A Fruitful Shevuot
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.
14abscription $4 a year, foreign $5.
E ntered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1819
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
Page 4
VOL. XXIII, No. 10
FRANK
SIMONS
City Edito•
May 15, 1953
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
be read
This Sabbath. the second day of Sivan. 5713, the following Scriptural selections will
in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Num. 1:1-4:20.
Prophetical portion—Hos. 2 :1-22.
Shevuot Scriptural Selections
Pentateuchal portions: Wednesday, Ex. 19:1-20:23, NI/171.. 28:26-.?1; Thursday, Dent. 15:19-
.16-17. Num. 28:26-31.
Prophetical portions: Wednesday, Ezek. 1:1-28. 3:12: Thursday. Hab. 3:1-10.
Licht Benshen, Friday, May 15, 6:46 p.m.
Unwarranted Perplexity Over Educational Needs
"If we work upon marble. it will perish: if on brass, time will efface it; if we rear
upon immortal minds, and imbue them
temples, they Will crumble into dust: but if we work
and
love
of
our fellow - men, we engrave on those
with principles, with the just fear of God
—Daniel Webster
tablets something that. will brighten. to all eternity."
A recent review on this page of a dis- tices which have given us stamina and which
sertation on Jewish education aroused dis- remain weapons in the process of existence
cussion relative to Jewish educational needs and survival.
These ideas are being recorded ''out of
in American communities. Once again; as
if new discoveries had been made, . some season." It has become a practice to speak
readers .asked. questions: why the traditional of Jewish education during the special Ed- Patai's 'Israel Between East, West'
trend, some asked; others naively inquired ucation Month observed annually by our
why "progressive" ideas could not be intro- community. If that was an error, let it be Called Best Study of the Jewish State
duced into our system of training our youth. corrected now. The time to .speak of Jewish ISRAEL BETWEEN EAST AND WEST. BY Raphael Patai, Philadelphia, Pa., The
We turned to Daniel Webster for inspira- education is whenever we mention communi- Jewish Publication Society of America, 1953. 360 pages. Illustrated. $4.50.
tion—in the above quotation—and we re- ty planning, every time we think of the
A Review by BEN B. SELIGMAN
ceived encouragement from a famous saying training of the Jewish child, on every occa-
Raphael Patai, a renowned anthropologist who has made the
by Horace Mann, (1796-1859), the great sion when we seek the continuation of Jew- problem of cultural diversity in the Near East his specialty, gives
ish
living.
If
we
do
that,
we
shall
be
less
American educator who once said:
us in this fully documented volume that is without qualification
confused by appeals for "progressivism" and the best study of Israel published in recent years. Leaving politic-
"Education is our only political safety: out-
for the easy-way-out. , If we judge our po- al analysis, economic forecasting and journalistic gossip to others,
side of this ark all is deluge."
Apply this to Jewry and, by eliminating sition realistically we will recognize that he has focused on the fundamentals of Israeli life. These, he
the word "political" and using it in all areas "progressive" ideas, already introduced in discovered, were located in the inescapable clashes between the
and in all occurrences, you have a warning most of our schools, fit in well with our tra- Sephardic and Oriental cultures of the Near East Jew and that
that without education in our ranks you ditions. Jewish lore and practice always have of the European Jew.
The Ashkenazic or European Jew of the early migrations to
have deluge. been able to absorb modern trends without
who came seeking a new dignity in his conception of
Granted that we understand this admo- sacrificing heritage. We can continue to do Palestine,
self-labor on communal farms, quarrelled with the British, fought
nition, there remains the question, in an age that and at the same time provide our youth Arab marauders and finally created a new political state, also
brought with him a seemingly strange standard of life. Based . on
in which traditions often - are flouted, "what a proud existence. .
The alternative to the perpetuation of a cultural pattern. taken from mass production technology, with
IS Jewish education?"
accepted principles has been an interpre- its steam and electricity, its universal suffrage, compulsory -edu-
*
*
tation of Jewish mores by means of "far- cation, hygienic devices, scientific agriculture and complex com-
The mere posing of the question is an in-
munication systems, it baffled the Eastern Jew. What was even
fel" shows, the substitution of "borsht
dication of deluge and the existence of un-
more puzzling to the latter was the omission of those religious
and
"lokshen"
for
Torah.
Such
deviations
warranted perplexity. In reality, the answer
and esthetic values without which he felt there could be no true
and
avoided.
They
are
abandoned
must be
life-enhancing activity. The East's greater emphasis on religious
is a simple one. Either we accept the need
the results of too many concessions. We
ritual and morality and its ability to look away from the purely
for thorough Jewish training of • our children,
can prevent them through realistic ap- material met with a sympathetic response only from the small
their preparation for a future which will find
proaches to Jewish educational needs.
number of devoutly orthodox. Europeans: it is this headlong
them informed on their. heritage, their back-
*
*
*
collision of cultures, says the author, that underlies the difficult
ground, their traditions; or we abandon af-
We are making advances in the field of course of events in Israel today.
no
filiation with kith and kin. There can be
Dr. Patai does a brilliant job in outlining with a minimum of
special privileges on this score and we can • Jewish education. Our community schools
jargon and with a maximum of hard common sense
ill afford concessions which result in the are recording a growth in attendance. New sociological
essential characteristics of the various migrations from both
be
erected
soon
to
make
pro-
.b
the
whittling down of the basic idea which calls schools will
East and West; he shows what each brought to the land and what
for a thorough understanding of Jewish life visions for children in newly-populated Jew- still needs to be done to "absorb" the newcomer. Moreover, he
and Jewish problems, of the challenges ish districts in our community. Our syna- successfully fuses the host of scattered demographic data on
- which face us in an environment in which gogues are equally as active in planning ex- Israel's ethnic groups. These facts lead him to the disturbing
Jewish learning is relegated to a place of Pansion of present facilities, Congregation conclusion that "the Ashkenazic element will become relatively
secondary importance in the training of chit- Shaarey Zedek's new school building in the smaller while the Oriental element will go on increasing." The
dren. northwest area serving as a typical example European Jewish group, the- author predicts, while small, will
of the wide-awakeness of our schools and dominate the professional and managerial classes and the Oriental
At of
best,
we make
concessions.
