2 Friday, May 23, 1980 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary By Philip Slomovitz The Tragedy of the Struma: Anniversary of When the Civilized World Permitted Escapees from the Brutal Nazis to Drown in Their Floating Coffins The Crime of the Struma, the Floating Coffin of the Nazi Era The tragedy of the Struma seems to have been forgotten. The 768 victims of interna- tional indifference to the persecuted and homeless who died in the sunken Struma, Feb. 24, 1943 was recalled in a single ceremony — when several hundred Romanian Jews gathered in Bucharest on Feb. 24, 1980, to commemorate the horrible experience. Dr. Moses Rosen, Chief Rabbi of Romania, speaking at that ceremony in Bucharest, said: "Their tragedy is the tragedy of people without any place in this world. They were banished by the Antonescu Fascists because of their (Antonescu's) hatred of the Jews. The Turkish authorities prohibited them from landing and the British government refused to allow them entry to the Holy Land. The Jewish people must remember that the existence of a Jewish state is a matter of survival for all of us." In the Bucharest Jewish cemetery there is a monument with the names of 768 - Faivele the 'Best Boy': A Lesson for People With Hearts Show mercy and compassion every man to his brother. —Zechariah 7:9 More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us. —George Eliot in "Mill on the Floss." Mercy and truth are met together. — Psalms 85:11 /t is one of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. — Lamentations 3:22. The merciful man does good to his own soul. —Proverbs 11:17. Philly, Philip, Faivel, Faivele symbolizes an appeal to the heart — and to the mind — in a documentary film that merits top rating for this year and for decades to come. It is a story that emphasizes common sense in planning human contact and security for a retarded man who is truly a mere boy,„ who is provided with comfort thanks to the interest taken in him by a cousin who sees the need for a home for the Best Boy Philly and helps to attain it. Ira Wohl is the producing genius who saw the need to help Philly-Faivel, who spent several years compiling the experiences and finding the home for his cousin. He pro- duced a documentary so immense in scope, so human, that his name must be recorded among the most creative in the documentary arts. So valuable is "Best Boy" in the tasks to aid the re- tarded that the Detroit Institute of Arts must be credited with a notable contribution for introducing the documen- tary film to this city and state. So valuable is the theme in "Best Boy" that its lesson should be translated into a challenge. It lends significance to the work of Metropolitan Detroit's Jewish Association for Retarded Citizens which has already established four homes of the type in which Philly-Faivel is now domiciled. The question now arises: how soon a fifth, a sixth, a seventh such home here for the scores on'the waiting list to be admitted into a Jewish, human, dignified, well- supervised housing project for the retarded? Are there enough people who can give a thousand, thousands, per- haps a million, to advance this human cause? That's the appeal of "Best Boy" and its theme to this community. How many will respond to this appeal? Teaching and Studying Ethics: Ethics of the Fathers and Jewish Experience as Guides Inadequate teaching of ethics in American univer- sities is deplored in a report by the Hastings Center of New York. While thousands of courses have been introduced, the Hastings study shows that the quality of teaching is low and the teaching of ethics is shunned entirely in many schools. It is stated in the Hastings report that nothing of a serious nature in ethics is offered for college students. There is a tradition for ethical teachings in Jewish historical experiences which should serve well in the quest for inspiration for such programs in the schools of higher learning. There is the tradition of reading the Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, every Sabbath afternoon, in Jewish homes. Siich a practice inspires learning, cements family feel- ings in the search for the high principles taught in these midrashic texts. In Jewish experience the ethical lesson is uppermost in practice, in study, in teaching. In her remarkable book, "Voices of Wisdom: Jewish Ideals and Ethics for Everyday Living," (Pantheon Books), Francine Klagsbrun provides guidance to ethical teaching and living. Dealing with Ethics of the Fathers and related topics, Mrs. Klagsbrun comments on temper and anger in ethical lore. As in all the topics analyzed, she makes her personal observation: Jewish tradition has always accepted some martyrs. An interesting "revelation" was in Deutschland Berichte, published in Bonn and edited by Rolf Vogel, in 1965. It claimed that the Struma and another refugee floating coffing boat, the Mefkure, which was sunk in August of 1944 with 313 escapees from Nazism aboard, only 10 surviving, were dynamited and sunk by the Russians as an act of war. The fact regarding the Struma nevertheless remain those which were described in the Hebrew Column issued from Jerusalem by the Brit Ivrit' Olamit. It appeared in The Jewish News Sept. 14, 1968. To guarantee retention of the memory of the Struma, to add tribute to the martyrs, this column merits reprinting here: . • The