THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue (,t1nly Vin, 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 tili5, 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

Business Manager

DREW LIEBERWITZ

Advertising Manager

flan Illitsky, News Editor . . . Ileidi Press. kssi,;tant News Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 24th day of Shevat, 5737, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:

Pentateuchal portion. Exodus 18:1 20:23. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 6:1 7:6; 9:5,6.

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Feb. 18-19, Rosh Hodesh Adar, Numbers 28:1-15

Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 11, 5:42 p.m.

VOL. LXX, No. 23

Page Four

Friday, February 11, 1977

`Roots' and the Facts of Life

- All things, great or small, spiritual or
material, evil or humane, have their roots.
If Man were beast there would be no hope
for the humane to develop out of the evil or
the spiritual to outweigh the material.
"Roots," the product of Alex Haley's
powerful and dramatic story exposing the
horror of slavery, serves a human purpose,
both as novel rooted in history and as the
soul-stirring television portrayal of the ex-
periences of the people who suffered so
much from bondage and, oppression.
It is the story of the Bla
ck Man. But if it
were that of the blacks alone it would be
losing its universal values. It has its impact
on the world, on humanity, on those who
seek justice and would not tolerate cruelty.
Indeed, the roots of hatred and inhu-
manity had been sunk deeply and with bes-
tiality through the ages, and it takes man-
kind a long time to learn and to apply the
lessons taught by bestiality to the great
need for kindness to all men and to the
equality that is inherent in the life of decent
people.
In Haley's work the "roots" are those of
a single segment in humanity, in the Black
Community. But through• the ages there
have been demonstrations of hatred that
affected many peoples, of all - racial back-
grounds, regardless of color. of skin. In all
ages, however, hatred was not totally ap-
proved. The Jew can testify to that.
In all the experiences of oppression,
whether it was under Bogdan Chmielnicki,
whose hordes murdered mercilessly, or dur-
ing the Inquisition and the bigoted era of
Torquemada's domination, or in the years of
the Czarist pogroms in Russia, or the more
recent Holocaust, there were always people
who had clung to decency and did not yield
to bestialities. -
Isn't this also what had occurred during
the terrible years of slavery for the black
man in this country, that even the slave
owners were not always cruel, that there
were people of courage who protested, who
labored for justice, who risked their lives for
decency?
To make the contrast, judging , "Roots"
by Haley is to test the roots of all evil. The
Jew has been an object of hatred for
thousands of years. The record of Moham-
medanism is not pure and in the Christian
world there is a history of so many oppres-
sive eras that the brotherhood and love of
the Church had been polluted by venom. Yet
even in the most degrading periods, when

the hatreds were so deeprooted that Jews
were burned at the stake, during the era of
the Crusades, thousands of Jews were
gathered in synagogues and were burned
with their houses of worship and their Holy
Scrolls. Amidst hatred, however, there was
resentment by Christians against Chris-
tians for the acts of pillaging and murdering
of innocent people. In the darkest periods of
Christian anti-Semitism there were always
those who cried out against the hatreds that
'stemmed from churchmen. There were
Christians who became great Hebrew
scholars, and in times of crises some of them
embraced Judaism as an expression of pro-
test against the inhumanity of man to man.
This is applicable to the Holocaust. Not
all Germans' subscribed to the mass mur-
ders. There were the protesting people who
suffered for their sense of justice, many
sharing concentration camps with Jews.
The roots are soiled with blood because
the protesting are the minority. Yet there
must be recognition of the existence of the
minority, as an acknowledgement of the
fact that not all- men are cruel.
Homer, in "The Odyssey," had a com-
ment on the roots of life:
"The root is hard to loosen
From hold of earth by mortals; but God's
power
Cari all things do. 'Tis black, but bears a
flower
As white as milk?'
Of course, the roots of evil are "hard to
loosen," but when one thinks of the
Abolitionists during the horrible era of
slavery, those who resisted terror in Jewish
experiences, even those who battle against
terrorism now, one must be grateful that as
long as the roots are not ignored a new life
can come forth that will prevent the poison
of past experience.
"Roots" as drama, "Roots" as the book
that was the basis for the television por-
trayal, have their place in human reactions.
Just as Jews strive not to forget the
holocausts so that they never again can be
repeated, so, also, must the Black Man cry
out against intolerance so that it should be a
mere memory and not a repetition. That is
why there is the admonition, in Scriptures,
"Zkhor et Amalek," "Remember Amalek." If
there is to be emphasis on decency then
there must be prevention of indecency. To
pi-event the evils of all poisoned roots the
menace must be known and understood.
That's the meaning of "Roots."

