LETTER BOX
Mayer's Study
No Spur to Panic,
Resident Insists
Editor, The Jewish News:
I am impelled to comment on
the article in The Jewish News of
April 22 under the heading of
"Northwest Residents Charge Al-
bert Mayer's Population Study
Serves Only to Increase Panic."
Who is being panicked? We live
on Coyle near West Seven Mile
Rd. We are not being panicked.
We know of none of our neigh-
bors who were panicked by the
survey.
May it not be that those who
are and will be panicked are those
who are seeking excuses and
rationalizations to sell and move,
anyway?
If this is true, why would we
blame Dr. Albert Mayer and the
United Jewish Charities for this?
It seems to me that such blame
then, really becomes an attack
on academic freedom, freedom of
research and freedom of the
press . . .
It is for us, the social con-
scious citizens of Detroit, to take
the facts and do what we wish
and can about them. All citizens
of Detroit, Jews and non-Jews,
should be concerned with changes
in the Northwest and in all of
our city and suburbs. We should
all be concerned about the threat
to all of us, of all-white or all-
Negro neighborhoods.
The Jews in the suburbs and
their non-Jewish neighbors will
eventually pay the price for an
all-Negro city or all-Negro neigh-
borhoods. Their escape is only
temporary and short-sighted.
The question then becomes what
are we going to do about this?
Are we going to continue to panic
and run and try to blame Dr.
Mayer or others for this?
Or are we going to stand fast
with others of goodwill and say
that shoulder-to-shoulder we can
and will reverse this trend? Brave
and courageous Jews have turned
the tide before. Let us accept the
challenge and do it again.
Let us become more active
than ever in our neighborhood
councils, our Jewish Community
Council and in other groups.
Let us improve our schools,
parks and all of our community
institutions and agencies.
Through cooperative effort we
can maintain stable, orderly neigh-
boods. We can welcome necessary
changes and new neighbors as
neighbors should . . .
HENRY FAIGIN
•
Temple Israel Opera
Defended by Cantor
Editor, The Jewish News:
Thank you for your "extrava-
gant bouquets" and your glowing
praise for our artistic efforts.
Temple Israel should be proud of
commissioning Julius Chajes to
write such a beautiful opera as
"Out of the Desert" on the occa-
sion of its 25th anniversary. When-
ever it is performed (and several
congregations throughout the coun-
try have already voiced this in-
tent), whenever an artist any-
where in the world sings its
songs, the members of my con-
gregation can feel great pride in
knowing that they were the moti-
vation of its creation.
You asked a good question that
I feel needs to be answered. Does
this form of creativity belong in
the synagogue?
Our Jewish composers are sel-
dom performed, not encouraged,
and compose in the greener pas-
tures of non-Jewish music if they
wish to survive. What institution
is capable of providing the stimu-
lus for a rebirth of creativity? To
my way of thinking there is only
one—the synagogue. It reaches its
fullest bloom when the history of
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
24 Friday, April 29, 1966
—
the Jew is brought into vivid view
through music, drama, art and
dance. This is what occurred at
Temple Israel. The fruit of a
Jewish writer was blended with
the inspiration of a Jewish com-
poser and brought to life by Jewish
artists in the House of Judaism—
the synagogue.
Some synagogues have huge
social halls that can be used for
such productions. In our Temple,
we use a different device, we pull
curtains over our Aaron Hakodesh
and convert our sanctuary into a
hall. It is here that we have con-
gregational meetings, lectures,
community meetings and concerts.
Now, to the matter of dance.
Traditionally speaking, dance was
used in worship long before the
synagogue came into being, and is
certainly not foreign to us. The
Bible and the Talmud document
many festive occasions for danc-
ing. Even King David danced be-
fore the Ark—and today the Has-
sidim still whirl in an ecstasy of
Joy before the Torah.
Benjamin Zemach in the "Yidis-
cher Cultur" in an article entitled
"The beginning of Jewish Dance"
goes into great detail mentioning
the origins of religious Jewish
dance.
