56 Friday, August 29, 1975
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Kushner's Mystical `Sefer Otiyot'
A Fascinating Right-to-Left Reader
English books are, of
course, read and printed
from left to right. For the
first time in known Ameri-
•an publishing- history a
deviation is marked with the
publication by Harper &
Row of "The Book of Let-
ters—A Mystical Alef-Bait"
by Lawrence Kushner.
It is hecause the hook--in
H e b rew .. • a ll c d "Sefer Oti-
yot" "Book of Letters" —
starts with the Aleph and
concludes with the Tof —
the complete Hebrew alpha-
bet — that the author and
puhlishe ► s undertook to do
the printing from right to
left.
The book is in English, ex-
cept for the Hebraically al-
phabetical appendages,
and the mystical, as the au-
thor himself.denotes, and
the traditional lend them-
se l ves t o th e new and inter-
estingly fascinating ap-
proach.
Rabbi,
story-teller,
Boris Smolar's
'Between You
... and Me'
Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.)
PASSING PERSONALITIES: Hadassah today is the
largest organization of Jewish women in the United States.
It is a bastion of the Zionist movement, maintains impor-
tant institutions in Israel and provides basic education for
intelligent Jews living in America.
Rose G. Jacobs, who died Aug. 14 in New York after a
prolonged illness, was one of the pillars of Hadassah. After
assisting Henrietta Szold to found the Hadassah in 1912,
she succeeded Miss Szold as Hadassah president for a num-
ber of years, expanding the Hadassah program and also
playing, a leading role in other activities on the American
Jewish scene. In Israel today there are numerous institu-
tions carrying her name in recognition of the great services
she rendered during- her lifetime.
Her fame was worldwide. She was the first woman
elected a member of the Executive of the Jewish Agency.
Confidence in her judgement was expressed also by non-
Zionist leaders when the Jewish Agency was enlarged.
Louis Marshall and Felix Warburg, who then joined the
Jewish Agency. insisted that Rose Jacobs also represent the
non-Zionist partners in the Agency's Executive.
:qrs. Jacobs also enjoyed the great respect of the U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis. She was one of
the few American Zionist leaders whom he consulted on
problems dealing with his interest in the economic develop-
ment of the Yishuv in Palestine.
Mrs. Jacobs was primarily interested in the work of the
Hadassah there. She waS the initiator of a building pro-
gram of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Hospital and
N1edical School in Jerusalem and of many other Hadassah
projects.
A WOMAN OF VALOR: Rose Jacobs was also vener-
ated for her humanitarian qualities. She enjoyed the unlim-
ited support of her husband, Edward, who shared her views.
Fat' from belonging to the rich — she was a teacher in the
Nev
. York puhlic school system following, her graduation
from Columbia University, and her husband was a middle-
class businessman — they considered it part and parcel of
their lives to he of assistance to others. Both of them were
American-horn, children of immigrants.
The doors of Rose Jacobs' home were always open to
all. On Friday evening there was the "open door" tradition
when one could find in the Jacobs' home the New York
Jewish personalities.— leaders, writers, scholars — mixing
with simple friends and acquaintences of the family.
Among the guests were men like Moshe Sharett and other
Israeli notables.
She gave her children a fundamental Jewish education
itnd brought her only son Joshua to Jerusalem for Bar
Mit zva many years before this became fashionable after the
establishment of the Jewish state.
AN OPEN MIND: A leader in the Zionist movement,
Rose Jacobs was nevertheless not a fanatical Zionist. She
was inclined to agree with the views of Dr. J.L. Magnes and
Prof. Martin Ruben on Arah-Jewish relations.
At the historic world Zionist conference which took
place in New York during World War II — at which the
Biltmore Declaration was adopted — she was one of the
principal speakers along with Dr. Weizmann and David
Ben-Gurion advocating the establishment of Palestine as a
Jewish Commonwealth rather than as the Jewish National
I lome, as provided in the Balfour Declaration. During the
sessions of the United Nations where the issue of partition-
ing Palestine into two separate Jewish and Arab states was
discussed, she missed no session.
Years before het' death she turned over to Brandeis
University her valuable library — including her archives on
developments in Hadassah and in the entire Zionist move-
ment.
guide to students in Cong.
Beth El, Sudbury, Mass.,
Kushner is affiliated with
the reform Union of
American Hebrew Congre-
gations. His approach is
traditional-spiritual.
He aims to inspire. and by
introducing his new meth-
ods of teaching his mysti-
•ism gains. practicality.
The artistry of the hook's
topography is as unique as
the text itself. It is symboli-
•ally like a parchment. The
22 letters of the Hebrew al-
phabet are given special in-
terpretations in this accom-
panying reproduction of the
first page of the "Sefer Oti-
yot — Book of Letters."
