Abi Gesunt

By DAVID SCHWARTZ

Synagogue Council
Denounces Editor of
I've been leading a lazy life front of a house, she saw the
of late—being sick. When you sign, Alexander Gutmacher, Soviet Yiddish Paper

(Copyright, 1963, JTA, Inc.)

are sick all you've got to do is
lie in bed. There is an old Yid-
dish saying that, when you are
sick, you have only one worry;
but when you are well, you have
many worries. Of course, it may
be better to have a lot of little
worries than one big worry.

But now, I'm out of the hos-
pital. All I have to do is diet.
No salt, no fat, no milk, no
cream, no roughage, nothing
spicy, no stimulants. Outside of
that, I can eat almost anything,
particularly Jello.

Hooray for Jello

But we Jews are accustom.
ed to dieting. It began with
Moses who forbade the eat-
ing of hog meat and also of
certain kinds of fish. It is not
stated in the Torah that their
prohibition was for health
reasons, but many have thought
so. It is noted that hog meat
always brings the danger of
trichinosis and that fish which
have no fins and scales with
which to swim far, tend to
remain in stagnant waters
and so may become sources
of Infection. -
Even in Torah days, there
were professional physicians.
The prophet Isaiah advised a

Doctor of Philosophy.
She decided to try this new
doctor for her ailment but Dr.
Gutmacher quickly let her
knew that he was not a medi-
cal doctor but a doctor of phil-
osophy.
"Philisophy," she repeated,
"vas fur a kraink iz das?"
(Philosophy, what sort of a
disease is that?")
There are some consola-

tions in. illness. For one
thing, people are really nice
to you. They send you cards,
letters. The kindness of peo-
ple emerges. It is the triviali-
ties that make us unfriendly,
and during sickness that is
forgotten. Disraeli said that,
when he couldn't remember
the name of a person he
would come upon, he would
simply say, "How is the old
malady?" and immediately a
kind rapport was established
with that person.
The Talmud says that a per-

son who visits a sick friend
takes away one-sixty-fourth of
his illness.
- Still, as Yiddish expression
has it, "It is better to be well
for one year than sick for even
three years."
And there is an equally
"cake of figs" as a poultice for pertinent expression which
a boil on the body of King comes • to mind: "Abi Gesund!"
Hezekiah, and it worked. Isaiah
apparently was also in favor of
reducing. "And Jeshurun waxed
fat and rebelled," lamented
Isaiah. Fatness, too much lux-
ury and prosperity, he thought
were not propitious for moral

Temple Administrators Elect Adler; Simons
Named Board Member at Biennial Convention

Frank J. Adler of Kansas City trator of Congregation Bnai Je-
NEW YORK (JTA)—The was named president of the Na- hudah, Kansas City, since 1953.
tional Association of Temple Ad-
Frank L. Simons, of Temple
Synagogue Council of America
ministrators at Israel, Detroit, was elected to
cautioned the American Jewish
the final ses- the association's board of
community "not to fall into the
sion of the directors.
trap" of one of the "architects
body's 11th bi-
of the destruction of Judaism"
ennial conven- Beth Moses Plans
in the Soviet Union—Aron Ver-
tion at the
gelis, editor of the Sovietisch
Palmer House, Annual Lathe Party
Heimland, a Yiddish bi-monthly
Chicago.
published in Moscow. Vergelis
The men's club and sister-
The associa- hood of Cong. Beth Moses will
is a member of a group of
tion, an - affili- hold their fourth annual "Latke
Soviet writers on tour of the
ate of the Un- Party" 7:30 p.m. Dec. 15 at the
United States.
ion of Ameri- synagogue.
"Vergelis will, without doubt,
can Hebrew
in his appearance on the Ameri-
The entertainment portion of
C ongregations,
can scene, confront us with a
i s comprised the evening will be "A Concert
barrage whitewashing Soviet
of professional in Miniature," featuring Ralph
anti-Jewish deeds by denying
synagogue
ad- Schiller, violinist of the Detroit
prevailing facts," Rabbi Uri
ministrators
of Symphony Orchestra. He will
Miller, president of the reli-
Reform c o n- be accompanied by Mrs. Lucia
gious coordinating body, stated.
Wolton. Jewish folk melodies
F. J. Adler gregations.
Declaring that Vergelis did
Adler has been the Adminis- and cantorial selections will be
not represent, "let alone speak,"
sung by Israel Idelsohn.
for Soviet Jews, Rabbi Miller
said, that in 1948, Vergelis went 50th Anniversary Convention
Northwest Young
to Birobidjan "to participate in of Temple Sisterhoods
the liquidation of the Jewish to Be Held in Chicago
Israel Sets Program
anti-fascist committee," as a
Young Israel of Northwest
The 50th anniversary of the
member at that time, "of the
Detroit
will meet 9 p.m. Satur-
National
Federation
of
Temple
Soviet secret police."' Rabbi
day in its Youth Center Bldg.,
Miller also asserted that Ver- Sisterhoods will be celebrated
gelis "is considered among Jews at its 24th biennial assembly in Rabbi Ernest E. Greenfield,
of the Soviet Union as one of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, Chi- president, announced. Rabbi
the most active collaborators in cago, opening Sunday and con- James I. Gordon will be the
the liquidation of Jewish re- tinuing through Wednesday, guest of the ,evening. He will
show a series of slides taken on
ligious and cultural institutions Nov. 20. "Judaism and the Pur-
his last trip to Israel. Rabbi
during the Stalin era."
suit of Excellence—Facing the Samuel H. Prero will introduce
Challenges of Change," will be the speaker. Refreshments will
Want ads get quick results!
the theme of the convention.
be served by the sisterhood.

