THE JEWISH NEWS
Han,ukah, 1959
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers. Michigan Press Association, Nationa,
Editorial Association
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.. 17100 West Seven Mile Road. Detroit 35
Mich.. WE 8-9364 Subscription $5 a year Foreign S6
Entered as second class matter Aug 6. 1942 at Post Ottic, Detroit. Mich under act of Congress of March
b. 187:
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
• Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Circulation Manager
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath—first day of Hanukah—the twenty-fifth day of Kislev, 5720, the following
Scriptural selections will be read in our .synagogues:
Pentateuchal portions, Vayeshev, Gen. 37:1-40:23. Num.. 7:1-17. Prophetical portion,
Zechariah 2:14-4:7.
First Hanukah light to be lit tonight.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Dec. 25, 4:48 p.m.
VOL. XXXVI, No. 17
December 25, 1959
Page Four
Hanukah--Feast of Religious Liberty
Hanukah means dedication. It spells
light and this Feast of Lights, which we
inaugurate tonight with the lighting of
the first candle—to continue for eight
nights — also is properly called Feast
of Dedication and Feast of Religious
Liberty.
It is one of the great festivals on our
calendar that delight grownups as well
as children. Its lesson remains among the
major ones in the battle for human liberty
and justice.
* * *
Hanukah's background goes back to
the days of the cruel Hellenic ruler
Antiochus Epiphanes who had set out to
conquer the Judaeans by imposing upon
them pagan regulations and ruthlessly to
destroy their culture. It was in the year
165 BCE that he found himself opposed
by a determined people that would not
give up its religious independence. A
small group of ill-fed men, led by the
courageous .Maccabaeans, challenged An-
tiochus by their insistence upon retaining
their religious and national liberties and
by rejecting the tryanny with which they
were threatened.
The story is told in the First and Sec-
- and Books of the Maccabees, in the Apo-
crypha. The Maccabaean story quotes the
speeches of Mattathias and his son Judas
to their brave followers. Mattathias at
first lamented because "the Temple is
become as a man without glory," that "the
sanctuary is laid waste and the Gentiles
have profaned it." Then, when the Greek
officers demanded offers of sacrifices to
their gods, he proclaimed: .
"God forbid that we should forsake
the law and the ordinances. We will not
hearken to the king's words, to go from
our religion . . ."
Before he died, Mattathias admonished
his sons: "Be valiant, show yourselves
men in behalf of the law . . .
* * *
The Apocryphal Book of the Macca-
bees contains the text of Judas Macca-
baeus' speech to his followers. It relates
that "the brave soldiers under Judah's
command would often lose courage when
they saw the mighty army of Antiochus
which was so much larger and stronger
than their own. Judas would speak to his
followers and put fearlessness and cour- -
age into their hearts." And Judas Macca-
baeus spoke to them:
"It is no hard. matter for many to be shut
up in the hands of a few; and with the God
of Heaven it is all ane, to deliver with a
great multitude, or a small company:
"For the victory of battle standeth not in
the multitude of an host; but strength cometh
from heaven.
"They come against us in much 'pride and
iniquity to destroy us, and our wives and
children, and to spoil us.
"But we fight far our lives and our laws.
"Wherefore the Lord himself will over-
throw . them before our face; and as for you,
be ye not afraid of them.
"Arm yourselves, and be valiant men,
and see that ye be in readiness against - the
morning, that ye may fight with these nations
that are assembled together against us to
destroy us and aztr sanctuary:
"For it is better for us to die in battle
than to behold the calamities of our people
and our sanctuary.
"Fear ye not their multitude, neither be
ye afraid of their assault.
"Remember how our fathers were de-
livered in the Red Sea, when Pharaoh gu.rsited
them with an army.
"Now therefore let us cry unto heaven,
if peradventure the Lord will have mercy
upon us, amd remember the covenant of our
fathers, and destroy this host before our face
this day:
"That so all the heathen may know that
there is one who delivereth and saveth Israel."
* * *
In the speeches of Mattathias and his
son Judas are incorporated the scores
upon scores of inspirations to courage
that needed to be uttered throughout the
history of the descendants of the Macca-
bees. Their struggle for religious freedom
has been valiant and it emerged in the
triumphs of survival because the Jewries
who were attacked had learned the
lessons of courage that were taught them
by the Maccabees.
Now we face a new era—an era of
freedom and liberalism in which the im-
positions of idolatrous practices are non-
existent, in which the Jewries of the
world no longer need fear the ruthless
enforcement upon them of strange reli-
gious codes. Perhaps the new freedoms
make the struggle for religious and cul-
tural loyalties more difficult.
