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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
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Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath is the 29th day of Tishri, 5743, and the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 1:1-6:8.
Prophetical portion, I Samuel 20:18-42.
Sunday and Monday, Rosh Hodesh Heshvan, Numbers 28:1-15.
Candlelighting, Friday, Oct. 15, 6:31 p.m.
VOL. LXXXII, No. 7
Page Four
Friday, Oct. 15, 1982
COMMISSION
OF
NQUIRy UM-
1NE
Be Riff
,
JUSTICE, U.S. STYLE
An historically dramatic case electrified this
community last week.
An accused participant in the mass murder of
Jews in Romania was ordered deported from the
United States.
That case, the conduct of the prosecutors who
acted in behalf of this government, the determi-
nation to expose the guilty who contributed to
the slaughter of millions of Christians and
Jews, evidenced the dedication to fair play and
justice by this country's responsible members of
the Justice Department.
Allan A. Ryan summarized it completely
when he termed the result of the Trifa trial here
"a complete and unqualified victory for the
United States."
The stirring occurrences here were, indeed, a
definition of the American method of dealing
with crime and criminals, with the danger of
this land being infiltrated by people with
bloodied hands.
This is a land of refuge for the oppressed. It
had never been intended as a landmark for op-
pressors.
The manner in which the case that has just
been resolved by a deportation order indicated a
thorough search for truth and facts. The accused
was exposed as a participant in the murderous
gangs more than 30 years ago. The U.S:Justice
Department acted on it with its thorough delv-
ing into the records available from several
countries for more than a decade.
The results emphasized the adherence to dig-
nity and truth by this government.
The decision fulfilled that aim.
BIGOTRY: ITS POISONS
In spite of the results of that trial in the Fed-
eral Court in Detroit, is the venom-relating to
the mass murders continuing?
Is it possible that the evidence of crimes falls
on deaf ears and that hatred has no limits?
How can it be that a spiritual episcopate, in-
stead of searching for truth, may leave the im-
pression that it is determined to give comfort to
atrocities and will be contributing toward a de-
nigration of the American judicial system?
This is not only a possibility. It appears to be a
reality. It creates doubts. It treats the courts
and the confessions secured by its processes as
an anathema.
Justice Department supervisor Allan A.
Ryan had an important comment during the
trial that just ended. He asserted firmly: "I will
not permit testimony in camera." This is
simplicity itself in an affirmation of the justice
pursued: that all available evidence would be,
as it was, presented in open court.
Could there be a danger now that such
policies will be treated maliciously, in an effort
to create a martyrdom where there is an estab-
lished guilt?
An attainment of justice therefore is now ac-
companied by a danger of an injection of a re-
newed form of bigotry in the American system
of justice.
This is something for all decent Americans to
be on guard against.
VENOM: SANCTIONED?
The famous declaration of faith that remains
a pledge for justice to all on this continent com-
menced with the declaration by President
George Washington to the Newport Jewish con-
gregation: "To bigotry no sanction."
How tragic that at this time, when justice was
pronounced by an Ainerican court, on the basis
of a confession of guilt by a Nazi collaborator,
there appear on the scene propagators of the
very sin and crime for which a cleric becomes
the first person accused of collaborating with
Nazism to be deported from this country.
Has it ever happened before that a man or-
dered out of this country could be holding a
press conference actually exonerating himself
and, inter alia, hurling charges at the American
legal system?
One of the defenseive weapons in these tactics
was to charge that the United States was set-
ting up a show by opening the trial to the public.
Mr. Ryan explained the system before the ac-
cusations could be made: "No testimony in cam-
era." This is a plain statement defining the
American way of life based on fair play.
Therefore there is another lesson to be
learned anew: that liberty is based on eternal
—
vigilance. Because of what has occurred, Jews
must be on the alert to know what has and may
happen.. Christians have the major responsibil-
ity to prevent the reoccurrence of the hatreds
that first strike Jews,. then'' enter the ranks.
