'
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 Bditorial Assoei-
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
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
City Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the 17th day of Tainuz, 5731, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. MOM 22:2-25:9. Prophetical portion, Micah .5:6-6:8.
Candle lighting, Friday, July 9. 7:51 p.m.
VOL. LIX. No. 17
P age Four
July 9, 1971
Hebrew Courses in Our High Schools
select texts and pedagogic materials and recruit
teachers.
"As a direct result of the council's efforts,
today, Hebrew is recognized as equal to other
foreign languages in the curriculum of American
public schools.
"The unremitting activity of- the council and
the unflagging initiative of its director, Dr. Lap-
son, have made it possible for a secondary
school student of Hebrew today to meet high
school graduation and college entrance require-
ments, and to continue Hebrew study in many
American and overseas universities.
"Many of the young people who have begun
Hebrew study under public school auspices have
later become lay leaders, rabbis, social workers,
teachers and researchers.
"Some have gone to Israel to carve out
careers in the Jewish state.
There is a most encouraging trend
toward popularizing Hebrew as a modern
language and as a spoken tongue. Dr. Judah
Lapson, director of the National Hebrew
Culture Council, reports that 78 high schools
in 33 cities now offer Hebrew courses and
that the number of students enrolled in such
classes has reached 4,309.
During the last academic year, 14 high
•
schools in 10 states introduced Hebrew
courses. and the enthusiastic response of en-
rollees is viewed as an indication both of
the rising popularity of the subject and the
interest that is being taken in it. Primarily,
this is because so many young people are
showing an interest in pursuing studies in
Israel and because of the courage of the peo-
ple of Israel that has inspired admiration and
respect for the little state.
An interesting explanatory statement
has been made regarding the efforts of the
National Hebrew Culture Center and its
director, who is a veteran educator. It is
educator. It is pointed out that:
The man who devoted his entire profes-
sional life to the cause of Hebrew in the public
schools, pioneering Dr. Lapson, also is a trail-
blazer in the development of teen-age study tours
and study seminars to Israel. He also helped
introduce Hebrew departments in the five major
colleges of the city of New York."
"The National Hebrew Culture Council has
since its inception in 1951 striven to foster good
relations with public school authorities through-
out the land. Founded with the support of the
late Hayim Greenberg of the World Zionist Ex-
ecutive and President ialman Shazar of Israel,
who at that time was his country's minister of
education and culture, and endorsed by Dr.
Earl J. McGrath, then U.S. commissioner of
education, the council helps individual schools
and school systems build Hebrew curricula,
We make these facts known for the pur-
pose of expressing a hope — that an aspira-
tion of many years, to have Hebrew in-
troduced in some of the Michigan high
schools will be realized. It won't be easy to
induce authofities to offer new courses, let
alone a foreign tongue. It may be necessary
to subsidize such an effort. But we should not
be hesitant to accomplish this aim, no matter
what the cost.
Obstructionists in the United Nations
Our ambassador to the United Nations,
George Bush, addressing a UN Day audience,
denied that the world organization has been
"an abysmal failure" in handling the Middle
East problems. as has been charged in some
quarters. Yet he conceded that the situation
affecting the Middle East has been "made
more terrible by the presence of the super-
powers looking over the shoulders of the
Israelis and the Arabs."
But what about the even more terrible
situation involving the Afro-Asian bloc that
has aligned with the Soviet states in an anti-
Israel machination?
Several weeks ago, at a meeting of the
World Health Organization in Geneva, a
resolution was adopted charging Israel with
violating human rights in territories acquired
in the Six-Day War. It was charged in that
resolution that Israel had barred the Inter-
national Red Cross from giving aid to Arab
residents there. The International Committee
of the Red Cross has denied the charges
against Israel and had written to that affect
to the director general of the WHO. But that
didn't help. The Arab, Soviet and Moslem
states ganged up to adopt that outrageously
truth-distorting resolution.
So — we have in effect, as intervening
obstacles to progress in the UN, both the
obstructive superpowers and the Soviet-Arab
bloc. Both could well destroy the great hope
for peace in the world through the vitally
needed world organization.
Split Over Mixed Marriage Issue
A sharp division exists in Reform ranks
over the problem of mixed marriages. A
dispute among rabbis in California was wide-
ly publicized, and the issue aroused serious
debate at the annual meeting of the Cen-
tral Conference of American Rabbis.
