12
Friday, May 10, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Schools As Symbols Demanding Priorities
Continued from Page 2
opposition from the assimilated elements,
but the Butzel view always was to respect
the wishes of a sizeable community, and he
therefore advocated the system's inclusion
into the fabric of organized Jewish life.
Celebrating the UHS anniversary,
this needs to be remembered. It is thanks to
visionaries like Fred M. Butzel that Jewish
unity becomes attainable.
Such was the beginning. It had obsta-
cles to be hurdled. Therefore, in recalling
an important historical event, there is the
obligation to remember the eminent
educator who helped build the system step
by step. Bernard Isaacs was the creative
engineer of an educational system that at-
tained national recognition. Coming here
as a very young man who had given up an
engineering career as a graduate of the
Cooper Union of New York to devote him-
self to Hebrew education, he became the
leader in his field as teacher and school
administrator emulated by his confreres
everywhere.
It should be noted that Mr. Isaacs at-
tained admiration as a storyteller. His
narratives in Hebrew, most of them also
published in English translations, mir-
rored Jewish life. His emphasis was on the
urgency of creating highest standards in
Jewish educational programming.
It was in surrounding himself with the
-7. ablest available teachers that he added to
his creative career, and the students he
trained testified to his devotional
achievements.
-
Emerging Challenges
Drastic changes have taken place in
educational procedures, in the secular and
the religious, in the Jewish sphere and on a
national scope.
The one-time five-day-a-week after-
noon school suffers drastic changes. Now it
is the three-day-a-week school and in some
communities the reduction has been to two
days a week. How fortunate that the entire
system has not been demolished, that there
are left the few days of study! This is the
negative aspect never to be ignored, in
view of the minimalism in the spreading of
Jewish knowledge.
It is necessary at this point to take into
account a survey exposing the ignorance
that is rampant in Jewish ranks about
Jews, their experiences, their historic
Fred Butzel
Bernard Isaacs
background — even the current emphases
given to the horror entitled Holocaust.
In an article syndicated by the London
Observer Service, bylined Robin Lustig,
datelined Jerusalem, referring to the
commemoration of the 40th anniversary of
the end of World War II, it is indicated that
"a disturbing survey published in Israel, of
all places, shows that even here the
younger generation has only the sketchiest
idea of what it was all about." The Robin
Lustig report on the survey thereupon pro-
ceeds to reveal the following, which needs
as a matter of public interest to be quoted
at length:
Surprisingly, Israeli teenagers
seem not even to know the mean-
ing of the word "holocaust," which
in Israel is used exclusively to refer
to the murder of some six million
Jews by the German Nazis.
According to the newspaper
Hadashot, which carried out the
survey in four Tel Aviv high
schools and published the results
to coincide with Israel's commem-
oration of Holocaust Day, one 15-
year-old said: "The Holocaust
happened during World War I in
1914. All the Jews were harmed in
the Holocaust. Nazis is another
name for the government in Ger-
many."
The newspaper quoted an-
other pupil, Itzik Leon, also 15, as
saying: "Hitler was the head of the
German army. His mother was
Jewish. A Nazi is a cruel Egyptian,
but the Germans were also called
Nazis. The Holocaust was a cruel
thing that happened to the Jews in
all the countries of the world. Hit-
ler died because the Jews killed
him."
High school principle Av-
raham Anavi said: "There is terri-
ble ignorance about the Holocaust.
Teachers don't have the time to
study-the subject seriously. A few
days are devoted to it before
Holocaust Day and that is the end
of it.
"Pupils regard the Holocaust
as a series of unconnected at-
rocities. So a conceptual insen-
sitivity sets in and the facts become
blurred."
Eli Rosenfeld, 16, seems to
prove the point: "I don't know too
much about the Holocaust," he
told Hadashot. "It didn't happen
during the war. It was in Germany.
The Jews started to grab the good
jobs and the Germans started get-
ting envious. Rules were issued
saying Jews were forbidden to
marry German women and Jewish
women were abused and sent to
extermination camps. A ghetto is a J
concentration camp. The
Holocaust ended when the Jews c.
went to their own state."
In reality, there is nothing new in
these revelations. For a number of years '
there have been surveys to indicate that
even in the universities Christian students
know more about the Bible than the
Jewish students. In nearly all areas, in
spite of the constant talk about the 1-,
Holocaust, the horrors are not being
treated knowledgeably.
When school histories are taken into
account and their records are honored, it is
vital that continuing needs not be ignored.
