THE
JEWISH NEWS CUSPS 275-5201
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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 18th day of Tevet, 5744, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 1:1-6:1.
Prophetical portion, Isaiah 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23.
Candlelighting, Friday, Dec. 23, 4:48 p.m.
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 17
Page Four
Friday, December 23, 1983
WHAT A NIGHTMARE!
A lad of 17 went berserk!
He left a trail of crimes. He set two
synagogues on fire, damaged the homes of a
rabbi and a Connecticut legislator who is
Jewish.
It all happened in August and September,
and only last week he was arrested: he is a
demented young Jew and his insanity created
havoc in West Hartford, Conn.
Now the message is that the nightmare has
ended in West Hartford. It hasn't! It remains the
cause for deep chagrin that it should have oc-
curred, that a teenager should have resorted to
such crimes!
Many questions arise to continue the hear-
taching concerns. The evidently insaned young
man did not set fire to a library, or a secular
school, or a church. He seems to have limited his
dementia to Jews and their houses of worship ;
Understandably, it was promptly interpreted as
anti-Semitism and the media, city officials,
church leaders expressed their horror. They
must be relieved, yet the general chagrin re-
mains, and if there is embarrassment stemming
from a mentally-ill person it is especially de-
pressing for Jews — that in their ranks de-
veloped such a horrible experience.
Then, in the course of some temporizing,
there is the realization that no one is immune
from developing mindlessness, that much as a
community may seek to train nobility of
thought and respect for the law, there is never
the fullest protection from an emerging destruc-
tion of the mind with resultant criminalities.
There is so much for all peoples to do, to
aspire to in the elimination of such tragedies!
There are multiple duties to provide the best
training and to aim for the highest goals in life.
That is why an appeal for the colleges serving
the needs of the blacks is sounded on the theme
that "a mind is a terrible thing to lose." The
mind must be trained and protected and re-
spected hopefully to be geared toward service to
mankind.
-
Therefore, the judging of the West Hartford
experience as a nightmare demands another
serious consideration — the approach to the
problem that is labelled anti-Semitism. A de-
plorable occurrence in an American city, which
immediately drew 'Contempt _for the hatred for
Jews that is defined as anti-Semitism, must not
discourage the human factor and should not
lessen the opposition to Jew-baiting.
Perhaps there should be a change in tactics.
Perhaps, whenever there is evidence of racism
as it affects the black neighbors of the Jews, or
prejudice affecting Jews that is immediately
labelled as anti-Semitism, there should be an
equated treating of such inhumanities as anti-
human. That which causes hatred for blacks
also has roots in anti-Jewishness and anti-
Catholicism and they must all be treated alike:
as anti-human and as anti-American.
The Jewish experience in West Hartford
places emphasis anew on the need to provide the
best education for the youth, to emphasize the
moral and ethical legacies of Jewry. The highest
attainments in such aims do not provide assur-
ance that the self-hatreds which often emerge
will vanish, that there be no criminals in Jewish
ranks. It is too much to expect, yet a great deal
to hope for and to labor for.
Indeed, one nightmare has ended without
the assurance that more will not emerge to
plague the sensibilities of the people directly
affected by the horrible occurrence. There are
many crimes in this country and there are many
hatreds to be eliminated from human relation-
ships. The overwhelming populace is law-
abiding. A very small group causes them con-
cerns and agonies as law-breakers. It is in the
striving for the highest goals in life, for all
Americans, for citizens of all faiths and racial
and nationality backgrounds, that the solution
is rational. Then, even in nightmares there is
comfort.
MANY MORE NIGHTMARES
This is a year of many nightmares. In all
parts of the world violence was rampant in the
months that marked the conclusion of this occa-
sionally terrifying 1983. Many nations suffered
from the tensions. The Middle East continues
among the major sufferers from inhumanities.
Many are among those who have gone mad,
including an Israeli in an Amsterdam criminal
act.
As if the agonies caused by the PLO were
not sufficient, the Lebanese uncertainties keep
adding to Israeli tensions and the terrorism evi-
denced in the bus bombing in Jerusalem is part
of nightmares that add pain to endless hear-
taches.