Actually, the situation does not differ
in California from other states. Conservative
and Orthodox rabbis will not perform mixed
marriages unless there are conversions. Re-
form rabbis have begun to provide their
services as officiating rabbis at weddings
if the bride is Jewish — in the hope that
offspring of such marriages will be retained
in Jewish ranks because children are viewed
as Jews if the mother is Jewish. In the
instance of the male being Jewish, most
rabbis insist upon the girl's conversion.
Many of the leaders in Reform Jewish
ranks are insisting that all intermarriages
be banned unless there are conversions. It
was evident from the discussions at the
Reform rabbis' conference that there are no
compulsions upon rabbis, that each will act
as he chooses individually, that conditions
in many communities will influence action
much more than any organizational ruling.
The grave problem stares at us chal-
lengingly. How can it be solved? Will our
ranks be threatened even more drastically
as time' grows upon us with its many threat-
ening social aspects? Will our youth be
strong enough Jewishly when affections draw
them in love and friendship to non-Jewish
mates to inspire conversions rather than to
yield to grave losses for the Jewish people?
Time may be a healer, but in the instance
of the mixed marriage threat, it must also
prove to be a solver of problems and a curer
of many heartaches.
Mansoor's 'Newspaper Hebrew
Reader' Aids Language Students
An unusual method for Hebrew studies is provided in a paperback
issued by Ktav Publishing Co. Entitled "Newspaper Hebrew Reader,"
it provides understanding of the newspapers' use of the Hebrew
language in covering events for readers of the daily papers. While
serving that purpose, it also teaches daily use of Hebrew as a spoken
language.
Edited and annotated by Dr. Menahem Mansoor of the department
of Hebrew and Semitic studies at the- University of Wisconsin, this not-
able work at the same time outlines the extent of daily journalism in
Israel.
Then there are the appended Hebrew-English and English-Hebrew
dictionaries, and the exercises as well as the vocabularies assist the
reader in making this an excellent textbook for spoken Hebrew.
This unusual volume contains numerous selections from the Hebrew
press.
The appended translations of major words used in newspaper
stories provides added help to the reader.
While a basic vocabulary of 500 to 800 words is assumed for the
student who undertakes to utilize this work, even the most elementary
student could well use this text for the advancement of Hebrew.
Dr. Mansoor's "Newspaper Hebrew Reader" is certain to acquire
a dedicated studentship.
'Social Responsibility in Age
of Revolution' Volume of Essays
A volume in the Ethics of Today series sponsored by the Herbert
H. Lehman Institute of Talmudic Studies of the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America has been reissued by Ktav Publishing House.
Edited by Dr. Louis Finkelstein, this volume, "Social Responsibility
in an Age of Revolution," deals with law and morals, ethics and busi-
ness, cultural federalism and other issues related to social issues of
our time. •
Dr. Finkelstein, an authority on the subject, is the author of an
essay on 'The Ethics of the Pharisees," in addition to his introductory
comments.
Of interest is an essay by the eminent Christian scholar, Dr.
Reinhold Niebuhr, on "Mission and Opportunity: Religion in a Plural-
istic Culture."
Other participants in this volume's series of essays include noted
scholars Milton R. Konvitz, Walter Kaufmann, Daniel Day Williams,
Philip Sporn, Charles Merrill, Earl Warren, Esther M. Jackson and
Nathan W. Ackerman.
Rabbi Reines' Zionist Credo
A blind candidate for the rabbinate wrote "Rabbi Isaac Jacob
Reines: His Life and Thought," published by Philosophical Library,
and in it he has incorporated valuable interpretations on many of the
vital issues affecting Jewry, especially the cultural needs and Zionism.
Rabbi Reines was the founder of the Mizrachi religious Zionist
movement. In the story of this eminent religious leader, the author
of the biography, Rabbi Joseph Wanefsky, interprets the Reines view
on Zionism as having been expressed as follows:
"The Zionist movement is the true test which upholds and
preserves the Jewish identity. This is G-d's method for stemming
the tide of assimilation and Jewish disintegration. This is the
manner in which G-d has revealed that Judaism shall not perish.
It shall resurrect itself and return to its former glory."
On the question of education the interpretive comment regarding
the Reines view- is:
"The Torah is the reservoir where man can draw upon all his
material needs and psychic drives. It is the source from which man
can derive his spiritual satisfaction to replenish his soul, for all the
-laws and decrees of the Torah were governed and declared to man
that he may live by them, that man shall actively fulfill them. The
Torah also says that you are called man because the laws, principles
and ethical system that is inherent within it makes him cognizant of
his humanity."