THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Associ-
ation Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices.
Subscription $8 a year. Foreign $9
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
DREW LIEBERWITZ
City Editor
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the tenth day of Taniuz, 5731, the following seriptural"selection''''
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Nunn. 19:1-22:1. Prophetical portion, Judges 11:1-33.
Candle lighting, Friday, July 2, 7:53 p.m.
VOL. LIX. No. 16
Page Four
July 2, 1971
Our Staggering Community Problems
In London, Chaplain Chaim Schertz told
a Bnai Brith gathering that he could not of-
ficiate at some 20 to 25 weddings for Amer-
ican personnel stationed with the air force
in Great Britain because they were marrying
out of the faith. Calling the problem "symp-
tomatic of American Jewish youth today,"
he ascribed the existing situation to "a loose
link with Judaism."
In St. Louis, at the convention of the
Central Conference of American Rabbis, the
incoming president, Dr. David Polish, to-
gether with the retiring head of the Reform
rabbis' organization, Dr. Roland B. Gittel-
sohn, issued warnings of growing tensions
between congregations and their rabbis, and
they called it a threat to the future of syna-
gogue life in America.
On other fronts, problems affecting Jewry
are increasing, the need to retain the interest
of the youth is adding to the concerns of
their elders, and there are challenges that
are unprecedented in Jewish experience.
Is the present generation strong enough
to solve the many problems? Are we able
to avert the dangers that stem from mixed
marriage and the losses in our ranks due
to a growth in iatermarriage?
Often there is the admission that there
isn't even sufficient understanding of the
challenge and the need to face it and that
too little has been accomplished to assure
retention of the mass of our youth in our
ranks. The "loose link" represents an ac-
cusation that should cause us to blush and
to cringe over the newly-emerging assimila-
tion.
Perhaps there is even greater danger in
the warnings that came from Rabbis Polish
and Gittelsohn. They have blamed both rab-
bis and laymen for the rift they envision
A
in congregational circles. Is it true that this
is developing into a scandal — affecting
churches as well as synagogues?
If the charges against rabbis — made by
their leaders themselves — are true, then
it is time for an accounting, especially since
"arrogance" — the term used by the Reform
leaders — is ascribable not to rabbis alone
but also to laymen who are charged on oc-
casion with treating rabbis as "hired hands
to be dealt with impersonally and contemp-
tuously." The emergence of the issue af-
fecting congregational relationships has so
much bearing on the many other problems
— those of youth involvement, indifference,
intermarriage — that the issue must be
treated in all seriousness.
If the synagogue is to remain the central
organizational body directing and influencing
Jewish life, there must be cooperation that
should lead to evolving it into a house of
study, a place for discussion of disputes, as
well as the sanctuary for worship.
To fail in attaining centrality, or in ef-
fecting methods to prevent the drifting away
of Jewish youth and of solving the major
problem arising from intermarriage, would
spell disaster in our ranks.
It is well that the facts should be con-
stantly made known about the overwhelming
increase in intermarriage, the rifts in syna-
gogues, the indifference in our ranks — even
the incompetence of some Jews who head
movements to deal properly with Jewish mat-
ters. The community must not be kept in
the dark about such matters. Let the facts
be known without hesitation and let there
be a willingness to confront the issues with-
out hesitation. Perhaps we shall then see a
better day for our communities and for the
People Israel.
Luakh Even for Free Jewries
When tourists to Russia began to visit the
Moscow and other synagogues and became
aware of a craving for religious articles by
the spiritually impoverished Russian Jews,
one of the items that was requested was the
Luakh—the Jewish calendar.
Russian Jews who wanted to adhere to
Jewish traditions and to retain Jewish loyal-
ties needed the Luakh so that they should
know the dating of Jewish festivals.
The Luakh becomes a vital factor also in
free communities where Jews are confronted
by competitive interferences with their ad-
herence to Jewish traditional observances. It
becomes a necessity as a protection for the
children.
Many of our college youth who are observ-
ant often suffer inconvenience, which fre-
quently becomes harmful to their gradings,
when examinations are scheduled on major
Jewish festivals. When instructors and au-
thorities with a sense of justice are alerted
to such conflicts they usually cooperate, either
by setting other dates for the exams or by
arranging for substitute dates for those affect-
ed. This is not special privilege: it is a mark
of justice toward those who wish to be
observant in their faith.
But the matter is even more serious in
the case of high school and elementary school
students. There, the dating must be watched
more thoroughly because the field is larger.
Do we wish to retain our children, our
young men and young women, in our ranks?
