THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
26 Friday, November 2, 1979
Earliest U.S. -Synagogues
Had A Special Significance
Fatherless Israeli Boys Get
Bar Mitzva Aid From Hasidim
By LARRY S. PRICE
World Zionist
Press Service
Recently at the president
of Israel's house in
Jerusalem, 97 12-year-old
boys were greeted by
Yitzchak Navon, the presi-
dent of Israel. The reason?
Their fathers had fallen in
action while soldiers in the
Israeli army.
I met with Rabbi Nachum
Cohen, a Lubavitch Hasid
involved in a program to
help the boys over a rough
transition for the fatherless:
the difficult months before
their Bar Mitzva.
He said that for the past
11 years fatherless boys
have been contacted
through the Defense Minis-
try, from the list of names of
those whose fathers had
BUCKL ES
uilis IMITED
been killed while in the ser-
vice of the Army.
Each summer for 10
days, the rabbi
explained, the young di-
vision of Habad takes the
boys to Kfar Habad, the
Lubavitch moshav out-
side of Tel Aviv. There,
for a while, they live with
a Habad family, and are
taken on tours of Israel,
which include the Red
Sea coast and Army and
Air Force bases, all the
time receiving religious
instruction, free of
charge.
At the end of the 10 days a
special treat is arranged.
The boys get to meet with
the president of Israel. In
years past, Zalman Shazar
and Ephraim Katzir, the
past presidents, also met
with other fatherless boys.
At the end of the summer
By MARC ANGEL
(Editor's note: Rabbi
Angel is spiritual leader
of Cong. Shearith Israel
in New York, North
America's first
synagogue.)
The names selected for
the synagogues in Colonial
America reflected the
Sephardi idea of commu-
nity, kahal. The
synagogues' names implied
prophetic meanings. They
envisioned , a national de-
stiny and they encompassed
all the Jews of the city.
Shearith Israel (remnant
of Israel) was the name of
the kehillot in New York
and Montreal. Mikveh Is-
rael (Hope of Israel) was the
name of the kehillot in
Philadelphia and Savan-
nah.
Newport's congregation
was Yeshuat Israel (Salva-
tion of Israel).
They did not see them-
selves merely as
synagogues serving seg-
ments of Jewry; rather
they viewed themselves
as communal govern-
ments of the Jewish
nation within their do-
mains. They felt a univer-
sal responsibility.
The vision and idealism of
these early congregations
formed the basis of a com-
munally oriented and
idealistic Jewish population
in this country.
Much has changed, of
course, during the past 325
years. Jewish communities
have developed throughout
the boys are again brought
together for a mass Bar
Mitzva. Many of them can-
not afford a private Bar
Mitzva,-and do not have the
benefit of a father to ar-
range the religious train-
ing. Rabbi Cohen explained
that the mass Bar Mitzva
gives the boys a feeling of
not being alone in the world
with their loss, that there
are other boy s just like
them, with the same prob-
lems of the fatherless.
The reception area of
the president's house,
which had received dig-
nitaries from all over the
world, was jammed with
women and children,
aunts and uncles, and the
97 whited shirted, white
kepahed boys.
After receiving their pre-
sents of books, the boys rose
and danced and sang.
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White yarmulked Israeli boys, nearing their Bnai
Mitzva, listen attentively as Israel President Yitzchak
Navon addresses them. Special aid is given to the
fatherless youngsters who have no other means of
studying for Bar Mitzva.
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the United States. There
has been a proliferation of
Jewish organizations, pub-
lications and institutions.
From 23 Jews in 1654, we
now have about six million
Jews in this country. We
have freedoms and
blessings which our ances-
tors may never have been
able to dream of.
Individuals wIla were
fleeing religious persecu-
tion first established Jewish
life here. Through the cen-
turies, hundreds of
thousands of our co-
religionists found haven in
this land of freedom and
opportunity.
Three hundred and
twenty-five years is not a
large span in relation to
the thousands of years of
our history as a people.
Yet, it is a landmark for
us. There are not too
many similar periods in
Jewish history when a
Diaspora community
enjoyed equality and
religious freedom for this
length of time.
But with all our satisfac-
tion at past blessings, we
need to remember very
clearly that the freedom of
the Jewish people is never
guaranteed; that we need to
work hard to keep our reli-
gion and our people
flourishing. Most of all, we
need to remember that just
as the first 23 Jews prayed
for God's guidance in 1654,
we need to do likewise. Even
more.
Carter Aide Eizenstat Explains Philosophy
IN DEP EN D E N C E
WI NG:
WASHINGTON
able to swim at a restricted
Stuart Eizenstat, chief of pool as a child and also re-
domestic affairs and adviser lated the difficulty he had
to President Carter, ex- placing in a law firm upon
plained why he has such graduation from Harvard.
Eizenstat also mentioned
empathy for the dispos-
sessed in a recent article in the Leo Frank case in the
the Christian Science Monitor story. Frank, a
Jewish manufacturer, was
Monitor.
Eizenstat told'of not being lynched after a kangaroo
trial in Eizenstat's home
town of Atlanta.
Before joining the Carter
staff, Eizenstat was named
"Young Man of the Year" by
the American Association
for Jewish Education for his
work as vice president of the
Atlanta Bureau of Jewish
Education.
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JERUSALEM — Israel
has issued a number of
stamps in its commemora-
tive series honoring the in-
ternational Year of the
Child, the recent contest of
children from all over the
world painting pictures of
Jerusalem, and three his-
toric personalities.
The historic personalities
stamps honor Aaron Aaron-
sohn, Joseph Trumpeldor
and Arthur Ruppin.
Aaronsohn immigrated to
Palestine from Romania in
1882 with his parents. In
1906, he discovered Emmer
.
wheat in the Galilee and es-
tablished an agricultural
experiment station at
Athlit. The station became
the headquarters for an un-
derground intelligence
service organized by his
family during World War I,
the Nili, which aided the
British.
Trumpeldor, a Zionist
activist in Russia and a
Russian soldier during
the Russo-Japanese War,
immigrated to Palestine
in 1912. Deported to
Egypt during the World
War I, he organized the
Zion Mule Corps and
later helped Zeev
Jabotinsky form the
Jewish Legion. In 1920,
he was killed during an
attack on the Tel Hai set-
tlement.
Ruppin is called "the
father' of Zionist settle-
ment." He became active
with the World Zionist
Organization in 1907. In
1933, he became director of
the Jewish Agency's reset-
tlement program and
helped thousands of Nazi
refugees find new homes in
Palestine.