Mixed Media

The Moral
Ma'ority

News & Reviews

M y first perusal of The Jewish Moral
contemporary Jews. Fleshing out each
Virtues, by Eugene B. Borowitz and
discussion is a rich assortment of clas-
Frances Weinman Schwartz (Jewish
sical
Jewish texts on each of the
Publication Society; $24.95), revived a
virtues,
collected by seven generations
memory of one of the more dramatic
of
students
in Borowitz's seminar at
moments in my rabbinic education.
HUC-JIR on the "Jewish Moral
The year was 1956, the
Virtues."
course was Midrash and
The authors generously
the instructor was
identify the names of the
Mordecai Kaplan.
students who did that
Kaplan had assigned
research; they are effec-
us a book, titled Ethics,
tively
collaborators in this
by a professor at some
volume.
school in the American
The opening chapter,
Southwest, noted more
"What is Musar? An
for its athletic successes
Introduction," is a
than for its teaching the
superb, concise introduc-
humanities. The book
tion to that genre of
was supposed to treat
p.gene B. Borowiu
SChWart7
Jewish
writing, which is
ethical values in general,
largely
unfamiliar to con-
while Kaplan would
temporary
readers.
introduce the Jewish
In form and purpose,
Musar, by the way, is
dimension.
"The Jewish Moral
defined as the "practical
Virtues" is parallel to
But the book was
wisdom that has
William Bennett's best-
best-
simply impossible: two
sellina "Book of Virtues." informed Jewish piety
selling
columns to a page, small
through the centuries
print and seemingly
and
does so still today.
interminable. The class,
The
following chapters
to put it mildly, rebelled.
are
on
wisdom,
trustwor-
Kaplan flew into one
thiness, lovingkindness,
of his classic rages and
common decency, com-
stomped out of the
passion, etc. — each
room, only to return the
identified by both the
next week and to con-
English and the original
cede, "Gentlemen, the
Hebrew term.
book is impossible.
In each case, the
Where do we go from
authors
echo Yehiel's ten-
here?"
dency
to
discuss the vice
Kaplan would have
that is antithetical to the
been thrilled with this
Eugene B. Borowitz
specific virtue.
new volume by the prolif-
Throughout, the writing
ic Eugene Borowitz, the
is clear, gracious and emi-
Sigmund L. Falk
nently accessible: It's a
Distinguished Professor of
great
text for adult Jewish
Education and Jewish
education
— accessible but
Religious Thought at
not simplistic. The authors
Hebrew Union College-
are very much aware that
Jewish Institute of
virtues frequently conflict
Religion, and Frances
and that we have to choose
Weinman Schwartz, who
between competing virtues.
is associated with the
There is no hint of a
New York Kollel at
moral
straightjacket here;
HUC-JIR.
the
approach
is honest,
The authors base their
Frances Weinman
open, fluid and pluralistic,
work on a volume by the
but the sense of firm
13th-century Roman Jew Schwartz
advocacy is never lost.
Yehiel ben Yekutiel, Sefer
The unique richness of the
Maalot Hamiddot ("The
discussion stems from the wealth of
Book of the Choicest Virtues"), the
texts it provides. The bibliography itself
first systematic, comprehensive and
runs 10 pages, and the generous index
analytic treatment of the virtues that
of
names and books quoted runs 11
Judaism esteems.
more. The list of authors includes most
Using Yehiel's 24 categories, the
of the familiar biblical, talmudic and
authors effectively rewrite the book for

5/21

1999

90 Detroit Jewish News

later authorities, including Martin
Buber (of course!), Hermann Cohen,
Samson Raphael Hirsch and Joshua
Heschel, and some more surprising
names such as Mohammed Ali and
Jimmy Carter.
The melding of text and discussion
is impeccable. The equally extensive
glossary contributes to the accessibility
of the book as a whole.
For this theologian-reviewer, the
gems are the last three chapters deal-
ing respectively with "Knowing God,"
"Fearing God," and "Loving God."
The subtle discussion of the tensions
between the mind and the heart,
knowledge and feeling, philosophy
and psychology, all in a few brief
pages, are paradigms of exposition.
I've learned a great deal from this
book. An enthusiastic thank-you to
the authors.

— Reviewed by Neil Gillman

Dr. Neil Gillman teaches Jewish
philosophy at the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America.
This review has been reprinted
with permission from Saga: A

Journal of Jewish Responsibility.

43.4WAIRMKON.W.MSVMUMws.U',WWW.RAM.4%.'MaMaM

Ship QfThe Damned

M ost of-the more than 900 Jews
who boarded the St. Louis in
Hamburg in 1939 hoped the German
luxury liner would take them to safety
in the United States.
Instead, the "ship of the damned,"
turned back by Cuba and the United
States, became an agonizing symbol of
the indifference of the world to Jews
fleeing the Nazi killing machine.
Many passengers were lost to histo-
ry, their stories swallowed up in the
chaos of the Holocaust. But a new
exhibit on the St. Louis at the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington seeks ro restore as much
of that history as possible.
Scott Miller, one of two exhibit coor-
dinators, described how it all came about.
"Three years ago — by coincidence
or fate — four passengers from the St.
Louis came in to the museum's
Survivors Registry within one week to
look for fellow survivors. At that
point, we began to think it might, in
theory, be possible to trace the fate of
every single passenger."

Miller and fellow curator Sarah
Ogilvie began piecing together clues,
driven by the realization that the pool
of survivors was shrinking rapidly
because of old age.
"We started with an international
sweep of archives in Europe, the
United States and Israel," he said.
"We found it was easy to document
those who were deported, primarily to
Auschwitz, Sobibor and Majdanek,
because of the nature of Nazi records."
At the National Archives in
Washington, they surveyed ship mani-<
fests from the late 1940s, which point-
ed to a number of survivors who came
to the United States.
"After that we hit a wall; there were
still a couple of hundred missing pas-
sengers," he said. "How do you find
them? They are not on documents
anywhere. At that point we decided to
do community outreach."
They contacted Jewish communi- 1
ties around the world, asking for leads,
and published the list of unaccounted-
for passengers in newspapers on sever-
al continents, even in the Japan Times.
We combined traditional archival
research methods with some uncon-
ventional 'detective' methods that his-
torians typically do not use," he said.
A week before the current exhibitiorf-\
opened last month, only 35 passengers
had not been traced; a New York Times
story produced other tips, which
brought the number down under 30.
Jewish folklore implies that almost
everybody aboard the St. Louis per-
ished; the museum's project tells a dif-
ferent story.
"It challenges the myth without
c"=
detracting from the tragedy," Miller
said. "More than half of the St. Louis
passengers survived. Two hundred
eighty-eight went to England; many
others actually had waiting numbers
for visas to the United States.
"Most of them planned to go to
Cuba as a way station; some of their
numbers came up at the end of '39
and early 1940. But the ones whose
numbers came up in 1943 and 1944
were already at Auschwitz."
Other passengers were accepted by
Belgium, the Netherlands and France
— which put them once again in the
clutches of the Nazis after Hitler's
conquest of those countries.
The exhibit includes photographs of
families who survived and many who di(_=-7-\/
not. Some of the images suggest a care-
free vacation cruise; others seem to fore-
shadow the fare awaiting the subjects.
There are relics carried aboard the
ill-fated ship: a perfectly preserved
steamer trunk, an expensive looking