THE .WWISH 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 Associa-
tion. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $8 a year. Foreign $9
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
Business Manager
DREW LIEBERWITZ
City Editor
Advertising Manager
Yom Kippur Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath—Yom Kippur—the following scriptural selections will be read
in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portioizs: Morning, Levit. 16:1-34, Num. 29:7-11; afternoon, Levit.
18:1-30. Prophetical portions: Morning, Isaiah 57:14-58:14; afternoon, Jonah 1:1-4:11,
Micah 7:18-20.
Sukkot Scriptural Selections
The first days of Sukkot, Oct. 15 and 16, the following scriptural portions will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portions: Thursday and Friday, Levit. 22:26-23:44, Num. 29:12-16.
Prophetical portions: Thursday, Zechariah 14:1-21; Friday, I Kings 8:2-21.
Candle lighting, Friday, Oct. 5, 1973, 6:49 p.m.
VOL. LXIV. No. 4
Page Four
October 5, 1973
A Day of Atonement for All Mankind
Yom Kippur will be solemnized by Jewish
communities throughout the world. It is our
Day of Atonement. That does not deprive it
of universality. It is a day on which to atone
for misdemeaning, for transgressions and of-
fenses, by all mankind.
Much has happened for which all peoples
must beat their breasts in appeals for forgive-
ness. Governmental administrators and those
who have placed them in power, teachers and
students, preachers and lay- worshipers—all
have something for which to atone, and this
sacred day on the Jewish calendar is as good
a time for stock-taking as any period in the
year. While it exists as the most solemn day
for Jewry, it is applicable to our fellow men.
It is especially suitable to all because the
basic affirmation of man's loyalty to fellow
man, of admission of guilt in the failures to
adhere to the primary human duties by man-
kind, is embodied in the recitation of the
Haftara to be read during the morning serv-
ices on Yom Kippur. It includes the portion
from Chapter 58 in Isaiah which defines the
fast, challenges the failures to be compas-
sionate to the hungry and disapproves of
striking bargains in human relations.
Let this chapter of Isaiah's admonitions
to mankind be read widely to assure proper
atonement and rededication to the duties
marked by honorable human dealings. Said
Isaiah in Chapter 58:
`Cry with full throat, without restraint;
Raise your voice like a ram's horn!
Declare to My people their transgression,
To the House of Jacob their sin.
To be sure, they seek Me daily,
Eager to learn My ways.
Like a nation that does what is right,
That has not abandoned the laws of its God,
They ask Me for the right way.
They are eager for the nearness of God:
"Why, when we fasted, did You not see;
When we starved our bodies, did You pay no
heed?"
•
Because on your fast day
You see to your business
And oppress all your laborers!
Because you fast in strife and contention,
And you strike with a wicked fist!
Your fasting today is not such
As to make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast I desire,
A day for men to starve their bodies?
Is it bowing the head like a bulrush
And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast,
A day when the Lord is favorable?
No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke.
It is to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your
home;
When you see the naked, to clothe him,
And not to ignore your own kin.
Then shall your light burst through like the
dawn
And your healing spring up quickly;
Your Vindicator shall march before you,
The Presence of the Lord shall be your rear
guard.
Then, when you call, The Lord will answer;
When you cry, He will say: Here 1 am.
If you banish the yoke from your midst,
The menacing hand, and evil speech,
And you offer your compassion to the hungry
And satisfy the famished creature —
Then shall your light shine in darkness,
And your gloom shall be like noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
He will slake your thirst in drought
And give strength to your bones.
You shall be like a watered garden,
Like a spring whose waters do not fail.
Men from your midst shall rebuild ancient
ruins,
You shall restore foundations laid long ago.
And you shall be called
"Repairer of fallen walls,
Restorer of lanes for habitation."
If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,
From pursuing your affairs on My holy day;
If you call the sabbath "delight," .
The Lord's holy day "honored,"
And if you honor it and go not your ways
Nor look to your affairs, nor strike bargains—
Then you can seek the favor of the Lord.
