A List from Higher-Ups

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 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 Offic.... Detroit, Mich under act of Congress of March
u. 187t

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Circulation Manager

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-ninth day of lyar, 5719, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Banzidbar, Num. 1:1-4:20. Prophetical portion. I Sam. 20:18-42.
Rosh Hodesh Sivan will be observed on Sunday.

Licht Benshen, Friday, June 5, 7:46 p.m.

VOL. XXXV. No. 14

Page Four

June 5. 1959

The Giving of the Law' - - and Its Recipients

Shavuot, the Festival of the Giving of
the Law, to be observed next Friday and
Saturday, must primarily be viewed as
the festival of the receiving of the Law.
This is the time of the year when
many of our boys and girls are graduated
from our communal schools. when many
of them are confirmed and consecrated
in our congregations.
Educators and dedicated community
leaders consistently call attention to the
need for considering our graduations the
commencements of new educational re-
sponsibilities, the rededication of students
to higher learning, to continuation of
their studies, to uninterrupted enroll-
ment in higher classes for the study of
our history, our traditions, our inherited
Jewish values.
In this era in which there is so much
discussion about Jewry's status, when
there is so much concern over the future
status of our people, as well as about
the ability of our people to survive the
challenges that are hurled at us by the
temptations of assimilation, it is especially

urgent that the young people should be
presented with. this message of the need
for their continuation of Jewish studies.
Shavuot is the year's turning point.
It marks the end of a long year's activi-
ties. the beginning of a summer's period
of slowing down in Jewish programming,
an interlude between graduations and
eventual planning for either renewed or
new activities—by our youth as well as
by the adult community.
The summer should not be idled away.
It should be devoted to proper planning
of future efforts—and the major emphasis
must be in the field of Jewish education.
This is the time to bring our youth
closer to us, to induce them to continue
learning facts about their people, never
to cease acquiring knowledge about their
kinsmen and about Israel's history and
traditions.
The receiving and the acceptance of
the Torah is the most important factor
about Shavuot. By fulfilling it. we perpet-
uate the values of the giving of the Torah
to Israel.