Yet, the lessons of the Maccabees of
old persist in our own time. They remain
the guiding lights that inspire us to an
uncompromising adherence to the prin-
ciples which dominate our faith and
which deny tyranny and oppression when-
ever they raise their ugly heads.
a
* *
The triumph of the Maccabees not
only protected Judaism but made it possi-
ble for other faiths to retain the freedoms
that were gained for Israel by the Macca-
bees. It has therefore been indicated,
with great truth, that the Maccabaean
triumph was a triumph for religious
liberties for all mankind.
Now we again celebrate the great
Festival of Lights as an occasion on which
to proclaim to ourselves and to our neigh-
bors that we glory in the heritage of
undistinguished lights for the liberty-
loving of all ages and all peoples.
May this light never be extinguished
and may the Hanukah lesson continue to
inspire mankind along the road of
libertarian idealism. This is the spirit in
which we greet our people with hearty
wishes for a Happy Hanukah.
far-Ilan University's Detroit Supporters
One of the phenomenal triumphs for them was a group of Detroit Jews who
Israel's educational system is in evidence dedicated their efforts in the univer-
-
behalf.
in Ramat Gan, the suburb . of Tel AViv, sity's
For several years, the Detroit Corn-
where the Mizrachi-sponsored Bar-Ilan mittee for Bar-Ilan University has: con-
University is making rapid progress., tinued to remind our community of the
This new school already has graduated attainments of this school, and has
a number of students and it is now in- progressively enrolled new sponsors. The
troducing a number of new departments annual dinner of the local committee,
Which. will make it a university with a scheduled for Jan. 1.2, will undoubtedly
high 'rating. again attract additional DetrOit support-
Bar Ilan University owed its • start ers for this project, which has emerged
tn a rilirnhpr a A mpricaris nrid nrnang as a most worthy. Israeli cause.
-
Timely for the Feast of Lights
'
Complete Book of Hanukah'
Replete with Holiday Facts
Friendly House Publishers (65 Sufford, N.Y. 2) has just
issued a valuable source book for Hanukah. Parents as well as
their children will benefit greatly from "The Complete Book of
Hanukah," by Kinneret Chiel.
Ably and interestingly illustrated by Arnold Lobel, this
volume is replete with facts about Hanukah and contains a great
deal of program material.
In addition to the story of Hanukah, the author, who resides
in Tuckahoe, N.Y., has compiled facts about the observance of the
festival today in various lands. The noteworthy volume contains
the First Book of the Maccabees and numerous Hanukah
legends—about Hannah and her seven sons; Judith; why Jews
spill the dreidel, miracle of the jug of oil, and others.
*
*
*
Then there follow a number of the important poems about
Hanukah, from the First Book of Maccabees and the works of
Elma Ehrlich Levinger, J. Fichman, Jessie Sampter, Henry
W. Longfellow, Philip Raskin and Rufus Learsi.
There are songs and prayers for Hanukah, stories about the
Festival by I. L. Peretz, Leon Spitz, Sholom Aleichem and
David Einhorn. To make the book complete—in its value for the
housewife as well as the rest of the family—there is a section
of Foods on Hanukah.
Adding to the merits of this interesting book is an in-
troductory essay by Budd Schulberg under the title "Reflec-
tions on Hanukah and the American Struggle for Indepen-
deuce." The essayist speaks of the Jews as having come to the
United States "as 'ready-made citizens,' in the sense that our
history was preparing us for the free atmosphere of American
life for thousands of years ... When I think of the Maccabaean
revolution, Mattathias was Torn Paine, Ben Franklin and
Sam Adams gathered into one towering figure . . When
we celebrate Hanukah, we honor both the traditions of Juda-
ism and reinvigorate the principles of Americanism."
Chiel, in his preface quotes Mr. Justice Louis D. Brandeis'
statement that "courage, hope, enthusiasm, devotion and self-
sacrifice of the plain people" as explaining the "qualities of the
Jews who resisted the Syrian tyranny and made possible the
Maccabaean victory, and these were the secret of their eternal
youth."
Historic Hanukah photographs, a glossary and a bibliography
complete the book. Its entire contents, wisely gathered, provide
us with a most valuable book on and about Hanukah.
Works by Noted Writers
Israeli War and Peace Poetry
Published by Herzl Institute
Indicating that "the bridge between war and peace in Israel
is indeed tenuous," Gabriel Preil states in his author's note to
the new Herzl Institute pamphlet, "Israeli Poetry in Peace and
War," that his notes "attempt to present and interpret some of
the moving forces in the works of Israeli poets." _
The poems in the brochure were translated by Preil, Hilda
Auerbach, Charles A. Cowen, Simon Halkin, Sholom J. Kahn,
Jacob Sloan and Dov Vardi.
Poets represented in the peace period are Uri Zvi Green-
berg, Leah Goldberg, S. Shalom; and there is a complete chapter
on "war poetry."
Americans who contributed to this poetry, whose "symbolic
tie binds them to Israel," are Israel Efros, Reuven Avinoam and
T. Carmi. Poems by Hayim Guri and Amir Gilboa complete the
interesting brochure.