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.