Guiding Spirit of Thanksgiving
THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Associations, 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, 1952 at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under act of Congress of
March 8, 1879.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ HARVEY ZUCKERBERG
Business Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the seventeenth day of. Kislev, 5722, the following Scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentatenchal portion, Wa-yishlah, Gen. 32:4-36:43. Prophetical portion, Hosea 11:7-12:12.
Licht Benchen,
VOL. XL. No. 13
Friday. Nov. 24, 4147 p.m.
Page Four
November 24, 1961
Apartheid and South African Jewry
South African Jewry's Chief Rabbi,
Dr. Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, has settled
in Israel, giving up one of the most
sought-after rabbinic posts in the world.
He left his constituency with a message
of good will, but it is no secret that there
were tensions between him and the Jews
in South Africa, created by the racial
issue and Apartheid.
When he left South Africa, Dr. Ra-
binowitz said that he "conceived a great
affection" for the country and that he
hopes to be visiting there. But he. added:
"South Africa has a great future when
it gives up Apartheid. It is my conviction
that, when the racial problem here is
solved on the basis of the equality and
brotherhood of man, South Africa will
enter a phase so glorious as to dwarf all
its past achievements."
In this brief comment is contained
the painful factor of a. rabbi who took
issue not only with the general com-
munity where he ministered but also with
the Jewish people whom he represented
in his spiritual functions.
It was a battle that was reflected also
in the United Nations, where Israel's
delegates spoke up against Apartheid.
Last week Israel's Deputy Permanent
UN Representative, Arieh Eshel, branded
as "reprehensible and repugnant" South
Africa's "policies based on racial dis-
crimination." While he opposed, in behalf
of Israel, clauses in a pending UN resolu-
tion that would result in the possible
expulsion of the Republic of South Africa
from UN membership, as introduced by
seven African and four Arab 'League
members and co-sponsored by 30 nations,
he reiterated that Apartheid is to be
deplored.
*
*
*
Thus, the South African situation
emerges as a serious problem for Jewry.
In a farewell statement, Dr. Rabinowitz
declared:
"I have a respect for South Africa as a
state, and South Africans as a people, whether
English or Afrikaans, who are entitled to their
language and culture and national achieve-
ments. I do not share the prophecies of doom
we hear from some people about the future.
I believe that South Africa has an assured
future. But, when it comes to the question of
Apartheid, my conscience will not let me rest.
I cannot accept that the color of a man's skin
shall dictate what privileges he may or may
not enjoy. I know that color discrimination
here is not confined to one party, but has
formed part of the policy of every South
African Government. I know that there is a
historical background to it, and that it will
not disappear overnight. I am nevertheless
convinced that it is ethically wrong, and that
it is my duty as a rabbi to say so."
hopeless about South African Jewry. On
the contrary, he said:
"I am absolutely convinced that South
African Jewry has an assured future. And I
am thinking not only of survival, but of devel-
opment and progress. As long as there is a
white community in South Africa—and I am
convinced there will always be a white com-
munity—there will be a Jewish community
here. South African Jewry has struck roots.
It is no longer a clock which was wound up in
Lithuania and is now running down because
there is no one to wind it up again. South
African Jewry has its own latent strength, and
the South African-born generation is going to
do more than maintain the standards of the
Jewish community.
"I think that youth is going to be more
attracted to religious values. Those who do not
go on Aliyah to Israel will not find in local
Zionist work enough to fill their spiritual void.
For many of the previous generation, Zionism
became a replacement of religion. Now religion
will come into its own.
"As far as the political situation is con-
cerned, I think the Jew in South Africa suffers
from an exaggerated sense of vulnerability.
The position of the Jew as part of South
Africa is very strong. Neither the English nor
the Afrikaaner South African is anti-Semitic.
I don't believe there is going to be, now or in
the future, a specifically 'Jewish' aspect- to the
racial conflict in South Africa."
Meanwhile, however, desiring to steer
clear of the painful controversy revolv-
ing around the Apartheid issue, South
African Jews had expressed resentment
against the stand taken by Rabbi Ra-
binowitz, and some believe that he left
the country for Israel because of that
controversy.
*
*
*
The South African Apartheid issue
involving Dr. Rabinowitz is in - some
measure related to Jewish experiences
in the South of our own land. There have
been instances of rabbis leaving their
congregations because they found it nec-
essary to condemn racial segregation in
areas where Jews sought positions of
neutrality. Since it is difficult, if not im-
possible, to be neutral in such matters,
the issue found some communities split
on the issue.
It is a grave matter, since it involves
the security of Jews in some quarters.
In South Africa Apartheid is the law
of the land,. but in the United States
desegregation has become the law of the
land. Yet, the issue exists in both areas
because of the sentiments of the people
among whom Jews live and with whom
they must work in harmony.
Courageous rabbis, wherever they may
be, will speak up against racial indigni-
ties. This is true of the South of the
United States as well as of the Republic
of South Africa.
