THE JEWISH NEWS
Tragic Recollections
ftworpovating The Detroit Jewish CitirOTEixt43 commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member Ante-Hear/ 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, Mich. 48235.
YE 8-9364. SUbscription $6` a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CAPIMI
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMAR-1(1C
SLOMOVITZ
Adv.ertibing Manager
Business Manager
CH-ARIDTTE HYMNS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Seleetions
ThiS Sabbath, the twenty-fourth day, of Shevat, 5727, the following scriptural
selections. will be read in our synagogues:
Fentatezwhat portion Ex: 21:1-24:1&.. Prophetical portion, jer. 34:8=22; 33::.25, 26.
Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 3, 5.31 p.m.
VOL. L. No. 24
Page Four
February 3.„ 1967
Genuine Priority for Jewish Education
wide survey incorporated in "The Syna5rOgule
School.' An app-ended note to the Detroit
study states: .
"Detroit's United Hebrew School's include
the operation of a nursery scla.00l in the
budget:- the- nursery school ✓ operation is in-
cluded in the budget: provision is included
for salaries for- bus administration and main-
tenance: there is a budgetary item - , 'recrea-
tion; • which seems to , appear in no other.
community budgets." . .
Because this is .a comparative study, it
is interesting to, note that no other large
city approaches Detroit in the amount of
communal allocations- for education. As con-
trasted with Detroit's total budget of $745,-
494 of the United Hebrew Schools for 1964,
only Minneapolis reached a total of close to
half that amount with a budget of $324,328.
The Detroit budget, be noted, included .
$378,955
a Jewish Welfare Federation allocation of
190.055
$378.344, and Minneapolis' federation alloca-
50.1
tion
was $155,227.
149,000
At the same time as the publication of
39.4
the figures contained in the study under dis-
2,217
cussion, an eminent authority on Jewish edu-
171
cation, Dr. Alvin I. Schiff, chairman of the
433,321
department of religious education at Yeshiva
202,321
University's .Ferkauf Graduate School of
46.7
Humanities and Social Sciences,. a b: s - e r v- e d
185,000
.that
the Jewish community talks a good
42.6 .
deal about the "idea of Jewish education"
2,531
but gives "very little support to the institu-
171
tion of Jewish education," and that the seri-
578,506
ous shortage of qualified teachers is a result
272,856
of such negligence. Dr. Schiff contends that
47.2
such a lack of support "has the effect of
235,000
degenerating the function of the Jewish
4Q6,
2,7T5 school and deprecating the. position of the
212: Sevinsh teacher." .
The comparative figures in "The Syna-
6-11,609
gogue-
School" study, indicating the meager
301.459,
allocations
for Jewish education: in. most. on
49,.1
rffunities, seem to confirm- the views of the.
237.000)
Yeshiva University professor. It is of the
38.7
2,959 utmost urgency that all efforts should be
exerted to assure a rapid change in such
246
attitudes in the organized American Jewish
702,521
communkies. Meanwhile it is heartening
359,121
to Li,, that Detroit leads in this field and
51.1
265.000 . that priority to Jewish education is not mere
service.
37.7
A comparative study on "The Synagagne
School," published by the United: Synagogue
Commission on Jewish Education, presents ,
figures of communal schools' budgets, grants
made by Jewish welfare federations in a
number of cities and per capita costs for the-
years 1954-1964.
There is so much emphasis on priority
for. Jewish education in communal planning,
and the needs of community schools are
receiving such growing attention, that the
Detroit figures are worth studying: as an in-
dication of the interest that is being attained
in planning for a knowledgeable community.
The increases in allocations for the 10-
year period under study of the budgets of
and gr a n t s to Detroit's United Hebrew
Schools and the enrollments for the decade
reviewed are contained in this table:
1954 A) Total Budget
B) Federation Allocation
C) % Fed. Alloc. of A.
D) Tuition Income
E) % Tuition- of A.
F) Enrollment
G) Per Capita Cost
1956 A) Total Budget
B) Federation Allocation
C) % Fed. Alloc. of A.
D) Tuition Income
E) % Tuition of A.
F) Enrollment
G) Per Capita Cost
1958 A) Total Budget
B) Federation Allocation
C) % Fed. Alloc. of A.
D) Tuition Income
E) % Tuition of A.
F) Enrollment
G) Per Capital Cost
1960 A) Total Budget
B) Federation Allocation
C) % Fed. Alloc_ of A.
D) Tuition Income
E) % Tuition of A.
F) Enrollment
- G) Per Capita Cost
1962 A) Total: Budget
B) Federation Allocation,
C) % Fed. Alloc.. of A.
D) Tnition Income.
E) % Thition of A.
F) EnrollMent
G) Per Capita Cost
1964 A) Total Budget
B) Federation Allocation
C) % Fed. Aline. of A.
D) Tuition Income
E) % Tuition of A.
F) Enrollment
G) Per Capita Cost
UAHC Issues Purim Operetta
Bialik Drama, Bible Play Book
A number of large-sized paperbacks, for school work and as
guides to recently published books, plays, operettas, a drama, have
been published by the Union of American Hebrew Congregatirns.
With ample time for preparation for Purim, UAHC published
"The Shushan Heart," a Purim operetta in three acts. The libretto is
by Helen Fine and the music by Dr.. Moses Eisenberg.
Esther's assurance about finding a heart in Shushan, thew bask
background of the festival, the characters of the Book of Esther are
embodied in this play, that will prove most suitable. for presentation
by school's and clubs.
