THE JEWISH NEWS
Toward a Better Jewish Life
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 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Mich., VE 8-9364. Subscription $5 a year. Foreign $6.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Officv, Detroit, Mich., under act of Congress of March
3, 1879.
PH ILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK CARM1 M. SLOMOVITZ
Advertising Manager
FRANK SIMONS
Circulation Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fourth day of Heshv an, 5719, the following Scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Noah, Gen. 6:9-11: 32. Prophetical pardon, Is. 54:1-55:5.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Oct. 17, - 5 :55 p.m.
VOL. XXXIV No. 7
Page Four
October 17, 1958
Education: Our Major Responsibility
Education Month, annually observed in our community during the post-Holy
Day period, again calls for a re-evaluation of our educational needs and of responsi-
bilities for the training of our youth to assume their rightful place in our midst.
There is cause at this time for increas ed confidence that our obligations will be
met properly and that the best teachers will be provided for the growing number of
children in our community schools.
Nevertheless, there are serious probl ems involved in the training of teachers
and in their supply of our schools.
The Detroit Jewish community is esp ecially fortunate in the understanding that
has been shown by its leaders in their supp ort of our school systems. It has become
the established policy of the Jewish Welfar e Federation to give primary consideration
to our cultural needs. As a result, the community school organization, the United
Hebrew Schools, has been enabled to sear ch for the ablest personnel and to provide
appealing environments for our youth.
This has not solved the problem of good teaching staffs and available schOol
facilities. But the community's generosity has eased these problems.
Now, after years of struggle, the school population in our community has
increased greatly, there is promise of additional building facilities to accommodate
many hundreds of additional children who are expected to enroll in our schools in
the coming months and years, and the advanced courses are expected to encourage
many more to enter the Hebrew teaching profession.
In addition to attaining an enlarged e nrollment in our schools, progress has been
made here in the High School Department and in the Midrasha — the Hebrew
Teachers' College of the United Hebrew Schools. Great stress is being placed on the
latter two functions, and the United Hebrew Schools' graduates are being encouraged
to continue their studies after Bar Mitzvah, Consecrations and Confirmations, in the
higher. departments.
These are encouraging factors in a situation that is generally not too fair in our
cultural spheres in this country. It is hoped that the understanding of our problem
generated by Education Month will lead to greater attainments in behalf of Jewish
educational efforts.
But if our responsibilities are to be lived up to, we must assure a guarantee
for highest standards in our educational efforts. There must be continued generous
support of our cultural programs. In our community, such support is made possible
by the Allied Jewish Campaign. Serious attention must be given at all times to our
schools' needs, to programs for the training of teachers and in the creation of
schools that will be inviting and where our children will be happy to attend classes.
Naturally, the status of the Hebrew teaching profession must be kept on a high
level. This means that the community must assure the teachers a good living wage
and hopes for a secure future.
Education Month is the occasion to consider the issues that face us and the
challenges that come from the need for the best possible Jewish school system.
May the Education Month efforts prove fruitful in our community's best interests.
A Lesson for Libertarians in
Ernest Schnabers 'Anne Frank'
The Anne Frank story has become internationally known.
First there appeared her diary, which her father found in the
attic in which they were hidden for 25 months in Amsterdam.
The Frank family escaped from Nazi Ger-
many to Holland and in Amsterdam they
were hidden by friendly non-Jews until they
were discovered by the Gestapo. All but the
father died in concentration camps.
After the Anne Frank diary came the
play and its successful run not only on
Broadway, then on tours of the country, but
also in nearly all the capitals of Europe and
in Israel. The story is currently being made
into a motion picture.
Now the Frank story is enlarged upon
in a new book, "Anne Frank, A Portrait
in Courage," by Ernest Schnabel, translated
Anne Frank
from the German by Richard and Clara
Winston, published by Harcourt. Brace & Co., (750 3rd, N.Y. 17).
This is a deeply moving account of Anne Frank's
experiences, as related by 42 witnesses. "She had a. gift of
being somebody," one of them tells about her and relates how
she went forth to the concentration camp 1M:11. an empty
.suitcase because otherwise she would not feel as if she were
traveling.
The German author relates this tale in full knowledge of
the crimes committed by Germany. He gives an account of what
he had heard from the 42 out of 76 witnesses he had met.
He states that he also "was given the names of a '77th and 78th.
But there was every reason to expect them to be unrewarding
witnesses, and I did not seek them out. One of the two men was
possibly the betrayer of Anne Frank; the other was indisputably
one of the executioners."
Schnabel describes the trail and the shadow of Anne Frank's
tragedy. One of the accounts in the book is given by a woman
who knew Anne in the concentration camp. She told her story
I in Israel. Schnabel located three
of Anne's friends who spoke of
her.
Related also is Anne's child-
hood, in a chapter "When We
Were Still in Normal Life." Her
teacher tells about Anne in her
class. Both cried when Anne
said good-by to leave with her
family for the Amsterdam
hiding place.
Anne's aspirations, her reten-
tion of faith in a better future,
the child's reactions to the
things around her, described in
a "calendar of hell." are touch-
ing episodes.
The humiliation of the Jews
who were compelled to wear
the yellow star, the establish-
ment of the murder camps, the
life in the Amsterdam attic,
form part of this touching story.
This tragedy, the journey
through a purgatory, serves as
another rebuke to the murder-
ers and as an admonition to all
lovers of freedom to be on
guard against a repitition of
the Nazi crimes. Schnabel ap-
propriately concludes his ac-
count with the declaration that
Anne's "voice was preserved
out of the millions that were
silenced, this voice no louder
than a child's whisper. It tells
how those millions lived, spoke,
ate, and slept, and it has out-
lasted the shouts of the murder-
ers and has soared above the
voices of time."
For want of a
Teacher, a Fl== School was lost
For want of a
School, a Child was lost
4 .1
For want of a
Child, a
(I
citizen was lost
For want oft i , Citizen, a c:7 Country was lost
All for the want of a Davila*