Purely Commentary

Invaluable Data on Scholarship and Need for Accuracy

Encyclopedia

Many wanted to say it and some are saying it: that the newest
Judaica is a faulty work, that it has many errors and its importance is exaggerated.
It took the courageous Prof. Solomon Zeitlin of Dropsie University to put it down
in writing and to provide the evidence.
In the current issue of Jewish Quarterly Review. Dr. Zeitlin renders another dis-
tinct service with his factual presentation of his views in the leading article, "Encyclo-
pedia Judaica: The Status of Jewish Scholarship."
Jewish communities are begging for knowledge. There are the constant appeals
for enrollment of children and adults in Jewish studies, and we urge people to read and
become knowledgeable Jewishly.
If we are honest with our propagation of cultural needs, we must also strive to
ascertain that the knowledge imparted is true. If we do not insist upon it, we will
be misleading our generation and we will dishonor our role in Jewish life.
Because Prof. Zeitlin has again displayed concern over a vital and pressing mat-
ter, his views must not be limited to the Jewish Quarterly Review's readers. He should
be given a platform in the best interests of Jewish self-respect and Jewish responsibil-
ities for truth and honor in gathering historical data and in sharing it with the masses
of Jewish readers.
Therefore, let us quote from his important essay. Dr. Zeitlin states with regard
to the Encyclopedia Judaica:
The idea of publishing a item which I read was "Sha- the Encyclopedia. There is
Jewish Encyclopedia de novo vuot." Reading this item, I an item about Louis (Lefty)
was originated by Dr. Na- was dismayed to see how the Buchalter, who was an
hum Goldmann. Dr. B. article is inadequate and full American gangster executed
Netanyahu was designated of misstatements. To my re- for murder. There is also an
as the editor-in-chief of this gret, I saw that I did not item about another gangster,
undertaking. As far as I underestimate the scholarly Siegel (Bugsy) whose motto
know, he assembled a staff abilities of our times. To be was: "Don't worry, we only
and was working in one of more objective, I did not kill each other" (New York
the buildings at Dropsie Uni- look at the names of the au- Thnes, Sunday, Aug. 20,
versity. When Dr. Netan- thors. Some of them I may 1972). However, there is no
yahu told me about the pub- know and greatly respect— item about well known Jew-
lication of a Jewish Encyclo- so in my reviews of the ar- ish scholars, like Dr. J.
pedia, my reaction was neg- ticles in the Encyclopedia. I Teicher and Prof. S. Hoe-
ative. I told him that we do not know who are the nig, and others. I daresay
that the inclusion of gang-
have no reservoir of Jewish authors.
sters and the exclusion of
scholars, able to publish a
The author of the item
worthwhile scholarly ency- "Shavuot" states: "It is pos- Jewish scholars is an af-
front
to learning and Jewish
clopedia. My opinion was sible that the Pharisees in-
that there should be supple- sisted that Shavuot be ob- scholarship. It is a sad re-
flection
on the editorial
ments of one or two volumes
served on a fixed day, for
to the Jewish Encyclopedia they wished to affirm that policy. (My attention was
called to these inclusions and
which appeared in the begin- the festival commemorated
ning of the century. The sup- the Sinaitic theophany which exclusions).
plements should have items occurred on the 50th day
One may wonder at the
of Jewish history in America, after the Exodus." The en- editors sense of proportion.
which in the last seven de- tire statement is fallacious. The item on the Kabala con-
cades became the largest The Pharisees never held sists of 83 pages. The Phari-
Jewish community in the that the festival of Shavuot, sees molded Jewish life. The
world. items about the Jew- Atzeret (the festival of institutions of today are to be
ish history from the first Weeks) had to be observed traced to the Pharisees.
World War up to the present. on a fixed day or date. As Judaism as we know it, is
The supplements also should
a matter of fact, Shavuot, the creation of the Pharisees.
have an item about the so- Atzeret, had no fixed date We also know that they in-
called Dead Sea Scrolls, but until the 4th Century of the fluenced the origins of Chris
that article had to be nonpar- common era, when the pres- tianity. The item on the
tisan and should present the ent Jewish calendar was es- Pharisees received only three
ideas of the protagonists of tablished. According to the columns. I do not question
the antiquity as well as the Tosefta Arakhim and the the propriety of the editors.
ideas of those who denied the Palestinian Talmud, R. H., On the contrary, the article
antiquity.
Shavuot, Azeret, could fall on Kabala which is indeed
Modern days are the age on the fifth, sixth and sev- a monograph, is to be wel-
of public relations, and this enth day of the third month, comed. It is skillfully pre-
is used to its utmost. The Sivan. The statement, "they sented and the intelligent
appearance of the Encyclo- (the Pharisees) wished to reader will certainly greatly
paedia Judaica was heralded affirm that the festival com- profit from it.
as major event in the memorated the Sinaitic theo-
In this article, Prof. G.
world of Jewish scholarship phany which occurred on the Scholem presents a concise
and literature. The good ac- 50th day after the Exodus," history of Kabala and Mes-
complishment of the work is either due to carelessness sianism, with great insights.
was spread all over the An- or to a lack of comprehen- Although many times I radi-
sion .
gloJewish press. Copies
cally disagreed with his inter-
were presented to President
As was to be expected. pretations, his facts are un-
Nixon and to Pope Paul VI. there is a lengthy article on questionable. Reading this ar-
These presentations remind the Dead Sea Scroll and also ticle, one can see that it
me of the history of the Jews an article on the Qumran came from one of the -great
in Russia, when the Czar community. These articles authorities on the subject.
visited a city which had a are written from a partisan The brevity of the item on the
large Jewish population, the point of view, from the point Pharisees may be a blessing.
Jewish leaders presented him of view of the protagonists
The American Academy of
with a Sefer Torah. How- of the antiquity of the Dead
Jewish Research received a
ever, the background of Sea Scrolls. A few lines are
brief item, I believe of 20
these presentations are radi- devoted to the views of this
lines. It is not a question
cally different.
writer: "S. Zeitlin has vig- of brevity, but there are also
The publicity about the orously maintained that the many inaccuracies. The au-
scholarly importance of the Scrolls belong to a much thor apparently did not even
Encyclopedia Judaic a in- later date and have no sub- read the book by Prof. Eli
trigued me. I thought may- stantial scholarly importance. Ginzberg, "Keeper of the
be I underestimated modern However, the discovery of Law: Louis Ginzberg," in
Jewish scholarship. Maybe analogous material in the ex- which he gives a short ac-
we do have a reservoir of cavations at Masada, which count of the organization of
Jewish scholars of whom I are certainly not later than the Academy, based on a
/3 CE, seem to establish the
was not aware . .
memorandum of his father's
Since I am very engrossed terminus ad quem positive- files.
ly."
The
present
writer
has
in my work on the history
The present writer is the
of the Second Jewish Com- endeavored to show that
only surviving member of the
monwealth and I cannot many materials found at Ma-
group which founded this
spare much time to go over sada are of a later period,
Academy. Thus, I believe it
the 16 volumes of the Ency- the Byzantine period, and
is my duty to give an account
clopedia I decided to read that the fragments of ben
of how the academy was
some of its items dealing with Sira also belong to that
founded.
the history of the Second period.
In 1918-19, after the Bol-
Jewish Commonwealth and
There is a touch of vulgar-
talmudic studies. The first ism in this undertaking of shevik Revolution, when the
Russian Jewry had been de-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS stroyed as a factor in Jewish
2 — Friday, Fa. 2, 1973

