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October 30, 1987 - Image 2

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1987-10-30

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1 PURELY COMMENTARY I

The JCCouncil: Its Democratization Processes

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

A

s anniversaries are treated,
the 50th of the Jewish
Community Council is not
an ordinary one. Many of its
evolutionary developments were
revolutionary. Its history is a record
of notable changes in procedural and
ideological commitments that were
markedly transformations in
American-Jewish linguistic and
political-mindedness. From Year 1 to
the current Year 50 of the JCCouncil
there have developed vast changes.
Thus, at the very beginning, the
JCCouncil was dominated in large
measure by the recent immigrants
and Yiddish-speaking. Yet there
were enough of the Jewishly-
dedicated native-born who gave the
JCCouncil the strictly American
tinge. The generations were merged
quickly into what is the present
status of an important movement.
Indeed, the oratorical Sam

Lieberman was listened to with as
much respect as Fred Butzel or
Julian Krolik or James Ellmann.
Therefore the bilingual like Joseph
Bernstein and Shmarya Kleiman
typified the Americanization
tendencies that were just coming to
fruition. In a sense, it neared the
completion of the Americanization
trends.
For a number of years the
JCCouncil was the medium of living
up to the commitment of not aban-
doning the immigrants' role in
the community, and their medium of
speech and ideas also were to be
respected. They were, and that's
what gave strength to the emerging
unifying force in Detroit Jewry. The
commitment was translated into
action, by means of the Yiddish
cultural programs, concerts and
other approaches to a kehillah
(community) that was in search for
unity.
This ideological function
contributes immensely to the casual
aims of the JCCouncil. The newly-
created movement had its

beginnings in tragic times. There
were the anti-Semites, Coughlin
et.al ., at home; Hitler and his Nazi
gangs abroad. There were battles
that needed voices to fight them in
defense of justice, Jewish rights and
Jewish ideals. The JCCouncil's
leadership maintained that only in
the democratic way of life could such
voices resound and be heard. The
already-functioning community body
which was destined to finance the
JCCouncil's needs, the Jewish
Welfare Federation, maintained that
an ideological need was already
being fulfilled by it. That's when
genuine war for domination
commenced. It was a bitter
confrontation that lasted for several
years.
It wasn's always a courteous
battle for ideas. It developed into
masses battling classes. Rabbi
Morris Adler and Rabbi B. Benedict
Glazer staunchly advocated
community domination by the
Council. Nominations for
membership on the Federation board
of governors were challenged and

disputes were heard at public
assemblies. The democratization
advocates triumphed when
congregations, landsmanshaften,
women's groups commenced to enroll
as members of the Council.
In the struggles that ensued it
was a study in democratic trends in
a population that had extremes in
Orthodoxy, Conservatism and
Reform. It took time, but the rancor
vanished and Council and
Federation came to terms. After all,
philanthropy is major in Federation
aims, and that is retained and is not
changeable. This is a demanding
factor in Jewish life. Council is
constantly called into action in the
civic-protective duties. This is where
democracy plays a great role in the
collective American-Jewish scene.
It was an ideological struggle,
and perhaps it is well that its
bitterness should be a matter of the
past. That it was a democratizing
process is something to be proud of.
Therefore, the 50th anniversary
celebration has had a justifying
claim to jubilation.

Centrality Of Synagogue Defies Abandonment

D

ays of Awe, Rosh Hashanah,
Yom Kippur, the Succot
festival — they are now some
days in the past, but not forgotten.
Their echoes linger. It may be another
full year to benefit again from their
blessings and spiritual gifts. For many
there may linger the greeting of many
a rabbi, in many congregations, with
the admonition "Glad to see you after
such a long absence . . . See you again
next year." It is no longer treated as a
rebuke. After all, we are in the tens of
thousands who may be in the
synagogue three or four times a year,
or even ten or 15 times a year. But we
do attend and read and listen and pray
— don't we?
Therefore, now
that the certainty is
r ••••
• • •
affirmed and we do
worship,
even if it is seasonally, to affirm, to em-
phasize, to acclaim the basic duty as an
ideal, when we speak of synagogue we
speak of the centrality of Jewish life.
The synagogue is indestructible. A
neighborhood and a location changes;
an established congregation name —
never! Officers, boards of directors
change, the commitment to the faith
never!
We surely do not need a reminder
that every time a synagogue is van-
dalized, it is as if our own sanctity was
besmirched. When we read about the
thousands of Jewish houses of worship
that were desecrated and destroyed, it
is as if there were thousands of scars cut
into bodies. Reasons multiply why the
way we identify must have the respect
of the centrality I alluded to.
In his always definitive evaluations
of the concepts of Jewish life, Dr. Philip
Birnbaum quoted two of the most emi-

