THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Learning from the Holocaust By RABBI BERNARD J. MANDELBAUM (Editor's note: Rabbi Mandelbaum, executive vice president of the Synagogue Council of America, will speak at a May 21 reception at the Michigan Inn honoring Detroiters Benard Maas and Jack Shenkman, and Louis Kasle of Flint. This article is written for Holocaust Remembrance Day.) Trials and tribulation "in -qch and every generation" lstitute the saga of ue-wish history. The fall of the first and second Tem- ples and the decline of the first and second Jewish commonwealths instructed the history of mankind, both from internal Jewish failings and external op- pressions. In rabbinic commentary sour loss of religious and political autonomy is at- tributed to the sins of idolatry, materialism ; un- bridled "evil talk" of Jew against Jew and other :breaches of personal moral- ity. history, world In Babylonia and Rome are examples of political tyranny which were to be repeated by Italian Fas- cism, German Nazism and Soviet Stalinism. Again, in the extendedpath of his- tory, it is the "strange his- toric role of the Jews as the bellwether victims of im- pending doom." The daily headlines of our time about Russian pris- oners of conscience, with the central position of the Jew in this struggle for freedom and human rights, once again point to Jewish de- stiny as the continuing ral- lying point, and call to the conscince of mankind. It is in the context of world history and Jewish suffering and creative sur- vival that the Holocaust yields flashes of meaning, painful to consider, yet un- avoidable. Like its highly cultured, intellectually ad- vanced predecessors — Egypt, Babylonia, Rome, Medieval Europe, France — one of the most advanced, (scientifically and cultur- ally) nations of the 20th Century, Germany, echoed the venomous motif of mil- lenia. This was the soil which nurtured the "Final Solu- tion" of the "Jewish ques- tion" and, with the benefit of a more advanced technol- ogy, gave reality to enocide, barbarically de- oying one-third of a oer ople — the Jewish people. If the combination of a rich culture, progressive science and advanced technology — bereft of any considerations of humanity, morality, human rights — can do this to one people, what does it augur for the future of all the peoples of the world? With what trepidation does any finite mind and human heart approach the suggestion of what follows: in all its anguish and mystery, is not the Holocaust of the Jewish experience a more omin- ous cloud and flash of warning to mankind than even the horrendous combination of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and all the pictures of the de- vastating mushrooms of destruction created by the mega-bombs of mod- ern times? And is not the lesson in this: the Nazi poison started with anti-Semitism then spread to anti-trade union, anti-Christian, anti- humanity. There were those who appeased and felt it could be contained, "limited." Many years ago, Prof. Louis Finkelstein posed these horrendous questions to a group of his students: "What if one-third of America were annihilated? And what if that one-third was the communities around Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UCLA, Lincoln and JFK Cultural Centers? Then," he continued, "we begin to comprehend an- other, over-looked aspect of what happened in the Holocaust which destroyed one-third of European Jewry." Israel Changes Rape Procedure JERUSALEM (JTA) — Victims of rape will be given top priority in the emer- gency rooms of Israel's hos- pitals regardless of which hospital's emergency room is open, according to a new regulation announced by the Health Ministry. A similar regulation was is- sued two years ago but was implemented only in some of the hospitals. The new regulation is in- tended as another measure to cope with the growing in- cidents of rape by easing the pressure on victims. According to the new pro- cedure, a victim will be im- mediately checked by a senior gynecologist whose findings will serve as valid testimony in court. At the same time, the victim will be treated by a psychiatrist and a social worker. Until now a rape victim had to pass another checkup at a Kupat-Holim (sick- fund) clinic in order to ob- tain medical documents that would be valid in court proceedings. Finally, the demog- raphers now estimate that the Jewish population in the United States is just about six million — a number with terrifying meaning. It puts each American Jew in the posi- tion of the "first born" in Jewish tradition who has to redeem himself. How? By deepening commitment to Torah, by strengthening Eretz Yisrael, by a deep concern for people everywhere, by finding in the Holocaust a beckoning to greater responsibility and sacrifice on behalf of those who stood in what might have been our place — and for the redemption of our own souls. Friday, May 8, 1981 7 .1p 5 LBS. OF MATZO If I Can't Beat Your Best Deal Margolis Household Furniture 6 Mile, I Blk. 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