'We'll Take Our Business Where There's No Bias'

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, National
Editorial Association
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 We9t Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Mich., VE 8-9364. Subscription S5 a year. Foreign S6.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Circulation Manager

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the third day of 7' aMMUZ , 5718, the following Scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Karah, Numbers 16:1-18:32. Prophetical portion, I Samuel 11:14-
12:22.

.1!

Licht Benshen, Friday, June 20. 7:22 p.m.

VOL. XXXIII. No. 16

Page Four

June 20, 1958

Faith—Jewry s Major Survivai Instrument

Posing the question "what asset will
the graduates from our universities be-
come to organized American Jewish life?",
Boris Smolar, the editor of the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, in his last week's
weekly column, revealed—on the basis of
reports submitted by Hillel Foundation
directors—that there is a vast amount of
indifference to Jews and Judaism among
college students.
With the aim for a "good time" upper-
most in their minds, according to the
reveLilons regarding university students'
attitudes, college youth are described as
non-idealistic, selfish, not religious and
generally uninformed about their people.
How is American Jewry to face this issue?
Perhaps the picture is not altogether
black. If it is true that the students are
self-satisfied, coming as they do mostly
from upper middle class families; if the
lack of knowledge is a result of the fact,
as revealed by Mr. Smolar, that "the
average Jewish. student comes from a
home where there is no Jewish book to
be found, not even the Bible," then the
present aeneration is hardly different
from the plast one.
Are we expecting m or e from the
present generation than was rendered
by their parents, and grandparents?
* * *
The problem has many ramifications,
and the solution to it calls for much deep-
er study than has been given it until now.
There is an element in Jewish life
today that believes a solution is to be
found in Day Schools. But even the pro-
ponents of this idea say that only a select
group that will study in Day Schools can
possibly be given the maximal training
necessary for a thorough Jewish educa-
tion.
There remains, therefore, the question
of how best to overcome the indifference
that exists towards Jews and Judaism
among American Jewish university stu-
dents--an indifference that has not been
overcome either by the Hillel Foundations
Or any similar programs. Such attempts
failed in the days of the Student Congre-
gations and Menorah Societies on our uni-
versity campuses and they are failing
today—not because the Hillel directors
are not sufficiently alert to the problem,
or are not dedicated to their calling. On
the contrary, Hillel officials and direc-
tors earnestly wish to encourage Jewish
interests. But the environmental influ-
ences, the pressures upon the students
from many outside quarters, the weak
backgrounds whence they stem, do not
lend themselves to the best desired re-
sponses to the Hillel appeals.
It becomes necessary, therefore, to
begin with the aleph beth of the problem.
We must begin with the parents, who
have created the "self-satisfied surround-
ings" for their children.
If the Bible, or Jewish history books,
are strange to the parents, why expect
their children to revolutionize Jewish life
unpreparedly? * * *

The Smolar report contains another
interesting comment. It points out that
while Jewish students in universities are
bent on "mixed" dating, they are not
inclined toward mixed marriages.
Perhaps this is too optimistic an ob-
servation. But it is one of the optimistic
portions of an otherwise gloomy report.
We are inclined to believe that there
are other hopeful signs which overrule
the negative aspects of the pessimism
reported by the Hillel directors.
The best example of the existence
of an optimistic note is the fact that, upon

their return to th e ir homes, many of the
university graduates, who were indiffer ,
ent to Jewish affairs while in their respec-
tive colleges,..enter into the organized life
of our communities.
It may well be that the difficulties in
the colleges, where the environment calls
for integation with the non-Jewish stu-
dents, vanish when the Jewish students
learn that their social contacts are, in the
main, within their own Jewish community.
This does not speak well for the reactions
in the general communities, in which
there invariably exist social barriers
against . Jews. Heywood Broun called it
"five o'clock anti - Semitism": Jews are
accepted in business circles on a non-
sectarian basis until five p.m. Then the
social barrier is set up and the contacts
end. -
But there are other positive ele-
ments to be taken into consideration.
In a full-length volume in which he
evaluates Jewish rejuvenation in America,
under the appropriate title "Generation
of Decision," a Bloch Publishing Co. book,
Prof. Sol Liptzin reviews the background
of Jewish experiences in this country and
leads up to the present, stating: "Haunted
by memories of a millennial past and
guided by wisdom born of suffering, the
generation of decision accepted its fate
as the bearer of Jewishness to America
and of Americanism to Jewry." Indicating
realistically that "the Eastern European
cycle of Jewish history was at an end,
the Israel-American cycle of Jewish his-
tory had begun," he emphasizes that there
is a radiation of "confidence in Jewish
survival," and states:

