owNiallwImm10- . 1 1wwwt - PIP••••'—w ----7
THE JEWISH NEWS
AtionietmAs summit
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Assoet.
lion. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite 86.5, Southfield, Mich. 45071.
Second.Clas• Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription lig • year. Foreign PP
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Menage,
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City 1QNer
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fourth day of Tevet, 5733, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 41:1-44 - 17. Prophetical portion, I Kings 3:15.4:1.
Scriptural Selections for Fast of 10th of Tevet, Friday
Pentateuchal portions, Exodus 32:11.14, 34:1-10. Prophetical portion, Isaiah,
55:8-56:8.
Candle Lighting. Dee. II, 4:43 p.m.
VOL. LID. No. 13
Page Four
December 8, 1972
'Religious Neutrality' for Season's Spirit
Guidelines prepared by American Jewish
Congress units as a result of studies of ten-
sions created by the introduction of religious
studies in public schools plead for "religi-
ously neutral" approaches to an issue that
often emerges during the Christmas season.
The problem already emerged in Newark,
N. J., where Federal Judge Frederick B. La-
cey ruled against banning a Westfield, N. J.
high school Christmas pageant in which, it
was charged in a petition filed by the Amer-
ican Civil Liberties Union in behalf of 178
parents, that Jewish and other students were
being forced to participate in such a religi-
ous pageant.
There was a small measure of comfort
in the judge's ruling that pupils refusing 1.o
participate in religious programs should not
be forced into them or be penalized for their
refusal.
It is exactly this reservation that empha-
sizes the cruelty that can be imposed upon
a Jewish child who isolates himself from
classes during the performance of Christmas
plays.
The triumph registered in the Maryland
Prince George's County against the introduc-
tion of Christmas songs in school programs,
as a result of the intercession of Isaac Franck,
executive vice president of the Washington
Jewish Comunity Council, is proof of what
can be attained with proper action.
The guidelines issued by the American
Jewish Congress researchers into the serious
matter of condoned religious practices in the
schools are positive. They take into consid-
eration the value of "mutual understanding
and respect for group differences—racial
and religious." One of the statements, by
the Long Island Interfaith Council, which in-
cludes Christian and Jewish participants,
pointed out that teaching in schools should
recognize that religious festivals are observed
differently and that "such teach'ng should
be factional and not devotional." Another
published statement, issued by the Common-
wealth of Massachusetts Department of Edu-
cation, in an analysis of the entire issue,
emphasizes: "Teaching about religious holi-
days or religion in general should be objec-
tive, should avoid any doctrinal impact, and
should avoid any implication that religious
doctrines have the sup- port of school author-
ity."
It is on the basis of these approaches that,
the important and timely American Jewish
Congress memorandum based on the guide-
lines asserts: "The actual experience of Jew-
ish children in public schools having Christo-
logical celebrations has brought about virtual
unanimity in the organized Jewish community
in opposition to these sectarian practices.
The AJCongress statement declares in its
prepared guidelines:
It Is unnecessary to belabor the fact that
Christological holiday celebrations in public
schools are deeply offensive to children who
are not brought up as Christians. Religious cel-
ebrations of this tyne introduce tension and
divisiveness into public schools and often harass
and hurt children of minority faiths. A conflict
is created between religious teaching at home
and what is, in effect, religious teaching in the
public schools.
Religion in the home, in the church and in
the synagogue serves incomparably to enable
the spirit of mankind. Religion in the public
schools, however—no matter how dressed up or
watered down—serves only to harass, hurt and
dislocate children of minority faiths and to till•
pair wholesome classroom relationships.
Jewish parents (as well as non-believers and
adherents of non-Christian sects) are often made
resentful and apprehensive because their chil-
dren are forced either to participate in Christ°.
logical observances or, what is equally hurtful
and unjust, to isolate themselves by abstaining
from participation.
It goes without saying that no public school
pupil should ever be asked to isolate himself
from his classmates and to stand alone during
festivities and celebrations which, in many
schools, take up a major part of the school pro-
gram during the month of December.
When subjected to the great pressure on
them to conform, Jewish children may find it
easier to submit than to resist. The Jewish child,
or his parent in his behalf, is left with the cruel
choice of participating in religious observance
contrary to his belief or of standing exposed as
odd and nonconformist.
We know, of course, that many Jewish chil-
dren choose this latter course, despite the at-
tendant embarrassment and unpleasantness. But
many more take the easier path of conforming to
the majority will by going along with the teach-
er and fellow pupils. Still other children resort
to strategems to give the appearance but not
the reality of participation.
This course is taken in response to the al-
most painful need of the child to preserve both
classroom status and identity with the family
religion. The subterfuges used range from simply
not singing the most obviously Christological
lines of Christmas carols ("Come let us adore
him, Christ the Lord") to mouthing nonsense
syllables to all the music of the carols.
Easter: programs in the public schools pre-
sent an even more serious problem to the Jew-'
ish child. It should be remembered that the New
Testament at various points asserts particular
Jewish responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus.
