THE JEWISH NEWS
Bias Outlawed in 16 States
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 T.5 a year. Foreign ;6.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Offic,.. Detroit, Mich. under act of Congress of March
a,
187i
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Advertising Manager
Circulation Manager
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eleventh day of Kislev, 5720, the following Scriptural. selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion., Vayetze, Gen. 28:10-3 2:3. Prophetical portion., Hosea 12:13-14:10.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Dec. 11, 4:43 p.m.
VOL. XXXVI, No. 15
Page Four
December 11, 1959
Assimilation's 'Tide' and Challenge to Jewry
Is there cause for despair that an
assimilationist tide is threatening Ameri-
can Jewry with disintegration?
It was not only at the meetings of
the National Executive Council of the
Zionist Organization of America that such
warnings were uttered. They are heard
from time to time at Jewish assemblies
in this country, and reports from other
English-speaking countries show similar
concerns in Jewish ranks over the alleged
.decline in Jewish cultural activities.
Abraham A. Redelheim, the presi-
dent of the Zionist Organization of Amer-
ica, spoke of a "rising tide" of assimila-
tion and stated that the "alleged revival
of religion that is so much touted about
represents but a temporary response to
what we may describe as 'gimmick'
Judaism.
Other leaders have similarly warned
`of an • impending increasing decline in
Jewish loyalties resulting from intermar-
riage, from a declining interest in Jewry's
needs, from a desire for total assimilation.
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There was another approach to the
problem at the annual meeting of the
Bnai Brith Hillel Foundations, held in
Washington last week. Prof. William
Haber, of the University of Michigan,
chairman of the Hillel Foundations, said
that the Jewish students, who are no
longer "escapist," because of the "degree
of security" in the Jewish community
which "has dissolved apologetics and has
relieved external pressures on the Jewish
students," needs to probe the reasons for
Jewish identification and "now must seek
the reason why they are Jews." American-
born parents, he said, who, unlike "their
grandparents, who had something of East-
ern Europe's rich Jewish tradition, do not
have this contact with the past, and their
children come to the college campus "not
knowing of the history, poetry, literature,
art and theology of the Jews."
At the same meeting, Dr. Arthur J.
Llelyveld former director of the Hillel
Foundations, expressing concern over
"the real danger of fragmentization and
organizational competition" in Jewish life,
pleaded with Hillel directors to propagate
the idea that "nothing, nothing whatever,
can be too Jewish."
These are indications of the concern
that exists in Jewish ranks over the inter-
ests of our youth, especially the college
students.
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It is equally as difficult to reach
the Jewish youth in our communities
after their Bar Mitzvah age, and the prob-
lem of extending Jewish schooling beyond
that age is among the most pressing ones
that face us.
Nevertheless, we may be just a bit
too pessimistic about the current "de-
cline' in Jewish interests. There have
been entirely too many despairing views
on the subject, fears relating to popula-
tion movements towards the suburbs have
been exaggerated and greater attention
has been given to the panicked than to
those striving for the advancement of our
cultural efforts as the basic approach to
the urgency of enlisting our youth's co-
operation in Jewish survivalism.
The educational problems facing
American Jewry were treated realistically
earlier this year, when the American
Association for Jewish Education issued
its report on the history-making national
survey of the status of educational move-
ments in this country. In that report, it
was indicated that "American Jewish
schooling is like a shallow river. 'a mile
wide and an inch deep.' " But while the
survey recognized a problem, it also
accounted for progress.
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The picture is not altogether gloomy,
and there are occasional spurts of interest
from many quarters to indicate that
assimilation is not a curse of the present
era but can be traced to experiences of
our people during the past century, since
the beginning of the emancipation move-
ment in Western Europe.
There is no doubt that the decline
in persecution and the spread of egali-
tarian ideals in democratic countries are
the contributing factors towards assimila-
tionist trends. It is essential, therefore, in
the efforts for Jewish spiritual and cul-
tural survival, that ways should be found
to reconcile freedom with Judaism and
liberty with the retention of Jewish
identities. There is sufficient wealth in
Jewish legacies and traditions to enable
our leaders and guides to direct our
people in the direction of such thinking,
and we prefer to retain faith that such
approaches to Jewish realistic communal
programming can be put into practice.
There are many things about which
we could become truly concerned, espe-
cially the failure of some of our leaders
to rise to greater spiritual heights in di-
recting Jewry's thinking and actions. We
have already indicated the - need for
higher standards in communal program-
ming. We deplore the supremacy that has
been given to fund-raising, and we pray
that out of a better understanding of
Jewish needs will come more spontaneous
responses to financial needs for relief,
rehabilitation and cultural regeneration—
instead of the continued resort to deplora-
ble gimmicks in appeals for funds.
Serious challenges face our leaders.
