THE JEWISH NEWS - -
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Amoc1•Uon, National Editorial Assorts-
(ion. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.. 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite 1165, Southfield. Mich. 45070
Secoed.Clam Postage Paid •t Southfield. Michigan and Additional Mailing ()farce. Subscription $11 • year. Foreign F•
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Caner and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
CHARLOTTE DU/IN
City Editor
•usiness Me
DREW LIESERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Hanuka Scriptural Selections
rhis Sabbath, the 26th day of Kislev, 5733, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portions, Geb. 37:1-10:23, Num. 7:18-23. Prophetical portion, Zecha-
riah 2:14-4:7.
Hanuka Torah readings: Friday, Num. 7:1-17; Sunday, Num. 7:24-35; Monday,
Num. 7:30-41; Tuesday, Num. 7:36-47; Wednesday, Rosh Hodeih. Tevet and Hanuka
readings, Num. 28:1-15, 7:42-47; Thursday, Num. 7:48-59; Friday, Num. 7:54-8:4.
Candle 1.1gbting. Dec. 1. 4:44 p.m.
VOL. LXII. No. 12
Page Four
December 1, 1972
Hanuka's Renewed Message for Our Time
Shining lights for an eight-day period .. .
an exchange of gifts . . . a holiday spirit in
the home . . . recollections of the valor of
the Maccabees—these are on our calendar
commencing with this day. Hanuka is a
period of rejoicing for young and old. The
Festival of Lights marks the unending his-
toric link of Jews of today with those of
olden days when courage was needed to
hold fast to faith and to battle for freedom
and the right to retain the Jewish identity.
History repeats itself. The threats of An-
tiochus Epiphanes were repeated in many
eras. In every generation there was a Haman
or a Torquemada. They always inspired re-
newed Maccabean valor, and the fighters for
justice, always small in numbers, inevitably
emerged triumphant. It was the will to live
that assured strength for the numerically
weak who would not die and who had chosen
to survive to declare the works of the Lord.
We are experiencing it again in our time.
Our kinsmen are on the battlefront holding
fast to a freedom that was attained as an
emphasis on Israel's historic rights. Once
again, on a wide front, the modern Macca-
bees are demonstrating their determination
not to abandon the liberties that are cher-
ished as basic rights. The Hamans and the
Milers in their days never acknowledged the
survivalist strength of a people they sought
to destroy. It was to have been believed that
they would at least hand down a lesson for
the bigots to follow. It is a lesson too diffi-
cult to learn, and Israel's enemies keep crop-
ping up—in Iraq, in Syria, in their neighbor-
ing countries—and in the Kremlin !
There is another aspect to Hanuka. It
is the festival that kindles other flames,
especially a major one that calls for enthu-
siasm within the ranks of the people that
celebrates the festival. There is the aspect
of retaining identity. In olden times the re-
bellion of the Maccabees was not only against
those who would destroy the national ident-
ity of Israel but who also threatened the spir-
itual role of our people. That role again is
endangered. There is an assimilation that is
damaging. The failure on the part of many
to identitfy with us is disheartening. The
mixed marriages are especially distressing.
It is to counteract the latter that Hanuka
in its current form must serve as an inspira-
tion for a new affirmation of faith. Our ranks
often have been denuded and we survive. We
shall survive current dangers. But for the
sake of the greater unity that is needed to
assure identification with Jewry in the fullest
sense we must avoid pitfalls; loss of adher-
ents resulting from intermarriage must be
prevented; our striving today is tp retain in
our ranks the forces that are so vital to our
dignity in the process of our survival.
It is to these ends primarily that we strive
through the Hanuka Festival of Lights that
we now observe so joyously.
Heine Tribute Exonerates Germany
When the Heinrich Heine stamp is issued
in Dusseldorf on Dec. 13, it will be one of the
major steps in German atonement for a self-
abnegation that stemmed from Nazism. When
a nation that has taken pride in the "Lore-
lei" could, during more than a decade, brand
the poem under an "Anonymous" authorship,
it automatically disgraced itself and it owed
it to its own self-respect restoration of an
acknowledgement of the Jewish authorship
of verses of national glorification.
Yet, the University of Dusseldorf—locat-
ed in Heine's birthplace—refused to yield to
appeals that it be renamed Heine University.
But while rendering such a decision, the uni-
versity reportedly criticized the sponsors of
that appeal for not encouraging greater in-
terest to make the Ifeine name better "known
to his countrymen."
This adds significance to the tasks for
publication in Germany of all Heine writings,
the undertaking to continue through 1980.
While acclaiming the genius of Heine,
there is the process also of granting to Heine
recognition for his Jewish interests, his self-
chastisement for having become a convert to
Christianity—a step he and other Jews had
taken in their time in order to gain profes-
sional and academic recognition as Christians
because such status had been denied to Jews
in the medievalism that stretched intellectu-
als' anti-Semitism into modern times.
The Heine experience is the strongest in-
dictment of anti-Semitism and a special
addition of rebuke to Germans who condoned
Nazi policies.
