THE JEWISH NEWS

Cleaning Fluid

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

Member American Association or English-Jewish Newspapers Michigan Press Association. National
Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Mich.. VE. 8-9364 Subscription $5 a year. Foreign
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1952 at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879.

PH ILIP SLOMOVITZ

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Editor and Publisher

Advertising Manager

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

FRANK SIMONS

Circulation Manager

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the second day of Adar, 5718, the following Scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Terumah, Ex. 25:1-27:19. Prophetical portion, I Kings 5:26-6:13.

Licht Benshen, Friday, Feb. 21, 5:30 p.m.

VOL. XXXII,

No. 25

Page Four

February 21, 1958

New High Point in Our Educational Efforts

Detroit Jewry has reason to celebrate
with pride the dedication of a building
that is to serve as headquarters for higher
Jewish leatning.
The ceremonies scheduled for Sunday
evening, for the official dedication of the
Kasle Midrasha and High School Build-
ing, mark a new high point in our com-
munity's educational efforts.
Named in honor of Abe Kasle, presi-
dent of the United Hebrew Schools, un-
der whose leadership the community
schools have made great advances in the
last ten years, the new headquarters pro-
vide vitally needed facilities for the He-
brew high school students as well as for
Midrasha, the College of Jewish Studies.
The new facilities should serve to en-
courage more of the Hebrew schools'
graduates to continue their advanced
Jewish studies. In the new headquarters,
there is hope that the Midrasha will
flourish through the numerous courses
it offers for teachers-in-training as well
as for adult groups that seek knowledge
in Jewish history and the Hebrew lan-
guage.
The Kasle Midrasha and High School
Building was vitally needed here. It now
fulfills an important purpose and it is to
be hoped that it will playa significant role
in the advancement of Jewish learning.
*
*
*
Fulfilling an obligation, of providing
facilities for higher learning for our
young people, the new building, in an-
other sense, marks an additional chal-
lenge to our community.
Will the availability of added class-
rooms encourage our youth to pursue
their Jewish studies beyond Bar Mitzvah
age, into the Hebrew High School and
College spheres? Will there be a keener
desire for Jewish studies among our
adults?
Much is being said about adult studies,
yet they have not advanced to a stage of
genuine achievements in the realm of
Jewish - education. Will an adequate
structure, with facilities for advanced
classes, encourage a quest for learning?
*
*
We are in the habit of referring to
ourselves as "a good community," and in
expressing such justified pride we know
that we speak primarily of our warm-
hearted response to the fund-raising ap-
peals for scores of worthy causes.
It is essential that we also think in
terms of the community's cultural and
spiritual needs. We can be an even better
community by expanding our educational
efforts, by creating great interest in our
existing educational system and by im-
proving it; by enlarged enrolIme -nts in
the high school and college classes and
through expanded adult education
courses.
Then, the new buildings we erect, the
facilities we offer, will have been truly
justified.

It is only fair to say, in regard to the
agencies that are engaged in sponsoring
educational endeavors for the American
Jewish communities, that serious at-
tempts are being made to introduce
courses for adults in subjects relating to
our history and traditions. The response,
frequently, is disappointing. If there is
to be an improvement in the desired
participation in the proferred courses,
our people must respond more read-
ily. When the adult community be-
gins to make proper use of our congre-
gational and community schools' offer-

ings, we will have better reason to hope
that the children's education, too, will
then become more intensive.
If it is true, therefore, as has been said,
that we suffer from `_!an edifice complex,"
then the symptoms of such an illness will
vanish the moment the new structures are
put to good use.
*
*
Indeed, there is great need for more
scholars in Jewish ranks and for greater
interest in scholarship.
In a recent commencement address to
the Hebrew Teachers College, in Brook-
Courtesy Beacon Journal, Akron, Olds
line, Mass. the eminent Biblical scholar,
Dr. Harry M. Orlinsky, professor of Bible A New Translation
at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute
of Religion, speaking on the topic
"American Stimulus and Jewish Re-
sponse — A Challenge to Our Youth,"
is most appropriate that on the eve of the 100th anni-
had this to say on the subject:
versary of the initial appearance of "Rome and Jersualem," by

/
Hess Rome and Jerusalem
It

-

-

"Never before have Jewish scholars been
needed in this country as now, and this need
will continue to grow greater. The existing
higher Jewish institutions of learning. the
Dropsie College, Hebrew Union College,
Jewish Institute of Religion, the Jewish,
Theological Seminary, Yeshivah College and
University. Brandeis University, the several
Hebrew colleges in Boston, New. York, Phila-
delphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and elsewhere,
are in constant need of younger men to
replace the older men on their faculties.
Even more, several secular universities are
opening departments of Hebraic, Judaic, and
Semitic Studies, and Jewish scholars are
filling these points. I have in mind—in
addition to New York University—Cornell
University, Wayne State University (which
has just appointed two men), University of
Wisconsin, University of Kentucky (where
two Jewish scholars were appointed), and
University of California (where three men
were appointed). We here can no longer
depend on European Yeshivot and Gymna-
siums and universities to produce our Jewish
scholars; neither can Israel fill the gap. We
must educate our Jewish scholars ourselves.
There is indeed a great future for Judaism,
and for Jewish educators and scholars in
America."

