THE JEWISH NEWS
Danger of Cut in the Middle
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 48235 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
Business Manager
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE HYAMS
City Editor
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Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the twenty-first day of Tevet, 5725, the following scriptural selec-
tions will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion: Exod. 1:1-6:1: Prophetical portion: Isaiah 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23.
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Licht benshen, Friday, December 25, 4:48 p.m.
VOL. XLVI, No. 18
Page 4
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December 25, 1964
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A Testimonial That Paid Off Well
National organizations have resorted to
the habit of glorifying persons who have
been chosen for honors—as gimmicks that
have become a poptilar way of capitalizing
on behalf of worthy causes.
The testimonial scheme is not always un-
dignified. Very often it marks deserved hon-
ors for a dedicated citizen. Since it always
benefits a good cause it is not to be ridiculed.
The New York Israel Bonds Committee
recently resorted to a deviation: instead of
honoring a rich man, it selected a distin-
guished scholar, the chairman of the Bible
department of Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion in New York and the
man who headed the committee of translators
for the Torah, published by the Jewish Pub-
lication Society of America—Dr. Harry M.
Orlinsky.
His selection was in itself a unique de-
velopment in Jewish communal functions.
The committee for the testimonial dinner in
his honor was composed of scholars. It was
inconceivable that such an event, for a mere
professor, might enlist the rich and could
possibly result in large bond purchases.
Nevertheless, it was a notable event, and the
remarkable result was not only the purchase
of a substantial amount of bonds by the non-
affluent members of the teaching profession
but the fact that it naid off in the form of a
most challenging address by the guest of
honor.
It isn't often that the text of a speech at
a public function possesses the merit of being
reprinted and distributed widely. Prof. Or-
linsky's speech possesses that quality. It must
be remembered that he was speaking at an af-
fair that was utilized for the sale of Israel
Bonds. It was akin to a fund-raising func-
tion. But Dr. Orlinsky rose above the inani-
ties that often mark the appeals for generos-
ity. He utilized the occasion to anneal for the
striving towards creating a Jewishly educated
and oriented leadership.
It was a remarkable address because
it so well outlined the status of American
.Jewry as a group that seeks to ransom itself
by means of philanthropy. At the same time
he proposed a solution to our shortcomings.
We reproduce a major portion of what Prof.
Orlinsky said at the testimonial dinner:
e
I do not know of a more significant combina-
tion of factors in -the present state of Jewish
affairs than the American Jewish community and
the State of Israel; and the character of the
American Jewish community and its attitude
toward Israel will be determined increasingly—
so far as it is in our own power as Jews to do
so—by the Jewishness of the education of our
community. For it is precisely the quality and
quantity of the Jewishness of our American
Jewish community that is—and that should be—
worrying us today.
The manner and rapidity with which the
character and problems of American Jewry have
changed within the past 40 years caught us all by
surprise, and unprepared. After World War I
and well into the Twenties, when the several
millions of Jews that had come from Eastern
Europe to this country and had begotten the
first generation of American-Jewish brood, many,
very many In our midst, saw before their very
eyes, and so predicted, the beginning of the end
of the Jewish community of America; they beheld
the better part—"better" both in quantity and
in quality—of this first generation clearly disap-
pearing from within the framework of Jewish
organization, and activity, and loyalty, and educa-
tion, to a completely non-Jewish milieu. The
attractions held out by the gentile, secular aspects
•of American culture in all its phases proved
much too strong—and why shouldn't it have?—
for the tens and even hundreds of thousands of
young, inquisitive, and talented Jewish men and
women who were but one generation removed
from the restrictions and inhibitions of the towns
and even of the larger urban centers of Eastern
Europe. This is the generation that was lost to us
in every phase of Jewish activity: cultural, relig-
ious, educational and political. This is the lost
generation of the Twenties and Thirties. And so,
it was agreed on all sides, the prognosis of Jewish
continuity, of hemshech, in this country was very
poor indeed.
But then came the Forties and the Fifties.
The entire world of . Jewry, American included,
experienced such complete change as no people
had ever known before in the vast expanse of
human history. An entire center of Jewish society,
the most cultured and learned and consciously
Jewish center of the world, the European center,
more than six million souls in quantity and un-
measurable in quality, was wiped out, as though
it had never been. In the wake of this unprece-
dented catastrophe, another phenomenon, perhaps
even more remarkable in the annals of history,
flashed across the horizon of the globe, the
emergence of the State of Israel after 1900 years
of Jewish statelessness.
The Jewish population of America, as of every
part of the world, dejected by the holocaust of its
immediate ancestor in Eastern and Central Europe,
and guilt-ridden by its failure and inability to
intervene in behalf of its parents and—addition-
ally—depressed and bewildered and frightened by
the increasing withering away of the Jewishness
of the upcoming generation of Jewish youth, took
hold of the State of Israel as the lifebelt of its
salvation.
It is now just over a decade since we have
been supporting Israel—that is, since we have
been doing what is worthwhile for us, what is
good for us and giving us deep satisfaction—by
way of investing in Israel through Israel Bonds,
and by way of the United Jewish Appeal, and by
way of visiting Israel, and by way of purchasing
Israeli products; and the like . . .
But for the many millions of Jews, the over-
whelming majority of this country's Jewish citi-
zenry, who reside here permanently, all this is
not enough. A society does not grow in quality, in
self-respect, merely by the act of contributing
monies to causes dear to its heart; and American
Jewish society is no exception. At one and the
same time that we increase our financial invest-
ment in and generate more intense affection for
the State of Israel — we find ourselves beset by
the fearful fact that we are not producing our suc-
cessors, lay leaders and followers, Jewishly edu-
cated: indeed, we are worried deeply about the
future of the institutions and organizations we
have labored so hard to create.
