THE JEWISH NEWS
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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CAR MI M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighth day of Heshvan, 5744,
the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 12:1-17:27.
Prophetical portion, Isaiah 40:27-41:16.
Candlelighting,'Friday, October 14, 6:31 p.m.
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 7
Page Four
Friday, October 14, 1983
IDENTIFY IDENTIFY!
A decision by the administrators of one of
the world's leading universities to commence
the current scholastic year on Rosh Hashana
fades into lessening importance in the light of
the response to it from the Jewish students who
could have been affected by the selected date.
When first announced, the setting of such a date
aroused considerable criticism and the univer-
sity's president gave assurances that Jewish
students will not be penalized for absenting
- themse lve s from classes on the sacred days.
• University of Michigan Hillel Director
Michael Brooks provided a commendable
analysis of the results of the controversy and the
measure of Jewish student identification in the
observances of Rosh Hashana, to which the sev-
eral thousand Jewish students at the university
were invited. His report on the matter to this
newspaper contained this telling sentence:
"Perhaps one of the reasons that there were
no complaints from students about being
penalized for not attending classes on Rosh
Hashana is that so many of them went to class.
This fact may well raise more questions about
the prevailing values of our community than it
does about the university's decision to begin
classes on Rosh Hashana."
Therein lies the problem. It is not the presi-
dent of the University of Michigan who should
have been faulted. Perhaps an indiscretion was
made by members of the U-M Board of Regents
who have the final word in matters involving
university actions. On this score an old error is
the failure of Jewish communities to provide
responsible bodies with Jewish calendars so
that dates of sacred Jewish occasions should not
be ignored. Likened to the indifference in
Jewish ranks, this is a minute factor in experi-
ences of the citizens of-i varying faiths whose
religious festivals hopefully will not be disre-
spected. It is the pointing of the finger at the
basic issue — that of unconcern — that calls for
serious consideration.
* * *
, U-M Hillel Director Brooks renders a very
valuable service with his frankness, with his
pragmatic judgment of a situation that invited
criticism yet failed to recognize the shortcom-
ings that cause deep worry over the attitudes of
youth toward their people and their legacies.
It is not a new problem. It existed, it exists
and probably will be perpetuated — because it is
so difficult to expect unanimous identification
with peoplehood. The reason for the special,
present-day concern is not the decision by a
university to commence a school year on a
Jewish sacred occasion but because so many
who may have been expected to truly honor
those sacred days traditionally and as members
of the Jewish community do not really care an
iota how their traditional sentiments are
treated. There are just too many who don't care.
This is the problem that confronts Jewry,
whose leaders and spiritual mentors find it so
difficult to resolve. Is there a solution?
* * *
There is a challenge in what may appear as
a mere incident in Jewish experience. The Uni-
versity of Michigan campus is not an isolated
instance in the indifference that plagues Jewish
life. "Plaguing" must not be interpreted as
panic. Life and identity go marching on, even
when the obstacles are severe. Even when
Jewish communities suffer from anti-Semitism
encouraged by the governments under which
Jews live, life proceeds with dignity and with
respect for a cherished heritage. But when there
are defections there is the need to appeal for
identification, and this is the urgency when
unity is weakened.
Indeed, the experience alluded to marks a
weakening of unity, and to regain strength the
reply to the experience of Rosh Hashana 5744,
directed especially at the youth is, "Identify! .
Identify!"
*
The obligation to identify, to share in the
unity of the Jewish people, never to separate
oneself from the Jewish community, is rooted in
Jewish tradition. It had the interest and con-
cern of the sages of the past and Jewish leader-
ship through the centuries, and it is like a com-
mandment in the Pirke Aboth, the Ethics of the
Fathers, where it is specified:
/tz vinz.
"Al Tifrosh min ha-tzibur"
"Do not keep aloof from the community."
Unity — andut — in Jewish ranks does not
mean, never meant, uniformity. It does not
imply a negation to differing views. The Jewish
experience defies such an attitude.
