THE JEWISH NEWS

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Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Incorporating The Detroit

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Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

Business Manager

Editor and Publisher

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144

Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 48235 Mich.,
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CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

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CHARLOTTE YAMS

City Editor

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Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 28th day of Tevet, 5725, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Ezekiel 28:25.29:21.
Pentateuchal portion: Exod. 6.2-9:35; prophetical portion:

Licht benshen, Friday, Jan. 1, 4:53 p.m.

Page 4

VOL. XLVI. No. 19

January 1, 1965

Interesting Challenges of the New Year

A new year on the civic calendar intro-
duces many problems and poses challenging
questions. Some of them are akin to those
we considered on Rosh Hashanah. But the
problems are mounting rather than declining
and they compel serious consideration.
The world situation is grave indeed. There
are so many fronts on which the American
position is endangered that we may well pray
for good fortune to overcome the threats and
to rescue embattled areas from calamities.
The American position is especially pre-
carious. With all our good intentions, regard-
less of our craving for peace, we are under
suspicion. That is why we must hope that the
months ahead will bring an assurance to the
jittery nations that we seek amity for all.
Yet, the continuing East-West conflicts
often harm the peaceful intentions and the
instability of many of the under-developed
countries certainly serves as a hindrance to
peace.
That is why our prayers are for better
understanding, for an appreciation by the
underprivileged that our proferred aid to
them is for mankind's betterment.

As a matter of fact, unless there is a Jew-
ishly-trained Jewry outside Israel, there may
not be a sufficiently strong spirituality in
Israel. Very often the Israelis must lean back
upon the scholarship of Jews outside the

*

*

There is no doubt that our loyalties to the
overseas causes will continue. that Israel will
retain a place of priority in our philanthropic

activities. But there will be need for in-
creased interest in our spiritual-cultural pro-
jects. It is vitally important that our devo-
tions to our internal needs should receive

ON

Jewish State in order to assure the type of

, On the Jewish scene there are increasing
anxieties. Conditions in Russia remain pre-
carious for Jews, our kinsmen in Moslem
countries are under constant threats, Israel is
frequently subjected to attacks by war-threat-
ening neighbors and the internal situation
in the Jewish State is marked by many con-
flicts.
Then there is the concern over Jewish
survival in the Diaspora and the need to
strengthen our existing institutions. The
major test of Jewish strength is in the area
of learning, and it is to the decline of Jewish
knowledge that is attributed a shallowness in
our ranks, an indifference towards the tradi-
tional values in our spiritual inheritance.
Serious efforts are being made to remove
the obstacles in the path of progress, to
strengthen the cultural aspirations of our
people, to restore to Jewry the status of an
aristocracy of learning.
*
Jewish leaders are beginning to view the
existing conditions as threatening the very
existence of the American Jewish community.
In spite of an increase in the number of chil-
dren attending Jewish schools, while the
synagogue is gaining the status it deserves
as the central force in Jewish life, there are
deterrents that are very disturbing. The in-
crease in intermarriage, the lack of interest
in Jewish life on the campus, the slowness
with which programming by Jewish organiza-
tions is attaining the high standards to which
we should be committed—these are condi-
tions seriously to be concerned with.
It is possible that there is less cause for
pessimism than we imagine. Yet, taking into
consideration the historic fact that Jewish
loyalties always dwindle in environments of
freedom, there is justification for the con-
cern that is being expressed in many ranks.

*

!!! team

preference. Without a strong Diaspora it is
difficult to conceive of a secure and self-sus-
taining Israel. Unless there is a well-inform-
ed Jewry throughout the world, there will be
a weakening of the ties with Israel.

scholarship that is needed for the continua-
tion of Jewish studies.
What we need is not brick and mortar, a
tremendous program of erecting new build-
ings, but new thinking, a revived interest
in our traditions, an appreciation of our
heritage. The spiritual values are not im-
bedded in massive structures but in the
strength of a community's cultural founda-
tions.
*
*
has
been
made
in
the educational
Progress
areas, and there has been a measure of at-
tainment in adult education projects. But
we still are scratching the surface. Only a
comparative handful is responding to the
needs, and in the year and the years ahead
it will be necessary to find new ways of in-
spiring the desired interest in our cultural
undertakings.
In spite of the sharp differences that exist
regarding the day school program, the idea
of a full-day progressive educational system
through which to assure maximum Jewish
training for our children must be encourag-
ed, and it is certain to grow. This idea, sup-
plemented by the afternoon day schools and
the adult education programs, is among our

'Day's at the Morn' — Glamorous
Story of Chotzinoff's Early Years

Samuel Chotzinoff is a recognized authority on music. He is an
able pianist. He is a fine critic. His books on music and musicians

have added to an understanding of the development of the musical

art, especially in this country.
In his new book, "Day's at the Morn," published by Harper &
Row, Chotzinoff accomplishes a number of notable tasks. He not only
describes his early years—his first teachers in piano, his appearance at
private soirees with noted musicians, his accompaniment to eminent
violinist and singers; he also describes his introduction to Jewish lore,
his work in the New York Educational Alliance, his first loves.
There is much charm in this story, and while he would have
us believe that he was a non-believer, there is something enchanting
about the interest he showed in Peretz and Sholem Aleichem, in
Jewish traditions, in the idealism of his people.