Prof. Solomon Zeitlin's. Expose of Cultural
Inaccuracies . . . Genuine Scholarship Sought
to Assure Proper Research in History Studies

culture and life and the insti-
tutions rf Eastern Europe had
been shattered, I was of the
opinion that the center of
Jewish learning would be
shifted to America. I isaF, of
the opinion that an institu-
tion of scholars should be
founded for the purpose of
advancing Jewisn learning
and to formulate standards
of Jewish scholarship. When
I discussed this with Prof.
11. Matter, he was very en-
thusiastic about this idea.
However, Prof. M. Margolis
was skeptical. lie said that
Cyrus Adler would not join
this organization and without
his good will, this idea could
never be realized. This opin-
ion was shared by Profs. L.
Ginzberg and I, Friedlaender.

Once I had a long conver•-
sation with Dr. Cyrus Adler
about the situation in Europe
and during the conversation
I expressed the idea of or-
ganizing a group of Jewish
scholars for the furtherance
of Jewish scholarship in this
country. Dr. Adler not only
expressed full-hearted ap-
proval, but he said he was
ready to help. He believed
that such an organization
could be of great encourage-
ment and enhancement of
Jewish scholarship in this
country. I told my friends,
that they misjudged Adler.
He expressed readiness to do
anything possible to help this
organization.

After a lengthy discussion
with my peers, I persuaded
them to have a mceting 'if
Jewish scholars I; see if it
was feasible to organize an
academy of Jewish scholars
I succeeded to arrange a
meeting in the late spring of
1920 in the home of Prof.
Ginzberg a t Avon-On-The-
Sea.

It was attended by Prof.
H. Matter who was living at
Bradley Beach and by Prof.
D. Neumark who was also
vacationing at Avon-On-The-
Sea, and by Prof. A. Marx
who was vacationing in Bel-
mar as well by Prof. J. Lau-
terbach, who was nearby;
Prof. Friedlander and I came
from New York. Thus, the
meeting consisted of seven
men, the founders of this or-
ganization . . .

The name the American
Academy of Jewish Research
was finally accepted.

The seven scholars who or-
ganized this Academy were
members of the faculties of
the Jewish Theological Semi-
nary, the Hebrew Union Col-
lege, Dropsie College, now
Dropsie University and of
the Rabbinical College, now
Yeshiva University.
The seven members who
organized this Academy in-
vited three other scholars to
join them, Profs. G. Deutsch
of the Hebre'.v Union College,
I. Davidson of the Jewish
Theological Seminary and M.
Margolis of Dropsie. They
gladly accepted.

Thus, the original founding
members were 10 scholars.