The atonement for the anti-Heine crime
assists in exonerating the descendants of the
anti-Semites. After all, it is a New Germany.
and the anxiety for absolution among Ger-
mans attests to a new spirit for which we
ask longevity.
Admonitory ADL Revelations
Anti-Defamation League studies of prej-
udices rampant in this country confirm the
view that anti-white feelings among Blacks
are the more prevalent than the anti-Semitic
sentiments that have been in evidence in
recent years; and that charges of "clannish-
ness"—a desire on the part of parents that
their children associate with other Jews and
date and marry Jews— reverberate as an ex-
cuse to justify evidences of anti-Semitism.
The accuracy that marked previous stud-
ies conducted for ADL by Prof. Charles Y.
Glock of the University of California give
credence to the new revelations. The exon-
eration of black students is a welcome fac-
tor in what we hope will be improved inter-
racial relations in the years to conic....
Most distressing is the fact-finding state-
ment that in addition to the far right we now
have to fear the results of anti-Semitism stem-
ming from the far left. While this, too, is
not a new development—the leftists, among
them some deluded young Jews, have al-
ready caused us much harm—the new facts
add to the distress caused by the anti-Jewish
prejudices. The euphemism of anti-Zionism
as a term for anti-Semitism is not misunder-
stood by non-Jews: the Kremlin certainly is
fully aware of what it foments. It is the
ignorant young Jewish element whose acces-
sion to it is a cause for serious concern .
The ADI., revelations serve as admonitions
for us to be on guard, as Jews and as Ameri-
cans.
Literary Phenomena in Ancient
Israel in Schuerer Collection
Schocken Books has issued as a paperback one of the most im-
portant collections of Jewish literary writings of the era of 175 BCE
to 135 CE.
"The Literature of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus" by
Prof. Emil Schuerer (1844-1910), in a translation from the German
by Rev. Peter Christie and Sophia Taylor, has been reissued with
an introduction by Prof. Nahum N. Glatzer. It was first published by
Schocken in 1961, originally having been published in five volumes.
Discovery of numerous fragments, Including the "Geniza," is
described in the Glatzer essay. In view of the quest for authenticity,
Prof. Glatzer makes this important observation: "While we acknowl-
edge the enormous advance of research in the so-called 'intertesta-
mental, or early post-canonical, period, we are aware of what is still
to be done. Texts have to be edited, dates of composition further
clarified, literary influences established. We do not know who the
Sadducees were; we do not understand the exact nature of Jewish
Hellenism and the extent of its influence.
"We are still accustomed to viewing the literary phenomena of
the period under the aspect of political or religious parties, and tend
to overlook the fact that 'Judaism was a living organism and must
have expressed itself in almost innumerable moods and facets with
constantly interweaving patterns of thought.' The task of presenting
this 'living organism' of thought and faith and hope, a synthesis of
the various moods, awaits a future historian."
This approach reveals at once the extent of research and com-
mentary upon data offered as classics of olden times, and the works
of Prof. Schuerer provide a background for the studies that are so
vital to an understanding of the literary works that have been made
available. Dr. Glatzer shows that when Schuerer wrote the history of
the literature of the period under review "there was already copious
research available on individual works or particular problems," and
he lists the authorities he has considered.
Schuerer's collected works include those of Philo, Palestinian-
Jewish and Graeco-Jewish literatures and a variety of historical
documents.
The books of the Maccabees, Josephus' "History of the Jewish
War," sacred legends as well as the books of Daniel, Judith, Tobit,
Enoch, Ezra and the 12 Patriarchs are among those under analysis.
An important chapter is devoted to "Jewish Propaganda Under a
Heathen Mask."
Dr. Schuerer states the case on this subject as follows:
"At the close of our survey, we have still to discuss a class of
literary productions highly characteristic of Hellenistic Judaism, viz.
Jewish works under a heathen mask. The works which belong to this
category, differ greatly so far as their literary form is concerned, but
have all the common feature of appearing under the name of some
heathen authority, whether of a mythological authority, as the sibyl,
or of persons eminent in history, as Hecataeus and Aristeas. The very
choice of this pseudonymic form shows that all these works were
calculated for heathen readers, and designed for the propagation of
Judaism among the heathen. For only with heathen readers were
such names a standard authority, and only on their account could this
form have been chosen by Jewish authors. Hence the tendency, which
is peculiar to a large portion of the Graeco-Jewish literature in gen-
eral, viz. the tendency to influence non-Jewish readers, here obtains
significant expression."
The author dealt also with the subjects of the Sibyllines (the sibyl
was in heathen antiquity "the semi-divine prophetess of the orders
and counsels of the gods concerning the fate of cities and kingdoms" ) .
"Forged Verses of Greek Poets" and a number of other topics in-
cluding "smaller pieces perhaps of Jewish origin under heathcS
names."
The Schuerer compilation will thrill students of Jewish lite: a-
ttire of ancient times. They supplement immensely the material C..):11-
monly used and more generally known.