A Boon for the Area's Retarded

The labors of a dedicated group of
'Jewish citizens who have dedicated them-
selves to the aid of the retarded has borne
fruit. The announcement that HUD is fund-
ing the establishment of two additional
Haverim Homes for the Jewish retarded
must prove heartening to all who have
hoped that the needs of the retarded must
never be ignored.
Equally inspiring is the appreciation
citizens must gain for this nation's
socially-minded legislators who have come
to recognize the pressing need not to ignore
the plight of people who suffer the illness of

AIIMINNIND

%/TA

New Rutgers Volume

Avigad Defines Fascinating
Beth She'arim Excavations

Beth She'arim excavations, which had begun in 1936 and were
concluded in 1958, revolutionized archeological tasks and set the pace
for the subsequent diggings resulting in findings of great historical
value.

Rutgers University Press published three volumes by Nahman_
Avigad describing the fascinating projects, supplementing the
definitive labors wth illustrative material that adds emphatically to
an understanding and appreciation of the dedicated labors. These
volumes indicate how the work had begun in 1936 and was interrupted
by World War II in 1940, and was resumed in 1953.

The third of the volumes, just published, entitled "Beth She'arim:
The Excavations, 1953-1958," completes the dramatic story. It started
with Volume I "The Excavations 1936-1940" and continued with "The
Greek Inscriptions" as Volume II. The completed work serves as an
immense inspiration to the lay reader as well as the historian and the
professional archeologist. It traces the labors'of the dedicated diggers
and receives emphasis in the thoroughness of a great effort in the
photographs, maps, drawings and charts.

In the process of describing the results of the excavations, Dr.
Avigad points to the findings in the 12 excavated catacombs which
included hundreds of discovered items, among them rare glass
vessels, a 1 5-ton stone
sarcophagus and many items
which are depicted in the many
photographs in the third volume.

Dr. Avigad's historical
resume of the art findings, have
additional merit in the achieve-
ment recorded at Beth She'arim.

It is noteworthy that the
third and concluding . volume in
the Beth She'arim series contains
235 photographs. The additional
131 text figures also are marked
by a double page appendix and a
map.
The extensive annotations,
the appendix and three indices
supplement the descriptive text.

The chronology of the
catacombs, the Aramaic as well as
Hebrew inscriptions on the fin-
those who are mentally handicapped, an dings, the historical review of the
ailment certainly not of their own making figurative art necessarily add to
but an unfortunate affliction.
the fullest understanding of the
The initial Haverim Home already subject so thoroughly covered by
serves an important need. Similar services Dr. Avigad.
are needed for hundreds of retarded for
Beth She'arim is situated on a
"Woman Libating," a
whom the Association for the Jewish Re- hill in the Jezreel Valley in figurine
from the
tarded provided both proper housing and an Galilee. It was laid waste by the hundreds reproduced
in
Dr.
Avigad's
approach to a Jewish identity. The govern- Romans in the year 352, was volume, "Beth She'arim." third
ment aid for additional homes is cause for abandoned for more than 1,000
appreciation of what government does for years before Dr. Benjamin Mazar
the less fortunate and an opportunity for commenced the excavations which
gratitude to the association that has la- were resumed by Dr. Avigad in
1938.
bored for such humanism.