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April 05, 1974 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1974-04-05

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

THE JEWISH NEWS

incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with
issue of July 20, 1951

Pass ve

it

Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan
Press Association, National Editorial Association. 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 10 a year.

Philip Slomovitz Cormi M. Slomovitz Charlotte Dubin Drew Lieberwitz

Editor and Publisher Business Manager

City Editor

Advertising Mgr.

Shabat Hagadol Scriptural Selections
-
This Sabbath, the 14th day of Nisan, the following scriptural
selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 6:1-8:36. Prophetical portion,
Malachi 3:4-24.

Candle lighting, Friday, April 5, 7:44 p.m.

Passover Scriptural Selections
Pentateuchal portions: First Day Passover, Sunday, Exodus 12:21-
51, Numbers 28:16-25; Second Day Passover, Monday, Leviticus 22:26-
23:44. Numbers 28:16-25.
Prophetical portions: Sunday, Jeremiah 7:21-8:3, 9:22-23; Monday,
II Kings 23:1-9; 21-25.
Hol Hamoed Passover Torah readings: Tuesday, Exodus 13:1-15;
Wednesday, Exodus 22:24-23:19; Thursday, Exodus 34:1-26; Friday,
Numbers 9:1-14. In addition, on each of these days, Numbers 2s3:19-
25 is read.

VOL. LXV. No. 4

Page Four

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April 5, 1974

The Seder: Unifying
Fortress for Jewry

A basic ideal motivates the observance of Passover. It
is the unification of the family, its retention as a family unit.
Pride in Israel's gifts to mankind are manifold. The
Sabbath, as a day of rest, has given humanity an inspiration
to end the enslavement of people who labored endlessly
without the period of relaxation that is vital for mind and
body.

n.

Acquisition of faith in higher ideals stemming from
religious principles rooted in ethical teachings have given
Jewry inerasable status.

Commandments have been handed down that call for
dedication to humanitarianism without which man could
turn into beast. '

An ideal Jewry is credited with what has been the envy
of many, the family unity that has distinguished Jews from
time immemorial.

Passover gave emphasis to that high - ideal. The seder
has been an inspiration and a means of bringing families
together, of uniting them in a single purpose: that of link-
ing the generations with an historic continuity and of linking
kinsmen in the inspiration that stems from the people's
heritage.

Heinrich Heine, although estranged from his people in
rebellious enstrangement which he regretted, recognized the
power of the Passover legacy when he wrote in "Rabbi von
Bacharach:
"Jews who long have drifted from the faith of their
fathers are stirred in their inmost parts when the old,
familiar Passover sounds chance to fall upon their ears.."
If this were not true and effective, it would spell tragedy
for the Jewish people.
Because the seder does unite the family, it also unites
the community. The larger body depends upon the strength
of the individual units within it, and when the familial prin-
ciples conquer, the people into which it is linked becomes
indestructible.
Perhaps it is the decline in family pride, thus reducing
family influences, that is in some measure responsible for
many of the problems which affect peoples in many lands.
It is not a remorse limited to the Jewish people. It has
become a world crisis stemming from indifferences that
call for a determined effort to give strength anew to the
basic force that cements the highest ideals _in mankind.
The seder has been a force for such unity and for an
unhindered inspiration. To keep it effective, thereby to re-
tain the strength of the people that is linked by it, is a
major hope for Jewry, wherever our people may live. It is
when the seder retains its forcefulness that we can reaffirm
joyfully the biblical blessing:
"How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob, thy dwellings,
0 Israel."

Battlmg Indifference for Freedom

On old problem comes to roost again. Whenever there has been a period of reces-
sion in discrimination against Jews, it was accompanied by an increase in assimilatory
sentiments. That's when concern set in over indifference. Lack of identification with Jewry
in many quarters at the same time calls for measures to counteract assimilation and to
draw youth into Jewish interests.'
Indifference—and this is the subject of major concern during the celebration of
a festival of freedom—appears to have set in despite new tensions. While, on other occa-
sions, attacks on Israel and threats from Arabs, dangers to the Zionist cause and to Jews
in public life, resulted in a measure of solidarity for Jewish needs, it is now asserted by
students of conditions in our ranks that the latest occurrences have :not moved youth and
intellectuals to any great extent toward an affiliation with activists in defense of Jewish
rights and Israel's existence.
• A recent "profile of Jewish academics" published in Midstream magazine, resulting
from a survey of professors at Harvard, Brandeis and Boston universities, showed that 38
per cent were married to non-Jews, 73 per cent never attend synagogue services, 83 per
cent have no synagogue affiliations and 87 per cent are in no way associated with Jewish
causes or communal movements. The study, reported by David Singer, a Yeshiva and
Brown universities graduate, points to findings that indicate the 'academicians' dissent from
formal religious traditions, disapproval of clannishness and therefore the leaning to -1-7 --4
intermarriage,' dissociation from Jewish communal affiliation, only minimal respon•,_
Jewish communal appeals.
"It is apparent," the Singer study asserts, "that the Jewish community's concern
about the alienation of its academics is well justified."
Seriously to be taken into consideration is the irrefutable fact that the attitude of
academics influences youth, that from universities have come approval of many trends
which negate Jewish interests and do not encourage identification. It may well be the
trend toward mixed marriages in professional ranks serves as an incentive to students as
well.
When a Zionist official deplores "the ignorance of most American Jews and many
American ZioniSts concerning the real facts behind Israel's establishment and the state's
struggles for survival," he makes an admission of having failed to capture either the imagi-
nation or understanding or the loyalties of Jewish would-be constituents.
The problem stares at -us and demazids a new interpretation of the conditions that
cause indifference. We plead for freedom of thought, yet there is even greater respon-
sibility to avoid the pitfalls that stem from the liberties to enjoy the democratic society's
blessings.
' This is a good subject to take into consideration on Passover. For freedom to be
enjoyed, it must be constructive. It applies to the interest in the general community as
well as to oneself. And when the oneself is accounted for, it could well react in attitudes
to all fellow men. Unless one is true to himself, he cannot be true to fellow man. Let free-
dom ring—but with honor and self-respect.

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