Are we serious about commitments? Or are
we hypocritical when we deplore non-involve-
Hirschmann Tells of USSR Threat
in 'Red Star Over Bethlehem'
Ira Hirschmann makes the point, in his new book "Red Star Over
Bethlehem," that Russia, not Egypt, is the enemy of Israel and the
United States.
In his comparatively brief, 192-page analysis of the existing strug-
gle, published by Simon and Schuster, Hirschmann, who was President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's special envoy during the tragic years when a
way was sought to rescue Jews from the Nazi terror, makes some com-
parisons. He shows how promises were made to deal with the threats
to Israel's existence by Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy,
Johnson and Nixon and how, on the other hand: President Roosevelt
failed to take a firm stand at Yalta; the U. S. failed in the. Suez crisis
in .1956, there was failure to act in the Lebanese crisis in 1969, and
especially damaging:
"More recently, in 1969, we accepted Russia's demand for equal
negotiating status with the United States to impose a Big Power solu-
tion on the Middle East. Result: We have facilitated Soviet dominance
creeping into the area."
"Russia Drives to Capture the Middle East" is the sub -title to
Hirschmann's "Red Star Over Bethlehem," and his book analyzes the
events which have led to Russia's consolidating her position in the
Middle East.
Many personal experiences are related by Hirschmann, including
an interview with Nasser in which he heard the diatribes against`
Israel and the United States.
In his review of the events that have led to the present struggle,
and because of his personal involvements in support of Israel and in
the search for peace, "Red Star Over Bethlehem" emerges as a
valuable work that adds significant data to the evidence condemning
the Russian attempts to disrupt the Middle East and to harm Israel
with its search for domination in that area. The book is a warning to
the United States that Russia primarily seeks to stretch its empire
"from the North Pole to the Persian Gulf and capture the Middle EaStli
without firing a shot. The more than 200-year-old dream of Pete
the Great and Catherine II will have become a harsh reality, and th -
world will witness a' .ed Star over Bethlehem."
ment by youth while doing nothing to involve
them in our ranks? If we strive for their com-
mitment, we must accompany that urge with
an effort to get the youth into the synagogue.
But we drive them out of the house of worship
because in festival time we do nothing to
assure for them respect and recognition of
their rights when they are absent from school
on Jewish holidays.
The organized Jewish community deserves
severe rebuke for such failure. Nothing has
been done seriously to assure these rights.
Schocken paperbacks are assuming a major place in the Jewish
We became concerned about a Luakh for library, which the production of many of
Russian Jewry, but we do nothing about the most important works of recent years.
Lukhot for our children. Let's wake up to a
Among the newest is the collection of
essays by Prof. Martin Buber.
great need!
Edited by Dr. N. N. Glatzer, the new
But the need is not one-sided—for our Schocken book, "The Way of Response,"
children alone. If we are not hypocritical, let's includes some of the best known of the
extend it to ourselves. Let the parents become Buber writings---"God," "I and. Thou,"
aware that they can't expect commitment "Israel: Jewish Existence," "Community
without sincerity; that if we ask the schools and History," and others.
A prefatory essay by Dr. Glatzer adds
to cooperate with our children's religious
needs, we must also apply it to our own clubs interpretatively to an understanding of
works. He notes for example:
Dr. Buber
and organizations and we must adhere to the Buber's
"A common error encountered in interpretations of Butter: is his
Luakh in communal planning. If we condone designation as mystic, and the defining
his call to confrontation as
the sponsorship of public functions that call to mystical experience. It is true that of early
in his career Huber went
desecrate Sabbath and festivals we lose the through a mystical phase, in which a feeling of exaltation over the aware-
right for the protection of such basic privi ness of a universal unity of being stands over and above life in the
leges for our children.
world. In this phase simple everyday life appears to obscure that which
The time for the protection we seek for the mystic considers to be "true" life, a higher life elevated above
earthly existence. But Buber radically overcame this early phase and, if
our children who are to absent themselves anything,
became
antimystic: a man committed to the everyday, a man
from their schools on Jewish festivals is NOW. who believes that an
it
is
precisely in this earthly existence that the Thou is
If we make the Luakh available for the non to be met; that the mystical
realm is
from human responsi-
Jews whose respect we ask and then adhere bility; that response is possible only in an the escape
here and now. This critical
to it ourselves, we shall surely emerge as a turn in Buber's life must be clearly perceived if his place in modern
community steeped in honor and self-respect. thought is to be serious evaluated."
Martin Buber's - College Essays
Edited by Prof. N. N. Glatzer
-
-