Blame for Mixed Marriages
Placed by Experts on Youths
Rejection of Jewish Identity

Old-World Fantasies Revivifield in Singer's
49 Tales Narrated in 'In My Father's Court'

If there could have been a doubt did not want the evil spirit to
Elaine Gottlieb and Channah Klein-
NEW YORK (JTA) — The rising ern psychology," fear they may be about the supremacy of Isaac Bas-
affect them, who wanted per- errnan-Gold&tein.
rate of intermarriage involving traumatizing their children if they hevis Singer among the short story
mission to use and serve the
It is the author himself who is
American Jews represents. a fail- stress obedience to the command- writers of our time, it is fully dis-
geese.
the genius who enchants his read-
pelled
by
his
newe:7?a,:`In
My
ure of theology or ideology, not psy- ments, as is "fundamental to
There is the opening tale—about ers, because Isaac Bashevis Singer
Father's Court,"
chology. This vas the predominant Judaism."
an
elderly couple that showed great has produced one of his best col-
•
published by Far-
theme of an all-day conference on
affection one for the other. Yet lections of short stories in "In My
Many parents, he said, re- rar,Strausand
"The Psychological Implications nounce their "traditional-guiding
the wife came to the rabbi one Father's Court."
of Intermarriage" sponsored by role" and give their children no Giroux.
day and asked for a divorce—out
It
is
described
the Commission on Synagogue Re- religious training or identifica-
of
love for her husband. He was
lations of the Federation of Jewish tion so that they lack deep per- as "a memoir,"
still
virile, she was not; he could
but it is so much
Philanthropies.
marry a younger woman and have
sonal feelings and loyalty for more than that!
more children, she could no longer
A select group of 50 leading rab- Judaism. "Why should young It is a combina-
provide these for her beloved.
bis, psychiatrists and social work- people marry within their faith tion of 49 mem-
There was a divorce and a mar-
ers of this area participated in the if that faith means little or noth- oirs — there is
riage, but no other children from
discussions which focused on the ing to them, aside perhaps for that number of
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
the second marriage, the early
causes and means of prevention of lox and bagels which are becom, short stories in
to The Jewish News)
death
of
the
husband
who
was
ing
part
of
the
American
culture
a rising rate of intermarriage
this most delight-
JERUSALEM
— The Supreme
mourned
by
two
women.
What
a
which, when considered together anyway?" he asked.
ful book; and the
remarkable tale — involving ele- Court reduced Tuesday from 13
with a declining rate of reproduc-
Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Un- stories expose the k4.
ments of Jewish law, devotion — years to 10 the prison term im-
tion, portends the slow dissolution ion of American Hebrew Congre- readers to life in Singer
on Mordechai Louk, the Is-
and eventual disappearance of gations reported on the case his- the "shtetl" — the old Russian- and such a tragic but not an unex- posed
raeli
who
was involved in a bizarre
pected
end
to
a
normal
tale
on
Jews and Judaism from the Amer - tories of the offspring of mixed Polish environments — although
Street that sounds so kidnap incident in Rome in 1964.
ican scene.
marriages. While stressing the dif- they are told from a setting of War- Krochmalna
abnormal in our time!
Louk was found drugged, bound
The concern which precipitated ficulty of isolating cause and ef- saw reminiscences; they introduce
and
gagged in an Egyptian diplo-
"In
My
Father's
Court"
be-
the conference, according to fect in these situations, he said the audience that hears these tales
matic crate at the Rome airport by
comes
a
memoir
when
one
that
one
effect
"seems
to
be
the
to
a
way
of
life
of
a
generation
Rabbi Issac N. Trainin, director
studies the author's prefatory Rome police who heard his cries
of the commission, is based on interjection by the children of a that is now entirely extinct; they
note
in which he explains the as Egyptians tried to place the
hidden
unresolved
parental
prob-
relate about fables, superstitions,
recent surveys which indicate
Beth
