THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue Qr . July .20, 1951
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 86;i, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $10 a year.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
Man llitsky, \ ews Editor . . . Heidi Press. Assistant Ne%ss Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 14th day of Sivan, 5736, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 4:21 7:89. Prophetical portion, Judges 13:2 25.
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Candle lighting, Friday, June 11, 8:49 p.m.
VOL. LXIX, No. 14
Page Four
Friday, June 11, 1976
Test of Time in Tackling Crises
Philosophers and historians, if they could
merge their skills and experiences, could provide
comfort to Jews who are inevitably concerned
over the crises that have emerged for this gener-
ation.
Both on the home front, in matters affect-
ing American Jewry, in the situations involving
the Soviet Union, the issues relating to Israel
and the Middle East and the challenges that re-
cur when there is a resurgence of anti-Semitism,
anxieties that have arisen have become the cause
for concerns that occasionally border on panic.
Dr. Joseph Sternstein, president of the
Zionist Organization of America, addressing the
editors of 26 English-Jewish newspapers, in
Philadelphia last week, described the growing
menace of Arab threats to Israel, reviewed the
fears over future attitudes on Zionism and Is-
rael by the President and the Congress of the
United States, and warned of the possibility of
rising fears as well as complacencies in Jewish
ranks by posing the question: "Is the American
Jew losing his nerve?"
Another Jewish spokesman, Milton Him-
melfarb, director of information for the Ameri-
can Jewish Committee, addressing the National
Conference of Jewish Communal Service charac-
terized the American Jew as "an endangered
species" because of the rising tide of assimila-
tion, low birth rate and the increasing number
of mixed marriages.
Neither viewpoint can or should be treated
lightly. The Jew is secure only when he is fear-
less, and his survivalism depends upon loyalties
to traditions and acceptance of and respect for a
sacred historic heritage.
What the two warnings implied are applica-
ble to the Jewries of all free nations. The atti-
tudes of the American Jews relate also to those
of Canada, Great Britain, France and South Af-
rica. Yet, in all instances, there is evidence of
fearlessness when the status of embattled Israel
is concerned and the determination to keep em-
phasizing the urgency of Jewish identifications
by youth as well as their elders.
There is justification for the expressed
fears, yet they must be tested by historical ex-
periences. Jewry had its bitter pills in all ages,
and there has seldom been a lasting yielding to
fears and resort to panic. Emergencies have al-
Ellis Island
ways inspired courage. In the immediate post-
Nazi years, American and British Jewries, and
their counterparts in other lands, pursued the
battle for justice. There has seldom been a lack
of courage in confronting fellow citizens.
The lessons of the past must never be un-
learned and the comfort derived from past ex-
periences provides lasting hope that the struggle
for fair play and for justice to Jewry will never
be abandoned.
The internal, the Jewish peoplehood prob-
lem, is the more serious. Here, too, there are ex-
amples to be drawn upon. In the early 1920s in
this country there was fear of a Jewish "col-
lapse." Assimilation began to take root, so much
so that magazine articles dealt with "the vanish-
ing Jew" as the most sensational topic for prog-
nosticators who foresaw drastic declines in Jew-
ish hopes for survivalism. Then came Henry
Ford, Coughlin, Gerald L. K. Smith and his co-
horts and Adolph Hitler, and the revival of loyal-
ties was paramount in Jewish ranks.
The caution in treating the role of the Jew
in this era is to strive for inner strength spiritu-
ally, culturally, historically, with devotion to a
great heritage. Not anti-Semitism, but the great
legacies of an eternal people must always domi-
nate Jewish existence and aspirations.
How are the issues so seriously posed by
bo.th Joseph Sternstein and Milton Himmelfarb
to be faced and tackled?
Serious duties devolve upon Jewish commu-
nities whose current leaders are under serious
challenge. The basic idealism inherent in Jewish
traditions must gain new strength, must ac-
quire new courage, must be marked by a re-de-
dication to the highest goals in Jewish life.
There is no denying that the assimilatory
aspects will result in losses for Jewry. Perhaps
there will be repeated recognition that Israel's
and Jewry's strength lies in the dedicated, the
loyal "shearit Israel," the ultra-courageous
"remnant of Israel." As long as there is this in-
destructible remnant there will be an indestruc-
tible people. That ultimate attainment is based
on fearlessness, on abandonment of panic.
