Purely Commentary
The Privilege of 'Choosing to Be a Jew' ..
Albert Einstein's View on Jewry's Status
In the process of handing down
the variety of opinions on the
question of Jewish nationality in
Israel, the president of the Israel
Supreme Court., Justice A. Agra-
nat, made some comments that
may, historically, serve as guide-
lines in testing the backgrounds
of Jews claiming their people's
heritage.
Not a religious Jew by any
means, Mr. Justice Agranat never-
theless handed down an opinion
DR. ALBERT EINSTEIN
that might well have been the
viewpoint of an halakhic Jew. He
stated:
"In the history of the Jewish
people the racial-national element
and the religious uniqueness have
been fused, and an inseparable
knot has been tied between these
two elements.
"The Jewish people, during its
long history and at least up to
modern times, has borne a nation-
al-religious character.
"The tradition of the Hebrew
law which specifies that—in the
matter of status—a child born of
mixed marriage takes after the
mother, reflects recognition of the
fact that the Jewigh people is a
national-religious entity, and em-
phasizes that according to the
Jewish historical conception, the
elements of nationally and reli-
gion are intertwined and insepar-
able . . ."
• • •
snail shell. This answer is not al-
together incorrect; nor, to be sure,
is it exhaustive; for the snail shell
happens to be but one of the mate-
rial products of the snail. Simi-
larly, the Jewish faith is but one
of the characteristic products of
the Jewish community. It is, fur-
thermore, known that a snail can
shed its shell without thereby
ceasing to be a snail. The Jew
who abandons his faith (in the
formal sense of the word) is in a
similar position. He remains a
Jew."
• • o
It is this latter assertion that
may serve as a continuing con-
tributing factor to an endless de-
bate on the judgment for Jewish-
ness. On the basis of the generally
accepted principle that "Israel, of
al pi shehata Israel hu"—"a Jew,
even if he has sinned, remains a
Jew" — there is the question
whether a Jew, who has become a
convert to another faith, is still to
be considered a Jew, or does he
have to reconvert to it? It is ac-
cepted that a Jew who chooses to
return to the faith does not have to
reconvert. On this score Dr. Salo
Wittmayer Baron emerges as an
authority to be recokned with. In
his newest volume in his monu-
mental 14-volume "A Social and
Religious History of the Jews,"
(JPS and Columbus U. Press),
Prof. Baron deals extensively with
the Marranos' experiences and the
attitudes of Jewish communities
to the "returning" false Christians
and he invokes "the rule formu-
lated by Maimonides (who in his
youth had himself experienced the
travails of living in a community
forcibly converted to another faith
that 'any Jew worshipping another
God is like a Gentile in every
respect . .. for a renegade to an-
other faith is like a renegade to-
ward the entire Torah."
• • •
Albert Einstein's View on 'Who Is
a Jew' .For
. . a True Evaluation of
Freedom, Facts Must Replace Lies
By Philip
Slombvitz
Setting Truth as Basis for Action
Passover's Inspiration for Fact-Finding and
In the season of striving for freedom we become engaged in searching for truth without which
justice attributable to the libertarian ideal is unworkable. We are in such dire need for truth that
every step we take in the direction of establishing proper communication with our neighbors and our
kinsmen must be steeped in facts and realities. There has been too much of guessing and speculating
and uncertainties, all of which have led to ignorance, suspicion, human degradation.
Many issues have been clouded—some in mystery, some in misinformation, others in misrepre-
sentation, many more in doubt and lack of faith.
There are confusions in matters involving the Middle East, Russia, American-Israel relations
and inter-faith relationships.
Passover, having become the festival of mankind because the very idea of basic freedoms is
rooted in the festival's theme, is an ideal time to deflate some untruths, to establish other genuinely
normal principles and views. •
Israel's role in the world is especially trying on the nerves. Many are becoming panicky over
what is transpiring. It is pitiful that so much emphasis should be placed on warfare, that so many reports
from the Middle East should be based on the battles, the fights in the air, the training of terrorists
in one land and defenders of Israel in the area that is under attack.
One of the most recent issues of Time magazine, dealing in a long article with "The War of
the Long Breath," is illustrated with six pages, multicolored, describing the Fatah tactics and Israel's
defenders. And as we studied that report we were deeply upset. Why the emphasis on warfare? Why
couldn't the Middle East be treated as an exploratory field in which Jews are building a great civiliza-
tion, in which Israelis are developing high standards in education; and why can't these experiences be
applied to Israel's neighbors so that the entire Mediterranean area can become another blossoming
civilization.