Din, the traditional Jew- crate on an Egyptian-bound plane.
that the number of intermarri- lem that may in a crucial stage of fanaticism, magic, fears—but es- ish court in the rabbi's home. It He returned to Israel and was tried
ages involving Jews is increas- development break out into an pecially about a faith that was all
is an informative comment that and convicted on charges of spy-
ing as the Jewish community identity crisis -and give rise to powerful.
leads to a fuller understanding ing for Egypt.
conversion
phenomena."
becomes more and more native
The strange environment, the
of the numerous excellent
In announcing the reduced sen-
_
*
*
born and a greater proportion
No. 10 Krichmalna Street in
stories.
tence, ;..cting Court President
become higher educated; that
Warsaw, becomes alive in the
Singer explains that these 49 Moshe Silberg cited the "suffer-
skilful! narrations of Isaac Sin-
Judaism loses seven out of every
pieces
first were published under ing" of Louk while incarcerated in
ger. It is mostly from the Beth
10 children born in mixed marri-
his Yiddish journalistic pseudonym the trunk and during his detention
Din, the court, of his father,
ages; and that the Jewish birth
in Rome by Egyptian agents. He
rate is only 2.2 per family as
the Warsaw rabbi, that these Warshawsky, the name he used in had appealed the sentence, con-
the
Forward
when
his
stories
ap-
tales are developed, and the
compared with a Protestant rate
peared in Yiddish. He outlines the tending that he had agreed in
. themes embrace a people's entire
of 2.8 and a Catholic rate of 3.0.
entire process of the Beth Din— Cairo to work for the Egyptian in-
Jewish adolescents have been
existence.
Should these trends continue un- found to lack a clear conception of
"a kind of blend of a court of law, telligence only to escape imprison-_
These are stories of lawsuits— synagogue ; house of study, and, if ment.
abated, Rabbi Trainin stated, the their Jewish identity in a survey
proportion of Jews in this coun- of attitudes among 180 adolescents but they are unusual court cases. you will, psychoanalyst's office
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
try's population will diminish from with relatively strong backgrounds They include a suicide—an unusual where people of troubled spirit
event in Jewish life that calls for could come to unburden them-
Friday, April 29, 1966-11
its present 2.9 percent to 1.6 per- in Jewish education.
the burial of the person who took selves."
cent by the end of the 20th cen-
The
finding,
based
on
a
three-
his life at the cemetery fence- or
tury. "This would be a tragic de-
His book is dedicated to the late
year study conducted by second- the breaking of an engagement —
velopment," he declared.
For Some
year students at Yeshiva Univer- because the bride's f a t h e r was Cecil Hemley who helped him as
Dr. Jacob Arlow, clinical pro- sity's Wurzweiler School of Social greedy; the urge to settle in Israel, publisher and translator, and to
of the
fessor of psychiarty, State Univer- Work, was published in the Jour- matters involving wills, debts, col- his wife, who translated a part of
best
buys
the book. Other listed translators
sity of New York, set the keynote nal of Jewish Communal Services. lections.
on
new
are
his
nephew,
Joseph
Singer;
in a major paper in which he as- The survey was taken as part of
As Singer tells them, these are
Pontiacs
serted that "to oppose mixed mar- the students' social research re- not mere court cases: each case is
riage on the grounds that it consti- quirements and was conducted a tale in itself, marked by human
and
tutes poor mental hygiene is to ob- primarily in Jewish community elements, by reactions that are
Tempests
centers
affiliated
with
the
Asso-
scure the serious issues at stake."
often bathed in spirituality.
He saw the forces which culminate ciated YM-YWHA's of Greater
There is the story of the re-
ASK
in an intermarriage as reaching New York.
incarnation of animals, about two
Dr. Victor D. Sanua, associate
REPAIR AND
far back into childhood and de-
FOR
dead geese that still shrieked
veloping through adolescence when professor of social research at the
INSTALLATION
when they were struck together,
in "a definitive attempt to resolve Wurzweiler School and director of
