r
Friday, October 1, 1948
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
Page Forty
,
Consolation of Visits to the Sick
Emphasized by 'Flying Chaplain'
Biblical Terms
Designate Rank .
A New Year—A' New Life
TEL AVIV (ZOA)—The ranks
of officers in , 'the Israeli army
are designated by terms taken
from the Bible.
Equivalent ranks in foreign
armies are only approximate,.
since the Israeli army is not
modeled after any of them. Thus
a brigadier is known as "Ray
Aloof," originally meaning com-
mander of over 1,000 men and
in the late Biblical period ruler
a colonel as
or commander;
"Aloof," a lieutenant-colonel as
"Ray Seren," and a major as
"Seven" a Philistine rank of no-
bility.
"Rav Sagan," "Sagan Rishon"
and "Sagan," honorary titles used
during the Babylonian exile cor-
respond to captain, first lieuten-
ant and second lieutenant, re-
spectively.
By RABBI HAROLD GORDON
(The author attained famed during the war as the "Flying Chap-
lain" of the Air Transport Command. In his 200,000 miles of air
travel, he covered the largest territory assigned to any chaplain.
Since 1916, he has been the general secretary and chaplaincy
coordinator of the New York Board of Rabbis, consisting of al-
most 300 orthodox, conservative and reform Rabbis in the
world's largest community.)
ON ROSH HASHONAH and Yom Kippur, each one of us will re-
cite the familiar verse from the High Holiday Prayer Book:
"When our own strength faileth, f wsake us not."
To those of us in good health,
it will be just another fine ex_ have engaged clergymen of the
pression we customarily utter on three major faiths to serve as
these days. But for the countless chaplains, and the board was
others, this prayer will be ut- designated the responsible agen.
tered with fervent hope for per- cy for the appointment of Jew-
sonal fulfillment.
ish chaplains.
Part of my work as circuit
chaplain of the Air Transport
Command during World War II
was to visit the hospitals in each
one of my far-flung bases, from
Baffin Land to Scotl5nd and
from Greenland's icy mountains
to Bermuda's coral strands.
One incident of particular rele-
vance took place in Prestwick,
Scotland. As I was making my
rounds of one of the wards in a
local "holding hospital," stopping
for a moment at each bed, I
noticed that someone was fol-
lowing me. After completing my
,-"circuit" of the ward, I looked
up to see a smiling lad, dressed
in the familiar hospital robe,
holding in front of him a copy
of Hertz's "Book of Jewish
Thoughts," as if he were saying
"I am a Jew, please see me."
Casually I walked up to the
young soldier who quickly vol-
unteered: "I am Pvt. Levy.
There's nothing wrong with me.
I just want to talk to a Rabbi or
a fellow-Jew."
(There was "nothing wrong"
with him; he had "just" been
wounded during the Battle of
the Bulge and was being evacu-
ated to the States by air.)
He proudly showed me his
Tallis and Tephillin on his night
table and said, "I put them on
every day, even at the front."
•
• •
YEARN FOR A WORD
AS I MADE my rounds of
many hospitals and saw thou-
sands of men in various stages
of physical disability, the thought
was born in my mind: What an
uplifting experience it is for{ a
sick person to have a visitor,
even a stranger.
How much a word of encour-
agement, a smile, a nod, a warm
Sholom Aleichem can mean to
someone lying on a sick bed. My
resolve was firm: If ever I re-
turned to civilian life, I would
establish Bikkur Cholim, regu-
lar visiting of the sick, as part
of my program, and would urge
it upon laymen as well as upon
Rabbis.
Shortly after my retirement
from the service, I became as-
sociated with the New York
Board of Rabbis, part of whose
program is devoted to chaplain-
' by activities in hospitals. For
many years the city and state
However, it was not until July
/946, when the Federation of
Jewish Philanthropies granted
the New York Board of Rabbis
a subvention, for this purpose,
that chaplaincy work on an or-
ganized basis was introduced into
voluntary and private hospitals.
