Rosh Hashana in Vietnam War Zone
Amidst Far-Away Dialogues
Keidansky Takes the Floor to Speak Out
By BERNARD G. RICHARDS
eanstatiren, that is, affirm his
thesis, theme, or statement. After
that, he must resumieren, summar-
ize his argument. As each one of
these sections of the presentation
is good for half an hour, time is
pretty well consumed.
"However, a change of air pollu-
tion is good. We have now attained
perfect unity. All our leading com-
peting organizations are united be-
hind the idea of excursions abroad,
with dialogues thrown in."
"Do you mean to say," inter-
dupted Karabas, "that you have
swallowed the complete proceed-
ings of all these conferences?"
"Yes," replied Keidansky, "and
as I have assimilated the substance
of them, I am in a position to sum-
marize what happened and to save
my friends the trouble of reading
voluminous accounts of the past
and the future of Judaism.
"One. Anti-Semitism will in-
crease in some countries and
diminish in others. (For this
disease, no wonder drug has as
yet been found, even by our own
miraculous medicine men, with
or without Nobel Prizes.) The
differences between the peoples
of various lands will be in exact
proportion to their possession
of knowledge and common sense
and uncommon decency. The law
of supply and demand does not
operate here. Nor is it up to the
Jews to make good for all short-
ages. All we can do is wait and
hope and pray. 'The Jew has
taught me how to wait,' says
Peer Gynt.
"Two. Assimilation will proceed
apace, but we will apply different
designations to the process. Instead
of assimilation, we will call it ac-
culturation, adaptation, adjustment,
and so on. We will take comfort
in continuing to search for our
elusive identity and in finding new
illusions and chimeras.
"Three. Intermarriage. Marriage
outside the fold is on the increase,
and all signs point to a widening
of the trend. The urge of impetuous
youth, imbued with illusions of
hasty and instant brotherhood, will
impel young people to leap across
(A Seven Arts Feature)
In the autumn of 1966, when
the remaining members of the
Lend-a-Word Club, at the end of a
long interval, were reunited in the
Top Notch Tavern on upper Broad-
way, they had many questions to
ask. They were meeting after vari-
ous national and international Jew-
ish conferences had been held in
this country and abroad, with Jeru-
salem, Geneva and Brussels hold-
ing out the promise of new revela-
tions.
Karabas, Levinsky, Pantofol, and
the other old-time cronies wanted
to know. They naturally looked to
Keidansky, the self-appointed or-
acle of the circle, who always came
late, but in time to steal the show.
"Yes," said Keidansky, "I have
followed the conclaves both here
and abroad and have absorbed
their proceedings. I have my im-
pressions, of course. But first of
all, let me tell you something about
gatherings abroad in general.
There is an awesome aura hover-
ing over them; international, world-
wide, faraway, romantic! The floor
is wide open to all delegates. The
atmosphere is vacational, leisure-
ly, and with no time limits. The
orator invites his soul and indulges
himself to the full. If, part way
through his oration, be is still not
sure of himself, or becomes doubt-
ful of the effect of his effort, he
starts all over again.
"There is a pattern. The Euro-
pean conferences of former years
as I remember them had a system.
First the speaker must darstellen,
state his proposition. Then he must
HOLIDAY GOOD CHEER
CHARLES M.
CLAPSADDLE
a
0
c
33 Vernier Rood
Grosse Pointe Shores
TU 4-3980
oax 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Best Wishes to Our
Friends and Patrons for a
Happy New Year
CAPITOL WASTE
PAPER CO., INC.
George Segal, Rod Steiger and
Lee Remick co-star in Sol C. Sie-
gel's forthcoming production for
Paramount, "No Way to Treat a
Lady."
Hy Lipsitz—Ted Wise
Harold Lipsitz — Lee Horwitz
Happy
New Year
ACE WIPING CLOTH CO.
Ace Brand Wipers for Every Purpose
Main Plant, 7355 Bryden, Detroit
-
ii
Holiday Greetings
BASIC READY MIX
Southfield, Mich.
21400 W. 8 Mile Rd.
444-1177
Happy
Hi
Eff
•••
Holiday
Dr. McArthur Colton
new Year Greetings
BONDED GUARD SERVICE
Season's Greetings
Thomas Goodfellow, Inc.
Best Wishes
For A Happy New Year
SOBERMAN & MILGROM
Manufacturer of Mercury Points
7741 Lyndon Avenue
Davison Auto Parts
PERRY PHARMACY
TY 7 9170
To Our Many
UN 4-7530
Friends and Customers
Best Wishes For A Happy and Healthy New Year
ALLEN'S SALON
22106 Coolidge
Oak Park, Mich.
