THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commenci fly
with the
iss1W o•.lnly 20. I951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers. Michigan Its Assl,ciation. National Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite st;5, Southfield. Mich. IS075.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
klan Ilitsky. News Editor . . . I1(• (1I Press,
an N(• ∎■ Edit or
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 29th of Adar, 5737, the /ollowing scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 35:1-40:38; 12:1-20. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 45:16-46:18.
Sunday, Rosh Hodesh Nisan, Numbers 28:1-15
Candle lighting Friday, March 18, 6:24 p.m.
VOL. LXXI, No. 2
Page Four
Friday, March 18, 1977
Humanity's Price for Violence
Four brothers are robbed of $30 and are
killed to boot. Elderly are victims of young
criminals because they are often helpless. A
Nazi-minded insaned person wishes to kill
the Jewish foreman of the firm he was sus-
pended from and five other innocent people
are his prey instead.
Readers of the daily press can multiply
occurrences in the crime wave that has
struck this nation and the effect is so shock-
ing that a horrified nation has begun to
think in terms of extreme punishment for
the crazed criminals.
Last week's nightmarish experience for
134 who were held as hostages at the Na-
tional Bnai Brith Headquarters and two
other buildings in Washington escalated
the anxieties over the spate of violence in
this country and the increasing arrogance
by kidnapers and hijackers throughout the
world.
The result of the fears created in the
senseless crime waves is that the hitherto
unpopular punishment by death is gaining
. adherents. A return to capital punishment
is evidenced in many states, and even in
Michigan, which was among the first to
abandon the death penalty and has adhered
to that principle for a century and a half,
now hears reverberations of advocacy of
capital punishment as a deterrent to crime.
The advocates of the death penalty con-
tinue to overlook the moral factors.
Of course, criminals must be punished,
every effort must be made to prevent mur-
derous acts and insanities. Does capital
punishment prevent crime? There is, in-
deed, a difference of opinion, but authorita-
tive criminologists have not affirmed it.
In Jewish tradition capital punishment
has few adherents. While there were, in-
deed, four ascribed methods of punishments
by death, in ancient times — stoning, burn-
ing, slaying and strangling — basic Jewish
idealism rejects resort to the death penalty.
There is a basic principle, and it affects
all our actions. It is affirmed in Mishna
Makkot (1:10), which is quoted below.
It is related in the traditions set forth in
the Talmud that the death penalty had not
been imposed' in ancient Israel since the
year 30 of the present era — some'40 years
before, the destruction of the Temple.
according to the strictest in-
Eve
n
terpretation of ancient Jewish law which
prescribed death for various offenses, such
a verdict could be rendered only by a court
of 23 judges, and if one of them dissented the
sentence could not be imposed. The law also
required that two witnesses had to be pro-
duced who actually saw the criminal com-
mit his crime.
Discussing codes of justice in Jewish
traditions, Prof. George Foote Moore, in his
classic three-volume "Judaism," reviewed
ancient procedures followed by Jews, and he
also referred to the Mishnaic comments. He
made these interesting analyses of the
penalties, convictions and the imposition of
the death penalty:
In the delibe-rations of the judges, con-
siderations tending to acquittal were given
precedence. The decision was by a majority; a
majority of one acquitted, but for conviction
there must.be a majority of at least two. Even
when the condemned man was on the way to
the place of execution, if he or any one else
had anything to offer in defense, he was recal-
led and the new evidence taken. Once acquit-
ted, however, he could not a second time be
put in jeopardy, whatever new evidence
against him might come to light.
It is clear that with such a procedure con-
viction- in capital cases was next to impossi-
ble, and that this was the intention of the
framers of the rules is equally plain. The Mis-
hna itself brands a court which executes one
man in seven years as ruinous. R. Eliezer B.
Azariah said 'one in 70 years.' R. Tarfon and
R. Akiba said, 'If we had been in the Sanhed-
rin, no man would ever have been put to
death,' on which R. Simeon ben Gamaliel
makes the obvious reflection, 'They would
multiply murderers in Israel.' It should be
observed, however, that when the court was
convinced of the guilt of the accused, though
the evidence did not warrant his conviction
and execution, they might imprison him on
bread and water.
