THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, June 10, 1977 27
Levenson's Kid Stuff Delineates, Innocence of Youth in New Volume
1----
"Ma, open your mouth. I wanna talk to
my brother."
Sam Levenson. unques-
tionably one of the most ad-
mired of America's humor-
ists, has another. perhaps
even more important. role.
He is a student of the child's
mind. a sort of scholarly
psychologist who absorbs
youth sentimentalities. The
"Let's play pregnant. I'll shave and
you'll throw up."
latter quality may have
made him the genius in the
humorus aspects of life. In
dispensing fun he deals
with the family,—never
exempting his parents and
other close relatives, and
the heroic is always center-
ed in the children.
Bioethics Quiz
1. Talmud indicates that a patient may be pronounced
dead when:
A. no pulse can be felt
B. no heartbeat can be detected
C. respiration has ceased
D. the patient does not respond to external stimuli
2. Which of the following definitions of death is compatible
with traditional Jewish teaching?
A. a brain death
B. irreversible coma
C. cessation of cardiac activity
D. irreversible loss, of consciousness
3. Rema forbids the performance of a post-mortem Ceasa-
rean because
A. the baby is likely to have suffered brain damage
B. saving the fetus does not warrant violating the corpse
of the mother
C. such procedures were known never to be effective
D. we cannot determine the moment of death with preci-
sion
4. Contemporary Jewish practice is to pronounce a patient
dead
A. upon cessation of cardiac activity
s,
B. upon cessation of respiration
C. upon cessation of both cardiac and respiratory activi-
ty
D. after an interval of between 20 and 60 minutes has
elapsed following cessation of respiration
5. According to the Yalkut sickness was unknown and
hence not mentioned in the Bible prior to
B. Noah
A. Jacob
D. Moses
C. Abraham
6. Prior to the era of organ transplants, determination of
the time of death was most significant
A._ in order to establish order of survival for purposes of
inheritance
B. In order to determine when the body might be moved
C. for purposes of withdrawing therapy
D. in order to establish the date of the Yortzeit
7. A post-mortem Caesarean is permitted by all authorities
A. if the father has not fulfilled the commandment "be
fruitful and multiply"
B. if death is sudden
C. for purposes of scientific research
D. if the mother has been decapitated
8. The sole authority who maintains that life can be contin-
ued, at least for a short while, even after the heart - has
ceased ceased beating is
A. Hatam Sofer
B. Rabbi Jonathan Eibeschutz
C. Hakham Tzvi
D. Mishkanot Yaakov
9. Except when necessary to enhance the honor of the de-
ceased Jewish law requires that burial take place
A the same day
B. within 72 hours
C. within 24 hours
D. before decomposition begins
10. A specific exception to the rule that all persons are bur-
ied in shrouds is the case of
A. children B. persons dying of infectious diseases
C. criminals D. women who die in childbrith
ANSWERS
1. C; 2. C; 3. D; 4. D; 5. A; 6. B; 7. D; 8. D; 9. A; 10. D.
It did not necessarily
begin with the expericnce
he gained as a teacher,
which preceded his plat-
form occupation. He ac-
quired the knowledge about
the young and absorbed
their clever remarks from
his own youth. That's how
much of what he imparts to
his audiences, and in his nu-
merous books, becomes the
basic reality of his links
with his cast of characters.
The Levenson skill with
kid stuff is evidenced in his
new book, "A Time for In-
nocence" (Simon and Schus-
ter).
It is another of Sam's hi-
larious books, but he does
not get all the credit. The
scores of drawings illustra-
ting subjects he deals with,
by. Whitney Darrow Jr., fill
half or more of the book
and add immensely to its
merits.
It is the innocence of the
child in matters of immo-
rality Wand sex that is al-
luded to in the new Leven-
son collectin of kid stuff. Of
the many in the book there
are, as examples, these:
"Most babies are born at
night when their mothers
are home. -
"I'm glad I'm born already
so I don't have to go every-
where with my mother."
"If mothers can give birth
to boys, why do we need f a-
thers?"
Last year my mother
came down with a baby.
Now my aunt's got it."
"When a lady is going to
have a baby the say she's
suspecting."
"Why don't mothers just
get a zipper on their stom-
ach?"