LI 2-1398
000000000000 000000 0
0
a
all chasms and pitfalls, oblivious
of the yawning abyss beyond, which
engulfs all precious ties and cher-
ished attachments. What young
people will not realize is that all
marriages are intermarriages, even
within the fold—interrnental, inter-
temperamental, inter-experiential,
inter-habitual, to stop short of
cruelty to the language. It is an
arduous and awesome task for two
young people of distinctive person-
alities, with definite ideas and es-
tablished habits of life, to discover
and understand and finally set the
course of their destiny. It is a
Using religious supplies provided by the National Jewish Wel-
bewildering and ever more com- fare Board, Jewish servicemen once again will attend Rosh Hashana
plex world that they face. Neither services in embattled Vietnam after driving up in their tanks. The
art nor artifice offers a graphic prayer for peace issued by the Jewish chaplains in that combat zoo*
vision of the passing of time, its brings a solemn "Amen" from JWB, which has expressed its hope
changes and ravages, the decline for the earliest possible reunion of the men with their loved ones.
of human faculties, loss upon loss. In addition to the men in Vietnam, Jewish military personnel at
"In these strangely unforeseen more than 700 overseas and domestic bases and hospitalized veterans
though inevitable conditions, who will attend Rosh Hashana services through arrangements made hi'
is there to lean on and what is JWB's commission on Jewish chaplaincy.
there to cling to? Here and now
there looms only a rose-colored
world, and careless youth, with
little thought of the future, will
New Year Greetings
Happy New Year
defy all barriers. Many things will
happen. As Charles K. Harris sang
long ago, 'Many a heart will be
DENTIST
broken, after the ball.'
4238 E. Davison
"There will be some consola-
1111 Griswold, over Kinsel's
tions. Rabbi Max Eichhorn and
TW 2-0100
WO 2-1779
his associate Reform rabbis will
be saved from the trouble of at-
tempts to convert Christians to
Judaism, for the task will be
taken over by young, vibrant peo-
ple on both sides who will re-
place printed tracts with per-
sonal attractiveness as a means
of crossing the bridge."
Here Levinsky broke in:
Plant Protection Specialist
"Do not official conversionist ef-
Patrol Service
Uniformed Guards
forts, on the part of both Chris-
tians and Jews, prove to be fail-
Thomas J. Zack, General Manager
ures?"
"Official conversion," answered
LO 8-4150
441 E. GRAND BLVD.
Keidansky, "is almost always a
failure, and there is much pub-
lished evidence of this. In modern
times, we Jews have not gone into
proselytizing. Yet there is a his-
tory of notable and noble, even
famous and celebrated, non-Jews
throughout the world who have
been attracted to the teachings
and ideals of Judaism. There is
Machinery Movers, Riggers, Erectors
also a long history of the failures
Heavy Specialized Carriers
of Christian missionaries. Apropos
of that, I recall a letter which the
"Over 50 Years On The Move"
late Mayor William J. Gaynor of
New York wrote (April 21, 1910)
TY 40661
5201 Twelfth Street
to a Christian missionary who re-
quested permission to carry on his
activities on the Lower East Side.
The Mayor, in refusing to give this
permission, asked the missionary
Best Wishes For A Happy and Healthy New Year
two questions: 'Have not the Jews
a good religion? . . . How many
Jews have you converted?'
"As I said before, direct con-
versions have in most cases been
disastrous. Life is full of baffling
circumstances. There are surprises
Birmingham
- Troy
in the tragicomedy.
"I remember the story told to
Pontiac
Waterford
a group of us by a delegate to a
Highland
Lake Orion
Zionist convention in Pittsburgh.
He said that his non-Jewish
daughter-in-law had brought ev-
ery single member of her large
family of in-laws—her brothers-
in-law, sisters-in-law, cousin-in-
law—into the synagogue and sin-
glehanded had boosted the sale
of Kosher meat in the whole
town."
"There are all kinds of signs,
symbols, and signals," prompted
Karabas, "but w hat about the
future?"
"The chief predicter, or prognos-
ticator," returned Keidansky, "is
Professor Jacob R. Marcus of the
Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati.
He measures things out by decades,
generations, and even centuries—
all with the same pen and paper.
For myself, I would say that the
future looks quite gloomy, but I
am sure that other analysts will
make different and perhaps more
optimistic reports."
"Should we have more confer-
ences and dialogues?" asked Mr.
Levinsky.
"Sure," answered Keidansky, "so
long as the travel expenses hold
out. As the last delegate will say
on his return, The Jews cannot
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, October 6, 1967-49
live by schmoos alone.' "
fzeirk Ti