Rabbi Julius A. Leibert's 'Behind Bars'
Proposes Many Changes in Dealing
With Crime, and Reforming Penology
As the Jewish chaplain at San
Quention, Folsom and Alcatraz
prisons, Rabbi Julius A. Leibert
came in close contact with scores
of prisoners, learned their habits,
acquired first hand knowledge
about crime and penology.
In "Behind Bars," which he
wrote with Emily Kingsbery, and
which has been published by
Doubleday, Rabbi Leibert relates
a great many incidents in his
career as chaplain, offers a record
of case histories and suggests re-
forms to put an end to some of the
prison tactics which met with con-
demnation in his evaluation of cur-
rent conditions.
When he first asumed his post,
he was warned "to stick to the
spiritual." But it was inevitable
that he should meet up with inci-
dents that proved to him that
many of the prisoners needed care,
that they were sick, that what is
urgently required is the setting up
of a training program "to provide
the psychiatrists, psychotherapists,
nurses and other specialized per-
sonel needed to administer and
operate therapeutic centers" to
deal with the broken minds. He
declares:
"Society cannot survive in-
definitely the monstrous cancer
of crime and punishment that
continues to grow. Not only is it
impending the healthy develop-
ment of our civilization. If we
do not cure it, it can destroy
us."
to understand that crime is but
another form of mental or emo-
tional disturbance. Prisons are
a carry-over from the dim,
cruel, unenlightened past. They
should be replaced by hospitals
where patients, not prisoners,
are sent, not for custody, but for
cure. The so-called criminal is
in reality a sick person who,
inadequately treated for his
illness, time and again compul-
sively commits crimes."
Thus, he advocates the healing
of the broken, the throwing away
of legal codes to attain it. It
urges that we learn new and wiser
methods to deal with crimes and
the criminals.
Caryl Chessman was one of the
criminals with whom he had dis-
cussed the penal problems. So was
Morton Sobell, who received some
comfort from Rabbi Leibert. Eddie
Wein was rescued from the gas
chamber by Rabbi Leibert's action.
"Behind Bars" is a very impor-
tant contribution to the study of
penology. Rabbi Leibert brilliantly
reviews the problem of the crimin-
al and ably suggests solutions that
must come in an enlightened age.
—P.S.
Eban Sees UN Secretary
About Israel's Problems
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (NA)
Israel's Deputy Prime Minister
Abba Eban conferred with Secre-
tary General U Thant. While no
When he quit the chaplaincy, details of the subjects discussed
Aug. 15, 1957, Rabbi Leibert are available, they were under-
created a sensation with his public stood to have talked about matters
statement in which he said:
of mutual interest to Israel and
the United Nations. The confer-
"Society has not yet learned
ence lasted an hour.
Treatment of Soviet Jews
Protested by 700 Students
NEW YORK (JTA)—Some 700
high school students, most of them
members of synagogues in New
Jersey, held a demonstration Mon-
day near the Untied Nations in
protest against Soviet treatment of
the Jews in Russia. They included
40 Negro youth.
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BY CHARLOTTE HYAMS
Leap years are traditionally the
time to pop the question.
I, too, would like to pop a
question:
How does one go about under-
standing the Jewish Leap Year?
For the past half hour, I've
been going around in circles over
the revolutions of the Jewish moon,
and it reminds me of the history
of the Jewish people: astronomical
and often incomprehensible.
The current month on the Jew-
ish calendar is Adar Rishon—the
First Adar. Next month of this
year 5725 will be Adar Sheni-
the Second Adar. No niggling extra
day in February for us; we have
an entire 13th month to pop ques-
tions in.
It takes 291/2 days for the moon
to get around the earth. But even
the adaptable Jews couldn't man-
age a 29 1/2-day month, so they
alternate between 29 and 30—
skinny months, actually, compared
with the nice, fat ones in the Gre-
gorian calendar (that's the one
with the Feb. 29 in it once every
four years).
Thus, like the shtetl folk who
used to slave all week so they
could eat like kings on the Sab-
bath, our skinny months plod
along for 354 days until the
third, sixth, eighth, 11th, 14th,
17th and 19th year of each 19-
year cycle. Then, they are joined
for the feast by the hibernating
Adar Sheni.
The sun insists on circling the
earth in 365 1/2 days, and if it
weren't for the extra month every
few years, we'd be in a fine fix.
We'd be reaping the grain when
the Bible says we should be plant-
ing it, and we'd be chanting Kol
Nidre when we should be singing
"One Only Kid."
Why, the whole system is so sim-
ple, one only kid could understand
it.
There is a fixed, unalterable
rule that a Jewish year absolutely
must begin at the New Moon of
Tishre (which falls precisely some
time around September or Octo-
ber)—as long as it isn't Friday or
days an extra day—just to be 0 ,
the safe side. It had nothing to d
with an extra day off from th
office.
