Jewish Life August 1954

!W \S Av — 5714 August — 1954

New Alignments In Israel —I. Halevy-Levin

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Saadia -Meyer Waxman

Background To l Antisemitism -Philip Perlmutter

The Work Of Dr. Wallach Rivka Marani

My Mother's A Short Story —Abraham Aaron Weiss Erie Offenbacher Morris Besdin Joshua J. Epstein

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UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA Announces Its

NATIONAL CONVENTION ON

NOVEMBER 11 - 14, 1954 15 - 18 CHESHVAN, 5715 AT

BREAKERS HOTEL ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY Assembling Under the Theme "THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF ORTHODOX PROGRESS IN AMERICA" 1654 - 1954

5415 - 5715

The National Convention, Marking the 300th Anniversary of the Establishment of Orthodox Judaism in America, will Map a Positive Program of Religious Action for the American Jew of Today and Tomorrow Guests and Visitors Aire Invited to Attend Public Sessions Detailed Information May Be Obtained on Request •

Union Of Orthodox Jewish Congregations Of America 305 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 7, N.Y.

S aul

B ernstein ,

Editor

M. M orton R ubenstein D r. E ric Offenbacher R euben Gross R abbi S. J. S harfm an

Editorial Associates S eymour R osenberg

Assistant Editor Cover by P aul H aüsdorff

Inside Illustration by N orman N odel

JEWISH LIFE is published bi-monthly. Subscription one year $1.75, two years $3.00, three years $4.00.

All rights reserved

Editorial and Publication Office: 305 Broadway New York 7, N. Y. BEekman 3-2220

Published by U nion of Orthodox J ew ish Congregations of A merica Max J . E tra

President Rabbi H. S. Goldstein, Wil­ liam B. Herlands, Samuel Nirenstein, William Weiss, Honorary Presidents; Benja­ min I Koenigsberg, Benjamin Mandelker, M. Morton Ru­ benstein, Vice - Presidents ; Joseph Schlang, Secretary, N. Kenneth Gross, Treasurer; Saul Bernstein, Adm inistrator

• EDITORIALS AGUDAH'S OPPORTUNITY1 THE N.C.R.A.C. PHENOMENON

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• ARTICLES THE WORK OF DR. WALLACH Rivka Moroni BACKGROUND TO RUMANIAN ANTI­ SEMITISM 1?

Philip Perlmuter NEW PARTY ALIGNMENTS IN ISRAEL | p. 17 I, Halevy-Levin LET'S GUIDE THE 29 loshua I. Epstein SAADIA GAON - T t - T r - r r r M d s - f t^ S - 30 Meyer Waxman • SHORT STORY MY MOTHER'S PESUKIM Abraham Aaron Weiss ° POEMS PRAYER FOR THE NINTH DAY OF AV |W [l Howard Harrison GROWING THINGS % 6 Shoshana Wenger • BOOK REVIEW INDICTMENT OF ASCH Morris Besdin

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• ON THE JEWISH RECORD i s j & k l L l 45 • FEATURES AMONG OUR CONTRIBUTORS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR • SERVICES @KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

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RIVKA MAJRANI is the pen name of Vienna-born Gerda Spiegler, whose permanent home is now Israel. Miss Spiegler, a recent graduate of Columbia University, has had stories and articles published here and abroad. A short story of hers will appear in the next issue of "New Voices/' a literary collection published in New York. *

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PHILIP PERLMUTTER'S articles have frequently appeared in leading general and lewish publications. Born in Brooklyn in 1925, Mr. Perlmutter is a graduate of New York and Columbia Universities. He served in World War II and received the Bronze Medal for action in combat. *

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DR. MEYER WÄXMAN, eminent author, scholar and educator, has made important contributions in the field of Jewish scholarship, including "A History of Jewish Literature," He is Professor of Bible, Jewish History and Philosophy at the Hebrew Theological College in Chicago. *

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ABRAHAM AARON WEISS is the librarian of the Ramaz School.

He studied at Yeshiva University and the City College of New York, and received his Master's Degree from Columbia University. *

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CHAPLAIN JOSHUA J. EPSTEIN is now serving with the U.S. Army in Pusan, Korea. He received his ordination at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theo­ logical Seminary in 1950 and is on a two-year leave of absence from Congre­ gation Bnai Israel of Kearny, NJ, *

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RABBI MORRIS BESDIN is the Rav of the Kew Gardens, N.Y. Synagogue,

Adath Jeshurun. He is a lecturer in Talmud at Teachers Institute, Yeshiva University, and the Queens Institute for Jewish Studies in Kew Gardens.

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Jewish LIFE

AGUDAH'S OPPORTUNITY

T H E FOURTH “Knessio Gedolo” of the Agudath Israel world move4 ment, convoked in Jerusalem, occurs at a crucial time in the history of that movement and of the Jewish people. The policies determined upon at this convocation will undoubtedly have a marked effect upon the fu­ ture course of both.

Like all other Jewish movements, Agudath Israel faces the neces­ sity to mould its program in accordance with the fact of the Jewish state. The technique of day to day improvisation employed up to this point in facing the emergence of Medinath Israel must of necessity be replaced by fundamental definitions. It is evident that Agudath Israel leaders are aware of this need and are applying themselves earnestly to its solution.

Agudath Israel faces exceptional problems in coping with the pre­ sent pattern. The movement from its inception breathed a spirit of anti­ thesis to Herzlian Zionism. Holding that the concept of Torah sovereign­ ty in all phases of Jewish life is irreconcilible with modern nationalism, Agudists have rejected Religious and non-Religious Zionism alike. But the state of Israel, the dominant factor in Jewish life today, is the pro­ duct of the Zionist concept and of Zionist effort. Agudism is perforce obliged to exercise its role in a sphere of Zionist achievement.

DY ITS unswerving insistence upon the exclusively spiritual concept of Jewish life and destiny — in an age in which secularism and ma­ terialism ride roughshod — Agudath Israel has made A its own needed contribution to Jewish redemption.

Needed Although it must now absorb the lesson which the Contribution Mizrachi movement grasped two generations ago, the intensity of Torah-urge which impregnates the Agudist movement, applied with vision, can, now prove of decisive influence in an Israel-oriented Jewish world.

Agudists, however uncertain as to their relationship to the Jewish state, have nevertheless played an active part in shaping its fortunes.

In the grim era which preceded Israel's Declaration of Independence, in the War for Liberation and in the subsequent struggle for existence, Agudists have given of their efforts. One offshoot of the movement, Poale Agudath Israel, has adopted freely and applied to notable effect principles of cooperative labor long associated with chalutz Zionism. But there has been an underlying hesitancy, a mood of limited acceptance, which has prevented the Agudist movement from operating as a posi­ tive force.

3 July - August, 1954

TN THIS circumstance a disproportionate burden has been thrust upon x the Religious Zionist parties, Hapoel Hamizrachi and Mizrachi. A typical example is the issue of women's conscription, Avoiding upon which Agudath Israel withdrew from the Israel A government. Had the Mizrachi parties followed suit, Burden religious considerations, not only in this matter but in others still weightier, might well have been com-? pletely overborne. But the Religious Zionist parties, braving the villification poured upon them, stuck to their guns, and again, as they have so many times before, made possible the preservation of religious rights in some key fields. Word has now come forth from the Knessio Gedolo that Agudath Israel is favorably impressed with the manner in which wo­ men's conscription is being applied and may be willing to rejoin the Israeli cabinet. All of this spells expediency rather than planned policy; it is not out of such tactics that the high ideals of Agudah can reach fulfillment.