The United Hebrew Schools have`'
acclaimin the 65th birthday. It is a time for
rededication and of self-pledging to the
community that the aim for greater pro-
gress never be abandoned. The obligation
to the youth that it become knowledgeable
is so serious that while celebrating a birth-
day there is the duty to pledge allegiance to,--
the aims of the schools. That's a communal j
responsibility.
National Setbacks
There are current national setbacks
not be ignored while taking into account
the Jewish challenges.
The excessive military spending by
this nation threatens many social needs,
and also the educational.
Therefore, an old warning by an emi-
nent educator needs to be considered.
There is a timeliness not be ignored in
a statement made in the 1930s by one of the
nation's most distinguished educational
leaders, Dr. Abraham Flexner. In his
studies entitled "Universities," he issued a (
warning to the generations when he de-
clared: "Nations . . . borrow billions for 1
war; no nation has ever borrowed largely
for education. Probably no nation is rich
enough to pay for both war and civilization.
We must make our choice; we cannot have
both."
Hopefully, this nation's administra-
tive powers will take this admonition into
account. The school must remain supreme
in all human aspects. All links, including
the Jewish to the general theme, have re-
levance to this current discussion.
BOOKS
Bay City Rabbi Offers Reminiscences
Rabbi Dov Beril Edelstein, of
Temple Israel, Bay City, a
member of the Conservative Rab-
binical Assembly, incorporates
reminiscences of the eve of the
Nazi occupation of Hungary in
Worlds Torn Asunder (Ktav)
A scion of the Satmar Hasidim,
Rabbi Edelstein describes how, as
a youth, he suffered from the Nazi
terror. Even during the horrors of
degradation, faith sustained him.
Starvation in the Nazi camps,
where he suffered from the com-
pulsory labors, especially in
Camp Dora, are among the hor-
rifying experiences described in
this volume. He learned after-
ward that at Camp Dora the in-
mates were manufacturing the
V-2 Rockets for the Hitler armies.
Transferred to Camp Buna, he
witnessed executions of prisoners.
He ended his days at Bergen Be-
lsen with the defeat of the Ger-
mans and the war's end.
Himself a survivor, Rabbi Aha-
ron Teitelbaum, who ordained the
author of this book just before the
"Worlds Torn
Asunder," by Rabbi
Dov Beril Edelstein.
Ktay.
Nazis invaded Hungary, died as a
martyr of Hitlerism in Auschwitz.
Rabbi Edelstein's paternal
grandfather, Rabbi Shalom
Edelstein, was a master of the
Kabbalah. The Edelsteins were
adherents of the Vishnitzer Re-
bbe, whose Yeshiva Dov Beril
attended. Rabbi Edelstein also
attended the court of the Satmar
Rebbe.
Commendations of Rabbi
Edelstein's Worlds Torn Asunder
include impressive statements by
Detroit Archbishop Edmund C.
Szoka and Prof. Michael Keres-
tesi, of Wayne State University's
College of Education.
Archbishop Szoka stated in his
comment about the Edelstein re-
miniscences:
"The days of the Holocaust with
the suffering and annihilation
that it wrought to innocent people
have been a source of anguish to
all people of faith, especially those
committed to human rights.
"This account of the actual lived
experience helps us to enter into
the real-life situation so many
others have endured. At the same
time, they remind us of those who
suffered in the cause of human
dignity. When we are aware of
those difficult days, we learn more
about the meaning of compassion
and love, and are challenged to
echo a sentiment that should be in
the heart of every person, 'Never
Again!"'
Prof. Kerestesi, commending
the book, stated:
"Worlds Torn Asunder is an
important personal and historical
document. Beautifully, pro-
foundly, and movingly written, it
reads like an apocalyptical Has-
sidic tale in which the terrible
phylogeny of the Jews was acting
itself out through the author's
personal destiny. Gracefully writ-
ten, the story is a triumph.
A. B. Yehoshua
Novels Are
Paperbacked
A. B. Yehoshua, who ranks
among Israel's literary giants,
has gained recognition on a
worldwide basis. Two of his
novels, The Lover and A Late Di-
vorce, contributed toward the in-
ternational acclaim, his works
having attracted as much atten-
tion in translations as they have
in their Hebrew originals.
A Late Divorce was translated
into English by Hillel Halkin and
The Lover by Philip Simpson.
Both novels have just been reis-
sued in their English translations
by E. P. Dutton Publishers.