THE- JEWISH NEWS
li.JSPS 275-520)
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 12th day of Tammuz, 5742, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 19:1-25:9.
Prophetical portion, Micah 5:6-6:8.
Thursday, Fast of the 17th of Tammuz
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 32:11-14, 34:1-10.
Prophetical portion (afternoon only), Isaiah 55:6-56:8.
Candlighting, Friday, July 2, 8:53 p.m.
VOL. LXXXI, No. 18
Page Four
Friday, July 2, 1982
THE HOMEWARD TREK
One hope dominates the minds of Jews
everywhere: that the homeward trek for the
Israeli military who are now in Lebanon will
commence very soon.
Would that it could be emphasized with a
hope for their return home immediately!
That's the tragedy of the event: that there is
an enemy to be dealt with, that in driving him
away from the home called Israel takes lives —
and time!
That's the tragedy in the wake of which there
are insurmountable difficulties.
Some differ with the view regarding the in-
evitability of the operation that was under-
taken. Yet there is unanimity that Lebanon
must be rescued and• that its attainment is
possible only with the ousting from that sadly-
afflicted nation of the Syrians and PLO. Resto-
ration of a democratic Lebanese sovereignty
and the speedy return of Israelis to their own
country are the compulsive factors in a tragedy
that is felt deeply, and is especially deplored in
Jewish ranks. Death as a war casualty is the
agonized and depressing reaction of all. There
will hopefully be a speedy end to the miseries.
Meanwhile, there is the confusion over Pales-
tinians who are erroneously translated as a link
with the PLO. If it is not heard often enough it
should be repeated that Israel does not reject
Palestinians, and if that nation did, such an
approach would be rejected in Jewish ranks.
There is a differentiation between Palestinians
and PLO. The latter are the enemy; the former
are those negotiated with for autonomy and for
neighborliness with Israel.
The tragedy in the current situation is that
peace maneuvers are slow moving, that they are
difficult to approach, that the U.S. emissary's
task was so difficult, some having believed it to
be impossible.
Ten days ago, in its issue dated June 23,
the New Republic stated editorially, warningly:
"The fact that influential Presidential aides
like James Baker can characterize last year's
Habib mission as a success is a measure of how
muddled American thinking on Lebanon has
become. Mr. Habib's mission was a failure from
beginning to end. He was sent to the Middle
East to remove Syrian missiles from Lebanon,
and the ceasefire he negotiated did not remove
them; it protected them.
"During the ceasefire the PLO rearmed mas-
sively with heavy weapons; and in the end, of
course, the ceasefire, having solved nothing,
broke down completely. American diplomacy
will not stand many such successes. On the
other hand, if the U.S. is resolute in demanding
that all foreign forces be withdrawn from Leba-
non, it has the opportunity to turn this latest
sad chapter in Lebanon's history into the begin-
ning of its national reconstruction."
The United States remains the most impor-
tant element in the current critical situation.
Out of this country's ranks must emerge leaders
strong enough to induce proper peace negotia-
tions and an end to Israel's precarious existence
under constant threats of annihilation.
RESCUING THE SCHOOLS..
If depressing economic conditions are catch-
ing up with this seriously-affected community,
then the challenge to leadership is more than
money. It is planning and coordination of ef-
forts. It is adherence to realities which also will
demand living up to a tradition, to an estab-
lished tradition for unparalleled generosity.
This editorial should more properly be
entitled "Saving Education." It is not the school
system and its teaching staff that is in trouble.
It is the reality of existing systems which need
unifying.
Some years back, it was this newspaper's
editorial opinion that one day school should suf-
fice for Metropolitan Detroit. The major hope for
an emerging knowledgeable generation of Jews
is from the day schools where there is provision
for the highest standards both in the secular as
well as cultural-spiritual Jewish studies.
Therefore, such a school system must be pro-
tected. It must have an assurance for con-
tinuity. •
This can only be attained from unified efforts,
from dedicated teaching staffs who will be
encouraged to make Jewish education their
careers with assurance of communal protection
undependent upon unionization. Teachers need
to and will be organized. Their sense of security
must come from a knowledge that the parents
whose children they teach will not abandon
them into economic insecurity.