Indeed, these reports, the daily accounts of battles in the air, of Israel's motivations necessitated
by the need to protect a population that is in danger, the Arabs' intransigence, the Russians' unsavory
role in supporting terrorism, the United States' dilemmas—all these things are depressing. Would that
Israel's creative efforts could make the headlines rather than the struggle for existence that necessi-
tates resort to arms!
In the process of creating friendships, it is now said that Israel is suffering from an unfriendly
world. A review of attitudes among Christian leaders, in the New York Times, pointed to friendly attitudes
among Catholics, a decline in kindness toward Jews in Protestant quarters. One "Protestant official known
for his pro-Jewish sympathies" is quoted as having said: "When something happens in the Middle East,
Jews spark in a way we don't. For them the future of Israel is the future of their people, but I'm not
part of that people and don't have that sense. I can empathize, but I can't identify. The most you can
do is ask someone to react in his own way."
Would that we could say that this is an isolated instance, that our friendships have not diminished!
Yet, there are instances of others who fearlessly affirm their convictions that Israel's case is just.
In the Detroit News some time ago the distinguished clergyman and liberal thinker, Bishop Emrich,
offered some encouraging words. His column carried this question and Bishop Emrich's reply:
QUESTION: In the struggle in the Middle East, where do you think our sympathies
should lie—with the Arabs or Israel? Or do you think we should remain neutral because both sides
are to blame?
Dear R.S.H.: I hope, of course, that peace can come to the area and that the Arabs and
Israel can live together, for the money now spent on armaments is colossal and sets back the
development of both sides.
Having said that, and recognizing the complexity of history, where pure goodness never is
opposed to pure evil, one fact moves my sympathies toward Israel. It is so fundamental a fact
that for me it swallows up all other arguments, which seem like minor details.
It is this: Israel's very survival is at stake. The Arabs lose wars and their nations remain
in existence. If Israel loses a war, she will cease to exist.
The avowed aim of the Arabs is the destruction of Israel. Indeed, they do not recognize its
political existence. Pray for the poor human race, which can send men to the moon but cannot
live together on earth.
No, we do not believe that friendships are isolated, that our Christian friends are unaware of the
dangers that confront an entire nation, of the urgency of assuring non-interruption in American-Israel
During the debates on the ques- cooperation and friendship.
tion of the partition of Palestine,
It will be necessary, in the process of searching and asserting the truth, to probe into the
at the United Nations in 1947, the conditions under which terrorists pose as saints and are accepted into the society of man without
late Moshe Sharett (Shertok) was reservations. A typical sample of inhumanity was arrogantly proclaimed by El Fatah leaders earlier this
confronted with a question regard- month when they announced that the kidnapped Metulla watchman, Shmuel Rosenwasser, who was
ing the acceptability of Jews into abducted on Dec. 31 and is believed to be held prisoner in Jordan, would be sent back to Hungary, referred
the Jewish community and whether
by the terrorists as "his original homeland." The implication is that if the guerrillas gain control of
converts to other faiths would be to
Israel they will deport all Jews who settled there before 1948 and would be sent back to the countries of
similarly accepted on the ground
their
origin.
He wrote much more but these that once a Jew always a Jew. His
This is a position that has been suspected all along. The terrorists have only one objective:
are the essentials, and they have reply was that a Jew who aban-
Israel's
destruction. But there still are many who believe that Jews might be safe under Moslem
a significant impact on our time dons his faith abandons his claim
rule. El Fatah refutes its own lies with the statement about Rosenwasser.
and our thinking. But they are cer- to Jewishness.
Unless
these intentions are understood, there will be the perpetuation of the big lie.
tainly not new ideas: they are dis-
An eminent Jewish historian,
tinct only in their brevity and di-
Without Cease Fire—No Peace
Prof.
Israel
Knox,
certainly
not
rectness. Related to the views of
A cease fire could put an end to the fighting
historians of the past and the great a religious Jew, one who might
in the Middle East and might lead to peace talks.
Jewish personalities of our time, well be judged a secularist, had
But the basic obstacle is the terrorism, the guer-
an
answer
that
might
serve
as
there are links that emphasize the
rilla warfare, the insistence by Arafat that only
regulations accepted through the a guide in the entire controver-
Israel's destruction will satisfy the fomenters of
Two of the Jewish festivals traditionally
ages that remain indelibly a part sial discussion. His attitude is:
murders and attacks on Israeli villages. The Arab
of accepted Jewish traditionalism.