health.

Through the middle ages,

many of the court physicians
were Jews. The great Maimon-
ides was court physician to Sal-
adin. Besides serving his Maj-

esty, Maimonides conducted a

public clinic. One of my favor-

ite stories was of the visit

of

the Bible commentator, Ibn
Ezra, to this clinic. He was not
personally acquainted with Mai-
monides and he had some sus-
picions about the merit of his
great medical fame. So he
thought he would try him. Phys-
ically there was nothing the
matter with him. The only sick-
ness that he suffered from all
his life was lack of money. So
he stood in line at the Maimon-
ides clinic and, when his turn
came, Maimonides examined
him briefly, then instead of put-
ting a medical prescription in
his hand, put a coin in it.
We Jews are great respec-
tors of doctors .I recall a story
they used to tell about a sim-

ple Jewish woman in Odessa.

She had tried all the doctors in
her neighborhood without prof-

it. One day there was a new
sign in the vicinity. In the

Weizmann Institute
Opens Year With
50 Foreign Scientists
REHOVOT, Israel, (JTA) —
Former Prime Minister David

Ben-Gurion pointed to the need

for increased scientific educa-

tion in underdeveloped coun-
tries as a means for bridging
the gap between the affluent
and the poor countries.
Ben- Gurion, who addressed the
opening of the academic year
of the Weizmann Institute, said
he believed that this gap—much
more than the cold war—was
the central issue of our genera-
tion.
It was announced at the cere-
monies that, during the coming
year, the Institute would carry
out research projects commis-
sioned from abroad totaling
$3,500,000, mostly for the U.S.
Government and the Volks-
wagen Foundation in West
Germany. There are currently
some 1,000 scientists and ad-
ministrative personnel at the
Institute, including 50 scientists
from abroad.
•

The W Humor of Sholem Aleichem

Strange to think of Sholem Aleichem in
America, because his stories are the
quintessence of small-town Jewish life in
Russia. Yet not so strange after all, for
there is a humanity in his characters and
their plight that is universal. And that
humanity and plight have b een loved wher-
ever his stories are known. Indeed, a play
based on his work, "The World of Sholem
Aleichem," was cordially received in New
York both on stage and on television.
Sholem Aleichem (the nom de plume of
Solomon Rabinowitz) was born in 1859 in
Russia. He began to write when he was
very young, in Hebrew and Russian. But
Sholem Aleichem is best known as the Yid-
dish humorist—Yiddish, the lingua franca
of Jews all over the world at the time.
The principal item in the literary legacy

of Sholem Aleichem is the typical Jewish

shlemiel, the hapless character with gran-

diose plans that are doomed to failure.
Yet in Aleichem's portrayal of this folk
character there is compassion, tenderness
and understanding. His little people are
individuals, kind, gentle and deeply de-
vout. Their faith in God's' mercy helps
them through what would otherwise be a
poverty-ridden and painful life.
Sholem Aleichem is perhaps best known
today for his ironic story, Bonche Schweig;

Tevye the Dairyman; the comic It's Hard
to Be a Jew; and, of course, his autobiog-

raphy. Death took Sholem Aleichem pre-,
maturely, in New York, in 1916. But the
warmth and wry humor of his work lives
on. He has been called "the Jewish Mark
Twain," a compliment to both writers.

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SPRING

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through Lorillard research

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