Spring Promise and
Autumn Fulfillment
By ISIDORE SOBELOFF
Executive Director, Jewish Welfare Federation
This is the time of year when by tra-
dition and practice we review our individ-
ual and social experiences and check our
record of performance against our record
of promises.
Each year, in the spring, some 4,000 of
us participate as
workers in the Allied
Jewish Campaign, in
an over-all, united ef-
fort to discharge our
obligations to a world
of in s tit utions and
services embodied in
the drive.
Every year, in the
months that follow,
we remind ourselves
that our pledge to the
Jewish Welfare Fed-
eration, through the
Sobe/off
annual d r iv e, is a
promise to our people everywhere. It is a
promise that we will prevent disaster, and
adds a new dimension of hope and free-
dom to their lives.
Some 30,000 of us, from every trade
and profession and walk of life, from home
and office and factory, register our in- .
terest in the many causes encompassed in
our family of agencies and indicate the ex-
tent to which we are both able and willing
over the coming year's span to make the
continuing good work possible.
Enter 5714—A New Year Marked by Repeating Challenges
A new year begins for Jewry. It will be a year
with repeating challenges, with responsibilities that
are not unlike those of the preceding year but which
have been clarified and which should be more easily
understood by Jewish communities everywhere.
Our interest in Jewish life expresses
4 itself in our local community and in our
country and it extends across the seas. In
Europe and in the Moslem lands, we con-
tinue alert to dangers which have engulf-
ed many Jews and threaten others. Near-
ly 200,000 Jews in lands beyond our shores
and outside of Israel depend on our Allied
Jewish Campaign contributions for Joint
Distribution Committee assistance for
medical service, rehabilitation through
training, child care, care of the aged and
the bare necessities of food and clothing.
In Israel, the United Israel Appeal
with funds from the United Jewish Ap-
peal, the major beneficiary of our annual
drive, extends our helping hand of assist-
ance to economically embattled Israel,
which is struggling to maintain itself as a
self-sufficient democracy in the commu-
nity of free nations.
As we usher in the year 5714, we are primarily
interested that American Jewry should be a strong
community; that our people should strengthen the
cultural and spiritual values of our people. Our major
interest must be in the educational field, in advanc-
ing our cultural status, in expanding our schools, in
There are the local problems—the needs which providing the best possible education for our children.
have been cared for so well by our people. There are
During the current year American Jewry will be
the overseas duties, with unending calls for help from planning the celebration of the Tercentenary of the
Here at home, we continue to main-
communities throughout the world. Some will be settlement of. the first organized Jewish community tain the plateau of stable interest in the
burdened with threats from their neighbors, many of in this country. This anniversary should be utilized health, welfare, education and culture of
our group, contribute to the well-being of
them will be faced with the need of settling the op- not alone for public acclaim of an important event on ourselves
and the larger community of
our calendar but more especially for the advance-
pressed in Israel, in all instances they will look to us, ment of the ideals which distinguish the Jewish com- which we are a part—and look ahead to
the fortunate Jews of America, for help and sus- munity.
the growing requirements of a dynamic
tenance.
community. This concern for the sound
•
• *
Many problems will need solving. We may con- maintenance and planful development of
Israel remains a major item on our agenda. The tinue to labor under the shadow of uncertainty in ef- Jewish communal life we continue to dem-
new state looks to us for encouragement. We shall forts to facilitate the settlement in Israel of Jews now onstrate. Through our work and contribu-
have to provide the means to help Israel become eco- residing behind the Iron Curtain. We may be faced tions we promise ourselves and our kins-
nomically self-sustaining. It will be necessary to re- by repeating waves of anti-Semitism. But all diffi- men both here and abroad to build solid
tain the friendship of the non-Jews to assure contin- culties can be overcome if we work harmoniously for foundations, based on sentiment combined
uation of our Government's help fdr the struggling the 'rights of human beings. •
with good order and good sense.
democracy.
•,
There is seldom anything specifically new on
New Talmud Torah buildings and edu-
Most important of all: we shall have to exert all our calendar. History repeats itself. This year, how- cational programs in Detroit are as vital
the influence at our command to encourage an early ever, we are better prepared for proper action in the to the Jewish future as are relief and re-
peace between Arabs and Jews. Until there is peace, field of relief, -in the area of reconstruction in Israel, habilitation services for the newcomers in
Israel's position will be precarious. The United States in our aims to extend our educational efforts. May our midst. Care of the aged here in De-
Government, more than any other, is in position to the unity of Israel assure a Happy 5714 for all our troit, and care of the aged under the Mal-
call for peace. An understanding State Department people, and may the New Year be marked by peace ben program in Israel are equally impor-
can go a long way towards effecting such a peace.
for the world.
tant to us. Camping facilities, hospital
services, family welfare and child care,
vocational services, in fact, all phases of
communal endeavor adding to the health,
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronic le commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
the happiness and the dignity of our Jew-
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association.
ish community, are part of our interest
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35, Michigan, VE. 8-9364
Subscription $4.00 a year, foreign $5.00.
Entered as second class matter August 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879
and our concern.
THE JEWISH NEWS
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
VOL. XXIV, No. 1
FR;ANK SIMONS
City Editor
Page 4
September 11, 1953
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the third day of Tishri, 5714) the following Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion ; Deut. 32. Prophetical portion, Hoc. 14:2-10; Joel 2:15-27.
Scriptural Selections for Fast of Gedaliah, Sunday: Pentateuchal portions, Ex. 32:11-14, 34:1-10. Prophetical portion,
Is. 55:6-56,:8.
•
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Licht Benshen, Friday, Sept. 11, 5:52 p.m.
•
• 4 , •
As an organized community we recall
th e promise to devote ourselves to the en-
tir e program, with balance and with mu-
to al respect. It is • this regard for total
n eeds that makes us a good community.,
An d so, it is timely to rededicate ourselves
to all of the causes, to reaffirm our spring
pr omises and to translate them into aut o
t umn perfOrmance.