When Will It Open?
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 $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid At Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ SIDNEY SHMARAK HARVEY ZUCKERBERG
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighth day of Heshwan, 5724, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateachal portion: Gen. 12:1-17:27. Prophetical portion: Isaiah 40:27-41:16.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Oct. 25, 5:18 p.m.
VOL. XLIV. No. 9
Page Four
October 25, 1963
Prospects for American Jewish Unity
Bernard G. Richards, the director of
the Jewish Information Bureau, who has
a record of more than a half century of
service to American and world Jewries
and who is one of our best informed
historians, believes that "vital affairs af-
fecting the whole of Jewry . . . has be-
come a matter of private enterprise";
that "monolithic action in public Jewish
matters has become generally accepted,"
and his contention is that "the vote for
the maintenance of chaos is almost
unanimous."
This sounds like an indictment of
American Jewry for the failure to create
a well-functioning, unified group that
could speak authoritatively for the Jews
of this country.
In his analysis of existing conditions,
Mr. Richards contends that "the picture
of an aspiring, idealistic, adhesive Ameri-
can Jewish community is fast fading—
and the outlook for the future is as
blurred as it is uncertain. The outward
forms of representative and comprehen-
sive organization are dwindling and even
the ideologies which motivated the striv-
ings for greater unity are disappearing
and becoming ever more nebulous:"
He maintains that while there have
been protests against Soviet anti-Semitism
and condemnations of the Arab boycott
of Jewish business firms and of anti-
Jewish demonstrations in Latin America,
"all this has been done without thought
of the cumulative effect of concerted
action on the part of a unified com-
munity."
The presently functioning Jewish
leadership would be unwise if it were to
fail to view these observations with grave
seriousness. They were made by a respon-
sible student of Jewish affairs, a man who
has held important positions of leader-
ship, whose ability to observe develop-
ments in American Jewish communities
is among the keenest in our ranks. All
of us must take him seriously and we
must look for a solution to the existing
problem if "the chaos" he spoke of is
not to throw us into a complete state of
impotence.
* *
*
Mr. Richards continued his excoria-
tion of the lack of unity in American
Jewry by stating:
"Think of the confusion of ideas and dis-
couraging decline of the Jewish pride and
self-respect. A Zionist publication, Midstream,
Spring, 1962, gives circulation to the Bruno
Bettelheim blasphemy and slander by printing
his creed on 'Freedom from Ghetto Thinking,'
Ill which he alleges that a certain mental atti-
tude prevented our people from defending
themselves against their nazi assailants. It
remained for a non-Zionist or neutral publi-
cation. Commentary, and for a writer who is
an alleged assimilationist, Prof. Oscar Handlin
of Harvard, to answer and refute this libel
cast upon the Jews of Europe, and the pro-
fessor deserves much credit for his courage-
ous and forthright article, which appeared in
that magazine in November 1962.
"At the recent assembly in Philadelphia
of the Council of Jewish Federations and
Welfare Funds, Mr. Label Katz, the personable
president of the Bnai Brith, held out the olive
branch with the promise or possibility of
rejoining the N.C.R.A.C. (National Commun-
ity Relations Advisory Council) but then this
body—with its clumsy name, general immobil-
ity, and growing infatuation with the good-
will cure for phobias—fails to arouse much
enthusiasm.
"Of course, it would grow stronger with
the return to it of the Bnai Brith and, more
hopefully, the American Jewish Committee.
N.C.R.A.C. may then move forward beyond
the stage of an ersatz all-over organization.
Meanwhile, the hefker-welt, the communal ir-
responsibility in Jewish affairs, is quite
complete."
Were these "better days" in American
Jewish communal functioning? Mr. Rich-
ards, whose lifetime activities were con-
ducted against one-man leadership and
shtadlanut (individual in t e r c e s s i o n),
seems to believe that we have had
stronger individualism in the past. Re- New Classic by Dr. Freehof
ferring to an earlier generation, he de-
clared:
"Quite aside from the lack of compre-
hensive organization, we are now bereft of
that type of moral leadership which in an
earlier day blocked unnecessary divisions and
the unseemly display of discordance and dis-
order by Virtue of the force of personalities
of intense conviction and sincerity."
Time and again we have joined in
warnings that fund-raising per se is not
enough as a stimulant for the strengthen-
ing of Jewish ranks. We have reiterated
and we continue to hold to the view that
the crises which have arisen in world
Jewry have made the need for large sums
of relief monies so vitally necessary that
our leadership was built upon the quick-
sand of campaigning for contributions.
NoW we are beginning to appreciate
the need for better informed leaders, for
guidance that will remove the hefkerut
—the anarchy—which often plagues us
with a lack of unity of action.
*
*
*
Wherein lies the solution? How can
we build a better leadership when so
many of the fund-raisers are lacking in
basic knowledge of Jewish affairs? What
is to be done about the indifference
towards Jewish needs in the ranks of our
youth, many of whom are reluctant to
accept their historic heritage with honor
and dignity?
Perhaps the picture is not as grim
as it sounds. It is possible that our youth
is much more responsive than we realize.
The United Jewish Appeal seems to be
succeeding in organizing a stronger youth
affiliation, and the synagogue youth
movement is gaining ground.
