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A HAPPY NEW NE

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1949.50

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Old City With A New Face
Jaffa Is Study in Contrasts

By LOTTE FULD

(Copyright, 1949, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)

The terrace of the little restaurant in Jaffa is packed with
Jews of all nationalities, sipping their coffee. Jews in European
and Oriental clothes float along the streets. The city is full of new
immigrants-30,000 DPs from Europe and immigrants from the
Balkan countries and North Africa have been settled here by the
Jewish Agency, since - Jaffa was captured by the Israelis. Almost
the entire Arab population fled; only a few thousands of the 50,-
000 remained.
My thoughts go back to those critical, heart-stirring times
eighteen months ago . . . It was in January, 1948.
"Would you like to come with me tomorrow morning?" asked
my friend Chaim of the Haganah. "I have to check some of our
positions in the outskirts." Those were the days when Jaffa and
Tel Aviv were at war.
A cab took us through the lively crowded business center of
Tel Aviv. We turned into the old quarters, the streets became nar-
rower. At one corner, suddenly, life stopped. Our first guards went
into action . . . The beginning of "no-man's land," only a 15-
minute ride from where we started.
We dashed across deserted streets, hushed along the walls,
passing ruins, climbing over broken fences. A bullet came whist-
ling over my head. "Lie down," shouted my guard, "don't move.
The Arabs have spotted us from that house over there."
In the sunlight of June, 1949, Chaim and I walked the
same path as that of a year-and-a-half before. No dashing along
the walls, no bullets anymore. All is peaceful. The only grim re-
minders of the struggle are ruins, scattered walls and barbed wire.
Children are playing happily in the streets. But why is one
little girl crying? • . . I ask her in Hebrew. No answer. People
gather around, they try in English, French, Spanish, Polish, Ger-
man and Yiddish. But again and again she repeats: "Victoria."
We peeped into various houses in the neighborhood. Those
little homes (once Arab), previously dark and uncomfortable, are
beginning to improve. Some of them are nicely painted, with light
curtains and a few pieces of furniture, probably not very expen-
sive. But to these new immigrants, they are more valuable assets
than a Park Avenue outfit.
"Victoria, Victoria." A woman, crying desperately, seized her
with a joyful shriek. She kissed her and me alternately, and sobs
in a mixture of broken English, Hebrew and an unknown language:
"We new olim-Turkish-not speak Israeli language but will learn.
So goody here. Toda, toda; (thank you, thank you!) . . ."

Chaplains Provide Spiritual
Therapy for Mental Patients

By RABBI LEE J. LEVINGER

I am • a part-time Jewish chaplain serving Jewish veterans in
a mental hospital. My work, like that of the many other rabbis
doing. the same kind of specialized job, is carried out under the
auspices of the Division of Religious Activities of the National
Jewish Welfare Board.
The. 'rabbi preaches and teaches Judaism, whether in a con-
gregation, in an Army or Navy post, or in a hospital. The chief
difference is that he serves a different group of people in a dif-
ferent backgr6und.
The chaplain in a Veterans' Hospital is, of course, a civil
service employee. However, he must be endorsed by his own
national religious body.
The chaplain in the mental hospital faces a task which makes
the greatest demands but which includes the utmost of satis-
faction. He is a part of the medical team in a more specific way
than in most other hospitals. Every branch of the mental hospital
exists for one purpose, therapy. There are recreational therapy,
occupational therapy, music therapy and bibliotherapy, all pre-
scribed for various patients by the psychiatrists. Among these,
the chaplain provides spiritual therapy.
This active participation in the healing situation dominates
both aspects of the chaplain's daily activities, the religious serv-
ices as well as the ward visiting, conferences with patients and
their families, and all those varied tasks which come under the
heading of personal welfare. The chaplain does not try to prac-
tice psychiatry, but he knows that religious comfort is good for
people, especially for worried, nervous and brooding people. He
knows alSo both by experience and by his many contacts with the
theory of mental illness, that one of the important ways of help-
ing these patients is simply to listen sympathetically to their
stories.

