New Year Means A New Beginning:
The Significance of Rosh Hashana
By DVORA WAYSMAN
—
World Zionist Press Service
JERUSALEM — Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, is different from its secular counterpart. It occurs
on the first of Tishri and it is more a day of reflection and repentance than one of celebration. It is preceded by
the Hebrew month of Elul, when we prepare ourselves spiritually for the forthcoming "days of awe." On the
Saturday night before Rosh Hashana we begin saying special penitential prayers called "Selihot." The first
night these are said at midnight, and after that, just before sunrise.
New Year's Day has a number of other names. It is known as "Yom HaDin" (Day of Judgment), "Yom
HaZikaron" (Day of Memorial) and "Yom Teruah" (Day of Shofar-sounding). Its mood is a little ambiguous—
On the one hand it's a festive day which we also call "Yom Harat Olam" (the birthday of the world), but it's also
a solemn day of reconciliation.
Why do so many Jews who never enter a synagogue at any other time somehow manage to join a
congregation, if only for a few hours, on this -day? Many are even willing to pay a whole year's
membership for the privilege. The observance of Rosh Hashana binds Jews to their heritage and
expresses their identity, no matter how far they may have strayed from Jewish tradition.
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Welcoming
the New Year
in a Planning
Spirit
for Higher Goals
for All Jewry
THE JEWISH NEWS
A Weekly Review
Commentary, Page 2
On the Threshold
of 5744:
Resolving
the Agonies
and Anticipating
the Blessings
of Jewish Events
Editorial, Page 4
Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 1.
17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833
$18 Per Year: This Issue 40c 'September 2, 1983
Power Struggle Ignites Israel
Infighting on Begin Successor
Anti-Semite Arrested
After Fracas With Bus
Driver and JWV Editor
ATLANTA — Sam Greenberg, national editor of Jewish War Vet-
erans of the U.S.A., and Fred Lester, Atlanta, Ga. bus driver, united
last month to put an anti-Semite in jail. In their testimony before the
- Atlanta City Court, the following story emerged:
Greenberg and eight other members of the JWV were passengers
on Lester's bus on Aug. 19, during the annual JWV convention. Ethel
Toobin of the JWV party was asking the bus driver questions about the
schedule when a large white man yelled, "You're a stupid lady. You
must be Jewish. Hitler should have put all the Jews in the ovens."
Lester immediately informed the man, Henry Whatley, that
he didn't want to hear that language on his bus. Whatley's re-
sponse was a stream of anti-Semitic vulgarities. When he re-
ferred to Lester as a "black Jew;" the bus driver replied, "I'd
rather be black than a white like you."
Lester told Whatley to leave the bus. Whatley refused and contin-
ued his anti-Semitic diatribe. Greenberg, a World War II veteran, then
lunged for Whatley. As JWV members restrained Greenberg, Lester
stopped the bus, locked the doors, and assisted in keeping the two men
apart. Lester advised Greenberg that the bigot should be smacked, but
it wasn't worth it. Instead, bus driver Lester called the police, who came
to the locked bus within minutes and arrested Whatley.
Greenberg and Lester were the primary witnesses at the court
hearing the following day at which Whatley pleaded guilty to disturb-
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A fight to decide on a successor to Premier Menahem Begin has
broken out within the top echelon circles of his Herut Party. Several hours after Begin told party
stalwarts and other leading representatives of the Likud coalition that he will not reverse his
decision to resign, Herut Cabinet ministers and senior party, officials met in special session
Tuesday night.
Begin said he was moved by the statements and appeals of the Cabinet ministers and other
key officials of the coalition parties to get him to reverse his decision. "I would like to stress that I
do not blame anybody for my resignation," Begin said.
He then disclosed for the first time the reason for his decision: "I simply cannot bear the
responsibility any longer. If I believed that there would be a chance to continue, I would have
considered it differently. It was not a sudden decision. I am asking you to allow me to present my
letter of resignation to the president today." He then asked those present to continue to serve as
a unified coalition after his resignation.
But Begin's desperate plea was rejected. Yaacov Meridor, minister for economic
coordination, a long time friend of Begin, said, "I turn down your request, Mr. Prime
Minister." Begin responsed, "Okay, I will do it then without your consent." He then
began to write his letter, mumbling toward Meridor, "Yaacov, it will not help you."
As the letter was sent to an adjacent room to be typed, Justice Minister Moshe Nissim was
the first to suggest that Begin postpone formally resigning. "This is much too serious a decision,"
he said. "Give us time out for several months."
Finally, Finance Minister Yoram Aridor proposed a formula that was accepted. He re-
minded Begin that even if he resigns he would still have to head the caretaker government until
an alternative government is formed. Therefore, Aridor suggested, Begin should remain in
office until a new coalition is formed which would allow "a smooth and comfortable transition."
Begin accepted this suggestion, but he stressed that this could not be a prolonged process.
Ministers stressed that the discussion-to name a successor would also have to entail the how
and the where for deciding on a candidate acceptable to all the parties and factions comprising
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Sinai Hospital Plans to Open
Goldin Center in W. Bloomfield
Sinai Hospital of Detroit will open the Nathan I. and Betty Goldin Health Care
Center in West Bloomfield in early 1984, according to an announcement made by
Maxwell Jospey, president of the hospital's board of trustees.
Services at the out-patient center, located at Farmington and Maple roads, will
include cardiovascular fitness and rehabilitation, physical medicine and rehabilitation,
and psychiatry. It will contain 27,000 square feet of office space, examination and
treatment rooms, and two gymnasiums.
"These programs, operating under the medical direction of leading prac-
titioners at Sinai, will extend Sinai-based care into an area where many of our
patients live," Jospey said.
The psychiatric services offered at the Sinai Health Care Center will' include both
comprehensive outpatient care for persons with defined mental or emotional disorders,
and the nationally known Problems of Daily Living Clinic for persons wishing to defuse
immediate problems, such as stress or family difficulties, before they become more
complex and require intensive intervention. Individual, family and group therapy will be
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Schools' Model UN Program
'Is Teaching Hatred of Israel'
NEW YORK — Eryk Spector, national chairman of the Herut Zionists of America,
has blasted the United Nations Association of the U.S. (UNA) for "teaching hatred of
Israel and 'spreading misinformation to thousands of American teenagers." Spektor's
remarks were issued in response to a recent study published in Washington, D.C. by the
Heritage Foundation.
In the study, "The Model UN Program: Teaching Unreality," policy analyst Thomas
G. Gulick found that the UNA "Model UN Survival Kit" is widely used by schools
participating in the national program, which sees some 115 model UN conferences held
nationwide each year. "Young Americans," Gulik wrote, "are being greatly persuaded by
their model UN that Israel and South Africa are pariahs (and) that Israel is just about the
sole cause of Middle East tensions . . ."
Gulick cited the UNA "Guide to Delegate Preparation" as a source of anti-Israel
propaganda presented to students as objective fact. The guide's five-page summary of the
Middle East conflict repeatedly accuses Israel of "invading" and "attacking" its Arab
\ neighbors, while making only one isolated mention of PLO attacks on Israel.
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