The People of the Book

THE JEWISH NEWS

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

Member: American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association. •
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 708-10 David Stott Bldg., Detroit 26. Mich., WO. 5-1155.
Subscription $4 a year, foreign $5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879.

PHILIP `SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Ilublisher-
_

Vol. XXII—No. 9

FRANK SIMONS
City Editor

SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager

Page 4

November 7, 1952

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the twentieth day of Heshvan, 5713, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. Gen .. 18:1-22:24; Prdphetical portion, II Kings 4:1-37.

Licht Benshen, Friday, November 7, 5:01 p.m.

Balfour Declaration's 35th Anniversary

The 35th anniversary of • the historic
Balfour Declaration, which was issued to the
Jewish people on behalf of the British gov-
ernment by Lord Arthur James Balfour on
Nov. 2, 1917, passed without too much fan-
fare. There were references to it only in the
closest official Zionist circles, but the masses
of the Jewish people paid no heed to the date.
There was too much tenseness over the im-
pending election, Israel is a fact, Zionist or-
ganizations are- striving to retain the devo-
tion of their constituents -against great odds
and the new era in world politics seems to
have shelv ed many former loyalties.
Yet, the Balfour anniversary is an event
of more than passing importance. The move-
ment for the revival of Jewish nationhood
was given its greatest impetus by the Bal-
four Declaration. The status of our people
changed with that historic docutnent, which
gave assurance that homeless Jews would
have an address and that Jewish spokesmen
would be provided with a platform from
which to -speak in defense of their down-
trodden brethren, from which to present
their their ideas to the world at large.
The dream inherent in the Balfour Dec-
laration has become a reality 'in the re-cre-
ation of Israel, but the movement that made
it possible appears weakened by realism. It
is an unfortunate phenomenon and it needs
clarification. There is need for frank evalu-
ation of existing needs and values, in support
of a movement whose great importance has
revolutionized Jewish history and has writ-
ten a golden page in the annals of the world.
Under the heading "The End of 'Protest
Zionism'," the Jewish Observer and Middle
East Review has offered thiS very enlighten-
ing analysis of the status of Zionism and the
"purposive existence" of the movement:
Lord 'Samuel tells the story that one day he
quoted to Einstein, Huxley's saying about Her-
bert Spencer, that Spencer's idea of a tragedy
was a deduction killed by fact. Einstein replied
that every theory sooner or later was killed
that way, but whatever was true survived by
being embodied in the theory that superseded it.
Many Jews today believe that this has now
also happened to the theory of Zionism; they
hold that it has been killed by the fact of the
Jewish State; and, in one sense, this claim
seems warranted. One particular aspect of
Zionism was killed by the emergence of Israel.
As it happens, it was precisely the aspect
of Zionism which most appealed to many Jews
outside Palestine which was the first casualty:
the so-called "protest-Zionism" which demon-,'
strated and paraded in our time. against per-
secution by the Nazis, against the policy of the
Mandatory and finally against the assault by
the Arab States on the infant Israel.
* * *
"Protest-Zionism" was emotionally satisfy-
ing. But it had all the hallmarks of a move-
ment without power, without responsibility; it
had, however, an objective and the determina-
tion -to reach it. But now Zionism has power; it
has responsibility.. It has no immediate urge
to protest and to complain. It is faced by a
complex of practical problems requiring expert
knowledge, research, resources and understand-
ing—qualities that appeal more to the head
than the heart, more to ability than to emotion,
more to understanding than to denunciation.
These are the real survivals of Zionism even
as "Protest-Zionism" is defunct. This trans-
formation has been effectively registered among
the Jews in Israel in the eager search for the
practice of administration, in technical train-
ing, in the emphasis on the study of Arabic,
and in the search for a new relationship with
their Arab and Asiatic neighbours.
But while this transformation is taking place
in Israel, it cannot be denied that the Jewish
communities outside are increasingly falling
out of step with the advances and changes in
the Israeli outlook.
It is therefore a noteworthy event that the
Zionist Federation of Great Britain should
frankly recognize both the problem, and at least
some of the shortcomings of the present Zion-
ist position outside Israel. Its proposed national
canvass for new members would be hardly
worthy of comment if it were that and nothing
else. But it has now linked this doorstep cam-
paign with the frank public discussion of the
position of Jewish communities outside Israel;

-

what is their future function, and indeed their
fate; under the new dispensation?
*
*
But even that is hardly enough. Sir Leon
Simon recalled some years ago, how, in the
early days of Zionism, Ahad Ha'Am called at-
tention to the Arab question and emphasized
the folly of regarding the Arabs as "wild men
of the desert" who could not see what was go-
ing on around them. There are still far too
many Jews—and not a few Zionists—who still
live in this "wild men of the desert" era. They
scorn the show of due interest and the pro-
vision of serious unpropagandist information
about the Arab States and the Arab mind, as
of no concern to Jews. They treat the revolu-
tionary upheavals of the Middle Eastern States
as a rather expendable joke which ranks in
importance far below some dressy communal
function, or the dreary repeat of a speaker's
familiar cliche.
General Naguib's attendance at the Kol Ni-
dre service in the Ismailia Synagogue. in Cairo,
may have been no more than a gesture. But
even gestures have a meaning. They are of
profound concern to Israel, but not for Israel
alone. The Jews of Golders Green and Bethnal
Green, of Hendon and Cheetham Hill are as
much . part ,of the Middle East as Israel her-
self; they can ignore this fact and the events
in the Middle East, only at their peril.

