Purely
Commentary
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
PHILANTHROPY IS NOT ENOUGH!'
In a most interesting address delivered
at the recent Conference on Jewish Ed-
ucation at the Jewish Theological Semin-
ary of America, in New York, Dr. Israel
M. Goldman, president of the Rabbinical
Assembly of America, dared to say
things which are often whispered but
seldom spoken out loud.
Rabbi Goldman was sounding a clarion
call to American Israel urging that the
educational conference should emphasize
anew "the centrality of Jewish education
for the American Jewish community."
While he hailed the magnificent example
set by the UJA conference in Atlantic
City in establishing a goal of $170,000,000
as American Jewry's great relief effort
for this year, he declared that "we as
Rabbis must at the same time issue the
warning:
"Philanthropy is not enough! Phi-
lanthropy is all output—output of our
energy, our efforts, our sympathy.
There comes a time in Jewish life how-
ever, when there is intake as well as
output. There are too many Jews who
are eating up their capital, their spirit-
ual and psychic capital, who will find
hi the crises of this age that they just
will not be able to survive as integrated
personalities without some new deposits
of ethical values and spiritual aspira-
tions. I say, therefore, that such intake
of Jewish resources is of crucial im-
portance today. It can only be achieved
through programs of Jewish education
on all levels—adult, youth, and child."
•
*
•
A COURAGEOUS DEMAND
We have called Rabbi Goldman's ad-
dress interesting and daring. This is as
much as can be said about the introduc-
tory portion to which we have just al-
luded. His conclusions and demands,
however, may well be labelled as exceed-
ingly courageous. It takes a great deal of
resoluteness and conviction for a Rabbi
to be able to ask of his people to liquidate
the Sunday School and to substitute for it
more productive Jewish educational in-
struments. A Rabbi risks a lot when he
tells his coneregation, whose members in
the main prefer the one-day-a-week Jew-
ish education to the sacrifice (sic!) of a
daily Hebrew school. But Rabbi Goldman
had the courage to state:
"Perhaps the greatest failure of the
Congregational School is that in the
several decades of its maximum devel-
opment it has still permitted the Sun-
day Scheibilo exist and to flourish. The
Sunday School is a snare and a delu-
sion. It is a fraud and a deception. It
misleads both Jewish children and
Jewish parents into believing that a
Jewish education is being imparted
when as a matter of fact, because of its
own inherent limitations, it does noth-
ing of the kind. The Sunday School is
one thorn in the none-too-fertile field
of Jewish education in America.
"I should like to propose that Con-
servative Judaism shall within the
next five years liquidate the Sunday
School and at the end of that period
abolish it altogether. In this, our move-
ment will be making a significant con-
tribution to the future of Jewish educa-
tion in America. But that can be only
the merest beginning. We will have to
do much, much more. We will have to
uproot many other useless and injuri-
ous growths and in their places plant
more fruitful and more productive
Jewish educational instruments."
This plea was directed to Conservative
Judaisfn. It is a proposal that should be
studied jointly by Reform, Conservative
and Orthodox Jews, in order that a co-
herent and constructive program of Jew-
ish education may be followed by all
elements in American Jewry.
It will be interesting to study the after-
effects of Dr. Goldman's significant chal-
lenge and to know whether it will fall
on deaf ears or whether a sufficiently
powerful group will arise in American
Jewry to accept the challenge and to un-
dertake to revolutionize Jewish educa-
tion on a constructive basis.
Rich Dwelling
From a manuscript in the Columbia
University Library
A pious man. when asked his opinion
about this world, responded, "What can
I say concerning a dwelling which we
must leave empty-handed? . . . When a
man becomes rich in this world, he is ill
at ease; and when he is poor, he is sad.
One person works zealously for it, and it
escapes him, while another sits still and
it comes to him."
While the pious man was thus blaming
the world, another who was present said,
"Do not disparage it offhand for it is a
Friday, January 10, 1947
THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Two
A Letter to the N. Y. Times
Proper Use of Word Zionist
By P. BECK
•
Secretary to the Press Officer, Jewish Agency for Palestine
The New York Times of Dee. 20 carried a double column headline on
Page 18, "Britain Bars American Zionist Who Backs Palestine Terrorism," re-,
ferring to the expulsion of Prof. Johan J. Smertenko of the American League for
a Free Palestine from Britain. The use of the word "Zionist" to describe the Irgun
Zvai Leumi and the Stern Group, the two extremist bands in Palestine, and the
American League for a Free Palestine, and its parent organization, the Hebrew
Committee of National Liberation, is erroneous, misleading and unfortunate. both
the Zionist movement on the one hand and the above-mentioned groups on the
other hand have disavowed the label Zionist for the Irgun, the Stern Group, the
Hebrew Committee of National Liberation and the American League for a Free
Palestine.
Besides organizational and tactical distinctions between them and the Zionist
n1bvement, there is a basic ideological distinction. The Zionist movement has
always maintained that the Jews possess all attributes of- nationhood like the
French, the Spanish, etc., with the unfortunate exception of not possessing a
state of their own. Parenthetically, we wish to point out that once a Jewish state
is established, Jews outside Palestine will owe no allegiance to the Jewish state
in Palestine, just as Frenchmen who are citizens of the United States do not owe
allegiance to France.
