I
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THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
RuBBERSrAMPED
Member American Association of English Jewish Nesvpapers. Michigan Press Association, National Editorial AssocI..
lion. Published every Friday by The
oh Ness Publishing Co, 17515 W Nine Mile. Suite 865, Southfield, Mich.
48075
Secoind.Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $8 a year. Foreign
Pt
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher.
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
Easiness Manesp•r.
City
Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the 23rd day of Elul, 5732, the following scriptural selecti o ns
i ll he read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. Deut. 29:9-31:30. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 61:1063.9
Candle
%GI. 1-XI. No. 25
lighting, Friday, Sept. 1, 6,43
Page Four
September 1, 1972
Educational Duties in the New Year
Commencement of another school year
carries with it an untold number of new re-
sponsibilities upon parents as well as children.
The new year commences for the school
systems with lesser tensions than were ex-
pected some months ago. Instead of the fears
that were engendered by the busing threats
there is an evident assurance that this year,
at least, there won't be an enforcement of
busing. And there is a possibility, in spite of
judicial rulings, that the Congress may out-
law busing for schools at great distance for
all time.
This was only one of the issues that threat-
ened the sense of confidence and security of
many homes. There remains the need for
retention of the highest standards in Ameri-
can educational aims. In the larger cities, the
accomplishments have been far from exem-
plary. A lack of funds and a crisis in teachers'
ranks contributed toward a dropping of re-
sult.; to a very low rank. The attainments, the
cooperation between teachers and pupils are
on a higher level in the suburbs, and the
obligations of the larger American commu-
nity are to strive to attain the ever-increasing
need for teaching criteria that will result in
most responsive pupil interests.
The Jewish school situation is linked in
many respects to the conditions that affect
the public schools. Only a minority attends
the day schools, the majority of Jewish stu-
dents are in the afternoon schools. The over-
whelming majority is in the congregational
school systems. These pupils must absorb
Jewish teachings during hours of the day that
are utilized by the non-Jewish boys and girls
fur relaxation and for recreation after a full
day devoted to studies. To the children who
are expected to acquire a Jewish education
during such hours that are considered neces-
sary for play, who often consider it a sacrifice
to give time to Jewish devotions. we owe a
great responsibility.
What we need for these children is the
best teachers, the most acceptable curricula,
the encouragement that comes from parents
who are expected to induce the children to
attend Jewish afternoon schools.
In our own community, the priorities con-
tinue to be given to Jewish education, and
our schools receive the highest allocations.
In Detroit the schools may be receiving much
greater financial assistance than that given
by any other community in America. Yet we
are not without problems. The number of
study hours in the afternoon schools has
been reduced drastically from the time when
pupils attended five-afternoon-a-week schools.
Now the studies have been reduced to three
afternoons a week. This places added bur-
dens on the teachers who, if results are to be
effective and if the pupils are to learn some
Hebrew and a measure of historical facts,
must offer more extensive instruction.
A good teacher has the duty of impressing
upon the boys and girls he teaches in the
Jewish school the desirability of pursuing
studies beyond the Bar Mitzva and Bat Mitzva
age. Just as the teacher must possess peda-
gogical skills, the Jewish teacher must have
the additional ability to inspire Jewish boys
and girls to appreciate their heritage.
These needs are a matter of fullest appre-
ciation in all Jewish communities. They must
be attained at all. costs, and every effort must
be made to elevate the role of the Jewish
teacher and to assure his being an integral
part of the community. He is an agent in the
highest interests of Jewry's planning for com-
mitments by the youth to their future as Jews.
With the arrival of the Holy Days and our
rededication to our religious duties comes
also our responsibility to our schools as major
factors in molding the character of the young
Jew. I.et there be a total commitment to the
need of placing the school on the highest rung
of the ladder of Jewish duties.
Gains From an End to Active Warfare
Figures made public on the secimd anni-
of the .cease fire on the Israel-
Egyptian border emphasize the fact that thero
has been an immense gain in life saving.
versary
Although there still is an inactive war in
progress, the casualties have dropped to the
105% est figures on record.
From Aug. 7, 1970, to Aug. 7. 1972, 100
Israelis and foreigners visiting Israel were
killed and 475 were injured as a result of
fedaveen acts of terrorism. There were 1.437
incidents. and 488 of them were in the Gaza
Strip. Only 34 fedayeen-inspired acts of terror
were in Jewish areas.
It is because the Lod outrage committed
by Japanese took the lives of 40 and injured
194 that the figures had risen in recent
months.