and the narrator's mother's skil-
QUALITY WORK AT
their neurotic conflicts" certain in- research for the `Ys,' said that,
full way of detecting that • the
REASONABLE PRICES
dividuals turn to intermarriage as according to the survey, about windpipes had not been removed.
AT
"a first step toward eradicating one-third of the apprOximately 180
It was a lesson for her husband,
the rabbi, who had himself be-
their Jewish identity." He stressed respondents indicated that they
come puzzled by the mysterious
the importance of parental atti- either did not know what being
18650 LIVERNOIS
"Get Our Price Last"
mission of the poor woman who
tudes and behavior in the forma- Jewish meant or gave a nega-
1 block South of 7
UN 3-9300
paid a good price for geese, who
tion of a child's sense of identity tive response.
Another one-third, he said, answ-
and feeling of belonging.
Dr. Arlow warned against pes- ered only_that being Jewish means
LIM* 000111000)111(1.1110 01E111111000•11011)1110
ISM
simistic predictions based upon "it's a religion,'•' while the final Jax
third
indicated
that
it
is
some-
surface surveys of the college
thing to . "be proud , of "
experiences and attitudes toward
Moreover. Dr. -Sanua continued,
dating and marriage with part-
only 8 per cent of the adolescents
LET VASSAR
ners of other faiths because "this
Said they thought their parents
is a period of change and insta- considered being Jewish some-
lk
bility, of experimentation and thing "to be proud of."
Freshly CUSTOM CLEAN
a
transformation" and it is often
11
A large majority of the respond-
impossible to tell just how a per- ents, he added, had received some
YOUR CLOTHES
FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY
a
son feels about his Jewishness type of Jewish education and ap-
(Finest Since 1946)
a
"until he becomes a parent and proximately 60 per cent of them
_
• TOPCOATS
has to make decisions on behalf had received four or more years
of his children."
• DRESSES (Plain)
of Jewish educataion. He also not-
a
Dr. Fred Brown, head of the ed that the boys, whose mean age
* SUITS
a
psychology division of New York's was 15.1 years, gave even more
is
Mount Sinai Hospital, said that negative responses than the girls,
any predictions about the future whose mean age was 14.1 years, in
la
trends of mixed marriages must spite of their older mean age and
be based on the prognosis for the the fact that they had received
1 Day Service Ind. Sot.
future of the American Jewish more extensive religious training. a
a
community. He added that young
Expressing "some concern about
• Pants • Sweaters • Skirts
people will consider their Jewish- the lack of Jewish identity on the
C (Plain)
ness in their personal plans "only arge majority of respondents,"
when they have an emotional in: Dr. Sanua said the findings indi- a
1 I i
volvement in the Jewish future" cated "the need for concerted a
ea
and he said that this depends upon measures to make Jewish educa-
fewer studies and more plans put tion more meaningful."
1,
v /
Coin Operated Dry Cleaning
into action to strengthen and in-
Professionally Done, Dry Cleaned & Spotted
a
tensify their sense of identification Moroccan Jews Colonize
Up to
and commitment.
$2oo
SHIRTS
8
Lbs.
a
MADRID (JTA) — A Jewish
5 for $139 a
Dr. Nathaniel S. Lehrman, clin- community comprising families
Beautifully Laundered
Northwest
Area's
Most
Modern
Plant
ical instructor in psychiatry, Al- who emigrated from Morocco has
b ert Einstein College of Medicine been established in Malaga in
0 f Yeshiva University, ascribed southern Spain.
`the irresponsibility of the young"
Although numbering no more
in regard to marriage to "the over than a score of families, the
permissiveness of the old" who, Malaga Jews have opened a syna-
13336 W. 7 MILE near Snowden
"under the impact of both misun-
DI 1-2800
misun- gogue and appointed a rabbi,
derstood egalitarianism and mod- Nessim Levy.

=Trunk Man' Get4
Reduced Sentence;
Cite His 'Suffering'

Survey . Reveals
Adolescents Lack
Sense of Identity

LAWN
SPRINKLERS

527-5044

a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a

Packer Pontiac

a

IMPROVE YOUR WARDROBE

a
a

UALITY
CLEANING

a

a

-

761

1

a

a

VASSAR CLEANERS

•
sitaausawitaitigoaaatoisocionottioaaimoliiiicis

