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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEW S — Friday, October 2, 1959 -

By Philip ' Passages Offensive to Jews, Moslems
Slomovitz Ordered Out of Prayer by Pope

Purely C omme nt a ry

Our synagogues will undoubtedly be
filled on the Holy Days, and the period
of spiritual reckoning which we are now
ushering in will surely find us in a
proper mood for an accounting of our
status as Jews and as Americans.
But the period for reviewing our ob-
ligations and our problems is very brief.
The Ten Days of Repentance starting with
Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom
Kippur will soon be gone, and we shall
be in the groove again—in a routine way
as functionaries in Jewish communities
who should strive for new ways of advanc-
ing our principles and traditions but who
may, instead, fall back on lines of least
resistance and therefore of inactivity.
If we give serious thought to our
needs and obligations, and to our position
as Jews within the American framework,
perhaps there will be revivals that will
lead towards an improved Jewish posi-
tion in this country.
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It may well be said that, in the past
decade, certain advancements have been
noticeable. More of our children are at-
tending Jewish schools. Memberships in
synagogues have increased. Our philan-
throphic activities have not diminished.
Yet, there is too much to be recorded
on the debit side of the ledger.
Let us take a glance at the picture
that confronts us.
We have multiple responsibilities—to
our kinsmen who live in lands of oppres-
sion, to our fellow-Jews in Israel, to our
religious and educational institutions and
to the many national and local agencies
whose functions are vital in our com-
munal make-ups.
No one doubts that we shall continue
to provide help for Jews in Moslem coun-
tries and that our interest in Israel will
not lessen with the years.

There are same areas, however, in
which we must show increased concern.
While we talk a lot about education,
we have done very little more than give
a portion of our contributions towards the
advancement of our school systems. Our
educational endeavors are endangered
today by a lack of good teachers and by
the continuing small proportion of chil-
dren who remain in our Jewish schools
for any length of time. There is the handi-
cap also of haphazard curricula.
Unless we have a well informed con-
stituency, all our communal efforts, even
the philanthropic, will be seriously en-
dangered. To education must, therefore,
be given our major concern.
It would be wrong to say that we have
failed in advancing our schools' needs,
but we believe that it is correct to say
that the interest shown in our educa-
tional efforts is routinely merely a part
of our fund-raising campaigns. Therefore
it is a limited interest and is accompanied
by dangers to our prior need in all our
communal undertakings.
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Linked with an interest in our schools
is the concern we should show in the re-
actions of our youth to Jewish communal
affiliation. While they are part of such
families that play important roles in Jew-
ish communal affairs, our youth also are
a part of us. The moment the young
people a i e separated from their families,
whether at universities or in other tasks,
they seem to become estranged from us.
Why is it that so few Jewish students at
universities have any concern with Jewish
life?
True, a number of new young faces
are visible among the leaders in fund-
raising campaigns, but such activities do
not represent strongly-linked affiliations
with the community.
There must be a reason for such a set-
back. It is a condition that should be
studied, else even the fine synagogue at-
tendance at Holy Day services will be re-
duced. Even now there are too few young
people at Jewish public functions. There
is always the repeated query: where are
our youth? It is a question that demands

No doubt there are a dozen other
problems that can be enumerated. All of
them may have a common source: the
lack of unified efforts in behalf of major
Jewish needs in Jewish ranks.
When Khrushchev's visit in this coun-
try was announced, there was prolonged
discussion about a Jewish delegation to
meet with him. It turned into a ridiculous
public debate, and it soon became known
that more than a dozen national Jewish
organizations had asked for opportunities
to send delegations to Mr. K. Why was
such an approach necessary at all? And if
it was necessary, why the constant wrang-
ling over the issue, the score of meetings
about it, the battle over priorities, the de-
bate over questions to be addressed to
the Communist chief?
We return to an old sore spot in
American Jewish life: that there are
vested interests who do not lend credit
to our over-all aspirations for the eleva-
tion of the standards of Jewish living.
Among the vested interests are a num-
ber of our leading organizations, and asso-
ciated with them are some our most dis-
tinguished leaders. They insist on conduct-
ing overlapping campaigns, they sponsor
duplicated projects and their lack of unity
no doubt contributes towards the arousing
of indifference among many of our
people.

ROME, (JTA) — Pope John XXIII ordered the specific
omission of passages offensive to Jews and Moslems from the
prayer of consecration of mankind to Christ, the King. The
prayer is recited annually in Roman Catholic churches on the
Feast of Christ the King, which is observed on the last Sunday
in October.
The new version of the prayer, published in the "Acta
Apolosticae," official organ of the Vatican, omits the following
passage from the old prayer:
"Be the King of all those who are still shrouded by the
darkness of idolatry or Islam, and do not refuse to lift them all
to the light and to Your kingdom. Look. finally, with merciful
eyes on the children of the people which was once the chosen
people; may the blood already invoked on them descend on
them too, as a cleansing bath of redemption and life."
U.S. Jewish Body Lauds Deletion of Negative Reference
NEW YORK, (JTA) — Pope John XXIII's order deleting
negative references to Jews and Moslems in a Catholic prayer
was hailed by the American Jewish Committee as "another
significant step by the Pontiff toward improving interreligious
understanding and setting a new standard of achievement for
religious leaders and educators."
This was the second time this year that Pope John had
ordered the omission of negative passages concerning other
groups in Roman Catholic liturgy. Last March, the Pope ordered
a change in an ancient liturgical text used in Good Friday
services.
Herbert B. Ehrmann, president of the American Jewish
Committee, stressed that the Pontiff's actions "might well augur
the beginning of a new era in intergroup and interreligious rela-
tions."