■ySTITH a program borne of an affirmative approach, Agudath Israel ™ can, together with the Mizrachi groups, gain a major part of the popular support which in the past has been commanded by secular Zion­ ism. The political aim of Zionism has been accomplished, but the truly “Zionist" aim which gave it such compelling force, the moral and spirit­ ual emancipation of the Jew himself, remains to be met. A Jewish state has been built — now a Jewish society must be shaped. Towards this purpose Torah-imbued forces must rise supreme. The broad ranks of the Jewish people, intelligently approached, will presently recognize that only out of the wellspring of Torah can Jewish life, whether in Israel or the Golah, find fulfillment, and that only those dedicated to the Torah concept of life can bring such a life to fruition.

Addressing itself wisely to the reality of today as well as to the goal of tomorrow, rising above political stratagem and jockeyings for position, Agudath Israel can blossom forth as a dynamically creative and popularly supported force within Jewry. The opportunity is large — may the vision to grasp it be no less.

THE N. C. R. A. C . PHENOMENON T H E RECENT Tenth Anniversary Plenary Session of the National **" Community Relations Advisory Council has served as a further de­ monstration of what was long held to be an improbable premise — name­ ly, that American Jews can approach their common affairs in a rational way.

Composed of most of the leading national Jewish organizations and a representative number of local Jewish community councils, the N.C.R.A.C. constitutes a permanent “coordinating process" for com4 Jewish LIFE

munity relations interests. The participating groups, without loss of their independence or freedom of action, are enabled through N.C.R.A.C. to pool experience, arrive at common formulas of technique and action, avoid duplication of effort and act jointly on particular issues.

For all the diversity of national and local issues with which it deals and notwithstanding — or perhaps because of — the diversity of its participating agencies, the National Community Relations Advisory Council has accomplished a notable feat: it works. Through ten years of trial this organization of organizations has brought consistently ef­ fective results, at the same time developing a firm integration.

T H E TENTH Plenary Session demonstrated also, by the calibre of its participants, that the N.C.R.A.C. forms a medium for the develop­ ment of communal leadership. The high standard set by N.C.R.A.C., the broadness of its aims and the variety of Jewish viewEducating points and experiences which it brings into play, Leaders have had an educational effect upon the individuals, as well as groups, coming within range of its in­ fluence. Time may prove that this aspect of N.C.R.A.C. is as significant as its formal purpose.

Certainly for orthodox Jews, whose spokesman in the N.C.R.A.C is the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the educa­ tional potentialities of the National Community Relations Advisory Coun­ cil are of keen concern. Both professional and non-professional leadership in the field of American Jewish community relations has long been dominated by elements deficient in Jewish conviction and Jewish knowl^ edge. The Jewish community's representatives have been unrepresenta­ tive. The consequence has been community relations programs composed of an unwholesome mixture of apologetics and frenzied absorption in combatting Antisemitism. The N.C.R.A.C. has brought marked improve­ ments in this respect, but much remains to be done before we can find the sphere of Jewish community relations grounded in the affirmation of Jewish values.

J7VEN TODAY the N.C.R.A.C., pursuant to the character of most of its constituent bodies, tends to view the task as primarily one of de­ fending the civic rights and security of Jews as a nonThe Christian minority, rather than the securing of freest Unwritfen scope to Jewish living. While the former may conCharter stitute the formal frame of reference of the N.C.R.A.C., it is the latter which constitutes the un­ written charter of any Jewish community relations agency.

The National Community Relations Advisory Council, by its inherent process of attracting affirmative Jewish thinking, must continue to evolve into a generator of Jewishness. It can achieve in that aspect its ultimate scope and broadest utility.

5 July - August, 1954

THEWORK OF

By RIVKAH MARANI ■pVERYBODY loved Dr. Moshe “ Wallach from the very first day that he arrived, with the tem­ perament of a gypsy and the zest and zeal of a Prussian.

It was in 1890. Jerusalem was safely living out its life behind city walls, dirt going hand in hand with disease, while many stomachs hungered for food. Jew and Arab lived together as good neighbors within the crumbling walls of the Old City. The Turk reigned peace­ fully. The Jews, looking out from behind city walls, adored the young doctor because he was strictly orthodox.

The doctor, though, had a fixed View of time and achievement that was not exactly in keeping with oriental laziness and the philoso­ phy of “Bukra” (“tomorrow!' in Arabic, but referring to the post­ ponement of every action). Dr. Wallach gave the Old City one long; look, and then made a single de­ cision. His hospital was not going to be squeezed in between the 6

Wailing Wall and the Via Dolo­ rosa, even if that meant the loss of the splendid panoramic view of the green hills of Mount Scopus, dotted with marble rooftops. He needed space and so would his future patients. And with the funds from Germany, especially from his pious native community of Frankfurt-am-Main, flowing in faithfully, he bought a plot of five square kilometers and, to the astonishment of all, began to build outside of Jerusalem, on the high­ way to Jaffa. That in itself was a revolution. The Arabic Fellachim, the Jewish residents, the British colonial intelligentsia, the wise, ty­ rannical Turks, shook their heads and wished him well. ^ H E COMPLETED building had two rows of bright, shining win­ dows which let in the sunlight, clean white beds, a tremendous operating theatre and behind them all, a machine of a man who never knew rest and was always ready Jewish LIFE

to function, advise and help. He gave to the hospital the name “Shaare Zedek”—Gates of Justice.

Each morning a little caravan set out from the hospital towards town to visit the sick : a donkey, an Arab girl, and the doctor. For, what with the trachoma cases, their eye­ lids gummed together, being un­ able to grope their way to the clinic, and the neglected children, and the arthritis-stricken women, lying on the floors of their poor dwellings, discarded and neglected by their men because they could no longer give birth, and the rest a mass of ignorance and superstition that would rather die within the city walls than emerge and be cured — the doctor had to carry his hospital “abroad,” day after day with the aid of the Arab girl and the donkey. On the Sabbath, the doctor made his way on foot; the donkey, observing the law, stayed home and rested. The doc­ tor could not afford such luxury. rTlHE PROBLEM of hospital help was serious. There were no local nursing schools. And who could be expected to come from abroad and work in this land of wilderness? For, from the point of view of hygiene, that is what it was. Nevertheless, the hospital was becoming the best equipped medical institution in the city, and remained so until the erection of the American Hadassah hospital in the middle 1930's.

In the meantime, the doctor had no alternative but to recruit nurses and supervisors from among the July - August, 1954

local population. Then, one day, Schwester Selma descended upon the hospital, and with her entered order, devotion and a sense of re­ sponsibility. The atmosphere of Shaare Zedek changed overnight.

Deft, tender, affectionate, she be­ came the center around which the hospital's functioning revolved.

When I met Schwester Selma, she was sixtyish, small, with a wondrously well kept head of bushy white hair, baby blue eyes, a little mouth that showed perfect white teeth and feet that were so tiny you wondered how they could clat­ ter around untiringly, day and

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A t graduation ceremony of Shaare Zedek Hospital: From left to right—Dr. F. Schlesinger, chief medical officer of the hospital, Schwester Selma, M rs. Yitzchak Ben Zvi, Dr. Wallach and Mr. Kariv, Mayor of Jerusalem. night, year in and out. Alas, her Hebrew made you quickly switch to German, because Schwester Sel­ ma simply did not have the time to devote her untiring spirit to the study of a language so strangely unlike her native tongue. She knew no limits in her devoted service to the population of Jeru­ salem. Her department was people and their ills. And did it matter if you closed a dying Arab’s eyes with the word of G-d in a foreign tongue ?