GREETINGS
Since then the board has ex-
panded its program to include
nine chaplains serving 30 instf-
tutions.
COLBERT & SESKIN
IRON & METAL
• • •
BUOY UP SUFFERING
THE SERVICES of the Jew-
ish chaplains are many and var-
ied. During the course of the
past two years, they made 218,-
304 bedside visits, in many in-
stances the only visits which the
bedridden got.
14401 SCIIAEFER
VE 7-8333
The year 5709 will bring fultilltnent of their dreams, haven
in America, to this refugee Viennese family, who Immigrated
to the U.S. and found a new home in Reading, Pa., with the
aid of. United Service for New Americans.. The newcomers
are 80-year-old Mrs. Clementine Pollak, her two daughters,
Mrs. Anna Ritter, left, and Mrs. Joseph Winter, and her son-
in-law, Mr. Winter, all of whom escaped the Nazis in 1938.
Being on call for 24 hours a
day, the chaplains are frequent-
ly summoned for emergencies in
the early hours of the morning.
In pre-operative cases they
give spiritual strength and with Jewish interest through the ef-
bedside prayers they buoy up the forts of the board.
• • •
hopes of the suffering. Besides
bringing cheer and comfort to OBSERVE .HOLIDAY
CHAPLAINS ALSO arrange
patients and family alike, the
chaplains also act as liaisons for the ushering in of Rosh Ha-
with social service and hospital shonah with solemn High Holy
Day services, supply patients
administrations.
with Esrogim and Lulovim on
On their regular rounds of the
Succoth, kindle the Menorah on
hospitals chaplains distribute
Chanukah, preside at the Se.
prayer books, books of popular
dorim on Pesach and, in every
Jewish interest, magazines and
other way, make each holiday
pamphlet literature to patients
a memorable occasion in the
and hospital personnel. Among
lives of those temporarily or
the New York Board of Rabbis
permanently domiciled in hospi-
publications distributed are pray-
tals.
er cards for bedside use and
So important is Bikkur Cholim
pamphlets descriptive of each
in Jewish life that the Rabbis
holiday.
regard it as one of those meri-
Many a hospital library has torious deeds, "the fruits of
been stocked with books of which a man enjoys in this
New Year's Greetings
world while the principal re-
mains for him in the world to
come."
The larger the city the more
likely is a hospital patient to
be neglected. However, there is
no community too small and no
individual too important to over-
look the plight of the hospital-
ized.
Let not our fervent prayer's of
the most solemn days of the
year go unheeded: "When our
strength faileth, forsake us not."
TEL AVIV (ZOA)—An official
campaign against the high cost
of living was formally opened
here with a conference of leading
Israeli industrialists, merchants
and economists.
Rosh Hashonah
Greetings To All .
RABBI SIILOMO
GLIKSMAN
2660 Tuxedo
TO. 9-7348
Office
TRANSPORTATION BLDG.
CA. 8877
Room 1015
•
Greetings ...
Euclid
Cleaners
8444 TWELFTH
TR 2-6847
Greetings .. •
front
Congregation
BETH SHMUEL
Dexter & Buena Vista
RABBI J. RABINOWITZ
President, Mr. I. Rosenberg
Happy
TRIANGLE CAFE
New Year
CL. 3057
668 Michigan
ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS . „
Isenberg, Purdy & Donovan
Certified Public Accountants
Barium Tower
William B. Isenberg, CPA
S. Purdy, CPA
Arthur
Detroit
J. Donovan, CPA
Max D. Beal, CPA
Robert
And Best Wishes to You All
f;
QUALITY LAUNDRY
' 12000 Cloverdale
Prince & Son Motor Sales, Inc.
6155 W. Fort St.
Rosh Hashonah Greetings and
Rosh Hashonah Greetings
hj
Best Wishes on Rosh Hashonah
HOgarth 8000
T.B.Rayrs
Best Wishes to AU
MILGRIM
Incorporated
— N THE —
FISHER BLDG.
Griswold
at
State St.
•
I