16—THE JEWISH NEWS
Judean Ideals Unfulfilled
(Continued from Page
1)
The Trials of Paul
In the trials of Peter and Ste-
phen, the Roman authorities are
not mentioned at all. This was
not necessary in the case of
Stephen, since he was tried be-
fore a religious Sanhedrin for a
religious offense. Although Peter
Was tried by a political San-
hedrin for a political offense,
the lack of mention of the Ro-
man authorities in connection
with his trial can readily be
explained.
-Peter did not cause any dis-
turbance in Jerusalem nor in
the Temple. He was arrested for
disobeying the injunction of the
high priest and the Sadduccees
against preaching the idea of
resurrection.
In the trials of Paul, the
Roman authorities figured
prominently. The names of
the procurators, Felix and Fes-
tus, are mentioned often. Paul,
as is well known, laid great-
est stress upon the religious
aspect of Jesus, on universal-
ism against nationalism. He
did not mention Jesus, the
King of the Jews; neither did
he call Jesus the Ruler of the
Jews as Peter did.
Paul is known in history as
the Apostle to the Gentiles. His
early ministry, however, was in
the Jewish synagogues of the
Diaspora. When Paul came to
Pisidian Antioch, he preached in
a Jewish synagogue that Jesus
was indeed the Saviour and that
he was the scion of the family
of David. Thus, in the early
days, Paul's ministry was among
the Jews of the Diaspora and he
stressed at that time that Jesus
was a descendant of the Jewish
royal family, which would have
been considered a political of-
fense against the Roman state.
The author of The Acts does
not tell us how Paul's life end-
ed, Early Christian tradition,
however, informs us that Paul
was beheaded by Nero Caesar
(after a series of religious and
political trials.) The author of
The Acts, in relating the trials
of Paul, pictured the Jews as
the persecutors of Paul, seeking
to destroy him, while Felix and
Festus tried to save him. How-
ever, we learn about the char-
acter of these two men not only
from Josephus but from the Ro-
man historian, Tacitus.
Tacitus said that Felix "prac-
ticed every kind of cruelty and
lust . . . fostering crime by mis-
conceived remedies." We know
from Josephus that Felix mer-
cilessly crucified anyone who as-
sociated himself with those who
were against the Roman state.
The account dealing with Paul
reveals bitter animosity toward
the Jews. This hostility in The
Acts can be readily explained if
we take into consideration the
time when, and the people for
whom, the book was written.
Most New Testament scholars
agree that the Book of Acts was
compiled after the destruction
of the Temple, between 100 and
130 C. E.
At that time, the Jews had
been totally destroyed politi-
cally and thousands upon
thousands were taken captive
and sold into slavery. The
compiler of The Acts, who
wrote with the Romans in
mind and with the idea of
recruiting converts among
them, could not accuse the
Roman authorities of persecut-
ing P a u 1. The evangelist
wanted to convey the idea to
the Gentiles that the Jews,
who rejected the gospel, had
killed the Master. The author
of The Acts tried to dissociate
Paul's Christianity from pure-
ly Jewish religion, so that the
Romans should not look upon
a convert to Christianity as
one who belonged to the reb-
els, the Jews.
* * *
llistory—!flagistra Vitae
Scholars, in their attempt to
explain the crucifixion of Jesus,
have sought devious and ingen-
ious ways to pierce to the heart
of the mystery. Some have tried
to place the blame on the Sad-
duccees, hoping thus to exoner-
ate the Pharisees and, by impli-
cation, the modern Jews who are
the historical heirs of the Phari-
sees. Others have sought to ex-
EDITORIAL
Friday, January 19, 1951
culpate the individual Jew of
modern times by placing the
burden of guilt of the death of
Jesus upon the Jews as a people.
Not only do these explanations
reveal an ignorance of Jewish
history, but, as apologists, they
are based upon distortions of
history, and hence must be false
and harmful.
We have learned that the
Sadduccees had no judicial or
political power and, therefore,
they could not have committed
the crime of Jesus' death. They
were one group within the Jew-
ish people that differed from the
Pharisees theologically and po-
litically. Yet they were an- in-
tegral part of the Jewish people.
The Pharisees, on the other
hand, despite their hostility to
the Sadduccees, never put any
of them to death for disbelief in
the Oral Law or in resurrection.
At most, they maintained that
those who did not believe in
these matters would have no
portion in the future world.
Our task has been to make
clear that neither Pharisees nor
Sadduccees, nor the Jewish peo-
ple as a whole, could • be held
responsible, even morally, for
the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus
was crucified by the Romans for
a political offense as the King
of the Jews.
Pevinthal, Peiser
Will Address JPS
Luncheon Jan, 30
Judge Louis Levinthal of
Philadelphia, president of the
Jewish Publication Society of
.
Indeed, even upon Pilate
alone the entire blame for the
crucifixion of Jesus cannot be
set. Men are ofttimes the vic-
tims of their own systems. In-
herent in the very nature of
imperialism are evil forces
that distort' men's natures,
that give rise to cruelties and
terrorisms, that compel men
to degrade and use other men
to nefarious ends. The system
of Roman imperialism and the
destruction of small' nations
inevitably brought about their
Pilates, their Quislings and
their crucified victims. As long
as imperialism exists, there
are bound to be traitors and
betrayers who will help the
conqueror to destroy those
men' who are working and sac-
rificing for the liberty of their
countries.
