Sim- hat Tora: USSR Jewry's Time of Rejoicing Prelate Urges Arabs Concede on Israel
Editor's Note: This essay, from got there, it was already hemmed worn-out clothes, seemed to be
"Between Hammer and Sickle" in by thousands of people who swallowed up in the colorful pro-
by Ben Ami, published by the filled the street from end to end. cession, and it was as though the
Everyone made way for us, as our splendid and ornamental Scrolls
Jewish Publication Society of
children were the only ones who marched on unsupported.
America, concludes the serialize-
tion of the significant expose of carried flags, and you could hear
"The old rabbi and the gabaim
Jewish conditions in the Soviet Jews whispering to one another, were followed by a few Israeli
(children
of
the
`Amolige
kinder'
children carrying miniature Scrolls
Union.
past).
of the Law and flags. A little five-
By BEN AMI
year-old girl was lifted up by the
The month-long period of the
"The interior of the synagogue
High Holidays ends with the festi- seemed to be luminous with a young people and carried on their
shoulders. They joined the pro-
val of Simhat Tora, Unlike the
light which came not only from
Jewish New Year and Yom Kip- the chandeliers but also from cession of the Scrolls. We saw
pur, which are solemn and grave, thousands of shining eyes and smiling faces everywhere, a rare
Simhat Tora is a gay festival, from the bright face of the and wonderful sight in this old
perhaps the gayest of Jewish holi- crowd, which now did not com- and sad synagogue.
days. This is the time when Jews prise only the aged.
, "When the first processional
dance joyously with the Scroll of
"I glanced around and saw was completed, the cantor, accom-
Archbishop George Hakim (center), the head of the Greek
the Law, when one may imbibe
panied by some of the regular
wine or liquor so as to sing all young people here and there. I worshippers, began to sing some Catholic Church in Israel, at a reception of the Synagogue Council
the
dark,
smiling,
curl-
noticed
of
America,
called on Arab countries to recognize Israel's right to -
the better. And the songs are not
happy songs. The microphone
the usual melancholy supplications, ous eyes of a charming girl, who near the cantor was grabbed by live. Also addressing the reception were Rabbi Jacob Philip Rudin,
to
pulpit.
(On
Sim-
came
close
president
of
the council, and Francis Cardinal Spellman of New
but jolly hasidic tunes, or Jewish
a number of people who boldly
separa-
variations on non-Jewish secular hat Tora the traditional
sexes inside
the sang into it Jewish folk songs York (left).
•
•
tion
of
the
and folk songs. This festival, more
and hasidic tunes. Many of the
NEW•YORK, N.Y. (JTA)—At a tion. He commended the Syna-
than any other, has endeared it- synagogue is overlooked, and people in the crowd joined in. The
self to the Jews of the Soviet the women mingle with the men.) processions continued at a faster reception given him here by the gogue Council's welcome of Arch-
Union. They have invested it with There were new faces all around. and gayer pace. The Scrolls were Synagogue Council of America, bishop Hakim as an example of
most of their desires, yearnings, Had I met any of those people no longer carried by old people Archbishop George Hakim, head the Jewish community's desire to
encourage a friendship with the
longings and feelings of identifica- on the street, I would never have
•
or by the regular worshipers. The of the Greek Catholic Church in
tion. It is the only festival which associated them — on account snaking 'rondo' of the Scrolls Israel, stated that there can not Arab peoples that will lead to
can be compared to a "popular of their age, dress and expres- swirled through the packed crowd, be any peace in the Middle East peaceful co-existence in the Middle
— with a synagogue or a reaching almost outside the walls "until the Arabs—my own people, East.
concert," in which children may sion
Archbishop Hakim was welcomed
also participate. It brings some Jewish holiday. They were the of the synagogue and the open whom I love — recognize Israel's
kind
of people one meets at the
measure of happiness — a thing
area before the synagogue, where right to exist." At the same time, by Rabbi Jacob P. Rudin, presi-
Bolshoi,
in
Gorki
Park,
at
an
year.
so often lacking during the
thousands more stood crowded to- he said that Israel, "the country dent of the Synagogue Council.
in the Pushkin Mu-
It is also an occasion for dancing exhibition
I love, must recognize that she is Rabbi Rubin noted that the Arch-
in the Lenin Stadium, or gether.
bishop is the leading sprikesman
what is akin to a Jewish snake seum,
"Then some people started a Middle Eastern state."
dance. Thus Simhat Tora has be- at a lecture in Dom Kulturi.
Francis Cardinal Spellman, for Israel's Christian Arabs and
"Where were they from? What dancing. A circle was formed. Archbishop of the New York Arch- has played a central role in recon-
come the greatest of the Jewish
Everybody danced, old men and
festivals in the Soviet Union, one were they doing here? Was it mere- women,
boys and girls. The diocese. also spoke at the recep- ciling Israeli Arabs and Jews.
ly the curiosity of the young that
with a character all its own.
widened as a second, third
The things that take place on drove them to come and see how circle
and fourth circle formed within.
the night of Similat Tora in the their fathers and ancesters had
Then dozens of people were
synagogues of the Soviet Union celebrated their festivals? Or were dancing,
their arms linked as
ax AHARON ROSEN
shed a powerful light on Jewish they drawn by a longing for an they moved to the tune of Weta-
' unknown past?
life in Russia.