Struma In December 1941, the ship Struma sailed from the port of Constanza in Romania. It was a small cattle boat, only 190 tons, very old and dilapidated. There were 768 Jews on board who had succeeded in escaping from Romania before the Germans got there. They hoped to succeed in reaching Turkey safely, and from there to get to.Eretz Yisrael. The boat, which successfully traversed the Black Sea, reached the shores of Turkey with great difficulty and entered the harbor of Istanbul to take on fuel and food and to repair the engines which had broken down on the way. The boat received no help in Istanbul. The harbor services declined to provide fuel, and even food and water for the passangers were refused. The owner of the ship informed the im- migrants that the engine had broken down completely and that its repair would take until the end of January. It was wartime, and the Germans had great influence in Turkey. Therfore the Turks stated that not a single person would be allowed to leave the ship. And so the passengers remained on board the boat in the harbor for many long weeks, and the engine was still not repaired. On the 22nd of February, the immigrants received a telegram from Eretz Yisrael which contained the happy news that the Jewish Agency had succeeded in obtaining entrance permits for them to Eretz Yisrael. But by the next noon, the happiness had disappeared. Turkish police boats sur- rounded the small ship and towed the Sturma outside the port. They knew the facts: with a broken engine, the boat could not sail to Romania or to any other place in the world. The boat tossed around all night. The winds drove it toward the open sea. But nevertheless the passengers continued to hope that someone would come to their re- scue. It was a vain hope. Next day people on the Turkish shore heard a loud explosion. They could see in the distance that the Struma was sinking rapidly. What caused the mysterious explosion? That we do not know to this day. It is said that a sea mine struck the boat; and it is also said that a German torpedo sank it. The 768 immigrants on the boat drowned in the Black Sea. Only one man survived. Since then, the ship Struma has become a symbol of the struggle of the Jews who wish to return to their homeland. (Translation of Hebrew column, published by The Brit Ivrit Olamit, Jerusalem.) nnintpis 5r34n ntiql, 1941 - pn2- 1,-- 71:4F) rtViV 57 194 Tit) 190 - 714t2p: 1R4 nItt it nr)Ni, .aW 11c Irto?4;:q? ,alifir 768 1%1 71,74,f, 5s7 arra0 tin me! ;Ti?? -i ni145 1rrz7r1 np a1 betpoliii DV? isrp:tvl "W? :p --on5 ni5r,4 7170? at???171,. .5teltr - nxz? Vp nrp:i ;limp bvi rat -lime, nr,14?4r4 eri:Rt;7 nnp, :yap ,5134t3trK 5n3z? ntipp •1113 5p..5p3);:ild vilnn ng ipn5 einveryi 5133otni '7n4z 5t?4r; Nriritg ,mpst tnt ri74p 15Nptri ,p'i't n' nn'? asla rrn • rvni35 nni? shmr trz?ivi? srlin 71:4ti;;; 5173 5R5pn -tv intrinN a'31 11n1 nnrpr? NT IN;;I trn:n Ismin p '7171 at4ei risi9tOn atpif, m:17,1 7rT ilr)41 ti5 Np r3, 111711 alty4tR. ain mr- e? 1.79i2 ritp rIKM4 ,1oy4ti7 t 717 pN17pian niv135# stn ,5n43 T41"i;7 vir?1 4P-1,? le7 3 22 - 3 13a f ty tr5ise? steli 'nn,r,- ritin p-pn mint?? ?r4 ip'? r enrr4t?4,-1 ozN 19'p niaiNr1 ruppl t4it1*3 rriryp te?lti mprjp nierp .nrintm nt3 InNprr nitg ► t inp- 11K niN4in) . 5n.45 rnn -rini aingir r i nt3117-!: 5pyLro wi31?4 sria4z7 re?iDN. nnti;;1 se7 nal 4 npe? • me? .rYpv4 ?Tim nn9 nirtr9 •.mnim 71:31;;;;I r1;7. 17i1117.1 anir'Pri 5?1 •irrTrt lint? - Ngpia In-edn;.1 intrp ativ non rad ;in 517 riNtlit9 Ismr, ..5pym rilsriortzt 43,,m rnicizin4 nstnit2 -riz?iippo INK pimp nitre 1L7N, owl nn trriN tit$ rt3 ratt ?nninnnell 1O1 01:404 sn9 reiri WI:11W) 768 1174t1 trivra 5tri (intiv kinds of anger as necessary and important --- anger against social injustice, for example, or the anger of the prophets against the corruption of their times. But the uncontrolled anger of one person against another, the kind of anger in which people lose all sense of what they're saying or how they're affecting others, is condemned. The Book of the Pious, a popular medieval col- lection of moral lessons, whose main author was Rabbi Judah the Pious of Regensburg, suggests two practical techniques for keeping your temper in check. An anecdote related in the Fathers Ac- cording to Rabbi Nathan tells how Hillel kept con- trol of himself in a situation that would have sent most people flying into a rage. Hillel is often con- trasted with his quick-tempered colleague Shammai — "a person should always be gentle like Hillel and not passionate like Shammai." Examples qualifying the theme incorporated in this chapter by Mrs. Klagsbrun are: orin os Er-pit; ,nini sts, t;rs, 117 '1h11 i`Tan1i? .07n3 104 11;115 ttpkt ;1?, 5ngi? .nr;rilzin t? ni5.0 r3N4 trip ni.1, ntrfinl) A person's character can be judged by the way he handles three things: his drink, his money and his anger. And some people say by the way he jokes also. —Babylonian Talm tractate Eruvin, page 6 There are four kinds of temperament: Easily angered and easily appeased — his ga., is canceled by his loss. Hard to anger and hard to appease — his loss is canceled by his gain. Hard to anger and easy to appease — the saint. Easily angered and hard to appease — the wicked. —Ethics of the Fathers, chapter 5, paragraph 14 It is clear that teaching and study of ethics need not be a closed book. The Jewish experience emphasizes it.