It was the consensus of the
members who attended the
meeting to nominate Prof.
Friedlander as the presi-
dent. He was a man of great
scholarship and organization-
al ability.

As he was leaving America
for Russia on an errand of
mercy, Prof. Ginzberg as-
sumed the Presidency; how-
ever, it was the opinion of
the scholars that Friedlander
would assume the presidency
upon his return. To our great
grief, Friedlander did not re-
turn, he was murdered in the
Ukraine.

By Philip
Slomoyitz

Prof. Ginzberg, therefore.
continued as president for
many years. Matter was ap-
pointed as secretary . . .

I must express my great re_
gret that the Academy did
not live up to the idea and
ideals of the founders. The
scholarly publications which
the founders thought to be a
must for the history of the
Jewish people are still want-
ing, neither was the standard
of Jewish scholarship en-
hanced.

The publication of the En-
cyclopedia Judaica is not a
major accomplishment in the
world of Jewish scholarship.
On the contrary, it reveals
the paucity and the deca-
dence of Jewish learning.
Many articles are below the
standards of a good encyclo-
pedia, they are sophomoric.

The items dealing with the
early history of Jews are re-
plete with distortions of his-
torical facts. They may mis-
guide the reader. In the art-
icles on the Halakha and
Rabbinics we note the lack of
understanding of the ext. The
contributors are not to be
reproved. A person cannot
give more than he possesses.
Many of the contributors are
scholarly benighted.
The blame is with the pub-
lishers and the editors. It
seems that they were more
concerned with public rela-
tions than with scholarship.
The multiplicity of identical
photographs is another indi-
cation for "good public rela-
tions."
The Encyclopedia Judaica
is indeed inferior to the Jew-
ish Encyclopedia which ap-
peared almost seven decades
ago and is even more inferior
to the Russian-Jewish Ency-
clopedia. The publication of
the Encyclopedia Judaica was
a waste of effort and money.

It is highly regrettable that a project into which millions of dollars, much energy
and time were poured should be exposed as faulty. In the interest of truth for future gen-
erations, it is important that what Dr. Zeitlin has written should be made widely known.

On an earlier occasion, Dr. Zeitlin called to task a man who has been writing ex-
tensively and whose biography of Yohanan ben Zakkai he found to be filled with mis-
representations and untrue to historical facts. We called attention to that earlier service
that was rendered by Prof. Zeitlin in an editorial, entitled "Warning: Avoid Cultural
Bankruptcy." in our issue of May 26, 1972. In that editorial we stated:
Very recently, we had occasion to refer to Prof. Zeitlin's views on the writing
of history. He had reviewed Rutgers University's first volume of the "World His-
tory of the Jewish People," and in the course of his analyses he commented:

Heinrich Graetz, although the greatest of Jewish historians since Josephus.
relied only on the literature of scholars—he did not have a profound knowledge of
the original sources. S. Dubnow drew from Graetz, and also from Isaac Hirsch Weiss,
who lacked historical vision, (see also No. 171). Jewish history cannot be written by
one man. It is a continuous development, and must be written as a unit and can be
done correctly only by the united efforts of a group of specialists in their own fields.
Unlike the Cambridge History, Jewish history must be systematic and unified. The
edition of the World History of the Jewish People demonstrates this in that articles
on diverse items are not coordinated. An example is the essays on the activities and
the work of Rashi. The problems of writing Jewish history should be discussed by
an international society of Jewish historians.

These are views not to be Ignored. They must be taken into serious consid-
eration especially now, when we are in the course of welcoming the establishment
of Jewish professorships in many universities, including the University of Michigan.
We are seriously concerned about abuses in scholarship, as well as laxity In
approaching the religious obligations in our communities. With an awareness of
what is transpiring in the ranks of our youth, we must take into consideration the
"revelations" in an article on "Jews: Why Some Turn to Jesus" in the New York
Times. If, as one rabbi asserted, "the Jesus People can often be a substitute for the
family: and if, as a Jewish philosopher organizations have become so 'secularly
minded' and 'insensitive to deep religious concerns' that they have forced young
Jews to look elsewhere for meaningful religious experiences," then we must make
a new accounting of our role as a Jewish community.
Clearly: we must reconstruct the Jewish values in the Jewish family life, and
we must re-examine the status of our schools which have begun to fail in their duties
to youth and community. In the process, we must not ignore scholarship! Unless
Prof. Zeitlin's admonitions are taken seriously, we may be on the road to spiritual
and cultural bankruptcy.
These remain valid facts for concerned Jews to tackle. If history is not to be
falsified, scholarship must be rooted in a dedication to proper research, and it -must be
based on a sense of responsibility to get to the root and the truth of issues dealt with.
Otherwise we will be misleading ourselves, the generations to come and to the non-Jew-
ish world that is so dependent upon the studies we make for them. There have been
times when non-Jews accomplished much of what was needed to know in writing Jew-
ish history. We do not reject such help. Yet we hope that the strivings of many years—
for perpetuation of Jewish knowledge—will stem from our own devotion to the spiritual-
cultural. Let us strive for it, and let us demand that distortions of history and its facts
should never be tolerated,