*

*

*

Zionism is, therefore, undergoing an im-
portant transition, but it is not the kind which
can be ignored or from which Anglo-Jewry can
contract out. The individual may turn his back
on it; but for those who care, who want to
understand the manifold new developments, to
emerge from the parochialism of the spiritual
ghetto, as Israel has emerged, the Zionist Fed-
eration's national membership canvass pro-
vides the opportunity. It can broaden the base
of informed Jewish public opinion which alone
can provide the backbone of support on which
Israel will have to rely for many years to come,
and which - alone can the Jewish com-
munities outside Israel with a worth-while and
purposive "existence.

The conditions which affect Zionism in
England are similarly at work in this coun-
try. There are temporary setbacks which
may appear to have weakened the move-
ment. Actually, the challenges to Zionism
are in evidence again. Israel's needs are im-
mense, and they can be ameliorated to great
advantage in the degree of Zionist strength.
*-
*
It is good to recall the past events, when
the Zionist ideal was a dominating factor in
Jewish life, and to apply them to our time
on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of
the Balfour Declaration. We may have fewer
meetings, and there is less protesting, but
there are more interesting duties associated
with the rebirth of IsraeCThese duties have
local implications. A strong local Zionist or-
ganization can go a long way in encouraging
the advancement of Jewish culture, the
strengthening of the investment projects in
Israel's behalf, the rededication of Jewish
communal institutions towards an ideal
which strives for peace not for our own
group alone - but for all mankind.
*
*
*
In his, stirring address at the concluding
session of the Hadassah convention last
week, Maurice Samuel made the important
point that -"Zionism has been an essential
struggle for character;" that the cause was
"a renaissance movement with the Jewish
state as the central theme"• ; that there never
was "any thought of liquidating world Jew-
ry." These ideas remain the basic principles
of. Zionism, and they justify the claim that
this movement should continue to serve as
the vanguard in Jewry's aspiration for a dig-
nified existence.
*
*
Currently, locally, the Balfour anniver-
sary will be honored by the Zionist Organi-
zation of Detroit at the annual Ball, whose
importance lies in the material means it pro-
vides towards the strengthening of the move-
ment locally and nationally and the support
it gives to the Zionist House as a center of
action for the movement. It keeps alive in-
terest in the personality of Balfour whose
historic Declaration has incorporated his
name indelibly in Jewish and world history.

Pivotal Issue in Education:
Shortage of Hebrew Teachers

By BERNARD ISAACS

Superintendent, United Hebrew Schools

The pivotal question today in Jewish education is the dearth
of teachers. This is constantly being discussed at gatherings of
educators, at board meetings and has also been the topic of
many an article in various Jewish magazines. In all of these,
the discussants have failed to point to the source of this shortage.
I have pointed out in my last article in The Jewish News
of several weeks ago, that the number of girls attending ele-
mentary schools throughout the states is very small, and, natur-
ally, the number in the High Schools is still less. We must
reckon with the fact that it is the girl who may become a teacher.
This is an undeniable fact in the entire system of the public
school throughout the United States; it is also, to a great ex-
tent, noticeable in the schools in Israel and the tendency in
our Hebrew Schools is to employ girls, at least in the elementary
classes. That source of girls which was prevalent some years
ago now is a matter of paSt history.
The question now is, "What About the Boys?" The afternoon
Hebrew Schools still have a large attendance of boys. In our
Own United Hebrew Schools, our attendance is over 1,400, but
there, too, we must point to a great weakness in our educa-
tional setup, and that is, the large percentage of boys who
come only for the sake of being prepared for Bar Mitzvah. As
a result of that, great numbers abandon their schooling at the
age of 13 and only a very small number continues until gradu-
ation, and enters High School.
I am aware of the fact that the question of teachers is s
universal one. Our American system of schools is woefully short
of teachers. We hear the same cry in Israel, but when we walk
into High School in the States and we see the thousands of
young men and women who attend these High Schools, we.-
know that the shortage is only a temporary one. The same is
true of Israel. I visited many High Schools in Israel and I found
thousands of boys and girls pursuing their studies there. Many
of them plan to become teachers. But in our own .schools, that
flow has been checked: first, by lack of girls, and second, because
of the short-lived attendance by the boys. •
This problem must be studied from all its angles and efforts.
ought to be made to influence our youth to return to our Torah.
There was a time, before World War II, when the problem of
teachers wad solved for us by our brethren overseas, but that
reservoir of learning, alas, has dried up and is no more. We
must, therefore, look to our own resources.
•

How to Attract New Teachers

By ALBERT ELAZAR

Asseeiete Superintendent, United Hebrew Setwrois

The year 5712 has proved to be a fruitful one for our Schools.
A new branch was opened at the Schaefer and Seven Mile Area,
facilities in the other branches have been added and enrollment
was increased in each of the branches.
The year 5713 is showing even more promise, a new branch
has been opened at the Beth Aaron Synagogue, the enrollment
was even greater than last year and of special significance is the
fact that the new enrollees, for the most part, are at a youngei
level than heretofore. Our girls' Classes for preparation for con-
secration, the High School and Midrasha have expanded botk
in the quantity and quality of their student bodies.
It is also evident that the new generation of American-born
parents is showing increasing interest in the Jewish education
of their children and some are making an effort to attend adult
classes and workshops so as to fill in the gap of their own Jewish
education.
It is gratifying to note this expansion in the field of Jewish
education in our community, but, at the same time, this very en-
pansion emphasizes a problem that demands a speedy solution.
For some time now, the lack of well trained professional Be-,
brew teachers has been acute, not only in our community, Is'est
throughout the land. The need for more teachers is increasing
and therefore, able young people must be attracted to enter the
profession of Jewish education, and the community must assume
the responsibility of finding means of attracting young people SO'
this field.
In order to do so, the community must see to it that adequate
salaries and retirement insurance are provided and that oppos.
timities for advancement are made available to provide economic
•
security for the Jewish teacher.
This is a challenge that 'must be met by the Jewish eoca-
mtunty—for the sake of our children,