2 Friday, November 13, 1981 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary Domestic Potpourri ... The Retirement of an Able Communal Administrator and Elevation of a Detroiter to a Post of National Importance ... Honors for the Prominent Schavers values. That is why the tribute to Moshe on the 20th an- niversary of his passing is such a meritoriously appropriate mark of respect for a person who was distinguished in his lifetime. Sol Drachler Enhances Record as Federation Directing Head Sol Drachler was challenged to emulate very suc- cessful predecessors when he assumed the position of Jewish Welfare Federation executive director. He had an excellent teacher in Isadore Sobeloff. His immediate pre- decessor, William Avrunin, pursued the task of keeping the Detroit community in the highest ranks of Jewish achievements. Drachler exceeded them all with the new records set philanthropically under his direction. More than that: he had a deep understanding of the educational needs, and he pursued them. He came from a family devoted to Zionism and Jewish culture, and he did not deviate from it. His retirement takes place at a time when the Metropolitan De- troit Jewish community can boast of unmatched attainments in many spheres. He has helped set the educational system in order. He has encouraged the expansion of the Federation Apartments SOL DRACHLER program. He gave a measure of encouragement to the movement to protect the retarded and less fortunate. Such is the fashion in which he has established prece- dents for devoted services for whoever succeeds him. An appreciative community surely wishes him well both in his retirement and in whatever services he may choose to render in his new capacities to follow his splendid career of 25 years of labors for the organized Jewish ranks here. Martin Citrin's Role in CJF: Recognition for Detroiters At the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations, in St. Louis, this weekend, a Detroiter is due to gain national recognition. Martin Citrin's expected elevation to the presidency of CJF is, in a sense, a continuing process of leadership for Detroiters in national ranks. The first Detroiter to be chosen for the CJF presidency was Max M. Fisher. Irwin Field rose to a top role when he became national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal and Paul Zucker- man preceded him in that national role. George (Mike) Zeltzer served as chairman of CJF Large Cities Budgeting Conference. Jennie (Mrs. Harry L.) Jones was national chairman of the UJA Women's Division. Citrin, as a past president of the Jewish Welfare Fed- eration of Detroit, held many local as well as national positions. Thus, he, too, rose from the ranks to be honored with national leadership. Of interest to this community is the rise to major lead- ership positions of Robert Naftaly, who is slated to become the chairman of the Large Cities Dudgeting Conference, and the planned elevation of Mr. Zeltzer, a former LCBC chairman, to the presidency of the National Foundation for Jewish Education. The role of Detroiters attests to the high level of communal achievements continually accredited to Metropolitan Detroit Jewry. Moshe and Nehama: Jointly Dignify the Name Schaver Moshe (Morris) and Nehama (Emma) Schaver were a team. Their names continue to influence, jointly, many movements. That is why, as the Lubavitch-Chabad movement pays honor to the memory of Moshe, on the 20th anniversary of his passing, by naming the auditorium in the movement's headquarters as a tribute to him, his wife's name remains an inspiration. Moshe Scheyer was a remarkable man. He was a typi- cal Russian-Jewish immigrant of the early days. He was inspired Jewishly, and when he recited "Ma-ayin yovo ezri — whence cometh help," he provided the answer that the immigrants of the early years of this century created for themselves. They labored, they struggled and they emerged victorious over poverty and want. What a legacy they provided for future generations! They began by living from hand to mouth and they knew, therefore, how always to treat the underdog, the im- poverished, the needy and oppressed. Moshe rose to leadership. He became a leader of his many followers. He was the lover of Zion who demanded and secured cooperation for similar devotions from scores upon scores of associates. His impassioned adherence to the principles enunciated by the Histadrut, the Labor Zionist cause, and its related movements had the same flavor of love and identification as his attachment to the Chabad. By Philip Slomovitz Warsaw Ghetto 'Uprising' Now Also Among Hidden Facts As If Jews Didn't Resist EMMA and MORRIS SCHAVER He sang too, and if ever there was a Hasid with an inspired faith it was imbedded in Moshe Scheyer. That's where his love for the young Nehama Emma Lazaroff fits in. From childhood, Emma loved to sing, and she captivated audiences, in the Westminster and Delmar Ahavath Achim Synagogue to start with, and then in many other assembly halls, from the age of 12. Then came her international career as an opera singer — Morris being a guide and her chief acclaimer. It was a love affair rooted in music. It gained power from the gifts made musically by Emma to the survivors from Nazism in the displaced persons camps, as well as in the ranks of Jewry everywhere. This is a scratching of the surface in the recollections of the gifts to the Jewish people and to human causes by Moshe and Nehama. Hebrew University, Keren Kayemet, the Jewish school and all centers of learning ... all are linked in Moshe's legacies and Nehama's assuring their continuity. Chabad was central in their judging of spiritual A church in the vicinity of Detroit had an exhibit of photos portraying "an uprising in Warsaw during World War II." It had been assumed that there was no secret about the most courageous resistance to the Nazis in April of 1944; that the courageous, who became the martyrs, who con- fronted an entire German battalion were Jews who would not submit to Nazism; that it