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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
16 Friday, December 22, 1918
BORENSTEIN'S
YOUR HANUKA STORE
AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!!
Gifts For The Whole Family
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
RUMMI
GAMES
FROM Israel
from
95
$
Dreidels
Decorations
Gift Wrappings
Streamers
Greeting Cards
Menoras
Candles
Complete Selection of Children's Hanuka Books
Records, Toys & Games
Fantastic Selection of
8 TRACK, RECORDS
For Hanuka
Parties—Paper
TAPES
•
•
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YIDDISH, HEBREW
and ISRAELI
CHASSIDIC and CANTORIAL
• Cookie Cutters
g irmr.immmimr.m.mm ■ ig
Plastic Electric menorah
reg. $15.00
with
h
Coupon
$895
Tablecloths
Napkins
Plates
Cups
I
Chais & Stars
• Mezuzos • Rings • Israeli Jewelry
Composts line of 14K gold & sterling silver Jewelry.
We have both
Israeli and
Domestic
Kosher Wines
and Champagnes
for the Holidays
and
Gift Giving
ctric Menorah a
ny— hretaIrre—
This Coupon Worth '8.95 toward the purl — ha — se—oram
offer thru Dec. 31
We Carry IsraMi Newspapers
BORENSTEIN'S
Your Jewish Book Store
OAK PARK — 25242 GREENFIELD
North of 10 Mile, in Greenfield Center
AMPLE FREE PARKING
967-3920
OPEN Thurs. Eves.
OPEN ALL DAY SUNDAY
Protesting Arab
Youths Stopped
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Secu-
rity forces used tear gas to
disperse stone-throwing
Arab youths in the West
Bank town of Halhoul
Saturday. They were sum-
moned after the youngsters
blocked the main road with
wrecked cars.
The incident was one of a
rash of disturbances on the
West Bank Saturday,
mainly by high school stu-
dents. Curfews were im-
posed and lifted after sev-
eral hours.
Other incidents were re-
ported at Bethlehem and
Beit-Sahur. They were ap-
parently in reaction to re-
cent orders prohibiting
Arabs from constructing
houses at Beit Sahur, the
fencing off of areas near
Hebron by Israeli
authorities and general
anti-Camp David senti-
ments.
A small explosive charge
was discovered and safely
dismantled at a soldiers
pick-up station in Petah
Tikva Saturday night.
Israel Scouting
for Oil Supply
NEW YORK — Energy
experts say that Israel is
particularly vulnerable to a
cut-off of oil supplies by any
upheaval in Iran.
However, Newsweek
magazine reports that al-
though Israel receives
about half her oil needs
from Iran, she now has large
stockpiles and is already
checking for new sources in
Mexico, Nigeria and In-
donesia.
Some analysts believe
that some Arab oil-
producers would supply Is-
rael if it were not publicized.
The U.S. is also committed,
through the Sinai dis-
engagement agreements, to
supply Israel if necessary.
■
I I
Boris Smolar's
PP,
Betwebn You
. . . and Me
Editor-in-Chia(
Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.)
HANUKA AND CHRISTMAS: The first day of
Hanuka coincides this year with Christmas. This brings
the Hanuka-Christmas issue closer to the Jewish home.
A major dilemma for Jewish parents — mostly
American-born — has been how to deal with Christmas
observances in the public schools attended by their chil-
dren. The children come from school confused. They find
themselves non-celebrants in a festival they learn about,
they sing about, they see celebrated with special decora-
tions, with school plays, with. Christmas trees. They come
home from a party at school and ask: "Why don't we have a
Christmas tree?"
Many parents seek to answer the problem by dramatiz-
ing Hanuka in a way to make it competitive with Christ-
mas. The menora lighting ceremony is emphasized — a
substitute for_the pageantry of the tree. The traditional
"Hanuka gelt" to children takes the place of Christmas
gifts. With many parents it is a devious adaptation of a
Jewish holiday in an attempt to make it into a Jewish
Christmas, in order that the children should not feel de-
prived and "out of things."
A U.S. Supreme Court decision, in 1962, against public
school prayers led Jewish parents — and organizations —
to pose questions: should Jews ask that the schools ignore
the Christmas holiday — which is a religious holiday — or
to remove the "religious content?" . . . Should they urge,
instead, that both Christmas and Hanuka observances be
held in schools'? Should they insist that neither holiday
be observed, on the grounds that this is an unwarranted
intrusion of religion into public education?
The Synagogue Council of America, and the National
Community Relations Advisory Council, representing
major Jewish lay groups, issued a statement of principles
declaring their opposition to the observance of religious
holidays in public schools. They made it clear that, in their
view, such observance constitutes a violation of the tradi-
tional American principles of the separation of church and
e view that joint
state. The statement also expressect th
religious observances such as Christmas-Hanuka and
Easter-Passover are no less a breach of this principle.
Where religious holiday observances are nevertheless held
in public schools, Jewish children have a right to refrain
from participation, the statement advised. It recommended
that local Jewish communities take such action as may be
appropriate to safeguard this right of non-participation.
ADVICE TO JEWS: The problem of Christmas ob-
servances in the public schools, and Jewish opposition to
them, has generated considerable heat. Most Chfistians
consider it unthinkable that schools should ignore Christ-
mas. They also insist that a Christmas observance
whenever held, cannot omit Nativity plays showing the
birth of Jesus, or the singing of carols with a religious
content.
Seeking to avoid tension, Jewish organizations urged
Jews to consult their local Jewish community council be-
fore taking formal or public action on all these matters.
Individual action by parents or unilateral action by one
Jewish organization on the issue was discouraged, fearing
that it can be harmful to the entire Jewish community.
While the majority of Jewish organizations believe
that any form of religious holiday observance in the public
school necessarily marks a sectarian event—and therefore
violates the principle of church-state separation — some
Jewish groups, despite their disapproval in principle, are
inclined to accept Christmas programs in schools that avoid
doctrinal themes or emphases "in the interest of preserving
interreligious harmony."
THE HOME FACTOR: The sectarian content of reli-
gious holiday observance in public schools declined during
recent years in many parts of the nation, reflecting the
growing sensitivity of school administrators and teachers
to the propriety of such observances.
Christmas programs now differ from school to school
and even from classroom to classroom in any given school,
depending primarily on the teacher, since the programs
nearly always are shaped by the teacher and not by the
superintendent or the board of education. Yet, the issue of
Christmas observance still provides more difficulty both for
school officials and pa -ents than any other event in the
school calendar.
The key to solving this situation lies now, in r'y opin-
ion, more in the hands of the parents than of the ..eachers.
In addition to what happens at schools there is also need to
develop a family attitude toward Christmas and Hanuka.
Parents, more than teachers, have to concentrate on ex-
plaining to the children that while Christmas is a religious
holiday for Christians marking the birth of Jesus, Hanuka
is a holiday for Jews marking bravery in a battle fa. liberty
and religious freedom.