'The Book of Tobit': Romantic

Tale in Dropsie-Harper Edition

"A romantic tale culled from ancient Jewish folklore," as
Dr. Abrahain A. Neuman describes "The Book of Tobit," is now
available in its complete text, in the original Greek and in a
very good English translation, in the seventh work in the
Dropsie College edition of Jewish Apocryphal Literature.
Published by Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate
Learning jointly with Harper & Brothers, "The Book of Tobit"
appears in the English translation with an introduction and
commentary by Dr. Frank Zimmermann.
There is exceptional value to this .book. It makes available
to the lay reader the text of an important book that is too-little
known to the general public. Dr. Zimmermann's introduction
and Dr. Neuman's foreword are in themselves explanatory notes
that present the complete story in simple fashion, interpreting
it ably and simply.
Dr. Neuman points out that the Tobit book's "place in
"If a people, after tragic experiences of the Apocrypha and in the biblical Canon of the Catholic
2,000 years has been ingathered from the Church is proof of its religious impact. The influence exerted
corners of the earth and has resumed an over- by this beautiful simple tale of Jewish homelife, religious
long interrupted national life on its original custom and ritual is a revealing commentary on the • book,
soil, then surely this new birth brought about the author and its myriad readers."
Rabbi Zimmermann ascribes to Tobit "the earliest Jewish
by irnm.easurable suffering, sacrifice and hero-
ism, cannot have been achieved in order to be source of the Golden Rule; a tender consideration for women;
followed by early death and quick dissolution, a stress on Jewish brotherhood; a strong sense of interfamily
but rather in order that it might mature and relationship and devotion; and illuminating sidelights on the
make a constructive contribution to the human etiquette of a bygone age."
The synopsis of the story describes Tobit and his kinsmen
community. Thus must argue faith, when logic
and reason fail to supply a definitive answer. of the tribe of Naphtali as having been carried captive to
•"Similarly, if a unique minority group in Assyria. He married his kinswoman Anna and begot a son,
America as well as on other continents has Tobias. He refrained from eating the heathens' food, helped
outlasted time and defied the ravages of the his needy kinsmen, fed the hungry and clothed the naked. But
spatial environment which everywhere nibbles some one informed on him that he was wont to bury the dead,
away at its essence, then such a group may which was an illicit act in Assyria. He was punished and his
well expect to carry on its way of life in gen- property confiscated.
Again, later ) he saw a dead body in the street, removed
erations to come.
"Thus argues faith. Thus speaks hope. Thus and buried it. Again calamity befell him. He turned blind and
arises determination. Thus a vital segment of was dependent on his wife and son.
At this point, in Ecbatana, Sarah, daughter of Raguel, who
American Jewry plans for its tomorrow.
"A Golden Age of Jewishness is a pos- had been married to seven husbands. all of whom died on their
sibility in America and in Israel. May it be- wedding nights, prayed for death. There was not another
kinsman to marry her. Tobias was guided towards her. He
come a reality!"
aided by the angel Raphael who came to protect him in
While this is mainly an expression of was
the guise of a workman. Tobias married Sarah and the demon
hope, it is, in essence, the symbol of who
had caused misery before was thwarted when Tobias burned
Jewish approaches to the morrow: with fish heart and liver on a censer, according to Raphael's in-
faith and in the hope of dignified survival. structions. Upon his return, Tobias applied medicinal gall to
That has been Jewry's lot, and the status Tobit's eyes and his sight was restored.
There is fulfillment of prophecy and reward of piety in
has not changed.
It does not solve the problem. There this tale, Tobias having lived to see Nineveh destroyed. A .hymn
is need for more effective means of over- of praise to the Lord composed by Tobit is one of the fascin-
portions of the Book of Tobit.
coming indifference among our youth. But ating Rabbi
Zimmermann's study and explanatory notes deal
there is equal need for battling against with the dating
of the Tobit story and its lingual backgrounds,
complacency among the adults as well.
as well as with the folk themes.
At the moment, there is a callousness
The book was handed down in three Greek texts. It
that does not augur well. But we are is believed first to have been written in Aramaic and then
confident that it is a temporary aspect translated into Hebrew.
After evaluating the time elements, Dr. Zimmermann points
of Jewish life, that there will be revivals
and a resurgence of the Jewish spirit. out that the dating of the story was after the year 70 of the
If we are not on the road toward a Golden present era and that the date can not be advanced beyond 113-
Age of Jewishness, we certainly are not 115 CE.
Of interest to theological students are Dr. Zimmermann's
collapsing. We dare not view the issue analyses of the ethical and moral teachings of the Tobit story.
smugly, but if shortcomings are to be He describes Tobit's sense of justice, his stern attitude about
overcome we must face them with con- any lapse into immorality, stating also that "one of the great
fidence that all our problems can be admonitions of the book is the exhortation to pray and how to
solved now as they have been in the past. pray."
"The Book of Tobit" in its Dropsie-Harper commentary is
With faith as our major defense weapon,
a very valuable addition to Jewish scholarship.
Jewry is indestructible.