THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Association of English-.?ewtsh Newspapers, Michigan Press A.moctation. National Editorial Assoelm
tion. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co. 17515 W Nine Mile. Suite 1165, Souttsclrld, Mich. 4E075.
Second-Clam Postage Paid at Southfield. Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription is • year. Foreign*,

PHIUP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and P•Ottsantr

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

DREW LIEBERWITZ

CHARLOTTE DUBIN

Adeertesang

City Editor

Susiness Managor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 27th day of Heshvan, 5733, the follou-Ing

Mamerer

se:et-77,7••s

be read in our s-ynagogues:
Pentair:At- hal portion, Gen. 23:1-25 18. Prophetical portion..1 Krazs
Rosh Hodesh Ktsler Torah Reading, Tuesday, Num.' ..7S : IS

1-31

Candle lighting. Friday, Nov. 3, StM p.m

VOL. LXII. Na. I

November 3, 1972

Page Four

Crucial Day for American Electorate

Few contests for the great office of President of the United States have been without
some bitterness. We have witnessed a full share of it in the present campaign which comes to
an end in the coming few days. When the balloting is ended on Tuesday, the decision will be
accepted in the same spirit as all the electoral battles.
The responsibility of all citizens to cast theirballots on Tuesday is unquestioned. It is
when all electors will have cast their ballots that we will be able to claim triumph for
democracy.
We all have our preferences, and the contesting forces have not missed an opportunity
to sway the voters in their direction. It is believable that the minds of most voters have
already been made up. The majority will rule again.
Therefore, on the Wednesday after the election, we must strive once again to be a
united people, dedicated. to the ideals of justice and equality for all. There will never be
uniformity. The minority will retain the right to criticize. But it will be a loyal opposition.
In the meantime, every citizen has the goal of registering his franchise for the candi-
date and party of his choice. He has the right—even the obligation—to influence neighbors
and friends—to vote as he does. Adhering to the duty of voting on the coming political Day
of Judgment, we shall be going to the polls in the hope that America and humanity will be
proud of the decisions we make and of the mandates we give to those who will govern the
affairs of state of this land in the coming four years.

Historicity of Balfour Declaration

In the 55 years of Jewish experiences
since the issuance of the Balfour Declara-
tin, the entire course of Jewish history was
revolutionized. The very document, the an-
niversary of which we are to celebrate on
Nov. 2, was not taken too seriously in many
ranks. Jews themselves were skeptical that
the pledge of national regeneration would lead
to the reality of statehood as envisioned by
Theodor Herzl. Non-Jews hardly believed that
Prophecy of Redemption would become Ful-
fillment for Israel.
As a matter of fact, realistic Arabs were
reconciled to the historic truth of Jewry's
national redemption in their ancient home-
land. But they soon became the enemies, the
destroyers of what was to be built, the anta-
gonists of a great undertaking that benefited
Arabs as much as Jews and which, through
the Zionist idea, is still wholesome for all
concerned in the Middle East.
As we look back into the developments
of more than half a century. and as we study
the progress that has been attained, we must
pay due respect to a great promise in which
the British played an important role. The
British had acted as obstacles to the idea
in the years of their rulership of what was
Palestine. Except for General Wauchope and

perhaps one other high commissioner. there
was little cooperation with the Jews in the
establishment of the Jewish National Home.
Yet the British role can not be treated with-
out some respect as to historicity and the
background of the English people's deep in-
terest in the Bible- and the Prophets with
regard to the Rettirn to Zion.

In the 55 years that had elapsed, there also
was the Holocaust. The Hitler threat of end-
ing Jewish existence was turned into a proc-
ess of survival. From the 60,000 Jews at the
time the Balfour Declaration was issued, un-
til the era of Hitler when the Jewish num-
bers grew to 600.000, there has emerged a
state with the present population of more
than 2.500,000 Jews.

The old roots., have been replenished.
Jewry is now a nation in its ancient home-
land, a fact of history, admittedly indestruct-
ible. When Israel's neighbors admit the real-
ity of that existence, there will be an end
to warfare.
And when the eventual peace emerges,
the name of Arthur James Balfour, the ef-
fectiveness of the Balfour Declaration, will
remain inseparable from the history of Jew-
ish Redemption, and Nov. 2. 1917. will re-
main one of the very historic dates on the
Jewish and world calendars.

