THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS— Friday, January 16, 1959-6

Educators Warned of Problem of
Escapism Among Jewish Students;
Midwest Conference Debates Issues

In a challenging address de-
livered at the luncheon ses-
sion of the Midwest Region of
the National Council for Jew-
ish Education, Sunday, at the
Esther Berman Building of the
United Hebrew Schools, Rabbi
Maurice Pekarsky,' director of
the University of Chicago Hil-
lel Foundation, warned the ed-
ucators and laymen present
that university students are
flirting with escapism from
Judaism and that serious con-
sideration must be given to a
number of questions relating
to this serious problem.
Judaism will survive, Rabbi
Pekarsky said, but, he asked:
"Who will remain and on
what grounds will we survive?
What is the goal of Jewish
education? How are we to ad-
dress ourselves to the Jewish
student and how are we to
meet his needs?"

There is a lack of the
sense of our great traditions,
the guest lecturer pointed
out. "We have reduced a
great tradition to something
parochial," he deplored. He
admonished the educators
that teaching Hebrew alone
is not sufficient, and he
charged that "Jewish educa-
tion does not touch the fun-
damental concern of chil-
dren." .

cerned "have a warm Jewish
feeling, but are lacking in
conviction," he said. "They de-
sire to remain Jews, but they
have no conviction, no com-
mitment, no knowledge about
Judaism."
He quoted numerous figures,
from studies conducted recent-
ly among university students,
to show their lack of a basic
knowledge of the Bible, the
holidays and other Jewish facts,
to indicate the seriousness of
the problem. He also stated
that there is a vast increase
in intermarriage and. there is
a growing evidence of the de-
sire to intermarry among young
Jews.
Rabbi Pekarsky, who stat-
ed that "Jewish education
as a therapy has succeeded
to a limited degree," urged
greater emphasis on ethical
Jewish values in Jewish ed-
ucational programs and ad-
ditional emphasis on the
position of humanity as in-
terpreted in Judaism."

Albert Elazar, superintendent
of Detroit's United Hebrew
Schools, presided at the lunch-
eon meeting. Greetings were
extended by Abe Kasle, presi-
dent of the United Hebrew
Schools; Isidore Sobeloff, exec-
utive vice president of the Jew-
ish Welfare Federation; Israel
Many of the students with Elpern, president of Detroit's
whose problems we are con- Hebrew Teachers' Association;
Bernard Levitin, president of
the NCJE Midwest Region; and
Hillel Henkin, NCJE president.

Landsmanshaft
to Hear Singers
at JNF Meeting

Prof. Ginsberg Dates Dead Sea
Scrolls Between 100 BCE, 100 CE

In his address on "The Bible
in the Dead Sea (Qumran) Com-
munity and Rabbinic Judaism,"
at Wayne State University, Mon-
day evening, Prof. H. L. Gins-
berg, of the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America, spoke of
the Dead Sea Scrolls as dating
between the first century B.C.E.
and the first century of the
Common Era.
His address, which was part
of the Walter and Lea Field
Semitic Lecture Series, gave an
interesting analysis of Norma-
tive Judaism's attitudes on em-
endations in Biblical texts.
Commenting on the signifi-
cance of the Qumran manu-
scripts, Dr. Ginsberg said "we
are privileged to live in a time
when we can acquire knowledge
of what happened in the era
between the two centuries be-
fore and of the present era."
He began by expressing the
view that the Dead Sea Scrolls
belonged to the year 68 C. E.
The new Qumran date, he added,
could have been predicted in
advance. He stated that they
add greatly to our knowledge of
life in Palestine in the First
Century.
Rabbinic Judaism, he said,
was known as Pharisaism, and
began just ablaut the time of
the Qumran era as indicated in
the newly-found scrolls.

Dr. Abraham Duker, Dean
of the College of Jewish
Studies of Chicago, and
Prof. Shlomo Marenof, head
of Detroit's Midrasha, deliv-
ered two of the principal
addresses at Sunday's ses-
sions.

Participants also included
Yosef Schub, of Chicago; Dr.
Sol Abrams, Pittsburgh; Chana
Stiebel, Detroit; Dr. Elazar
Goelman, Buffalo; Libbie Bra-
verman, Cleveland, Dr. Irving
Skolnick, Chicago; Samuel Leb-
owitz, Dayton, and others.

