2 Friday, Decembel%17, 1976
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
.
Purely Commentary
The Sins of the Fathers .. .
Atonement of the Children
Are the Sins of the Fathers Continually Visited Upon Chil-
dren and Grandchildren? . . . Aspects of Penitence in
Many Ranks . . . Lib Movement and Almighty's Identity
involvements being visited upon children and grand-
children has a kinship in the Maria Iandolo and Jimmy
Carter remote family experiences.
Must the sins of the fathers be visited upon the
children?
When 'He' Becomes a Person
Are the grandchildren responsible for the evils of
Under the Imprimatur of
grandparents?
Can Dachau and Auschwitz be erased from mem- Religion and God is Sexless
ory if the children of Holocaust culprits are to be ab-
solved from guilt?
`Tis time for some fun at the expense of Man,
It is less ironic than it is an element in historic under the imprimatur of a major Jewish religious
justice that the limelight should be focused upon a movement; and if the reaction is via WoMan, all
descendant in Israel of one of the leading prop- glory to the high cost of Lib(erty).
apagators of Nazism during World War II.
There is a new aspect in this sensationalized Wo-
Nineteen-year-old Maria Iandolo, granddaughter men's lib movement and it is given credence in Scrip-
of the infamous Lord Haw-Haw, the Irishman whose tural revisions and their application to the downgrad-
real name was William Joyce, is now volunteering her ing of Man.
efforts in Kibutz Shamir.
A "non-sexist" glossary proposed as a substitute
Her grandfather was executed in 1946 for treason. for masculine terms in the Reform Jewish prayerbook
His voice had been heard as a pleader for Nazism over has been issued by "an official task force of the New
the German-supervised radios and he was convicted York Federation of Reform Synagogues."
for his crimes after the war.
"Lord," "Master," "His," "King," even the Al-
The granddaughter makes no apologies. She is a mighty and similar terms are to be eliminated with
free agent and she made this statement when her substitutes.
involvement in Israel's behalf became known last
It must have taken fully four years to create the
week:
new glossary because the fashioners of the transfor-
"So what?" she said. "I don't believe I have to make mation were organized in 1972 with the formation of
good for what my grandfather did. I don't believe in the New York Federation's Task Force on Equality for
the biblical phrase that the sins of the fathers are Women in Judaism.
visited upon the children. I think my grandfather be-
Without begging the issue, it's worth going to the
lieved in what he was doing, but I don't condone what source to get the actual intent of the new reforms
he did. I don't like to talk about it."
"from the horse's mouth," as a freedom that may be
Perhaps this serves the purpose of the German permissible in liberated masculinity. The official
youth of today who resent being linked to the past of Union of American Hebrew Congregations press re-
their immediate ancestors, who say they were born lease had this to say in the sensational revelation
after Hitler and are guiltless.
about the new tasks in feminizing prayers:
Not all Germans are so calloused. Many are study-
Ms. Cecile Fallon, chairperson of the task
ing their history, are examining the causes and effects
force, said, "We ask for the development of prayers
of the Holocaust and the guilt for it.
and liturgy that allows full participation. We ask not
for charity, but righteousness."
Perhaps the background of President-Elect
She stressed that women in Judaism "will not
Jimmy Carter has some link to this matter of links
with the past. The grandparents of the President-to-
work for a Jewish community and pray, using a
be, perhaps also his parents, were dear friends of Tom
liturgy that systematically excludes them."
Watson, the vilest of American anti-Semites, whose
Ms. Annette Daum, coordinator of the task
vicious campaign against a Jew, in the second decade
force, viewed these changes taking place "within
of this century, may have been primarily responsible
our own lifetime." She is the Federation's religion
for the lynching of the innocent Leo Frank. Carter was
action coordinator.
born after the Frank lynching, but during the decade
"The language of prayer has a profound emo-
when it became firmly established that there was a
tional impact on people. The proposed substitute
cruel negation of justice and a horrible appeal to
language requires a reorientation away from a
anti-Jewish feelings which incited a mob of insane
male-dominated tradition and a change in men's at-
Georgians to commit the brutal crime against an inno-
titudes toward women and women's attitude toward
cent Jew. Perhaps President-Elect Carter has some
themselves."
vague reflections on the tragic episode in history. This
commentator was unable to secure an opinion from
The true intent of the UAHC branch will
Candidate Carter prior to the November, 1976 elec- never be understood or appreciated without reading
tion. Perhaps his aides failed to share the request with the actual transformation. So., put on the yarmulke
him. Even if remotely, however, the matter of parents' (or sheitel), don Talis and Tefilin, and read:
By Philip
Slomovitz
Glossary of Substitute Terminology
Masculine Terms
Lord:
Substitutes
God, Almighty, Blessed
One, Eternal, Divine,
Guardian, Creator, Re-
deemer, Ruler, Protec-
tor, Heavenly One,
Maker, Holy One, Most
High, Exalted.
Father:
One, God, Parent, Maker,
Creator, Heavenly
(Father!) One!
man, fellowman:
humanity, people, us.
children of men:
men and women, thy
children, people.
sons of men:
human beings, genera
tions.
God and Father:
Our God (In Heaven)
fathers:
ancestors, forebears,
patriarchs and mat-
riarchs
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
add: Sarah, Rebecca,
Leah and Rachel.
King:
ruler, sovereign.
Kingdom:
rule, reign, realm
brotherhood or fellowship:
kinship, community, un-
ity.