.

*

*

We concur in the view that there is a
great future for Jewish scholarship in
this country. If these hopes are to mated-.
alize soon, maximum use must be made
of our available agencies that are striving
to advance Jewish learning, and our edu-
cational institutions must be utilized to
greatest advantage in such advancement.
The issue that arose over the address
by the head of the Semitics department at
Wayne State University, before the WSU
Hillel Foundation, merely emphasizes the
needs and the problems. Dr. Abram Spiro
expressed the view that "in countries
where learning and intellectual pursuits
were given primacy, Jewish culture
flourished." Conversely, he decried that
"in a climate which is oriented towards
market values, true scholarship cannot
flourish and, as a result, Jewish learning
declines."
This merely corroborates the view that
"wie es christelt zich, so judelt sich"—
that Jews react to conditions as Chris-
tians do.
Nevertheless, we refuse to be too pes-
simistic and we do believe that American
Jewry is coming of age; that even in the
slowness with which advancement in
Jewish learning is becoming evident
there nevertheless is hope for a revival of
Jewish cultural aspirations.
Structures like the new Detroit Mid-
rasha and High School- Building can, and
should, serve a valuable purpose in our
cultural endeavors. We hope to see a
response to our community's efforts com-
mensurate with our planning.

Moses Hess, there should now appear this important Zionist
work in a new translation.
Rabbi Maurice J. Bloom is the new translator of this work,
which first appeared in 1862. In his foreword to the new volume,
published by Philosophical Library, (15 E. 40th, N. Y. 16), Rabbi
Bloom quotes Martin Buber who said about Hess: "He was no
`percursor' of the Zionist Movement. He was its initiator."
Theodor Herzl also is quoted as having said about Hess' "Rome
and Jersualem:" "Everything we have attempted can be found
in his work."
Rabbi Bloom states: "It is this classic of Zionist literature
that is here presented in a new English translation. The arrange-
ment, in the form of 12 letters to a sorrowing friend, is that
of my late teacher and friend, Dr. Theodor Zlocisti, biographer
of Moses Hess, and himself a Zionist since before the first
Zionist Congress."
Hess, who was born in 1812, in Bonn, Germany, died in
Paris in 1875-20 years before Herzl was moved to organize the
modern political Zionist movement. Hess was a friend and co-
worker of Karl Marx, but he soon broke with the Socialist
theoretician over his dialectical materialism. His humanitarian
spirit moved him to propagate the establishment of a Jewish
Commonwealth in Palestine "in order to realize the historical
ideal of our people, an ideal which is neither more nor less
than the reign of God upon earth."
Rabbi Bloom's new translation is timely and valuable. It
calls attention again to the life and work of a great Jewish
scholar and leader who had earned a notable place in Jewish
history.

Rabbi Rosenberg's Sermons

'm an Is Free'

Since he , occupied the pulpit of his new congregation, the
Beth Tzedec of Toronto, Rabbi Stuart E. Rosenberg has • de-
livered a series of sermons that were considered by his con-
gregation leaders as worthy of publishing. The result is his
book, containing these addresses, which Bloch Publishing Co.
has published under the title "Man Is Free."
Included are 23 sermons dealing with a variety of topics.
All the holidays are represented. There are sermons on the
Sabbath and on education.
The Nature of Man, A Scale of Values, The Jewish Way,
Israel and the Nations, Lessons for Leaders and Words to the
Wise are sectional subtitles in this book.
In the latter section is included an address on "Castor Oil
Religion" in which the Toronto rabbi states: "Castor oil religion
is practiced by parents who spoon out rituals and reverent habits
to their children, but who themselves have little to do with
religion."
Thus, the rabbi, who also writes a weekly column for the
Hearst newspapers—including the Detroit Times—every Sunday,
aims at encouraging greater interest in religion and Jewish
education in the reprinted sermons.

Rabbi Minda's Collected Essays

Rabbi Albert G. Minda, of Minneapolis, has incorporated 15
of his published papers and addresses into a volume, just pub-
lished by Bloch Publishing Co., of New York, entitled "Over the
Years."
- In the 38th year in the rabbinate-35 of them in Minneapolis
—Rabbi Ivlinda reveals special interest in the problem of separa-
tion of church and state, as indicated in his article "Church and
State in America," reprinted from the Hebrew Union College
Monthly; and he prides himself on being a "Lincoln fan," two
of the articles being on the Great Emancipator.
In his initial essay, "Why I Am a Jew," he outlines his
personal philosophy of Judaism. Other essays deal with a variety
of subjects. One article deals with the famous Negro scientist,
George Washington Carver. There is an interesting. article on
"Bible Texts Used by Presidents in Their Inaugurations!' The
entire volume is well gotten up and makes interesting reading.