But the latter proves temporary the
moment the young people enter the uni-
versities and at once shed all concern
about Jewish matters, and the UJA youth
affiliations again are geared at fund-
raising.
The responsibility for correcting the
existing conditions and the duty to create
a better informed leadership may de-
volve upon our educators. And in this
sphere, too, we are far from powerful or
creative. There is a shortage of teachers
in the elementary schools, and there is
a complete lack • of inspirational leader-
ship in adult cultural , activities.
Are we in chaos? If Mr. _Richards
wrong, we need proof of refutable argu-
ments against his thesis. If we possess
the strength to make our heritage a
workable one to hand down to the next
generation, there will be need of better
evidence than is now available. The lack
of American Jewish unity is traceable to
a lack of concern and to an extended
indifference to everything other than
social prestiges and fund-raising suc-
cesses. We'd better look to our laurels if
we have the slightest evidence that Mr.
Richards' analysis of our status is not a
correct one.
'Recent Reform Responsa'
Dr. Solomon B. Freehof's "Responsa" are • beginning to mount
into a library all their own. The noted Pittsburgh rabbi now has
to his credit a number of outstanding works on Jewish religious
codes and the Scriptures and on Re-
sponsa. His newest, "Recent Reform
Responsa," issued by University Pub-
lishers (239 Park Ave. S., NY3), as
a publication of the Alumni Associa-
tion of Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion, adds many
answers to .vital questions posed to
and replied by Reform rabbis.
Rabbi Freehof shows that in the
Reform movement "there has been
an observable change of mood toward
the rabbinic literature." He states:
A legal system prides itself upon
its logic, but it is often quite illogical
. . . Daily life becomes often more
logical due to the necessity of con-
forming to law. But law itself is Dr. Freehof
moved by emotions which reflect the moods of the people. This -
emotionalizing of the logical instrument can be traced in the de-
velopment of Jewish law, particularly in the last few centuries."
Continuing his explanation of the Reform attitudes towards
legalism, Dr. Freehof states that "in the early days Reform
Judaism was very close to its Orthodox origin," that there was
a strong interest in questions of Jewish law, that now there is
the same desire to come to some decisions on the basis of
Jewish law and traditions.
"We are not reverting to the past," he states, "except insofar
as we have returned to the same sense of kinship with Ortho-
doxy which has occurred in the early days of our movement. It
is not easy for us today, with our family bond with Orthodoxy,
to brush aside or to remain ignorant of Jewish law, as was
possible and 'easy a generation ago before we had our new sud-
den growth. Our movement is again in family relationship with
Orthodoxy and therefore feels a kinship and a need to come to
terms with the legal systems which govern Orthodox life."
The ensuing themes indicate an earnest effort to emphasize
the above with action. Included in the 50 subjects covered in
"Recent Reform Responsa" are: Miscegenation and Conversion
of Negroes; Kaddish When Worshiping Alone, Jew Joining Uni-
tarian Church, Mentally Retarded Child and Bar Mitzvah, Use of
Temple Organ by Christians, Temple Membership by Mixed
Couple, Menopause, Breast-Feeding or BOttle 'Feeding, Breaking
a Glass at Weddings, Kaddish for Apostates and Gentiles, Cir-
cumcising Son of Gentile Wife, and the many include multiple
problems that call for expanations of religious' involvement. -
The timeliness of this volume is indicated also by the "inclusion of. an
answer to the question "Who Is a Jew?" Dr. Freehof's reply is that Israel
"is not deeidinrr for the Jewish RELIGION who is a., Jew. It is making .only
a civic or politfcal decision as to which of the three communities:. Christian,
Mohammedan or Jewish, the citizen belongs. The religious tests remain." He
adds: "There IS a Jewish State. Without going into the complex question of
the State's status in Jewish religion, it appears to be clear, that whatever
assimilation there is, it will be TOWARD Judaism and not away from it.
Therefore, it is again possible to have GER TOSHAV, half-proselytes . .
The present -difficbulty with the religious groups has arisen chiefly because
of a conftisioh between GER ZEDEK, the full proselyte, and GER TOSHAV,
the half- or .tentative proselyte. If the State will now declare that it does
not proclaim•these children GER ZEDEK, he State is only making a GER
TOSHAV decision affirming the civic right to choose to belong to the Jewish
community Other than to the Christian or Mohammedan community. It is
with this clear distinction that I believe a solution can be reached."
On the question of miscegenation and conversion of Negroes,
Rabbi Freehof, replying to the inquiry whether he had ever
converted a Negro, his answer was "no," and he qualified it:
"But that is because we avoid converts, except those who come
for the purpose of marriage, and marriage between Jews and
Negroes is rare. What if a Negro came to me and wanted to be
converted in order to marry a Jewess? For the sake of their
happiness, I would make every effort to dissuade him and his
Jewish bride-to-be. If I failed, I would, with many misgivings,
convert him."
There is such a wealth of information, so much thought-
provoking material, in this book, that Rabbi Freehof's new
"Responsa" collection serves a most valuable purpose and should
be in every Jewish home—regardless of whether it is Orthodox
or Reform..'..„ ,
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