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This Week

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Insight

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From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

The Mystery of History

Scholar Ellen Frankel delights audience with her talk
on superstition and symbols from Jewish folk traditions.

SHARON LUCKERMAN
Editorial Assistant

ost Jews have experienced or practiced tradi-
tions rooted in superstitions. Your bubbie
spits three times "tu, tu, tu" when someone
compliments her healthy grandchild. You see
a red string sewn to a baby's crib. Even the mezuzah you kiss
when entering or leaving a house has a humble beginning.
In fact, all these customs, says Dr. Ellen Frankel, edi-
tor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication
Society and a writer/editor of eight
books, are from folk traditions to
ward off a jealous evil eye.
Jewish traditions are passed on in two
ways, Frankel explained to a crowd of
nearly 100 who filled Adat Shalom
Synagogue's small chapel on Feb. 7 for
a program sponsored by the syna-
gogue's Adult Study Commission. "We
have elite texts passed from the top
down, and folk teachings, values and
superstitions carried from the under-
ground up — like dances, recipes and
symbols. And many of these were craft-
ed and transmitted by women."
With brio, Frankel mesmerized her
listeners with stories, history and tradi-
tional origins of practices we think of as
simply Jewish. Her theme targeted the
classic Jewish tension between an alien
cultural representation of the supernatu-
ral and our commandment to worship an invisible god.
Though the Second Commandment forbids graven
images of god, for example, the Greek god Apollo adorns
the mosaic entryway to the Jewish temple built in 4th-cen-
tury Palestine.
"There's a dangerous push-pull between ethical monothe-
ism and paganism; between beauty and symbolism versus
an abstract god," says Frankel, who received her bachelor's
degree from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in
comparative literature from Princeton University.

Telling Tales

Frankel surprised her audience by saying all Judaic symbols
probably came from somewhere else — "borrowed and
changed and made into our own."
The Star of David, she cited, is a pagan symbol first con-
nected to Jews in the 17th century to mark the original
Jewish ghettos in Europe.
Also, rituals we still practice originated elsewhere. Tashlich,
for example, a ritual casting away of sins, began in 16th-cen-

tury Europe, she said. A pagan custom at the time was to
feed the river demons so the waters wouldn't overflow.
"Many Jewish women probably saw their Christian neigh-
bors doing it," Frankel said, "and thought, 'It can't hurt.'"
When the rabbis couldn't stop the women from tossing
crumbs into the river, they found a text in Micah to make the
ritual "kosher." Simplified? Perhaps. But Frankel's talk just
skimmed the surface of her fascinating research and writings.
"Dr. Frankel has a sterling reputation," said Adat Shalom
Rabbi Daniel Nevins, who suggested her as a speaker.

"There's a dangerous
push-pull between
ethical monotheism
and paganism;
between beauty and
symbolism versus
an abstract god."

— Dr. Ellen Frankel, author and CEO
of the Jewish Publication Society.

A $10,000 reward was posted by
Satmar Chasidim in New York for
information regarding a gunman
who killed Satmar leader Rabbi
Haskel Werzberger.
Lillian R. Hurwitz of
Birmingham published a book titled
The Fraudulence of Letter Grading.
Israel's income tax authorities
announced that a new method of
tax evasion has hit the country —
wife swapping.

British Chief Rabbi Immanuel
Jakobovits said he saw the possibili-
ty of a Palestinian state on the West
Bank and Gaza Strip with its capi-
tal in Jerusalem.
Detroiters Betty Rath and Alice
Ross were chosen to head the Israel
Bonds reinvestment effort.

1971

Dr. Theodore Mandell, supervisor of
speech correction and hearing conser-
vation for the Detroit public schools,
is the newly elected president of the
Detroit Hearing and Speech Center.
Detroiter Leonard M. Serling,
executive vice president of Serling
Drug Co., has been named to the
board of directors of the National
Bank of Southfield.

...............

He was especially impressed by her books, including The
Illustrated Hebrew Bible, and The Five Books of Miriam: A
Woman's Commentary on the Torah.
Frankel concluded her talk with — what else? — a story.
Its poignant humor suggests the thin line between supersti-
tion and the more esteemed psalms and prayers.
In the old town of Chelm, Frankel began, a beautiful girl
daydreams about her future as she hangs laundry. She dreams
about a handsome man she will marry some day and about a
beautiful son they will have. She even imagines her son's
wonderful bar mitzvah, when suddenly she thinks: "What if,
on the day of my son's bar mitzvah, he drops dead?"
She begins to sob, and each family member who hears
her story sobs with her. Soon her neighbors and the whole
village are mourning her imagined dead son.
The rabbi is called, and he recites a psalm.
Then an outsider arrives, and hearing what happened,
asks, "Why are you so upset? Your story is all based on 'ifs!'"
The girl begins to smile, her parents brighten and soon
the whole town is celebrating.
"You see," says the rabbi, "the psalm never fails."

❑

Detroit architect Louis A. Redstone
was named a member of the commit-
tee on international relations of the
American Institute of Architects.
Benjamin Bagdade of Farmington
will officiate at the speed skating
event at the 1960 Winter Olympics
in Squaw Valley, Calif.

Dr. A. Cohen, president of the Board
of Deputies of British Jews, opened the
Festival of Arts in Glasgow, Scotland.
Goestra Hedengren was appoint-
ed Sweden's first minister to Israel.
Comedian Eddie Cantor was
appointed grand marshal of the
March of Dimes Broadway parade
in New York.
Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant

2/16
2001

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