T H E DAY started early in the hospital of Dr. Wallach, but it started with a wondrous smile.

Little Schwester Selma made her 8

rounds “Puenktlich um seeks uhr,” greeting each patient in the hos­ pital with the same friendly “Guten Morgen. Ja, wie geht es uns denn heute?”

At night the lighting problem was very taxing. Oil was used for the rooms and expensive gasoline only for the operating theatre. The electric generator was a present from a wealthy donor and was used in later years only for Shabboth, as the doctor would not per­ mit the Jewish-operated light of the city to be used.

It goes without saying that there is not a single parking lot on the hospital grounds. What if a dele­ gation of unobservant Israelis Jewish LIFE

were to stage a wheeled invasion on the Lord's day of rest? The thought of it alone would deprive the doctor of half of his most cherished clientele — the little future rabbi who was “eating his days''in somebody else's home and was treated without fee. There were other problems. Who could tell what guest might be smuggled in unwanted, with a pack of ciga­ rettes, before Sabbath sundown?

Q N E afternoon, during my student days in Jerusalem, I paid a visit to a sick aunt who had just undergone a serious operation at the Shaare Zedejk, Hospital. As the sole representative of my family in Jerusalem, I came forth with a huge bouquet of gladioli for her and smelling salts for myself* for, whether it was in Rothschild Spital of my native Vienna or the Hospi­ tal of the Gates of Justice in Jeru­ salem, I could not tolerate hospital sights and odors. So, ascending the stairs, one hand covering my eyes as I groped along the railing, I bumped into a heavy object, Der Herr Doktor, in person.

“What a waste of money!" he shouted, pointing at my gladioli, bought with the last piaster I had earned through private tutoring.

“Stupid female, why not give it to the poor?" And as he passed by, he growled into his beard, “Senti­ mental Yekke."

I had no time to shout back, “Yekke yourself," because I stag­ gered on right into the arms of Schwester Selma, who, thinking me a prospective case, folded me into July - August, 1954

her motherly arms with a tender “Ja, was istfs derm, Kindchen” (What is it little child?").

TEMPERATURES were not re­ corded with paper and pencil on Shabboth. The hospital had the following procedure, which, so far as I know, is still in effect today.

A little pile of paper slips was prepared on Friday, on which all possible temperature readings were recorded in pencil. The nurse sim­ ply picked out the correct slip on Saturday morning and attached it to the fever chart at the foot of the bed, from which the number was transcribed on Sunday morn­ ing.

Shabboth services are held in the hospital chapel. All the doors to the sick wards are thrown wide open, so that the benedictions and prayers can be heard. In the far off rooms the prayers are repeated in the corridors by male nurses.

Erev Shabboth, each woman pa­ tient is handed a tray with two candles so that she may bless the lights. Never is a telephone call answered on the Sabbath. They say, one Saturday a man came into the hall of the hospital, a sick child in his arms. The doctor, eye­ ing him, asked curiously, “Did you come by car?"

“No," the man lied.

“Idiot," the doctor exclaimed, “with a case like that you would have been permitted to!"

JJOBODY is allowed to watch over a diphtheria case in the critical hours. The doctor reserves 9

this task for himself. He will stick to a child's bed until the passing of the dangerous crisis.

My best friend died of typhoid fever when only seventeen. Neither food nor drink was touched by the doctor during her prolonged death agony. He spent three days and three nights in the isolation ward, a little building off the main hos­ pital grounds, and now he was ad­ dressing himself to the Almighty, chin and beard shaking in useless pleading, for already G-d's mercy had descended upon her perma­ nently. Defeated, the doctor closed her eyelids, on his lips a little word of endearment in German.

TN 1948 and 1949, during the siege of Jerusalem, the doctor refused to budge. The soldiers moved in, and with them, in spite of their pains and wounds, a spirit of defense and patriotism came that touched the doctor's heart.

These new-born heroes could get very impertinent. What was the use of shouting “Lausbub” at them when they did not know what it meant ? Imagine, the day had come when he had to berate them for their misdemeanors in modern He­ brew. Fortunately, this vernacular was not to be found in the Bible, and he consoled himself with the thought that he was not offending the Holy Script and the language of prayer. With gaminlike adroit­ ness, he familiarized himself with the jargon of the streets and yards, and he “gave it to them," those adolescent soldiers of his, when­ ever the situation was appropriate.

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This also involved quite a bit of eavesdropping on his young pa­ tients at night, when they ex­ changed secrets with each other, and the old man lost his incurably young heart to them, with the touching awe-filled love which the old bear for the young.

Now and then, the doctor would wipe away a tear when he dis­ covered a boy under a beard which had to be shaven off because of a facial injury. When the young soldiers would scribble the names of their girl friends on the white­ washed walls, the old man would only smile benignly and “tell them off" in mildly profane language, to the effect that women and war were two things apart.

■QR. WALLACH would laugh at ^ the idea of taking a breathing spell in Tel Aviv, though he could have boarded a special armored car guarded by the International Red Cross. “What would the boys do, now that they were in pain and without their families? What fool­ ishness . . . ."

The doctor never left Jerusalem.

The horn of the Sabbath herald, hailing in the Lord's Day of Rest, the blowing of the Shofar after the Day of Atonement before the Sanc­ tum of the Wailing Wall, these were the loved symbols of the man who in his high old age guarded Israel's Citadel with the fervor and fire of youth. /"NN HIS seventieth birthday Jerusalem rallied around Dr. Moshe Wallach, the tots and the Jewish LIFE

women, the soldiers and the dis­ ease-stricken poor.

“You ask me what I wish for now, my friends,” he said, ad­ dressing the lively crowd: “I wish the impossible gift of fifty years given back to me so I could begin again. I wish for a gift that will be granted to me only in the King­ dom Above. But as I am in no

hurry to leave you all, I will go on doing my job in my former youth­ ful spirit, in so far as my old brain can still remember it now. Fifty years of good life in Jerusalem.

Who can forget it? Is it not writ­ ten: I f I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning?”

Prayer For The Ninth Of Av byHOWARD HARRISON

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Our G-d, who has shown us the life of even the dark caves of our city, who has taught us the value of fear and darkness in the growth of love, who has, even more, given us a strong name to cling to, and to uphold — O G-d, to whom we pray that we may someday deserve what we have -— 0 G-d, on these days we remember with the hearts of our fathers evils that were done, and the reward, the destruction that followed — O G-d, on this day we laugh not, and are afraid 0 G-d, help us to build our souls with faith and learning, to rebuild the Temple with purity and might, to build man with our hearts —O Lord, come with us this solemn day to our synagogues and to our homes and be with us in other days. so we may look at our treasures of life and see the rising sun in the clear sky H- O G-d of our fathers, be with us so we may yet remember our sins and our sorrows.

July - August, 1954

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.'¥A11/A A ^ > ^ /w U,M

By PHILIP PERLMUTTER Q N L Y AFTER strong pleas from ^ Premier Moshe Sharett and numerous Israeli community lead­ ers, rabbis and doctors did fortytwo former Rumanian Jewish lead­ ers end their five day hunger strike in Israel and the imminent danger to their health and lives.

“Let our demonstration,” they said in protest to the persecution of Rumanian Jewry, “bring our deep pain into the open to the world and to everybody who still possesses feelings of humanity.

We are confident that the release of the arrested Jewish leaders and permission for them to go to Israel would in no way be against the interests of the Ru­ manian regime.”