Then there are the errors on the local
scenes. In recent years we have witnessed
the trend towards large-scale construc-
tion programs. Expensive centers and
synagogues, huge buildings for various
purposes are being erected at costs which
may some day, perhapS very soon, become
prohibitive.
Too much has already been said about
brick and mortar replacing the spirit of
the people. We need the buildings that
are contemplated, but there should be a
measure of caution in over-extending our
building programs. There is too much
more to be done in other areas, and there
should be a reserve of funds for vital and
basic needs in Jewish life.
What sort of program should we pur-
sue for the betterment of Jewish life,
starting with 5720?
We need priority for Jewish educa-
tional efforts.
Even at the risk of stupid charges by
anti-Semites that Jews are a unified force,
we should strive for unity in facing major
issues affecting us and our kinsmen.
We must think more seriously in
terms of keeping our youth within our
fold, of training them properly for an
understanding of Jewish life and there-
fore for future leadership. -
If we have gone to extremes in build-
ing vast communal structures, it is time
for a halt to such an expensive program.
There should be an end to vested in-
terests that control the actions and there-
fore also the thinking of Jewish constit-
uencies, and there should be an end to
divisiveness which enables every little
segment in Jewish life to claim the right
to speak for Jewry.

JERUSALEM, (JTA) — More
than 100 Jews have been ar-
rested in Romania in recent
months, according to reports
received here. Among the ar-
rested was a close relative of
Theodor Herzl, the "father of
political Zionism." Her parents
and husband arrived in Israel
some time ago.
Attempts by the Israel govern-
ment to intercede on behalf of
a number of those arrested who
had worked for the Israel Lega-
tion in Bucharest, were report-
ed to have failed. The Israel
government had tried both in
Jerusalem and Bucharest. to
secure the release of the lega-
tion employees.

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This program is suggested not because
conditions are so deplorable in American
Jewish life. The fact is that we are per-
haps more democratic than any other
Jewish community in the world. But we
have the example of more efficiently or-
ganized representative national Jewish
bodies, like the Canadian Jewish Congress
which speaks as one unit for Canadian
Jewry, and one or two similar movements
in other countries; and we should emulate
them.
We know that they educational chal-
lenge is growing in proportion and we
must meet it.
We know that our youth are becoming
estranged from us, and we must draw
them close to us.
Therefore we sense a justification for
the proposed program.
In behalf of a better future for us
and our neighbors, and in support of
healthier approaches to Jewish communal
needs, we send forth our heartiest New

Herzl Relative Among 100 Jews
Working for Israel Legation in
Bucharest Arrested in Romania

The Romanian authorities
have claimed that the arrests
were for "economic crimes" and
have maintained that it is an
internal affair, in which Israel
has no right to intervene. The
"clarification" of the charges
against the Legation employees,
which the Romanian govern-
ment promised to release, has
never been given, the report
stated.
Idov Cohen, a member of the
Knesset, Israel's parliament,
told a public meeting here that
the Romanian Immigrants As-
sociation was planning to take
a number of steps on behalf of
the arrested Jews.

Dr. Glueck Discovers Ancient Negev
Road; Predates Abraham's Time

NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
discovery of an old Negev route
that was ancient even in the
time of Abraham, was an-
nounced by Dr. Nelson Glueck,
president of the Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Re-
ligion, who recently returned
from a summer archaeological
exploration which he conducted
in the Negev under the auspices
of the David Klau Foundation
of New York.
Estimating that the road is
more than 5,000 years old, Dr.
Glueck said he discovered that
the highway, which runs from
Sde Boker to the Jordanian
border, joined the King's High-

way of Biblical mention in
Transjordan. His findings, he
added, convinced him that the
road "had actually been the
major east-to-west connection
of Israel with Arabia and
Egypt."
He described "sites belonging
to the period of Abraham, going
back some 4,000 years, and
other sites belonging to the
period of the Judaean Kingdom,
tenth to sixth centuries B. C. E.,
and still another to the Naba-
taean and the Byzantine pe-
riods." It was the Biblical men-
tion of King's Highway, "the
Beduin tracks which always fol-
low ancient ones" that led him
to discover this ancient route.

President Gets Bnai Brith Tribute

President Eisenhower displays his famous grin as he receives
the Bnai Brith President's Medal from Label A. Katz, head of
the organization, citing him for "positive efforts for world
peace on freedom's terms—peace with justice and dignity."
Participating in the White House ceremony was Mrs. Charles

of

Rnai Rrith Warnen