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May 12, 1967 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1967-05-12

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THE JEWISH- NEWS

incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial

Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mlle Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235.
VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Business Manager

Advertising Manager

CHARLOTTE HYAMS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the third day of lyar, 5727, the following Scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:

Pentateuchal portion, Lev. 21:1-24:23. Prophetical

portion, Ezek. 44:15-31.

Candle Lighting, Friday, May 12, 7:24 p.m.

VOL. I.I. NO. 8

May 12, 1967

Page Four

pee It

Israel's Nineteenth Anniversary

-

Israel's 19th anniversary is on the agenda
of Jewish communities everywhere for cele-
bration of the historic occasion which marked
an end to statelessness that was for centuries
the curse of our people. Now, as we mark the
happy event commemorating the emergence
of the symbol of great pride for Jewry, we
take into account again the significance of a
partnership between Israel and the Jewish
communities everywhere. As we celebrate
the fulfillment of prophecy of Zion's redemp-
tion with justice, we must make an account-
ing again not only of Israel's attainments but
primarily of our role in the Jewish State's
functions.
In our observance of the great occasion
it is vital that we should think in terms of
the necessities, of the obligations to help
make the small state secure, of the duty to
assist not only in bringing in new immigrants
but also in assuring for the settlers already
accommodated in Israel that they should not
be deprived of the basic rights to life, to
economic opportunities, to proper health
facilities, to educational facilities—to the pur-
suit, of happiness.
There are recurring crises in Israel. As
long as there are hostile neighbors, these may
not end for many years to come. There are
economic crises resulting from pressures of
an external and internal nature. These, too,
must not be overlooked. At this very time,
when the economic conditions in Israel are
most unhappy, an accounting by us is even
more vital than stock-taking by the Israelis
themselves. It is true that the plans under
consideration in Israel to solve the economic
recession are of the utmost urgency, but
we, too, in the Diaspora, especially in the
more affluent countries like the United
States, must especially plan whatever actions
are feasible to come to Israel's aid.
It stands to reason that the United Jewish
Appeal, the major beneficiary of Detroit's
Allied Jewish Campaign, must continue to
get priority in philanthropic efforts. But aid
for Israel is not entirely in the philanthropic
sphere. Of much greater significance—if
such heresy is permissible at a time when the
U.JA's role is fully acknowledged—is the aid
we can give to Israel through investments,
to assure industrial development, to provide
for an economic upsurge. That is why the
Israel Bond programs carry with them such
demands for the fullest cooperation. and other
investment projects are to be taken seriously.
Hadassah as the provider of health facili-
ties, the Jewish National Fund as the land
reclamation agency, our educational media—
all have their claims on world Jewry.
A very important analysis of Israel's
status, in relation to world Jewish communi-
ties. was issued on the eve of Israel's Inde-
pendence Day by Prime Minister Levi Esh-
kol who stated in a greeting to the entire
Jewish people "wherever they dwell, in the
East and West. North and South," in behalf
of his nation. Jewry's kinsmdlt:

The consciousness of Israel's existence is tak-
ing deeper roots the world over: more and more it
is becoming the focus for the perennial life of our
people. It is our duty to make the bonds between
Israel and the Diaspora stronger and closer, and to
ensure that the mutual influences that operate be-
tween the various parts of our people take their
proper place in the heart of the Jew wherever he
may dwell.
The nature of our people has always been. and
still, is, complex and mysterious. This people. whose
historic laws are so different from those of any
other. lives under conditions and circumstances to
which there is no parallel. It has wandered through
phony lands, enduring days of tribulation and days
of 1crvIle glory., but always it has ioreserted its
always it . Ms
unique trrz

faced the challenges of oppression, persecution and
destruction.
Today our people the world over faces new
perils—of extinction under pressure and extinction
through comfort. The way to avert this danger is
through dedicated endeavor for Jewish education,
which helps the Jew to realize that he belongs to
the people that has given the world the Book of
Books, the people that has created a rich culture
even during millennia of exile and recorded glorious
chapters in the world's annals, the people that bears
a heavy burden and a historic mission, which dic-
tate its destiny and that of every individual who
belongs to it.
AU sections of our people are responsible for
each other, and it is incumbent on all of us to
work to strengthen the ties and the mutual consci-
ousness of all our parts, so that all who wish to
be Jews shall be able to express their Jeunshness
with head held high and without fear.
In Israel, we are engaged today in a great effort
to strengthen the State. We are still confronted
with external perils, with aggression and threats
from some of the neighboring countries. We are
sparing no effort or labor, therefore, to fortify and
consolidate the State.
.4t home we face the challenges involved in
creating an integral Jewish society, with its culture
and spirit, with its national economy.
The • one depends on the other. Only by con,
solidating the economy, by ensuring employment
for every new immigrant and every boy who fin-
ishes school, shall we be able to create the con-
ditions under which we can establish in this coun-
try an integral society progressive in culture and
morality, giving every citizen full opportunity to
develop as man and Jew.
Today, we confront the test of reality, the test
of efficiency. We are learning by experience, by
trial and effort, how to continue to develop our
economy and society. This is a difficult period,
but we are all confident that the country will emerge
from it stronger and more firmly based.
One of the reasons for our difficulties today is
the shrinkage of immigration. We have completed
one stage in the in gathering of the exiles. We have
brought to Israel the great majority of the int-
migranti front lands of distress. Today; to our
regret, there is a certain lull in imnzigation. We
hope it will not last long. Many immigrants will
still come front lands of affluence, lands of dis-
tress and lands of silence—and with them we shall
see a resurgence of the great momentum of develop-
ment.
Our efforts are continually devoted everywhere
to the complete absorption of the immigrants who
ate already with us and their . integration in our
society in the spirit of Jewish brotherhood. We are
doing our utmost to enable every Jew who so desires
to settle in Israel, and to increase the love for
Israel of our brethren living in the affluent lands,
who have been pritileged to acquire education,
skill and experience, so that they may intensify
their bonds with our people and our land, and come
to Israel to build with us the future and the pride
of our people. It is the common responsibility of
all sections of Jewry to give support and aid to
the strengthening of the fraternity of our people
and the safeguarding of its future.
Israel regards 'itself as responsible for the entire
Jewish people. Other sections, too, must contribute
their share—in resources and in men and women
nice are ready to work to renew the youth of
our ancient people on its own soil.
To our brethren everywhere we wish a year of
peace and progress, a year of the strengthening
of our people and the intensification of the ties of
brotherhood between Jewish communities every-
where and our country, the Jewish State.