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As part of its program of service to the Jewish
communities of America, the National Jewish Wel-
fare Board has made available to The Jewish News
this timely Rosh Hashanah-Yom Kippur quiz. Test
yourself,. your children and your friends to see how
you score on this quiz which is based on JWB's 102=
page book, "The Jewish Holidays-A Guide to Their
Origin, Significance and Observance," by Dr. Mordecai
Soltes.
QUESTIONS
1. What do the words "Rosh Hashanah" mean?
2. When is Rosh Hashanah observed?
3. What does "Yom Kippur" mean?
Yom Kippur fall?
4. On what day in the Jewish calendar does
5. By what special Hebrew name are the High
Holy Days called?
6. By what three names is Rosh Hashanah
known?
7. What is a Shofar?
8. When is the Shofar blown?
9. By what Hebrew name is the person who
blows the Shofar known?
10. Name three occasions in the life of the Jew-
ish people on which the Shofar was sounded in an-
cient times.
11. What special greeting do worshippers extend
to each other at the end of the Service, on the eve
of Rosh Hashanah?
12. What are the Aseret Y'me T'shubah?
13. Describe the ceremony known as "tashlikh."
14. What is the origin of the custom "tashlikh."
15. What is the "Kol Nidre"?
16. What kind of oaths are annulled by the re-
cital of Kol Nidre?
ANSWERS
1. Beginning of the year (literally, "head of the
year").
2. On the first day of Tishri, the seventh month
in the Hebrew calendar.
3. Day of Atonement.
4. On the tenth day of Tishri.
5. Yomim Noraim (Solemn Days or Days of Awe.)
6. Day of Judgment (Yom Hadin), Day of Re-
membering (Yom Hazikaron), and Day of Blowing
the Shofar (Yom rruah).
7. An old surviving wind instrument, usually
made of the horn of a ram, which is blown in the
synagogue on the High Holy Days.
8. During the morning service on Rosh Hashanah
and at the concluding service on Yom Kippur.
\ 9. A "Baal Tokeah."
10. To announce the new moon and festivals; to
proclaim the jubilee. or year of release; to issue a call
to battle; to communicate tidings of victory. (Any
three).
11. L'Shanah Tobah Tikateb V'tehatem (May you
be inscribed and sealed for a happy year).
12. The ten days of penitence which are devoted
to earnest self-examination. They begin with the New
Year (Rosh Hashanah), and end with the Day of
Atonement (Yom Kippur).
13. In the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Ha-
shanah, if it does not fall on a Sabbath, many Jews
assemble along the banks of a stream or river and
recite verses from the Prophets and appropriate peni-
tential prayers.
14. It is based on the sentiment expressed in the
following passage from the prophetic book Micah:
`He will again have compassion upon us; He will sub-
due our iniquities. And Thou wilt cast (Hebrew, V'tash-
likh) all their sins into the depth of the sea."
15. A special prayer which begins the Synagogue
Service on the eve of the Day of Atonement.
16. Vows made in the heat of passion which an
individual assumed for himself, alone, and which con-
cern his relation to his conscience or Heavenly Judge.

JWB Exhibits Bring
Jewish Art to Country

•

By LIONEL KOPPMAN

People over the country are getting acquainted
with Jewish art through the '70 traveling exhibits
which are booked by the Jewish Center Lecture
Bureau of the National Jewish Welfare Board. Citizens
of 75 communities in half of the states in the U. S.
had the opportunity of seeing from one to more than
a dozen of these "portable exhibits" during the year.
The Bureau would like to have as many people as
possible see the exhibits and so makes them available
at no cost except that of transportation. The 70
exhibits-41 of which are mounted-have had 255
showings during the last 12 months.
The four mobile shows people demand most are
the two assembled by the Congress for Jewish Culture
but booked exclusively by the JWB Jewish Center
Lecture Bureau; a collection of Jewish religious
objects stolen by the Nazis and rescued by the Jews
of Nuremberg, and the exhibit of the American
Jewish Historical Society.
The art exhibits include original oil paintings by
Jewish artists and are designed not only to promote
an appreciation of Jewish art but to stimulate local
exhibits of local artists as well. The collection of
religious objects was given to American Jewry by
Nuremberg Jews. The Nazis had stolen the items from
synagogues they destroyed in Europe.
The exhibit of the American Jewish Historical
Society, now enjoying the sponsorship of JWB,
includes early historical documents, portraits of men
prominent in American Jewish history, commission
papers of Jewish officers in American wars, broadsides
and circulars on the founding of Jewish institutions,
first editions of Hebrew grammar books, Bibles and
prayer books published in the U. S. and other similar
material.

10-THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, September 23, 1949

JWB Sponsored
Projects Inspire
Positive Judaism

IRISH YOUTH WEEK

Developing Jewish Youth Leadership

NATIONAL IEWISH TOUT)! CONFERENCE

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The growing importance of Jew-
' ish Youth Councils and the JWB-
sponsored National Jewish Youth
Conference, as well as the wide-
spread observance of Jewish Youth
Week, give striking evidence of
a Jewish-motivated American Jew-
ish youth.

These young Jewish servicemen,
away from home acid familiar
scenes, find a neatly packaged pro-
gram of Jewish cultural, welfare
and religious activities made avail-
able to them by JWB's Armed
Services workers and Jewish chap-
lains at home and abroad.

The JWB-sponsored Jewish Mu-
sic Council has generated wider in-
terest in Jewish music by develop-
ing recorded Jewish musical pro-
grams and stimulating community-
wide Jewish music projects.

stablisi-imenf of JWB's depart-
ment of health and physical edu-
cation has given new impetus and
direction to the health and athletic
activities of Jewish Community
Centers.

