THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Assoeia•
tion. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48076.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $8 a year. Foreign $$
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
F.ditor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fifth day of Nisan, 5733, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Levit. 12:1-13:59. Prophetical portion, II Kings 4:42-5:19.
Candle lighting, Friday, April 6, 6:45 p.m.
VOL. LXIII. No. 4
Page Four
April 6, 1973
Warsaw Ghetto Revolt: Martyrs' Heroism
On the 30th anniversary of the Warsaw
Ghetto Revolt, an observance to be marked
by Jews everywhere on this Passover of 5733,
the courage as well as the martyrdom will be
recalled with respect to the memory of those
who fought Nazism and gave a demonstration
of resistence.
Many sufferers from Nazism resisted. In
many of the ghettos there were demonstra-
tions in opposition to the bestialities. From
the Warsaw Ghetto rebellion came the most
sound proof that there was resistance, that
there was rejection of pressures to submit
meekly to the reign of terror that enveloped
all of Europe at the time, with a threat against
all humanity from Hitler's ranks.
While the Warsaw Ghetto became a sym-
bol of man's rejection of tyranny, brutality
and enslavement, it has, in the course of its
own time and in subsequent history inspired
deeply moving expressions of dedication to
the libertarian idea. It inspired renewed faith
in the better day to come while it addressed
a challenge to the Almighty in behalf of those
who died in vain. Yet, in the midst of despair,
under conditions of virtual hopelessness, even
the children in the ghettos, those who soon
were to be sent to destruction, insisted on re-
taining faith in the tomorrow. One of the
children—the authorship was not retained—
wrote a paean of joy-for-the-moment in a
poem, "Motele," which was published in a
ghetto newspaper, Gazeta Zydowska. The
youngster wrote in "Motele:"
From tomorrow on, I shall be sad—
From tomorrow on:
Today I will be gay,
What is the use of sadness—tell
me that?—
Because these evil winds begin to
blow?
Why should I grieve for tomorrow
—today?
Tomorrow may be so good, so sunny,
Tomorrow the sun may shine for us
again;
We shall no longer need be sad,
From tomorrow on, I shall be sad—
From tomorrow on!
Not today, no! today I will be glad.
And every day, no matter how bitter
it be,
I will say:
From tomorrow on, I shall be sad,
Not today!
Retained for the historic record is an-
other poem, "I Had a Dream" written in con-
centration camp Vittel in France by Yitzhak
Katzenelson, shortly before he was sent to
his death in Auschwitz. Here is Yitzhak's
Hebrew text of his "Halam Halamti," with its
English translation:
'nem tri'm
I HAD A" DREAM
By Yitzhak Katzenelson
I had a dream
A terrible dream
That my people were no more,
no more.
I woke with a cry
What I dreamed—twas true
It had happened
It happened to me.
Trembling I cried:
Why? Why Lord in Heaven
Why and for what
Have my people died?
Have they died in vain?
They died not in war
nor on a battlefield
but young and old
women and children
They are all gone.
Wring your hands in sorrow.
I shall mourn them
Day and night, and I shall
always ask why,
For what my Lord?
Why, oh God?
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Marriage and Related Subjects
in Newest JPS Scholarly Volume
. "Marriage," edited by Hayim Schneid, is a comparatively small
book of only 118 pages, measured by the standards of works published
by the Jewish Publication Society of America. But this new work is
filled with so much valuable information about the Jewish laws and
customs relating to marriage, it is so beautifully illustrated, regulations
relating to sex, celibacy, the shadhan's role, scores of traditional
practices and wedding ceremonies are so well delineated, that this little
book earns a place on all Jewish book shelves, in all homes, as a guide
and as a textbook in schools.
It is part of the JPS Popular Judaica Library, edited by Raphael
Posner, and it introduces a service to Jewish communities in the form
of guidelines in various Jewish areas that call for definitions of laws
and historical experiences.
This is a most scholarly work, and the fact that some dozen of the
118 pages are devoted to sources for facts in this descriptive work, in
addition to the glossary, is an indication of the extent of the data
defined. Thus, text and photos combine to provide a most important
and most informative literary product for knowledge seekers. In addi-
tion to knowledge this book delights with the photos and the descrip-
tive material.
