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 Mile Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235,
VE 8-9364. Subscription $7 a year. Foreign $8.
Second Class- Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural, Selections
This Sabbath, the seventh cloy of Elul, 5728, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deut. 1618:-21:9. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 51:12-52:12.
Candle lighting, Friday, Aug. 30, 7:51 p.m.
VOL. LIII. No. 24
August 30, 1968
Page Four
Crisis in Education--Urgency of Solution
There is a crisis in our school systems. Students are rebelling in the universities.
Many teachers are supporting the students' positions, and while administrators are in a
dilemma, there is a general recognition of a need to restudy situations, to plan anew, to
formulate approaches that will restore a sense of adequacy to lead toward wholesome
studies and pragmatic teaching, as well as amicable relations between faculties and students.
The revolt in higher schools of learning is beginning to gain adherents in the sec-
ondary schools, and a possible outburst of unrulines may also invade our high schools.
It may be the spirit of a restless time, but it is a condition not to be ignored.
While these experiences are confronting our communities, it is urgent, just before
the reopening of our public schools, to take into consideration also the status of our
primary schools, and to review most seriously the conditions involved in relation to the
most vital factor in education — those who train our youngest children who must acquire
4IM
their foundation for proper learning from earliest childhood.
While viewing these needs, we are obligated also, in the Jewish community, to ex-
amine very thoroughly the condition of the Hebrew schools and their related factors, the
status of the teachers and their future needs, and above all to consider the future and
the vital challenges associated with these numerous issues. Very vital in such considera-
tions is the shortage of teachers, the urgency of creating such conditions that will encour-
Memories of the Holocaust do haunt the survivors. It is no wonder
that there is a constant stream of books that represent the recollections
age our young people to enter the Jewish teaching profession.
Stirring Viennese Memories
Revived in Wiseman's Novel
No one need hesitate to discuss the issues frankly because it is not a secret that our
community schools faced the possibility of a teachers' strike two years ago and that such
a danger had been developing in the past few months in most of our schools. These, fortu-
nately, had been resolved.
The matter related to a strike threat involved the charge of "unionism," and
it is well that we should understand that a national recognition of the reality of
unionism directly affects also the religious communities, and when teachers in religious
and related-Jewish schools organize as a group it is - part of a pattern that can neither
be ruled out nor be condemned. Pragmatism is imbedded in our way of life, and an ostrich-
like attitude can only react harmfully in the field of education, as it does in all other fields
in our life today.
*
Into consideration also must be taken the role of the Jewish Welfare Federation,
which provides the funds for our major educational efforts. The Federation is the parent
organization that guarantees the security of our schools. It is conceivable that serious con-
flicts between teachers and school administrations could be used as weapons to harm fed-
erations and that must be avoided. WithOut the Federation we would not have the produc-
ing arm that acquires the means not only for our educational and recreational agencies,
for the welfare and social needs, but also in support of Israel and the declassed and
stateless Jews who must find haven in Israel.
The developing issues must, therefore, be viewed on a community-wide basis not to
harm the over-all organizational structure.
A temporary solution is inadequate, and we propose action to prevent recurrence of
bitterness and strife in our educational ranks.
Even with the current problems resolved, it is of the utmost urgency that the're
should be planning for the future. What is needed today is practical planning. We have
confidence that the present teaching staffs in our Jewish schools are as anxious as the
to assure the type of permanence
administrators of the schools — the baale batim
in agreements that should thenceforth create a condition that should give encouragement
to all involved to strive for the elevation of the standards of the schools and the creation
of a state of dignity for the teachers. Only when that is attained will we be able to turn
to our youth and get a positive reply from them in the plea that they should make teaching
in Jewish schools their profession — a calling for which we should assure respectability.
In a revealing, and very disturbing revelation of the conditions among primary school
teachers, in a volume just issued by Wayne State University Press, entitled "The Self-
Image of Primary School Teachers," the author, Prof. Marion Edman of Wayne State Uni-
versity reveals that "teachers have traditionally been held in low esteem, partly at least be-
cause of the manner in which education and teaching evolved from a basically non-literate
world into one of literacy and learning;" that teachers "felt they had little respect from
the community or the administrative officers of the school."
This needs correction in the general community, and in the Jewish community the
extension of such a condition, perpetuating an old "melamed" reference of disrespect, is
unworthy of our traditions.
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—
We propose that, in the best interests of our school systems, of the community and
teachers, that every effort be made for longer term contracts, so that in the course of
time we should be able to plan, in advance, agreements that will assuredly rule out future
conflicts.
If necessary, an impartial commission composed of people of the stature of Prof.
