Jewish Education Tool for Small Communities
By DR. AZRIEL EISENBERG
Director, World Council on
Jewish Education
(Copyright 1968, JTA, Inc.)
In Many smaller communities, to
which Jewish families are moving
in increasing numbers, synagogues
are manned by rabbinical students;
often elementary Jewish education
is a labor of love by untrained vol-
unteers and parents.
In such congregations, and there
are many more than most people
know, children often have to start
from Aleph-Beth in the new com-
munity to which their parents
have moved, even if they have had
some prior Jewish religious train-
ing. Parents settling in smaller
communities find the absence of a
common, uniformly sustained Jew-
ish school curriculum and t h e
rapid turnover of untrained teach-
ers a frustrating experience. How
many children have been soured
on Jewish education by this ex-
perience is anybody's guess.
Now this problem may be on
the way to solution thanks to the
pioneering efforts of the commis-
sion on Jewish chaplaincy of the
National Jewish Welfare Board.
Some years ago the commission
Morton I. Zieve
in. Torch Drive's
Advertising Group
published a 48-page "Unified Jew-
ish Religious Education Curricu-
lum." It was designed to meet the
need for religious training among
the growing number of children
of American Jewish military per-
sonnel on duty at points remote
from civilian synagogues and Jew-
ish educational institutions. In-
tended for children in the primary,
intermediate grades and high
school up to the age of 13, the
unified curriculum included a
teacher's guide and descriptive
material on all recommended
texts.
T h e curriculum was prepared
under the direction of Jewish edu-
cators in consultation with Jewish
military chaplains and the staff of
JWB's Commission on Jewish
Chaplaincy. This author directed
the work in consultation with
Rabbi Hyman Chanover of the
American Association for Jewish
Education, Mrs. Asenath Rosen-
berg of the Jewish Education Com-
mittee of New York, and the late
Morris Benathen of the Jewish
Education Committee and Yeshiva
University.
The commission on Jewish edu-
cation of the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations has under-
taken to adapt the military cur-
curiculum used by Jewish chap-
hans to civilan needs. The JWB's
commission on Jewish chaplaincy
extended its full cooperation and
granted permission to use mate-
rial from its original publication.
In what has turned out to be a
guide to a do-it-yourself program
in Jewish education for the entire
family, there now becomes avail-
able "The Religious School Cur-
riculum for Small Communities
and a Jewish Home Guide," pub-
lished by the UAHC commission
on Jewish education and the Cen-
tral Conference of American
Rabbis, and edited by the author.
Now, a Jewish educational tool
created by the JWB Commission
on Jewish Chapaincy to meet the
specialized needs of children of
Jews in uniform will be put to
work as a process of cultural
transplantation to serve children
in English-speaking civilian con-
gregations throughout the world
that have neither full-time rab-
binic leadership nor adequate Jew-
ish educational facilities and man-
power. The curriculum, which will
be available in the fall or early
winter of 1968, is designated as
experimental. It is hoped that as
the experiences of those who use
it are submitted, it will undergo
changes and revision in the light
of actual situations.
Friday, September 13, 1968-35
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Book Charges LBJ Administration
With Failure to Act on Vietnam War
There are • serious charges
against the Johnson administra-
tion of having failed to utilize op-
portunities for an end to the Viet-
namese war in "The Secret Search
for Peace in Vietnam," published
by Random House.
David Kraslow and Stuart H.
Loory join in analyzing the behind-
the-scenes developments affecting
the tragic war. They make accusa-
tions of maneuvers that under-
mined possibilities for peace, and
their full account leads up to Presi-
dent Johnson's announcement of
the commencement of talks in
Paris on May 10.
According to the two authors,
many opportunities for peace were
missed by Johnson.
Their account of the happenings
indicate that many dramatic
events were enacted, that there
were manipulations, proposals,
e f f or t s for diplomatic arrange-
ments which were Ignored at the
cost of an end to the conflicts.
The two authors state that
Arthur Goldberg's views did not
prevail and that Goldberg was "not
at the vital center' in decision-
making."
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LI 1-2563
Morton I. Zieve, partner in
Simons-Michelson Co., has been
named to the advertising group of
the 1968 Torch
Drive promotion
team.
Zieve, who lives-.
at 25960 York Rd.,
Royal Oak, willk
serve as chair-''
man of the radio'
and television
committee, a post
he held during
last year's cam-
paign. Zieve
His appointment to the Torch
Drive leadership post was an-
nounced by the advertising group
chairman, Wendell D. Moore, vice
president and account supervisor
of MacManus, John & Adams Inc.
Zieve holds a bachelor of arts
degree in speech and drama from
Wayne State University and a mas-
ters degree in drama from Stan-
ford University.
A member of the Torch Drive's
radio and television committee
since 1965, he is a member of Ad-
craft Club of Detroit, Detroit Press
Club and Directors Guild of Amer-
ica.
He and his wife, Mary Lou, have
a son, Robert Alan, 12, and a
daughter, Melissa Ellen, 7.
The 20th annual United Founda-
tion campaign will be held Oct. 15
through Nov. 7 to raise operating
funds for nearly 200 health and
community services.
Trident Publishes
Klinger's 3 .Novels
He's good-looking in an offbeat
way, he knows enough about karate
to make James Bond cringe, yet
he has just enough of the East in
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His name is Shomri Shomar and
he is tangling with some very
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Klinger's "The Three Cases of
Shomri Shomar," three full-length
novels of suspense, mystery and
intrigue, published by Trident
Press.
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