Thus, the demonstrators valiant­ ly strove to focus world opinion on the wholesale arrests and imprison­ ment of Jewish leaders in Ru­ mania, where they have been de­ ceitfully charged not only with conspiring against the Communist government but also with fostering 12

clandestine immigration to Israel, maintaining secret rapport with the Israeli legation and receiving “subversive materials” from Amer­ ican agents.

The truth is, however, as Ben Gurion said at Sdeh Boker, that more than one hundred Jewish leaders were arrested “not for crimes” against the Government, but “because they remained loyal to the Jewish nation and its re­ demption.”

By its ruthless actions, Rumania has added a new chapter in its long, ignoble record of Jewish per­ secution. If past history shows that Hitler was the arch-destroyer of Jewry, it also shows that Ru­ mania was a most perfidious and hypocritical enemy SB it is a his­ tory which cannot be forgotten and which must be borne in mind when analyzing the present situation.

71S EARLY as the Revolution ^ of 1848, Rumanian Jews had been promised emancipation. Later, Jewish LIFE

the Constitution of 1866, hailed in Rumania as liberal, again promised to improve the conditions of the Jews, guaranteeing to them reli­ gious liberty and granting them naturalization rights. However, in spite of still additional promises

by Rumania’s Prince Charles I to Adolphe Cremieux and Sir Moses Montefiore, conditions were not im­ proved, but aggravated.

To such an extent was this true that Napoleon III of France, in 1867, telegraphed the Rumanian Prince as follows: “I must not leave, your high­ ness in ignorance of the public feeling created here by the per­ secution of which the Jews of Moldavia are said to be the vic­ tims. I cannot believe that the enlightened government of your highness authorizes measures so opposed to humanity and civili­ zation.”

Even far-off America, at that time, came into the picture by the unique appointment of Benjamin F. Peixotto as Consul in Bucharest for the express purpose of aiding the Rumanian Jews. Prince Charles explained the situation to him: f“These people seem so low, and yet it is curious they are the brightest in all the professions to which they are admitted, and still look at them; see how grovelling and base they be.”

When Mr. Peixotto diplomatical­ ly replied that wherever liberty and equality existed there was found to be a negligible difference between the inhabitants of a coun­ try, and that the assimilation of July - August, 1954

peoples to the benefit of the coun­ try moved along “with the tide of progress and science,” Prince Charles would hear none of it and changed the subject!

T H E YEAR 1872, with the profaA nation and robbery of a church an apostate Jew, again placed Lumanian Antisemitism in the forefront, and nearly culminating in a protest conference of the European Powers, except for the recalcitrance of Russia.

It remained for the 1878 Con­ gress of Berlin not only to set a precedent in humane international diplomacy, but also to bring out Rumania’s then unparalleled Anti­ semitism and moral duplicity. The Berlin Congress adopted Article 48, which made Rumania’s inde­ pendence subject to Article 44, as­ suring the Jews of equality be­ fore the law, freedom to earn a livelihood and the right to enjoy civil and political rights.

This diplomatically unequalled action by the Congress immediate­ ly evoked vigorous protests from Rumania, so that there arose in the Rumanian legislature a pro­ posal to reject their own inde­ pendence rather than accept the humane terms for the Jews set forth by the Berlin Congress.

However, after continued assure ances by Rumania that she would meet the provisions of the Con­ gress, Rumania was recognized as an independent state. But she was not to be thwarted from her real intentions; almost immediately, the relatively liberal Article 7 of the m

“aliens not subject to alien pro­ tection.” And ^so, by 1914, some 220 Antisemitic laws were passed.

The Rumanian press rejoiced at the Government’s devious viola­ tions of the Treaty of Berlin.

M. Suliotis, a well known Ru­ m anian w riter, wrote a t the tim e: “The treaty of Berlin was thought to work wonders in favor of the strangers [Jews], but Rumania has been wise enough to escape the inconveniences which might have resulted from the application of Article 7 in the sense of the Treaty of Berlin, which has no other effect than to render more difficult the situa­ tion of the aliens.”

Rumanian Constitution was abro­ gated and modified. Now, by law, Rumania was to have no Jews, but only “aliens not subject to alien protection.”

Naturalization was to be given by a favorable vote of the two chambers, and then only to indi­ viduals ! In addition, naturaliza­ tion given to the father would not extend to the children. It is little wonder, therefore, that only two hundred out of 250,000 Jews were individually naturalized in the next thirty-four years.

TH A T still did not satisfy Rumania. Beginning in 1879, systematic restrictive laws were initiated against the Jews — those 14

The flagrant injustice of these laws and the fact that they were aimed expressly at the Jews can readily be seen from a glance at the laws themselves. The follow­ ing brief extraction from U.S. Immigration Commissioner Robert Watchhorn’s report gives an ex­ cellent view of their nature: “A Jew may not secure, hold or work land in a rural district; he may not reside in a rural district; he may only reside in one of the seventy-one towns designated as abiding places for Jews. He may not follow the oc­ cupation of an apothecary, a lawyer, stockholder, a member of the Bourse or stock exchange, a peddler or rag dealer. These are only a few of the callings denied him. To be deprived of the right to own, rent or labor on a farm or garden in a peculiarly agri­ cultural country must be recog-

Jewish LIFE

nized as a tremendous handicap in the race of life, but to follow that up with the closing of the greater p art of the avenues of endeavor in urban centers great­ ly intensifies the hardships to which he is subjected. And, as though the foregoing category was not sufficient, a still further impediment is found in the regu­ lation which forbids employers of labor to employ Jews until they have first employed two Chris­ tians.”

growing worse. And peasant dis­ content culminated in revolt, in 1907. At the bloody cost of some 10,000 peasant lives, the uprising was quelled, while the blame for it was heaped upon the Jews by the government press bureaus.

TN SPITE of the promises given the peasants and Jews during the second Balkan War (in which some 20,000 Jews served) and at the subsequent Peace Conference of Bucharest in 1913, neither the Jews nor the peasants saw any im­ ■MEEDLESS to say, Jews were provement in their conditions. Not limited in attending schools, re­ even in 1914, with the Liberal stricted completely from profes­ Party’s plans for agrarian and sional and agricultural schools, de­ electoral reforms, was any im­ nied free medical attention and provement held out for the Jews even emergency medical care, cir­ beyond the mere expression that cumscribed in their travelling, and children of Jewish Rumanian na­ denied equality before the bar of tionals would have the same right justice. They did, however, have as their parents.

So repulsive was Rumania’s An­ to bear and fulfill duties and finan­ cial obligations of Rumanian citi­ tisemitism that Russia’s actions zens, including military service of were praised by comparison! Luigi restricted promotional possibilities. Luzzatti, a former Prime Minister So pernicious was Rumania a of Italy and of Jewish ancestry Antisemitism that in 1899, during himself, wrote to Ion Bratianu, a terrible famine, masses of Jews,, Prime Minister of Rumania: “If the Russian Jews are more unable to exist at all, started a exposed to pogroms and subject “march of despair” eastwards and to a great number of restrictions westwards out of the country. from the legal point of view, they Fearing further international em­ are still better off: they are citi­ barrassment, the Rumanian gov­ zens, they could vote and be ernment sought to obtain a state­ elected. The Rumanian Jew, in­ ment from the Jews that they were stead, is considered an alien, a leaving the country only because of vagrant without shelter in the the famine and not because of the country where his fathers and stultifying and strangling effects grandfathers were born.” of the Rumanian legislation.

