A JANUARY FUR CLEARANCE Forgotten Centennial Of Franz Rosenzweig AT MALTER FURS RABBI RICHARD C. HERTZ Special to The Jewish News OUR ENTIRE COLLECTION OF FINE FURS IS REDUCED M 20% 50% FROM TO Of M • LTER Harvard Row 1 1 Mile Rd. at lahser DESIGNERS OF FINE FURS INC HOURS: DAILY - 9:00-5:00 THURS. - 9:00-8:00 21742 W. 11 Mile Rd. Southfield Phone: 358-0850 SALE ENDS JAN. 31, 1987 BE A WINNER, PLAY DIE CLASSIFIEDS Call The Jewish News Today 354-6060 TEL-TWELVE MALL • 12 MILE & TELEGRAPH • SOUTHFIELD HOURS: DAILY 10-9 • SUNDAY 12-5 • 354-9060 FINE FURNITURE & ACCESSORIES ALWAYS 20% OFF. 18 Friday, January 2, 1987 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS LOOKING BACK y only nephew, John Hertz, a young at- torney in .Los Angeles, called me the last week of December and asked, "Uncle, do you know whose birthday falls on Dec. 25th?" I sensed a trap. "Who else besides Jesus?" I asked. "It's the 100th anniversary of the birth of Franz Rosenzweig, and no one seems to care about it." I was stunned. He was right. I have not seen a single article, seminar, lecture or celebration calling attention to this cen- tennial. Franz Rosenzweig was a re- markable man. I have long been intrigued by those who return to Judaism after being spiritually and Jewishly lost. Franz Rosenzweig was such a baal t'shuvah, one who re- turns. Young Franz was born Dec. 25, 1886, and brought up in Germany in an assimilated family. In his late 20s, seeking a meaningful religious experi- ence and influenced by a cousin who had converted, Rosenzweig decided to become a Christian. But he wanted to become a Christian the way the founder of Christianity did, as a real Jew. He decided to attend synagogue services on Yom Kippur in preparation for converting so he could "go through" Judaism to Chris- tianity. The fateful year was 1913. He went to a small orthodox synagogue in Berlin. There he found himself so moved by the sincerity of the men and women who confessed their sins and prayed for forgiveness in the Yom Kippur ritual that he stood there, utterly alone before his God, heard the Kol Nidre chanted and listened to the story of Jonah the prophet who tried to flee from God. He was transformed. When he heard the final clos- ing sentence, "The Lord, He is God!" and the Shofar blown, Rosenzweig left the synagogue a changed person. He had found his faith. He didn't need to become a Christian. He needed no mediator between him and God. Years later in a private letter to his mother, he wrote, "I have reversed my de- cision . . . I will remain a Jew." Franz Rosenzweig went on to become one of the most crea- tive leaders in contemporary Jewish thought. Drafted into the German Army during ' World War I, he found time to write on postcards to his mother his ideas about rede- mption and his Jewish heri- Dr. Hertz is rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth El and distinguished professor of Jewish studies at the University of Detroit. tage. Those postcards became the basis of his monumental work The Star of Redemption. The final section bore the date Feb. 16, 1919. God, World and Man were the first three elements of existence, he wrote. Creation, Revelation and Redemption — these were the theological terms used to link together the elements of the Jewish star's double triangle. Six points, six ele- ments. Not long after his marriage to Edith Hahn in March 1920, he received an appointment to head the Freies Judisches Leh- rhaus in Frankfort am Main. At the Lehrhaus he was to head an adult academy of Dec. 25 marked the centennial of one of the most influential returnees to Judaism. Jewish studies, but a medical checkup revealed he had been stricken with progressive paralysis. Gradually he be- came more and more handi- capped. Though gravely ill, he defied his affliction and carried on as an active scholar, writer and teacher. He collaborated with Martin Buber in translating the Hebrew Bible into Ger- man. A quaint typewriter was rigged up so he could transmit his thoughts to paper. Friends and disciples came to his bed- side to listen and learn. When he died on Dec. 10, 1929, Jewish life lost this cen- tury's most creative theolo- gian, once hailed by Commen- tary magazine as "the single greatest influence on the reli- gious thought of North Ameri- can Jewry . . . a layman, not a rabbi." Chicagoans Ask Fair Election Chicago — A non-partisan committee of Chicago civic leaders is urging all candidates in the upcoming city elections to commit themselves to a Code of Fair Campaign Practice, a series of guidelines aimed at discouraging appeals to bigotry and bias in the mayoral and aldermanic election cam- paigns. Called CONDUCT (Com- mittee on Decent Unbiased Campaign Tactics), the non- partisan committee is com- posed of 33 leaders drawn from the major racial and religious groups that make up the city. It was formed by the Chicago chapter of the American Jewish Committee two years ago.