Friday, December 21, 191R

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

Page Four

Map of Jerusalem

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

Published by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.
2805 Barium Tower, Detroit 26, Michigan •

Vol. 50, No. 49

Chanukah's first candle will be lit Sunday
night.
Perhaps at no time since the days of the
Maccabeans of old has the festival seemed
to have so much meaning as it has for us
today. On the face, this appears to be a
paradox. It is as though we were to say
the farther we go from an event the closer
it comes to us.
Yet this is actually the case, and the ex-
planation does not lie in any twilight realm
of paradox. We 'feel the Chanukah spirit
more vividly this year because We have wit-
nessed in our own days what amounts to a
repetition of the great Maccabean feat and
.wonder of old.
We have seen, as in the days of our
Maccabean sires, a great Syrian military
leader, Antiochus, renowned for his armed
prowesS. We have seen the Jews in Israel
triumph over the Syrians and the Iraquis
and the Egyptians and the Saudi Arabians
and even over the British. We have seen
what appeared a lost cause turned into
brilliant victory.

The Maccabean heroism still lives in the
Jew. Year after year we have gone on pray-
ing for redemption. We made our little
contributions for Palestine. We sang the
song of llatikvah, meaning hope, yet so
long has been the Jewish tragedy that few
of us dared hope very much. We had taken
sufferance "to be our badge," as a great
poet wrote.
Yet, the miracle has happened. After the
darkest night in our history, dawn has fi-
nally broken on Israel.
As we kindle the Chanukah lights anew
this year, the light that is Israel will
brighten the festivity and illuminate the
to our destiny.

Chanukah or Christ nuts?

To the impressionable minds of Jewish
school children, the excitement and dra-
matic appeal of the Christmas season can
only bring bewilderment and somewhat of
a feeling of rejection.
In an awkward attempt to avert this,
many parents encourage their children's
participation in Christmas activities in the
public schools and even provide Christmas
trees and Christmas gifts for their children
in their homes. To us this is an exhibition
of moral weakness on the part of the par-
ents because they seize upon what to them
seems to be the easiest way out.
A more rational way of handling the
problem, if one should indeed arise because
of the absence of Jewish education and
practices in the home, is to explain honestly
and dispassionately that Christmas is the
holiday of Christians and that we have our
own festivals similar to Christmas to ob-
serve.

•

•

We should Certainly make Chanukah sig-
nigficant in the life of the child, honor the
Chanukah customs and introduce a festive
spirit during the eight-day celebration and,
by all means, pass out gifts. Small children
should get inexpensive gifts everyone of the
days as they help in the kindling of the
candles.
In the Detroit system, the unfairness
and the cruelty of the emphasis on Christ-
mas in schools where Jewish children are
the majority or a large segment have be-
come increasingly evident to the open-
minded faculties.
As a result, we find that in the Winter-
halter, Roosevelt, Brady and McCulloch
schools, programs have been evolved that
permit the Jewish children to take part in
the festivities without. there being undue
emphasis on the story of Christmas. In
addition wherever possible, Chanukah- is
made an integral part of the celebrations.

•

•

•

Here is what was done in the past few
weeks in the Winterhalter • School where
Miss Booth is principal.
At the annual holiday program of the
school where a glee club and an orchestra

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participated, a group of third and fourth
grade pupils forming a verse-speaking choir
recited Chanukah poems and then sang
several Chanukah chants.

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Ruth Kaltman, seven-year-old pupil, sang
"If I Would Be a Maccabee" and another
child told the significance of the Chanukah
Dreidel. Alongside of the Christmas tree
decorating the stage, in all its-ancient splen-
dor stood a metal Menorah holding tiny
tapers. Throughout the school, pictures of
the Menorah vied for the places of honor
with Christmas drawings and wreaths.

This is practicing good sense, understand-
ing and tolerance in the American way.
Jewish children learn to honor the festivals
and differences of the Gentile and Christian
children learn to respect the festivals and
differences of the Jew.

Jerennahs
Grotto

JE ■ vim
COLOSI

DETROIT 26, Mich.

"

C hannkah

AMERICAN
COLONY

✓ fovoi
COLONY

GEORGE WEISWASSER, Editor-in-Chief

Friday, December 24, 1948 (Kislev 22, 5709)

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HUNGARIAN
COLONY

SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 Per Year. Single Copies, lOct Foreign, $5.00 Per Year
Faltered as Second-class mane. March 3. 1916. at the Post Office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3. 1879

