56 Friday, June 27, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Elder Citizens Gain Productivity at ,JVS Workshop - Opportunity has knocked a second time for senior citi- zens participating in the Jewish Vocational Service and Community Workshop Adult Services Program. ASP is a free, self-help program which provides em- ployment and educational and recreational activities to the elderly. Wayne County residents 60 years or older are currently eligible for the new, non-sectarian program if their income is no more than $3,600 (individual) of $5,000 (couple) per year. Plans to expand ASP to Oakland County are under study. Sponsored by the Jewish Welfare Federation, the Michigan Department of Social Services, and United Community Service, the program was initiated last September. From left, Jewish Vocational Service and Commu- nity Workship executive director Albert I. Ascher, JVS and CW president Bruce E. Thal, and board members Julian H. Scott and Dr. Milton Shiffman observed the innovative Adult Services Program at a recent open house. Attending the open house were metropolitan area social service and Jewish agency representatives. Arts and crafts activities, shopping trips and • movie preSentations are features of the program's recreational phase. The educational segment includes lectures on nutri- tion, social security and Medicaid. "Participation response to the program has been most favorable," according to ASP supervisor Rhoda Radarman. "Senior citizens are an able work force at the workshop and enjoy all phases of the program, which also provides social contact for many who were previously lonely and isolated." Eligible workers receive a daily hot lunch provided through the city of Detroit's "Food and Friendship" op- eration whose basic costs are government-funded. Ben4work, including packaging, collating, and in- spection comprise much of the ASP work program for senior citizens. For information about the Adult Services Program, call the JVS and CW office, 833-8100. Historian Disputes U.S. Debt to Financier Haym Salomon Disputing a story in The Jewish News issue of May 30 about an alleged debt by the United States to Haym Salomon, Prof. Morris U. Schnappes, adjunct profes- . sor of history, Queens Col- lege, City University of New York, and a noted Jewish historian, this week submit- ted a statement to the Jew- ish News. The statement reads in part: It is not historians who assert that the Federal Gov- ernment owes over $350,000 as an unpaid Revolutionary War debt to Haym Salo- mon, as asserted in The New York Times today (May 25) by Richard Haitch in "Follow-Up on the News.", The Encyclopedia Ameri- cana that he quotes (and the Dictionary of American Bi- ography and the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia that he could have quoted) is out- dated by evidence that is now more than 40 years old. Myths die hard, but leading American Jewish historians like Lee Max Friedman and Jacob Rader Marcus, past presi- dents of the American Jewish Historical Society, are among those who have for decades rejected the false claims of an unpaid debt that were advanced not by Haym Salomon himself but by one of his sons long after his father's death. So far back as 1931, the historian Max Kohler, in a brochure, "Haym Salomon the Patriot Broker of the Revolution, His Real. Achievements and Their Exaggeration," revolution- ized the status of knowledge about Haym Salomon and for the first time put it upon a historically documented basis. Kohler used the extensive compilation of authentic documents in the field by the historian Samuel Op- penheim and his assistants, which he was prevented from publishing by his death. My own examination of the Oppenheim papers at the American Jewish His- torical Society led me to make additional investiga- tions, which have in all cases corroborated the con- clusions of Kohler. Kohler and Oppenheim demonstrated first that Sal- omon, although an ener- getic, patriotic broker sell- ing government securities, did not himself lend money to the government. Salomon was not a banker, and never wealthy. He was a commis- sion-broker. In 1781 and 1782, in the last difficult years of the Revolutionary War, he sold about $200,000 worth of government securi- ties, - taking less than the usual broker's fees for this valuable service. He was the most successful of the bro- kers who served the revolu- tionary government. It was Salomon's son, Haym M. Salomon, that pressed a claim for unpaid debts, and by a series of falsifications and misre- presentations misled some public officials to support his claim for a time. These misrepresentations are fully analyzed by Kohler in the aforementioned bro- chure. In the May 25 story, Sec- retary of the Treasury Wil- liam E. Simon is reported to be ready to study the claim of unpaid debts for Haym Salomon and "research it carefully." Mr. Simon need not waste his time. The re- search has been done. UNRWA to Get $2 Million in Aid From Arab States TEL AVIV — The Arab states will provide only $2 million of the $125 million total budgeted this year by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, accord- ing to news sources. The agency, which admin- isters the Palestinian refu- gee camps in the Middle East, will have to cut its budget because