If the "tide" towards total assimilation
is to be stemmed, it must be attained
by means of better programming, higher
standards of Jewish educational activi-
ties, extended.schooling for our children
and a more dignified approach to com-
munal fund-raising actions. There are
needs for changes in Jewish life in the
enumerated areas, and greater danger
will face our heritage and traditions,
which we seek to prepetuate in dignity,
unless the changes are made by properly-
trained Jewish leadership.
U.S. Bible Contest
Emulating the great success of the
Bible Contest in Israel, the Jewish
Agency's department of education and
culture and the Israel Bible Society of
Jerusalem have undertaken the sponsor-
ship of an American Bible Contest.
This is an important project. Aimed
at promoting wider interest in the Bible
and the spread of Bible studies in Jewish
school curricula, it is expected that the
contest will be of immense value in ad-
vancing Jewish studies in this country.
By making available to participants
the necessary books to be studied, the
forthcoming contest, "Hidon Hatanach,"
is certain to increase an interest in Bibli-
cal knowledge, and to inspire interest in
other Jewish cultural subjects.
It is vital, if this project is to succeed,
that it should have the cooperation of
Bureaus of Jewish Education in all
American communities and of community
school systems like Detroit's United He-
brew Schools. With such participation, the
American Bible Contest should emerge as
a cultural event of major signifance in
American Jewish communities.
'The Bar Mitzvah Companion'
GreatWritingsAb6utJews and
Judaism Evaluate Heritage
Rabbi Sidney Greenberg, of Philadelphia, and Abraham
Rothberg, poet and fiction writer, have combined their skills in
gathering poems, stories, essays, legends and statements about
Jews and Judaism, in their "Bar Mitzvah Companion," a book
of real merit, published by Behrman House (1261 B'way, N.Y. I).
The two authors showed real understanding of Jewish
literary values in the editing of this volume which, as they state,
is more than a mere Bar Mitzvah Companion but is a companion
for life. They have utilized important selections from the Bible
and the Talmud, have delved deep into the Jewish heritage and
have quoted from great Jewish scholars as well as from the
writings of eminent non-Jews.
* * *
The Prologue at once reveals the method of approach of
the authors. They start with a quotation from Louis Brandeis
who declared that "it is not wealth, social standing and am-
bition which can make us worthy of the Jewish name and
heritage. To be worthy of them, we must live up to them .. .
Every young man must feel that he is the trustee of what is
best in Jewish history." Then come quotations from Genesis,
Shakespeare and Bernard Lazare emphasizing the importance
of the Jewish heritage."
Then come the numerous sections that describe the heritage
and the Jewish values—under self-explanatory sections—"You
and Your God," you and your self, your fellow man, your people,
your tradition, your country and Israel.
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In every section, there are "Words to Live By." In the first,
about God, quotations are from the Talmud, Baal Shem Tov,
Hassidism, Samuel Agnon and Sam Levenson. The latter said:
"My wife and I and our children like to believe that God dwells
in our house, so we feel that it is only proper that on the Sabbath
we should return the courtesy of visiting Him in Hit house."
In the portion "You and Your God," which contains selections
from Scriptures and folklore, is incorporated the famous story
by Isaac Loeb Peretz, "Bontzye the Meek" ("Bontzye Shweig").
Many famous names are represented in this volume, in-
eluding Moses Maimonides, Ahad Ha-Am, Sholem Aleichent,
Baruch Spinoza, Maxim Gorky, Maurice Samuel, Mendele
Mocher Sforim, Albert Einstein, Meyer Levin, Israel Salanter,
Felix Adler, Joseph Hertz, Martin Buber, Edmund Fleg, Mark
Twain, Milton Steinberg, Rufus Learsi, Sholem Asch, Matthew
Arnold, Heinrich Heine, Simon Dubnow, Abraham J. Heschel,
Israel Goldstein, Ludwig Lewisohn, Emma Lazarus, S. An-Sky,
Charles Angoff, Henry George, Walt Whitman, Abram Leon
Sachar, Quentin Reynolds, Abba Hillel Silver, &maid Garrison
Villard, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Grover
Cleveland, Emil Hirsch, Stephen S. Wise, Theodor Herzl, ChM&
Weizmann, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Moshe Smilansky, David Ben-Gurion,
Max Brod and many others.
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The famous essay on the Yellow Badge, "Wear It With
Pride," which originally appeared in Judische Ruridschau, 'is
part of the splendid compilation "You and Your People."
A quotation from Anne Frank, "Before I Sleep," is in the
"You and Your Self" portion.
Maimonides' "Eight Degrees of Charity" is included in the
"You and Your Fellow Man" section. In that portion also is in-
cluded the famous story by Maxim Gorky, "The Little Jewish Boy."
The scores of other quotations are too numerous to mention.
Suffice it to indicate that Emma Lazarus' famous poems, "Gifts"
and "The New Colossus" are in this book, and that some of the
most famous words of wisdom from the Bible and the Talmud will
be found in "Bar Mitzvah Companion." Also, major statements
on Zionism and Israel are to be found here.
This is a truly valuable book which will be treasured by
all who possess it.