Those who hold high the banners of the Jewish
people serve their kinsmen without fear. Most to
fear is fear itself. Abandon fear and the future
will loom brighter: this is the clarion call that
must go forth to the People Israel.
Port of Freedom
Ellis Island has become a tourist attraction.
For many years a vale of tears, the island now
symbolizes the attainment of goals of freedom
by the descendants of the millions who passed
through the doors of this port of entry to the
United States.
Now the tourists, the historically-minded as
well as the curious, will examine the premises
through which 16 million passed from the last
decade of the last century through the first dec-
ades of the Twentieth.
Anxieties, fears, anticipations of freedom
intermingled as the throngs of newcomers went
through the questioning and the health testing
that were conducted in behalf of the United
States before the aspirants for settlement in the
land of the free and the home of the brave could
be given sanctuary.
So numerous are the names of many great
Americans whose parents and grandparents —
in some instances they themselves — passed
through the testing doors of Ellis Island that
they form a great part of this great nation.
Not all passed through these doors with
ease. Not all found the American scene an easy
one to mold into. But through the years those
who passed through Ellis Island merged into the
unity of America and Americans and the glories
of a freedom that characterizes the Promised
Land aspired to by immigrants from all the na-
tions of the world.
The glorification of Ellis Island's new role is
a fulfillment of many aspirations by millions
who now symbolize the gateway into which Ellis
Island became for aspirants to freedom for all
men.
4=41=
Riemer Volume Paperbacked
Rabbi. Morris Adler Essay
in 'Reflections on Death'
Jewish ethical teachings, traditions relating to death, personal
experiences on the subject so vital to human reactions are treated in
a series of essays gathered by Rabbi Jack Riemer of Dayton, 0., pro-
fessor of Jewish studies at the University of Dayton, in "Jewish Re-
flections on Death" (Schocken).
An essay from the writings of the late Rabbi Morris Adler, "We
Do Not Stand Alone," is included in the impressive symposium in
which noted scholars confront the sad events affecting mourners. The ,
faith inherent in the retention of the noblest attained in life and the -
ability to face tragedies mark the ad-
monitions that are based on tradi-
tional teachings.
The faith and hope retained by
the living is emphasized in Rabbi Ad-
ler's essay. Describing a shiva serv-
ice, the gathering of worshipers who
express condolences to the surviving
members of a family, Rabbi Adler
concluded with a message of cheer
for the living, asserting:
"The religious service of this lit-
tle group, representing the larger
community, takes place in the home.
It is a tribute to the central position
of the home. Where a family lives
and loves and fashions the most inti-
mate bonds to link persons one to the
other, there you have a sanctuary no
less than the synagogue. Its holiness
is of no lesser kind than that with
which the formal house of prayer of
the entire community is inv
The poignancy and sanctity ch.__
RABBI ADLER
are best expressed in the initimate
sanctuary of the home. The sanctuary of the home can never be re-
placed by synagogue or temple, however large or magnificent.
"The prayer is concluded. The imperatives of modern living com-
pel the minyan to dissolve once again into its component individuals
who hurry through streets, now filled with romping and laughing chil-
The
dren and speeding automobiles, to offices, shops, and plan
In
mourners remain. They are, however, no longer completely a
the atmosphere of their home the prayers linger and bespeak t sol-
ace of a tradition and the brotherhood of a community."
It is in the spirit of encouraging faith, of aiding the mourners to
confront life, that Dr. Riemer's essay and those of the other scholarly
expressions interject goodness that relates to death but affirms dedi-
cation to life's challenges.
Other authors whose works appear in this volume include Elie
Wiesel, Hans J. Morgenthau, Deborah Lipstadt, Abraham J. Heschel,
Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Emanuel Feldman, Audrey Gordon, Chaim
Greenberg, Daniel Jeremy Silver, Abraham Kaplan, Milton Steinberg,
Michael Braude, Max Lerner, Jacob Neusner, Leo Jung, Joseph I.
Zashin, Eugene J. Lipman, Seymour J. Cohen.
The valuable book commences with translations of excerpts from \
the Shulhan Arukh by Chaim N. Denburg; and "The Death of Hasidic
Masters" translated by Samuel H. Dresner.