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Between You and Me

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Copyright, 1954, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The State Department is watching with close interest the
"duel of statements" between the Austrian government and the
Jewish organizations claiming a lump sum from Austria for heir-
less property left by Nazi victims . . . The U. S. Government
favors a settlement of the Jewish claims and American officials
in Vienna have indicated this to Austrian officials on more than
one occasion . . . Washington is therefore startled to see that the
Austrian government blames the Allies for its alleged legal inability
to meet the Jewish claims .. . Representatives of Jewish organi•L
zations with whom the State Department keeps in touch on • the
claims against Austria have been given to understand that the
Austrian Government may hear unofficially from the American
authorities about its refusal to recognize the Jewish claims . . .
The entire sum asked by the Jewish organizations amounts to
$12,000,000 to be paid within a period of several years . . . The re-
fusal on the part of the Austrian Government even to negotiate
the payment of this comparatively small sum is considered in
Washington an expression of ill will toward Jews, poorly covered
up by sophistry.

Purely Commentary:

DR. ERWIN R. GOODENOUGH, professor of the
history of religion at Yale University, takes his place
alongside the late Prof. George Foot Moore, whose
"Studies in Judaism" remain among the most im-
portant research works on Jewish subjects ever pub-
lished by a non-Jew.
.Prof. Goodenough, who was a student of Prof.
Moore, has undertaken an important research project
with his "Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period,"
the first three volumes of which have just been pub-
lished as the Bollingen Series by the Bollingen Foun-
dation, Inc., 140 E. 62nd St., New York 21. The books
are being distribute by Pantheon Books, Inc., 333 6th
Ave., New York 14.
An introductory explanation about the books is
In order. Dr. Goodenough's study aims to evaluate
archeological material describing the religious life
of Jews in the early Christian period. It explains the
problem of transferring symbols from one religion to
another, the function of symbols from one faith to
another and their value as historical factors.
The author delves into the nature-; of the use of
pagan symbols found on Jewish graves, in synagogues
and in Biblical illustrations that became the founda-
tion of*Christian art.
The third volume in the series already produced
contains the illustrations for the first two volumes
which deal, consecutively, with archeological evi-
dence from Palestine and the Diaspora. There are
over .1200 illustrations and the three volumes present
a complete unit of archeological data. A fourth
volume, the author and publishers announce, will
outline a basic methodology for the study of sym-
bolism and will explore the meaning of Jewish cult
objects that appear as symbols on monuments. A
fifth volume will trace the symbolism of fish, bread
and wine in paganism and Judaism and a sixth
volume will discuss the origin and meaning of Old
Testament illustrations in Judaism and their con-
tinuance into Christianity, summarizing the concept
of Judaism that emerges from the study.
Dr. Goodenough, who has served for many years
as director of graduate studies at Yale University, for
eight years was the editor of the Journal of Biblical
Literautre. He is the author of "An Introduction to
Philo Judaeus," "The Politics of Philo Judaeus," "The
Jurisprudence of the Jewish Courts in Egypt" and
"By Light, Light." It is thus evident that he comes to
his new subject with a remarkably well equipped
background in Jewish studies.

*

IN HIS TASK of discovering the religious atti-
tudes of the Jews in the Greco-Roman world, the dis-
tinguished author is assisted by the "great number
of archeological remains covered with pagan symbols
which quite amaze one familiar with the accepted
traditions of Judaism." These evidences have survived
from the Jews of the period in this study.
Dr. Goodenough's study progressed far afield, "for
in order to appraise this material in its bearing on
Judaism I had to take into account the general phen-
omena of symbolism, of religious psychology, and of
the history of religion, as well as much specific inter-
pretation of the symbols as they appeared in the var-
ious religions of the ancient world, including Chris-
tianity . . . I am bold enough to hope not only that
Judaism and the origin of Christianity may be illum-
ined by the present undertaking, but that it may also
offer suggestions for a new methodology applicable to
the whole spiritual history of the civilization behind
us."
*
*
*
IMPLORING an undestanding of "the values of
the old symbols in terms meaningful to modern man,"
Dr. Goodenough asserts that the evidence he has
gathered "has forced the conclusion that the modern
age cannot live without the old symbols and what
they have brought to man; it can as little accept their
old explanations. The 'warfare of science and religion'
is simply the attack of a new civilization with its new
science not upon the old symbols but upon the old
explanations of their value, that is, upon the old
Sciences."
The eminent Christian scholar makes an inter-
esting defense of Jewish legalism. Defining "norma-
tive" Judaism, or the Wesen or rabbinac Judaism, as
contrasted with what is known as hellenized Juda-
ism, he asserts:
"The achievement of rabbinic Judaism was to
work out a religion which was basically "halachic,' to
use its own terms, that is basically legal. One not a
Jew who speaks of Jewish legalism is always suspect,
since Christian scholars have for so many centur-