"The Tora processionals began. her Libenu.' Someone started to
has one's hair inITH373 .4 91
wood, tree
This is what I heard from the
. 117 .4 96
head of an Israeli family who was The old rabbi and the gabaim of sing 'David King of Israel lives
cut (m.s.)
ehts
present in the great synagogue of the synagogue took out dozens of mediately
forever," changed
and the to
dance
im-
the more
mees-tah-pehr
soiled
Moscow on the night of Simhat Tora Scrolls from the Ark, well-
111?7171? .497
-
i cared-for ancient rolls of parch- fervant pace of a hora.
laundry
m'lookh-Takh
Tora -
nomn» .4 92
"As
we
watched,
the
dance
grew
"We dressed our children in ment that were wrapped in colored
meekh-bah-sah T I
clean
17.1 .498
their holiday-clothes and gave them velvet embroidered in golden He- in warmth and ecstacy; the old,
nah-kee
iron (m.z.)
the traditional colored flag topped brew letters. The Scrolls were worn and heavy-footed dropped out,
71173 .4 93 -
by an apple, with a candle in the crowned with filigreed decorations, and their places in the circle were prepared
m'gah-hehts
11/3 .499
apple. The whole family went to jeweled flowers and bells. The taken by the young. In the end
wardrobe
moo-khan
circle was made up almost
.494
the Moscow synagogue. When we old, bent Jews, in dark, faded and the
entirely of young people. The .Iarpenter
ah-rohn
'111 .5 00
dancers, who appeared to be most-
furniture
article
nah-gahr
tri.11. .495
ly university students, were not
Rosh Hashana at Western Wall
rah-heel
adept at the bora, but they soon
grasped the basic nature of the
.r dance and the words of the song."
'ITV*
--t
1]
I have asked myself: Who were
these young people who danced .ntpriy
n
173 K arni ,trom trvitirjr
with such great enthusiasm? Was
this an isolated event in their lives,
'41 _1 1"194;3-n'4 - 1 71173
a casual occurance? Are they like
rii‘mr)
the many young Russians who fill `2'2grp
the great churches on the eve
arls74
of Christmas to listen with curi-
osity to the choir of old women?
-
I am told that the same thing 71431 ..1TP4
happened in the synagogue of
173
Leningrad on the night of Sim- .17"1??' "171r. 4 n4Vo '41 11
hat Tora, but on a more massive
rs'IP??
1inti ,x1 ;? ,11;11?te
scale. Perhaps this is because the
.-rirpt 13311
pi
Leningrad synagogue is larger
than the one in Moscow, or be-
In*
cause a more Western atmosphere criT???;.3 111:3
27 ki
Prevails in Leningrad. The fact re-
• •
s.. mains that a still larger number
of students and Jewish young as-
?11"1=73 - 1 711 113'13'7.11 7t3pi r, /724 —
semble there, and the building,
the area outside, and the street
.T-1Y
•ri-PV4
are filled with thousands of peo-
,t,pr! 11bti 1CfK7 -
ple. And when one begins to won-
der whether it is possible that the
runn4
intense interest the young people trtrin ii4rrj
show in that evening is not just
.riv1P114
I
casual but has very deep roots.
This is how my friend, who de-
n-rAnwp - -
scribed the Simhat Tora celebra-
tion in Moscow, put it: "It is diffi-
109
.r1"1??7
cult to talk to them. When the
wig
evening is over, they scatter into
the night. And you don't see them,
31. 141.7
or the likes of them, until the fol-
lowing year . . ."
r;PP 7'??',91
The High Holidays are over and
Simhat Tora has passed. Once
wbri
.
into
sinks
again the synagogue
the grayness of the Russian win-
ter. Once again a few oldsters
gather there on weekdays and Sab-
- fiTkA
ConP 5)3 rat
4)1;70 DIM
baths. Once again arguments, dis-
a m
di yjhool •
*ILA
putes, and schisms arise. Once
again they must deliver reports
Redding•material in vocalized Easy Hebrew, and also material for
to the authorities. But deep in
advanced students may be obtained through your loial Hebrew
their hearts, these synagogue Jews
Organization or by writing to: Brit lvrit Olamit, P.O.B. 7111,
know that they, old and degraded
as they are, are the ones who guard
Jerusalem, Israel,
the
embers
of
the
ancient
Jewish
Jeru-
stand
at
the
western
section
of
the
Wailing
Wall
in
Jews
Published by Deft Ivrit OW*
salem as a chanting cantor ushers in Rosh Hashana—the first time tradition, which blazes into flame
for a brief moment a few times a
since 3831 (69.70 CE) that the service was celebrated in this area
40—Friday, October 13, 1967
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
year.
of the Jewish quarter.
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