12—Friday, Jamary
Israeli Raid Yields Guerrillas in a Lebanese Foray
•
nit
1971
DETROIT JEWISH elms
DO NOT BE SILENT
To the cry of your brethren behind the "Iron Curtain."
Join in a
Mass Protest Prayer
Sun., Jan. 10, 1971— 8:30 p.m.
place
Congregation Mogen Abraham
15751 W. 10 Mile, Southfield
COUNCIL OF ORTHODOX RABBIS OF DETROIT
IN CONJUNCTION WITH
Metropolitan Connell
of Young Israel
Mhzachi Organizatioa
Agudath Israel Organization
Akiva Hebrew Day School
Beth Yehuda Schools
Caribbean
In a nightUme foray into Lebanon, this Israeli. raiding party attacked a_ guerrilla base at the vil-
lage of Taster. Israel reported that "several terrorists" were killed.
PASSOVER
Chenoch Lieberman—Hasidic Rabbi, Painter
By S. J. GOLDSMITH
(Copyright 1971. ZIA, Inc.)
LONDON—Chenoch Lieberman is
a very fine painter, perha'Ps even
a great painter. We have no valid
yardstick to measure greatness
actually. However, even great
painters are not unique. Lieberman
is unique because he also is an
ordained rabbi, a strictly Ortho-
dox Jew, a follower of Lubavitch,
who describes Lubavitch as his
spiritual home and the Rebbe as
his guide on the personal level and
not only his mentor as head cf
the Lubavitch movement
"Indeed," he said, "I would not
hold an exhibition without the ap-
proval of my Rebbe."
Here was Chenoch Lieberman,
rabbi and Hasid, with his flowing
white beard, skull cap, and aura
of a sage, expounding Jewish
teachings and hasidic traditions in
English, Yiddish and Russian,
mainly Yiddish, in the midst of a
lovely art exhibition in which he
presented his paintings of different
periods and different moods—like
any other artist.
' "Let me tell you a story," he
said to me. "One day I came to
see the Rebbe. And he said to me:
'How is your art?' Of all things
. . . I said I would like to hold an
exhibition. And the Rebbe said:
'Yes, yes, of course, go and hold
an exhibition. Eich man has
his allotted task on this earth. You
know our Shmuel. He teaches
hasidism. You have to give your
20 Israelis
Killed in Slide
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Twenty
young Israelis were killed when a
rockslide crushed the dining hall
at Neot Hakikar, a para-military
settlement in the Jordan River
valley south of the Dead Sea.
The victims included a number
of girls.
Initial reports said that 10 per-
sons were injured but later infor-
mation indicated a much higher
number.
Neot Fakii..r established in the
1950s, is a settlement of the Nahal
type in which youths cultivate the
land and perform certain military
duties. It is located in the Arava
district, one of the most remote
areal'of the Negev where several
more Nahal settlements have
sprung up since the Six-Day War.
Neot Hakikar has been an occa-
sional target of rocket attacks by
talent. Whatever one can do to
bring Jews nearer to Jewishness
is a contribution and a blessing.
In olden days, I would have thought
that painting was not one of the
ways. Because Jews were diffe-
rent. Today it is. This is your way.'
You see, the Rebbe encourages
me and this is enough for me to
answer your question, without my
own personal rationalization."
Thus, the rabbi who is a painter.
Indeed, his exhibition in London
took place in the Lubavitch Cen-
ter. The hall is as good as any
you can find in the metropolis for
an exhibition of paintings. And the
red dots on many of the exhibits
bear witness to the fact that Luba-
vitch is well and truly in the 20th
Century art business — without
yielding anything on the way .. .
The exhibition also is astonish-
ing in a different—and more im-
portant—way than the venue. You
have there Lieberman's Shtetl all
right. But you also have a uni-
versality, a breadth of vision and
a depth of human sympathy and
empathy which keeps the Shtetl in
its place, as it were. It literally
ranges from Seattle to Kamchatka,
right across the globe.
All this side by side with Kiddush
Levana (the prayer on the renewal
of the moon) and Havdala (the
prayer at the end of the Sabbath.)
The Shtetl appears in many varia
tions: the heder, the home, the
street, the synagogue. Somehow.
there is a goat in the background
in almost all the townscapes of
the Shtetl.
"Yes, one could say a great
deal of the moon is in our tradi-
tion. But for the mood of a Shtetl,
it had more significance than the
sun" . .
A Paris townscape could have
been painted by one of the cafe
dwellers on the Left Bank and not
by a rabbi. Still, it is miraculously
a Lieberman.
not survive the climate. He was
at death's door several times, be
says. Nowadays, when he can paint
and draw, he feels fine. His eyes
are lively, his movements agile at
70. "There is my friend Reb Getzl,
bless him. Over there. He is not a
model, though I like painting him.
He is a fellow-Lubavitcher. We
discuss the Torah as I go about
my business of putting him on
canvas" . . .
on the air conditioned 'stabilized
"Oh yes, I was among the Rus-
sian partisans. They were friends,
fellow human beings. Look at this
one. This is how he was, on horse-
back, embattled, but a man and a
brother." It is the politicians who
are so treacherous, it seems . . .
Chenoch Lieberman, apart from his
aesthetic impact, is a splendid vin-
dication of the time-honored max-
im: the more Jewish you are the
more universal you are; only the
assimilationists are carrying their
Jewishness upon their sleeves ...
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A real gentleman is at a big
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Out of town calls collec1—(313) 961-5230
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SHAARE ZEDEK HOSPITAL IN JERUSALEM
will hold their
His road was long and tragic.
Lodz, Polotzk at the age of five,
the Lubavitch Yeshiva, Moscow
and the famous art schools of
Russia, Siberia, Biro Bidjan,
Khabarowsk, the Far East. Lieb-
erman's wife and children were
lost In the Holocaust. He is alone,
except for Lubavitch . . .
ANNUAL DINNER
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 1971 - 6:30 P.M.
Shiffman Hall, Jewish Community Center, 18100 Meyers
Honoring
A self-portrait in a desolate
mood, sitting alone and without
clothes, is a lament for those lost
and for those surviving with their
pain. "I was left with nothing, just
a void" . . . Only friends sus-
tained him, and not necessarily
Jewish ones. Sergei Andreyevitch
was not a Jew. Nor were some of
the others. Portraits of the wife
and daughters, tender renderings
did not discuss them .. .
Lieberman is now in New York.
He paints and teaches. He would
have loved to go to the Holy Land.
But the doctors told him he could
.
Martinique, and Antigua. from
PROF. HUGO MANDELBAUM
Wayne State University
! in recognition of his significant con-
guerrillas in Jordan.
tributions to Jewish communal life in
Geologists had no immediate ex-
Detroit
planation of the rockalide. The are included in the exhibition. We
GUEST SPEAKER:
settlement Is located in a mod-
erate seismic zone that extends
from Turkey, through the Jordan
Valley to the Red Sea and East
Africa.
'395
11 Days—Leave New York April 8. 1971
To San Juan. St. Thomas, St. Maarten
FABIAN SCHONFELD
Rabbi
Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, New York
•
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