THE JEWISH NEWS IUSPS 275-5201 Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951 Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association. National Editorial Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 Postmaster: Send address changes to The Jewish News, 17515 W. 9 Mile Rd., Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $12 a year. CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ PHILIP $LOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher ALAN HITSKY News Editor HEIDI PRESS Assistant News,Editor Business Manager DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 14th day of Tevet, 5739, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 47:28-50:26. Prophetical portion, I Kings 2:1-12. Candle lighting, Friday, Jan. 12, 5:04 p.m. VOL. LXXIV, No. 19 Page Four Friday, January 12, 1979 Prophecies of Doom A new assimilatory trend in Jewish ranks, the increase in mixed marriages, a threatened decline in educational processes — these and the factors affecting a minority in the American society have resulted in prophecies of doom. Acceptance of the figure of one intermarriage in every three in American Jewry has added to the pragmatic judging of Jewish attitudes as being affected by a lack of concern over the spiritual-cultural status of Jewry. "The Prophets of Doom" is the title of one of the portions of the • impending difficulties in Jewish ranks, in an article in the Jewish Quar- terly of London by the prominent author, Chaim Bermant, given prominence in the American Jewish Digest. Bermant emphasizes the diffi- culties confronted by the Jewish schools in securing qualified teachers, and the urgency of this major problem may also be attributed to an indifference in school management. Too many concessions have already been made in planning school curricula. Even if it is to be admitted that the afternoon Hebrew school had its shortcomings, at the time when it was a five-day a week school, it functioned with some efficiency. Now these schools have been reduced to two or three afternoons a week and there is the threat that Jewish education may once again be reduced to the Sunday schools. That is how declining standards take root. There is the consolation that the day school substitutes for the previous means of providing Jewish educational fulfillment. Is there an encouraging result from day schools' training? Have their graduates exercised sufficient influ- ence upon a succeding generation, in their own socio-economic-cultural circles to indicate that the maximum tasks are producing effective re- sults? If the latter is not as successful as anticipated then the search for causes and effects must re- vert again to the home. If the Jewish home is not solidly devoted to respect for Jewish legacies then the schools' efforts are weakened. Perhaps concerns about Jewish educational needs should be altered to give as much em- phasis on the adult as are sought for the youth. All-too-often a parent is found so uninformed about Jewish matters, about history and tradi- tion as well as current issues, that it is less surprising when the youth become indifferent to what may be imposed upon them in the Jewish school. The community's congregations have insti- tuted study courses which should be encouraged as the most vital needs for Jewish living. Every inducement should be given these study courses and the synagogues which include these study sessions in their yearly programs must be urged not to reduce them and to make them year- round obligations. The prophecy of doom is not unreal. It can be dissolved by making the school more effective and by restoring to the home its role as a place of love and contentment as well as the inspirer of knowledge and rejector of ignorance. The New Far East Dilemma Menahem Begin was in a relaxed mood when States, yet there wasn't the slightest evidence of he 'said that "Israel is not Taiwan," in a com- , anything approaching the hatred for Israel that ment on the new Chinese-American diplomatic was manifested in the earlier American- Chinese enmity. accord. The new era in American-Chinese relations The new developments, nevertheless, raise a poses the question whether there is a possibility serious question with regard to the future. Red China is on record, pursuing a policy of of an altered Chinese attitude toward Israel. antagonism toward Israel. Regardless of the is- Jews have already begun to tour China. Jews sues that were involved, no matter how persua- undoubtedly will be among business magnates sive the appeal to reason, China was always in who will encourage trade with the new friend of the ranks of the extreme Arabism. There was no the United States. Will Israel be excluded? Israel's traditional aspirations for amity with compromising with China when resolutions the nations of the world should indicate that condemning the Jewish state were debated. Israel's trade relations with Taiwan