Going back far enough, you'll
find that the Jewish year had no
number. Every time a new king
came along, or there was an
earthquake or an Exodus, the
Sunday.
counting would start all over
Adding to the lunar madness is again.
the rule that the seventh day of
In the 3rd Century, the Jews de
Sukkot can't fall on a Sabbath.
cided that the biggest event of al
So, the non-leap year leaps was the Creation of the Earth, ii
back and forth between 353 and 3761 BCE.
355 days—as predictable as the
So, here we are, 5,725 year
Soviet policy on matzo baking. later, still trying to figure out tha
Add 30 days more of the same calendar.
to leap years.
No doubt, you're confident you
have the entire system in orbit.
However, don't think that just be-
cause the New Year starts with
Fine Clothes For Over 30 Years
Tishre the counting of the months
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has to start with Tishre. On the
contrary, it starts six months later,
FRI. - SAT. - SUNDAY
in the spring, with Nisan. The
(Sat: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Bible tells you so.
Sun: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Here's the lineup: Nisan, Iyar,
JUST ARRIVED
Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishre,
Heshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat and
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Incidentally, if the names don't
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Reckoning the calendar was no
$60 Value
cinch for the ancients either. Be-
fore Hillel II set up this new-
$4250
fangled system in the 4th Century,
moon watchers had to report each
month to the Sanhedrin.
With no Jewish Telegraphic
Agency to transmit their report,
Fine Clothes For Over 30 Years
the court, in turn, used fire sig-
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corner Sussex
correspondent to the Diaspora.
The exiles threw up their hands
3 blocks E. of Greenfield
and took to celebrating some holi-
HARRY THOMAS
SPORT COATS
HARRY THOMAS
Joseph Morgenstern's Turbulent
Life Told in His Autobiography
In "I Have Considered My
Days," Joseph Morgenstern tells
his life's story and he relates ex-
periences that throw light on in-
teresting occurrences in American
Jewish life.
This volume, the third Yiddish
A brother helped by a brother literary selection to be published
is like a fortified city; He holds in an English translation by
firm as the bar of a castle.
YKUF (Yiddisher Kultur Farband,
—Proverbs 189 2nd, NY 3), has two aspects.
It first describes the author's life
in the "shetetl," near Kapulia
on the Russian-Polish border,
which also was the birthplace of
Mendele Mocher Seforim (Sholem
Yakov Abramovuch), and the sec-
ond portion describes Life in
America, his activities in Cleve-
land.
PER
HUNDRED
Global Phenomenon: the Jewish Calendar
It is in the second part that
we find many details about the
autobiographer's conflicts, his
involvements in the Biro-Bidjan
projects, the accusations of
Communism against the ICOR
group which was under sus-
picion of being Communist.
When asked to reveal who had
contributed to the Spanish Loyal-
ist cause, he refused to act, as
he states, as a mosur—as an in-
former. The FBI was on his trail
and at court hearings in Cleve-
land the charge of communism
was pressed against him.
B. Z. Goldberg tesitfied; there
is an account in this book of the
interrogation. The charge was that
he had purchased $158,000 worth
of machinery for Russia, and when
he proved it was material for
Israel the judge overruled the
FBI and he was cleared. YKUF
was involved in the case and the
author absolves Ambidjan, which
sponsored activities in Biro-Bid-
jan, of communist partisanship.
Morgenstern asserts that jus-
tice triumphed, that "together
with the Yiddisher Kultur Far-
band I celebrated a complete vic-
tory and vindication."
Then he goes on to show how
he and his sons assisted a kibbutz
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, February 26, 1965-17
in Israel in establishing a lock
factory and how the kibbutz was
aided with low rate interest loans
to carry on its work. With the
accrued interest he established
the Weinper-Morgenstern Fund to
translate Yiddish works into
Hebrew.
Appealing for a secure future
and a happier tomorrow, Morgen-
stern concludes his life story with
a warning against the emerging
neo-Nazism and with the appeal:
"We must be on guard."
Nachman Meisel, editor of
YKUF, commends Morgenstern in
an introductory article addressed
"to the reader."
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'Rothschilds' Author
Writes 2 More Books
Frederic Morton, whose last
book, "The Rothschilds," led the
best-seller lists in 1962, has signed
contracts with Atheneum for the
publication of a novel and a bio-
graphy.
The manuscript of his novel,
"The Schatten Affair," has been
delivered to the publisher and the
book will appear this coming sum-
mer. The novel describes the re-
turn to contemporary Berlin of a
young American of refugee back-
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His book on the Rothschild fam-
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that complex city.
The biography, for which Mor-
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deal with Empress Elizabeth of
Austria.
In 1947, Morton was awarded
the Intercollegiate Literary Fel-
lowship Prize by Dodd, Mead for
his first novel, "The Hound."
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