"To be a Jew is not dependent inspired artists to illuminate scriptural texts
states alone can prevent continuation of terror.
On this score it is worth draw- on race or biology or a segment of and the prayer books.
Peace talks are vital, and it is encouraging
ing upon the thinking of one of space; to be a Jew is to belong
The Megila has been a source of inspira-
that there is, at least, some talk of a possible
the greatest Jews of all time, to an ethical-spiritual community,
tion on Purim, and the illuminated Hagadot
confrontation between Israelis and Arabs. Yet, it
from the universal point of view. in a community of memory and
is understandable why the Knesset should have
Dr. Albert Einstein, during the imagination . . . The agnostic or for Passover have multiplied into a vast
upheld Prime Minister Golda Meir's rejection of
library.
tragic years of Hitler's emergence atheist regards religion as out-
the bid for Nahum Goldmann to meet with Gamal
into power, shortly before World moded or as a relic of man's an-
The reproductions on Page One of this
Abdel Nasser. Goldmann has not been coopera-
War II and in the period when it cient past, but the convert regards issue of The Jewish News are from two Haga-
tive, his attitude has not been fully aired to repre-
was still time to stop the Nazi religion as the road to salvation dot: the Ho Lahma and the Ma Nishtana are
sent suitability for spokesmanship and if Israel
menace, dealt with the question of and as the repository of supreme from the Koren Hagada of the Jerusalem
rejects him it is because he has rejected genuine
"just what is a Jew?" It was con- truth. For the convert Judaism is
The "V'higadta
Tenach
Publishing
House.
cooperation with Israel's leadership.
siderably before the era when the a false religion or a religion that
The Big Four, which usually diminishes into
debate began to rage on "What Is has been superseded, or else it is le-vinha" is from the Hagada published by
the Big Two, has failed to assure Dr. Gunnar
Shmuel
Boneh
of
Shikmon
Publishing
House
a Jew?"
no religion at all, and he would
Jarring's role as a mediator. France and Russia
• • •
equate Judaism solely with race of Haifa.
have not been encoura gi ng in their attitudes. Is
Both of these Hagadot were published in
The great scientist had an inter- or territory . . . They may be
it any wonder that at. a meeting in Paris last
esting definition. Albert Einstein good citizens of Medinat Yisrael, Israel.
week Jewish and non-Jewish spokesmen should
of the state of Israel, but they
The "Ho Lahma" is appropriate for our
ed the Kremlin to "lift the veil" from
stated:
ha
have no share in the history and time. The seder commences with it and it
osition?
anti-Se • •
"What are the ch a racteristics of culture and destiny of Am Yisrael,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported from
The
represents
an
invitation
to
all
who
are
hungry
the Jewish group? What, in the of the people that is Israel."
meeting:
that
Paris
to come and to share in the Passover meal.
first place, is a Jew? There are
"Former Gaullist Minister Raymond Tri-
There is emphasis here that is
It is followed by the traditional Ma
no quick answers to this question.
boulet called for worldwide pressure on the
The most obvious answer would as much Ilalakha as that of the Nishtana, the youngest member of the family
Soviet
government on behalf of international
most
halakhic
Jew.
Yet,
the
view
be the following: A Jew is a per-
posing the question why this night of Pass-
Jewry. Former Nuremberg trial prosecutor
son professing the Jewish faith. of Albert Einstein must also he over is different froin all other nights.
considered
as
that
of
one
of
the
Alfred
Coste Floret told the rally attended by
The superficial character of this
Then there is the third selection from
3,000 persons, that In the Soviet Union, anti-
answer is easily recognized by most proud Jews of our time. He the Hagada—the one that admonishes the
was
quoted
as
asserting:
"I
am
Zionism has become plain anti•Semitism and
means of a simple parallel. Let us
elders to teach their children the meaning of
that "the Declaration of Human Rights, which
ask the question: What is a sorry I was born a Jew because
the
festival
under
observance,
so
that
they
it
deprived
me
of
the
privilege
to
it has signed, has ceased to exist."
snail? An answer similar in kind
Jew."
may
learn
the
true
values
of
the
freedoms
choose
to
be
a,
Israel must be firm in attacking areas whence
to the one given above might be:
(Copyright 19;0, JTA, Inc.)
that were introduced with the rebellion of
could come military attacks upon her security,
A snail is an animal inhabiting a
and she is equally determined to reject negations
the enslaved Jews against the Egyptians who
of its needs and securities.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS held them in bondage.
2—Friday, April 17, 1970
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