Habonim Delegates Plan Settlement Soon in. Israel

Sixty-four American and Can-
adian members of Habonim,
youth movement of the Labor
Zionist Organization of. America,
met here this week to survey
their progress as a settlement
group, which, within the next
three years, will build a. new
kibbutz in Israel.
The first 10 representatives
will leave for Israel this fall, and
temporarily will work within the
framework of an existing Ha-
bonim kibbutz. The members
will be trained in Israeli agri-
cultural methods and in man-
agement of the settlement.
When most of the group
eventually reaches Israel, a plot
of land will be allotted by the
Jewish National Fund. The or-
ganization is called Garin Gimel.
Garin means settlement group,

and Gimel, the Hebrew equiva-
lent of three, indicates that this
is the third such group formed
by Habonim. Two previous
groups have already formed I
their own settlements.
The conference—the 23rd na-
tional convention of Habonim-
opened Sunday when 200 dele-
gates and observers, represent-
ing the organization's 24
branches, heard a report from
David Breslau, former national
secretary who arrived here from
Israel.
Breslau reviewed the accom-
Lplishments of the JeWish state,
pointing out that the many ,
economic difficulties accrued
from the mass immigration of
the late 1940's are now being
I resolved.
The young leader told dele-

1

Prof. Goodenough's Highly Scholarly Study
of Religious Attitudes of Jews in the Greco-
Roman World — Some Basic Lessons for
Modern Jewish Scholars.

ies thought they made their own religion more at-
tractive by vilifying the religion of the Jews, es- .
pecially of the rabbis. Any religious point of view
carried to its logical conclusion reduces itself to
absurdity, as the medieval scholastics, to cite only
a single instance, abundantly exemplify. One prob-
lem suggests another, until the mind tends to lose
touch with religion as a way of life and begins
simply to play an intellectual game. But to judge
scholasticism, or medieval Christianity, by the extre-
mists in this game is, to say the least, unfair. Sim-
ilarly to judge Jewish legalism by some of its more
detailed expositions is just as far from reality."
By this pointed statement alone, Dr. Goodenough
already has made an important contribution towards
better Chri,stian-Jewish understanding of halachic
Judaism. His monumental work, however, goes fur-
ther into many related questions.
Prof. Goodenough writes about Judaism as "a re-
•ligion good and true"; with "the Wesen of halachic
or rabbinic or talmudic or Pharisaic Judaism" as in-
dicating man's concern "with proper observance to
show respect to God." He adds "this deeply sin-
cere tribute to rabbinic Judaism that I may not be
taken to disparage it when I record the simple fact
that many Jews themselves have found it inadequate."

TREATING THE WONDERS of mysticism as re-
corded in Jewish literature, Dr. Goodenough observes
that one then "seems to go from rabbinism into a new
world," and relates that he had given G. G. Scholem's
"Jewish Mysticism" to "some- of my Jewish students
well established in rabbinic tradition, only to have
them come back in utter incredulity. that such a
Judaism ever existed." He adds:
"The struggle of rabbinism against the Hasidim
of Poland and Russia in the eighteenth century was
only a single instance of a tenssion which seems to
have been perennial in Judaism—an opposition first
to the ma'asim, then the Cabbala, then Hasidism. It
was essentially the tension between the two basic
types of religious experience everywhere, the religion
of the vertical path by which man climbs to God and
even to a share in divine nature, as over against the
legal religion where man walks a horizontal path
through this world according. to God's instructions. All
great religions offer men both types of experience,
and there are few individuals who could be found to
exemplify one type to the complete exclusion of the
other. Judaism as a great religion has offered these
and other types of religious experience. But the rabbis
as a group have never liked ma'asim or their Cab-
balistic descendants."
In a footnote to his experiences with his Jewish
students just referred to, Dr. Goodenough reports:
"One orthodox Jewish pupil who had read a great
deal of Talmud wanted to know why he had had to
come to a gentile to hear of, and be told to read, the
Book of Maccabees."
A major experience recorded in his masterful
work deals with the question of the existence of a
Jewish art. Dr. Goodenough reports this incident:
"My senior colleague, Professor Paul Baur, pub-
lished a study of an odd little lamp in the Yale col-
lection, showing, over a row of seven wick-holes,
David stoning Goliath. This he published as 'an
early Christian lamp' and said: 'We may safely
date it to the third century,' though on the next
page he said: 'In fact the letters (which name the
two protagonists) are very similar in shape to an
inscription of the first century A.D. published by
Edgar.' I asked him one day why he did not then
date the lamp in the first century, since that was
what the lettering indicated, and he said that the
lamp must be Christian since it had an Old Testa-
ment scene on it, and that he would not dare, with-
out the most explicit evidence„ to date a Christian
artifact earlier than the third century. When I
asked him if it might not be Jewish he answered,
with the same kindness as the dons at Oxford had
shown six years before, that there was no such thing
as Jewish art, and such a suggestion about the lamp
would be nonsense."
Viewing his colleague's attitude as "unconvin-
cing," Prof. Goodenough proceeded to study the sub-
ject. He came to the conclusion that "it became at
once apparent that those who had assured me that
Jewish art had never existed had simply not known
the facts." He points to specific Jewish art., that
historians of art said "it had begun at Alexandria
and was there adopted by Christianity, espec-
ially .for the great Hexateuch traditions."
Prof. Gdodenough at this point describes other
kinds of Jewish art that Muria:tied in the ancient

