X 10
= riday, Sep em er i 3, 'ilia
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Anti-Semitic Beliefs Said Exist
Among 17,500,000. Americans
The N ew Look of .American Rabb
Ra bt i •
The rabbis of America have
emerged as Judaism's leading pub-
lic personalities.
The public image of the rabbi
has changed in more ways than
one.
One Reform rabbi, for example,
an American Jewish Committee
aide Morris Kertzer, reported that
at least 200 Orthodox, Conservative
and Reform rabbis were counted in
one March on Washington for Ne-
gro civil rights when the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was still
alive.
"Every one of us," confessed
Reform rabbi Eugene J. Lipman
of Temple Sinai, Washington, D.C.,
"has been greatly influenced by
living and working in a secular
society." As if to corroborate this,
Rabbi Jonathan Prinz, son of Rabbi
Joachim Prinz, announced that he
was leaving the pulpit of Temple
Bnai Abraham in Newark, N. J.
because "the prime place for re-
ligious action today is .the street."
Similar secular sentiment was
expressed by Orthodox rabbi
Emanuel Rackman, who replaced 1
Britain's Chief Rabbi Jakobovits
at Fifth Avenue Synagogue. Rack-
man called on Orthodox Jews to
involve themselves more in "civic
responsibility" outside the syna-
gogue.
Back in 1931, long before the ad-
vent of the "fashionable rabbi"-1
Aben Kandel's "Rabbi Burns" al- I
TORONTO (JTA)—About 17,500,- found was the New Testament por-
000 Americans hold "fairly strong trayal of Pontius Pilate as a man
anti-Semitic beliefs" according to "with good instincts who couldn't
a paper distributed to 200 delegates make a decision." That shortcom-
from six countries attending an ing allowed him to be pressured
international conference of Chris- by Jewish fanatics into sentencing
tians and Jews here. The paper, Jesus to die on the cross. "How-
prepared by Harry Leishman, race ever," Strober said, "history de-
relations coordinator of the Ameri- scribes a different kind of Pilate—
can Jewish Committee, was based a Roman functionary who had little
on a study sponsored by the Anti- compunction about putting people
Defamation League of Bnai Brith. to death."
The conference, organized by the
Because of tl.e historic evidence,
National Conference of Christians "it was hard to tell who bore the
and Jews and its affiliate, the Can- greater responsibility for Christ's
adian Council of Christians and death and it was therefore irra-
Jews, also took up problems of tional to place all the blame on the
poverty, urban unrest and student Jews as some Christians tend to
rebellion at its five-day session do," Strober said.
which ended Saturday.
The delegates heard a suggestion 2,383,000 Jews in Israel
by Rabbi Gunther Plaut of Toronto
that synagogues and churches Last Year, Says Census
give up their tax-free status so that
JERUSALEM (ZINS)—A census
they could become politically ac- conducted at the end of 1967, re-
tive. There is no reason why a vealed that there are 2,383,000
religious leader should not be able Jews in Israel. This is 3.7 times
to proclaim from his pulpit his the number 20 years ago, or an in-
support or opposition to a politi- crease of 1,734,000 persons.
cian's candidacy, Dr. Plaut de-
The number includes • 635,000 na-
clared.
tive born, or 37 per cent of the
Dr. Zwi Werblowsky, dean of general increase. In 1948 the non-
the humanities faculty of the Jewish population was 18 per cent
Hebrew University in Jerusalem, of the total, in 1951 only 11 per
criticizedAmerican campus rebels cent, and at the end of 1967, 14 per
whom he contrasted with Israeli cent.
_ students. He suggested that the
American students were in revolt
against their educational system
because they were "pampered
products" of an affluent society
and had no other outlets for their
energies. Israeli students, he
said, have a greater cause than
"student power"—the survival of
their nation. "This emergency
leaves little time for other pas-
times," Dr. Werblowsky F-'d•
The conference itself wan the
target of criticism by one of the
delegates because of the absence
of representatives of the poor, the
young and the racially oppressed
from deliberations addressed to
their problems. Norman J. John-
son, director of Community Action,
of Pittsburgh, said, "What right do
we have to talk about them? They
are not here, because among all
our PhD's and DD's and rabbis, we
think we are too great to have
them."
The National Council o" Churches
(Protestant) was called upon by
the International Conference of
Christians and Jews to open its
faith and - order commission on
theology to Jewish participation.
Rev. Dr. David Hunter, deputy
general secretary of the National
Council of Churches, said he was
not insisting on membership, "but
a Jewish voice and presence must
be there. But I have no objection
if membership comes someday .. .
There has bees. a theological bar-
rier to accepting Jews, as we ac-
cept Christians, and if this is so,
we ought to deal with it."