For Sam Levenson this en-
tire questioning business
started when he dared to
ask, as a child, "Where do
I come from?" That's when
he was told:
"If God wanted us to
know what's on the inside
he would have put it on the
outside."
"When you have children
of your own, you'll ask
them."
"Ask you mother, You're
from her side of the fam-
ily."
The child's ques-
tion "Where did I come
from?" says Sam, "is
not as easily answered as
how he got here. He got
here through us, who got
here through others before
them, back, way back to
the germinal beginnings of
life and time. That's where.
How is a matter of male
and female plumbing. This
we can explain."
But when children try to
explain where they came
from to one another, he
says, it's often a case of
their "not letting the fact in
the way of their imagina-
tion."
ONE MAN
ORCHESTRA
Bar Mitzva's
Candle Lighting
Anniversaries-Weddings
House Parties- Dances Etc.
Standards to Rock
Music For All Ages
FreddySheyer 398-24,62
-
Jewish College Cites Catholic
for Aiding Jews in Holocaust
NEW YORK—At Hebrew
Union. College-Jewish In-
stitute of Religion com-
mencement excercises last
Sunday, a frail, tiny 76-
year-old Woman received
an honorary doctorate of hu-
mane letters. Honored was
Dr. Gertrude Luckner, a
German Roman Catholic so-
cial worker, editor and
writer, for helping to save
hundreds of German Jews
from the Nazis and as a re-
sult, was tortured and im-
prisoned for two years in a
concentration camp.
During World War II, Dr.
Luckner worked with such
German Jewish leaders as
Rabbi Leo Baeck to estab-
lish contacts throughout
Germany to help Jews es-
cape the Nazis. She was ar-
rested by the Gestapo in
1943, and imprisoned in the
Ravensbrueck concentra-
tion camp for women, - a
camp that specialized in
gynecological experimenta-
tion and torture.
Dr. Luckner had traveled
throughout Germany, as an
emissary of the Catholic
Archbishop of Freiberg, vis-
iting Jews, leaving them
money, helping those fami-
lies whose members had
been deported to concentra-
tion camps. The Rabbi of
Cologne and his wife were
recipients of Dr. Luckner's
aid.
"I was a kind of cou-
rier," Dr. Luckner said. "I
went from one Jewish fam-
ily to another, from city to
city. But there was very
little I could do. Help is
always slower than the
need is."
It was one such trip,
from Freiberg, a city in
southwestern Germany, to
Berlin in March, 1943, that
the Gestapo arrested Dr.
Luckner.
The Gestapo interrogated
her for nine weeks, to find
out who her contacts were.
"But I didn't give them
what they wanted," she
said. When the Gestapo
asked who her bosses were,
she replied, "My Christian
conscience."
She was then sent to Rav-
ensbrueck concentration
camp, where she remained
for two years, until the Rus-
sians liberated the camp.
Emaciated and almost
physically destroyed, Dr.
Luckner promptly went to
work to help the newly
freed Jews, by getting them
food and money. Since 1949,
Dr. Luckner, who holds a
doctorate in political sci-
ence, has been the editor of
a periodical in West Ger-
many devoted to improving
Christian-Jewish under-
standing.
Power of Peace
Education Grant
RABAT (ZINS)—King
Hassan II of Morocco told a
recent press conference
that Arab wealth and Is-
raeli ingenuity could
change the Middle East if
the region were at peace.
He also called on Israel
to return to its 1967 bor-
ders.
NEW YORK—The Ameri-
can Association for Jewish
Education has received a
$16,000 grant from the
Morris J. and Betty Kaplun
Foundation for the enrich-
ment of The Pedagogic Re-
porter, the AAJE's profes-
sional journal.
Try us
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CONGREGATION
BETH SHALOM
Religious School and
Synagogue Membership
We are the only conservative
synagogue in the metropolitan
Detroit area with its own religious
school. We invite you to enroll your
child in our afternoon program. For
those who would like further
involvement, a limited number of
memberships are now available at
special rates. Try us. You'll like us!
interested persons
contact the office of
CONGREGATION
BETH SHALOM
14601 West Lincoln Blvd.
Oak Park, Michigan 48237
or call 547-7970