PURELY COMMENTARY

YAD EZRA

feedllig the lew/sh ft/Ivry

BUY A CASE OF FOOD!

Use this coupon to help feed the Jewish hungry. YAD EZRA
will use your donations to purchase cases of food and
distribute them to our neighbors in need.

MO

MIMI

MOM WM

MEI

IMM

IMM N-

-

MARK AN "X" NEXT TO THE FOODS
YOU WISH TO BUY FOR THE HUNGRY

❑
❑
❑
❑
❑
❑
❑

1 case 6.5 oz. chunk tuna in water
1 case peanut butter (creamy)
1 case Quaker oatmeal (18 oz.)
1 case thin spaghetti (16 oz.)
1 case Bisquick (40 oz.)
1 case Matzo Meal (12 oz.)
1 case Horowitz-Margaretan
soup mix in tubes (6 oz.)
❑ 1 case raw rice (1 lb.)

$25.00 case
$21.00 case
$35.00 case
$15.00 case
$26.85 case
$29.25 case

$13.75 case
$12.33 case

Enclosed is my check in the amount of $
for
case(s) of food as a tax deductible contri-
bution to YAD EZRA to help feed the Jewish hungry.

Name

Address

City/State/Zip

Make checks payable to: YAD EZRA
and mail to: 15670 W. 10 Mile, Suite 107
Southfield, MI 48075

For more information, call (313) 557-FOOD (3663).

\s\k\

*N4

(.4k.

psN\rieatin 9 &

Year-Round
Specials!

Air Conditioning

UPGRADE TO A 90% HIGH
EFFICIENT GAS FURNACE OR
10 S.E.E.R. AIR CONDITIONER
Only $1700 Installed!!

Financing Available $34 per mo. - $0 dn.
Ask about our Preventive Maintenance
Program

38TH01 8 or 58SXA040

Call

ers i for

a free estimate!

642-4555
335-4555

The Bright Idea:

Give a Gift Subscription

40

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1991

THE JEWISH NEWS

Thanksgiving Holiday:
The All-American Sukkot

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

T

hanksgiving keeps
assembling American
generations to count
the blessings for the boun-
ties that are our legacies
provided by deep-rooted tra-
ditions. At the same time
there is an aspect that
makes the festival a spiri-
tual force for the ages.
Some years ago a Jewish
columnist, Dr. Ernest Philip,
provided an important
definition for Thanksgiving
and its Jewish roots. In its
simplicity, it also aroused
inspiration:

Thanksgiving Day was
instituted by the Pilgrim
Fathers some 342 years
ago. When they came
upon the bleak shores of
Cape Cod in 1620, in an
icy winter, they saw many
parallels between their
own experience and that
of the ancient Israelites
wandering for 40 years in
the arid desert after their
hasty flight from Egypt's
cruel bondage. Like the
Israelites of old, they had
groaned angrily under the
iron oppression of
England's tyranny; like
them they had ventured
on a trackless journey;
like them, their destina-
tion was a promised land,
not Canaan, "the land of
milk and honey," but a
bountiful America — the
New World.
And when, like the
Israelites of old, the
Pilgrim Fathers, after an
icy winter, when many
succumbed to cruel hard-
ships, while the strong
ones survived and later
enjoyed a plentiful
harvest, they gratefully
instituted Thanksgiving
day in the fall of 1621.
They patterned it after
Sukkot, the joyous holiday
of thanks to God for His
bounty.

Historical tracing is pro-
vided in the 1990 edition of
the Information Please
Almanac. It alludes to an-
cient times and the Ameri-
can record of it is to be re-
membered:

Thanksgiving, Observed
nationally on the fourth
Thursday in November by
Act of Congress (1941) ,
the first such national
proclamation having been
issued by President Lin-
coln in 1863, on the urging
of Mrs. Sarah J. Hale,

editor of Godey's Lady's
Book.

Most Americans believe
that the holiday dates back to
the day of thanks ordered by
Governor Bradford of Ply-
mouth Colony in New Eng-
land in 1621, but scholars
point out that days of thanks
stem from ancient times.
Fascinating literature about
Thanksgiving glorifies the
joys of the festival. There
is cause for deep appreciation
in the fact that an inspired
piece about Thanksgiving
was written in Yiddish by
Yehoash, an eminent Yiddish
poet, under the title "Thanks-
giving." It was published in
the English translation ap-
proved by him and we recall
now the text:

I thank thee and I praise
Thee, 0 thou radiant
grace,
From heaven or from
earth, from God or
from the race
Of men, that gleams
upon my way and
opens wide
The gates that lead
where might and
bliss abide.

I thank thee and I praise
thee, 0 thou
whispered word,
By whomsoever uttered
and wheresoever
heard,
Which burgeons in my
soul and craves to
fructify;
Which renders light my
step and illumes my
eye.

I thank thee and I praise,
0 flower, dream, or
look,
Or line long since forgot,
once met within a
book;
Or gentle raindrops
which into a stream
expand,
Or gold dust grown into
the treasure of a
land.

I thank thee and I praise
thee for each boon I
lift
Out of the hand of life,
and even every gift
Of death; for all
outwitted hurts and
routed woes
And pangs, and every
care that into power
grows.

There is a genuine thrill in
being able to reproduce this
poem as a means of honoring

a distinguished author.
Yehoash was the pen name
of Solomon Bloomgarden
(1870-1927). There is a spe-
cial fame attached to his
name because he had gained
recognition as the translator
of the Bible into Yiddish. His
remarkable achievements
are listed in the New Stan-

dard Jewish Encyclopedia:
Bloomgarden, Solomon
Born in Lithuania, went to
the US in 1890. He was a
prolific writer of dramas,
poems, fables, folktales,
and stories, usually in
romantic vein, and great-
ly enriched Yiddish litera-
ture by his creative use of
vocabulary.

While joining in the fes-
tivities for a great festival,
we can all benefit from par-
ticipation in honoring the
literature created for us by
Yehoash — Solomon
Bloomgarden.
That's how we rejoice in
important festivities and
perpetuate knowledge and
memories. ❑

•=•INEWS Imm""•••

Israeli Factions
Join Ranks

Jerusalem (JTA) —
Knesset members from the
left and right sides of the po-
litical spectrum were in rare
accord this week when they
introduced an amendment
affording Israel's secular
students "equal protection
and opportunities" to those
enjoyed by religious
students.
The amendment, "design-
ed to protect the secular edu-
cation system," was in-
itiated by Hemdat, the
Council for Freedom of
Science, Religion and Cul-
ture in Israel.
A draft bill, submitted to
Knesset members three
months ago by Hemdat
Chairman Hillel Shoval, al-
ready has the support of the
Labor Party, Citizens Rights
Movement and Center
Shinui on the left and of the
right-wing Tsomet and
Moledet parties.
The amendment was for-
mally introduced in parlia-
ment this week by Shulamit
Aloni of the CRM and Yoash
Zidon of Tsomet.
According to Hemdat, the
need to protect secular
students arose when the Na-
tional Religious Party's
Zevulun Hammer became
minister of education.