As Ali AFAlitor
Views'S the News

Work to Be Done in Corning Year

A Novel About A Girl Pledged

In Marriage Before Her Birth

Heritage and Future

Eliminating any possibility of ideological
conflicts and tackling the major problem of
providing a wholesome Jewish education for
our children, the Jewish Welfare Feclera-
tion's Education Division has issued a call
to parents to enroll their children in one of
the functioning schools:
INDSKATION
One point is stressed in
MOLDS OUR
this annual appeal: the
IFISTURE
imperative need for mass
enrollment of children in
our schools. Thus, the
preferences for particu-
lar ideologies are left to
the parents who make
their own selections of
schools, but. the need is
REITER SCHOOLS BUILD
apparent .
A STRONGER AMERICA
The commencement
of a new school year imposes a. serious re-
sponsihilit y upon the entire community. The
elders have the duty of passing on a sacred
heritage to their children, and with it goes
the obligation of creating better schools,
thereby molding a fine generation of Jews
and Americans.
The strengthening of our school systems
involves not only an internal need, related
to the heritage we cherish. but also the ex-
ternal one, the elevation of the highest ideals •
of our land and of our democratic ideals.
The Prophetic teachings of Israel are in-
herent in the common denominator of Jew-
ish education. Biblical lore, linked with a
knowledge of the language of the Holy
Scriptures; our history and traditions; the
current events which influence our lives—
these and the numerous supplementary
planks in our schools' curricula combine to
offer a program for character building and
for the training of young Jews.
This is the era in which we are obli-
gated to ask that parents should think . in
terms of giving their children the knowledge
that is so -W.-sential in facing the challenge
of our surroundings. Children as well as
adults are asked many questions by their
neighbors, and they must be ready, as
youths as well upon reaching adulthood, to
he well informed. Lacking information
about their kinsmen and their history, they
are threatened with embarrassments which
may create unnecessary complexes. out of
which crop out confusions and psychologi-
cal diSturbances that lead to unhappiness.
We emphasize the appeal for a Jewish
education for every child in the interest
of our youths' happiness and for the sake of
a better America.
•
Naturally, we do not limit ourselves to
appeals for an education for youth alone. We
have a great need today for adult educa-
tion, for the reinforcements of our internal
structure through a well-informed American
Jewry. Many of our schools are engaged in
such supplementary. tasks. The United He-
brew Schools' Midrasha—the college for ad-
vancement through Jewish studies—trains
teachers and offers courses for- adults. Let
there be a great response to this and simi-
lar programs.
The call to action, annually- issued dur-
ing Education Month, observed by the United
Hebrew Schools commencing with Rosh Ha-
shanah, lays stress upon the enrollment of
children in our schools and the spread of in-
terest in learning and a knowledge of Judaic
lore among parents. May the Education
Month of 5713 be marked by turning points
in the direction of ever-increasing devotion
to the cause of Jewish learning. We shall
then have a happier and a stronger commu-
nity and the type of gifts to our American-
ism which is so essential in a period of un-
certainty and national defense.

THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle
commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member: American Association of English-Jewish News-
papers. Michigan Press Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing
Co. 708-10 David Stott Bldg., Detroit 26, Mich., WO. 5-1155.
Subscription 84 a year; foreign $5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6. 1942 at Post Office,
Detroit. Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879.

'A Woman Named' Chaye'

`Ethnic' Nonsense About 'Race'

A chap named McCarran has placed this ,great land in a
most ridiculous position, and an overwhelming niajority of
United Slates Senators are on record as having supported
his medieval ideas. The result is that Jews applying for
U. S. visas must reply to the question as to their "racial"
origin that they are "Jewish."
This revives an old debate over racial classifications. It
injects into the thinking of free Americans superficial ideas
about human differentiations which have been discredited in
learned quarters.
The ridiculousness of "race" classification became ap-
parent last week in the House of Lords debate in London
over the proposed Group Libel Bill. Lord Silkin, while ex-
posing the menace of anti-Semitism and racial and religious
bigotry. spoke against the measure and, while discussing
"What is Race" and outlining the Jewish position, also re-
lated this story that exposes the nonsense of "race":