In 1901, Dr. E. Schwarzfeld Meanwhile economic conditions for the Rumanian peasantry were wrote: “In Russia, legislation was 15 July - August, 1954

frankly hostile to the Jews*; and there was an avowed persecution; but in Rumania it was subtle and vicious.”

What was the reason for Ru­ mania's actions? Luigi Luzzatti told the simple obvious truth when he wrote, in 1930: “Looking thoroughly into the matter, it was evident that it was a case of persecution, both reli­ gious and racial . . . produced by hatred of these unhappy ones sole­ ly because they were Jews.”

TODAY, the same answer ex* plains Rumania's flagrantly in­

human purges in the administra­ tion, economy and among the in­ telligentsia ; her mass secret de­ portations, arrests and trials; her cruel refusals to allow immigra­ tion to Israel or to any country outside the Iron Curtain ; and her unyielding terrorization of some 225,000 Jews within her bounda­ ries.

If the cause of justice is to be satisfied then Communist Rumania, like monarchist Rumania before her, must be forced to bow to the laws of humanity and to free the unjustly imprisoned and cease for­ ever their vicious persecution.

Growing Things

By SHOSHANA WENGER Why does a bit of green Remind me of Heaven?

It may very well be that In Heaven there is no need for green To charm man's eyes with life-giving growth And make him believe again In simple beauty.

A frond of green Savoring the sun And wants not for a better place Needs no justification for living.

To grow towards Heaven.

So shall I take heed* . . . .

And while a bit of green Yet vibrates in the breeze Fll feast my eyes on that bit of green And feel at ease.

16

Jewish LIFE

By I. HALEVY-LEVIN T H E PRESENT lull in Israeli politics is rather deceptive. For over a year now, indeed since the General Zionist-Mapai Coali­ tion was initiated, political activity has centered almost entirely about the legislative work of the Knes­ seth. Whatever differences have arisen within the Coalition have been kept within the family and not permitted to rock Government stability. Closer analysis, however, indicates that important changes are pending and that within the year that remains till the next general elections, shifts in party alignments may give politics in this country a “new look.”

Underlying these developments is a deep, though not always ac­ knowledged, sense of the inade­ quacy of the present electoral s'ystem, the multiplicity of parties it encourages and the instability of Government which is an in­ evitable concomitant. The smaller groups are still vociferous in deJuly - August, 1954

fending their right to exist in the interests of democracy, but the favorable reception generally ac­ corded the General Zionist-Mapai sponsored percentage-representa­ tion proposal, limiting representa­ tion in the Knesseth to parties polling at least four-and-a-half per cent of the totality of votes cast, is indicative of public dissatisfac­ tion with Israel's variety of pro­ portional representation. This new proposal, in effect, would mean that the smallest party in thé Knesseth would be represented by five members.

QINCE thé last general elections in 1951 a number of splinter groups have drawn practical con­ clusions from this situation. The two-member Sephardi fraction and the single independent Yemenite member of the Knesseth have entered the ranks of the General Zionists, while the Lipshitz-Lamdam fraction, after much hesita17

tion and maneuvering, has been more vigorous offshoot, Hapoel Ha­ mizrachi. The culminating point absorbed by Mapai.

Of major importance in light of in this processr was reached when these changes in the political at­ in the formation of the present mosphere is the imminent merger coalition two Hapoel Hamizrachi of Mizrachi and Hapoel Hamiz- Ministers were included, the Miz­ rachi. This merger has already rachi having had to rest content been approved in principle by the with no more than the Deputy competent institutions in Israel Minister of Social Affairs. In the and in a number of countries Golah, however, and it must be abroad, and the details are now borne in mind that the Golah ex­ being hammered out. From the ercises a strong, though indirect point of view of Mizrachi, at least, influence on Israeli politics, the such a move has been dictated by Mizrachi retains its position as the necessity. For many years, now, the leadership of Religious Zionism major religious organization and has been slipping from its grasp in America, at least, has lost none into the hands of its younger and of its drive.

Pros and Cons of "Mizzug" p*ROM BOTH an ideological and with the General Federation of * historical standpoint such a Labor (Histadruth), which until merger presents its difficulties, de­ two or three years ago seemed to spite the long tradition of coopera­ be leading directly towards full tion between the two parties. membership in that body.

The negotiations between the While Mizrachi has never realized its ambitions of becoming a com­ two religious Zionist parties are prehensive group, comprising all still proceeding and what formula religious Zionists, the steady will be produced to unite these di­ emergence of Hapoel Hamizrachi vergent elements is not yet clear. as the party of orthodox labor In more general terms the under­ has underlined the essentially mid­ lying principle of the new party dle-class and conservative tempera­ has been formulated as: “Unity of ment of its senior partner. Ha­ Israel, Loyalty to Torah, the State, poel Hamizrachi, on the other to Labor and Pioneering.” Though hand, has given practical expres­ this slogan seems to tend more sion to its working class character towards the Hapoel Hamizrachi in the development of a network outlook, it remains to be seen what of settlements (one third of its practical interpretation it will be membership is on the land), hous­ given. ing projects and other economic and cultural enterprises, as well as W[OR is it at all clear how coma policy of friendly collaboration ^ prehensive and binding the new Jewish LIFE 18

arrangement will be. The term used has always been mizzug, namely amalgamation, but it seems that something less than a full merger, creating a new identity, is contemplated. Hapoel Hamizrachi, according to the present draft agreement, will continue to deal with labor and settlement affairs, the Brith Olamith (central body of the World Torah V’avodah Move­ ment J and the Igud Olami (the parallel body of Mizrachi) will continue to co-exist. This may mean that what is envisaged is more of an electoral agreement and that the federative ties between the two organizations, under the common roof of the Mercaz Olami Shel Hamizrachi, will merely be strengthened. At the same time, it has been agreed that a single youth movement will be main­ tained. This appears to indicate that the process of growing to­ gether is foreseen as a lengthy one, allowing for the gradual disappear­ ance of old allegiances.

But even if the result should be no more than a closely knit united front, rather than a single inte­ grated body, such a development would have far reaching repercus­ sions within Orthodoxy, both in Israel and in the Golah, as well as in political life in this country generally. Its propaganda effect would be very great and might even improve the chances of the M% izrachi-Hapoel Hamizrachi at the polls, especially in view of the Substantial achievements in the spheres of religious education, per­ sonal status and rabbinical jurisJuly - August, 1954

diction which they can place be­ fore the electorate as the profits of their policy of cooperation in Government.

TT IS already certain that the new organization will emerge more oriented towards the center than the left. The comparative harmony that has reigned in Ha­ poel Hamizrachi since its last Na­ tional Conference is largely the re­ sult of the soft-pedalling of con­ troversial issues, such as entry in­ to the Histadruth. Now there will be created a powerful majority against any Socialist or quasi-Socialist leanings.

Amalgamation provides no pana­ cea for the ills to which Religious Zionism is heir. As already indi­ cated, Mizrachi over a period of many years has been suffering, in Israel, a steady decline. Hapoel Hamizrachi,# it is true, has in­ creased the number of its settle­ ments, housing projects and the like, but these have been the fruits of an extremely favorable situa­ tion created by the mass immigra­ tion. The relative growth of the party since statehood is far behind that of other parties.