I will set you astride the heights of the earth,
And let you enjoy the heritage of your father
Jacob—
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Because a day of atonement, and the pre-
ceding holy days that marked the inaugura-
tion of a new year, have been selected as
special occasions for sanctity in acknowledg-
ing greater powers than man's, and because
these are days for self-testing in human val-
ues, the words of the Prophet Isaiah are valid
in judging our roles on earth. Are we un-
locking "fetters of wickedness," are we let-
ting the "oppressed go free," clothing the
naked, sharing our bread with the hungry?
Having witnessed degradations that stem
from leadership that has blundered, the
atonements for misjudgments become the
duty of all citizens. The shortcomings in the
life of all constituents cause regret in failures
on the political front that make us all guilty
in failures to deal honorably with our fellow
men. Atonement becomes the obligation of
those choosing leaders as well as of the lead-
ers who must fulfill responsibilities honor-
ably.
Yom Kippur has a universal aspect be-
cause sinning is not the transgression of a
fragment of mankind but of all the peoples
on earth.
As we approach Yom Kippur with fasting,
it is in the spirit of duty to our fellow men
as well as to ourselves to reiterate the pro-
phetic admonition that it is a day on which
"to break off every yoke," to share with fel-
low man the blessings of freedom and ample
means for life's sustenance. It is a time also
to affirm sorrow over blunders in judgments,
with a renewal of hope that man's wisdom
will alleviate the failures that have made the
past a cause for sadness, regret, expiation.
May the words of Isaiah guide us and all
mankind in making the time to come one
that will prove the validity of atonement and
the fulfillment of man's better judgment in
dealing with himself, his neighbors, his cone
munity, his government, and in assuring not
only the removal of fetters of wickedness
from himself but in banning them also from
his government and from all mankind.
Nostalgia for Yiddish
Peretz's 'Prince of the Ghetto':
Notable Evaluation by Samuel
I. L. PERETZ
MAURICE SAMUEL
Few modern writers have provided as much glory for the treasures
in Yiddish literature as the haft Maurice Samuel. His interpretive works
remain among the most brilliant and most fascinating. His "The World
of Sholem Aleichem" was a prize winner. Then came his "Prince of
the Ghetto" in which he retold the stories of I. L. Peretz.
Schocken Books makes a definite contribution to Jewish literature,
and aids in retention of appreciation of the creative works of the great
Yiddish writers, by reissuing "Prince of the Ghetto" as a paperback.
Peretz was the lover of Hasidism; Peretz was "in the highest
and humblest sense a teacher;" Peretz "was the intellectual im-
provement of his people . . . he was obsessed by the spiritual and
physical destiny of Polish Jewry as Mazzini was by the spiritual
and physical destiny of Italy."
These are just a few of the tributes to the great story teller
who elevated Yiddish literature to a high rung, and Samuel's Im-
passioned love for Yiddish emerges in the love he had for the
language and the admiration for the great writer he wr
evaluating.
"Bontche
When Samuel wrote about Peretz's "Bontche Schweig"
the Silent" — in the chapter about several of the outstanding Peretz
works, he titled the chapter "The Simple in Heart." He imbedded in it
the deep-rooted sentiment that moved him toward a great dedication
to a language — Yiddish — and its writers.
Maurice Samuel, the brilliant translator from the Yiddish, as well
as Hebrew—the able linguist who mastered Russian when he wrote the
history of the Mendel Beiliss case — nevertheless believed that "Trans-
lators Are Traitors," as one of the chapters in his Peretz book is entitled.
In this respect, his criticism of translations is not limited to
Yiddish. He explains: "All attempts to translate the dialect of one
langttage into an equivalent in another language must fail. I once
saw some songs of Robert Burns translated into local dialect in a
Bordeaux newspaper, and it threw me into a state of melancholy
for weeks."
As a critical view of the writings of one of the great" in Yiddish
literature, as a commentary on Yiddish, as a philosophical essay on
translation, Maurice Samuel's "Prince of the Ghetto" is one of the
most fascinating works. Lovers of Yiddish can well point to Samuel as
one of the most effective advocates for Yiddish. No other pleader for
Yiddish has been able to elevate the ideal embedded in his dedication
with as much fervor.