'The Unity of the Jewish Spirit'
'Judaism,' Edited by Hertzberg,
Ably Interprets Jewish Values
George Braziller Publishers (215 Park Ave. S., N.Y. 3) have
issued, as part of the "Great Religions of Modern Man" series,
a volume on "Judaism" edited by Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg of
Englewood, N. J. It is one of the noteworthy books of the year
and it deserves top rating as a guide for those who seek
information about "the Unity of the Jewish Spirit throughout
the ages—its basic values and affirmations as a religious way
of life expressed in the words of its classic authorities."
While Rabbi Hertzberg has drawn upon the great scholars
and authors of all ages for explanations and evaluations of the
People of the Covenant, the God Idea, the Torah, the year's
cycle as it functions through the Sabbath and festivals, the Land
of Israel, Jewish Doctrines and Prayers, it is the manner of
his editing and linking all the views and his choice of material
that makes his book stand out as a truly valuable contribution
to Jewish thinking and idealism. '
A typical example of the manner in which he treats all
his subjects is his review of the Messiah Idea in Jewish litera-
ture. He begins by explaining "two countertendencies," the
"ecstatic poetry of the prophets," suggesting that "the Messiah
would come as the result of cataclysms and cosmic miracles";
and the "sober views in the Bible, which identify the Messiah
with real political events, like the restoration of the Jews- from
Babylonian captivity by their deliverer, the Persian King
Cyrus."
He then proceeds to quote from Isaiah ("They shall beat
their swords into plowshares . . nation shall not lift up sword
against nation") and Jeremiah ("Judah will be saved and Israel
will dwell securely"), and he quotes a parable from Sanhedrin
98a, in which the prophet Elijah tells Rabbi Joshua ben Levi
that the Messiah is at the gate and will come "Today—if you
will hearken to His voice."
Shaarey Zedek's One Hundredth Anniversary
There follow references to the views of Saadia Gaon, who
said Elijah will manifest himself to those who, remaining among
deserters of the faith, are purified; and Maimonides, who admon.-
ished that "man must never ponder over legendary accounts"
but must trust and wait for the day when "the whole world will
be solely intent on the knowledge of the Lord."
The more modern ideas are of special interest. Rabbi
Hertzberg quotes from the precursor of Theodor Herzl, Rabbi
Zvi Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874), who said that Israel's re-
demption "is not to be imagined as a sudden miracle," that
the Almighty "will not send His Messiah from heaven in the
twinkling of an eye," that "the Redemption will begin by
awakening support among the philanthropists and by gaining
the consent of the nations." Rabbi Kalischer, the venerable and
saintly scholar, believed in the .Redemption and in the Messiah,
but he maintained that "for all this to come about there must
first be Jewish resettlement in the Land; without such settle-
ment, how can the ingathering begin?" Thus, a great religious
leader believed in the practical way of redeeming Zion.
The Jewish News salutes Congregation
Shaarey Zedek on its one hundredth
anniversary.
In the Special Supplement, dedicated
to this anniversary, included in this issue,
the synagogue's leaders join in evaluating
the congregation's role in the community,
and - national leaders join in greeting the
Shaarey Zedek.
This important anniversary represents
a landmark for our entire community.
All Detroit Jews surely feel a strong
kinship with Shaarey Zedek, whose rabbis,
officers and members have played im-
portant roles in every aspect of Jewish
life.
Shaarey Zedek must be thought of in
Rabbi Hertzberg pursues the same procedure in the treat-
ment of all the other subjects in his book. He evaluates his
ideas in a scholarly introduction in which he discusses the
"chosen people" concept. He states that the "chosenness" already
was a mystery to the Bible itself and became a scandal to many
and he adds that "there can be no 'chosen people' unless there
is a God who does the choosing," a God who does the choosing
"for the task of strictest obedience."
The editor of "Judaism" ' shows, therefore, that "classical
Judaism is a revealed religion." Providing authoritative data in
his evaluation of the elements in Judaism, he resorts to the Bible
and the Talmud, to such masters as Maimonides and Saadia
Gaon; to modern scholars like Samson Raphael Hirsch, Edmond
Fleg, Kaufmann Kohler, Haym Nahman Bialik, Mordecai Kap-
lan, Solomon Scehchter, Moses Luzatto, Theodor Herzl, Abraham
Isaac Kook and many others.
This volume on "Judaism" has great merit. It will serve as
an inspiration in homes that attain it.
The distinguished rabbi did not sound
terms of its links nationally with the
Conservative Movement, with the Jewish
Theological Seminary, the great school of
learning which is the seat of Conservative
Judaism, and with the United Synagogue
of America, of which Shaarey Zedek was
one of the founding congregations.
The approaching visit in Detroit of
the venerable head of the Jewish Theo-
logical Seminary, to mark the synagogue's
anniversary and to stimulate increased
interest in the Seminary, adds significance
to the Shaarey Zedek celebration to which
we extend heartiest greetings and best
wishes for continued progress by the con-
gregation and all the services with which
it is associated.
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