The prospects of broadening this pact to include other sections of orthodox Jewry constitutes an in­ teresting subject of enquiry. The adoption by the Knesseth of the four-and-a-half per cent represen­ tation clause might force a move in that direction, but failing some such pressure from without there is little chance of understanding between the two wings of Orthof9

doxy. The bitter controversy over such fundamental issues as nation­ al service for women and state education has exacerbated rela­ tions. Although there have been some instances of cooperation, es­ pecially in the sphere of education, these have never been of sufficient weight to overcome deeper-lying mutual distrusts and disagree­ ments. At the same time it is common knowledge that the pres­

ent leadership and a large propor­ tion — perhaps even a majority of the rank and file of the Poale Agudath Israel, favor a poli­ cy of cooperation with the reli­ gious parties. However, they are unlikely, after the debacle of No­ vember 1952 when they were forced to retract their decision to join the Coalition, to take any step in this direction without previous agreement with the Agudah.

General Zionist — Progressive Merger?

Ä SIMILAR prospect, which may not be as tenuous as it some­ times seems, is a pact (it is doubt­ ful whether any more definite term may be used at the present junc­ ture) between the General Zionists and the Progressives. One reason for the strong support of the Gen­ eral Zionists for the percentage representation clause is undoubted­ ly a desire to bludgeon the Pro­ gressives into acceptance of their proposals for union.

The moving spirit in these nego­ tiations is Dr. Nahum Goldmann, a leader of the Confederation of General Zionists SH the roof or­ ganization of the two parties over­ seas — who is himself a member of the Progressive Party. Opposi­ tion within the Progressive Party has compelled Dr. Goldmann to con­ fine himself to a more modest ob­ jective than a full merger. The present proposal is to fight the coming general and municipal elec­ tions (which in Israel are held on the same day) on a united list of candidates. But even such a re­ 20

stricted degree of collaboration is violently rejected by the Oved Ha­ zioni section of the Progressive Party. Haoved Hazioni is Mapai’s closest ally in the Histadruth, and has already threatened to secede in the event of any such alliance with the General Zionists. p O R THEIR part the General * Zionists are very keen on a merger (or, indeed; any other sat­ isfactory compact) with the Pro­ gressives, and they are prepared to be very generous. They have offered the Progressives seven to eight secure places in the joint electoral list if the agreement is endorsed by the whole party, and five to six should the Oved Hazioni secede.

The General Zionists — a party of businessmen — know that such generosity is a sound investment.

They have the confidence and drive of a growing opposition party and are convinced that time is on their side. They are hopeful that the increasing unpopularity of the Jewish LIFE

Government’s deflationary meas­ ures (which the General Zionists support, but from the consequences of which they are careful to dis­ sociate themselves) and the grow­ ing middle-class mentality of the older members of Mapai will swing a substantial bloc of votes in their direction. While no party can hope,

without manipulation of the elec­ toral law, to gain an absolute ma­ jority, the General Zionists are optimistic that with the proper alliances the day is not far distant wheri they will be' able to rival Mapai as the central pillar of a Government Coalition.

At Political Extremes

17110 M another quarter too, they can hope for an accession of strength — the disaffected sections of Cheruth. While it is impossible to give any reasonable estimate of the number of voters who may shift their allegiance to the Gen­ eral Zionists, there has been a steady trickle of defections among well known Cheruth members and even leaders. Cheruth, from reports of its recent national conference (held in camera ^ B an omen for any party under a democratic re­ gime) , has reached a cul-de-sac.

The internal bickering which led to the withdrawal of the poet Uri Zvi Greenberg and the resignation of two former Cheruth members of the Knesseth, Hillel Kook (Peter Bergson) and Eri Jabotinsky, has assumed a more violent ideological character. Besides an acrimonious quarrel between Cheruth veterans and the working class members of the party (organized in the Histadruth Ovdim Leumith), another eohtroversy is being fought out between those favoring a policy of acceptance of Government respon­ sibility within a suitable coalition and those calling for the creation July - August, 1954

of a Resistance Movement (the Hebrew term used tnuath meri has perhaps more extreme im­ plications). Around these, in the rather cautious formulation of its sponsors, all elements opposing the present regime could rally.

The reason given for this latter proposal is that in any case, under the present electoral law Cheruth has no prospect of achieving a majority. But in view of the fact that no labor group is likely to join a coalition of which Cheruth is a member, the former sugges­ tion must be regarded as a devious offer of alliance with the General Zionists.

K SIGNIFICANT political development and one which induces some very serious thinking is the new political attitude taken up by the Arabs and which achieved most concrete expression in the re­ cent Nazareth municipal election campaign. For some time past Some local Arab leaders have been taking advantage of the more lib­ eral policy toward the minorities to indicate their hostility to Israel in unambiguous terms. The pace 21

has been set by the Communists reth election campaign was the — practiced fishermen in troubled mutual charges of cooperation with waters. They are now preaching the State, made by the contestants. passive resistance against the pay­ Of the anti-Israel attitude of the ment of the education tax, but Communist Party there is little to their lead has been followed by be said. The major source of their other Arab parties, both Moslem strength among the Arabs — they won six seats out of fifteen in the and Christian.

A notable feature of the Naza­ Nazareth City Council — is their

Election posters in Israel

22

(Courtesy Israel Office of Information)

Jewish LIFE

avowed hostility to Israel. The Communists, it must be recalled, were allies of the Mufti as far back as the pogroms of 1929.

Bishop Hakim, spiritual — and political — head of the Arab Cath­ olics (who won three seats), is another former active henchman of the Mufti, right to the time of Israel’s victory in the War of Liberation. This is sufficient to ex­ plain the coalition offer alleged to have been made by the Bishop to the Communists for the admini­ stration of the. city. It also indi­ cates the cement which would hold such a coalition together.

It is very easy, nevertheless, to exaggerate the danger presented by the Communists in this coun­ try, though because of the fertile soil upon which their agitation falls, they will continue to be a thorn in the side of the State.

They have five members in the Knesseth — certainly no great achievement in the light of the complete freedom which they enjoy in the country and the disaffection of the Arabs, which they exploit.

Moreover, because of the spotlight turned onto the Nazareth elections (which aroused international in­ terest) their success has been made to appear more spectacular.

Actually, they have registered a slight recession, polling 3,034 votes {or 38.4% of the total) in the Nazareth elections as against 3,134 ( 43 % of the total) in the last Knesseth elections, though there is little doubt that they feel them­ selves less constrained than they did three years ago, when the MiliJuly - August, 1954

tary Government was far more stringent.

PERHAPS the Communists can * hope to increase their strength by union with Dr. Sneh’s Left Party. Dr. Sneh, for the time be­ ing, is following a policy of tactical independence, which means full ac­ ceptance of Communist dogma and very cordial relations with the offi­ cially recognized local Communist Party. However, though Dr. Sneh has taken many of Mapam’s former urban supporters, and especially the younger element, with him, his prospects should he decide to fight the elections on an independent ticket (flanked as he is by the Communists and Mapam) are very slim. It is merely a matter of time and a favorable opportunity when he will take the decisive step and join up with the Communists.

Mapam, after the expulsion of Sneh, is probably stronger than it was before, though the problem of fusing its major fraction, the Yaari-Chazan group, based on the Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim, and the minority Tabenkin-Ben Aharon-Alon group, based upon Hakibbutz Hameuchad, remains as in­ soluble as ever. There are even unmistakable signs that the latter does not exclude the possibility of a new understanding with Mapai, especially now that its main op­ ponent, David Ben Gurion, has re­ tired from the political arena. / TT IS rather more difficult to ^ assess the chances of Mapai. Ap­ parently at its zenith of strength, 23

with the economic empire it con­ trols in the name of the Histadruth growing, it is nevertheless suffer­ ing acutely from the staleness that is the penalty of a long and un­ broken spell of power. Though it is the largest party in the Knesseth, with forty-eight seats as com­ pared with the General Zionists’ twenty-three, and is led by men of the caliber of Moshe Sharett and Levi Eshkol, its intellectual pover­ ty is reflected in its stodgy and unctious press and, indeed, in any field not directly economic in char­ acter. It is significant that so many of the younger writers and

journalists should turn naturally towards Mapam, despite the fact that that party has little in the way of patronage tq dispense.