The Commission on Jewish Education of the United Syna-
gogue of America has made a remarkable contribution to class-
room and home literature for children with two prayer books.
The two volumes are related. One is for the Sabbath and
weekdays, the other for holidays and holy days.
Each is beautifully illustrated. and the impressive texts and
pictures are certain to fascinate the young readers and to inspire
them to recite the prayers.
The prayers are included in the original Hebrew, with
their English translations. The illustrations are multicolored
and are traditional throughout.
Hyman Chanover and Evelyn Zusman are the authors of
the two compilations of prayers. The! . full color illustrations are
ing Towers of Babel instead of emphasiz- by Leonard Weisgard.
To assist parents and teachers. in using these two prayer
ing the spiritual values of our faith and
books, the authors also have prepared a pamphlet. "Adult Guide
our cultural legacies?
Dr. Kaplan's observation that half of to 'My Book of Prayer'." It serves an excellent purpose in assur-
our identity is the product of Jewish asso- ing proper application of the prayers and in providing an
of the basic values of instilling religious feelings
ciation calls for re-evaluation of our com- understanding
in the child.
munal structure. We seem to be retaining
The authors state in their guide that they were motivated in
great strength when we are collecting preparing the prayer books by the following:
funds for worthy causes. Many of our
"Experience has shown that at an early age the child can
young people are in the thick of cam- learn to reach out to God and find in Him an unfailing source
paigns to secure the means needed for of personal power and strength. Children need this spiritual
the construction of immense buildings as anchor, the feeling that God has a plan for His creatures,
well as for charitable purposes—including that it is a dependable and good plan, and that they, too, are
the support we give to new settlers in included in that plan and in their small way can share in its
Israel. Can we count on these people when unfolding.
"To help children achieve this feeling of at•homeness in
the cultural values are involved, when it
is necessary to strengthen Jewry spirit- God's world, a satisfying program of worship is highly import-
ant. For best results, prayer experiences are required which
uallly?
children can both understand and feel and whia will
It is indisputable that a portion of our young
grow in personal meaning as they practice them."
identity is "the product of gentile ex-
"My Book of Prayer," as each of the two volumes is entitled,
clusiveness." This always has been a neg- has provisions for brief introductory statements by adults before
ative aspect of our existence. But mere the children recite the prayers. The book for daily and Sabbath
fund-raising, while it does introduce the use begins with the prayers on rising. Then come the traditional
campaigners to the causes they support, is expressions of thanks for bread. fruit, vegetables, cookies. They
not in itself a positive aspect of Jewish are followed by the grace -- the benshen. Then come the bed-
time prayers.
life.
Then there is the section for the Sabbath — the regular
The reacquisition of the positive ele- prayers, the grace, the prayers for wine and food. the kiddush.
The
havdalah and post-Sabbath services follow. All are in
ments represents the major challenge to
with their English translations, and the concluding
our people. Presently, we face grave diffi- Hebrew
prayers, in English, are additionally inspiring. They include such
culties. Perhaps we are too close to the expressions
as:
picture to appreciate many of the gains
Dear God,
that have been made in the moderniza-
Help me to learn
tion of Jewish educational efforts, in
What to do,
drawing many of our young people to us,
To be a good
in instilling in the youth a new loyalty to
American Jew.
The concluding prayers include appeals for good health.
Jewish values. But the attainment of the
goal is difficult. It needs constant em- to overcome fears and to create friendships.
"My Book of Prayer" for Holidays and Holy Days similarly
phasis on Jewish creativeness. It calls
for devotion to ideals and unsparing labor covers a wide range. It begins with the Holy Days, continues
appropriate prayers for Sukkot, Simhat Torah, Hanukah, Tu
to raise the standards of our cultural in- with
Bishvat, Purim. Pesah, Shavuot and Tisha b'Ab.
stitutions.
In every instance, the major traditional prayers are in-
We know the problem, but we are cluded.
For Passover, the authors have included the Mah
often helpless in finding a solution to it. Nishtanah, Dayenu, excerpts from Psalms, the Had Gadya.
As long, however, as the Kaplans and the
The able authors have undertaken to introduce the young
Heschels keep reminding us of our short- child to basic traditional prayers, to catch the prayers' spirit
comings, we are a bit more secure. As and to interpret them on the child's level of understanding. With
long as we know the issues, the chances their blend of the Hebrew and English translation, they are able
are good that they will be resolved. We to arouse in the child a sense of love for God and a feeling of
retain faith in the eventual emergence of belonging to His group. The excellence of their work, the
a spiritually strong people that will be attractive illustrations, the simplicity of the approach, combine
able in our day, as in ages past, to defy to assure success for their efforts.
"My Book of Prayer", for Sabbath, Weekdays, Holidays and
and to overcome the obstacles of nega-
Days. form a splendid two-volume work that will be found
tivism, defeatism, despair -and assimila- Holy
indispensable for use in classrooms and in homes, in providing
tion.
the proper Jewish training for youngsters.

Faith in Eventual Spiritual Conquest

If, as Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan, the dis-
tinguished leader of the Jewish Recon-
structionist movement, has declared, Jew-
ish life is "social rather than spiritual,"
and if Jewish life in America is only
"skin deep," what hope is there for Jew-
ish survival? -
A "social" life can go a long way in
stemming assimilation and in preventing
a certain amount of intermarriage, the
extent of which already is turning into a
decimating force in Jewish life. But if Dr.
Kaplan was right in his assertions at the
convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of
America that, in the United States, "one
half of Jewish identity is the product of
gentile exclusiveness and the other half is
the product of Jewish association," then,
at best, American Jewry has only one-half
a chance to retain its spiritual Jewish
identity.

*

A certain amount of pessimism seems
to have seeped into our ranks in the con-
sideration of Jewry's position in the
world today. In another address heard at
the Rabbinical Assembly convention, the
delegates were admonished to take into
account the indifference that exists today.
Dr. Abraham J. Heschel warned against
seeking to regain faith through "quiet in-
sight" and advised instead its reacquisi-
tion "through embarrassment, shock and
dismay at our immense callousness."
Dr. Heschel deplored religion's having
become "institution, dogma, security,"
and its having turned into idolatry, into
"a distortion of the word God." There was
a sound of despair in his declaration:
"This is a time to cry out. One is ashamed
to be human. One is embarrassed to be
called religious in the face of our failure
to keep alive the image of God in man.
We see the writing on the wall, but are
too illiterate to understand what it says."
While this rebuke is intended for all
mankind, for people of all faiths, the con-
cern over Jewry's institutionalization
makes us chief targets. in his warnings.
*
Are we failing in the sacred responsi-
bilities of imbuing our people with the
principles inherent in Jewish traditions
and in our heritage? Are we too dogmatic
and too institutionalized? Are we build-

'My Book of Prayer': Notable
Two-Volume Set for Children