THE JEWISH NEWS
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CHARLOTTE DUBIN
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VOL. LVII. No. 3
Page Four
April 3. 1970
Vital Goal. of Current Campaign
Detroit Jewry has entered upon a new of the major ftind - raising effort sponsored by
era of expanded philanthropy on so high a our community.
plane that it may well serve as an example
For the first obligation there is need
to other communities whose interests in
an enlarged volunteer army. and addit:or.a.
scores of educational. recreational and social workers are al4ays needed. Then there :s
services causes and in Israel's security are the duty of locating the many more w ho are
akin to ours. in position to contribute but who have re-
Never before in the history of this com- frained from becoming a part of their com-
munity has so vast a sum been subscribed as munity.
The duties to all of us are so pressing.
a demonstration of concern in the welfare of
our kinsmen. The accomplishments in ad- the obligation to protect Israel and the insti-
vance of the formal inauguration of the tutions we have created in our own commu-
Allied Jewish Campaign and the Israel nity are so vital, that enrollment of non-
Emergency Fund serve as highest commenda- aligned becomes one of the major needs in a
tions for the loyalties and dedicated labors period of crisis.
No matter how large the sums that will
of
the volunteer force that conducts the be subscribed in the present campaign. the
drive.
need is so great that every additional dollar
Now the campaigners are entering upon helps assure economic security for Israel
what may well be the most difficult portion and protection for the agencies that have be-
of the campaign — the concluding weeks come part of our life as an organized com-
during which an additional $3,000.000 must munity.
be secured from the givers of smaller
It is clear That the more volunteers we
amounts than have been recorded until now. have the more certain the successful reach-
Once again, as the task of reaching the ing out to the potential contributors. and
12,000 who have • not yet been solicited is the more new donors we have the more hon-
pursued, there emerge the two primary needs orable the total response. Let us strive for
— of contacting all the potential contributors both, and let us hope that the 812.000.000
and of reaching out into the ranks of those minimum goal for the 1970 campaign will be
who have not yet shared in the sacred tasks fully attained.
Unbounded Bigotries in the USSR
-
Anti-Semites cannot be expected to be
subject to human disciplines. If they were,
they would not he bigoted. But even anti-
Semites often show a sense of honor. Not
so in the instance of the Russians who have
inherited the hatreds of the Black Hundreds
of Czarist days.
An instance of extreme bigotry is in evi-
dence among anti - Semitic Russians who now
go so far as to blame Zionists for the Babi
Yar massacre.
Since the end of the war that brought
about the Holocaust, Russia, for unexplain-
able reasons, kept the Babi Yar tragedy as
a deep, dark secret. The more than 70,000
Jews who were murdered or buried alive
there were insignificant to the Russians.
Jewish lives apparently have no value to the
Russians.
But when they go so far, in the -anti-
Zionist ,campaign that stems from anti-Semit-
ism, to say that Zionists share guilt for Babi
Yar, they become the inhumans akin to the
Nazis.•
It is no wonder that, as has been estab-
lished in recent days, 80,000 Jewish families
in Russia are asking for permission to emi-
grate and to go to Israel. Even the extreme
anti-Semitism of the Russian Communist
bigots has not deterred them from expressing
their view in defiance of Kremlin threats.
And it is no wonder that the youth of
America have become aroused over the So-
viet anti-Semitic outrages. They demonstrated
their sentiments in Ann Arbor and in many
other American communities.
Let the voice of protest against the in-
humanities that stem from the Kremlin be
heard from every civilized center in the
world, until there is an end to the outrages
condoned in the Soviet Union!
Much of the anti-Israel bias among some
young people has been traced to influences
from the Kremlin. It is the Soviet-oriented
press, whether among the underground col-
legiate elements or the handful of Panther-
influenced Blacks, that hay been linked to
the campaign that calls itself "anti-Zionist"
but which is in reality anti-Jewish.
When the true nature of such propaganda
M en at Crossroads' Personifies
Founders of Religious Ideologies
Aiming "to bring into focus the images of the men who stood at the
' crossroads and directed the energies of the first centuries before and of'
the Common Era," Rabbi Beryl D. Cohon of Brookline, Mass., describes
the lives, times and doctrines of the founders of talmudic Judaism
and New Testament Christianity in "Men at the Crossroads." This
volume, published by Thomas Yoseloff, deals with the era "between
Jerusalem and Rome."
Rabbi Cohon's approach is indicated in his prefatory comments in
which he refers to the issues involved in discussions of the subjects at
hand and in his declaration that "there is no understanding of the issues
. . unless we stand in reverence before the men who personify the
issues of the first century, and try to understand."
He provides a summary of his literary effort in this explanatory
statement:
"In Herod and in Hind we see the raw power of Rome in an
antagonistic embrace with the faith in the Law in the academies;
in the thinking and activities of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots.