The dark forces that fought
in the first century against
ideals of the universality of
God, the equality of man, and
freedom for all humanity, still
battle against them in our
midst today. The paganism of
Rome in new and different
garb is still alive. The cruel-
ties of Caligula and Nero
against those who believed in
and preached the ideas of a
supreme God and that all
mankind is equal before God
are still indulged in by the
pagan spirit. The ideas and
ideals which were given voice
on the hills of Judea and on
the mount of Galilee are not
yet fulfilled, due to the same
forces of greed, cruelty, hate
and reaction which existed in
the time of Jesus.
Cicero well said, "History is
KURT PEISER
America, and Kurt Peiser, for-
mer director of the Detroit Jew-
ish Welfare Federation, will ad-
dress a luncheon meeting here
at the Book Cadillac Hotel on
Tuesday, Jan. 30, in the interests
of the Jewish Publication So-
ciety.
Judge Theodore Levin, mem-
ber of the national board of the
society, who has issued invita-
tions to the luncheon, stated
that there is a great need for
advancing the book publishing
field, as represented an a non-
profit community-interest basis
by the Society, and urged that
all who are interested should
make reservations for the Jan.
30 meeting.
Lesser Zussman. exec u t i v e
director of the Society, who was
here last Friday to plan for the
meeting, also will be present at
the Jan. 30 gathering.
Reservations for the luncheon
are being taken at WO. 3-4933.
`Beast' Gets Life
Ilse Koch, the "Beast of Bel-
sen" and the "Witch of Buchen-
wald," was sentenced to life im-
prisonment at Augsburg, Ger-
many, on Monday, for the mur-
der of concentration camp pris-
oners.
the teacher of life." By that
teacher, provided we learn the
lessons of the past, we might
be helped to build a better
life today. If we were truly
blessed with wisdom and far-
sighted leadership, we might
create, through the fulfillment
of the teachings of the Bible,
a new and better world to-
morrow.
Too Much at Stake to Risk
Changes in Community Now
A conflict between Federation and Council is "hot news."
Two extreme views are pitched in battle and emotions are running
high.
But the heat vanishes and the atmosphere chills after careful
consideration of major issues at stake.
The Jewish Community Council has proposed a plan for total
community reorganization for the establishment of a unified
central Jewish community organization with four departments:
fund-raising, budget and allocation, social welfare, culture and
education, community relations and planning; and for popular
election of communal officials at established voting booths.
The Jewish Welfare Federation's executive committee has re-
jected this plan and has declared that "it would be an irrespon-
sible action recklessly to discard" existing agencies "for some-
thing totally new, untested and of doubtful functional efficiency."
A careful study of the entire situation points to grave dangers
involved in forcing community reorganization at this time. There
is too much at stake at present to risk gambling with new pro-
posals.
Our community, in the main, is functioning well, and to upset
the applecart in the present critical period in Jewish and world
history would be an act of sheer folly.
The Jewish people are engaged in the historic task of building
Israel. We are struggling with conditions, emanating from com-
peting environments, which challenge our right to survival. What
we need today is the pooling together of all our forces, the merg-
ing of all our resources, to complete the tasks we have begun, to
strengthen our existing cultural movements, to assure security for
Israel. To scrap the machinery at hand for "untested" substitutes
is tantamount to suggesting suicide.
With all its good intentions, the Council should be discour-
aged from proposing again anything like its rejected plan. It is
unhealthy to have two competing community organizations, but
there ought to be a way of eliminating the competitive elements,
by assigning tasks to the Council to which it can devote itself
without encroaching upon areas now served—well served, it must
be admitted—by Federation. Unless some semblance of harmony
is introduced, dissent will place us in a ridiculous position, and
self-ridicule will result in damage to existing Jewish agencies and
to Israel.
Israel-Jordan Negotiations
Continued from Page I
Lt. Col. Shaul Ramati, Col.
Dayan's successor as head of the
Israel delegations to the mixed
armistice commissions, met with
Lt. Col. Azmi Nashashibi, his
Jordan counterpart, in private
talks about the Israel-Jordan
dispute over the Elath road.
"Israel's foreign policy will
remain that of defense of Is-
rael's independence and of the
independent attitude of the
Jewish state in international af-
fairs," Foreign Minister Moshe
Sharett declared in Tel Aviv
upon his return to Israel.
The Foreign Minister said that
there is no change in Israel's
relations with the Arab states
and that peace in the Middle
East is not imminent. He strong-
ly denies reports alleging that
talks are taking place between
Israel and Turkey for a mili-
tary alliance.
*
*
*
Arabs Prevent Israel
Beim:, Peace Sponsor
LAKE SUCCESS—Arab oppo-
sition to Israel's role in the Ko-
rean cease-fire resolution last
week-end resulted in the elimi-
nation of the resolution intro-
duced in the United Nations
Political Committee by Abba
Eban last Friday for a progres-
sive cease-fire to be followed by
a conference on Far Eastern
problems. The earlier proposal
by the three-man truce com-
mittee—similar in a number of
respects to the Israel plan—was
adopted instead.
The last-minute Arab revolt
against the Israel resolution was
successful despite the fact that
no other delegation appeared
willing to propose a resolution
on a Korean settlement. Earlier
the Arabs had supported the
principles contained in the Is-
rael resolution, but later threat-
ened to abstain, or vote against
it.
After the Arab threats, the
Political Committee recessed for
private conference among the
12-member Asian-Arab group.
When it reconvened, the Mexi-
can delegate proposed — as a
point of order—that the truce
committee's principles be adopt-
ed at once "as an organic whole."
This removed Israel sponsorship
from the proposition.
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