`It Needs Considerable Deepening' 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 3, 187:- PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Edits r and Publisher SIDNEY SHMARAK Advertising Manager CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Circulation Manager FRANK SIMONS City Editor Scriptural Selections for Concluding Days of Sukkot Pentateuchal portions: Shemini Atzeret, Saturday ; Dela. 14:22-16:17 ; Num. 29:35-30:1; Simhat Torah, Sunday, Dent. 33:1-34:12, Gen. 1:1 2:3, Num. 29:35-30:1. Prophetical portions: Saturday, I Kings 8:54-65; Sunday, Joshua 1:1-18 - Licht Benshen. Friday, Oct. 23, 5:20 p. m. Page Four VOL. XXXVI. No. 8 October 23, 1959 Need for Intensified Jewish Studies The education department of the Jewish Welfare Federation has made available to us the figures showing the enrollment of children in our local schools. Based on the national Jewish school census that was conducted by the American Association for Jewish Educa- tion in 1958, the local school enrollment, and the relative facts regarding it, are approximated as follows: Weekday Sunday Afternoon Day School School School 5,139 600 Number of Students 6,058 Percentage of Total 44.1 50.9 5.0 Enrollment 72.4 55.3 36.1 Percentage of Boys 44.7 27.6 Percentage of Girls 63.9 Percentage of Students 12 Years of Age .. 111.5 and Under Percentage of Students Over 12 Years 19.5 of Age Total 11,897 83.7 16.3 The national figures of enrollment of Jewish children in schools throughout the country, gathered by Dr. Alexander Dushkin and Dr. Uriah Z. Engelman, and incorporated in the Study of Jewish Education in the United States, are: Weekday Sunday Afternoon Day School School School 42,651 261,295 • No. of Students 249,635 Percentage of Total 7.7 • 45.1 47.2 Enrollment 61.6 71.1 Percentage of Boys 49.5 28.9 38.4 Percentage of Girls 50.5 Percentage of Stu- dents 12 Years of Age and Under 86.9 87.4 Percentage of Stu- dents Over 12 12.6 13.1 Years of Age Total 553,600 It is difficult to judge, from these facts, how many of our boys and girls are without -any Jewish education, but it is generally believed that at least 30 per cent of our children of school age are not enrolled in any schools, Sunday or weekday. It is also clear that the largest num- ber of students is in the Bar Mitzvah age and that most of our children give up their Jewish studies after Bar Mitzvah. The quoted figures reveal another major fact: that less than half of the children who do attend Jewish schools are receiving their Jewish knowledge once a week-in Sunday schools-and that only a fraction of them therefore have the benefit of the few hours a week of Jewish studies. It is important that these two facts should be taken into serious considera- tion and that an effort should be made to provide the necessary cures for an ailing situation. All our internal problems can be traced to a lack of knowledge among Jews about Jews. There is hardly any need to reiterate that our primary task is to advance the cause of Jewish educa- tion and to establish thinking and well- informed Jewish constituencies. Without the necessary knowledge, we may merely perpetuate ourselves as fund-raising apparatuses. We doubt whether there can be dis- agreement on the point that properly informed constituencies can not be trained in one-day-a-week Sunday Schools that function not more than 40 weeks in the year or in Bar Mitzvah classes. The figures we have presented therefore pre- sent anew the challenge to our commu- nities to strive for intensification of Jew- ish studies in extended school curricula for our children. Nazi Holocaust Must Remain a Warning David M. Nichol, Chicago News foreign correspondent, in a report from Bonn on a recent trial of a pro-Nazi general, had this to say in comment on the divided feelings among Germans in matters in- volving recollections of Nazi crimes: "One large group would like to for- get the Nazi era as soon and as com- pletely as possible. "Teachers often find it too contro- versial to touch, and postwar Germans learn little in schools about their past. "Others feel the problems of this grisly history must be faced, however unpleasant the process may be. The courts are almost the only agency through which this is now being done." Such is the tragedy of the present era -that in an attempt to forget what had happened under Hitlerism there is the danger that the crimes also may be forgotten and that, as - a result, some may even disbelieve that they ever occurred. In an interview he gave to the Haaretz, Israel Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, defending the sale of arms to Germany, said he regards it "as a revenge against the Nazis." He has not enlisted unani- mous support for this viewpoint, although the overwhelming majority of his people approve the arms sale to Germany. Of equal interest is Ben-Gurion's state- ment: do not hate the German young- ster because his father was a Nazi." Agreed! But, when the youngster is kept in ignorance of what his country did during a decade of destruction, when he is led to disbelieve that his people had murdered six million Jews., there is cause for concern. It is so very vital that the tragedy of Nazism should not be forgotten! And because there is a tendency to erase the memories of the wholesale slaughter, we