Of added, interest is the issuance by UAHC of "Voice of -the
People," a drama depicting the life story of Chaim Nachman
Malik.. Authored by Mary Ann Karp,. this play evalitates splendidly
the life and the creative work of the great Hebrew poet.
Another operetta just published by UAHC is "The Ring of Solo-
mon," an operetta for soli and unison chorus, libretto- by Ben Aronin,
music by Samuel Adler. EpiSodes in thelife of King. Solomon are in-
corporated in this operetta.
Then there is a "Music Curriculum, for Jewish Religious Schools"
hy Cantor Joseph L. Portnoy of San Francisco}. It is a guide for all
religious school grades and offers advice that will be• most helpful to
music teachers.
The third volume in the "Bible Work and Play" series serves
a very special purpose. It is excellent for the very young, it is
splendidly illustrated and it indulges most valuable ways of teach-
ing children to build . words, re'ate facts, trace historic data
suitable for the early ages.
UAHC paperbacks; include a discussion guide to supplement Rabbi
Roland B. Gittelsohn's "Consecrated Unto Me." Case histories of
various occurrences related to Jewish studies, discussions about family
life, love,. sex_ the teachings of Judaism related to these and' scores
of other subjects, the effects of experiences in modern society on
these evaluative studies - these are the guiding elements of an
effective supplement to a widely discussed book.
3.033,
232:
745,491
379.344
50:g
287,250-
38.5
2,880
258
To bring the information up to date, we have
secured the following data subsequent to 1964 from
the Jewish Welfare Federation:
1966-1967 Budgets and Allocations
for Local Jewish Schools
Approved JWF
Budget Allocation
United Hebrew Schools
$ 834,408 $421,458
Mid rasha
33,528
29,828
Beth Yehudah Afternoon School. 61,343
38,230
Combined Jewish Schools
56,860
32,760
Hayim Greenberg Hebrew
Yiddish School
33,585
8,770,
$1,019,724 $531,046
*Subvention to an independent school.
For the three local Day Schools, 1966-67 budgets
are:
Hillel Day School
$253,090
Akiva Hebrew Day School
120;900
Yeshivath Beth Yehudah
356,550
4730,540
For Hebrew Studies Department only the following
figures were obtained for Akiva and Beth Yehudah:
Hebrew Studies-
Beth Yehudah Day School
$110,865
Hebrew Studies-
Akiva Day School
$ 85,800
-
The Detroit study is part of the nation-
Erasing an Iniustice
During his recent visit in Israel, Senator
Edward Kennedy made. a blunt statement
vi rtually. justifying the censure of Israel by
the United Nations.
At his meeting here next Wednesday
with the Allied Jewish -Campaigners the
Massachusetts Senator will have an opportun-
ity to clarify his earlier attitude. The UN
vote was such a gross injustice that hasty
judgment only- adds insult to -injury. The
visiting Senator has- a good chance- to- erase
such an injustice on his visit here.
The negotiations- on the- Israel-Syrian
border which should - have led to an effective
armistice;, even if peace hopes still are too. far
removed from realities -, have indicated the
sad state of affairs that has been made pos-
sible by dillydallying and the failure to talk
realistically about an end to the constant
snipings and war threats.
It is -because some legislators were all-too-
ready to accept the "expediencies" pursued
by the U.S-. and the UN - jointly in the
Security Council - that war-mongering con-
tinues. But if there were firm steps, insistence
that saber rattling must end there could be
peace in the Middle East_ Perhaps U Thant
will prove more successful in relation to both
Vietnam and the Middle East. But there
must be a sincere effort for amity, and that
cannot be attained by an unending appease-
ment and refusal . to recognize the right of
Israel to life.
Rubenstein's 'After Auschwitz'
Richard Rubenstein, director of the Bnai Brith Hillel Foundation at
the University of Pittsburgh, challenges theologians in "After Ausch-
witz, - a collection of essays on contemporary Judaism published by
Hobbs Merrill Co., Indianapolis.
An ordained Conservative rabbi, Dr. Rubenstein undertakes in this . )
work to "offer a theology which contains -mystical, .pagan and pschoan-
alytical elements as what I believe to. be a ten-able Jewish theology after'
- -
AuSchwitz, in the time of the death of GOee:
In a summary of his approach he rejects- the belief in a trans-
cendent God„ he contends that clergy as well as laity "must be full :
participants in life without necessarily passing judgment on things
other people do, because most of. the time we don't have sufficient
insight into the- psychological structure or the- needs. of other people."
He adds at this point that "the principal tasks of the clergymen. are
to be compassionate, to help, the troubled indiViduaI. to, achieve insight,
and to perform those rituals whereby the individual can safely pass
through the decisive crises of life. For - -my own part, I don't like to be
judgmental. . . . I distrust people who. think God's on their side . . ."
In his analyses, he covers many areas ., reviews Jewish historical
developments, including the emergence of Israel and the Zionist idea.
He touches upon the cannibalistic elemehts in the Auschwitz' horrors
and tragedies. He accuses the Germans of having become "increasingly
unable to accept reality." The goal of German life under the Nazis, he
declares, "was to reconstitute the world in such a way that it could con-
form to primitive German wish and fancy. This was done through propa- -
ganda, military enterprise, and above all the death camps. The wish to
structure things after their deepest and most archaic wishes would. have
'rives the Germans, had they won, to make the death- camp into- the-
authentic prototype of the future Nazi state."
In the many areas covered in "After Auschwitz," Rabbi Rubenstein
presents challenges to human thinking. He offers much food for thought
relating to the issue involved in current crises, and his work is much
more than a theological discussion: it is a social challenge to the
present generation.
.