn in her long journey
from . Poland to Austria.
In sleep, her taut face relaxed
but never did she loosen her
clutch of the little handkerchief
bundle she brought with her, for
it contained all she had In the
world—a pair of socks, a few
dried prunes, a broken doll and
a green crayon.
She would not give them to any-
one. At breakfast, she ate • half
her roll and put the rest in the
package. Sonya had never known
a day when there was food as-
sured for the next day. She had
learned to store up for the hun-
gry days ahead.
• • •
ONE OF 150,000
FOR SONYA IS. ONE of the
150,000 Jewish children in Europe.
a symbol of the immediate, vital
need of the survivors for food,
clothing and other supplies.
To meet this need, the Joint
Distribution Committee, major
American agency aiding Jewish
survivors abroad, has responded
with the greatest shipping pro-
gram in its 31 year history.
Total JDC 1946 appropriations
for supplies to Poland and other
countries, for Passover relief and
special medical shipments to Jews
in Soviet Russia are estimated at
$20,000,000.
What does JD() send? The list
Fri
1
'j
Je
goes from salamis especially
packed for shipment in plastic
to layettes for newborn infants,
from saws and hammers to
Yiddish films for the displaced
persons in the camps. Forty dif-
ferent types of foods go to Eu-
rope to supplement the meager
diets of needy Jews; canned or
prepared meat, wheat products,
jams and sugars, vegetables and
soups and juices.
RI
oft.
• • •
110ST FROM U. S.
AS MIGHT BE EXPECTED, the
;renter portion of these supplies
'sas come from the United States.
since the first of this year, more
han a ship a day has sailed for
Europe carrying JDC cargo. In
October alone freighters with JDC
supplies amounting to $221,625
sailed for Europe from the United
States.
Invaluable in the JDC supplies
program has been the cooperation
of the U. S. War Assets Admin-
istration. Recent purchases from
this organization included 83,000
army blankets and 75,000 yards of
overcoating which will soon be
shipped to Germany for manu-
facture into coats by displaced
Jewish tailors.
Meat from South America, jams
from South Africa, shoes from
Canada—all funnel into the zones
of greatest Jewish need through
the JDC.
The American housewife knows
how difficulb it Is to purchase the
articles she needs for her own
home. Thousands of Europe's Jews
have no homes, no furniture, no
stores in which to shop, or money
with which to buy. To these
thousands, the JDC supply pro-
gram means life.
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in greeting the spirit of Chanukah
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Oa ooj a s e n ti n rn, y n : et
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To my many friends, patrons
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and to all Detroit Jewry for a
Joyous and Happy Holiday.
•
S. A. GRANADIER
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Tailors of Distinction
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