are worried lest there should some day be a repetition of the Nazi holocaust. Interesting New City of Hope Institute A project that promises to attract wide attention is the plan of the City of Hope, at Duarte, Calif., to establish an Institute for Advanced Medical Learning. By enlisting the cooperation of Dr. Morris Fishbein, former editor of the American Medical Journal, as supervisor of this project, the City of Hope, which already is engaged in vital research ac- tivities in various aspects of medicine, in- tends to provide opportunities for con- tinued efforts in advancing their scientific skills to retired scientists and to medical men who are on sabbatical leaves. A number of prominent scientists have indicated an interest in the new Institute, and Prof. Selman Waksman, Nobel Prize winner as discoverer of streptomycin, is among those encouraging the project. News of this important undertaking comes as an encouragement to the dedi- cated group of Detroiters, who annually undertake to raise funds to assist the City of Hope. Their task, at the function on Nov. 1, will undoubtedly be made easier by the important news of the creation of the new Institute • and the added fact that Dr. Fishbein, who is expected to direct the Institute, will be the speaker at the annual local fund-raising event. 3 New JPS Paperbacks Low-Priced Editions of Works by Samuel, Herberg and Roth Thanks to the paperbacks, many important books which hitherto had a limited circulation now are assured a large reading public. The Jewish Publication Society of America, following the tendencies to increase readers' interests in books they might otherwise overlook, by reprinting them in soft covers, is render- ing an important service to the Jewish reading public. Previous paperbacks already account for large sales of JPS books. The three newest paperbacks issued by the Jewish Publi- cation Society are: "A History of the Marranos," by Cecil Roth; "Judaism and the Modern Man," by Will Herberg, and "Prince of the Ghetto," by Maurice Samuel. Samuel's "Prince of the Ghetto," originally published in 1948 by Knopf, is "a revelation of the life and world of Polish Jewry through a retelling of the tales of the Yiddish master, Isaac Loeb Peretz." The genius of Maurice Samuel and the great gifts of Peretz interpreted in this book combine to offer the reader a vast storehouse of knowledge and of splendid narration. Cecil Roth, who is a recognized authority on the history of the Jews in Spain, gives an impressive account of the Marranos in his history, which originally was published by the Jewish Publication Society in 1932. Herberg's interpretation of Jewish religious tendencies and practices attracted wide attention since its original appearance as a publication of Farrar, Straus and Cudahy. Meridian Books joined with the Jewish Publication Society in issuing the paperbacks. Comprehensive Guide to Jews Throughout the World . Dr. Simon Federbush, one of orthodox Jewry's most dis- tinguished leaders, renders an important service to our people seeking information about Jewish communities everywhere in his "comprehensive guide to Jewish communities throughout the world," published by Thomas Yoseloff (11 E. 36th, N.Y. 16), under the title "World Jewry Today." This is an unusually valuable reference work. It contains facts about Jewish populations throughout the world, provides historical backgrounds to Jewish communities, contains lists of the world Jewish press and world Jewish organizations and analyzes the religious and educational status of Jews everywhere. Featured in the book are essays on the position of world Jewry and the rebirth of Israel by Dr. Nahum Goldmann and Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. While it appears a bit late, the essay on the American Jewish Tercentenary by Dr. Israel Goldstein is a good supplement to the factual record of. American Jewry. Josef Fraenkel, prominent London joufnalist, is the compiler of the record of the Jewish press everywhere. This compilation contains a list of all Jewish newspapers published in all lands. It is regrettable that this record retains some of the errors that were included by Fraenkel in his original study which he is presently revising, but the basic value of his survey remains: it contains all available facts about Jewish newspapers and periodicals throughout the world. Of equal value are the population statistics. Here, too, a number of errors creep in. Michigan's population is incorrect, and there no doubt are many other changes in the facts incor- porated in Dr. Federbush's book. But these also are being corrected by Jewish statisticians. The accounts about the various communities throughout the „world read like histories of the numerous centers. The Israel and United States essays are histories of the respective communities, and so are the others accounted for in this valuable book. When the reader takes into account the fact that Dr. Federbush provides data about such communities as Hong Kong, Iraq, Hadhramaut, Gibraltar, Virgin Islands, Uganda, Saar, Kenya and two score more little known Jewish settlements about which very little is known, he becomes aware at once of the significance of this book. It is one of the finest reference works now available about Jews everywhere.