'Junior Jewish Encyclopedia'
in Seventh Revised Edition

Abbreviated encyclopedias can be very valuable in Jewish homes.
Those seeking routine information about many subjects—about historic
facts and about personalities—can be aided immensely by factual data
provided in popular descriptions.
"The Junior Jewish Encyclopedia," in spite of its title which might
be interpreted that it is a book for the young alone, has such value.
Published by 5hengold, the seventh revised edition of this encyclo-
pedia, just issued, has the merit of being useful for young people
but also in classrooms, in homes, as a speedily available source book
on Jewish subjects.
Edited by Naomi Ben-Asher and Hayim Leaf, the new edition is
replete with articles prepared by many qualified authorities.
Among the contributors to this volume, in addition to the two edi-
tors. are such well known authors as Yodel Mark, Judith Eisenstein,
Rabbi Samuel Silver, Anita Lebeson, Dr. Samuel Rosenblatt, Dr.
Meyer Waxman and many others.
Richly illustrated, this encyclopedia, its 350 pages of text, con-
tains information about all periods in Jewish history, leaders in all
phases of Jewish life, ceremonial practices, religious observances.
Exemplary is the article on charity, in which the author covers
every aspect of tzedaka while dealing also with the kupa, the charity
fund, snaot hitim, Passover wheat money, miahloakh manot, the Purim
exchange of gifts, and other facts.
In dealing with personalities, the authors included good articles
about noted writers—a notable one about Franz Kafka, for example—
and about Jewish leaders in Zionism, in education, in struggles for
equal rights.
There is a good and lengthier article than the average on Names.
Meritorious also is the essay on Jewish population changes, and
the charts are instructive.
There are some incomplete aspects, the article on the Jewish
press possessing many short•zomings. There is an English Jewish press
that is not touched upon, the author of the published article apparently
having limited himself to some Yiddish and Hebrew papers.
In the main, however, this is a valuable work and serves a good
purpose for school and home.

Prof. Scholem's Major Essays
on Messianism and Kabbalism

Messianism and the concept of Jewish spirituality classify as a
science in Jewish cultural studies. The giant figure in pursuing these
studies, on a par with the late Dr. Martin Buber, is Prof. Gershom
Scholem of the Hebrew University, perhaps the world's outstanding
authority on Jewish mysticism.
Schocken Books make available some of the major essays of Prof.
Scholem in a hard cover as well as paperback. In these Schocken
volumes, "The Messianic Idea in Judaism," Prof. Scholem guides the
to enroll them in classes that are being re-
reader toward an understanding of the messianic idea in Judaism.
duced in attendance? Have we stopped prop- The eminent author points to the various aspects of Jewish history
agandizing among parents who have neglected
as one who "believes Judaism to be a living phenomenon, which, al-
the Jewish education of their children? Are * though developing under the impact of a great idea, has changed con-
we merely playing with numbers and statis-
siderably over the long periods of its history and has not yet exhausted
tics or are we genuinely dedicating ourselves
its potentialities . . . "
Prof. Scholem states that "a new period of Jewish history
to the task of educating parents so that they
has begun with the Holocaust and the foundation of the state of
should cooperate in utilizing available educa-
Israel. But by whatever new forms the living consciousness of
tional means for their offspring?
the Jews will be expressed, the old ones will always be of rele-
Surely, we are not such a rapidly declin-
vance to those who find in Judaism both • challenge and an
ing force that there should be a sudden van-
answer."
ishing of such large numbers of our children
In the 17 f•4%1111, in this vol
Dr. Scholem treats such subjects
as the tornsiaffic ldra in ft 41.141kam A• an authority on the Kabbalistic
from our school systems.
ideas this raspy 1r of g, sal Itliolf le ancr for students of messianism
Perhaps a proper answer will come from
and related lasoe•
forthcoming studies of existing situations.
eau y ars einvolsul to analyses of the Buber
A norol.cf
Meanwhile, we must make certain that the
U.11011.10, of 11 a eldlato,
psoialiou of the movement, and

Our Declining Schools Enrollment

Figures released by the American Associa-
tion for Jewish Education, which point to
drastic declines in Jewish schools' enroll-
ments, will be cause for serious study of the
major factor in Jewish life in behalf of which
demands have been made for priorities when
allocations are made from funds gathered
among us philanthropically.
For many years there have been demands
for serious consideration of the neglect in en-
rolling tens of thousands of our youth, who,
it had been claimed, had been deprived of
opportunities to acquire even a modicum of
Jewish knowledge. Now the pendulum is seen
swinging in another direction. We are given
a multitude of reasons why the enrollments
have dropped.
If, until now, there were tens of thousands
of children without any schooling, are we able

figures gathered for the American Associa-
tion for Jewish Education are not judged too
lightly.

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Prof

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