Just look at the words of this proposal for a moment:
"Where any defamatory statement is published of and con-
cerning anti group of persons distinguishable as such by race,

creed or colour . ."
Let us stop there for the moment and consider what is
meant, and what it is that the courts would have to try to in-
terpret, when you speak of "persons distinguishable as such by
race .
I f we take for the moment those who are Jews. does it mean
people both of whose parents were Jews? Does it include people
who are not practising Jews? Does it include people one of
whose grandparents was a Jew? It is almost impossible. I -think.
to see what would be the answers to the sort of questions raised
by this phrase: "any group of persons distinguishable as such
by race . . ."
Of course, it is not : i nvited to Jews at all. A good many
•Scotsmen would say that they were a race. Some Welshmen
might say the same. and I don't know how many races there
are in Ireland. How any court would ever be able to give in-
telligent directions to a jury about the law to be followed is ex-
tremely difficult to see.
I hope that I shall not be thought to be ridiculing what is.

I realise, a very serious question. if I tell the House how. some
years ago, a former Chinese Ambassador to this country related
this story to me. He said: "You know, we Chinese have no con-
ception of race."
To illustrate his proposition he said that there was a Chinese
boy educated in a missionary school in China who was asked in
an examination paper: "What are the five principal races of--
mankind?" The Chinese Ambassador told me that the boy re-
plied:
"The five principal races of mankind are the hundred yards,
the quarter-mile, the half-mile, the mile and the hurdles."

To quote an old play, we find justification, in this com-
ment, in repeating, "damn clever these Chinese," except
that we would also add to the compliment the word "logical."
We are mixing up two things, here, but not illogically.
The Jewish Observer and Middle gast Review, editorializing
on the Group Libel Law debate, stated:

It is significant in this connection to note that Catholic
opinion here has on the whole expressed itself against such a
law, not because there is no desire for protection but because
it is felt that its purpose would be defeated by legislation.
The practice of scurrilous and malicious denigration of
minority groups is a more or less prevalent feature of modern
society. It is difficult to lepislatt against because it thrives,
like pornography, on publicity. Liberal communities have gen-
erally found it wiser to disregard it as long as it remains mere-
ly vocal and confined to a lunatic fringe.
In exceptionally bad cases, as Lord Simon indicated, one
can rely on criminal law for a remedy. Perhaps it is best left
at that.

This is an issue that should be studied with great care
in this country. There is a revival of the proposition for
legislation to outlaw anti-Semitism and religious and racial
bigotry, and the question will recur whether such laws are
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor
advisable and healthy for a democracy. If we had criminal
SIDNEY SHMARAK, Advertising Manager
laws similar to England's which would protect oppressed
FRANK SIMONS, City Editor
minorities, we would not need Group Libel laws and legis-
Vol. XXI—No. 26 Page 4 September 5, 1952
lation to bar from the mails literature that tends to distribute
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
poisonous matter among an unsuspecting population.
This Sabbath, the sixteenth day of Elul, 5712,
In the meantime we are treated to good Chinese logic
the following Scriptural selections will be read which debunks nonsense about race. Will it do any good
in our synagogues:
when fed to pompous and biased Senators? Time will tell
Pentateuchal portion—Dent. 26:1-29:8.
whether the reasoning element will succeed in erasing from
our statutes a law that places in disrepute the ideals of our
Prophetical portion—Is 60.
land.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Sept. 5, 6:4C p.m.

