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Twister of Lives
End of Anxiety in 5708
On the lips of all Jews there are prayers
that there should be an end to anxiety and
despair in 5708.
The year that is ending was an unusually
trying one on the nerves of our people.
Betrayals by great powers, dissention in
our ranks, continued suffering in the ranks of
the survivors from Nazism and the need for
endless protests against injustice and de-
mands for adherence to pledges—these are
but a few of the elements which have caused
5707 to be chalked up as a year drenched with
Jewish blood.
*
*
Naturally, we welcome the new year with
trepidation and with a sense of humility.
Our responsibilities to our fellow Jews are
far greater today than they have ever been.
We're faced with the duty of raising hun-
dreds of millions of dollars for relief and re-
construction in times of transition, but we
shall have to meet vastly greater responsi-
bilities in the days of creating permanent
structures for the security
security of our people.
at home and
We need to mend our
we must be prepared for unprecedented chal-
lenges abroad.
*
*
*
American Jewry, more than any other
Jewish groups in any other period in our
entire history, is primarily charged with the
duty of being in the vanguard of reconstruct-
ing Jewish-life and of restoring dignity to
Jewish existence.
No other Jewry possesses the means of
carrying out the challenge of a people whose
heritage must not be defiled and whose
ethical values must be given new meaning in
a world sickened by disillusionment.
American Jewry is capable of carrying the
banner of Israel in the fight for justice and
high ethical attainments, and the year 5708
may well prove that we can help put an end
to indecencies and b leading factors in guar-
anteeing the realization of ideals that go with
the restoration of sanity everywhere.
May the year 5708 be a happy one for Israel
and humanity, and may it be the beginning
of an era orpeace with justice and righteous-
ness sincerely aspired to by all mankind.
THE JEWISH NEWS
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Philip Slomovitz
Maurice Aronsson
Isidore Sobeloff
Fred M. Butzel
Judge Theodore Levin Abraham Srere
Henry Wineman
Maurice H. Schwartz
rirrLIP SLOMOVITZ. Editor
SEPTEMBER 12, 194:
VOL. XI—No. 26
Sabbath and Rosh Hashanah
Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-eighth day of Elul,
5707, the following scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchical portion — Deut. 29:9-30:20.
Prophetical portion — Is. 61:10-63:9.
The following scriptural selections will be read
on Rosh Hashanah:
Pentateuchical portion — First day, Monday:
Gen. 21, Num. 29:1-16; Second day, Tuesday: Gen.
22, Num. 29:1-16.
Prophetical portions — First day, I Sam. 1:1-
2:10: Second day, Jer. 31:2 - 30.
Calendar Oddities
New Year in. Autumn
Is Logical Turning Point
By GERHARDT NEUMANN
*
Fortunately, we begin the new year with
new proposals for the solution of the Jewish
problem and with a serious effort to secure an
amicable solution to the sad problem of our
people.
There is unanimous agreement that the
miseries of the displaced Jews and the trage-
dies of the homeless and dispossessed can
not be solved unless the problem of home-
lessness is solved.
Therefore—recognizing the sad fact that
all other doors are closed to Jews—Palestine
remains the only solution to the tragic prob-
lem of at least a million and a half unfor-
tunate Jews.
The serious attempt of the majority of the
members of the United Nations Special Com-
mittee on Palestine to set up a Jewish State
and to encourage the opening of other lands
for the settlement of Jewish survivors serves
as an encouragement that 5708 may, after
-all, prove to be a very good year for Israel.
IFfidalattS•141, 1 271947 t
-..-
Cenre ► psy frimilhoti .he AM•ricon Democracy, hoc.
May the new year 5708 put an end to racial prejudices. May it bring
peace and understanding and promote the welfare of all people.
Foundation for a Jewish State
Eretz Israel, the Jewish State, really never was de-
stroyed. The expulsion of Jews from Palestine by invaders
marked the temporary end of Jewish political independence,
but it never completely terminated either the love of Jewry
for Zion or the continuation of spiritual statehood.
Foundations for the re-creation of the political Jewish
state were laid as far back as 1880 when, under the leader-
ship of the BILU, the movement of the first Jewish pioneers
who marched to Zion under the banner that carried the
initials of the words from traditional liturgy, "Beth Yaakov
Lecu ve-Nelcho--House of Jacob, let us go forth," the first
in the large chain of Jewish coloriies were established to serve
as the beginning for the present Commonwealth.
The existence of the Jewish colonies, which flourished in
the midst of neglected desert land, served to inspire the non-
Jewish world to endorse the Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2,
1917, and to approve the Mandate for Palestine as an instru-
ment to guide the establishment of the Jewili National Home
under the aegis of the League of Nations.
A majority report of the United -Nations Special Com-
mittee on Palestine now recommends the establishment of a
Jewish State in a portion of the Land of Israel. This recom-
mendation, which already has the endorsement of the over-
whelming majority of the Jews of Palestine, means, in essence,
that the prophecy of Dr. Theodor Herzl in 1897 that there
will be a Jewish State 50 years hence is nearing realization.
Israel's dreams may, after all, become realities.
A study of the map outlining the minuteness of the area
recommended for the Jewish State leaves us with a sense of
pain. It is a sliver on the face of the Middle East and almost
invisible on the map of the world.
But we dare not be unrealistic and we must admit, as we
have indicated in our discussions of proposals for a parti-
tioned Palestine for the past few years, that if we do not
accept partition there may be little else left to hope for in
Palestine.
*
*
Did you ever wonder why the different calendars
begin a new year in different seasons? Is there any
reason at all why a year .should be ushered in at a
specific time?