The
full synagogues. This trend is the best answer Jews will become mere hewers of wood.
week
study
of many
years back,
except
Yet it is not impossible to achieve a meaningful merger of
for the very* limited number attending Day to the perplexities of those who are at a loss
Schools, already had been reduced to 12 in their search for .solution for their chil- outlooks, says Dr. Patai. He cites the moving experience of the
community of Deit Dagon, about five miles south of Tel Aviv.
hours; it now is limited to less than 10 hours &errs educational problems. The means for Abandoned by the Arabs in the post-mandate fighting, the village
and in some instances—forgetting for the solving their perplexities are here. Let them
was soon occupied by Poles, Bulgarians, Turks, Romanians and
moment the one-day-a-week Sunday .School whose
make policies
use of the
school
systems Yemenites, with a sprinkling of several other Jewish groups. The
are existing
rooted in
indestructible
—the
of study
cut to six or Jewish traditions. Let them use the facilities people began to set up little establishments, took to chicken farm-
seven hours
a week.
Under have
such been
circumstances,
ing and vegetable gardening and despite the kind of daily bicker-
which is apt to afflict any group of -humans attempting to
which are difficult to battle, the Jewish ed- of the five-day-a-week school, let them teach ing
ucator must find a way of infusing into the their children the meaning of Jewish life, the rediscover life, there soon grew up a remarkable rapport which
sanctity of our faith, the beauty of the He- makes Deit Dagon a fine - example of cultural fusion.
school program a spirit necessary to leave
There is much more in the book. worth noting: only the ex-
with an emphasis on Israel,
language,
an indelible mark upon the child. We ask for brew
without
whose inspiration and kinship we can igencies of space enforce the omission of comment on the superb
on the Yemenites or those on the non-Jewish minorities
a big order, but we would like to have it at-
not survive. That is the way for the perpetu- chapters
and religious issues. These problems are treated with . the kind
-
tamed—and we believe it to be attainable.
We believe it is possible to create a love for ation of Jewishness. , That, also, is the way of insight that comes only with years of close study, and with a
sympathetic perception coupled, a dispassionateness seldom
Jewish traditions, a devotion to our heritage, in which
the Jewish
parents
will make peace
themselves
and
their consciences
and seen in such books. Israel, Dr. Pt
ai tells us, is in both a physical
an understanding of the gifts to mankind will,' at the same time, rebuild the happiness and philosophical sense a meeting place fOr East and West: here
made by our Sages whose teachings we
the two cultures, coming together for the first time on equal foot-
* .
strive to pass on .to our children and to oir of the Jewish home.
*
*
ing, can demonstrate whether synthesis instead of domination of
grandchildren.
Shevuot, which we are to observe next one by the other will be the outcome. Dr. Patai's book cannot
week, and the season of confirmations, but help us Understand that urgent question.
Our confidence in the indestructibility of
consecrations and graduations, is an ideal Lion Feuchtwanger Novel Dramatizes
our heritage is based on the belief that such
time to review the subject of Jewish edu-
strength can be derived only from adherence
cation. This is the time to invoke the wis-
The Life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
.to tradition. Survival is possible only by re-
dom of .Proverbs (22.6):
Startling love stories, attempts to steal the unpublished
tention of inherited characteristics. The mo-
"Train up a child in the way he should go, documents of the famous French nature philosopher Jean-Jacques
ment we abandon our Personality Distinc-
And even when he is old he will not depart Rousseau, the noted writer's mysterious death and the many delu-
tiveness, we become imitators, and as imi-
sions that marked his life are incorporated in Lion Feuchtwanger'*
from it."
tators we perish. To retain our unique po-
latest
novel, "'Tis Folly to Be Wise," published by Julian Messner
The lesson is self-evident. If we abandon
sition as the inheritors of the legacy of be-
(8 W. 40th, NY18).
ing "a nation of priests and a holy people," the child to unplanned community program-
While. there will be many disputations over the historical
it is essential that we strengthen the Syna- ming, we invite the danger of losing the next accuracy of some of the points advanced by the eminent novelist
generation. We have an opportunity to as- and historian, readers will be fascinated by his writing and his
gogue, that we continue to make Hebrew .a
Living Tongue, that we encourage not only sure for ourselves a well-informed Jewry by approach to the career of the French visionary who emerges as
•
the education of the youth but also that of reducing concessions, by adhering to and having lived the life of a wise fool. Feuchtwanger,
lived a deluded
as he is presented by
the adolescent and of the adult. And in the strengthening traditions, by standing firm life. Rousseau,
He
was
a
cuckolded
husband,
his
wife's
paramour
is painted
training of the children we gain strength in our loyalty to our spiritual heritage. Any
him were involved in
from symbolisms, from religious observ- other Message would be invalid at Shevuot as his murderer and those who surrounded
lintrikues. Rousseau's "Confessions" are the !oasis for this novel.
antes, from the retention of ideals and prac- time.