may every effort will be made to invite friendly ges- have had nothing to do with the Chinese atti- tures from the Chinese who were in enemy tude. There was more business with the United ranks until now. Middle East: Global Crisis? A serious question may well be posed whether the uncertainties in Iran, the continuing frat- ricidal events in Lebanon and the effects of the attitudes of the oil-producing nations may have a more serious effect on the free world than on Israel. Israel has an assurance that she will be pro- vided with her oil needs by the United States and that necessary quantities also will come from Mexico. But the Iranian civil war directly affects the free nations and the United States is confronted with challenges. There is hardly any doubt that the Soviet influences may have much to do with the pow- der kegs that have been set up in that entire area,. even if they are invisible. The fact is that Russian intrusions are in evidence in Syria, where leadership has developed in opposition to Anwar Sadat's quest for peace, that in Lybia and Iraq the USSR hope for power in the Per- sian Gulf is accepted as fact, that Russian weapons, in use by the PLO against Israel, have also had their role in the countries now suffer- ing from fratricidal wars. The Middle East is in turmoil with dangerous and damaging effects on the entire world. Jewish Self-Portrait: 'Letters of Jews Through the Ages In his nineties, Dr. Franz Kobler is one of the most active Jewish archivists and a most brilliant historian whose achievements are in the gathering of historic letters. His previous works attested to these skills. Now comes a verita- ble classic: "Letters of Jews Through the Ages," subtitled "A Self- Portrait of the Jewish People," (Sanhedrin Press of Hebrew Publish- ing Co.). Published in two volumes, totalling 700 pages, two eras are under consideration: from biblical times to the Renaissance and from the Renaissance to Emancipation. Dr. Kobler provides a remarkable account of letter-writing in history. His lengthy introduction commences with these explanatory comments: "The land from where Abraham came, ancient Mesopotamia, has to be regarded as the cradle of letter-writing. Thousands of preserved clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing provide an overwhelm- ing evidence that long before the beginning of recorded Jewish his- tory, in the first half of the second millennium BCE, at the time of Hammurabi, and earlier, royal, private and business letters were forwarded on the roads of the vast Babylonian empire. "Also in Egypt, the other powerful neighbor of Palestine, with its predilection for written records, letter-writing flourished prior to the entry of Israel on the stage of history. Actually the earliest documents of Hebrew history are letters written by Egyptian vassals, some petty kings and governors of Syria, to the Pharaohs Amenophis III and his successor, Amenophis IV, the famous Akhnaton. - "These letters, composed in the Babylonian language, the dip- lomatic idiom of those days, and inscribed in 'cuneiform writing on hundreds of clay tablets, were discovered in 1888 in Egypt on the site of Akhnaton's residence, Tell el-Amarna. "They confirm in an astonishing way the correctness of the bibli- cal account. For the letters teem with references to the invasion of Canaan from across the Jordan by the Habiru and Sagaz, and there is now little doubt that these invaders have to be identified with the Hebrews." Letters of the times of the Kings, Prophets and makers of the Talmud, of the Gaonic and Spanish period, of mystics and humanists, and scores of other eras will fascinate the readers. An example of the significance of the gathered material is th letter about "The Prophet Jeremiah: Opens a New Epic in History by His Epistle to the Exiles in Babylon." This is indicative o the authoritative scope of a volume replete with such documentaries, through the ages and the periods under review. A letter, "Jerusalem Invites Alexandria to Celebrate Hanuka," adds another aspect to these letters — the contacts that were retained by ancient Israel with the Diaspora of that time. Interestingly, concerned with the period of emancipation, the second volume commences with the letter, "The Community of Frankfort's Call for Help in Defending the Hebrew Books Against Johann Pfefferkorn." Thus the Kobler letters also deal with the perse- cutions and the Jewish defensive methods against religious prejudice. There are letters of all descriptions, including exchanges 'be- tween parents and children, and love letters. "Salamone Candia of Verona Writes One of the Earliest Extant Jewish Love Letters" is exemplary. For completeness in the study of Jewish history a knowledge of these letters and their contents becomes mandatory. For personal reading as well as for their use as textbooks, the Kobler letters mark a very notable contribution to Jewish literature.