It is important to indicate that most cas-
ualties were on the Lebanese border, due to
the terrorism from Syria and because ter-
rorists had gained asylum in Lebanon. There
were 20 dead on the Lebanese border, 18
Israelis died in Gaza, nine on the Suez Canal.
nine on the Syrian border, three in Sinai and
one on the Jordanian border.
It is clear that in the main there has been
a peaceful 24-month period, that the cease
fire for which Secretary of State William
Rogers claims credit has been workable: that
Arabs—especially the Egyptians—have gained
as much as, if not more than, Israel from a
cessation of hostilities.
All of which proves both the necessity
of a peace agreement and its workability.
Perhaps the Arabs will listen to reason
if they can be gotten to seek acquaintance
with the gains that have been attained through
an end to active warfare.
The Cheers for Jews in Munich .
Jevvs were cheered in Munich last Friday.
They were the Israelis, who came as teams
to participate in the Olympic Games.
Was it an atonement?
Did the specification of equality in sports
serve to reassert the human factor in all na-
tions' rights to join in athletic competitions'?
A preliminary ceremony spoke more
loudly than the cheers. Before the formal
opening of the Olympic Games, there was a
memorial service, with all religious faiths
participating, at the former Dachau concen-
tration camp, a few . miles from Munich.
It was considered a peace ceremony. Un-
der the motto "Suffering appeals to the youth
of
the world for engagement. - the Roman
Catholic Church, the Protestant Lutheran
Church and the Israelite Cultural Community
joined in paving tribute to the memory of the
victims of Nazism and asserted that suffer-,
ing in the world- is a threat to justice. -
The Olympic Games of 1972 are a refuta-
tion of the horrors of the Nazi terror that had
its image in Hitler's presence at the Berlin -
Olympics in 1936.
The presence of the Israelis in the 191'2
Olympics is an affirmation of the triumph of
the Jewish spirit and Jewry's will to live.
The cheers in Munich for Jews were both
an atonement and a stretching of the hand of
friendship among the nations of the world.
with the New Germany as a participant.
Roots of German Anti-Semitism
Traced in Dr. Schorsch's Study
For a complete understanding of the history of the Jews in Ger-
many it is necessary not only to know what had happened under
Nazism but also to get acquainted with the events that transpired
prior to World War I. under the Kaiser and in the half century pre-
ceding it.
In "Jewish Reactions to German Anti-Semitism, 1870-1914." co-
published by Jewish Publication Society and Columbia University
Press, Dr. Ismar Schorsch gives a thorough account of the roots of
anti-Semitism that preceded Hitlerism.
While outlining the form that the efforts to counteract Jew-baiting
assumed, the author provides a history of German Jewry and the
activities of the Centralverein.
Additionally, the reader gets further authoritative comment
from this author on the emancipation movement, its failures as
well as the hopes that centered in it.
It is pointed out by Dr. Schorsch that the developing anti-Semitic
trends had compelled German Jews to move away from "a reliance
on silence."
"Measured against the former silence of German Jewry and the
continued passivity el" French Jewry, the Centralverein represents a
watershed to the history of emancipated Jewry," the author states
in his explanation of the reactions that stemmed from the newlv -
formed central organization of German Jews.
it is explained that the Zionists never broke with the Central-
verein, in spite of differences and criticism of the central organization.
"The most radical group in German Jewry," it is pointed
out, "did not find the Centralverein inept or timid in its fight
aitainst anti-Semitisin. In the pursuit of their respective objec-
tives, they were equally militant. When the break finally came,
it was on the most fundamental question possible: whether
tegration within the German context was still feasible."
in-
This contest and internal struggle is among the major issues
analyzed in this highly informative work.
The roles of Jews in Orthodox and the emerging Reform, the reli-
gious aspects of the struggles, are among the important phenomena
that play a part in the historical settings so well delineated by
Dr. Schorsch.
Malamud Works in Paperback
Two best sellers, Bernard Malamud's latest full-length novel "The
Tenants" and his short stories that appered under the heading of
"The Magic Barrel," have been added to the paperbacks of Pocket
Books, the Simon and Schuster division.
The four main characters—the tenant, the landlord, the Jewish
actress, the black writer—merge into dramatic confrontations in the
hallways of anguish in the "Tenants"—a story filled with action and
with the realism that is marked by pathos as well as humor.
In the 13 stories in "The Magic Barrel" the reader finds many
of-the problematic disturbances that confront the characters, who are
a blending of struggling personalities in atmopsheres of many challenges.
Life reflects in the fiction of the master in this series of paper-
backs which provides an opportunity for many to become more fully
acquainted with the work:, of one of the most popular writers of this
generation.
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