2

FRIDAY, OCT. 30, 1987

nent Christian theologians of this cen-
tury, George Moore and Robert Travers
Herford. In his illuminating essay on
the Bet Knesset, Rabbi Birnbaum
stated:
Since the synagogue fulfills
an educational purpose, as well
as a devotional function, in-
struction in the Torah forms a
major part of congregational
worship. The reading from the
Torah, accompanied by inter-
pretation of passages read, has
come to be as much a part of
worship as the prayers and
meditations. The synagogual
liturgy has developed in a way
that enables every devout wor-
shiper to become familiar with
the various forms of Jewish lear-
ning and religious expression.
The ideals of Judaism are
always brought afresh to the at-
tention of the worshiper by
means of the Siddur which, in
addition to its purely liturgical
contents, is replete with vital
Jewish instruction.
It has been pointed out that
no human institution has a
longer continuous history than
the synagogue, and none has
done more for the uplifting of
the human race. With the
synagogue began a new type of
worship in the history of
humanity, the type of congrega-
tional worship. In all their long
history the Jewish people have
done scarcely anything more
wonderful than to create the
synagogue (Herford). "Judaism
gave to the world not only the
fundamental ideas of the great
monotheistic religions but the

institutional forms in which
they have perpetuated and pro-
pagated themselves" (Moore).
There is history in the Birnbaum
definition of the synagogue. He defines
it as the spiritual home of the Jew. This
is the synagogue's spirituality as Dr.
Birnbaum traced the history of the Bet
Knesset:

The synagogue, as a place of
congregational prayer and
public instruction, had come in-
to existence long before the
destruction of the Second Tem-
ple and the cessation of the
sacrificial worship. It is general-
ly assumed that the synagogue
had its beginning during the
Babylonian captivity in the
sixth century before the com-
mon era, when the Jewish peo-
ple were separated from their
Temple and its centralized
sacrificial system and was
brought to Judea after the
restoration of Zion and the
rebuilding of the Temple. It has
been estimated that approx-
imately four million Jews of the
Diaspora had more than a thou-
sand synagogues by the time the
second Temple was destroyed in
the year 70. The third-century
synagogue at Dura-Europos
was excavated in 1932-5. Biblical
scenes were painted on its walls.
During the Second Com-
monwealth there were hun-
dreds of synagogues in
Jerusalem and the rural towns
of Eretz Yisrael. Egypt is known
to have had many synagogues
during the third century before
the common era. The celebrated

synagogue of Alexandria,
Egypt, was a magnificent edifice
in the form of a basilica, in
which the most important crafts
were represented — goldsmiths,
silversmiths, weavers, — each
having an appointed place. In-
scriptional evidence has reveal-
ed some twelve synagogues in
ancient Rome.
Throughout its long history,
the synagogue has been the
spiritual home of the Jew; hence
the various titles by which it has
been known: house of prayer,
house of study, assembly house,
people's house, little sanctuary.
The synagogue has been the
spiritual home of the Jew in
view of its many functions. Not
only was it a place for divine
service, but also a center for
study, for tsedakah and social
work.
Such is the significance of the
spiritual home of the Jew — the Bet
Knesset. It must never be tampered
with. Its sanctity also defines the im-
portance of the commitment to Bet
Knesset. Such is the value of the
spiritual home of the Jew.

Honors For Cohn
And Mandel Berman

A

n appreciative community has
reason to acclaim the national
recognition accorded to two of
its very distinguished citizens. The
Brandeis Award of the Zionist
Organization of America for Federal
Judge Avern Cohn and the national

Continued on Page 54

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