October 5, 1962

1:0

Days of Awe in Algeria Are Days
of Unprecedented Sorrow, Travail

ALGIERS, (JTA) — The sad- monthly, and on food packages
dest Rosh Hashanah in many labeled "donated by the people
centuries was observed here by of the United States of America."
the decimated - Jewish commun-
The once-active Jewish organi-
ity, shrunk to no more than 4,000 zations and institutions, cultural,
of a total of about 50,000 who religious or' charitable, are dor-
had flourished in this capital. mant or non-existent. Leaders of
The Days of Awe here are, in- the community said that after
deed, days , of unprecedented Yom Kippur they . plan on taking
and travail.
a census of the Jews still remain-
rt1 i sorrow
Of the 12 synagogues previ- ing here and - hi the rest of the
ously holding regular services country. On the basis of this
here, only two are functioning count, they hOpe to develop
now. Of the more than 30 rab- some sort of program of relief,
bis who were here prior to the religious revival and cultural
vast exodus of Algerian Jewry, rebirth.
only four remain. Of the 19
Cq members
of the old Consistoire
Israelite, only four are still
here. These include -Henri Goz-
lan, who retains his post as
municipal veterinarians for the
city of Algiers, and Georges
Moatti, who owns a grocery store
in an area inhabited by Moslems.
A
Rabbi Gilbert Seror, one of
the four spiritual leaders still
W
m here, showed the community's
helplessness as he presided over
the Rosh Hashanah services. He
tried to preach what he called
"encouragement and hope" —
but- his efforts were half-hearted.
Separated from their kin, so
many of whom had departed, the
Jews here are also separated in-
ternally, each small, local group
in this large city having only one
common contact — the relief of-
fice of the American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee,
which is functioning actively.
Many of the Jews here live on
$12 in cash which they get

,

An Early Settler
Moses Arnbrosius, Who ar-
rived in New - Amsterdam, new
New York City, in September,
1654, among the first shipload
of Jews to reach the colony,
was held as a. hostage by the
authorities until the full
amount of passage money for
all the Jewish settlers was paid.
The group consisted of refugees
from Bahia, Brazil.

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Change in Teaching
Religion Sought by
Board in Canada

TORONTO, (JTA) — A new
direction in the contentious issue
of religion in Canadian schools
- is indicated by the school board
of the Toronto suburb of North
York which has instructed its
director of education to meet
with parents, teachers and
clergymen to deal with the ques-
tion.
Ontario law governing public
schools differs from the Ameri-
can practice in that it provide -s
for religious education in the
schools. Canadians who seek to
raise a barrier between the state
. and religion in the school find
themselves ranged against the
nation's constitution and tradi-
tions.
The difficulty has been that
Ontario Jews and many others
are not satisfied with the nature
of the course on religion offered
in the schools, and find it too
nearly Protestant in its denomi-
national -character. Tht law.pro-
vides for Jewish parents to have
their children excused from re-
ligion classes, but many find it
embarrassing to take advantage
of this provision. •
The North York school authori-
ties intend that an entirely new
course which would meet the
needs of all religious groups,
and would not merely provide
instruction in Protestant Christi-
anity, should be drafted. It is for
this purpose that the board had
convened interested persons to
assist in the drafting of such a
course.
The Toronto Star came out
with an article suggesting a re-
vision of the law to drop relig-
ious education in the public
schools entirely and instituting
instead a course for high schools
on the comparative study of re-
ligions, reasoning that by high
school age children have devel-
oped some reasoning ability.

Salomon Natan Eskenazi, an
Italian-Jewish physician and dip-
lomat who, lived in the 16th cen-
tury, after emigrating to Turkey,
became personal physician to
the Sultan. In this capacity, he
was effective in securing relief
for Jews in communities through-
out Europe by influencing the
ambassadors to Constantinople
of the countries concerned,

•

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