Chotzinoff was an accompanist for Efram Zimbalist, and because
Zimbalist was the protege of Mary Fels he befriended the eminent
lady. He appeared at several concerts in prominent Jewish homes, in-
are inter-
cluding the Jacob Schiffs' and the Adolph Lewisohne. There
esting comments on his experiences in these and in other homes, and
he states in his autobiographical work:
r..ost vital cultural needs.
"I was happier among rich Jews, where I was altogether at my
* * *
me
ease. People came up to me of their own accord and spoke to
Indeed, we face many problems. But the pleasantly. They talked about music knowingly . . . they appeared to
and uneducated Jews
more challenging the existing situation, the look upon art with the awe and respect poor their
taste in music was
more interesting is our existence and the left for rabbis and Talmudic students. And
more effective should be the results of our of a higher order than that of Christians on the same economic leveL
Jews who gave musical 'privates' (soirees) themselves took a hand
search for the stimuli that make for a strong The
in the programs. The Christians engaged the most popular or fashion-
Jewry.
able artists and merely stipulated the length of time for the pro-
There is a charming story, credited to grams . . I saw that artists had a better time at musicales given by
Maurice Samuel, that is applicable to the Jews. "si et, curiously enough, I brought home tales mostly of the Chris-
tian musicales and suppers, not of the concerts in Jewish houses.
tests of our time.
(The exception was Jacob Schiff's. Jacob Schiff was, for us, the vener-
It was during the riots of 1936 in Pale- ated symbol of Jewish leadership, and my father was avid to hear
stine. Mr. Samuel was a passenger on a bus everything about him and his house.) . . . Yet I was certain I should

that was on the way to Haifa from Tel Aviv,
when there was shooting and a sudden attack '
by Arabs. The driver ordered all to stretch
out on the floor of the bus. Mr. Samuel found
himself next to a patriarchal, long - bearded
man who, after a few minutes of discomfort
on the rough floor, turned to the eminent
American Jewish author and said: "Es is nit

bekvem, ober es is interressant" — "it isn't

comfortable, but it is interesting."
The situations we find ourselves in cer -
tainly are not comfortable. But they are in-
teresting. Their challenges offer great oppor-
tunities for our generation to become truly
creative.
We shall no doubt emerge from the anxie-
ties with positive values for the world, for
America, for Jewry.
With such faith, we extend to all peoples
sincerest greetings on the New Year 1965.

Nasser Whining

In spite of the aid the UAR gets from the
United States, contrary to the pleadings for
peace, Gamal Abdel Nasser saw fit to tell the
U.S. to "jump in the lake."

A Russian was at his side when he re-
ferred to Iran as an "American colony sub-
jected to American and Zionist influences."
If there were Americans who hitherto did
not understand, now they will henceforth
be able to differentiate between his whining
and his hate.

also want to possess my Jewish awareness, sympathies, the Jewish ap-
preciation of the relativeness of everything. Perhaps to be born a

Daniel Deronda would be ideal—a Jew brought up until manhood as a
wealthy and patrician Christian, somehow sensing his difference, his
superiority, and at last discovering to his satisfaction the source of
that strangeness and superiority. But of one thing I was always sure:
it was pleasant to return to East Broadway and to my soul-satisfying
front room. Once there, I no longer indulged in day dreams of wealth
and exclusiveness, either as Jew or as Christian .. ."
Many notables were among Chotzinoff's acquaintances, and
in his very early youth—and "Day's at the Morn" is about
his youth—he already had fraternized with the great of his day
—Alma Gluck, Zimbalist, Gustave Mahler, Toscanini, scores of men
and women, musicians and patrons of the arts.
Life on the East Side at the turn of the century, the immigrants'
are
interests, the family life of the Chotzinoffs and their friends—these
part of a most interesting protrayal of an exciting life by a young man
who was destined to become great in the literary and musical worlds.
Especially noteworthy is Chotzinoff's description of how his mother
consented to travel on the Sabbath to attend his concert in Carnegie
Hall. The entire chapter "My Mother Rides on the Sabbath" is devoted
to this incident. She had done it without her husband's knowledge.
Concluding the account of this occurrence, Chotzinoff writes that after
"nothing
his mother had seen him perform at Carnegie hall she had
more to live for except to see me married and the father of a on
like me." Then he states:
"As for her breaking the Sabbath law, she was confident that the
Deity would not overlook the exceptional nature of her case. If it was
permissible in the sight of God for an ailing Jew, even for a paragon of
piety like a rabbi, to eat on Yom Kippur (and it was permissible; both
her father and mine had vouched for it), there must surely be Min
provision in Heaven for a mother who yearned to see with her own
eyes the public triumph of her only son. I asked her what she would
do if my father found out and accused her to her face. `I would deny
it,' she said indignantly."
Scores of incidents, commentaries on music and musicians, observa-
tions about the Jews of half a century ago, add to the glamour of an
enticing story—for that is ho v "Day's at the Morn" should be rated.

