yi3,!C i;li 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 • • • • 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.