Essenes, apocalyptists and Messiaists we observe with fascination
the desperate reach for the Messiah who would redeem and heal
and unroll a new heaven over a regenerated earth- John the Baptist
crying in the wilderness; Jesus transfigured and Jesus on the cross;
Pilate sentencing Jesus and washing his hands of all guilt; Saul of
Tarsus captivated and transfigured on the road to Damascus into
,
Paul the Apostle to the gentiles; Josephus walking over the corpses
of his comrades whom he had betrayed at Jotapata and then writ-
ing his histories, with some pangs of conscience, for a harlot's hire;
Ychanan ben Zakkai turning his back on flaming Jerusalem and
retiring to an obscure village and laying the foundations for the
portable fatherland for his people that has withstood all the on-
slaughts of some 2,000 years; Akiba at the stake; the rabbinic
masters and the Church fathers rearing their walls, to shut in and
to shut out—these personify the passions that have given us our
Judeo-Christian civilization, with all its blessings and all its woes."
guilt of the Babi Yar massacre, a poison
that has seeped into many quarters—includ-
ing the poison that becomes evident even
Dismemberment of Judea under Herod's will, the period of Herod's
rulership which gave him a title of greatness; the roles of Hillel and
Shammai and the story of the Jerusalem Academy, the sayings of
among a handful of American editors who Hillel which soon became those of Jesus and which developed into the
need not be exposed because they expose Golden Rule of the ChristianS, the emergence of the Pharisees and the
between them and the Sadducees—these are among the earlier
themselves—that the true nature of an un- gulf
occurrences with which Rabbi Cohon deals•in his thesis.
civilized person emerges to the fore.
Marking its 85th anniversary, Yeshiva
Not only because it is the oldest American
University has a most interesting background. university under Jewish auspices, but be-
lts roots are in Yeshiva Etz Chaim. which cause its curriculum includes many subjects
functioned on New York's lower East Side. that are vital to a continuation of training of
This early theological school merged in 1915 Jewishly-inspired and traditionally trained
with the Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Theological leaders for our communities. Yeshiva has
Seminary, which was founded in 1897 in earned high status during the years of dedi-
memory of the famous Kovno (Lithuania) cated labors by its teachers and supervisory
Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Spektor (1817-1896i. It staffs.
then began to grow, under the initial leader-
Jewish studies. are pursued by the vast
ship of Dr. Bernard Rdel into the vast edu-
—
1
becomes evident, the youth that may be mis-
And these represent the summation of the scholarly efforts to gather
led will know how to react to untruth and
one volume the data relating to the early period of Christianity and
misrepresentation. It is when the anti-Semitic into
the era of Jewish experiences which began the divisiveness between
bigots in the Soviet Union go to such ex- Judaism and Christianity.
tremes as to say that Zionists shared in the
Yeshiva University's 85th Anniversary
cational complex and into the university
which is receiving national acclaim.
Under the present leadership of Dr. Sam-
uel Belkin, Yeshiva University and its allied
theological school continue to progress. oper-
ating in four centers with a total student
body of 8.000. It is a modern complex and its
experiences varied. It has gone through many
birthpangs even a student strike in 1908.
;
In the extensive study of the New Testament references to the
birth of Christianity and the life of Jesus, Rabbi Cohon discusses
baptism, social action and prayer. lie declares that "Jesus was
saturated from infancy with Pharisaic Judaism" and that he fol-
lowed rabbinic masters of the day in the matter of prayer. He
shows that the Golden Rule is a version of the rule advinced by
Hillel and that "'The Lord's Prayer' is a restatement of the rat).
binic affirmations of the Kaddish."
There is a strong argument in favor of reclaiming Josephus as a
historian and builder in Jewish history and to abandon the charge that
he was a traitor. Rabbi Cohon states: "Granting all. his faults, Josephus
still stands as a tragic son in the household of Israel in an evil hour,
witnessing to the heroic record which he personally snatched from the
burning."
The descriptive chapters in Yohanan ben Zakkai and on Akiba as
majority of the Yeshiva University students.
The faculty includes many eminent scholars. well as those on the Christian "Apostles and Martyrs" add significantly
to this study.
The objectives are the elevation of Jewish
Is there only one true pattern of belief, Rabbi Cohon asks, and in
cultural values.
reply he quotes from Micah: "Let every people walk in the name of the
American Jewry benefits immensely from Lord its God; but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever
this great university and has cause to be and evef."
proud of its achievements and of the prom-
ises of even greater gifts to our communities
in the decades to come.
Appendices to this volume include Letter of Paul, recent 'discussions
on Deicide, an outline of the works of Josephus. a page from the Tal-
mud on the martyrdom of Akiba.