Not only does he discuss the
dance of Miriam and King David,
but the much-talked-of Yom Kip-
pur dance. In fact, so full of
dance was early Jewish life, that
the Bible and The Talmud used
the following Hebrew words to
describe its varying forms: ma-
chol, rikud, pazos, dalogi, ditza,
kafotz, sachek, chagog.
Further, many congregations to-
day are experimenting with re-
ligious dance as a form of con-
temporary religious expression.
Just this past Friday evening,
Rabbi Gunther Plaut's congrega-
tion in Toronto presented a Friday
evening worship service, featuring
Naomi Alen-Leaf and The Festival
Dance Company, in a program en-
titled "New Dimension to Prayer
and Worship — Going Beyond
Words." For the last four years
the dynamic Rabbi Lelyveld, of
Cleveland, has presented services
in dance. When Temple Israel, last
year, presented its first service in
dance, entitled "The Last Sab-
bath" it was so warmly received
by the standing-room-only crowd
that attended, that we were asked
by many groups and organizations
to repeat it.
I hope and pray the Temple
Israel will continue to be a dy-
namic Congregation and will ever
nurture and encourage the living
vitality of our Jewish tradition.
Most sincerely,
CANTOR HAROLD ORBACH.
* *
(Editor's Note: Cantor Orbach
calls our attention to the publi-
cation of Chajes' musical scores
as part of the newly composed
operatic version presented by
Temple Israel. The review of the
opera in last week's Jewish News
referred to the published text as
previous works. The scores, as
indicated by Cantor Orbach, were
all newly prepared as part of
the new Temple Israel opera and
their publication also was part
of the work commissioned by
Temple Israel as part of its 25th
anniversary.)
Open Boys Town Center
for Training in Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Boys
Town of Jerusalem opened April
20 a new training center in this
city to teach carpentry and tech-
nical design. ORT cooperated with
Boys Town in the establishment of
the new facility.
Boys Town in Israel was found-
ed in 1948 by Rabbi Alexander
Lichner and Ira Guilden, of the
United States, with a nucleus of
17 immigrant Jewish children. It
conducts more than a dozen insti-
tues and schools in Israel now,
operating on an annual budget of
1,250,000 Israeli pounds (nearly
$417,000).
Nancy Keller to Wed
New Yorker in Summer
JWV Activities
LT. RAYMOND ZUSSMAN
AUXILIARY recently elected the
following officers: Mesdames Sol
Amster, president; Sidney Silver
and Harvey Greene, vice-presi-
dents; Walter Fischel, treasurer;
Louis Weber and George Kolb,
secretaries; Al Frank, patriotic
instructor; Charles H a u p t m a n,
guard; Bess Goldberg, chaplain;
David Zussman, conductress; Irv-
ing Silk, historian., Oscar Katz,
Herbert Perchikoff and Irving
Weintraub, trustees. Plans were
made for the May 10 mothers and
daughters banquet.
* * *
Johnson Commends JWV
for Support on Vietnam
MISS NANCY KELLER
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Keller,
25109 Southwood, Southfield, an-
nounce the engagement of their
daughter Nancy Harriet to Bruce
Fred Satenspiel, son of Mr. and
Mrs. George Satenspiel of Forest
Hills, N. Y.
.Miss Keller is a graduate of
Michigan State University, where
she was affiliated with Sigma Delta
Tau Sorority. Her fiance also grad-
uated from Michigan State Uni-
versity and is doing graduate work
at Hofstra University. He is af-
filiated with Sigma Alpha Mu
Fraternity.
The couple plans a summer wed-
ding.
Brevities
Opening night for Oakland Uni-
versity's glamorous MEADOW
BROOK FESTIVAL is June 30.
