THE JEWISH NET'S Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the' issuc July 20, 1951 Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers. Michigan Press Association. National Editorial Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing ('o., 17515 \V. Nine Mile, Suite SI;5, Southfield, Mich. -1;075. Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $10 a year. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ DREW L1EBERWITZ Editor and Publisher Business Manager Advertising Manager iN • News Editor . . 11E1111 PRESS. .1ssist an t Nes, s Editor S:11 bbill Ser pi Ural SC111'01011.. This Sabbath, the 11th day of Sivan, 5737, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentatenchal portion, Numbers 4:21-7:89. Prophetical portion, judges 13:2-25. (:andle Frida). \la) 27. 8:39 • VOL. LXXI. No. 12 Page Four - Friday, May 27, 1977 Penalties for Edifice Complexes Edifice complexes have caused concern. On occasions they invited criticism and con- demnation. As a payoff there has been room for ridicule. It is never too late to admonish a community to be cautious, to be humble, not to go beyond financial restrictions. Dealing first with the synagogue, the need is for emphasis on a basic duty: that whatever structures are contemplated they must be based on the spiritual and the cultural and they must avoid the charge that the ambitious builders had aimed for country clubs. Since this charge is often heard it should be empha- sized that unless the spiritual predominates there'll be trouble. If it isn't the school and the house of study, and these can be moderate as long as they are adequate, the young may be driven away from the house of worship that truthfully serves also as the vitally needed house of study and research. When the emphasis is on glamor it calls for great costs in upkeep, that demands increased assessments, and the rising costs threaten the desire to be completely dedicated to the edi- fice. This applies also to the community center. Unless such centers are based on the cultural programs, on the duty to provide inspiration stemming from well-planned cultural contribu- tions to the community, there is danger of col- lapse. A communally fuctioning structure must have more than the athletic and body-building, important as these are. The cultural-spiritual must predominate and the health club must be second to the educational functions. This commendable principle, never to be abandoned, has been established admirably by the Jewish Community Center of Greater De- troit. The lessons that have been taught to the Greater Detroit. Jewish community have been bitter. Synagogues have struggled and some have not yet survived the burdens that have been imposed upon them by the agonies of edi- fice structuring. Now the Jewish Center is un- dergoing a crisis. It would be futile to ignore it. It is not only the magnitude of the ambitious undertaking that may have caused the trouble, it is also because the entire aim had become to have the health club predominate as the major task of a great undertaking. Anyone failing to admit the existence of a serious problem would be as blind as a bat, and ignoring it would be criminal. Therefore, the time has come to urge that properly conducted studies be made of the situ- ation to seek a solution and to avoid a cala- mity. There may be enough funding available to cure the shortcomings. This may be com- pulsory. But simultaneous with such a task is the demand upon the organized commu- nity to take into consideration the great need to provide for services in a branch center for whose services there is a clamoring in a largely populated area that may have been ig- nored because of the transfer of headquarters to a sector that is distant from the more den- sely populated Jewish community. While tack- ling the problem affecting the Jewish Center there must be simultaneous if not prior consid- eration of the need to strengthen the 10 Mile Road Jewish Center, of providing the services that are so urgently needed there for young and ad, especially the latter. A duty devolves upon the organized Jewish community to allo- cate cate the funds necessary to fulfill pressing needs and at the same time to resolve issues re- lating to an edifice overbuilt and inadequately administered. This is not a time to assignate blame and to arouse anger. Fault-finding is inevitable and can not be ignored. But there is the respon- sibility to seek a solution, and whatever criti- cism will be leveled must be accepted on the basis of realism and the search for a cure to a sad development in this community. A people that has functioned as well and with as much dedication to Jewish needs, as has Greater De- troit Jewry, must as it undoubtedly will, arrive at a workable solution. The lesson will be learned, no doubt, and the illness will be cured. Let that be without delay. A Nation Democratically Motivated Israel's election results were shocking to a party that dominated the 29-year-old state and the Yishuv that preceded it, and it surprised, the world. A heavy loss in prestige was antici- pated for the Laborites, but not that cala- mitous disaster. What does it all signify? It is another mani- festation of political independence for the people of Israel and a tribute to their democrat- ic motivations. The young Jewish nation suffered many dis- tressing setbacks in the past few years. There were accumulations of disillusionments for a decade. There was false overconfidence that needed reparation. The voters expressed dis- satisfaction that bordered on vengeance at an election that served to define a desire for an ex- pression of the nation's deepest sentiments, even such that relate to rejection of mis- management by kinsmen. The democratic in- stinct survived and a people that is thus able to express itself can be envisioned only in a role of strength under the leadership in chooses for itself, in its own way, in a defiance asserting the- independence of a free people. `Days of My Years' Samuel Rosenblatt Reminisces: Role as Rabbi, Author, Linguist Dr. Samuel Rosenblatt, eminent Baltimore rabbi whose activities as researcher in Oriental studies, archeology and linguistics distinguished him through the years, relates his personal story in an impressive autobiography. "The Days of My Years" (Ktav) is even more than a personal ac- count of many achievements. It is the record of accomplishments as an author who specialized in Oriental studies and teachings. It relates to the author's experiences as a researcher in historical Jewish expe- riences at the Hebrew University and at the School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. As professor of Oriental languages at Johns Hopkins his rabbinic career was enhanced as lecturer as well as author and trans- lator of classics from the Arabic and notable works from the Hebrew. Rabbi Rosenblatt's life sto- ries have the added aspects of his recollections of his youth, as son of the famous Cantor Yosele Rosenblatt. There is immense valite in the Rosenblatt chronicle as the noted Conservative rabbi who emphasized the tradition- al and inspired congregations in his emphasis on study and learning. From 1927 onward he au- thored such works as "The Highways to Perfection by Abraham Maimonides," "The Interpretation of the Bible in the Mishna," "This Is the Land," "The People of RABBI ROSENBLATT the Book," "The Book of Be- liefs and. Opinions," "Saadia Gaon," "The History of the Mizrachi Movement." "Yosele Rose- nblatt," "Hear. 0 Israel," "This Night Is Different," "Interpretation of the Bible in 'the Tosefta" and others. He studied under the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Rabbi A.I. Kook, who gave him Semiha. These are just a few of his distinctions. His story is not only a family saga, it also marks a review of more than a half-century of Jewish life. Dr. Rosenblatt is like an elder statesman in the rabbinate and his basic guidelines for rabbis is offered in his autobiography, thus: "First among the attributes that I believe a spiritual leader ought to possess is integrity, his deeds matching his words...Secondly, in order to lead, he who aspires for such a role must be a man of prin- ciple, one who will stand up and fight for his ideals regardless of the opposition he may encounter...Thirdly. just as a father must, in order not to cause jealousy among his children. give the same meas- ure of love to each and every one of them, so must the spiritual fa- tiler of his flock treat all his congregants alike. not discriminating between rich or poor, powerful or insignificant...Fourthly, he must posers the trait of humility... - "Days of My Years" ranks high as an autobiography and is valuable for students of the Jewish people in the present century.