THE JEWISH NEWS
lecorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English--Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial
A ssociation.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235
VF. 8-9364. Subscription 86 a year. Foreign 57.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
j
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
business Manager
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 11th day of Elul, 5727, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Isaiah 54:1-10.
Pentateuchal portion: Dent. 21:10-25:19. Prophetical portion:
Candle lighting, Friday, September 15, 7:24 p.m.
VOL. LI. No. 26
Page Four
September 15, 1967
Jewish Illiteracy Must Be Eliminated
Jewish schools have resumed their ses-
sions, and another year of serious effort has
begun for the preparation of our youth to
be able to confront the Jewish challenges that
inevitably arise for all of us.
If it isn't a conflict in the Middle East,
it is the tragedy of the Jews in Moslem coun-
tries or behind the Iron Curtain, or the emerg-
ence of a bigot who may be gathering adher-
ents in Canadian provinces or in our nation's
capital, or among the black power groups
which have suddenly adopted a policy of
hatred for Israel and for Jewry.
With hatred undiminished, there is a
pressing responsibility to keep our youth well
informed on what is transpiring, to make
them linowledgeable about Jewish events,
to assure their learning about their past in
order that they should be able to understand
the present and properly face the future.
It is when young Jews are suddenly con-
fronted with wild charges against their peo-
ple Iand are placed in the quandary of being
unable to counter the attacks with facts that
they are found in a most humiliating and
embarrassing position.
There is, often a sense of resentment
against parents who had failed to provide
their children with knowledge about their
ancestry and their heritage; and to avoid be-
ing rebuked in the future by their own off-
spring, parents are obligated to provide the
necessary training for their youth.
With Israel as an established functioning
democracy that beckons to tens of thousands
of tourists to visit the historic places, there
is an urge to know Hebrew, to be able to
converse a bit with the Israelis. Children
who are provided with a Hebrew education
will be grateful to their parents for the op-
portunities providedfor them. Besides, if
children are to participate knowingly in
prayers they must know Hebrew. There are
too many who are denied that knowledge
today.
The duty of parents to provide their
children with a proper Jewish education is
apparents. It is to be hoped that we shall
strive to eliminate whatever there is left of
Jewish illiteracy.
In viewing the obligation to end illiteracy,
let us not forget another major factor: the
need for literacy in dealing with communal re-
sponsibilities- There is a great need for under-
standing and for knowledge among those who
make up the so-called leadership roster. They,
too, must be well aware of what is happening
in our midst. They, especially, must know the
background of the issues they deal with, in
order that they should be fully aware of the
needs that challenge them to action.
Even while fulfilling philanthropic duties
there is need for full awareness of the condi-
tions that make demands upon us. Else the
entire charitable effort dwindles into insig-
nificance.
Therefore the approach to knowledgeabil-
ity retains its deep-rooted obligatory role for
both individuals and groups in Jewish life.
Many Anniversaries Mark Coming Year
The coming year will be replete with an-
niversary celebrations. Commencing with the
60th year of the Jewish Home for the Aged,
which will be honored at the annual meet-
ing of the Jewish Welfare Federation, it is
important to note that the current year also
marks the 50th anniversary of United Com-
munity Services of Metropolitan Detroit.
Nationally, the 60th anniversary of Drop-
sie College for Hebrew Cognate Learning
deserves special attention. Many noted schol-
ars had their training at this school of higher
learning. This year, a noted scholar, Prof.
Abraham I. Katsh, assumes the presidency of
Dropsie, and his direction of a great school
will deserve special attention. His st. Aar-
ship, his Hebraic knowledge, his skill:at re-
search lifts him to a high rung in American
cultural spheres.
Locally, the 50th anniversary of the Jew-
ish National Fund Council, the 50th annivers-
ary of the founding of Young Judaea and the
35th anniversary of Balfour Concerts, which
have become important social occasions here
in behalf of a major cause, are worthy of note.
Then there is the national anniversary—
the 70th year of the Zionist Organization of
America.
On the world front, there is the 50th an-
niversary of the Balfour Declaration and the
20th anniversary of the United Nations de-
cision for the establishment of a Jewish State
—a decision for Palestine's partition out of
which has emerged the State of Israel.
These events make the forthcoming year
an interesting and an important one to look
forward to.