There are phrases "obvious reflection"
and "the intention of the framers" in the
explanatory notes by the eminent Christian
which indicate the firm intent of the rab-
binic procedures against the death penalty.
Prof. Moore's interpretive comments add
weight to our contention that capital
punishment had no place in Jewish tradi-
tions, and the intentions of Jewish courts of
law were to rule against it.
Lunacy in Real m of Diplomacy
Uganda's experiences — assuming that
the Ugandans themselves would be the first
to oust their crazed ruler if they had the -
power — are rooted in so much barbarism
that the test could well be judged by the
reactions of Amin's fellow diplomats. He
was only politely applauded in Cairo when
haaddressed the representatives of 59 Arab
and African nations last week. But his mere
presence poses the question whether lunacy
is acceptable in that bloc's diplomatic codes.
There will no doubt be rejoicing in
Uganda when the crazed dictator vanishes.
But the role he is permitted to play among
his fellow Muslims and in the Afro-Asian
bloc remains a puzzle in statesmanship.
Must sanity be sacrificed in diplomatic
ranks when partisanship en bloc becomes
the guiding principle in policy-making?
The fright that has enveloped the entire
world amidst the spreading terrorism may ._
have an effect upon the United Nations
where action to stern terrorism has been
scuttled due to the Arab-Communist
obstructions. The role of the ambassadors of
Iran, Egypt and Pakistan, which contrib-
uted towards ending the Washingtonian
threats by the Hanafi Muslims, may en-
courage similar intercessions by the realis-
tic statemen.
AJTA
Illustrated JPS Volume
'Jewish Minters and Medalists'
Enriches Historical Knowledge
Stamps, coins and medals, when _linked with important -
personalities and events, provide interesting material for the
study of history. Such significance attaches to the newest„'
volume of the Jewish Publication Society which is devoted to a
review of accomplishments by medalists and minters.
In "Jewish Minters and Medalists," the beautifully
illustrated and authoritatively compiled JPS volume, Daniel M.
Friedenberg, curator of coins and medals at the Museum of the
Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and Fellow of the
American Numismatic Society, pictorially depicts the history of-- -
the eminent personalities in the coinage and medal-creative
arts. The rarest of medals, including the Fourth Century-,
Yehud, and those of most recent times are included in Dr.
Friedenberg's accumulated treasures.
This is a sample of the man _ y scores of reproductions in the
Friedenberg JPS book:
saC tI T
Jerusalem Coin-Medal
For collectors of coins and medals and for those seeking an
experience in the linking of art with history, the Friedenberg
volume has special merit.
The first part of the book deals with the role of Jewish
moneyers, minters, and mint masters in medieval Europe and
under the rule of Islam. The second part takes up the story of
Jewish medalists from the 18th Century to present times, and - -
includes the work of such prominent contemporary An' '`:an
am
Jewish sculptors as Chaim Gross, Jacques Lipchitz,
Zorach, and Leonard Baskin. A special section is devoted to th6
production of medals in Israel.
Major figures whose work is examined include- Jacob
Abraham and his son Abraham Abramson, royal medalists in
late-18th Century Germany; Samuel Judin, co-head of a Russian
mint in the 18th Century; the Weiner Brothers of Belgium, the
foremost Jewish medalists of the 19th Century; and Moritz
Furst, whose works include a portrait medal of Andrew Jackson
and the first American Jewish medal, occasioned by the death in
1816 of the patriot rabbi, Gershom Mendes Seixas.
Friedenberg also cites Victor D. Brenner, who in 1909
engraved the head on the Lincoln penny; Benno Elkan, whose
bronze menora stands in front of the Israeli Knesset; Paul
Vincze, designer of the national currency of several nations;
and Arthur Loewental, portraiter of Rufus Daniel Isaacs, First
Marquess of Reading, among. others.