The Hebrew Committee, representing a handful, has repeatedly denied this
thesis, and maintains that the Jews throughout the world have only religion in
common, a view shared by anti-Zionist Jews such as Leasing Rosewald and the
American Council for Judaism. The Hebrew Committee and the American League
for a Free Palestine have, furthermore, invented a new term, not based on past
Jewish tradition, namely, "Hebrew Nation," and apply this application to Pales-
tine's Jews and D. P.'s
This is the basic distinction, showing a definite affinity betwlen the philosophy
of anti-Zionists and the American League for a Free Palestine. In the elections to
the World Zionist Congress over two million Jews registered as voters. This
showing is especially significant, bearing in mind that in many lands, such as
the Arab countries and others where Zionism is outlawed, Jews could not par-
ticipate in these elections. The Zionist movement has repeatedly denounced the
terrorists and taken its own disciplinary measures to immobilize them: The He-
brew Committee of National Liberation and the American League for a Free
Palestine have openly indicated their moral support for the terrorists. •
We request that you publish this letter to familiarize your readers with the
distinction between the Zionists and the groups Professor Smertenko represents, so
as to avoid any future embarrassment to the world-wide Zionist movement by im-
puting that the league and the Hebrew Committee and the Irgun and the Stern
Group are in any way connected with this movement.
Heard in
The Lobbies
By ARNOLD LEVIN
(Copyright. 1947, Independent Jewish
Press Service, Inc.)
DANCING JEWS
Some of the Jewish advertising in met-
ropolitan dailies is evolving into a serious
menace. At first, we had appeals to con-
tend with, lurid appeals for funds. The
Bergsonites were the first, the Revision-
ists followed, then came some yeshivoth,
and recently a local Talmud Torah
has joined the ranks with a sensa-
tional appeal that the multi-racial read-
ing public of the metropolitan press help
"build good Americans" by supporting
an institution which has a few hundred
enrolled students. We don't see Catholic
and Protestant parishes, and believe us
—some of the parishes are pathetically
impecunious, appeal for funds through
the press. But these advertisements, em-
barrassing as they were, have now been
superseded by an even more embarrassing
type of ad—the "come and dance with
us"—advertisement. Friday and Satur-
day issues of the New York Post are
chockful of the little square-box an-
nouncements: "Junior Hadassah Dance,"
"American Jewish Congress Dance,"
"Jewish War Veterans Dance," "Jewish
Center Dance," "Jewish Junior League
Dance,"-etc., etc. You don't see any Cath-
olic or Protestant dance-advertisements.
It appears that all Jewish youth does is
dance. We know that most of the above
organizations do splendid work, but their
advertisements are bound to encourage
misconceptions of their functions. Must
all dances be advertised in the press?
Must they?
•
•
•
IN EARNEST
Disney Kingsley, the playwright, is an
earnest young man. He spent five hours
pumping Prof. Albert Einstein for scien-
tific data he needs for his new play. Poor,
poor Prof. Einstein.
•
•
•
NOVELIST
Irwin Shaw, brilliant short story writer
and playwright, has embarked on a new
career—novelist. It is a war novel, he
has some over 700 pages of it, and has
another seven hundred to go.
•
•
•
PAGLIACCI-MOSS HART
Strictly
Confidential
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
(Copyright,
1947, Seven Arts)
INTERRACIAL NOTE
Pushing through Times Square crowds
a couple of Saturdays ago, we bumped
into about 200 youngsters picketing the
race-prejudiced cinema-version of "Abie's
Irish Rose" . . . They told us thdt they
were members of New York's American
Youth for Democracy, a progressive in-
terracial organization representing 8,000
young people throughout the nation . .
A very pretty girl handed us an invita-
tion to a party being given by the Brook-
lyn College club of AYD . . . The big
thrill of a very pleasant evening came,
for us, when a group of students drafted
one of their number, a Negro, to lead
them in a community sing . . . His first
selection was "Zum Gali Gali," which
you should recognize as a popular Pales-
tinian folk song.
•
•
•
PROS AND CONS
Bravos for the way Nat Holman. bas-
ketball coach at the City College of New
York, handled Everett Shelton, anti-
Semitic coach of Wyoming University's
netmen ... Nat silenced the foul-mouthed
Wyoming with his promise to . . .
"punch you right in the nose if you say
anything like that about my players
again." ... Bouquets also go to Joe Lap-
chick. Catholic coach of St. John's of
Brooklyn, who has joined Holman in
calling for action against Shelton by the
National Coaches Association . . . Boos
and jeers for Agatha Christie, Dorothy
Sayers and other mystery story writers
who go out of their way to caricature
Jews in the Streicher tradition . . . Their
vicious portrayals are usually dragged
into their books out of context and add
nothing to their stories but bigot-appeal.
•
•
•
INTERNATIONAL FRONT
Abraham Friedman of New York, the
30 year old author of "Towards a He-
braic-Spanish Rapproachment" has been
proclaimed "a champion of freedom" by
the Spanish government in exile.