Schocken Issues 2 Famous Agnon
Novels in English Translations

Schocken Books, having assumed the role of publisher of the
works of the Israeli Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, Shmuel Yoset
Agnon, has commenced the publication of his most noteworthy books.
Two of them came off the press this
week. One of them is the well-known novel,
"The Bridal Canopy," which for nearly
three decades has rated among the best
novels on a Jewish subject.
The other is a much smaller work, the
novel "In the Heart of the Seas."
When the Nobel Prize Committee an-
nounced Agnon's selection for the 1966
award, it stated: "'The Bridal Canopy' is
the name of one of his most characteristic
stories, in its ingenious and earthy humor
a Jewish counterpart to 'Don Quixote' and
Tyl Eulenspiegel.'"
In Jewish ranks this novel already
had been acclaimed as a work about
Hassid Reb Yudel, the father of three
daughters who was begging to secure
dowries for them. With the driver of a
wagon, Reb Nuta, who, in the "Don Quixote" sense is the Sandie
Panza of the Jewish tale, the two unique characters' travels, their
stopovers at inns, their stories, the rash promises to prospective
bridegrooms, combine to make this a noteworthy folkloristic tale.
Enriching this signifant work, in addition to a valuable four-page
glossary containing explanatory terms, historical and Kabbalistic ref-
erences, "The Bridal Canopy" contains a most important note by the
able translator, I. M. Lask. This 10-page essay, written in Jerusalem
in 5697 (1936-37), the year of the book's appearance, in an English
translation, provides the reader with the basic facts regarding Kabbala
and indicated the influence of the cosmonogy and the philosophical
system on Agnon's writings.
Lask's article is an historical record also of Hasidism. Explainittg
Reb Yudel's travels and the background of the hero's search for
means to assure the fulfilment of the precept that the daughters of
the hero of this novel must be brought under the bridal canopy, Lask
states:
"Throughout his journey, as indeed throughout his entire life,
Reb Yudel lives according to the letter and the spirit of the Tore.
And who should know what they are better than he dint his like?
For they live in the Tora and the Tora is their life as it has been
the life of all their ancestors, and as it will doubtless be the life
of their descendants. The Tora has given Jewish life its conteni
and character in the past. There is no reason to suppose that it
will cease to do so in the future."
This, in effect, explains the spirit which predominates in Agnon's
writings. Added significance to this basic idea in Agnon's work Is
provided in a publisher's note which asserts:
"Lask's translation of 'The Bridal Canopy' appeared in 1937; and
is based on the Hebrew version (Hakhnasat Kala) published in 1931.
The translator realized the impossibility of reconstructing more than
a part of the continuous undercurrent of biblical and talmudic phrases
in the narrative. His solution was to reproduce 'the scent of an English
style of a period corresponding in a way to that which Agnon set out
to portray.' Today, with the wealth of literary analysis and critical
review that have been accorded Agnon's work, a translator would be
free to essay a different approach to his task, but it is doubtful
whether the joyous quality, the loving tone, the subtle irony of the
original—and an undercurrent of alienation—could be better grasped.
"In the Heart of the Seas," also translated by Lask, with illustra-
tions by T. Herzl Rome, also containing a two-page glossary—the
latter necessary because of the rabbinic, historical and other' terms
used by Agnon in his writings, linking fiction with history—describes
the journey of East European Jews to the Holy Land and to Jerusalem.
The symbolisms resorted to in this short novel, the humorOus descrip-
tions of the group in the,pilgrimage, the description of the miraculous,
link the facts with fiction and provide an instructive, and entertaining,
setting for a tale about men on the road to Zion 150 years ago.
Schocken's two new books serve the great purpose of making
the works of the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature available to
the world-wide English-readink public which must inevitably take a

This is a practical statement. It strikes
at the very heart of the Israeli relationships
with the entire Jewish people. It recognizes
perils and invites world Jewry's cooperation
in resolving the mounting problems. The
basic need is to provide the means, the
sinew for such solution. The duty is to co-
operate in removing obstacles. These are
our pledges to Israel as we greet our kins
men in the ancient homeland
- 4,- . on Israel's
• -
*deer IriterW4hWirelite4r-Ole
"T9th'ariniversnry.

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