THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Asaoclaton of Englsh-JewIsh Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mlle, Suite 885, South!leid, Mich. 48075.
Phone 3368400
Subscription $8 a year. Foreign $9.

CHARLOTTE DUBIN

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher

Business

■
City Editor

Manager

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 21st day of Heshvan, 5731, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 23:1.25:18. Prophetical portion, I Kings 1:31.

Candle lighting, Friday, Nov. 20, 4:48 p.m.

November 20, 1970

Page Four

VOL. LVHI. No. 10

50th Anniversary of Keren Hayesod

Program of Action for World Jewry

Marking the 50th anniversary of major
fund-raising activities in Jewish communities
throughout the world, the Keren Hayesod
history summarizes an era that was marked
by both the. creative and the destructive, the
emergence of Israel and the Holocaust, the
pogroms in Germany, Romania and Hungary
and the triumphant emergence of a people
from humiliation to dignity, from homeless-
ness to statehood, from helplessness to the
ability to defend itself against massed forces
of numerous enemies.

Close to six million perished during that
period at the hands of beasts who took con-
trol of government. Now the Jewish popula-
tion is escalating anew and some of the
losses are being regained. .
While there are discrepancies in the Jew-
ish population figures that were listed in the
American Jewish Year Books of the Jewish
Publication Society, with apparent inaccura-
cies for both 1923 and 1945, this tabulated
record in the story of the Keren Hayesod
is of great importance:

JEWISH POPULATION FIGURES'

1970

1948

1933

1945

81,263

175.006

521.564

750.000

2.436.000

1920

ISRAEL

10.829,812

9.223,688

2.904.634

3.819.800

4.019.000

NORTH
AMERICA

3,424.222

4.410.259

5.525.437

5.180,000

6.180.000

SOUTH
AMERICA

108.197

266,958

548,365

597,850

772.250

AFRICA

379.736

539.869

745.500

196.200

ASIA

570.585

572.855

15,393.815

15.188,835

EUROPE

TOTAL

1.500.000

11,0041,000

280,200

182.550

11,373,350

13,788,000

Based on ewima ad (qires of the American Jewish Year Book

These figures emphasize the roles of
Israel and the .United States, in point of their
numbers as well as their freedoms and their
dedication to the idea of assuring uninter-
rupted services in defense of the Jewish
cultural position everywhere and of the secur-

ity of the redeemed Jewish state.
A nation's strength can best be judged

by its educational standards. The figures of-

ficially released on the status of Israel's
school system indicate great progress as
shown here:

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND NUMBER OF PUPILS 1968/69 (Not including Academic Institutions)

2.966

Kindergartens

99.250

1.250

Primary schools

Secondary schools

59.033

224

Vocational schools

Agricultural schools

Teacher•training colleges

384.170

193

43.604

8.07 2
6 3°

145

5994

Pupils

Institutions

TOTAL Hebrew education 703.814

5.145

TOTAL Arab education

397

89.603

HEBREW COURSES (ULPANIM) FOR ADULTS 1951 - 1969

31.808

Students Classes

16.249

13,135

1 951

1955

_. 1960

1969

1966_ 1967

1968

1969

The progress that continues to be re- niversary is an occasion for encouragement
corded in Israel's cultural development is to world Jewry not to abandon either the
matched by impressive industrial advances, defensive or the creative efforts to assure
in Israel's road to life and eventual
in spite of the threats from neighboring continuity
peace. This should be the program for action
enenw states that are bent upon destroying by Jewish communities everywhere, especial-
the Jewish state. The Keren Hayesod an- ly American Jewry.

