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Necessary Binding for Brotherhood

Prof. Baron's Social And
Religious Story of Jewry

Brotherhood Week

A single sentence in the Gemarah (San-
hedrin .iv; 38):—"the dust of the first man
was gathered • from all parts of the earth"—
contains the best explanation for genuine
brotherhood. The fathers of this great re-
public put it equally as succinctly when they
said that all men are created equal.
President Truman, in his message ac-
claiming Brotherhood Week, to be observed
Feb. 17-24, pointed out that "unless free peo-
ple work together as a team—and that takes
teaching and practice—there will be no last-
ing peace." It is the teaching and practice we
must attain in order to assure true brother-
hood among all peoples and faiths.
The weapons that are to be utilized in
attaining good will must be aimed primarily
at assuring a common understanding and
mutual respect among all groups. Without it
we can not hope to cement friendly rela-
tions among neighbors and, for that matter,
among nations. And we must avoid the type
of humor which leads to ridicule. In a state-
ment prepared for Brotherhood Week, Hen-
ry Castor made this practical statement to
indicate that "Laughter Can Kill":

A story goes that recently a number of
Jews living in New Hope, Pa., have been con-
verted to the Society of Friends, popularly
called Quakers. A rabbi in Trenton, across the
river, is supposed to have remarked, "What
do you think of that? Now some of my best
Jews are Friends!"
Similarly, there are two current writers
with the same name, one a Negro and the
other a white man. The Negro told his white
friend of the same name, 'I'd always known
,there would be a White sheep in our family.'
It is an encouraging thing for America
wizen jokes without a sting can be made about
religion and race. Bigots have cracked too
many of the other kind. During Brotherhood
Week, 1952, it would be well for all of us to
pause a moment to think before circulating
the kind of joke about a minority group that
carries poison in its point. Words often are
harder than stones; they can bruise and draw
blood. The child who chants the old rhyme,
`Sticks and stones may break my bones, but
names can never hurt me,' generally ends by
bursting into tears. And laughter without kind-
ness . can maim and kill.
Lynch ?nobs have laughed at tine spectacle
of burning men. Those who retell cruel jokes
about minorities differ from these sadists
merely by degree. Brotherhood is not solely
a gentle thing; there is brotherhood among
goons, too.
The goon excludes from his community of
brothers any persons with marked differences
in color, or of religious practice, or even of
political thought. If humor is what the dic-
tionary says it is, 'That quality in ... an ex-
pression of ideas which appeals to a sense of
the ludicrous,' then the goon has none. If he
had,- he should never be able to be serious
about the bases of his ludicrous brotherhood.

-

Technology and Statehood

Long before Israel was blessed with independent state-
hood, Zionist leaders foresaw the need for technology and
know-how to facilitate the industrial development of the land.
Even in the days when the Palestinian project was in the
main centralized in agricultural efforts, it became evident
that without scientific approaches the colonization work
would suffer. Shortly after the language struggle- in Pal-
estine, involving Hebrew,. French and German, a group of
leaders undertook to establish a technical school, and out of
that effort was develoPed the Hebrew Institute of Tech-
nology in Haifa, now popularly known throughout the world
as the Technion.
It was in behalf of the Technion that the late Dr. Shmar-
ya • Levin befriended men like the late Fred M. Butzel and
Dr. Leo M. Franklin in Detroit and Julius Rosenwald in Chi-
cago. These men recognized the need for developing skilled
Jewish technicians. Many anti-Zionists were intrigued by the
idea and the cause of the Technion inspired people in all
fields of endeavor to support the movement to increase know-
how in Jewish communities which were to be fused into
Israel in our time. Zionists naturally favored it.
Detroit had two distinguished guests last week: The
eminent vice-president of the Technion, Dr. Sydney Gold-
stein, who is recognized worldwide as one of the very ablest
areodynamicists of our day, and Dr. Samuel Lewin-Epstein
of Jerusalem. The former told the story of. Israel's need for
well trained i technicians and scientists. The latter • is _con;,
cerned overAsrael's dental needs. • • - -
We are now in the process of fulfilling the injunction
of the ingathering of the exiles. It is our. major obligation
which gives priority to our Allied Jewish Campaign. In order
to speed Israel's development, the bond drive must be given
serious consideration while we are in the process of gath-
ering philanthropic funds. In the years to come,- in order to
fully develop the state of Israel, it will be necessary to es-
tablish the urgently needed dental college and to continue
to give encouragement to the Technion whose new building
program soon will establish it in quarters adequate for its
growing student enrollment.
Technology and science. go hand in hand with statehood
—unless a people is willing to be backward and Undeveloped.
Israel can only function in a highly developed state. There-
fore those who support statehood mustencourage technology.