Edman, the non-Jewess, Dr. William Haber, the respected Jewish leader, and others who
match their abilities, should be chosen to evaluate conditions and to plan for wholesome
and firm regulations that should elevate teachers' status, school curricula, administrative
approaches.
Such a commission of study might encourage- the merger of all of our schools, in-
cluding the congregational that are presently not in the unified communal system, in order
that an entire community may work in harmony for the best interests of our children's:
Jewish education.
If, as part of such communal decision, the clay schools also could be merged into
the unified school system, we could look forward to greater future accomplishments
in advancing the education of our youth.
It is never too late to correct errors of the past. Even if the actions we propose should
necessitate the drafting of new . administrative personnel, the firm steps necessary for.
future action to protect our schools and therefore our community must not be delayed'.
of the era of the grave tragedies of the 1930s and 1940s.
"Journey of a Man" by Thomas Wiseman, a Doubleday novel,
is another such work. It is the story about Peter Stellman who leaves
Vienna at the age of 13, with his mother with whom he experiences
the chase out of his motherland—going to Switzerland and France
and finally landing in the United States.
The return is accompanied by a sense of despair. His wife
Marisa, whom he loves deeply, is a partial source of relief to him.
But he causes a repetition of horror over what had been imposed
upon him and a generation, and the fear that possesses him anew
is devastating.
He searches his heart, his mind, his conscience. He is plagued
by his thoughts as he approaches Vienna on his return trip:
"What was he? American by naturalization, English by adoption,
Austrian by birth, Jewish by temperament. God, what a mixture."
The entire experience of the new trip revives recurring realization
of all the events of the Hitler triumphs—over Dollfuss, in the era of
Polish pogroms, when Jews were being rounded up for concentration
and later extermination camps. And then Jews thought they "must
keep calm, and do nothing rash. Accept. Accept—with dignity.
Those hot-heads who wanted to form Jewish resistance groups were
crazy: that could only bring greater trouble on all of them. What
chance had they against German soldiers and guns? Better cooperate
with the authorities; register as they were required to; accept the
punitive decrees philosophically; put their trust in God—after all,
they were no strangers to pogroms and persecution, and they had
survived.. For 5000 years they had survived. And their persecutors
had gone under and were covered by the slip of history . . ."
Thus we even have a reminder of the failure to resist, and an
explanation of it.
Peter finally regains his bearings. After many experiences on
that trip he becomes reconciled to the reality of his being a survivor.
He and Marisa had just escaped the dangers of a torrent. Life goes
on. He begins to sort his father's papers. He accepts reality.
The novelist, Thomas Wiseman, is himself a former Viennese,
and in this novel Peter Stellman is almost his counterpart. He
therefore wrote "Journey of a Man" almost autobiographically and
with a sense of historic knowledge of the events he depicted
History of Hamburg Jewry
"Jews of Hamburg," the memoirs of William Aron of 894 River-
side Drive, New York, contains a great deal of material about the _-
famous Jewish city. This volume, however, by the author's admission,
serves only as an introduction to what can be gathered for a
complete history.
Aron submits that much study can be done about his native city
in the Yad Washem in Jerusalem, which has become the repository
for major data - regarding European Jewish communities.
In this volume, Aron deals with many of the distinguished Jews
of Hamburg of the past 200 years, including his,
ancestors and
especially his father, Reb Moses Wolf Aron, wos
e
prayer at an
Havdala service he quotes in Yiddish.
More than half of this volume is in Hebrew and Yiddish,
incorporating important historic data. There are numerous photo-
graphs, including Israeli officials in Hamburg and the city's
former citizens who are now in important positions in Israel;
of ancient 18th Century tombstones, synagogues, Chief Rabbi
Akiba Wertheimer (1778-1835), other Gaonim and chief rabbis;
the late son-in-law of Sigmund Freud, Max Halberstadt of Ham-
burg; members of the Bernays family—Sigmund Freud's wife was
a Bernays; Albert Baffin, Max Warburg, late Chief Justice
Richard Hinrichsen and others.
These photographs give an indication of the personalities and
institutions in Hamburg, which was an important German Jewish
cornmunity.
A German chapter contains an excerpt from the Protocols of the
19th World Zionist Congress held in Hamburg in 1909.
The initial Hebrew essay is by Dr. Yitzhak Rivkind, and the
author's major essay in Hebrew is about "Hamburg the City of
My Birth."
If this volume should inspire a more complete history of Hamburg
Jewry, it will have served a great purpose.
"Jews of Hamburg" was published by the American Jewish
Committee of Hamburg Jews which has its headquarters in New York..