4 Conservative Synagogues Agree on Four-Year Minimum Bar Mitzvah School Program Concern by Conservative syna- gogues that "in too many in- stances the Bar Mitzvah rite, as practiced today, is rapidly be- coming a meaningless celebra- tion devoid of serious signifi- cance," prompted a radical step last week by the rabbis of the four Detroit Conservative syna- gogues, who together with lay leaders met to remedy the situa- tion by establishing the follow- ing new regulations: Beginning Sept. 1, 1952, the four congregations — Adas Shalom, Beth Aaron, Bnai Moshe and Shaarey Zedek- will require a minimum at- tendance of four years at an accredited Hebrew School be- fore a boy can qualify to cele- brate his Bar Mitzvah in any of these synagogues on Sab- baths or Festivals. Such boys who do not meet these re- quirements may ce 1 e brate their Bar Mitzvah on week- days or Sabbath afternoons. In exceptional hardship cases where, due to illness or great distance from a school, a boy cannot possibly attend regular classes, private instruction will be permitted. Such boys will be expected to pursue a course of studies equivalent to four years of study in the recog- nized Hebrew Schools of our City. The full minimum require- ments will become effective in September, 1956, exce p t i n g Congregation . Shaarey Zedek where these requirements al- ready have been in force for a year. By September, 1953, one year attendance at a recog- nized sch.00l will be required; September 1954, two years, and September 1955, three years, until the full four-year requirement becomes effective in September, 1956. This means that any Jewish boy who is approaching the age of nine must be registered in a Hebrew School with the opening of next year's Hebrew School sessions in September, 1952. It has been the unani- mous feeling of all Conserva- tive Congregations that four years study in a Hebrew School is the minimum necessary to make the Bar Mitzvah a meaningful occasion in the life of the young Jew signify- ing adequate preparation for Jewish responsibility and in- telligence. In their announcement, the spokesmen for Conservative Judaism in Detroit stated that it is not their intention to limit elementary Jewish education to four years. They pointed out that the United Hebrew Schools offer a six-year course leading to graduation and that there are opportunities for Jewish studies on a high school and college level. The new standards, they state, are merely the minimum requirements considered abso- lutely necessary to make the Bar Mitzvah Jewishly meaningful. Similar - regulations already are in. force in nearly 30 cities throughout the country. "It is hoped," the Conservative rabbis' statement declares, "that these standards will intensify Jewish education in our community and will assure Detroit a more learned and more alert laity. The United Hebrew Schools, which maintain six branches, along with the Shaarey Zedek week-day school, have pledged their cooperation to popularize and help enforce these stan- dards. It is urged that other synagogues adopt these mini- mum requirements for Bar Mitz- vah. A curriculum to help meet these standards is now being worked out by a committee con- sisting of i the following rabbis, educational directors and school board chairmen of the four synagogues and the local schools: Rabbi Jacob E. Segal, Dr. .S. G. Epstein and Louis Wes- ton, Ada8 Shalom; Rabbi Benja- min H. Gorrelick, Dr. Marvin A. Last and Bernard Panush, Beth Aaron; Rabbi Moses Lehrman, Mitchell Feldman and Walter Far-ber, Bnai Moshe; Rabbi Mor- ris Adler, Dr. Leonard Sidlow and Elliott Schwartz, Shaarey Zedek; Bernard Isaacs a n d Albert Elazv, United Hebrew Schools. Paraplegic Doctor Finds New Treatment NEW YORK, (JTA) —Dr. Ar- thur S. Abramson, who recently was honored by AMVETS for his work in rehabilitation of para- plegic veterans, was revealed as the author of v. program of exer- cise for child? en .suffering from muscular distrophy that has slowed down the course of the disease. Dr. Abrahamson, chief of the department of physical medicine at the Bronx Veterans Hospital, is himself a paraplegic and is paralyzed fiom the waist down as a result of war wounds. The report on his work was released by the Muscular Distrophy As- sociation of America which described seven months of study by Dr. Abramson using 27 pa- tients. The report warned that the exercises are not a cure for the ailment. If preliminary re- sults of Dr Abramson's methods are borne out by further trial, this will represent the first prog- ress made in treatment of the disease in 100 years and will benefit 100,000 victims. 