•

Often—much too often—we hear men of
integrity and sincerity say, in condoning,
puns at the expense of people that those af-
fected are "lacking a sense of humor." Mr.
Castor's statement properly analyzes the
humor idea. Indeed, laughter can kill, and
the wrong type of laughter must be avoided.
True brotherhood must acknowledge the
right of the other fellow to his opinion and
his right to differ. Here is evaluation given
such right by the Rt. Rev. Henry knox
It has long been our contention that if 75 per cent of
Sherrill, president of the National Council
of Churches of Christ:
our organizations were to disband—by merging and there-
"The call to a deeper realization of broth-
by combining their activities—that the community would
erhood is important particularly at this hour. gain rather than lose. Those who disagree maintain that a
But brotherhood must be more than a broad multiplicity of organizations is necessary because of the vital
generality. To be real it must be personally
practiced in everyday life. In addition broth- need of distributing honors, of creating offices for important
people, of giving recognition to contributors and workers.
erhood must include differences of opinion,
even of conviction. Brotherhood means a faith The fallacy of this argument is, in evidence when imposktant
in God as the Father of all and a resulting movements set out to enroll volunteer workers. Then, the
charity, for we are brothers one of another." job becomes difficult. What do we gain by handing out hon-
Brotherhood Week summons all of us to ors, instead of placing major emphasis on the cause to be
a deep understanding of this major idea of served unselfishly? If good deeds are to be achieved, those
respecting the opinions of others. Unless we aiming for the good must strive to eliminate waste, to cur-
do that, the entire effort to create good will tail costs, to pool resources and manpower for the common
will be doomed. May this great task of ce- good.
• Speaking in Louisville last week, Prof. Oscar I.. Janow-
mentinc, brotherly feelings of good will gain
sky, of the College of the City of New York, had the courage
root and eventually dominate the earth.
to state that "half the Jewish organizations can be dispensed
with." We agree. It is true of national and local organiza-
t'Ions. We have too much duplication of effort, and therefore
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle
waste in manpower, in expenses, in rising costs required to
operate organizations which could easily be fused.
. commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member. American Association of English-Jewish News ,
In their superfluity, organizations are overstaffed, they
papers, Michigan Press Association.
Published every Friday by the Jewish News Publisning
published unnecessary bulletins, each group must have an
Co ':08-10 David Stott Bldg., Detroit 26, Mich., W0.5-1155.
executive director (how else would it have status?), etc.
Subscription $4 a year; foreign $5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Office, Even - the most necessary movements have gone overboard in
Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879.
their zeal for publicizing their events and of handing out
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor
kovad. To apportion honors, UJA, Israel bonds and other
SIDNEY SHMARAK, Advertising Manager
FRANK SIMONS, City Editor
national groups publish all types of newspapers—separately
Vol. XX—No. 23
Page 4
February 15, 1952 for men, and separately for women, and often separately for
parties. Thus, the Israel bond organization, in addition to
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
ZOA, BIG and other publications, has now produced a Labor
This Sabbath, the twentieth day of Shevat, Zionist Reporter on Israel Bonds. Was
that necessary? Add
5712., the following Scriptural selections will be
up the costs, and they would provide for many additional
read in our synagogues:
settlements for Israel's newcomers. Therefore, in the inter-
Pentateuchal portion—Ex. 18:1-20:26.
est of economy, we urge the repeating of the challenge:
Prophetical portion—Is. 6:1-7:6; 9:5, 6.
Lich4 Renstien, Friday, Feb. 15, 5:42 p.m.
stop waste in' evirnmunal operations.