Drawing upon tradi-
tional lore, incorporating
the wisdom of the ages,
Kushner's unique-book is
both inspiration and read-
ing fascination.
It estahlishes an unusual
introduction to an adher-
ence to Hebraic hook read-
ing — from right to left —
and while it is a search for
mystic fulfillment it
emerges sensationally as a
courageous effort by a
teacher to capture the imag-
ination of his class and
readers.
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"1- 0P! 'That
Lubavitchers Hold Fast to Traditions
By MINDY YOCHELSON
(('opyright 1973. •ITA, Inc.)
NEW YORK — The assi-
milatory impact of the
merican society on Jews
was cited by a Luhavitcher
rabbi in an interview as the
rationale for the Luba\--
itcher movement's outreach
efforts to fight such assimi-
lation. "We do not stay bar-
ricaded behind our doors,"
said Lubavitcher Youth Or-
ganization head Rabbi
Shmuel But man.
The Lubavitcher move-
ment is known in Hebrew as
Chabad, an acrostic for Cho-
coin° (wis(lom), Bino (un-
derstanding) and Daas
Iknowle(lg-e).
Although Hasidim are
known for their emotional
approach to Judaism, the
Lubavitcher movement
stresses the intellectual ap-
proach as well.
The Lubavitcher move-
ment is the largest seg-
ment of Hasidism, accord-
ing to various sources.
Rabbi Butman says there
are 500,000 Lubavitcher
members in the world,
with 10 to 20 percent living
in the U.S.
In addition to headquart-
ers in Brooklyn, major Lu-
havitcher communities are
in 20 U.S. and Canadian ci-
ties. including Los Angeles,
:11 is a i Reach, Houston,
llinncapolis-St. Paul, Phila-
delphia, Toronto and Nion-
t real. The name Lubavitcher
is taken from the White
Russian town of Lubacit•h
where the movement began
in the 19th Century.
Although from the stand-
point of Orthodox Judaism
there can be no change in
the basic concepts of Juda-
ism, there has been a
change in the Lubavitcher
approach to the outside
world, Rabbi Butman said.
He said the change repre-
sented by the group's out-
reach efforts to other Jews
was the way the movement
now interprets man's obli-
gation to man. The Lubav-
it•hers stretch the interpre-
tation of that obligation to
mean that one should go out
of his way to help others be-
come more Jewish.
This change began in
1955 when the Lubavitcher
Rebbe and current spirit-
ual leader of the group,
Menachem Schneerson
created the Lubavitcher
Youth Organization.
The i'ehhe saw a great
need for a program of this
kind because of rapidly in-
creasing assimilation and
intermarriage, Rabbi But-
man said. The new outreach
movement began by sending
out representatives to visit
colleges, army bases, and
communities. Invitations
were also issued for Jewish
groups to come to visit the
community.
Today the Lubavitchers
use a variety of methods to
reach out to their co-reli-
gionists. Among these are
Z V a
t h ei r w ('II -pu bl icized
Mobiles which began in New
York in the spring of 1971
The mobiles are actually
cavalcades of rented vans,
manned by rabbinical stu-
dents, and parked in the
busy streets of New York
;11-id Chicago.
Their main purpose is to
persuade Jewish male pas-
ersby to put on phylacter-
.
ies. The Lubavitchers
have also started "candle-
stick brigades". to encour-
age women and girls to
light the Sabbath candles.
Jewish, non-Hasidic
groups continue to attend
"Encounter with Chahad"
weekends at the Luhav-
itcher Brooklyn compound
(luring Nvhich they partici-
pate in Hasidic living.
Marriage is no longer an
arranged matter in the Lu-
bavitcher society. Arranged
weddings were a matter of
custom, not talmudic law.
However, there is arranged
dating, in accordance with
Orthodox restrictions on
mixing of the sexes.
Luhavitcher men usually
marry at 23 and women at
19 or 20. Few adults are sin-
gle beyond 30.
Rabbi Butman contends
that the Luhavitch females
are the most liberated of
women. lie bases his claim
on the idea that the women •
have been taught to do the
functions prescribed for
them by God. These are:
creating- and maintaining a
Jewish home and raising
children.
Rabbi Butman said that
the majority of Lubav-
itcher community mem-
bers give 10 to 20 percent
of their income to the or-
ganization, although they
are under no obligation to
do so. "Jewish law says to
give 10 percent, although
most do better," he said.
Although he wouldn't dis-
close the exact figure, the
rabbi said that the unem-
ployment rate in his com-
munity for those employed
outside the Lubavitcher or-
ganization is about half the
national uncut ployment
rate of 9.2 percent. "Our
community worries about
people. If we see someone in
need, we help him out," he
said.
The Town of Safed
A recent photo from the Israel Digest shows a street
in the town of Safed in Israel's Galilee region.