Mapai is still a mass party of workers, but petit bourgeois men­ tality, fatal for a labor party, is gnawing at its vitals.

It was only Ben Gurion’s in­ spired leadership and national prestige that delayed the conse­ quences of this process in the past, and should Ben Gurion decide not to resume the Premiership, Mapai’s chances at the forthcoming elections will decline considerably.

IMPOSTORS AMONG THE POOR Rabbi Johanan and Resh Lakish went down to bathe in the public baths of Tiberias# and a poor man accosted them. He said to them, "Give me something." They ans­ wered# "When we come out we will give it." When they came out they found him dead. They said: "Since we did not assist him during his life# let us attend to him after his death." When they arose from washing his body# they found a purse of dinars by him# and they said: "We should be grateful even to impostors among them# for were it not for the impostors among them, were a man to see a beggar begging alms and refuse him, he would be punished with death immediately."

Midrash Rabbah, Ruth V# 9.

HUMILITY Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Berditchever was asked: "Why do all tractates of the Talmud begin with page 2 and not with page 1?" And he replied: "In order that a person should know that he has not really begun to study . . . "

24

Jewish LIFE

By ABRAHAM AARON WEISS £>OMING from a well-to-do fam­ ily, my mother received an ex­ cellent education in her native city of Minsk. My grandfather, a tea importer, saw to it that all his five sons and four daughters got a mod­ ern as well as a traditional train­ ing. They even had tutors for French, Algebra and ballroom danc­ ing.

Now, I will not vouch for the impact of these secular studies up­ on my mother. But the men who taught her Hebrew and the Bible must have been a truly dedicated and inspiring group. For they in­ stilled a life-long ardor for the sacred language upon my mother which nearly five decades in Amer­ ica have not erased. They did more than that.

These skillful fnelamdim saturated her with a host of Hebrew quotations, which, in her own words, “without them, I could never have brought up my fine family . . . ” Before going through a typical July - August, 1954

run of Mama's pesukim, a few exegetical remarks must be made.

First, they were simply her spon­ taneous reactions to the day-to-day crises of bringing up five chil­ dren. That we never understood her strange-sounding phrases was of little consequence. That the pro­ voking parties may also have been the economic cycles, and He-WhoIs-Above never blocked the flow of her quotes. For her bits from Scripture really served a double purpose. They released the mount­ ing pressures within her, and by invoking the tongue of the Eternal, they usually eased the prevailing urgency. ^ \N L Y my father — a seasoned Hebraist — appreciated her Biblical acumen. Yet, the rest of us, even as children felt the bal­ ance of the Hebrew lines, their authentic and resounding ring. It was only after we had put in many years in Hebrew" School before we 25

realized how well-versed Mama was.

Then, coming upon her passages in the text was like meeting old, familiar friends.. When we rushed home and told her of our discov­ eries, we found out that she had long since forgotten the original sources. Yet her quotations over the years had been accurate and complete. And they were always to the point.

Knocking gently upon our bed­ room door each morning, my moth­ er roused us for school with the goading admonition that “The day is short, the work is great and the workers are lazy.” (Pirke Ovoth 2:20) The shrill cadence of this phrase tumbled us out of bed, and in a matter of minutes, we were up, washed, dressed and had finish­ ed breakfast. As we began creep­ ing like snails unwillingly to school, Mama's farewell fell upon our illtuned ears. “Rejoice young man in the days of your youth!” (Koheleth 11:9) When we came home for lunch, there were the usual complaints about the meal. These my mother parried with “Man does not live by bread alone.” (Devorim 8:3) If there was not enough meat for second helpings, our appetites were quelled by the warning that “He who indulges in meat is more sus­ ceptible to worms.” (Ethics of the Fathers 2:8) In fact, all rumblings against our underprivileged plight were stilled with “Let the poor be members of thy household.” (Ibid 1:5) 25T THE end of the d a y ^ if it was one of those days — came 26

the night of reckoning. Papa was the punisher. In the moment be­ fore his outstretched arm was brougnt down upon squirming but­ tocks, my mother would echo the angel's ancient charge to Abraham upon Mount Moriah: “Do not send forth your hand upon this child!”

(Bereyshith 22:12) This, she would quickly follow up with “For the inclination of man's heart is evil from his youth.” (Bereyshith 8:21) However, my father's attri­ bute of justice usually triumphed over my mother's pleas for mercy.

Then, she would comfort our afflic­ tions with “Hearken my son to the chastisement of your father.”

(Proverbs 1:8) And when the time came — as it must to all children — for us to take on outside “lessons” (Hebrew, piano, or violin), Mama silenced all protests with that old standby —- “Bring up a child according to his way.” (Proverbs 22:6) All ap­ peals for an extension of our after­ school freedom she quashed with “How pleasing is a thing in its proper time.” (Proverbs 15:23) As a last resort, we would try to bar­ gain for a concrete token of our sacrifice. She had an answer for that, too, “He who hates gifts, will live.” (Proverbs 15 :27) From these rulings, there were never open any further avenues of appeal or escape.

Perhaps the high point of Mama's pesukim came when we were ap­ praised by our teachers. Our monthly school report cards and weekly notes from our private teachers got the same careful scru­ tiny. Usually, our grades were good. And my mother never missed Jewish LIFE

an opportunity, while passing the reports to my father for his sig­ nature to note that “Most chil­ dren take after the mother’s broth­ e rs ” (Baba Bathra 110 :A). And as we slowly filed out of the room she would sigh from the bottom of her being, “This is my portion from all my travails . . . ” (Koheleth 2 :10) TH EN , there were the days my mother did not want. These lean periods varied directly with the seasonal cycles in the ladies garment industry. And they evoked quotations to keep our own cour­ age going. On a Friday morning, while scrubbing the wooden floor boards, she would utter a private prayer, “That we may not labor in vain, nor bring forth confusion.”

(Siddur) Or, while rubbing the weekly wash on the battered scouring board, she would sob soft­ ly that “The waters have reached up to the soul.” (Folk saying)

July - August, 1954

Without a doubt, my mother’s most revealing quotation was re­ served for my father. It came as the climax of their courtship days.

Like all children, we were always curious about the workings of the destiny which brought our parents together. We kept pestering them constantly on how they met, who knew it first, and how long it was before my father brought the ring.

Together, they had succeeded — or was it conspired? — in surround­ ing their romance with an extravagent aura: How my father first called at their apartment on Stan­ ton Street to bring regards from their kinsmen in Minsk. How my mother was out that Sunday after­ noon attending a lecture by Zevi Hirsch Masliansky at the Educa­ tional Alliance. How my father, en­ tranced by her picture on the wall, got up, removed it, and carefully placing it in his breast pocket, vowed to my grandfather to wed his daughter, or forever remain

27

single. Then, there followed the countless, sleepless nights that my father walked the streets of Brownsville till he fulfilled his vow.

For this last detail,* we were al­ ways referred to our Aunt Shifra with whom my father lived during his bachelor days. She, in turn, rounded out this picture, which we somehow suspected, had been de­ lusively over-drawn.

