THE JEWISH NEWS (USPS 275-520) Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951 Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co. Member of American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, National Editorial Association and National Newspaper Association and its Capital Club. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 Postmaster: Send address changes to The Jewish News, 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $18 a year. 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 20th day of Kislev, 5744, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 37:1-40:23. Prophetical portion, Amos 2:6-3:8. Hanuka Scriptural Selections Thursday, Numbers 7:1-17. Dec. 2, Numbers 7:18-29. Candlelighting, Friday, November 25, 4:45 p.m. VOL. LXXXIV, No. 13 Page Four Friday, November 25, 1983 HANUKA 9 S NEW LESSONS Commencing with Wednesday evening, Hanuka lights will shine brightly in millions of Jewish homes. No matter how trying and oppressive times may have been, the Feast of Lights provides cheer in the legacies of inspired traditions. Even when conditions were menacing, the lights were never permitted to dim. Yet, even in this era of freedom, of hopes and aspirations undimmed, there are new con- ditions which call for concerned analyses. Hanuka is the festival commemorating the Maccabean victories, yet this era is marked especially by a craving for peace which at the moment seems difficult to attain. Maccabean glory has for its aim an end to warfare and realization of amity among na- tions, yet what was then a Syrian threat emerges anew as threatened brutality on Is- rael's borders. The unavoidable obligation to resort to weapons for protection is almost like the only military medium for peace, yet Jews often de- monstrate against resort to them, and their pacifism commands respect even if it is often unrealistic. This is a new condition in a time when Hanuka is such an urgent need for Jewish in- spiration to continuity of die life rooted in a heritage that spells safety for an entire people and the perpetuation of their highest goals in spiritual-cultural existence. It is on this score especially that the new Hanuka about to be ushered in has both mes- sage and challenge. They demand to know whether a spirit derived from Maccabean valor is to be limited in time, with an appeal only to the young who glory in the shining lights and are blessed with the gifts that come with them, or whether the spirit of the ages is capable of inspiring adherents of all ages. Hanuka is of the ages and for all ages, yet there are defections, just as there had been under Hellenism. Perhaps Hanuka is the more auspicious time to ask why there are defections, why the power of youth is often missing from Jewish commitments? The absentees are in evidence at cultural functions. They may be commencing to show themselves philanthropically, but even as ex- pressing compassion they must not be missed. When youth is in evidence up to the Bar Mitzva age, it will be judged as compulsory. It is in later periods that evidence is craved for on a voluntary basis. Therefore, when the teenager and the col- lege student are unaccounted for, the people have a right to be saddened. Then, there is a dimming of the lights. It may not be a new condition, but it is ever new when the challenge is not met, when ranks thin, when response is undedicated. Primarily, in the planning stages for the advancement of Jewish cultural aims, in striv- ing for the highest standards as means of draw- ing youth to Jewish ranks and to creating a strong, identity, the judgment to be exercised must be cautiously approached. A Book Fair, for example, need not be voluminous in per- sonalities. It must strive for the most dignified and most informative. The blunders of the re- cent past can be corrected if judgment also will be linked with criticism. This applies to the political challenges as well, and the judgments to be adhered to must recognize differing views. That is when a com- munity gains in strength. Hanuka will always be joyous and bright. In assuring it, the realities must not be ignored. The ranks must be strengthened. Only the youth of a nation can do it. Hanuka will' hope- fully be observed and the lights lit in such a spirit of responsiveness, with youth in the lead. PROOFS OF D EMOCRACIES A bitter debate that ensued between New York Mayor Edward Koch and U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger caused much chag- rin. Understandably, it created two camps of opinions with differing approbations and/or condemnations. It was a dispute in which the New Yorker challenged the Washingtonian on the realism of the latter's Middle East attitudes. Like many more, Mayor Koch accuses Wein- berger of anti-Israel tendencies. The dispute was in written charges and counterings, questions and answers. They were in writing, on