Ilya Ehrenburg's articles on America,
reprinted from Izvestia in the current
issue of Harper's Magazine, are not only
very interesting but truly informative on
the status of the Negro in our country.
• •
•
Between
You and Me
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Copyright, 1947, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)
POLITICAL TRENDS
Everbthing points to the fact that the
British Government is inclined to solve
the Palestine problem by partition. . . .
But there is quite a gap between the
partition proposal which Britain has in
mind and the one which the World Zion-
ist executive would accept . . . Consid-
erable bargaining can be expected. . .
Once the principle of partition is ac-
cepted by both the British and the Jews,
Britain will not rush the negotiations—.
The British government is no longer
afraid of Russia raising the Palestine is-
sue at the United Nations, since it will be
a year before the next General Assembly
of the United Nations is convoked. . . .
Nor is Britain afraid for the time being
of stronger Zionist pressure in America,
since the Presidential elections in the
U. S. are nearly two years off. . . . These
factors give Britain about a year's breath-
ing spell. . . . As for terrorism in Pal-
estine, once the British government pro-
claims its willingness to partition the
country into separate Arab and Jewish
states, continued terrorism will work
against the terrorists. . . . Partition will
not be opposed by at least three Arab
states: Transjordan, Egypt and Iraq. . . .
But it will provoke criticism in Moscow,
where the fear exists that a "Zionist
State" will collaborate with Britain and
will become "an anti-Soviet base" in the
Near East. . . . Some British military and
colonial officials object to the establish-
ment of a Jewish State in Palestine fear-
ing that in a time of international crisis,
such a state—dominated by Socialists—
may side with Russia rather than with
Britain: . . . It is learned in Washington
that Soviet Foreign Minister V. Molotov,
in private talks with Secretary of State
Byrnes, said that Moscow was really in-
terested in the fate of Palestine. . . . He
stated that the Soviet Union was con-
cerned in the Mediterranean and should
be considered among the states "directly
concerned" in the Palestine issue.
•
COMMUNAL AFFAIRS
The 90,000 .Tews of Detroit certainly
ought to be proud of their record of
giving. . . . Each one of them—man,
woman and child—averaged about $68
for Jewish charity during the year just
concluded. . Credit for this record
should go to pleasant, tactful and en-
ergetic Isidore Sobeloff, one of the best
Federation directors in the country....
In the emergency Allied Jewish Cam-
paign, Detroit raised $2,800,000. . .. It
raised another S2,300,000 for a Jewish
hospital. . . . It had an income of more
than $918,000 from the War Chest and
it also contributed $90,000 to civic-
protective organizations. . . . Not a bad
example for other Jewish communities.
The Council of Jewish Federations and
Welfare Funds. the coordinating body of
267 federations, welfare funds and Jew-
ish community cousicils in 236 cities, is
determined to expand its activities. . . .
It wants to see more and more federa-
tions and welfare funds established, and
it is now sending out literature to Jewish
communities offering them the experi-
ence of other cities on the composition
of boards, membership, committees. scope
of responsibility and various activities....
It has copies of constitutions and by-laws
which have worked well in comparable
communities and is ready to make them
available to Jewish agencies seeking to
centralize their work.
Temple Emanu-El in New York has
started the new year free from debts....
The burning of its $1,250,000 mortgage
certificate marked the celebration of the
101st anniversary of the congregation.
Histadrut: with Valor
Unfurl Thj, Standards
"Hitnaari m'afar kumi"
Moss Hart, whose apartment was
By DR. NOAH E. ARONSTAM
cleaned out by thieves, says they have
Histadrut, with valor unfurl thy stand-
given him a terrible inferiority complex
ards.
and he'll have to consult a psychiatrist.
Incline not thine ear to the threats of
The reason? The thieves took all his suits, BROADWAY GOSSIP
usurpers
"Abie's Irish Rose"—which smells of
but left his ties, which the fretting Hart
believes, constitutes implicit criticism of the wrong kind of "humor"—has been Savagely spreading their venom of dis-
cord
mentioned in this ,column before . . . It
his taste for ties.
is being foisted upon the public at the To harrass thy efforts. Assemble the
homeless
dwelling of righteousness to him who Gotham Theater in New York, which is
lives righteously in it, a safe dwelling to owned by Harry Brandt, the' Jewish And over the waves of the hindermost
sea
the one who understands it, and a rich movie magnate.
Arthur Koestler will leave Palestine for Defend them and lead them to harbors of
dwelling to the one who manages to get
safety.
a bed in it. It is a place of divine Reve- the west coast - glitter-city to put his
is
lation, the prayer house of His messen- "Thieves in the Night" in shape for the Rebuild thou their homes; the soil it
waiting
gers, the mosque of His prophets and the screen ... We hope he'll blue-pencil from
market-place of His favourites where the role of his protagonist such cracks Under a smiling welcoming sky.
they purchase Paradise, wherein they ob- as " . . I became a Hebrew because I To the rescue, Histadrut! Success shall be
thine!
hated the Yid."
tain mercy."