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. ' FREE BUCKLE! WITH EACH PURCHASE OF $30 OR MORE HAND CRAFTED TOOLED LEATHER BELTS $8 8. $10 BUCKLES $ PEARL SCISSORS 3 FOR sil 4 EACH "THE BUCKLE LADY" OTHER BUCKLES AT $5, $6, $8, $10 and up OVER "1,200" DIFFERENT STYLES LARGEST BUCKLE DISPLAY IN MICHIGAN 2240 COOLIDGE 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. 5 BLKS. N. OF 11-MILE BERKLEY. MI 48072 Monday thru Saturday 10-6—Free Parking 545-6885 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. 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Visit us soon at our OPEN HOUSE EVERY SUNDAY 1-P.M. - 4 P.M. or call 353-2810 for more details 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.