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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 13th day of Kislev, 5744,
the following scriptural selection will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 32:4-36:43. Prophetical portion, Hosea 11:7-12:12.
Candlelighting, Friday, Nov. 18, 4:49 p.m.
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 12
Page Four
Friday, November 18, 1983
THANKING FOR BLESSINGS
Inhumanities capture the headlines more
speedily than good news. Horrors have brought
sorrow into many hearts, creating gloom in
many homes. Therefore, approaching the
Thanksgiving festival there is cause for much
reasoning regarding the values of a day that has
truly been sanctified on the American calendar.
Whatever the reservations, Thanksgiving
predominates as a day on which to express
gratitude for all that is worthy in human exist-
ence.
There are sorrows, but they are not of the
deliberate making by human toward human.
The indignities and the tragedies, the crimes
and the bestialities, incessantly arouse the call
to action for a better world, for a decent life, for a
civilized society.
There are the political implications not to
be ignored. There is name calling to be regret-
ted. The freedoms enjoyed supersede the con-
trary, deny whatever is ugly, assure a common
ground for a commonality of interests rooted in
the American way of life and in fair play by all
and for all.
The liberties to be grateful for are not min-
imal. Exemplary are the reactions to social
challenges. The President, acting for his duly
chosen administration, is undoubtedly sincere
in his legislative programs, and many of his
constituents disagree. It is the right to speak out
and to criticize that is so glorious about the
symbol evidenced in Thanksgiving.
This applies to the foreign affairs issues.
The President pursues policies which are not
always acceptable or commendable. The critics
are not silent. There is the right to criticize and
to condemn. Therein lies the cause for thank-
fulness.
These are ideals that are applicable to Is-.
rael where the differing views may arouse bit-
terness as well as appreciation, and the minor-
ity viewpoint is never stifled.
Such are the roots of true democratic prin-
ciples. Therein lies the glory of the day to be
devoted to Thanksgiving.
ISRAEL MEETS THE CHALLENGE
Israel is tightening belts — the govern-
ment's as well as the citizens'.
Reducing the immense budget of $21.5 bil-
lion by $2 billion, the economically-oppressed
government hopes to solve one of its major prob-
lems. In the process, educational services will be
affected, subsidies will be reduced, there is con-
cern over an impending unemployment prob-
lem.
Nevertheless, authoritative economists
view the new economic program as a necessity
and there is widespread belief that the problem
can be solved.
Israel enjoyed prosperity in many spheres
and many of its citizens took advantage of it.
Even the inflation ofapproximately 130 percent
did not destroy Israel's industrial capacities.
But the situation began to assume severe seri-
ousness and the government had to take drastic
steps in search of cures in an ailing situation.
A society that enjoyed so much progress
that perhaps a million Israelis were able to
travel widely for vacations must be expected to
cooperate in belt-tightening and acceptance of
such obligations as payment for higher educa-
tion for their children.
These are problems for the Israelis and will
surely be met properly. If Israel can avert an
increase in the yerida, the exodus from the
country, there will be a lessening of concerns.
It is Diaspora Jewry that is especially af-
fected by the new economic program, in the de-
mands to be made for cooperation in assuring
continuing educational and social services.
Whatever obligations have been met in the
past in both spheres become infinitesimal corn-
pared with the duties to be formed now, under
the new system. World Jewry cannot afford a
collapse for Israel's universities. The new
budget spells drastic reductions in subsidies ur-
gent for their survival and they now become the
urgent duty of Jewry, especially the American
communities.
The social services in Israel embrace the
consideration given to the new settlers, espe-
cially the immigrants from Russia. They affect
the support provided for the elderly, the Project
Renewal of the United Jewish Appeal as an aid
to the less fortunate Sephardic communities.
These must not be abandoned.
Therefore, a new condition demands an
added responsibility by world Jewry. It is
primarily an obligation upon the largest Jewish
community in the world, American Jewry. It is
a duty to be fulfilled. Let it be remembered
when the Allied Jewish Campaigners approach
the thousands here who are so vital to Israel and
are so important in solving her economic ills.
A LEGACY OF HATE
The 500th anniversary of the Martin
Luther revolt which gained fame as the Refor-
mation movement in Church history is gaining
modern acclaim. It receives recognition even at
the Vatican which was the first victim of
Luther's rebellion. Now it is hailed in East
Germany where religion is mainly scorned in
Communist fashion.
In the process, the worst of Luther's
ideologies is being ignored. His anti-Jewish
teachings were the mainstay of Hitlerian anti-
Semitism. When Jews refrained from support-
ing Luther, he became the leader in the most
virulent forms of hatred against Jews. Such is
the legacy not to be forgotten.
These are friendships between Jews and
Lutherans. These do not erase the legacies of
hatred and the Luther teachings cannot be for-
gotten.
`In the Land of Light
Photography as an Inspiration
Portraying People of Israel
A photograph often speaks louder than words. An accumulation
of photographs about a nation is certain to depict it as a family.
Rodney Smith, who has taught photography at Yale College,
provides the proof in an impressive collection of photos under the title,
"In the Land of Light: Israel, a Portrait of Its People" (Houghton-
Miflin).
With an introduction by Elie Wiesel, and a definitive statement
on photography by the creator of this volume, this collected effort is
about all the people in Israel.
The human element dominates the Smith photos. They are of
Israelis and of the people of all faiths who live in the Holy Land.
Shepherds and city dwellers are depicted here, and they include
the Sabras, the children and their elders. Those who live beside them
are here. They are the Druzes, Armenian seminarians, they and their
churches, the Ethiopian monk, pilgrims and patriarchs.
It is a manifold portrayal, people at work and engaged in prayers.
It was as a guest of the Jerusalem Foundation, on invitation from
Mayor Teddy Kollek, that Rodney Smith spent three months with his
family at Mishkenot Sha'anaim. That's where visiting writers and
artists are hosted by the Jerusalem Foundation. From there began
and developed the glorious theme in Smith's "In the Land of Light."
Wiesel's comment is on the people portrayed here and in his
introduction he asserts:
"These men and women, these boys and girls, thrust forward onto
the stage of history — they are the ones who, without knowing it,
provide us with the one human justification without which it would be
impossible to raise ourselves above defeat and tears.
"Let us look at them as they live: perhaps the light that is shed
will enlighten us."
For photographers especially, Smith's message is a credo, a defi-
nition of the art, the result of which is this immense work. Rodney
Smith proclaims:
"It is by the bow of a man's back, the way a woman moves her
body, holds a cup, looks at me, by the way people dance and sing and
laugh, that I understand them. I have a passion to get below the
surface of things, to find an enduring essence. I want each of my
photographs to express the underlying forces in life, each frame to be
able to stand on its own. When a photograph succeeds for me, I feel
that every inch of space is necessary. For these reasons, although I
may spend hours in a place, I often shoot very little film.
"I find I am always drawn to a subject: I may see something far
away that excites me, even if it is only a sense of light or space. I run
directly toward it and look through the viewfinder. I move closer or
farther away in order to harmonize my relationship to the subject and
to what I feel.
"My passion for clarity is particularly manifest in the way I use a
camera. Many photographers feel that, because the world is unclear,
they have no obligation to make their photographs sharp. I agree
that the world is unclear. Yet it is my compulsion to make the world as
sharp as possible. By doing so, I try to expose more than is readily
apparent. Thus I have some means of controlling chaos, if only by
describing it. However, the acuity of a photograph does not always
define life for me; detail sometimes reveals mystery."
The photos in this volume truly fulfill this mission. For photo-
graphers and lovers of art, Smith's work therefore emerges as an
inspiration.