•
Irresponsible Bigots' 'Power' Pressures
There is a large measure of irresponsi-
bility among those who have been misled
by bigotry, and this is especially true of
SNCC. Repudiating the anti-Israel declara-
tions of the Student Non-Violent Coordinat-
ing Committee—and they are unquestionably
anti-Jewish, inspired by the Kremlin line of
bias—Prof. Gary T. Marx of the Survey Re-
search Center, University of California at
Berkley, reported that Negroes have been
found to be less anti-Semitic than white non-
Jews.
A Negro, Harry Lee Moon, editor of
Crisis, publication of the National Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Colored People,
insists that Negro anti-Semites are a minority
among his people.
SNCC has been repudiated, and while
other leftists have gone along with this big-
oted group to fan flames of hate, there is
good reason to believe that hate-mongers still
are a minority among all elements in the
American population.
Unfortunately, actions like that of the
black power controlling element at the Na-
tional New Politics Convention in Chicago
last week serve to weaken the force that are
striving for cooperative efforts and for unity
in the ranks of the freedom loving people. On
this score, too, it is to be hoped that the
rational elements among the Negroes, as well
as those in the other factions that called to-
Many Historical Links Mark
Quarterly Review's Volume 75
"The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Volume of the Jewish Quarterly
Review," edited by Abraham I. Neuman and Solomon Zeitlin, which
has made its appearance belatedly, emerges as a work of historic
rvizs7=-;-rpmtTi-..3
significance because it links two,
important institutions — Dropsie
College, the publisher of the Quar-
terly Review, and the Academy fcr
Jewish and Oriental Studies in St.
Petersburg, Russia.
A preface to this volume by
Prof. Zeitlin offers a partial ex-
planation of the historic aspects
of this link. Dr. Zeitlin calls at-
tention to the fact that the 75th
anniversary of the Quarterly Re-
view also marks the 60th anniver-
sary. of Dropsie College, which be-
came the quarterly's publisher, and
the 60th anniversary of the im-
portant academy in Russia which
was founded by Baron David Gunz-
Dr. Zeitlin
berg.
Thus, this volume is replete with historical data about major
cultural institutions, in addition to the critical essays on biblical,
talmudic and a vast variety of other Jewish subjects.
The story of the development of Dropsie College is in itself inter-
esting, and the link with the St. Petersburg Academy carries with it
interesting recollections. Prof. Zeitlin had studied in that academy and
among the distinguished fellow students was the president of Israel,
Zalman Shazar. In the first essay in this volume, on the topic "Baron
David Gunzberg and His Academy," Shazar tells of his personal exper-
iences, about his famous associates, and reveals that Zeitlin was his
roommate at the academy for two years.
Dr. Neuman is the author of the essay which reviews the history
of Dropsie College.
Of added interest is the inclusion in this volume of an essay,
"Poems From the Barcelona Mahzor of the 13th Century," by
Prof. Abraham I. Katsh," who this year succeeds Dr. Neuman as
president of Dropsie College. The facts in this essay, and the
reproductions of Hebrew poems, are the result of research work
that was done by Prof. Katsh in the Baron David Gunzberg Col-
lection in the Lenin Government Library in Moscow.
This Quarterly Review anniversary volume contains many valuable
works of research by the most eminent Jewish scholars. In addition to
the editors, there are essays by Profs. Harry Orlinsky, Dr. William
Chomsky, Prof. Miordecai Kaplan, Dr. Bertram Korn, Dr. Samuel Belida,
Dr. Israel Efros; Prof. Harry A. Wolfson, Prof. Samuel Sandmel,
Dr. Cecil Roth, Prof. E. A. Speiser and a score of others.
There is a scholarly set of notes on Joshua by the distinguished
Christian biblical scholar, Dr. G. E. Driver.
In addition to the historical essay on Dropsie, Dr. Neuman wrote
on "The Paradoxes and Faith of a Jewish Medievalist," dealing with
Abraham Zacuto.
Prof. Zeitlin's supplementary essay is on the subject "Testa-
mentary Succession: A Study in Tannaitic Jurisprudence."
Stiticlies in this volume deal with various Jewish experiences,
with Jewish scholars of medieval times, with cultural attainments
and liturgical developments.
Dr. Orlinsky's essay is on biblical theology. There is an informa-
tive study of the origin of the Rosh Hashana liturgy by Prof. Samuel
Hoenig.
Dr. Grayzel's "Jews and the Ecumenical Councils" contains the
gether the Chicago convention, will repudiate background
of many historical experiences involving ecumenism.
the bigotry of those who are laboring under
The wealth of information in this volume and its historical analyses
delusions that their tactics really serve to
elevate it to an important role in Jewish literary endeavors.
eliminate bias.