gates that Israel needs Ameri-
cans who will help increase effi-
ciency,. raise the country's pro-
ductivity and infuse democracy.
Roy Reuther, chairman of the
Political Action Committee of
the UAW-CIO, addressed the
delegates on "The Crisis in De-
mocracy," and Avraham Har-
mon, Israel Consul General in
New York, also delivered an im-
portant address.
Among the observers at the
convention were Jacob Katzman,
national secretary of LZOA; Mrs,
Rivka Bugaesh, of Pioneer Wo-
men; Akiva Skidell, director of
the youth department of the
Jewish Agency; and Leo Rubin-
stein, of Farband.

JEWISH NEWS
Friday, January 1, 1954

2—DETROIT

By PHILIP
SLOMOVITZ

world, Old Testament scenes that appeared in syna-
gogues, etc.

THE WEALTH OF SYMBOLS reviewed by Dr.
Goodenough as having been used in Palestine is
matched in the Diaspora. The very first paragraph of
the second volume, dealing with "Symbols Used with
Jewish Burials in Rome," states:
"Jewish art in Greco-Roman Palestine itself has
made almost anything seem possible in the diaspora.
Actually, although we shall see here many pagan
innovations which cannot be matched in Palestine,
the Jews of the Diaspora appear to have adopted
little that is essentially more remote from ortho-
dox or halachic standards than what Palestine itself
has shown . . . This orthodoxy was very different
from the orthodoxy of the rabbis, and the rabbis
attacked it with chisels as soon as they were in a
position to do so. But . . . if this art represented
Jewish madness it definitely was madness with a
`method,' and never abandoned basic loyalty to
Judaism."
The use of amulets and charms, the traditional
Le-Hayyim salutation, the Shalom greeting, are among
the numerous symbols reviewed in this gerat work.
The mezuzah is referred to as an amulet, and Dr.
Goodenough points out that "throughout Jewish his-
tory . . . many Jews have not been content with
putting into the mezuzah only the scriptural texts."
He clarifies it by explaining that "if a number of
rabbis regarded . use of figures of angels in the
mezuzah with complacency, others ... raised objections
. . . Such usages did violence to the unity of God,
says Maimonides, which can only mean that their
polytheistic implication was definitely felt." Dr. Good-
enough takes this into view while examining the
amulets of the Greco-Roman world.

*

*

CAN THE MYSTICISM, the use of amulets and
symbols, be called "Judaism"? the author asks in de-
scribing a Jewish charm and a ritual to consecrate
amulets. His answer: "I know of nothing else which
we can call it, since it represents, to all appearances,
a popular adapting of pagan details for the glory of
the Jewish God . • . The picture we have got of this
Judaism is that of a group intensely loyal to la°
Sabaoth, a group which buried its dead and built
its synagogues with a marked sense that it was a
peculiar people in the eyes of God, but which accepted
the best of paganism (including its most potent
charms) as focusing in, finding its meaning in, the
supreme Iao Sabaoth. In contrast to this, the Judaism
of the rabbis was a Judaism which rejected all of
the pagan world (all that it could), and said not, like
Philo and these magicians, that the true supreme
God of pagan formulation was best understood as
the God of the Jews, but that any approach to God
except the rabbinical Jewish one was blasphemous.
Theirs was the method of exclusion, not inclusion.
The Judaism of the rabbis won out in the early Ages,
to such an extent that the rabbis made men forget
that such a Judaism as here has come to light ever
existed. But the archeological remains of the period,
and the later 'characters,' ideas, and points of view
of Cabbalism, alike take on meaning only when this
lost chapter of Jewish life is restored to history."
Prof. Goodenough's approaches are those of the
true, realistic, fair-minded scholar. He views Judaism,
rabbinic legalism, and Jewish • traditions with rever-
ence and dignity. At the same time he presents hon-
estly the lost chapter of history. He has made a vain-
able contribution to this subject and he has caused
us to become impatient in looking forward to the sub-
sequent volumes in which he is to continue evaluation
of the results of his great study into the subject of
Jewish symbolisms and amulets and Jewish mysticism.

THERE ARE SEVERAL basic lessons for modern.
Jewry—for Jewries of all times, in fact—in some of
Prof. Goodenough's observations.
While only a small fraction of our own scholars
is at all times fully informed about all aspects of
Jewish history, the fact remains, as indicated in the
Jewish students' quandary quoted above, that some
Jewish literary volumes remain closed to Jews, In
higher Jewish scholarship it is regrettable that it is
the non-Jew who often emerges the authority and not
the Jew.
A major lesson taught by Dr. Goodenough's re-
search is the limited knowledge about Jewish back-
grounds in all fields of Jewish scholarship. It is to be
hoped that this great work will inspire additional-re- ,
search by Jews and more closely knitted relationship
between Jewish and Christian scholars in advancing
Biblical studies and research.