74—THE JEWISH NEWS
The Shofar Sounds A Call
For World Unity, Peace
By JULIUS ROSENTHAL
To millions of men and wom-
en who heard the crisp military
notes of the bugle in two World
Wars, the Jewish shofar must
seem an unlikely instrument for
the call to arms. Yet, scholar 8 .
tell us that the ram's horn was
used in ancient times for this
martial • purpose. Today, the
shofar continues to fulfill . its
ancient function. Like the bu-
gle, it summons man to action.
There is one vital difference.
• While other peoples were im-
proving the instrument for bat-
tle action, Israel's circumstances
taught its people to transmute
the call of the war horn. Today
when bugles call to death. the
shofar calls for world unity and
harmony.
It would be a queer bugle in-
deed that would be secretly
sounded into a well to mute the
sound from unfriendly ears. Yet
such was the mode of sounding
the shofar in Spain during the
Inquisition.
We would hardly expect to
arouse men by furtively raising
the call behind locked shutters,
as Abraham Manin, leader of
Marrano congregation, described-
the ceremony in modern Tere-
han. But the Jew persists in
the conviction that, just as the
glorious day of the Torah-gift
was heralded by the still, small
and somewhat wheezy voice of
the ram's horn, just so will the
even more glorious day of re-
demption be announced by the
shofar.
Picture a fearful group of
Spanish, Jews huddled in their
hidden places to hear the re-
quired notes. It would have
been easy to give up the strug-
gle. All that was demanded of
them was to forsake a poor and
despised faith in favor of the
powerful and ornate church.
Then the shofar cries. It is
redolent with the echoes of past
centuries which refuse to be for-
gotten; of integral memories,
baked into the heart. It is, for
all its secretiveness, a summons.
It calls to courage in the face
of repression. It bids the Jew
to be honest to himself, no mat-
ter what the dictates of ruling
bigots may be. It drowns out
the metallic blare of pomp and
power.
The shofar bears yet another
force. It frightens the enemies
of freedom. We can -compre-
hend its mystery for the Jew,
linked by its voice through space
and time, but why are the Ye-
menite Arabs, clearly in the ma-
jority and with all the means
of coercion at hand, dismayed
by its call? Is it, as the Hebrew
writer, S. Yavneili, speculates,
- 41k,tecause they "know • about the
King Messiah and of our belief
that we will be redeemed, and
they are afraid?"
This, then, is the battle cry
of the shofar. It inspires deter-
mination in the teeth of perse-
cution. It confounds the rulers
by force with the promise of its
glowing ideal. Each year at High
Holyday time it dares to drown
out the bugle.
This year the shofar carries
a message not only to the Jew,
but to men of all faiths and
especially the citizens of our, own
beloved United States, for 'peo-
ple all over the world find them-
selves thrust into the posture
of the Jew in Exile.
Many Americans share the
-apprehensions of Sen. Margaret
Chase Smith, Henry Steel Com-
manger, and Arthur Schlesing-
er, Jr., at the tactics of smear
and intimidation which be-
smirch our current scene.
A country where men fear to
be radical, to seek a radical so-
lution of the problems of racial
and economic injustice, is ,a sick
country, whose body erupts in
sores and lesions. When men
cannot trust their friends and
speak in guarded tones, freedom
is dead. The suppression of free
thought and speech by force
and fear kills the essence of
the . • democracy it purports to
defend.
To those who desire to ele-
yate the finest in American tra-
dition and destiny, the shofar
• peaks the same message of
Israel's Newcomers Dig In
Friday, September 8, 1950
courage and faith as in medie-
val Spain and Yemen and all
the muckholes of oppression of
history. Conscience can speak
and it will be heard if it refuses
to yield to fear and terror.
America has a story to tell
the world, a story of freedom
and democracy. If the words of
freedom are unpolluted by sup-
port of reactionary regimes
abroad; if the story of demo-
cracy is made clear through -in-
creased equality for minorities,
the United States will be issuing
shofar blasts that drown out
the bugles and confound ene-
mies of liberty.
The horn which proclaimed
the Torah with its Ten Com-
mandments drowns out the stri-
dency of the bugle for it bears
the promise of God: "He shall
judge between the nations, and
shall decide for many peoples.
And they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks. Na-
tion shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more."
Associated Services Adopts
$6,652,757 Budget for 1951
NEW YORK—Associated Serv-
ices for the Armed Forces, na-
tional organization formed re-
cently to meet off-post needs
of service men and women in
this country and abroad, made
public a budget of $6,652,757 for
its 1951 program.
Prophets Ranked Above
Military Men in 'The
Ancient Israel Drama'
"The Drama
Ancient Is-
rael' by John Flight, written in
collaboration with Sophia, L.
Falls, (Beacon Press, Boston),
opens its hiStorical analysis with
the story of the Hebrews in
Canaan.
It then proceeds to relate the
drama of Israel's march through
the desert, on the way to the
Promised Land; the episode at
Jericho the city's destruction
in tota.l war not to be rebuilt
again for 500 years.
The ancient song of Deborah
is incorporated in the chapter
"Battling for the Plain of Es-
draelon."
The battles of Gideon, Sam-
son, Saul and David are fully
described. The authors state
they "are impressed by the fact
that the famous men in this
drama of ancient Israel were
military leaders and rulers . . .
They were impelled largely by
ambitions to rival and surpass
the other nations of their
times," and they proceed to em-
phasize that "the greater men
of Israel have been the sturdy,
daring souls called the pro-
phets" ... who ... `,5 often at the
risk of their lives, spoke boldly
against the wrongs and the op-
pressions suffered by their peo-
ple at the hands of, shortsighted
and arrogant leaders. They
sounded a stirring call for jus-
tice among men and for sincer-
ity in religion."
Recent newcomers to Israel pioneer in the upbuilding
and development of their new homeland. Here, they drill
through rock to clear land for a new settlement being estab-
lished with United Jewish Appeal funds by the United Pales-
tine Appeal.
Plastic Products Now Big Business in Israel
1. ;L AVIV—(JTA)—A million the Allied Moulding Corpora-
dollar plant for manufacturing tion of New York, started pro-
plastic products, established by duction here.
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