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The auditorium, music and other teachers
at the Winterhalter and other schools should
be congratulated for their understanding
and their ingenuity. By their hard work and
their sympathy they have met a problem
■
which less enterprising and less understand-
I may add that I contribute
CRITICIZES .JSSB
ing Jewish mothers and fathers have failed
riy to the Community
to meet, chiefly, it seems to us, because of Dear Editor:
Chet from which the JSSB re-
apathy and distorted views on what toler-
I was referred to the Jewish ceives uart of its funds to carry
ance really means.
Social Service Bureau to apply on its- functions. Therefore, I
Chanukah and Christmas come close to- for the adoption' of a child for believe I am entitled to my pro-
gether this year. Will Jewish children be which the social service acts as test on the way the JSSB is
agency for such cases. It took me
celebrating Christmas or Chanukah? It is several days before I was able corvitt..i•ng their affairs with ar-
rogance.
the parents who will have to decide.
to receive an appointment to
NAME ON REQUEST
discuss my purpose in the adop-
tion of a child. This was over
ON NEW YEAR REVELRY
two years ago and the result, I
Come Up and See Us
may add, was an arrogant re-
Dear Editor:
buff by the social worker at the
The Chronicle' has moved to more im-
We live in a country, where,
Jewish Social Service Bureau.
pressive quarters in the Barium Tower. We
I was not given an application thank God, freedom is still re-
invite readers and others interested in the to file for an adoption. Again I garded as the inalienable pos-
activities and welfare of the Detroit -Jewish tried to apply for ,an adoption of session of its citizenry. As Jews,
community to come in and talk things over. a child through the Jewish So- we are permitted to put to prac-
tice our religious precepts or flout
We may be busy at the beginning of the cial Service Bureau and again it them, as we wish. Certainly no
4eek, but we are never too busy to talk to is the same story.
one can force us as inuividuals
• • •
our friends.
to abstain from work on the Sab-
bath or to add beauty to the
When you come in just to leave a piece of
It is still difficult to obtain an Shabbos through spiritual par-
copy or a photo, we assure you courteous appointment or application be- ticipation. As individuals we are
attention and a friendly atmosphere. We cause it seems most of the time free to follow our traditional
want to please you, because we are aware the social worker is at some hegemony or scoff at it openly.
meeting of one kind "br another
that without you, we cannot go on. .
• • •
and that the minimum waiting
• •
•
list is from three years upwards
But, if we are a representa-
for the adoption of a child.
tive imititution in the commun-
In the last few months, the Chronicle cir-
It seems to me that if the ity, we bear additional respon-
culation and influence have grown widely.
We are grateful to the organizations that JSSB had agreed to take my ap- sibilities. Institutions, whether
plication over two years ago I they be in the form of a Labor
have gone out of their way to bring us
may have had a chance for the Zionist group, a Parents Insti-
subscriptions and to express their friend- adoption of a child, but now it tut^ of the Community Center or
ship to the Chronicle.
seems all a person gets is a run- even a secular non-religious or-
go ';:.• lion, assume additional re-
We may overlook some, and we know you around.
Meanwhile, I had placed sev- sponsibilities in their duties of
will forgive us for it, but we should men-
the sensibilities of
tion in particular the interest of the Wom- eral applications for a child Te..!:,:.ti;zing
the Jewish Community.
through
non-Jewish
welfare
and
en's Division of the American Jewish Con-
For them to sanction New
gress, Young Israel, Zedakah Club, the Mu- social agencies and I must say
that I received the most courte-
sic Study Club, Neugarten Medical Society, ous treatment a person could re- Year's eve parties on Friday night
becomes blasphemous. These or-
Chordokover Chabna Society, Jewish Wom- ceive.
ganizations are regarded with re-
en's European Welfare and its North Wood-
spect and, as a result, when they
ward Branch, Youth Education League and
leave their particular field the
Of
course
my
chances
of
ob-
the Woncen's Auxiliary of the Jewish Home
carryover is felt in areas beyond
taining a child for adoption are
for Aged.
their compass.
slim through the non-Jewish so-
The sanctioning of hilarity,
These groups have brought us scores of cial agencies due to the fact
y out of keeping with the
subscriptions and, together with many that the non-Jewish social agen- Cori
.1a1 sanctity associated
others who have pledged support to the cies receive none or very few
with Ef2v Shabbos, is a Chutz-
Chronicle and its program of a democratic Jewish children for adoption.
However, I must add that I pah, an affront and an indirect
Jewish community, have promised to bring
learned through the non-Jewish assault on what many in our
in more. We are grateful to them and as- social service agencies what I community hold sacred.
sure them that the community will be should have known long ago
• • •
stronger for their support of the paper that through the JSSB that the
has no special -affiliations, interests or fa- JSSB has only approximatly
The organization, if its pro-
two to four infants or children gram in the community is a
vorites.
available each year for adoption. wholesome one, carries weight in
Why must I learn through oth- its decision far and beyond the
Because of printing conditions, it is es- er agencies the facts of the. -narrow confines of its -immediate
sential that club, Synagogue and society JSSB? Could not the JSSB have interests. Like the physician, who
news be in our hands by noon Monday. If been polite and explained to me in addition to his medical author-
you have not been receiving as much pub- the long waiting list of applica- ity, is erroneously regarded as
family psychiatrist and adviser—
licity as you wish, it is due to two fac- tions for adoptions?
With less arrogance on • the a terra incognita to the average
tors: First, there are over )50 separate
physician—so flo organizations go
groups that seek publicity in our paper part of the JSSB and more un- beyond the gafnut of their bound-
derstanding of the individual's
every week, and to try to get something in
problems the JSSB could render aries and direct, unwittingly as
for each we must keep all articles short.
a highly commendable service to it may be, the thinking in other
areas remote as they may be,
The second reason may be that your copy the Jewish community.
All I can say now is that I from their original intention.
arrived late- and there was no room left in
the paper for. it. Send in your photos and now have the application blank
What has the Community
copy early and it will be given special at- and that will probably be as far Council done about this?
as
it
will
go
unless
the
attitudes
tention.
WALTER FARBER,
and manners of the JSSB
Remember, come up and see us!
chance for the better.
2696 Collingwood Avenue,

Letters to the Editor

.1.1.

11MIMPINNININV

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