THE JEWISH NEWS
Is Khrushchev Expecting You?
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 Office, Detroit, Mich. under act of Congress of March
6, 187:...
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Editor and Publisher
Advertising Manager
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Circulation Manager
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the sixteenth day of Elul, 5719, the following Scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Ki Tabo, Deut. 26:1-29:8. Prophetical portion,
60:1-22.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Sept. 18, 6:19 p.m.
VOL. XXXVI. No. 3
Page Four
September 18, 1959
He who feels in his heart a genuine tie with the life of his people
cannot possibly conceive of the existence of the Jewish people apart from
"Queen Sabbath." We can say without exaggeration that more than Israel
preserved the Sabbath, the Sabbath preserved, Israel.—Ahad Ha-Am
DELEGATION
afi
u.S. JEWRY
Center Should Reverse Sabbath Stand
No one is infallible. Individuals make
mistakes, and communal organizations
can err.
Of course, it is human to err.
It is much more important and much
more human to be able to correct errors,
to admit mistakes and to reverse imprac-
tical and unwise decisions.
We view the Jewish Community Cen-
ter of Detroit as being in that position at
this time. .
The board of directors of the Jewish
Center last week legislated on issues in-
volving the Sabbath: The directors of the
Center voted to. negate a long-established
policy of Sabbath observance in the Cen-
ter facilities and by the Center staff. By
its action last week, the Center's board of
directors has, in fact, taken a stand that
can strike destructively at the most sacred
symbol of our faith.
We therefore urge that the Center
should repeal its action of last week, that
it should annul the decision to operate
the Center's facilities on the Sabbath anti -
it should return to a policy of full respect
for the Sabbath day.
physical education program on Saturday
afternoons, it definitely launches into
activities that are unrelated to the spirit .
of the Sabbath. Then it becomes an activ-
ity competitive with existing commercial
enterprises, and such practices should not
be condoned in a Jewish community.
*.* *
. Much can be said with regard to the
one o'clock Saturday opening hour. It Noteworthy Demographic Study
may be argued that by opening the Center
at that hour the Sabbath observers are
still given the opportunity to attend syna-
gogue services on Sabbath morning and
then participate in Center activities.. What
a prescription for oneg shabbat! It says to
Thanks primarily to the efforts of Dr. Nehemiah Robinson,
the synagogue attendant, young or old:
go to services, then run back to us fcir a its director. the Institute of Jewish Affairs of the World Jewish
Congress has compiled, and has issued in a 78-page volume,
play or a massage!
"The Jewish Communities of the World," a valuable study
We are not suggesting that the com- related to the demography, political and organizational status,
mencing hour should be changed: what education, press and other factors of Jewish life in Jewish
we are saying is that the Center either communities everywhere.
will honor the Sabbath or it will not, and
This survey contains all the available facts, offered in brief
that it can not honor it at all unless the and readily accessible form to students of Jewish affairs, about
traditional observance of closing the communities in Africa, the Western American hemisphere, Asia,
facilities until sunset is adhered to.
Australasia and Europe.
* * *
The succinct information thus provided fills an important
There are certain principles that are need. The data incorporated here is not only about well-
Jewish life and which are not established communities, those that are functioning under con-
It may be argued that the program basic in for
dispute among the three prin- ditions of freedom, but also about countries behind the Iron
on the Sabbath, as -envisaged by the matters
cipal
religious
groups in Jewry. Conserva- Curtain and in Moslem lands.
Center's board of directors, will, in effect,
Orthodox and Reform, alike, adhere
Some of the data is so new that it will amaze even the
be in the form of an oneg shabbat; that tive.
to the idea that the Sabbath is a major best informed Jews. Who, for example, knew that there are
it will by a cultural program during which institution
in our existence; that without two Jews, both high officials, in the British protectorate of
story-telling to children, informal drama- it Jewry may
Basutoland, in Africa?
not be able to survive.
tics and songfests will be conducted to
We learn that there is a single Jewish family in Monrovia,
One of the most distinguished religious
make the Sabbath pleasant for the youth. leaders in Reform ranks, the late Dr. Leo the capital of Liberia.
This sounds like a good contribution to Baeck, stated it unequivocally in an ad-
In Ghana, there are 20 Jews, all traders and professional
Jewish cultural efforts. It could be argued dress he delivered on Jan. 20, 1935:
people who live in the country's capital, Accra. They conduct
that such programs will draw the youth
Holy Day religious services in private homes.