Despite Protestant and Catholic statements ab-
solving the Jews of today for the death of Jesus,
it does not seem reasonable to exnect that the
effect of centuries-old teachings will be quickly
dissipated. It is frequently said that the most
important single cause for anti-Semitism has
been the Christian charge of deicide against the
Jews.
If there is one place where this dogma should
not be repeated or reinforced in any form, It
is surely the public school.
It is difficult to believe that the Christ-
mas issue is still so high on the American
agenda and that it should still be necessary
to battle for the protection of the Jewish
child in what could become a hostile school
environment if sectarianism will not be con-
trolled in accordance with the United States
Supreme Court ruling prohibiting govern.
ment action "respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof," and a high court ruling of 1952
which stated: "Government may not finance
religious groups nor undertake religious in-
struction nor blend secular and sectarian
education nor use secular institutions to force
one or some religion on any person."
Must we make it a necessity for children
in the schools to confront the issue on the
basis of traditional American practices of
not forcing any religion upon a minority
group, or is the idea of religious freedom to
be established by common sense action of
school authorities?
Apparently, the battle for such freedom
has not ended. While the Westfield, N. J., case
may yet be taken to a higher court, the mere
fact that a time element interferes with
prompt adherence to establish decisions does
not augur well for the hopes that basic Amer-
ican ideals will not be interfered with.
There is the heartening element in the
fact that Christian groups and prominent ed-
ucators are united in the effort to avoid
sectarianism in the schools. On the larger
front, the struggle for total religious freedom
and avoidance of pressures by a majorty upon
a minority is far from ended.
AN D D ES TR o Y
ITS HOT UNDER -1
Otik FEET!!!
0
Israeli Heroine's Moving Story
of Survival, Resisting Nazis
Because it is a first-hand account of a struggle against Nazism,
a sort of single-handed battle for survival by a young girl with courage
and with ingenuity to overcome the dangers that confronted her, "A
Girl Called Judith Strick," issued by Pyramid Publications, is most
noteworthy among the continuing flow of books on the Holocaust.
It is not a diary, but it does represent a day-to-day account of the
experiences of the author who bylines the book Judith Strick Dribben.
Overcoming the miseries she experienced under the Nazis, and later
the difficulties under the Russians at the end of the war, Judith went
to Israel, participated in the resistance as a member of the Irgun,
became a kibutz member and met a member of the American air force
who had become enchanted with Israel—Ed Dribben. The love affair
that developed led to her becoming Mrs. Dribben.
The Judith Strick story is so enchanting that Israel's Prime Minis-
ter Golds Meir wrote a foreword, stating that it is "a book stamped
with Memories of death but restorative of faith in life, and it is good
that its author—now a member of Moshav Orot—has written this
record for all of us to read."
Mrs. Meir points out that "destruction and death did not break her
spirit . . that she could, after these storms and perils, turn to the
life of the soil—all these are not only stages of an extraordinary life,
but the stages of the history of her people, from the terrible prelude
to national revival in Israel."
An amazing display of courage is evidenced in the story related
by Judith Strick. She was very young, the dangers were great, her
family had to be on the move. She survived them, not knowing about
their status until she had reached safety. But she managed both to work
in the resistance as well es to outsmart her Nazi captors even in
Auschwitz.
She adopted a different name. She posed as a Russian non-Jewess.
and her language expertness came in good stead. While translating
into the Russian to the Nazi victims, she was giving the unfortunates
who were chosen for humiliation courage to carry on.
She was in the shadow of death in Auschwitz, managed to reach
the Russian forces as the war was drawing to a close, suffered from
the Russian prejudices and was determined to get to Vienna and the
Israeli quarters to apply for a visa to Palestine.
Her story becomes more complete in its description of the young
woman's courage in the search for identification with the Jewish
people. She was admonished to join Hagana by her uncle who hosted her
upon her arrival in what was soon to be Israel. But she became iderbti-
tied with Irgun, was among the fighters for freedom, and she became a
factor in Jewish statehood.
She joined a kibutz, worked in Sde Boker, befriended the Ben-
Gurions who were among those to greet her at her marriage to Ed
Dribben.
Pola Ben-Gurion was especially nice to her: "She was like an
older havers of the kibutz, and very friendly." B-G's interest was
equally friendly.
It was a traditional wedding at Sde Boker. "There was a big
wedding party"—a victory for courage and survival.
Sam Levenson at His Best
Simon and Schuster first "published "Everything But Money" by
Sam Levenson six years ago. It became a best seller. Now, the publish-
ers have reissued it as a Pocket Books paperback edition, and once
again Levenson is in the limelight.
Like all his lectures, this collection of stories provides entertain-
ment. The tales, mostly about himself, his family, his neighbors, draw
laughs. They are also sermons. There is a lesson in every story.
Wholesome, without venom, the Levenson stories are the experi-
ences of an East Side lad and his relatives, friends, schoolmates. Ile
was a teacher, and in his genuinely humorous approaches he remains
at the head of the class, drawing out of his subjects their thoughts and
presenting them to a larger audience.,
"Everything But Money" is good' American humor, with an occa-
sional Jewish flavor. It is Sam Leve son at his best.