was during Passover in the Warsaw Ghetto. But there was not a word in the newspaper report about the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto; that it was in the ghetto set up for Jews; that the event was recorded by the Nazis themselves as the most daring of the entire war. In the report about the church exhibit there was no mention of Jews, just as the RusSians have been hiding the truth about the 33,000 Jews who were murdered, many buried alive in the Babi Yar ravine, just as many in Poland speak only of Poles when referring to Auschwitz. It is horrifying enough that Jews should have been the victims in Auschwitz and at Babi Yar, and the resentment is over the failure to indicate the Jewish sufferings. This is especially outrageous when the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is clouded in unneeded mystery. If the bestialities are not to recur, the facts must not be hidden. If Jews are to havea measure of pride in the resis- tance, especially in the Warsaw Ghetto, the truth must not be erased. In the newspaper report about the indicated exhibit, at least, there was an inexcusable hiding of truth. Bnai Brith History Lists Movement's Values Bnai Brith is a move- ment that represents the cross-sectional groups of American Jewry. It has earned an unusually im- pressive history compiled by a highly-qualified histo- rian and researcher. "Bnai Brith and the Chal- lenge of Ethnic Leadership" (State Univeristy of New York Press) is this sort of story. Authored by. Vassar College Prof. Deborah Dash Moore, its less than 300 pages contain a compilation that is all-inclusive as an evaluation of the movement and its branches serving adults and youth, college students and the many other associates. Ms. Moore is professor of Jewish studies at Vassar and the author of important works dealing with major Jewish topics. Her account of the Bnai Brith record contains all of the movement's asso- ciates, the Bnai Brith Women as well as the men's groups, AZA and the youth counterparts. It tells the story of the rise of the Hillel collegiate foundations and it pro- vides an account of the civic protective activities and the manner in which the Anti-Defamation League was founded In 1908 by Sigmund Livingston. There is a tribute in the Moore volume that will make Bnai Brith members proud of their association with the movement. Prof. Moore states in her summa- tion: One hundred thirty years after its founding, it re- mains the secular synagogue. In the lodge meeting, at institutes and HENRY JONES conventions, members keep discovering the irrelevance of Jewish denominational loyalties. It does not matter to Bnai Brith whether one is Orthodox or Reform or any- thing in-between. It does not even matter if one does not believe at all. The secu- lar synagogue opens its doors to all Jews, and em- phasizes their ethnic sol- idarity. "Indeed, its secular ethnicity has served as a mortar of American-Jewish life, preventing deep ideological and religious differences from fracturing American-Jewish com- munal efforts.' "Bnai Brith's Jewish secularism has com- plemented its American nonsectarianism, encouraging tolerance for all forms of religious behavior. Thus the order has continued to provide a model of pluralist inte- gration. "Bnai Brith has also re- tained its emphasis on fraternity, while Bnai Brith Women have stressed soror- ity. Brotherhood and sister- hood have established not years after his arrival in only a common emotional New York City had led relationship among mem- bers but a hierarchy of lead- . Anshe Chesed, one of the new congregations. Dis- ership as well. satisfied with a purely The founding fathers and religious approach to the manner in which the Jewish life, he had also movement gained its footh- joined in the 1840s a old is described interest- newly founded 'cultus ingly. The beginning is thus verein,' the Mendelssoh- alluded to: than Society. "None of these activities, 'Because native-born however, completely satis- Jews were too much fied Jones or the other reg- American and too little ulars at Sinsheimer's. Jewish, the established While they welcomed the Jewish community was opportunity to create new unable to facilitate the Jewish institutions in immigrants' adjustment emancipated America they to living Jewishly in the saw the absence of com- new land. Instead the munal constraints bring community stimulated unexpected troubles in its the newcomers' creativ- wake. ity. "Internecine wrangling "This situation led ulti- fostered a proliferation of mately to the establishment new congregations, and in- of Bnai Brith. Faced with a stitutional competition native American-Jewish fractured Jewish fellow- community unresponsive to ship. The debates between their needs, German- the nascent Reform and Or- Jewish immigrants pro- thodox partisans filled ceeded to create their own Jewish gatherings with bit- institutions, thereby de- terness. Though the friends stroying the unity of kahal at Sinsheimer's had wanted and congregation — of to foster a spirit of coopera- community and synagogue tion among Jews in the city, — established earlier by by 1843 they realized they New York Jews. would have to avoid reli- gious issues in order to suc- "The new immigrants ceed." thus opened up the American-Jewish commu- While this volume could nity to reconstruction, reor- be used as the most power- dering the activities of the ful means of enrolling Bnai traditional European- Brith members, the Moore ' Jewish community. story serves the important purpose of providing an in- "Given the permissive teresting chapter in Ameri- American environment and can Jewish history. "Bnai an absence of energetic Brith and the Challenge of Jewish leaders, the prolif- Ethnic Leadership" is a eration of synagogues and highly-commendable work organizations seemed in- and a tribute to-a very able evitable. historian whose researched "Henry Jones, a reg- facts will fascinate students ular at Sinsheimer's and of American Jewish life and a born organizer, a few activities.