24 — THE JEWISH NEWS Friday, May 30, 1952 Youni Pianist Ruth Heckler Triumphs In Luloff Scholarship Auditions Cross-Section, U.S.A. Detroiter Visits Oslo Memorial Domestic, Worldwide Sensations By ALLEN LESSER pies. For instance, if you wan To Norway's Jews BY-PASSING MacIVER: The your Tel Aviv secretary to stop, MAX WENDER stands before the central pillar of the monu- ment erected in Oslo, Norway, to memorialize the 640 Norwe- gian Jews who were killed by the Nazis during World War IL * * * A Detroit businessman cur- rently in Europe on a specially arranged tour of the Detroit Board of Commerce writes back glowingly of a beautiful monu- ment that has been erected in Oslo, Norway. as a tribute to the Jewish martyrs who were killed during the last war by the Nazis. Max Wender, president of the Montgomery Engineering Co., here, writes that the most inter- esting part of the story is that he was guided to the memorial by a non - Jewish Norwegian writer, Ragnar Kvam, who has written in his native tongue an historical _novel which tells of the horrors undergone by Jews in the German concentration camps throughout Europe. Kvam became intezested in anti-Semitism while he, himself, was a concentration camp pris- oner. Since those dreary days, says Wender, t h e Norwegian has worked actively with the Jewish community. Wender describes the me- morial as consisting of a brok- en off stone shaft 20 feet high, with a traditional candelabra on each face. Underneath is a bronze commemorative plaque written in Norwegian and He- brew. A high stone wall in the shape of a Star of David appears on the shaft, a n d contains the name of every Jew murdered by the Nazis. At a reception given by the mayor of Oslo and city officials at the city hall, Wender de- scribes a beautiful mural he was shown. It depicts the youths fleeing to the mountain prior to the Nazi invasion; the on- slaught by the Germans: the underground struggle ; and finally liberation. He is nego- tiating for a reproduction of the mural to be presented to the Oslo Jewish Community Center. Clarence Enggass of the Eng- gass Jewelry Co., was another of the 40 Detroiters making the trip. UN Commission Hears of Welfare Work in Israel • American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League are negotiating with the Synagogue Council of America over an agreement which would make the latter the spokesman for joint interfaith and interreligi- ous activities. The agreement when reached will provide for the establishment of a joint commission on inter "religious co- operation with the Synagogue Council having six representa- tives and the AJC and ADL three each. Talks leading to similar agree- ments for joint cooperation are also going on currently with the Jewish Labor Committtee and with the Jewish War Veterans. Informed circles point out that these agreements in effect will by-pass any attempt by NCRAC to implement the rec- ommendations of the Maclver Report in these areas. They add that there talks mean that while ADL and AJC still retain formal ties with NCRAC, for all prac- tical purposes they have begun to put teeth into their threat to walk out if NCRAC persists in 2 ttempting to steamroller through the Maclver pioposals. In the interfaith area the Maclver Report assigned the leading role to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations which is a member of NCRAC. The Synagogue Council, not a member of NCRAC, is on record as opposed to this Maclver pro- posal. JEWS IN RUSSIA: British ed- itor Harold Soref charges that left-wing M.P. Sydney Silver- man's recent report on Jews in Soviet Russia is -less enlighten- ing in positive information than effective in concealing the grim plight of Russian Jewry." In a letter to the London Jew- ish Chronicle, Mr. Soref cites an interview given by the rabbi of the Moscow synagogue last year which revealed that "in Russia there is no Jewish religious ed- ucation, kosher food is not nor- mally available, and there are no publications of any kind in ei- ther Hebrew or Yiddish." Noting that among the nine religions officially recognized by the Soviet government, as listed in the current edition of the Russian Encyclopedia, Judaism not included, Soref warns that East European Jewry stands in as much terror today as the Jews in Germany under Hitler. At the same time, press dis- patch"s from Romania describe May Day parades in which Yev- sektzias marched with banners bearing pictures of Israel's Pre- mier David Ben-Gurion, with the face almost blotted out by swas- tikas: HEBRAIZED ENGLISH: When our Israeli friend arrived in Ne w York for a visit recently, the first thing his 9-year-old daugh- ter asked him in her best Hebrew was: "How does one say 'bobble- gom" in English?" The current tendency among Hebrew-speaking Israelis to ab- sorb English words into their language has resulted in a num- ber of similarly amusing exam- what she is doing, you will say: "Stoppi." This, you understand, is the feminine Hebrew ending for the -word "stop." Another English-into-Hebrew oddity is the Tel Aviv version o the word "puncture." Every fla tire, of course, is a "punsher,' but the same word is also used for such minor misfortunes a misplaced key, a burned sup- per, or a misaddressed letter. Among other words absorb - • , by Hebrew and popularly used in: place of indigenous Hebrew ex- pressions are- such words a* "texi" (which refers to almos any passenger car), "sendvich,n' "sveder", (s weate r), "keint0 (camp), "koorse" (course), an "skaytin" (to skate.) One of th.. most commonly used expressiot is "temble," which means dinni or stupid. In case you haven's already guessed it, the word isr simply the Hebrew version of ou: own "dumbbell." DENIAL: Dr. Sidney Marks executive director of the ZOA informs us that "there is xi, foundation in fact" to the repot' that he would leave unless Rabb Irving Miller were elected ZO.. president. SHORT SHORTS: Attentiodl; AJ Congress: Mri. Franklin 1:),;* Roosevelt, speaking on housing and legal efforts to end discrim- ination this week said: "Withouti a change in the hearts of meni- all the laws in the world aren't going to do what we want t$.', have done." . . . The AJ Con“ mittee. which last year consider4 ed the arrest of Philip Auer-. bach, Bavarian Restitution di4 rector, as of no special Jewish concern, has now sent an ob-i server to attend the trial . . t Moscow radio in recent week4., has frequently mentioned th!t name Jack Gaster, of London for his allegations that the U is carrying on germ warfare in . Korea. Gaster, member of ark English Communist group tha went to Korea under Soviet aus pices, is the son of the late Chic Rabbi Moses Gaster . . By irony of history, the lifting the Suez blockade and probable peace between Egypt and Israe are being held up by the unwill ingness of the Sudanese—wh are friends of Israel—to accept? Egypt's King Farouk as theie ruler. Britain and the United States are working -overtime t. ,) get the Sudanese to agree . . . The new Israeli nationality law was attacked last week by Leo . Cherne, head of the Researc la,_ Institute of America, who spoket at the annual meeting of they New York Council of the Counl' cil for Judaism . . London' refusal to grant Israel a loan;; will soon leave the Haifa 0' Refineries high and dry. In des peration Israel has approache Soviet Russia for a deal to bu unrefined oil through a barte arrangement . .. Histadrut wi soon issue a film based on th life of the only boy who sur vived the crash of a JDC-char tered plane bound for Norwa two years ago; 28 North Afric Jewish children perished in th crash. `Cash Week' Workers Collect on Bond UNITED NATIONS, N. Y., (JTA) —Trachoma had been wiped out in Israel but had re- cirrred following mass immigra- tion of Jews from Arab coun- tries, it was reported at the UN Social Commission by Dr. G. G. Lotan, Israel delegate. He said that special measures had been taken to help blind immigrants in Israel, including their em- ployment in some workshops. Mrs. Ena Harman of Israel told the Social Commission of new methods found successful in caring for children deprived of normal family life in the Jewish state. Miss MARGARET MANNEBACH proudly .stands behind her pupil, RUTH MECKLER (seated at the piano) who was awarded the annual Gwladys LulOff Scholarship, at the auditions sponsored by the Music Study Club last Saturday. Others shown here are Mrs. IRA G. KAUFMAN, chairman, • and Mrs. JEROME BLUM; president of the Music Study Club; Mrs. FRANK LULOFF, mother of the scholarship contributor, and judges, Prof. JOSEPH BRINK- MAN, VALTER POOLE and JULIUS CHAJES. Increase in Dairy Products TEL AVIV, (JTA)—Israel in- creased its agricultural products by 90 percent since 1948, it was estimated at the national con- ference of Tnuva, an agricul- Here are some of the workers who gathered Sunday at the tural an d dairy marketing co- operative. z-The conference was Young Israel Center to mobilize for collection of. commitments attended by 700 representatives Israel bonds during "Cash Week" which was conducted under the chairmanship of Samuel Feldstein. of 360 settlements. • ; {