There must be no sanctimony for hatred. To
assure it is the duty of Christians of all denomi-
nations.
CO MMUNAL AMITY
A quest for justice also demands adherence to
amity.
If there is to be a cooperative effort towards
attainment of good will, which is the first essen-
tial for democratic idealism, there must be a
pride in citizenship.
When foreign elements enter the American
arena with divisiveness, there is danger to all.
What the experience taught in the trial of an
anti-Semite that just concluded is that there
must be amity among all citizens, blacks and
whites, Christians and Muslims with Jews, to
the exclusion of hatreds. Let all adhere to the
American way of seeking justice, and the divi-
siveness could vanish.
mAssAcktg
RishonimY: 300 Scholars
Commencing With Geonim
"Rishonim" were the sages and talmudic scholars of the Geonim
to the Shulhan Arukh periods. They included the great scholars,
Maimonides, Yehuda Halevi, Rashi, Shmuel HaNagid.
Three hundred of them are treated biographically in a most
impressive volume, "Rishonim" (Mesorah Publications).
Even their brevity — the entire volume has only 224 pages
including lists of books produced by the learned men and the index —
elevates this book to considerable significance because it encourages
an interest in the early -scholars.
The publishers announce that those who followed the Rishonim,
the scholars of subsequent ages, will be treated in the follow-up
volume, "Acharonim."
The importance attached to this volume by the publishers has
considerable significance. It is pointed out that many of the depicted
sages have been treated in secularist fashion, Maimonides (the Ram-
barn) as a great physician, Yehuda Italevi as the eminent poet.
Mesorah Publishers take them and many others ,out of the secularist
connotations to provide for them their traditional and sacredly
Jewish roles in history.
Nevertheless, "Rishonim" has a distinct mark of modernity. It is
illustrated with maps of the countries where the scholars resided. It
has chronological merit.
The sages and talmudic teachers included in "Rishonim" are from
the Sephardic countries, France and Germany, the Provence and
Italy.
Thus, the 10th to 15th Centuries covered here indicate the
enrichment of Jewish scholarship represented biographically in a list
that emerges as encyclopedic.
The scholarship spread by the great personalities depicted here
resulted in the spreading of Torah learning to remote areas giving
Jewish learning a universal aspect.
The excellent compilation is based on research by Rabbi Shmuel
Teich. "Rishonim" was edited by Rabbi Hersh Goldwurm.
The manner in which this collective effort is treated is descriptive
in this excerpt from the introduction:
"In his approbation to Shem HaGedoliM (the classic work on
rabbinic bibliography by Rabbi Yosef Chaim David Azulai) Malbim
says eloquently that just as it would be unnatural for one who has
enjoyed the lavish hospitality of an anonymous host not to be curious
about the identity of his benefactor, so it is insensitive of the talmudic
scholar or layman not to be greatly interested in learning at least
something about the lives and attainments of the greats of genera-
tions gone by. Rambam in his commentary to the Mishna in Avos
(1:17) divides all types of speech into categories and describes as
`desirable' the kind of speech that lauds the sages and recounts their
virtues. .
"Historically, the Torah community did not assign high priority
to research into the lives of even its greatest mentors. As the flippant,
but true, folk idiom expresses it, 'We are more concerned with what
Rashi says than with the color of his eyes or the style of his clothes.' It
is undeniable that rigorous analysis of every nuance and implication
of the words of Rashi, Rambam, Ramban and so on far outweighs the
comparatively trivial study of their lifestyles. That Rashi was a wine
merchant and that Rambam was a physician is of infinitely lesser
import to the Nation of Torah than (in the expression of Meiri) that
Rashi was the Greatest of the Teachers, and that Rambam was the
Greatest of Codifiers."
A complete listing of the names in this volume provides an
encyclopedia of knowledge for the reader. It is valuable as a biog-
raphical compendium and as history.
.