' 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."