He:
third person pronoun —
Thou (You) God.
His:
Thy, God's, Your.
brethren:
brothers and sisters, one.
Master:
Ruler.
House of Jacob:
House of Israel.
God of Jacob:
God or our ancestors,
God of Israel.
Shield of Abraham:
Shield of our ancestors.
* * *
Barkhu — Call to Worship
Praise ye (the Lord our) God, to whom all praise is
due.
Praised be (the Lord) to whom all praise is due forever
and ever. the Eternal
Shema — The Watchword of the Faith.
Hear, 0 Israel: the (Lord) our God, the (Lord) is one
Eternal
Eternal
Praised be (His) name whose glorious (kingdom) is
forever and ever.
realm
God's name
rule
the name of God
Your
Thy
The Celestial Woman may be known as Rebitzin
(Heaven forbid that she should wear pants when she
officiates as the counterpart of manly Rabbi!). What-
ever the verdict of history, she (may the female person
thus be called?) radiates from pulpit and illumines the
New Scriptures.
But if God were really a Man, would He thus find
Himself deposed?
Elon and Schary's Play About Theodor Herzl Opens in New York
By DAVID FRIEDMAN
(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)
Theodor Herzl was the
founder of modern
_Zionism, the man who
made the existing idea of
a return to Zion and the
establishment of the
Jewish state into a viable
political movement for
the Jewish people. Yet
even for ardent Zionists,
Herzl has not been in re-
cent years a flesh-and-
blood figure in the same
sense as are Chaim
Weizmann, David Ben-
Gurion and others who
followed him.
The Israeli journalist
Amos Elon did a great
deal to improve this situ-
ation in his excellent re-
cent biography of Herzl.
AMOS ELON
Now Elon and playwright
Dore Schary, author of
"Sunrise at Campobello,"
have used this biography
as the basis for a play
"Herzl" which opened at
New York's Palace Thea-
ter Nov. 30.
At a press conference
following a preview per-
formance, the American
and Israeli co-authors
stressed that making
Herzl a living presence
was an important reason
for their joint effort.
Schary, who is also the
play's producer, said that
he wanted. to make Jews,
including Israelis, aware
of the importance of
Herzl in the founding of
Israel. Elon said that he
wanted to change the
view of Herzl from a "two
dimensional" person
whose picture is on post-
age stamps and the walls
of Israeli schools to a real
flesh-and-blood person.
They have succeeded
well, if not perfectly. Herzl
does come alive on the
stage of the Palace, not the
least because of a superb
performance by Paul
Hecht in the lead role.
Herzl, who died in 1904
at the .age of 44, left
numerous letters and
diaries and Elon
thoroughly researched
these and other sources
when he wrote his biog-
raphy. The play deals
only with the years 1891
to 1897, perhaps the most
productive in Herzl's life.
It opens with the 31-
year-old Herzl, a success-
ful journalist and playw-
right in Vienna, a Jew
thoroughly assimilated
in a non-Jewish society.
Herzl is shown gradually
realizing that he lives in
Franklin D. Roosevelt
about to address the Dem-
ocratic Convention).
Schary and Elon at-
tempt to explain Herzl as
a man who had no Jewish
religion, knew little of
Jewish culture, who did
not have a Bar Mitzva
and who did not have his
son circumcised — as a
psychological Jew. "I
DORE SCHARY
sense it, I feel -it," Herzl is
made to say, calling him- necessary in any play
about a real person.
self a psychological Jew.
Yet, despite some flaws,
Those familiar with
Herzl's life may be disap- this is a play that is surely
pointed by the omissions worth seeing.
the "invisible walls of the
ghetto," ignoring the
anti-Semitism around
him. His realization
comes first from a friend
who commits suicide in
despair over the impend-
ing doom that he sees for
the Jews and culminates
in the Dreyfuss Trial.
The play ends with Herzl
about to address the first
World Zionist Congress in
Basle, in August, 1897.
(Coincidentally — or
perhaps not so coinciden-
tally — "Sunrise at Cam-
pobello" ended with
New Israeli Commemorative Stamps Issued
.
••
•-'SH.'`-:1;i tfr.'-..
-
, WPWWWMFI
d•• ■••■■ •••
■■ vee•Prawoos.vre
'._" 4 .€1,Irsql1./' 2.40
2.80
, 47R7 1 1, 0CA.VP
Mc
[yang onern win tr.
MM. It 111.■ ga,u 'ten
and In... When
-
1.30
5.00
.t.11,1F.fpowl
0.70
ts.„... A. . A ,21
E 6 ,t,cyAr
no-row bt
I .1110,,as
Ox I url
•
crs
•
(NI
4.1 rn, noon nmon
11 •01,1 , ct•I 0:.
.11"." .1•M . 1a1,11, 11 (MOM
■■ ••.Navtas.
1,131
M /Writ
MUIM• 11.70.(1,0 M.>
4,1" , C I
ran n rem nna.■ .or
OWL,. rat, -1
,M111,01
C
• .• •
rr31 ram, ,••- •
NALt y RIAIN4 NAO. NACU ,
The Israel Ministry of Communications philatelic services office has issued a number of new stamps in its
commemorative series. Shown at left are five multi-colored stamps in the pioneer series showing early settlers
working to build up the land of Israel. In the center and at right are five stamps in the archeology series
showing new discoveries in Jerusalem.