Waste in Community Operations

THE JEWISH NEWS

A Great Literary Treasure

Prof. Salo Wittmayer Baron has provided us
with the outstanding interpretative history of
our people with his revised edition of "A Social
and Religious History of the Jews," w' , ich has
just been published jointly by the Jewish Pub-
lication Society of America and Columbia Uni-
versity Press, The first two volumes of this great
work, just releas9d, deals
with ancient times. The
two volumes that will ap-
pear in 1953 will deal with
the medieval period..There
will follow two volumes
that will concern them-
selves with the modern pe-
riod and the seven-volume
work will be completed- in
1955 with a cumulative in
dex and annotated bibli
ography.
It is a most remarkable
work in which the brilliant
author, whose scholarly at-
tainments have earned for
him consideration of pos-
sible selection as president
of the Hebrew University
Dr. Baron
in Israel, profoundly in-
terprets the Jewish historical developments.
Its value is not merely in the recording of
historical facts. It is primarily significant be-
cause of its interpretive value agrd its emphasis
upon . the spiritual ideals which have made Israel
an undying people.

In dealing, for instance, with the "crucial
test" which followed the destruction of the
First Temple, Dr. Baron shows how "the Jew-
ish people may be said to have very well stood
the test of Exile, the. most momentous and
critical in its entire history." He exPlains how
Jewry's "prophetic religion had itself become
a tremendous social force and, coupled with a
living ethnic organism, not only influenced
Jewish society in its turn, but in fact saved it
from threatened extinction."
We learn how the Jews retained their re-
ligious and cultural identity and, facing un-
precedented situations, took unprecedented he-
roic measures by establishing "a new, revolu- .
tiOnary institution : a hOuse of worship dedicated
to prayer without sacrificial offerings."

. Descriptions of linguistic assimilation of Di,
aspora Jewry throws interesting light on the
use of various languages by Jews and the fluc-
tuating fortunes of Hebrew. AlSo, students of
the anti-Semitic movements will be guided to an
understanding of the background of prejudice
which dates back 2,000 years.
Dr. Baron's monumental work is especially
valuable for students of religions who seek the
background of the rise of Christianity as a
Jewish sect, created by Jews who often were
among the leaders of the people they sprang
from.
Jews themselves were often split on many
issues and the result was `.`a house divided
against itself." Thus, we learn that "despite the
vaunted solidarity of the Jewish people, so often
denounced by Jew-baiting contemporaries, dis-
unity and strife dominated all walks of life in
the declining years of the Second Common-
wealth."

*

*

*

Students of history and religion will find a
clearer understanding in Dr. Baron's work of
the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. There is
an especially good seclkon on the Essenes, who
believed asceticism alone to be acceptable to
pious Jews.
There were eras in Jewish history when
Jews resorted to proselytizing, but "the rise
of Christianity and its separation from Juda-
ism, as well as the destruction of the Second
Temple which greatly facilitated it, checked
the great expansion of the Jewish people."

Prof. Baron renders an especially important
service with his explanation of the influence of
the Talmud on Jewish life, his resume of tal-
mudic scholarship and his interpretation of the
effect of such learning upon Jewish history. He
calls the Talmud a "Bulwark of Strength" and
states:
. "The Talmud became the main expreSsion
of a great crisis in the history of Jewish so-
ciety and religion . It served as a powerful
instrument in overcoming the crisis. The pro-
gressive degradation of political and social life
in the late 'Roman Empire; the still sharper
drop in the Jews' legal and political status;
the decrease in the number . of Jews and the
protracted falling off of whole sections of
Jewry which Wined the new religious move-
ment—doubtless had far-reaching effects upon
Jewish life . . In the Talmud it erected a
much-needed, tremendously effective, and in
many ways unique, bulwark between the Jews
and the forces of nature."
There are so many valuable interpretationg
in this history that a mere .review, no matter
how length y, can -lot possibly ,ive full
credit to this great achievement. This is a work
to be studied, to be constantly referred to, to
be treasured. It is, indeed, just that: a great
treasure.

•—PA