paper. The issue is bitter enough and involves suf- ficient public interest also to have drawn the attention of Arab spokesmen who are assuredly anti-Israel. They chose to defend Weinberger and he may be disliking such a public associa- tion with his views. Perhaps it may have been a shock to the U.S. Secretary of Defense that, in agreeing with him and in differing with Mayor Koch, an Arab spokesman should have suggested that elsewhere the mayor "might have been shot." In his account of a portion of the Koch-Weinberger dispute, in the NYTimes, Nov. 12, Eric Pace reported: "And Raymond Rashid, an American of Lebanese origin who is a partner in Rashid Sales Company, a 49-year-old Brooklyn-based concern that distributes, wholesales and retails Arab films and phonographic records as well as Arabic books and newspapers, criticized Mayor Koch with a smile. He said, 'In some other coun- tries, if a mayor made disharmony with a cabinet minister, they might shoot him.' " There is a marvelous cause for vanity and inner satisfaction in the latter comment. Where the quoted comes from, the suggestion is that a person with a differing view could be shot. In Israel and in America, varying opinions have the pen and the typewriter as weapons for both attack and defense. Yiddish Proverbs Craving for English Translations Modern Yiddish writers merited translations into many lan- guages, predominantly into English. They included Sholem Aleichem and I.L. Peretz, as well as Mendel Mocher Seforim. Currently, Isaac Bashevis Singer is widely read in English, his latest work in translation being "The Penitent." Matching him is the recognition given to one of the most eminent writers of this era, Chaim Grade, whose "Rabbis and Wives" has appeared posthum- ously; others of his writings are scheduled for early publication. A work that craves for an English translation is "Yiddishe Shprichwerter" — "Yiddish Proverbs" — containing thousands of sayings and just reprinted by the Congress for Jewish Culture after a lapse of 70 years. In 1949, Schocken Books published a 120-page compilation of "Yiddish Proverbs" by Hana J. Ayalti. It is a bilingual collection and Ayalti introduced the Yiddish sayings in their original, with the English translations on parallel pages. Intermittently, several other accumulations of Yiddish sayings appeared. Now comes the immense Congress for Jewish Culture vol- ume, containing the thousands of Yiddish proverbs compiled by Ig- natz (Ignacy) Bernstein. The eminent compiler edited the accumu- lated sayings and the new volume lists them in alphabetical sections, from Aleph to Taf. Born in Vinitza, Podolia, in 1836, Ignatz (Itzhak) Bernstein was the son of Shimshon Bernstein, a wealthy sugar dealer, highly cul- tured and very philanthropic. The family settled in Warsaw in 1856. Visiting in Berlin in 1859, Itzhak found a treasured collection of sayings about Jews. He became so deeply interested in them that he devoted himself to the task of collecting literary essays about such proverbs. He collected 4,780 individual sayings in 100 languages. In 1900, he published a two-volume catalogue listing his collected sayings. It is still considered among the most classic typographical masterpieces. He bequeathed the collection to the Polish Academy of Knowledge in Cracow. This Polish academy did not even find it necessary to mention it in its biographical lexicon. The biographical details are based on Yakov Shatzky's "Lexicon of the New Yiddish Literature." The biographical data continues to indicate that a portion of Bernstein's collected sayings was reprinted by Mordecai Spektor. It contained 2,056 proverbs. It appeared in Spektor's magazine "House Friend" in 1888 and 1889. In 1908, in Leipzig, there appeared a deluxe volume "Yiddishe Shprichwerter" in the Yiddish original and Latin transcriptions, with annotations and a glossary of the Hebrew words in the text. In that effort Spektor had the cooperation of Benjamin Zegel and Dr. Shmuel Poznansky. This monumental work is "dedicated to the Jewish people" and includes some 4,000 proverbs. Spektor issued a strictly Yiddish edi- tion in Warsaw in 1908. A second edition was also issued in Warsaw, 1912, by Farlag Central. In 1948, an offset edition appeared in New York in a Yiddish text of 329 pages. Under the title "Erotica et Rustica," Bernstein issued in 1908 an additional proverbial volume of 227 sayings. It was reprinted twice. Bernstein died in Brussels and was buried in Warsaw. The current volume indicates that Bernstein was a cultural giant and philanthropist. Bernstein's ethnographic contributions were recognized by Nahum Sokolow, were retained by YIVO, and must be recognized among the great contributions to Jewish literary classics of all times. Hopefully, there will be translators who will be sufficiently skilled to provide this great work in an English translation.