THE JEWISH NEWS -

-

7ireorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle- commencing with issue of July-20, 1951

Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Assad.
WAD Published every Friday by The Jewish News. Publishing Co.. 17315 W. Nine Mile. Suite 865, Southfield, Met. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield. Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices.
gebeertption $8 a year. Foreign $9

PHILIP

SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

CARMI M.. SLOMOVITZ

CHARLOTTE DUBIN

Business Manager

• City. Editor

DREW LIEBERWITZ

Advertising Manager

Sabbath Seriptiiiii Selections
This Sabbath, the 11th day of "%Clan 5732, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portions. Exod. 27:20-30:10. Dent. 25.'1740. Prophetical portion,
I Samuel 15:2.34.

Scriptural Selections for Fast of Esther, Monday
Prophetical portions. Exod. 32:11-14, 34:1.10. Prophetical portions, Isaiah
55:6-56:8. —
Torah readings for Purim. Tuesday: Exod. 17:8-16. The Book of Esther is read
the night before and in the morning.

Candle lighting. Friday. Feb. 25, 5:59 p.m.

VOL. LX. No. 24

Page Four

February 25, 1972

Needed: New Goals in Educational Planning

Formation of a community-wide associa-
_tion of representatives of schools sponsored
by congregations, the basis for-the organiza-
tion of this body being that the overwhelm-
ing majority of our community's children are
studying in schools operated by synagogues,
appears to be pointing to new approaches in
dealing with the training of our children
and providing them with Jewish knowledge.
A seven-branch system of schools .oper-
ating under the direction of the United
Hebrew Schools continues to function, but
there are indications that drastic changes
will take place soon, some of them due to
the inevitable neighborhood transformations.
The occurrences of the last two decades have
led to conditions that forced the closing of
some schools. For the remaining branch
in Detroit there is little hope for survival,
and the children for whom a Jewish educa-
tion must be assured will • no doubt have to
be bused to areas which .
eir per-
y
petuation.
These are facts that cannot be ignored.
Every time a school was being abandoned—
'n the past experiences they were the Phila-
1phia-Byron building, the Kirby Center, the
T xedo branch, the Rose Sittig Cohen and
th Esther Berman branches — there were
pr tests from parents. But the inevitable had
to be faced. Those yet to be confronted are
part of a pattern resulting from an end to
previously Jewishly-inhabited areas and the
tratisfer of populations to the suburbs.
It will be in the best interests of com-

munity amity to keep the doors of func-
tioning branches open as long as possible,
because of the parents' deep interest in
their children's uninterrupted education in
environments close to their homes. Sac-
rifices may have to be made - and costs
may be high, but the wishes of parents and
pupils to remain in their present locations
should not be ignored.

In the best interests of time for com-
munity planning, and to achieve amity in our
ranks, it is imperative that two of the United
Hebrew Schools branches now imperiled by
the neighborhood changes should be kept
open—no matter how expensive or what the
sacrifices may be involved in providing teach-
ing staff: the Borman branch, retention of
which for as long as necessary, will continue
the Jewish presence in Detroit, and the Livo-
nia school, whose functions provide vitality
for a community that is struggling to have a
wholesome Jewish affiliation.
*
*
*
We can weep all we want. We can be-
_ moan the questionable fact that areas that
were abandoned might have been saved if
our people had retained their earlier home-
steads. But we can't turn back the clock, and
there is the compulsion to accept the inevi-
table and to plan realistically and reasonably
in order to make certain that every child is
reached with a program of Jewish educa-
tional value.
From all indications, the advanced pro-
grams, the high school and college-level stud-
ies, have made progress, and the United He-
brew Schools are contributing toward the
advancement of studies on the higher level.
As matters stand today, it seems urgent
that the congregational schools and those
that have been defined as the community

schools must begin a new plan of coopera-
tion to assure a reaching out to our youth as
extensively as is programmatically possible.
If, as some believe, a fourth of our children
are not receiving any sort of Jewish educa-
tion—even the brief and outmoded -Sunday
school teachings—then the need is for co-
operation and for mutual accord to guarantee
adherence to the demands that are now being
made for emphasis_ upon and priority to the
educational aims of the American Jewish
communities.

