THE JEWISH NEWS

(USPS 275-520)

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. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $12 a year.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor

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CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
DREW LIEBERWITZ
HEIDI PRESS
Advertising Manager
Assistant News Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 10th day of Nisan, 5739,
the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 6:1-8:36.
Prophetical portion, Malachai 3:4-24.

Wednesday, Fast of Firstbo'n, first Seder Wednesday evening

Thursday, first day of Passover

Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 12:21-51; Numbers 28:16-25.
Prophetical portion, Joshua 5:2-6:1-27.

April 13, second day of Passover

Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 22:26-23:44; Numbers 28:16-25.
Prophetical portion, Il Kings 23:1-9; 21-25.

Candle lighting, Friday, April 6, 6:45 p.m.

VOL. LXXV, No. 5

Page Four

Friday, April 6, 1979

Passox/er: Freedom's Test

Passover attains an added role of significance in this year of peace-
making. What had been the festival marking the Exodus from Egypt augurs
auspiciously as the beginning of some sort of return of Jews visiting Egypt, of
the removal of a curse that emanated from the years of oppression which
caused the flight of tens of thousands of Jews from the land of the Pharaohs
and their reduction in numbers from an Egyptian Jewish community of
75,000 in 1947 to the present 300.
This figure relates to the tragedy of Poland whose 3,500,000 Jews of the
pre-war era have been reduced to the 7,000 today. The modern Egyptian
Jews, it is true, were not massacred; they were permitted to leave their native
land, but they were shorn of their wealth, they lost their possessions, they
loved Egypt and were forced to acquire new allegiance.

What has just occurred is a blessing for Israel as well as Egypt; it is a
glorious hour for the world. For Egypt it is especially blissful because of the
economic gains certain to be gained by Israel's previous enemy.
There is much more, however, to be considered and judged in a situation
involved in_a framework of peace. There is the moral issue, the abandonment
of warfare, the extension of hands of friendship between neighbors.
It is because there will be no more war between Egypt and Israel that the
former, having lost 100,000 of its youth, and Israel, her ablest in the ranks of
the youth sacrificed on the battlefield, will be able to plan the raising of the
standards of people who, instead of planning defensively, now can build and
- create jointly.
It is the Passover that offers the opportunity to judge events in the
concept of freedom. Passover' was the introductory human festival for man-
kind's freedoms. It is from the Passover experience that the liberties aspired
to by the human mind gained its roots.
* * *
Yet, there is a testing of time. Just because the very idea of freedom is
preferred does not mean that it will be adhered to, that it will not be shat-
tered, that it is not continually endangered.
At this very moment the liberties offered to the peoples in the Middle
East are being threatened. In addition to waving the saber at Israel, Egyrs
kinfolk and co-religionists, the PLO and the war-seeking Arab states, are
menacing Egypt. This means that they are menacing the entire Middle East.
That's how the freedom offered in peace-making is being tested. It is one
of the tricks of time that freedom is always tested. Now the testing is even
more furious, more antagonistic.
* * *
In a sense, the Passover of this generation is more testing than ever.
There were few periods in history to be called comparable to the present, in
view of what had occurred only aiew days ago in Washington, on the lawn of
the White House.
When the peace pact was signed, all eyes, from all ends of the earth, were
on the American capital. There was the jubilation that comes from an antici-
pation that there will be no more war in that part of the world. And if war can
be outlawed, in the spirit of two peoples, in-one part of the world, why can't it
be copied elsewhere, on a -worldwide scale?
• With the testing of a peace plan there is also the speculation over the fate
of man's hope for- the liberties that are endowed for all peoples. Therin,
Passover enters as the testing power.
* * *
Will the test be met? Can the true lovers of decency and humanity induce
those who have not yet committed themselves to a just world to accept the
decisions of fellow humans who are laying down their weapons?
Freedom is being tested by time. Passover's message once again is under
Scrutiny. Those who love freedom will adhere to peace and struggle to make it
real. This is the message of Passover of the year 1979-5739.

The Seder Beckons to the Family

Concern over the future of the Jewish community is heard more often, the
anxieties are growing, the search for the influencing of youth, for youth to be more
identified with their people, is be-coming more urgent.
It is not only the increase in mixed marriages that is causing anguish. The
indifference towards matters Jewish has created a shock to the minds of those who
hold positions of leadership.
Therefore, solutions are sought, there is more talk about- supremacy for Jewish
education in communal planning, and the first reply to the need to create solidarity
for Jewish aims is the strengthening of the Jewish school.
•
Because the issue is so crucial, there is now a digging for the roots. Now there
is an ever greater desire to see the family ties and influences strengthened. Now it
is conceded that a breakdown in family loyalties is a cause of defections. from
Jewish ranks.
What is meant in the judging of the weakening of the family ties is that the
spiritual world is vanishing from the family circle. There is the regret that what
had once been a Jewish spirit in the home may have either been reduced to a
minimum or has vanished.
There had been holiday observance and adherence to tr
of such in environments.-.
homes. The charge is that it is now felt only in the fewest- adition
most Jewish
flow can it be restored, if that really is the cause of the indifference in Jewish
ranks towards matters Jewish?
It must once again be attained in the school. Unless the home becomes a center
of inspiration made possible by learning in a family circle there emerges the need
for a return to the classroom by parents who will thereby attain the ability to share
learning with the children.
It is the unity of the home that is vital to the concerns over defections in the
Jewish fold which lead to mixed marriages and other actions'leading to reduction
in Jewish loyalties. Perhaps the strengthening of home ties can begin and gain
strength from the Seder. The Passover family gathering has always been a compel,
ling factor in home-strengthening. It must gain new power with time and by
attaining the influential factor in Jewish living it can give strength to Jewry and
help reduce unconcern.
The home is basic to Jewish communal strength. Its links with the schools'
must be made unbreakable. When these factors are accepted - as duties they become
the means for advancement in Jewish home and community functions. .
Let the Seder retain its great family influence and it will lead to greater
loyalties in Jewry. Let there be a unity for the raising of the standards of Jewish
spiritual advancement. The attainment of these objectives will give to all Jewry
the blessings of a happy Passover.