"There is no Judaism without the
away from undesirable places, and would
There are temporary but no permanent- Jewish residents
Sabbath."
substitute for the Saturday afternoon
The Sabbath is not a partisan matter, in Nigeria . . . The three or four Jewish families in Lourenco
movies which draw so many of our and it is therefore to be hoped, in the Marques, Mozambique. have a synagogue. where Holy Day services
children.
best interests of retaining the dignity of are conducted for South African vacationers . . . Less than
Practically and realistically speaking, our communal activities, that the leaders 80 Jews reside in the territory of Swaziland .. .
such a claim is pure fantasy. If the Cen- in the movement to revoke the Center's
We could go on ad infinitum to quote from this important
volume, to indicate how Jews are spread worldwide in many
ters can not draw delinquents away from
decision of last week should be laymen,
undesirable places evenings and during and that Reform spokesmen should be practically unknown centers.
There are 100 Jews on the island of Barbados in the
six days in the week, it will not do so by even more active in this regard than their
a story hour on Saturday afternoon. If Conservative and Orthodox fellow-citizens. Western Hemisphere. They have a branch of WIZO (Women's
International Zionist Organization) and Hebrew courses for
the Center truly desires to create a Sab-
The most sacred Jewish institution—
bath atmosphere for children who can be the Sabbath—must be preserved. It children.
There are 4.000 Jews in Bolivia, 130,000 in Brazil, 246.000
induced not to go to the movies on Satur- should be protected, respected and hal-
Canada, 30,000 in Chile, 9.000 in Colombia. 300 families in
days, they should be able to establish lowed. We pray that it should not be in
Costa Rica, 750 in Curacao, 1,400 in Ecuador, 250 in El Salvador,
spiritually-inspired cooperative programs
desecrated, and we appeal to the board 130 in British Guiana, 250 in Hawaii, 100 in the French colony
with synagogues on late Saturday after-
of directors of the Jewish Community of Martinique, 26,500 in Mexico . . .
noons, And if there is need for dramatics, Center to reverse a decision we view as
There are 180 Jews in Trinidad, 500 in Surinam, 50,000 in
it should be fulfilled on week-days.
unwise and harmful to our communal i Uruguay, 5,000 in Venezuela and only 60 in the Virgin Islands.
When, however, the Center opens its unity.
The Asian account is interesting and enlightening. Here
Dr. Robinson's Compilation:
'Jewish Communities of World'
Communal Unity in Educational Programming
The recent survey of conditions in
American Jewish schools, conducted by
the American Association for Jewish Edu-
cation, placed emphasis on the importance
of congregational cooperation with the
established school systems in our com-
munities.
In our community, important steps
were taken 10 years ago, in an agree-
ment then reached by the United Hebrew
Schools with Congregation Adas Shalom,
for cooperative sponsorship of the daily
Hebrew classes conducted in the syna-
gogue.
The renewal of that agreement, for
another 10 years, just announced, is a
recognition of the importance of such
cooperation in the best interests of our
educational programs. By working to-
gether, the Hebrew Schools and the con-
gregation have eliminated duplication,
they have assured the securing of the
ablest available teachers and they • have
established a policy for a standard cur-
riculum for our children.
In the intervening years since the
agreement was made between Adas Sha-
lom and the United Hebrew Schools, other
synagogues . have entered into similar
agreements with the local school system.
These were realistic steps in the direction
of sound educational methods and more
economical functioning for all the schools
involved.
The United Hebrew Schools and the
congregations cooperating with them are
to be commended for pursuing such a
proper program leading toward the ad-
vancement of our educational efforts.
are a few facts at random: There are 100 Jews left in Burma
out of a total of 2,150 in 1939. Cambodia has 1,500 Jews; there
are 10 in Ceylon, 120 in Cyprus, 200 in Hong Kong, 25,000
in India.
The status of Jews in Moslem countries is revealed in many
of. the facts in this compactly collected source of information.
The Australasian and European sections are equally as interesting.
While the United States of America portion of the study
also is brief—a page and a half of the book are devoted to
our country—there are many facts in it that will enlighten
the reader. There are figures about the status of Jewish
education and the Jewish press. The figures show that there
are 3,367 schools in the U. S. with an attendance of 553,000-
47 per cent of the pupils attending afternoon schools and
about eight per cent the Yeshivoth Ktanoth (all-day schools),
with '7,000 in the Yiddish schools.
"The Jewish press," the compilation states in the U. S.
section, "consists of three news agencies, three Yiddish dailies,
56 weeklies, 13 fortnightlies, 46 monthlies, 16 bimonthlies,
29 quarterlies, 12 annuals and 25 other periodicals in English,
Yiddish and Hebrew."
One of Jewry's most distinguished scholars, Dr. Robinson
has made a very valuable contribution to Jewish knowledge with
this book, and the World Jewish Congress' Institute of Jewish
Affairs is to be commended for publishing it.