Spanish Jewish Poets' Works
Appear in English Translations

Rabbi David Goldstein of the Liberal Synagogue of London renders
an important service to Jewish scholarly efforts with his translation
of the works 'of Spanish-Jewish poets.
In the Pelican paperback published by Penguin Books, -The Jew-
There are many problems to be over-
Poets -of Spain, 900-1250," Rabbi Goldstein has translated more
e is elevationtage
e. There
a shor
of teachers, and ish
than 80 poems by some of the best known poets of that era—Judah
that
com calls for
of standards among.
Solomon ibn Gabirol, Samuel ha-Nagid, Abraham ibn Ezra;
teachers, their fullest cooperation with the ha-Levi,
as well as Donash ha-Levi Ben Labrai, Joseph ibn Abithiir, Isaac ibn
community that sponsors the schools in Kaplon, Isaac ibn Gi'at, Moses ibn Ezra, Joseph ibn Zabara, Judah al-
which they teach and a basic understanding Harizi, Shem Tov ben Paiquera and Todros ben Judah Abulafia.
of the needs and the obligations that rest
Noteworthy in this paperback is the eacplanato
-
poetry in Muslim land
y Jewish
upon parents as well as school administra-
iphy and the introduction that
tors and' tea
*
' *
throws much light on the literary accomplishments by Jews in the
10th through 13th centuries. The religious emphases in the domain
Unless we assume—and acknowledge—
of prayer and the reappraisal of the Bible in these writings are
the sincerity of community planners in these
indicated by the translator who points out: "The phraseology of the
directions, we will be inviting bankruptcy for.
Bible was put to use in every sort of context, from the most
sensual love-song to the greatest devotional utterance."
our educational efforts. If we are not prag-
Rabbi Goldstein states in his introductory explanation of the
Matic- about
teratirastic
changes,. and do not we-
,. d
of the Jewish poetic literature: "The finest flowering
come al
ons in n approaching the issues development
of
Spanish Hebrew poetry took place in the two centuries from 1000 to
that confront us, we will be postponing solu- 1200. After that time, imitators arose in both Provence and Italy,
but
tons which must, come as speedily as the they-did not approach the eminence of their forebears. Rather did they
changes may occur.
find their forte in the rhymed narrative, and the comic epigram."
It was natural, of course, for Rabbi Goldstein to include in his -
The day school idea is gaining ground,
-
-translations
from the Hebrew the famous poem by Judah ha-Levi, "Long-
there are more increase d enrollments in
ing
for.
Zion." The historic poem expressed the famous poet's yearning
such schOols, and there are concessions even in his tribute
to "Zion, beauty's perfection, who
enwrapped your-
from the extremest opponents of such schools in love and grace," in the pciem which commenced have
with these stanzas:
that the emerging full-day school program self in love and grace," in the poem which commenced with these
under Zei,vish auspices can not be shunned. stanzas:
And since such-schools will, at - best, provide zion;u7iii you not ark after your imprisoned ones,
for only a fraction of our children, the en The remnant of your flocks, who seek your peace?
tire program of Jewish education must be From west and east ' and north and south,
From far and near, take greetings, from all sides,
treated in its totality.
Andpeace from the captive of desire, whose tears fall
*
*
*
Like Herman's dew, while he to
to shed them on your hills.-
We have become reconciled with new con- I am a jackal mourning your affliction, and when I dream
ditions. There are no longer the five-day Jew- Of the return of your captives I am a lyre accompanying your songs.
ish afternoon schools: they have been re- What would I give to traverse those places
duced to three days a week, and the studies 'Where God was revealed to your seers and messengers!
Who t will make Ten wings, so I can fly away
must be accelerated. They can not be frac- A
to your mountain
tionalized. They must be treated under cur- Let
r la n d , treasure clefts?
ricula that will reach out into the total COM,- Your fat a lly prostrate art
stones, and fondle your fine
munity.
And yet, as I stand by my father's graves,
Perhaps the Jewish Welfare, Federation, Your most precious tomb Will astound me in Hebron.
which provides major funds for the coin
From
From the poetry of Samuel ha-Levi we quote:
munal school system, together with the new
"I Look Up to the Sky":
I
look
congregational hiody, and with the complete ,,,,, up to the sky and its stars,
- creep
to
the
earth
and the things t that
there.
participation of the sponsor s-- of day schools,. - e
a! ;I:n
nned e
my heart. how their creation
must now delegate their ablest' forces to the
p
wisdom
in
every
detail,
search for the desired compatibility: This. See the heavens above like a tent,
should be viewed as a compulsion-lbr readr—Coristiructed
with loops and with hooks,
ership and for educators, and a duty involv- And the moon with its stars, like a shepherdess
ing parents as well.
- 'Driving her sheep to pasture;
The mere >f aact that _Wese, needs have The moon itself among the clouds,
a ship sailing under its banners;
emerged as sa- major Out'
plan- Like
The. clouds lace a girl in her garden
ning should encourage us to
we Moving,
and watering the myrtle-trees;
are not sinkiiir cin the contrarf, we must The dew-mist--a
woman
view the situation as a challenge to respon- Drops from her hair on shaking
the ground.
sible leadership. The conditions are not se- The inhabitants turn, like
animals, to rest,
cret factors in our existence as an organized (Their palaces like their stables);
American Jewish community. They are es And all fleeing from the fear of death,
tablished facts. It is as such that they must Like a dove pursued by the falcon,
be treated, and as such the solutions and And these are compared at the end to a plate
agreements on an amicable basis must be- Which is smashed into innumerable sherds.
come compulsory y aims for
r Jews with a sense spanish-Jewish
are spiritual poems and verses of universal interest in the
of duty to their c hildren and to the goal from the
poetry so well preserved in the English translations
Hebrew
welcome
literature from the olden period o f Spanish-
imbedded in our common heritage.
Jewish history,

-

,

-