The American publishers of
Protestant Sunday School text-
books were asked to delete un-
nr .?.ssarily offensive and unusu-
ally inaccurate references to
Jews in lessons based on the New
Testament.
Gerald S. Strober of New York,
director of a textbook project )on-
sored jointly by the National Con-
ference of Christians and Jews and
Cyrus Adler was one of those rare people
the American Jewish Committee,
who,
from time to time, come along to
said that his own investigation and
astonish the world with the vast variety
that of Dr. Bernhard Olson, of the
of their activities. At the age of 20, he
Yale University Divinity School,
received his B.A. from the University of
indicated that Protestant books
Pennsylvania and promptly enrolled in the
often assign motives and roles to
Jews that are historically incorrect.
graduate school of Johns Hopkins. There he
He said 7 ' is studying the books of
became the first student to attain a Ph. D.
12 American Protestant groups,
in Semitics in an American university.
denominational and independent,
Shortly after his graduation Adler be-
but declined to identify them.
came an Associate Professor in Semitics.
Strober said that his study, and
He found the time to become Assistant
a much broader seven-year inves-
Curator of the U.S. National Museum. In
tigation by Dr. Olson of 120,000
1892, Adler was named Librarian of the
Protestant Sunday School lessons,
Smithsonian Institution, whose Assistant
were undertaken to see how Jewish
Secretary he became seven years later.
life and religion were treated. He
One would think he had made his mark,
said the studies were designed as
but his career was just beginning.
an aid to Protestant groups, not as
While still at the Smithsonian, Adler
a criticism of them.
An example of what the studies
,
Citt
ADDOCH
Auth or, "Portrait of
o f a People,"
Former Editor "Jewish Forum."
most seemed to be extrapolating remember the eloquent Abba Hillel
when it presented an American Silver, or the Yiddish rabbi-orator
"rov" who, like Sinclair Lewis' Zvi Hirsch Masliansky—have been
"Elmer Gantry," drank hard, saying that rabbis nowadays may
swung free and cussed loud. be found everywhere but on the
Though this was an exaggerated pulpit or before the lectern.
presentment, of course, three de-
Orthodox rabbi Joseph H. Look-
cades later—in Malden, Mass., stein, besides his Orthodox pulpit,
a Conservative rabbi turned has been serving as Bar-Ilan Uhi-
the Friday eve Shabat services versity's acting president. A n d
over to "jazz" performers, and in rabbi-author A. J. Heschel, who
Detroit another rabbi blandly an- , teaches; and Rabbi Rackman,
nounced to college undergraduates who serves as aide to Dr. Belkin
that "God is dead." of Yeshiva University.
The new image of the rabbi had' The American "rabbinate" has
so visibly changed that Dr. Man- I been undergoing morphological
heim Shapiro told a crowded audi- change, if that is what you wish
ence in Omaha, "We've turned our I to call it. Moreover, the rabbi's
rabbis into ministers." More real- "image" has expanded, and so, I
istic than his observation, however, should add, has his salary.
was Philp M. Klutznick's observa-
tion — when he found a Jewish August Aliya Is Largest
"civil service," as he put it, grow-
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Jew-
ing by leaps and bounds the coun-
: ish Agency reported today that 609
try over.
immigrants from the United States
Not the least of those "civil serv- , and Canada arrived in Israel dur-
ants," is the new breed of rabbi ing August, the largest number to
who serves as fund raiser, person- come from those countries in any
nel supervisor, public relations single month:
aide or liaison officer.
According to the agency's immi-
Models of such "secular rabbis" gration department, a total of 3,-
are, for example, American Jew- 000 newcomers arrived in August,
ish Committee's Cons ervative among them 467 from France, 132
Marc H. Tanenbaum, or United from Britain, 145 from Latin Amer-
Jewish Appeal's ordained Reform ica, 35 from South Africa and 28
rabbi, Herbert A. Friedman, or from Australia.
Israel Bonds' ordained Orthodox
rabbi, Joseph J. Schwartz. Because
Every man needs true friends
of this, some old-timers — who to strengthen his weak points.
The Manifold Lives of Gyms Adler
had a hand in establishing the Jewish
Theological Seminary and the Jewish Pub-
lication Society. He was a founder of the
American Jewish Historical Society and
an editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia In
1908, he left the Smithsonian to take the
post of President of Dropsie College.
Adler's unflagging energy saw him head
a project to furnish a new authoritative
translation of the Bible; he helped create
the American Jewish Committee; and he
became President of the Jewish Theologi-
cal Seminary.
When Adler died in 1940, this tribute
to his accomplishments was paid by Presi-
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Scholar,
patriot, humanitarian and religious leader
. an earnest worker in the cause of peace
and advocate of good_ will among men."
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