Mrs. Ben D. Mills serves with her
husband as general chairmen of
the glamorous event. The season
offers the Detroit Symphony under
Sixten Ehrling and Robert Shaw's
direction with soloists Van Cli-
burn, Isaac Stern, Henryk Szervng,
Maureen Forrester, Eugene Isto-
min and Leonard Rose.
*
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Presi-
dent Lyndon B. Johnson Wednes-
day commended the Jewish War
Veterans of the U.S. for support-
ing the administration position on
Vietnam. He told the JWV Na-
tional Commander Milton A. Wal-
dorf he was "very delighted" with
the latter's attempts to explain the
U.S. involvement to the Jewish
community.
The President received Waldor
and top JWV leaders at the White
House. Waldor told the President
he found an overwhelming grass-
roots support for the President's
Vietnam policies. He said he ad-
dressed meetings in 31 states fol-
lowing his return from a JWV visit
to Vietnam in December. He
made known that he will carry on
the undertaking to rally backing
for the war and speak in addi-
tional states.
* *
Chop House, will be discussed. For
information and reservations call
Mrs. Rubin, KE 5-4031 or Betty
Spinner, LI 14687. Raye Weimer,
hospital chairman, announces a
party will be held at the Dear-
born Veterans Hospital Thursday,
with entertainment and refresh-
ments. For information, call Mrs.
Weimer, NE 2-5274.
* * *
BLOCH ROSE POST and AUXI-
LIARY will hold their outgoing
banquet 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, at the
Elmwood Casino. Members an.
friends are invited. For informa
tion and reservations, call Chair-
man Evelyn Skupsky, 543-8078 or
Bertha Greenberg, UN 2-2557.
The groups will hold a rummage
sale 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday at the
Ferndale Woman's Club. For in-
formation, call Mrs. Rita Elken,
LI 7-2891,
CJMCAG Aids Education
The Conference on Jewish Mate-
rial Claims Against Germany last
year allocated a total of $410,000
for projects in higher Jewish ed-
ucation in various countries.
*
YETZ-COHEN AUXILIARY will
meet 8 p.m. Monday at the home
of Ann Rubin, 19725 Oakfield. The
combined mothers and daughters
dinner and outgoing president's
affair to be held May 9 at Carl's
Music the Stein-Way
DICK STEIN
& ORCHESTRA
LI 74770
BALLROOM
DANCING
JACK BARNES
BY
COOLIDGE AT 9 MI.
LI 7-4470
Family Portraits
Do You Own One?
* *
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., will pub-
lish on May 16 THE ICON AND
THE AXE: AN INTERPRETIVE
HISTORY OF RUSSIAN CUL-
TURE by James H. Billington,
professor of Russian history at
Princeton University.
* * *
The U.S. ARMY FIELD BAND
from Washington, D.C., will per-
from at the Armed 'Forces Week
Concert, 8:30 p.m., May 17, at
Ford Auditorium. Most of the
seats for the concert will go free,
on a first-come, first-served basis,
to those who write in for tickets.
Send requests to Armed Forces
Week Concert Committee, Box
176-A, Main Post Office, Detroit
48232.
* * *
CASS TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL
SYMPHONY AND CONCERT
BANDS, under the direction of Har-
old Arnoldi, will present their an-
nual Spring Concert, 8:30 p.m., to-
day in the school auditorium. High-
lighting the program will be guest
appearances of two Cass alumni,
Warren Benson, professor of com-
position and composer-in-residence
at Ithaca College, New York, and
Donald Sinta, member of the facul-
ty of Ithaca College and well-
known soloist. There will be a
nominal admission.
* * *
Auditions will be held Monday,
7 p.m., by the Department of Parks
and Recreation CIVIC CENTER
THEATER, whose summer sched-
ule includes such productions as
"Around the World in 80 Days,"
"Picnic" and "Billy the Kid."
Auditions will be in Room 714,
Veterans Memorial Building.
Naval Academy Star
Simon Cook, a 19th century
American Jewish naval officer,
was one of the first candidates
to receive an appointment to the
United States Naval Academy by
competetive examination.
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