Rose Kluger Keil. a Wilmington, Del., Jewish
communal worker, mother of nine children, is
the author of a new novel, "A Woman Named
Chaye," (Exposition Press, 386 4th, NY16), which
covers 68 years of the life of the heroine and
several eras in European history, including the
two World Wars.
It is the story of a girl who, before birth--if
she were to be a girl—was pledged by her mother
in marriage to the son of a friend.
The mother died after telling the girl the
secret, and later Chaye was brought by the
pledged bridegroom's mother to America. But
the pledged mother-in-law Esther wanted to be
released from the pledge. She wanted her son,
Maurice, a medical student, to be free to pursue
his career, to be at liberty. while not breaking a
pledge. Out of it grew a hatred in Chaye's heart
for Esther.
Chaye returned to Austria; married. gave birth
to twin sons. Ber husband disappeared, having
been lost in a tunnel in the course of his exam-
ination of his lumbering business and apparent-
ly died. But Chaye remained faithful. in spite of
the uninterrupted correspondence with Maurice
who, later, told her of his love for her.
World War II brought with it its tragedies,
the pogroms and the lack of security for Jews.
Chaye's sons • -ettled in America. She managed
to go to Palestine. later also joining them in
America. Maurice retained his love for her.
Gradually the hatred for Esther vanished, as
Chaye found ;, useful existence in this country.
"A Woman Named Chaye" is well told. but it
is a bit too involved. It takes in too much terri-
tory, absorbs too many crises. The description
' of a woman through two world wars as if she
still were a young girl sounds a bit unrealistic.
But the good descriptions of life in the Polish-
Jewish community in the Carpathian Mountains
and the wholesomeness of many of the details
of life in Europe and in New York nevertheless
lend considerable interest to the tale.

Facts You Should Know:

Why is Jewish tradition so adamantly set
against cremation for the dead?
There are several reasons for this strict pro-
hibition. Basically, there is a positive statement
in the Bible which is taken for an express com-
mand to intern the body in the earth from
whence humanity was originally created. "Dust
thou art and unto dust shalt thou return" iGen.
3:19) is the classic commandment of the Bible.

Cremation would obviously destroy the pos-
sibility of fulfilling this commandment. Accord-
ing to some interpretations, cremation is consid-
ered an imitation of idolatrous worship, tracing
it all the way back to the early idol worshippers
who burned human :morifices to the gods. Others
consider such an act of open denial in the faith
of the resurrection of the dead, since the crema-
tion destroys the body and indicates the lack of
confidence in its future revival.

Some consider it to be an insult to the body
which is to be considered the "image of God."
Therefore any disfigurement would constitute a
rebuke of the heavenly image, as well as its
creator. So strong is this restriction that the
rabbis have denied any burial for the ashes of
a cremated body upon a Jewish cemetery. They
have even gone as far as denying the deceased
the right to have a candle lit for him in the
synagogue or to have Kaddish recited for him.
Such is the general attitude although there may
have been certain exceptions made under certain
specified circumstances.

•

•

•

Why is the altar usually raised above the
level of the rest of the synagogue?
Some trace it to the Biblical situation where
Moses "went up" and the rest of the people were
on a lower level. It indicated a certain- degree
of respect for the words of the Law which
should emanate from a "Higher" source. Others
claim that if the altar were on the same level it
would be forbidden to sit down while the Torah
was being read on it. Raising it to a higher
level takes it above the level of the populace and
therefore relieves the populace of being required
to stand all the time. Others claim that raising
the altar to a higher level is a means of drawing
attention to the altar as a center of attraction
in the synagogue. Sonie even claim that read-
ing the Torah on the elevated altar is a means
of re-enacting the giving of the Torah from the
top of Mount Sinai and art expression of the
fact that we believe it came from Sinai and are
still true to its traditions.
* • •
Is there any special reason for eating eggs,
onions, or garlic on the Sabbath?

There are some who give a reason for this.
They consider the eggs a sign of mourning for
the great Jewish figures who passed away on
the Sabbath. These were Moses, David and Jos-
eph. Others give an altogether different reason
for the use of spices. They claim that the manna
in the desert had any taste the individual want-
ed. The observant refrained from wanting a.
spicy taste, they say; or • perhaps the manna
didn't have this taste—except on the Sabbath.
Thus we eat these items on the Sabbath to
show that on the Sabbath the food we eat has
an extra spice.