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. 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