SHIMON & ELAINE GEWIRTZ

Shimon and Elaine Gewirtz
will appear as the headline at-
traction in a cultural program
to be presented by the commit-
tee on Land • smanshaften for-
Jewish National Fund, at 8:30
p.m., Thursday, at the Hayim
Greenberg Center, 19161 Schae-
fer.
The Gewirtzes will sing "Songs
of Our People," a program of
Israeli and Yiddish folk songs,
accompanying themselves on the
Halil (recorder) drum and gui-
tar. The program is part of the
month-long observance of Shevat
as Landsmanih•ften for JNF
month. Detroit Landsmanshaft-
en have undertaken_ to plant
18,000 of the trees in the Michi-
gan section of the new 2,000,000-
tree Independence Forest in
Israel.
Samuel Si-
gal, principal
of the United
Jewish High
School (Mittel-
shul), will be
guest speaker
at the pro-
gram.
Harry Kam-
iner, chair-
man, and Har-
ry Rosenthal,
secretary
of the JNF
landsman-
Sigal
shaften c o m
mittee, advise that holiday re-
freshments will be served.
Admission is 50 cents, with
no additional solicitation of any
kind.

-

The lecture program was
opened with brief remarks by
Dr. Abram Spiro, chairman of
the Wayne State University
Semitics Department, and Dr.
Ginsberg was introduced by
Philip Slomovitz, a member of
the advisory committee for the
Walter and Lea Field Lecture
Series.
The next Field Semitics Lec-
ture, on Feb. 4, will be deliv-
ered by Dr. Nelson Glueck,
noted archaeologist, president of
Hebrew Union College - Jewish
Institute of Religion. T h e
Rackham Auditorium has been
secured for this lecture to ac-
commodate 1,000 people, in
view of the overflow attendance
at the last lecture delivered in
the Field series by Dr. Glueck.

Book of Psalms, "which to this
day is the book of devotion of
Jews and Christians."

A minority in the Qumran era
spoke Hebrew, Dr. Ginsberg ex-
plained, but a majority of those
who spoke Aramaic understood
Hebrew.
Most of the volumes found
are in Hebrew, he said, but a
copy of Job was found in an
Aramaic translation.
He describes the diversity in
texts, explaining the Septuagint
and the Samaritan texts. He said
there is a diversity in some
texts, but the Masoretic text was
accepted for exclusive use.

He also explained in detail
the commentaries that were dis-
covered, and showed the influ-
ence of eschatology in that era
—the belief that existed that the
world was nearing the end of
days. He said that two centuries
before Christianity there were
Jews who believed that they
were near the end of time.

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"Rabbinic Judaism firmly as-
serts itself in support of a Messi-
anic time and an age to come,
and the rabbis discouraged
eschatology and the belief that
the end was around the corner,"
Prof. Ginsberg said.

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He pointed out that all of the
books of the Bible are among
the 700 books in the Qumran
library, except the Book of Es-
ther, and he said the reason for
it may have been the non-recog-
nition given to Purim and the
Book of Esther in early times.

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The most important book in
the Qumran library, he said,
was Deuteronomy, "which can
be described as the Torah in
miniature." Next came the
Book of Isaiah, which is used
for most of our Prophetic
readings today. Then came the

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Dinner to Honor
Balfour Workers

Dr. Bernard Weston, chair-
man of the Balfour workers'
dinner committee, announces
that the Zionist Organization
of Detroit will honor leaders
and workers of the 1958 Bal-
four concert campaign at a
dinner at Rainbow Terrace,
Jan. 28.
This will be the third annual
Balfour victory dinner.
Heading the list of honorees
are: Sherman Shapiro, general
chairman o fthe 1958 Balfour
concert, Abraham Borman,
ZOD president, and Harry
Cohen.
Other workers to be singled
out for honors are Irving Sni-
derman, co-chairman of the
1958 Balfour concert; Harry
Bradlin, Dr. I. Walter Silver,
Sol Lifsitz, Dr. Bernard Wes-
ton, Ruben Gold, M. Ben Lew-
is, Milton S. Marwil, Dr. Har-
old A. Maxmen, Morris Men-
delson, Dr. I. Z. Silvarman,
Morris Sukenic and Israel
Taines.
Rabbi M. Robert Syme of
Temple Israel will be the mas-
ter of ceremonies.
Shimon and liana Gewirtz
will entertain with Hebrew
songs and will lead in com-
munity singing.
Serving with Dr. Weston on
the dinner committee are Mes-
dames I. Walter Silver and
Irving Sniderman.
Reservations are accepted at
the Zionist House, 10424 W.
McNichols, DI 1-8540.

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