It is not only marriage, the customs, the ceremonials, the engage-
ment preceding marriage and the tena'im—the engagement agreement
that are dealt with. The author has properly included masturbation,
deviants, celibacy, among subjects related to marriage as demanding
the reader's interest.
About masturbation, the author states it is not expressly forbidden
in' the Bible, although there are prohibitions deriving from the Er and
These verses must not be viewed merely
as emotional sentiments. They are legacies
for our time. They are lessons for our genera-
tion and generations to come never to forget
what had happened in Warsaw and in the
many other ghettos and camps where Jewry
was chosen for extinction but out of which
come defiance, resistance, the victims holding Onen story. Then there is the question of "naturalness," and it is shown
on fast to hope for a more human time and that there are halakhic differences on the matter.
Naturally, this book deals with the ketuba, the marriage contract,
for freedom for themselves and their fellow
with family purity, menstruation, the Herem de-Rabbeau Gershom, the
men.
prohibition of polygamy, and the origin 'of monogamy and many other
For more than a million that freedom has related subjects.
Then there is the list of prohibited marriages, incest, adultery,
been attained in Israel. For many others there
are havens in other lands of freedom. For the issues arising from rape and seduction, and that of divorce. The get,
those who still suffer under oppression there the divorce proceedings, are defined. There is an explanation for
the custom of avoiding Levirate marriage.
is the lesson of the Nazi era which calls for halitza,
"Marriage" is a splendid work, enhanced 'by its brevity, filled with
courage while resisting and for hope while informative
guides towards understanding the Jewish laws and acquir-
awaiting the day of liberation.
ing knowledge about the legendary as well as traditional.
Those who have learned the lesson of a
new day of liberation will draw upon past
experiences to inspire them to keep battling Adaptation of 'The Magician
for the justice inherent in the recollections
Timely for Passover, "The Magician," a new Macmillan-published
of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It is to the children's
offers an adaptation of the famous legend by I. L
resisters that goes the glory for retaining the Peretz in a book,
story and appropriate illustrations by Uri Shulevitz,
human rights that no tyrant can ever relegate
Peretz described the arrival of a magician in a small town. As Uri
to permanent destruction.
Shulevitz narrates it: "He was an odd fellow. He was ragged and
Lesson for Resistors to Tyranny
In paying tribute to the martyrs who
demonstrated their right to live while the
Nazi beasts were regulating a system of ex-
termination, libertarians must learn a lesson
for all mankind: the obligation to resist
tyranny wherever it may arise.
It is the resistance that is honored in
marking the anniversary of the Revolt of the
Warsaw Ghetto.
When people are silent in their reactions
to injustice, to bigotry, to persecutions, they
give sanction to the acts of tyrants.
When George Washington expressed sen-
timents of friendship for the Jewish people he
tsp,RIVAQ
spoke in terms of "no sanctions to bigotry."
It is such a principle that must dominate the
minds of human beings.
The Warsaw Ghetto Rev -11-. has a major
lesson for all of us: whenever bigots arise,
they must not be treated with silence; there
is the duty to speak out against biased minds
and bigoted actions.
In no other form can the resistance to
Nazism be applied as a lesson for our time.
Let there be a perpetuation of a principle
set forth a long time ago by Erasmus Darwin:
"He who allows the oppression shares the
crime."
tattered, yet he wore a top hat. . . . He whistled, and rolls and low - -
of bread danced through the air. He whistled again. Everything
fished.... He scratched his shoe and there was a flood of gold coins.
Yet he looked poor and hungry. . . ."
There was a poor family, in that village, without means to observe
the Passover. They had faith in God that help would come, and when
the last moment arrived and they were without food for the seder,
they readied to go to neighbors to ask to be welcomed. That's when
the door opened, a voice asked to be a guest for Passover, and when
told that the couple was destitute he said he brought the food with
him.
Everything began to arrive. The table was set miraculously. The
couple feared to touch the food, lest it be created by evil magic. They
went to the rabbi, he gave his 'approval, the couple was blessed with a
happy Passover.
It was the magician ' who brought the blessings to them and when
they found everything to be real, "Only then did they know it was not
a magician but the prophet Elijah himself who had visited them."
The Peretz story has been adapted with skill by an able writer,
who, also the artist, has embellished this children's book with a set of
fine 'pictures. Uri Shulevitz has done justice to Peretz and has enhanced
his own reputation as an artist-story teller.