In the interest of the highest goals inherent
in Jewish ethical codes it is vital that dedicated
people must work together to attain the com-
mon good.
Neither is it a selfish aspiration. That
which elevates the Jewish spirit in striving for
the noblest ethical codes also contributes to-
wards the goodwill among all nations. This is
part of the plea for not separating oneself from
the community, for the attainment of identifica-
tion.
There is much to be said in sounding this
appeal. The legacies beckon to all in Jewish
ranks not to abandon either faith or the ethical
ideals that enrich Jewish life.
There are duties relative to the obligation
to identify that include the duties to mankind.
Upholding the idealism that is Jewry's contri-
butes toward the advancement of the highest
principles in humanity.
Jewry's numerical position in the world has
varied with the ages. There have been declines
and advancements. Communities rose and some
vanished. Always, the remnant retained the
great goals, rooted in Jewish traditions, which
gave power to humanism as well as faithfulness
that is mankind's claim to perpetuity.
It is in the best interests of the unity which
must lend strength to Jewry that the appeal to
all, and especially to youth, is:
"Identify!
"Identify! Identify!"
In English Translation
I.B. Singer's The Penitent'
Marks a Return to Roots
"The Penitent" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), which first appeared
in Yiddish under the title "Der Baal Tshuve," was -not judged for the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. It was published four years before
the eminent author was awarded the cherished world recognition for
his Yiddish literary works. Now, in English translation, "The Penti-
tent," is presented by the Book of the Month Club and the Franklin
Library.
The reappearance of this work may be treated as a surprise by
Yiddish readers and by students of Singer's career as a distinguished
and world recognized writer. It may even be treated as a personal
revelation by the author, since the very text marks a return to Jewish
roots in the personality of the chief character in the book, Joseph
Shapiro.
Singer had gone to the Western
Wall in Jerusalem and there he thought
of the character Shapiro. He recognized
him at once as a Baal Tshuva, which
literally means "One Who Returns."
The story is one of escape by Shap-
iro from his unfaithful wife. On his trip
to Israel he meets Priscilla and the rela-
tionship with her reveals much of what
is intended as a lesson in newly-
acquired faithfulness and devotion to
the Jewish traditions.
The emphasis is indicated when
Shapiro says to Priscilla: "There is no
I.B. SINGER
such thing as morality without religion.
If you don't serve one idol you serve another."
Then there is Shapiro speaking again: "Of all the lies in the
world, humanism is the biggest. Humanism doesn't serve one idol but
all the idols. They were all humanists: Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin . . ."
There is much of Singer's mysticism in his newly-translated
work, yet the "return" is the emphasis.
To make the return complete there is even the resentment of a
kibutz displaying Soviet symbolisms. It is apparent that the fulfill-
ment is one of being completely traditional for Shapiro.
In Shapiro there is even rebuke to the Orthodox fund raisers. He
defines his total acceptance of faith with an emphasis in the Creation
as related in Genesis as being the most intelligent, as he states it to
Singer for narration in "The Penitent": "If someone found a watch on
an island and said it had been made by itself in that it developed
through evolution, he would be considered a lunatic. But according to
modern science the universe evolved afl on its own. Is the universe
less complicated than a watch?"
Thus Shapiro: "I have linked myself to Jewishness with bonds
that are hard to tear. These bonds are my beard, my earlocks, my
children and now . . . my age as well." Also: "I believe in God, His
Providence, in man's free will. I have accepted the Torah and its
commentaries because I am sure that there is no better choice. This
faith keeps growing in me all the time."
Thus, "The Pentitent."
The hero of the Singer novel emerges in the fascination of a man
whose marital and sexual problems had an effect on the returnee to
Judaism, the adherence to an unyielding spirit that demands the
strictest in observance. The text emerges like a new Mitzva, pre-
dominating over all of the 613 commandments. That the revelation
should have begun at the Wall is an especially impressive factor in a
novel that draws new attention to the literary Nobellist.