Looking back at ancient periods, we find that a
new year always began at a logical turning point
in the economic life of a nation. The Hebrew Year,
as that of most Semites, starts in autumn, while the
Greeks, Romans and Persians saw the dividing
line between years in spring.
The motive is obvious. In spring, when Nature
reawakens and the sun regains its strength, its time
to think ahead, to plan and to pray for a good
harvest. In fall, when the harvest is brought in and
the mild season fades away, it's time to thank for
the gifts of the earth and the blessing of the
summer.
It remained for the present Gregorian calendar
to put New Year right in the'middle of the winter
when there is nothing to celebrate.
*
•
•
However, it should be added that the Hebrew
New Year did not always start in autumn. Accord-
ing to some of the Passover legislation (Exodus
12:2), the month of Abib (Nisan) became the first
month of the year. It is possible that this change
was due to the influence of the Babylonian year
which also began in Nisan. The great Jewish his-
torian Josephus asserts that while Moses made
Nisan the first month for the festivals, he preserved
the original order of the months for buying and
selling and other business purposes.
Whereas the Palestinian Jews clung for a long
time to Nisan as the first month of the year, the
Seleucidan calendar, which is generally recognized
today as the Jewish calendar, made Tishri the first
month. This law was laid down in the year 312 and
has been adhered to ever since.
•
•
•
In times of the Second Temple when reckoning
was still highly uncertain, a court of priests heard
witnesses about the new moon and fixed the new
month accordingly. Later, the Sanhedrin in Baby-
lonia fixed the length of the month after hearing
witnesses.
Since this method was rather crude, every two
or three years an extra month had to be inter-
calated. This intercalation depended on calculation
of the relative lengths of the solar and lunar years,
and moreover could be judged by the grain
harvest.
•
*
•
To inform all communities of the new month, fire
signals were set up which were carried from sta-
tion to station in the mountainous country. The
communities in Egypt, Asia Minor and Greece,
however, which could not be informed in time,
celebrated two days as the new moon in order to
avoid errors. This is the reason why we still
celebrate two holidays.
•
•
•
Ever heard of the Samaritans? They were The
irreconcilable foes of the Jews, and used the new
moon fires to create confusion by giving the signals
at improper times. In the year 170, Rabbi Judah
made an end to this by abolishing the fires and
employing messengers. By this time.astronomical
calculations also had made witnesses superfluous.
• . •
•
No calendar is perfect. The Jewish calendar,
according to the scholars, exceeds the Gregorian
calendar by six minutes and 39.37 seconds. In-
significant though this time may seem, it accumu-
lates throughout the years and will finally bring
about serious disorder in our calendar. It is there-
fore likely that some day a pan-Judaic synod will
have to be convoked in order to adjust the dif-
ferences and to bring the calendar up to date.
*
Israel's tragedy is too great that we should gamble with
uncertainties, and we endorse the appeals of the American
Jewish Conference, the Palestine Yishuv and responsible
Jewish leaders everywhere that the UN should act favorably
upon the majority recommendation of the UNSCOP and that
our government should exert its influence for its speedy im-
plementation.
The miseries suffered by the survivors from Hitlerism,
the interned on Cyprus and those who stake their lives upon
the only future acceptable to them—their eventual settlement
in Palestine—demand an early end to despair, want and home-
lessness.
We are certain that American Jewry overwhelmingly
supports the majority UNSCOP report and prays for its
speedy enforcement. This is no time to bewail the cutting off
of valuable slices of Eretz Israel from the future Jewish State.
At this moment we must accept the best possible solution to
the problem and must resolve to make it work properly for
the future settlers and for the entire people Israel.
There undoubtedly will be opposition to the proposals.
But we caution against hotheadedness hi facing the offers
that are being made to us. Chaim Weizmann is as pained as
we are in being forced to take a small slice of Palestine. But
he is realistic out of experience with the betraying British
government, with the indifference of a world not too friendly
to Israel and with the callousness of Jewry itself.
For the sake of peace and our people's security, we
endorse the UNSCOP majority plan. May it be enforced with-
out too much debate. Perhaps it will lead not only to solving
Israel's needs but to the begining of the rule of true justice
on earth under a genuinely just covenant of the nations of
the world.
It Dawns
By DR. NOAH E. ARONSTAM
It dawns—
And Israel shall set his seal
With steadfast will upon the soil,
His fathers' dwelling place of yore.
And build again the land laid waste,
A heritage for evermore.
It dawns—
The fealty we have ever pledged
Shall never from our midst depart;
Though centuries retard the pace,
In vain was not the ardent race,
The goal whereto our hopes were bent-
It dawns—
From hills and dales, from vills and vales
And vine clad slopes and fertile fields,
From orange laden scent of groves,
From workshops where the mallets sound
Goes forth the call: "The hour is nigh."
It dawns!
Answers to Readers
Questions ...
What is the meaning of: 1. Sabbath,
2. Siddush, 3. Benshen, 4. Havdolah?
1. Rest. 2 Sanctification. 3. To say grace, the
word being derived from the Latin benedieere.
"Differentiation"—between the Sabbath and the
balance of the week.
• • •
What is a Minyan?
The number of adult males required for Jewish
public worship fixed at 10.
Talmudic View of Toleration
An aged man, whom Abraham hospitably invited
to his tent, refused to join him in prayer to the one
spiritual God. Learning that he was a fire-worship-
per. Abraham drove him from his door. That night
God appeared to Abraham in a vision and said, "I
have borne with that ignorant man for seventy
years; could you not have patiently suffered him
one night?"