For we have been rapidly becoming a philan-
thropic instead of—and rather than together with
—a Jewishly knowledgeable people. We have been
finding it easy to forego learning by ransoming
ourselves through philanthropy and investment
in relation to Israel; we have been redeeming our
Jewish ignorance through Israel Bonds and UJA
and the like. And that, it would appear to me, is
bad for Israel and bad for us here. For Israel
can benefit from the American Jewish community,
even more economically than hitherto and cul-
TeacherTraining Implementation
Urged in Volume on Counseling
"Guidance and Counseling for Jewish Education" by Dr. Sheldon
S. Brown, published by Bloch, critically reviews various problems
faced by our educators.
A number of years of study of child behavior, observed by the
author, who presently is principal of Temple Beth El religious school
in Lynn, Mass., resulted in this compilation of advice in the teaching
of elementary school children who attend afternoon Jewish schools.
The author, who received his doctorate in Dropsie College, dis-
cusses here the problems that arise in enrolling children in schools
after Bar Mitzvah, the manner of improving the school systems and
devotes himself especially to a discussion of teacher training, the
shortage of pedagogues and their recruitment.
Approaching the problems through the presentation of case
histories, Dr. Brown urges that encouragement to youngsters to
enter the teaching profession should begin at the earliest possible
time.
Reviewing the backgrounds of some of the pupils under study,
he suggests counseling for Bar Mitzvah. In his discussion of the in-
fluence of the home on continuation of studies he declares:
"Almost two-thirds of the homes reflected positive attitudes to-
ward the children's religious education. In reference to those homes
in which negative or indifferent attitudes seemed to prevail, the chil-
dren of those homes also reflected similar attitudes at the end of the
experiment. There appeared to be a positive relationship between
negative attitudes found in their homes."
He continues to indicate that: "A cause for the Bar Mitzvah
problem all over the nation is the mistaken notion held by the 'lost
generation of parents' who have deluded themselves into thinking
that the Bar Mitzvah which lasts an hour or more is worth training
for over a period of five years, more or less, so that relatives from
far and near can Kleib Nachas. The parents of our school children
are not alone responsible for creating this problem, for it is a
product of the American Jewish milieu."
Dr. Brown states that the effort of the American Association for
Jewish Education "to help establish extension programs of Jewish
teacher colleges is to be commended," but he adds that "more exten-
sive availability of such. courses throughout the United States is a
necessity and requires implementation immediately."
turally to boot, only as its American Jewish
counterpart develops a more comprehensive un-
derstanding and appreciation of its long and varied
past, along with the cultural creativity of con-
temporary Israel. Thus, and only thus, will
American Jewry assure, not alone its existence
The works of the world's most distinguished theologians and
but its existence as a worthwhile, creative Jewish
center, in direct line with the other great Jewish philosophers are under review in an ably compiled work pubhshed by
centers of the past; the Biblical, the Babylonian, Holt, Rinehart and Winston (383 Madison, NY17) under the title
the Spanish, the Eastern European, and the "Philosophical Interrogations." Sydney and Beatrice Rome edited this
Central European. We must work full speed ahead work and wrote the illuminating introduction in which they explain
to accomplish in the next few decades what the the nature of their work. They point out that the seven authors and
great Jewish communities that preceded us the majority of the querists who are participants in the discussions
achieved only after two and three and four "are concerned far more with substantive than with methodological
centuries. This is no light task; but neither is it results," that "they have withstood every assault by positivists and
a task to be treated lightly. It is, indeed, the behaviorists to deny them the right to enter the universe of meaning,"
most urgent task confronting us today, the educa- that "they are innovators and moderns who speak for and to Mir
tion of our young as knowledgeable Jews, ready times."
Martin Buber, John Wild, Jean Wahl, Brand Blanshard, Paul
to assume leadership in our community 30 and
Weiss, Charles Hartshorne and Paul Tillich are the theologians and
20 years hence.
7 Philosophers, Theologians
Participate in Interrogations
This speech would be spoiled by further
comment. It incorporates a challenge to all
who recognize the need for knowledgeability
in our ranks, and primarily in Jewish leader-
ship.
After reading Prof. Orlinsky's speech,
testimonials may be ridiculed a bit less. Per-
haps the limelight will be shifted from the
bankers to the teachers: because here was
one teacher who courageously analyzed
American Jewry's shortcomings with great
dignity. We are deeply indebted to Dr. Orlin-
sky for the great service he has thus rendered
to American and world Jewries.
philosophers who are queried in the discussions in this book conducted
by more than 100 interrogators.
The interrogation of Martin Buber was conducted by the leading
authority on Buber's works, Prof. Maurice S. Friedman of Sarah
Lawrence College. Participants in the discussion on "The Philosophy
of Dialogue" included Prof. Walter Kaufmann of Princeton, F. H.
Heineman, Emmanuel Levinas, Walter Blumenfeld, Perry LeFevre,
Friedrich Thieberger, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessey, Malcolm L. Diamond,
Maurice Nedoncelle, David Baumgardt, William Ernest Hocking, Kurt
H. Wolff, Arthur A. Cohen, and a number of others.
Especially valuable in this discussion, in addition to the views
expressed on social philosophy and religion, was the analysis of
educational standards. A conclusion emphasized by Dr. Buber was
that there are far too few good teachers.
The project fulfilled in this volume is one of the most impressive
in the philosophic-theologic areas..