Yehezkel Kaufmann's Classic
Work on Babylonian 'Captivity'

Generally acknowledged as having produced the outstanding works
in biblical studies, the writings of the late Prof. Yehezkel Kaufmann
of the Hebrew UniveFsity are certain to remain among the great works
dealing with the Prophets, with historic religious themes, with the
biblical themes, as attested to in another of his volumes that has just
been issued by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
"The Babylonian Captivity and Deutero-Isaiah" is published here
as Volume IV Chapters 1, 2 of Dr. Kaufmann's "History of the Religion
of Israel." It has the added distinction of having been translated by an
eminent scholar, Professor Emeritus Clarence W. Efroymson of Butler
University, Indianapolis.
There is a note in Prof. Kaufmann's preface to this work on the
Deutero-Isaiah that is significant. The eminent scholar commented
that the period of the Second Temple "is an age of remarkable events
in the history of Israel," that the catastrophe destroyed the national
base of Israel and the dispersed nation began to assimilate into
gentile culture, and yet, "we observe that about 50 years after the
catastrophe a significant portion of the Babylonian diaspora returned
to Judah and repossessed Jerusalem and its environs. Those who
returned to Zion lived and labored in difficult conditions. But they
endured poverty and stress in love and faith. They built the Tediple
and later, also, the city. The diaspora supported the returnees. Its
heart also was In Jerusalem; and Jerusalem became the focus of the
diaspora."
This is an important introduction to a great work dealing with the
Babylonian Captivity. Being part of the "History of the Religion of
Israel" by the man who emerged as the outstanding authority on the
subject, this additional comment by Dr. Kaufmann adds to an under-
standing of the subject dealt with in this portion of his analytical
work: "The history of the Second Temple can be understood only as the
continuation of the history of a people which was monotheistic from
its beginning."
It is from this point of view that Prof. Kaufmann dealt with the
history of the Persian period.
There were turning points in Israel's history affected by events
revolving around the era of Cyrus, who gave permission to Jews to
return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the Temple, in 586 BCE; the biblical
events in the period of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Mala-
chi are outlined; and the crises that followed are under scrutiny in the
work by Dr. Kaufmann that serves as a guide for rabbis, for teachers
and are equally as necessary for adult study courses.
Of significance is the eminent historian's explanation: "Dentero-
Isaiah did not prophesy a universal Israelite empire in an eschato-
logical future. This fact is very significant, but is not to be explained
in the sense of the Christian separation of the political authority from
religious-spiritual leadership. It is rooted in the ideas of the prophets
and, primarily, the ideas of the greatest of them—the first Isaiah.
These prophets did not think of the political state as an independent
entity. The supreme authority was the word of God. The prophetic
ideal was the idea of God, the kingdom of righteousness and justice.
This was the basis of the first Isaiah's negation of war and of domi-
nation required by warfare. This ideal implied the negation of world
rule generally, of empire; for secular world empire is nothing more
than the domination of one people over another by reason of the
'right' of war. The prophetic ideal is the end of the rule of the sword.
of free peoples and free kingdoms .. ."
And the reproof to Israel? Prof. Kaufmann asserts: "Deutero-Isaiah
found a way out of the confusion and consternation which followed the
fall of Babylon. Sin was the cause; Israel was not yet worthy of re-
demption. This was the well-worn way of religious thought, both before
and after Deutero-Isaiah. With this thought there came a turning point
in the prophecies. Even as redemption was delayed, the element of
rebuke became predominant in his prophecies .. ."
There is emphasis in the Kaufmann analyses that "Jerusalem is the
eternal city in the vision of the end of days, but not the capital of a
universal empire: It possesses no authority and none of the secular
accoutrements of empire with which it might subdue nations." The
emphasis on Jerusalem's role is in this assertion of a spirituality:
-"The God of Israel will be revealed to all the nations in the re-
demption of Israel. Then only will man's supreme cognition, the
knowledge of God, be given to the nations. Jerusalem symbolizes
spiritual redemption."
In this sense, and with emphasis that "Jerusalem as the eternal
city is only the city of God," important emphases are laid on redemp-
tion. The spirit of this idea is revealed in this remarkable commentary
which enhances the "History of the Religion of Israel" as outlined in
the great works of Yehezkel Kaufmann.

