Jewry's Role in

Human Affairs

WELCOME TO BETH EL from page 55

Dr: Charles Greenberg and Phyllis Loewenstein, seated, and Miriam Cohen and Nanci
Rands prepared Beth El's Shabbat guide.

our services more user-friendly. I
wanted to provide a greater under-
standing of the underlying rationale
for the various prayers and the order
of the service."
Brief chapters in the booklet offer
an explanation of what to expect
from the service as well as prayers
and blessings and what they mean.
"Many of us come to a service
from different backgrounds, with dif-
fering levels of education about
Judaism," Lockman said.
Speaking at a recent Friday night
service, Miriam Cohen told the con-
gregation of Lockman's hope. "He
felt it would serve a dual purpose —
not only to assist our congregants but
to also help answer many questions
posed by the myriad of visitors who
tour our temple on a regular basis."
Initial printing costs for the book-
let were underwritten by the Rosin
family, in memory of Molly Rosin
Moers and Richard S. Rosin.

What's Inside?

The booklet contains an overview
description of Judaism and explana-
tion of Reform Judaism, with sec-
tions on the Jewish life cycle and hol-
idays.
A history of Temple Beth El is

included in the booklet, whose cover
rendition of the building was
designed by Robert Ziegelman, a
consulting architect for the syna-
gogue.
"The Spirit of Shabbat is a magnifi-
cently simple and concise outline of
the prayers of the service for those
who may not know the origin of the
prayers and their purpose," Rabbi
Syme said. "It also contains the
melodies that are used on a regular
basis at the temple.
The creation of the booklet
involved regular meetings lasting into
the night for the four committee
members who brought with them
varied religious backgrounds and an
active participation in their syna-
gogue and in religious study.
They worked to combine their
research with information in the Beth
El Shalom booklet, formerly handed
out to tour groups who visited the
synagogue, with a goal of enhancing
the understanding of the Shabbat
service for everyone.
"My intent is to make sure that
people are comfortable at services,"
Lockman said.
His hope is for both congregants
and visitors to be able to "partake
and participate in all that a religious
service can offer." ❑

MASTERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY - H
The first notable Jewish American photographer, Solomon Carvalho,
served with General John C. Fremont's fifth expeditionary survey of the Far
West in 1853, and was also a portrait painter of stature. Not until the recent
mid-Twenties did another Jew rise to importance in the profession—Erich
Salomon, a German who originated documentary, candid photography with
the newly invented 35 millimeter camera.
Thereafter, the founding of Life magazine in 1936, and the
emergence of Time and Look, sent out a call answered by many talented
Jewish photojournalists whose pictures blazed a indelible record of their
times. Among them were Eliot Elisofon, Bernard Hoffman, Dmitri
Kessel, Ralph Morse and Philippe Halsman. And, one of history's most
memorable combat photos was snapped by Joe Rosenthal of the U.S.
Marine flag raising on Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi. Several others preceded
them:
ALFRED EISENSTAEDT
(1896-1995) b. West Prussia The widely
acknowledged father of photojournalism turned
professional at age 28, ten years after his World
War One discharge from the German army for
serious battle wounds. Eisenstaedt was caught up
in the excitement of his homeland's fast growing
news medium: documentary candid photography
pioneered by his colleague, Erich Salomon. His 1
arresting work saw print in many European picture magazines. Typical
subjects were the nonstop flight to Brazil of the Graf Zeppelin (which in
fact was invented by the Austrian Jew, David Schwarz), the Ethiopian
Italian battlefront, and the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
Escaping the Holocaust in 1935, he joined the staff of the newborn
Life as one of its first four photographers. With the magazine as his
showcase (more than 2,500 photo stories and ninety covers) lie became one
of the most respected and influential photographers in the nation.
Eisenstaedt was equally gifted as a photo portraitist whose strong, formal
compositions of celebrities are immortal classics: Albert Einstein, John F.
Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, T.S. Eliot and Bertrand Russell are among
them. Explaining his technique behind the camera, he credited his success
to instinct: being in the right place at the right time, and. finding and
catching the storytelling moment. His forty-year personal odyssey as a
photographer, Witness to Our Time (1966), was followed by several
acclaimed anthologies and an autobiography, The Eve of Eisenstaedt (1969)

MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE
1906-71) b. New York City Half-Jewish by
birth, she paced Eisenstaedt's steps as another of
Life's
first four photographers and
photojournalists, and a chronicler on film of world
affairs from the Thirties through the Sixties.
Bourke-White was among the originators of the
photo-essay which she progressively evolved after
entering the field as an architectural and industrial
photographer for Fortune magazine. Before the outbreak of World War
Two, she toured the USSR by camera and produced two impressive
documentary films: Eyes on Russia and Red Republic.
In collaboration with novelist Erskine Caldwell, who she met in
1935, Bourke-White issued three outstanding photo-essays on American
and pre-war European themes. The couple's marriage in 1939 dissolved
four years later. As the first woman accredited as an armed forces photog-
rapher, she flew in combat, survived a deadly torpedo attack and followed
American infantrymen in close range during their struggle up the Italian
boot. Later, Bourke-White captured the heart-wrenching scenes of Nazi
savagery after the death camps were liberated—for many, hers were the
pictures that shocked the world.
A critical review of her lifetime's work finds an astute and socially
concerned artist with a highly personal photographic style whose examples
are displayed in many museums. Stricken with Parkinson's disease in 1952.
she devoted her last years chiefly to writing, but always within arm's reach
of her camera.

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