Meanwhile, the major concern must be unifi-
cation of educational efforts which will dictate
strength in the day school system's existence.
The issues already having arisen over the fate
of two of the day schools in Detroit, the entire
school system must be studied anew. The after-
noon schools' enrollment has declined over the
past two decades to a quarter of the original, yet
it must remain the acknowledged communal
school system. But under existing handicaps
the community must consider whether the
entire educational complex should be unified.
Arising problems demand consideration of
the entire status of Jewish education in Met-
ropolitan Detroit areas. If there are vested
interests they should be abandoned, just as the
divisiveness in the civic-protective ranks must
be eliminated. Under economic pressures the
demands grow for unification and abandonment
of conflicting ideologies. The Jewish Welfare
Federation, always pivotal in such planning,
has the obligation of studying the issue, resolv-
ing the obstacles, unifying forces, thus assuring
the continuity of progressive schooling under
hindrances.
Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino:
Dictionary of Dialects
Hebrew is, of course, the predominant of languages for world
Jewry. It is the language of prayer and now the official tongue of a
sovereign state.
There were many Jewish dialects. Aramaic became the language
of the masses in Judea in the first century before this era. Ladino
developed as the tongue of Spanish Jewry. It was a Spanish dialect.
Yiddish was the dominant language, commencing in the Ninth
Century in the Rhine Valley.
The subject of Jewish dialects has been a source of fascination and
this emerges anew as a subject of unique interest with the appearance
of a most interesting book, "The Jewish Word Book" by Rabbi Sidney
J. Jacobs (Jonathan David Publishers).
The thousands of words listed in this book, their definitiveness,
the extent of the collected effort, all receive added weight in the
explanatory introductory essay in whcih the author relates the
Hebrew-Aramaic-Ladino history:
"Hebrew, the Semitic language of the Bible and post-biblical
Mishna and Midrash, has remained the classic language of Jews
throughout the centuries. It was the medium of discourse of the
Jewish people until about 100 BCE, when it was supplanted as the
language of daily use by Aramaic, which was originally brought to the
Holy Land by the returnees from the Babylonian Exile.
"Revived as a popular tongue with Jewish settlement in Pales-
tine beginning in the last decade of the 19th Century, Hebrew is the
lingua franca of the state of Israel with its polyglot population.
"Yiddish had its origins in the Ninth Century in the Rhine _
Valley, where it was known as Ivri/Teutsch, then Juden/Teutsch, and
still later Judisch. From the 13th through the 17th Centuries, it was
extended into the kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, where it became the
language of the Jewish masses.
"Written in Hebrew characters, Yiddish is an amalgam of He-
brew, High German, and Slavic, plus an infusion of words adapted
from the vocabulary of each country where it was commonly employed
— for example, Polish, Lithuanian, and (from the 1880s) English.
"Ladino, also variously called Judezmo, Spaniolish, Haketia, and
Jidyo, is the Judeo-Spanish language spoken by Jewry of the Iberian
Peninsula and the Middle East. (Some scholars distinguish.between
Ladino as a 'translation language' and Judezmo, the spoken lan-
guage.)
"Ladino became especially popular following the expulsion of
Jews from Spain in 1492. It rests upon a Spanish linguistic base with
the addition of Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Turkish, French, Italian, and
Portuguese words, and with Turkish as the most influential."
For a full appreciation of the value of this interesting book, some
examples are necessary.
Here are a few samples:
zach
A thing.
zaddik see tsadihk
zaft
Juice.
zaf-tihk
Also zaf-tihg.
Also spelled zaftik, zaftig, zoftik, zoftig, saftig.
1. Literally, "juicy, succulent."
2. Shapely, full-bodied, referring to the female figure.
Dialects gain vitality in this informative book. It also has
entertaining values. Some of the word translations will create chuck-
les. "The Jewish Word Book" is a Jewish vitality text.