Most shocking of all is the international
organization that was organized for peace and
instead harbors animosities. The United Na-
tions is major among the nightmares suffered
by mankind. Israel is a chief sufferer from the
world organization which is often dragged into
gutter-like performances.
In a single month, with rapid succession,
the UN General Assembly adopted five resolu-
tions so viciously angled against Israel that the
medievalism of the most atrocious anti-
Semitism was overshadowed.
It is as if the UN had nothing else to do but
to persecute Israel and to seek her destruction.
And the pattern set for such actions becomes
even more violent when the world powers fail to
condemn such inanities.
All of the anti-Israel resolutions had only
two opponents — the United States and the
victim of the discriminating acts, Israel. In only
one instance, Canada and Australia joined the
limited opposition. Meanwhile, the enemies of
Israel also have tolerated the anti-Semitic ten-
dencies introduced by some Arab spokesmen.
- Could there be a more evident nightmare
than the one associated with the international
organization?
4twori o
rrA c)
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7. . „
Eminent Jewish Authors
in Literary Anthology
A veritable literary treasure is provided in an anthology that is
the result of skillful ingathering of the works of many of the most—)
eminent Jewish authors of this generation.
Himself recognized as an author of important Jewish works, and
distinguished as a translator from the Hebrew and Yiddish, an-
thologist Howard Schwartz, St. Louis educator, provides the trea•
sures from Jewish writers in "Gates to the New City" (Avon Books).
The more than 100 tales- in this collected effort include Bible and
Midrash texts, selected from the most eminent in Jewish literary
ranks.
There is fascination in texts which are both the traditional as I
well as the commentaries, and in the totality of Jewish authorships
which include both the sacred as well as the modern by celebrities like-
S. Y. Agnon, Bernard Malamud, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Cynthia
Ozick and many of their contemporaries.
Sandwiched in between a tale by Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav'
"The Tale of the Menorah," the first item in this 815-page book, and
the Hasidic theme, "The Death of Rabbi Yoseph" by David Slaborsky,
are the many scores of gems that will revive interest in the numerous
subjects which make up an inspiring and informative literature.
With every story there is an explanatory note by the
anthologist-editor of "Gates to the New City." The collective effort is a
gate to treasures that are both history and fiction.
Exemplary in the texts is the description of the Bible story, titlea -
"In the Beginning," by the famous poet and essayist Zalman Shneur.
In that section is included the poetic "The Creation of Man" by Morris
Rosenfeld.
Theodor Herzl is represented with his well-known essay "The
Menorah" in the Apocryphal section which includes selections from
the writings of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Meyer Levin.
Total coverage of the themes would require pages of quotation s,
and comments. Suffice it to point out that this interesting anthology
contains selections from Elie Wiesel, Franz Kafka, Hayyim Nahman
Bialik, Martin Buber, I. L. Peretz, Sholem Asch, Sholem Aleichem,
Israel Zangwill, Isaac Babel and many others, including those al-
ready referred to earlier.
There is this especially to be noted about "Gates to the New City."
The superb editing provides the means for symposia and special
classes to be devoted to learning about Jewish literary classics and
their authors.
Thus, the notes about the authors of these collected stories is a
special 20-page appendix to the volume. It therefore serves as a Who's
Who of Jewish writers. There are numerous stories in this volume by
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslay. Here is the description of him in the
notes on authors:
"Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav was born in Medzibuz, Ukraine, in
1772, the great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism.
He became a prominent although controversial, Hasidic rabbi; he
began in the last years of his life to tell his Hasidim teaching stories
that took the form of fairy tales and folklore. Five translations of
Nachman's tales into English have been made, including Martin
Buber's "The Tales of Rabbi Nachman" and Meyer Levin's "Classic
Hasidic Tales." -
This anthology is also encyclopedic. Devoting 77 pages to notes
about the stories, the editor renders a distinct service to studies about
Jewish literature.
"Gates to the New City" enriches studies, provides fascination for
history as well as fiction lovers, will be treated as a gem in all libraries
and the homes where books are treasured.
I