of a $24 million deficit this year. Sources noted that the Arab states' refusal to pro- vide more-funds derives from their long-term deter- mination to pass the respon- sibility on to international agencies, saying they perpe- tuate "the injustice done in granting recognition to Is- rael." Dr. Zeitlin's Studies in Early History of Judaism Prof. Solomon Zeitlin, the acknowledged leading au- thority on the history of the Second Commonwealth, has authored many scores of essays dealing with that period and with early Jew- ish history. His collected writings serve as a guide for teachers and students. For background material on that era one must turn to him for guidance. That is why the collected works of Dr. Zeitlin's writ- ings are of immense value for historians of all faiths. "Solomon Zeitlin's Stud- ies in the Early History of Judaism" are being pub- lished by Ktav and the third volume in the series has just been issued. Supplementing the wealth of material in this volume by the eminent Dropsie University profes- sor is a 50-page introduc- tory essay which defines many of the developments covered here. The vastness of the sub- jects covered is indicated at. the very outset, and in the first essay on "Judaism as a Religion" Dr. Zeitlin takes into account the Diaspora, the national aspects of the early period of Jewish his- tory, the emergence of the Church, and as an added aspect the topic relates to modernity by the author's discussion of "Modern Jew- ish Nationalism and Anti- Semitism." The anti-Semitic,-prob- lems are inevitably referred to in many of the aspects re- viewed in this volume. The concluding essay is devoted to the subject, but its dat- ing, 1945, is incomplete, especially in the compli- ment it pays to Pope Pius XII whose record of inter- cession in defense of Jews who were tortured by the Nazis remains questionable. "The Crucifixion of Je- sus Re-Examined" is an especially vital section, Dr. Zeitlin's studies on the subject being of the utmost importance in dealing with the beginnings of Christianity. In these chapters Dr. Zeitlin cov- ered in great thoroughness the role of Paul, and Paul- ism gains clarification. Essays on the Passover in the Gospel - and one on "The Last Supper as an Ordinary Meal in the Fourth Gospel" are additionally supplemen- tary to the important dis- cussion of early Christian- ity. "The Aramaic Gospel in the Synagogue," scholarly and exceedingly important for the student of Judaism and the emerging Christian faith: will be found equally intriguing by the lay reader who is interested in reli- gious aspects of early Juda- ism. Datings of Christian fac- tors in religious develop- ments and "The Duration of Jesus' Ministry" are valua- ble for the historical record of the over-all subjects cov- ered in the classic Zeitlin essays. "Prof. Toynbee says that Judaism after the rejection of Jesus 'retrieved as a mere fossil.' By this he means that Judaism became not only static but sterile. This statement clearly indicates that Professor Toynbee not only has no conception of the history of the Jewish people and Judaism, but he was too prejudiced to inves- tigate. "Judas of Galilee and Jesus of Nazareth" and "Paul's" cover important incidents in the early Christian era. "Are Judaism and Chris- tianity Fossil Religions?" is a challenging question posed in one of the essays and here Dr. Zeitlin pro- vides an answer to Dr. Ar- nold Toynbee's resort to the term "fossil" in reference to Jews. He declares: SOLOMON ZEITLIN "Certainly, Judaism dur- ing the Second Common- wealth was not sterile. The Jews of that period pro- duced a magnificent litera- ture. Christianity, after all, is a step-child of Judaism, using Prof. Toynbee's words. "After the destruction of the Second Temple and the great cataclysm brought about by Bar Kokba, the Jews did not become ster- ile. The halakot were codi- fied and became known as the Mishne. The Talmud came into being; and in many parts it is certainly superior to any writings of the Middle Ages. A school of commentators on the Bi- ble developed who are still superior to the modern commentators, Jews and Christians. "Great poets were pro- duced by the Jews. A sys- tem of theology was later developed, to mention only one that by Maimonides, whose book, "The Guide for the Perplexed,' exerted great - influence on the Christian theologians. Thomas Aquinas who in his lifetime was accepted by the Dominicans as the greatest authority in theol- ogy, was influenced by Mai- monides' theology and he consulted the Guide fre- quently. "In the general develop- ment of civilization the Jews participated in every branch. One cannot brand as a fossil the religion of such a people; the Jews can- not be called a sterile peo- ple. "The Jews after the great catastrophes which befell them, the destruction of * 1 Second Temple and the lapse of Bar Kokba, weie forced to live among other nations. They were perse- cuted for their religion from the time of Bar Kokba down to the time of the emancipa- tion. They were killed and tortured, but they did not renounce Judaism, either under torture or under temptation of promises for a happy world here, and for eternal life in a future world. It is absurd to use terms "fossil" and "sterile" in connection with the Jew- ish people and Judaism."