■MOT VERY long ago, my mother was retracing these golden

days. And she recalled the quo­ tation which she had blurted out to my father as they went together to apply for their marriage license at City Hall. I was expecting a lyric line from the Song of Songs. Or, a poignant phrase from the Book of Psalms. Instead, quite quickly and frankly, my mother confessed that at this most exalted moment of her maiden days, she felt like “sheep being led to the slaughter!”

(Siddur) . . .

PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST Six things bear interest in this world and the capital remaineth in the world to come: Hospitality to strangers, visiting the sick, meditation in prayer, early attendance at the school of instruction, the training of sons to the study of the law, and judging charitably of one's neighbors.

Talmud, Sabbath 127a.

DIVINE LOVE — REVEALED AND HIDDEN ^ Both father and mother love their children. The amount of love is the same. The only difference is that the father keeps the love in his heart, whereas the mother more often gives outward expression to her love. In the Goluth, the love of G-d for Israel is similar to that of a father for his child — it is hidden; it is not obvious, but it is there just the same. In Eretz Israel the love of G-d is like that of a mother — it is revealed; it is evident.

Therefore, in the Goluth only His name. Lord, is used by the Jews. The SHEM MAMEFOROSH, the revealed, inef­ fable name of G-d is reserved only for the Temple in Jeru­ salem when it will be restored speedily and in our own day. — TANYA

28

Jewish LIFE

— --------- LET'S GUIDE THE G l ------------By CHAPLAIN JOSHUA J. EPSTEIN In the present international situation, it has become more and more obvious that universal military training will continue for a long time to come. This new insertion into the career schedules of our young men has required that a major readjustment take place in the plans of all individuals concerned. Just as each man must make this readjustment, so must the American Jewish community replan its social and educational program for the young people of today.

When the average young man is suddenly torn from his wellaccustomed surroundings, loneliness and dejection usually settle over him. In the few hours the basic trainee has for relaxation he looks desperately for something which can replace his civilian friendships.

He makes new contacts and finds new friends both in the military and in the new civilian community to which he has been ordered.

Since many of the larger training camps are located in sparsely populated areas, there are frequently no Jewish communities in the immediate surroundings. Therefore many servicemen will sooner or later meet girls of different faiths. The young man will freely state that these relationships will continue to be very casual, and that no serious consequences will ever result. But how often these men ended up in my office, seeking a quick conversion for their girl friends, in the hope that their families may yet approve of their marriagel I believe that the time has come when all community leaders must face the new situation honestly, and must arrive at some type of plan which can strengthen our young men against these marriages.

Serious thought must be given to the preparation of these Jewish young men for service to their country. The Jewish educational institutions in our nation must now face this new responsibility.

We must ask ourselves, “How can we prepare our young people for periods of time when they will not meet a single Jewish girl? Parents must be informed that their sons must be inspired to withstand the very powerful pressures of loneliness and desire for feminine companionship.

The time has come when committees must be formed in Jewish organ­ izations with the express purpose of preventing the disruption of home and community through these occurrences.

Chaplains at all military installations are faced with these dilemnas frequently. We make every effort to create and initiate programs which might help in its solution. But to be at all successful our synagogues must make every effort to send to us young men in whom the feelings have been created to listen to our pleas for the perpetuation of our people.

July - August, 1954

29

■THE FOUR HUNDRED years * which passed from the year 500, marked by the close of the Talmud, to the end of the Ninth Century, constituted on the whole a period of great events, both in general and in Jew­ ish history. In general, it is marked by the rise of Islam, the great religion which succeeded in spreading in the course of half a century from its birthplace, Ara­ bia, to the confines of Asia and to the midst of Africa. The sway of Islam marked not only a religious but also a political revolution. It shattered the powerful empire of the Persians and reduced the By­ zantine empire to less than a fourth of its former size.

As a result of these changes in the general world, there took place also many changes in the Jewish world. The new, dominating religion which borrowed much from Judaism and whose language was Arabic, of Semitic stock and akin to Hebrew, was in the early period of its rise less antagonis­ tic to Judaism than Christianity and Zoroastrianism, which previously held sway in the leading Jewish centers, the Babylonian and Palestinian. Jewish activity in these two countries rose therefore to a higher level. However, 30

Jewish LIFE

due to a number of causes, though we are aware of the great heritage left to us by the literary activity of the Eretz Israel scholars during the Seventh and Eighth Centuries, the light of history does not properly illumine the path of influence of that Jewry.

T H E CASE was different with the Babylonian center. The large number of Jews living there, its age-long social and religious organization with the Prince of the Exile (Bosh Galuta) at its head — an office which was continued under Islamic rule and its two academies which continued to expound the Talmud — all these made its influence paramount in world Jewry. This Jewry was continually expanding at the time, and new centers of settlement were gradually arising. In all these places the Jewish settle­ ments began to flourish under Islamic rule and the leaders set out to or­ ganize their religious life. But being young and possessing little learning, they were confused and were in search of a way to a complete Jewish life.

They all turned for guidance to Babylonia where the Geonim, the heads of the two great academies, ruled and taught. The Geonim responded and there ensued an extensive correspondence between them and leaders of scattered Jewries, whereby the Geonim gave guidance and codified teaching in the practice of Judaism.

■OUT THERE was also a reverse side of the medal. The contact of the ■ Islamic conquerors with ancient cultures brought about the rise of a great culture in Babylonia and the surrounding countries. This culture in turn, with its diverse tendencies brought, on the one hand, much division in Islam and on the other hand, criticism voiced by thinkers of the doctrines of the Koran. A philosophy arose then which strove to reconcile religion with reason, and here and there heretical opinions made their appearance.

This intellectual and spiritual conflict found also an echo among the Jews who by that time were influenced by the environment and had adopted Arabic as their speech.

In imitation of the Arabs, there arose also in Jewry, from time to time, sects under the guidance of false Messiahs, who deviated from the path of Judaism of the ages. The largest and most powerful sect was that of the Karaites, founded by Anan ben David in 760. This sect rejected the Talmud and clung to the Bible and claimed that they represented the true Judaism.

They spread and began to attack the rest of the Jews whom they called Rabbanites. They devoted themselves to the study of the Hebrew language, but often misused this study in interpreting the Bible to prove their views.

In addition, there were also occasional outbursts of heresy, such as that of Hivi al-Balkhi, who hailed from the city of Balkh in Persia.

Were such state of intellectual confusion to continue, who can calculate how devastating would have been its deteriorating effects upon Babylonian Jewry? But as Saadia says: “G-d does not leave His nation at any period

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31

without a scholar whom He inspires and enlightens so that he in turn may so instruct and teach her, that thereby *her condition shall be bettered.” Such a man arose in the time of need, and he helped to stabilize Judaism and guide those who erred in the right path. That man was no other than Saadia himself.

I: His Career g A ADI A ben Joseph Al-Fayyumi was born in the year 892 in Egypt in the village of Dilaz in the district of Fayyum, and hence he was called Al-Fayyumi. It seems that his father was not a scholar and was engaged in some kind of trade. This fact, however, did not prevent him from acquir­ ing a thorough, comprehensive education in all branches of Jewish knowledge as well as a mastery of the Arabic language and its literature. We do not know the names of his teachers, but the extent and breadth of knowledge he possessed even in his early youth proves that Egypt was at the time a seat of Jewish learning. In his very first work, the Agron, a Hebrew dic­ tionary in two parts, Saadia already displayed great learning as well as mastery of scientific method, especially in the field of Hebrew philology.

The work was soon followed by another larger one on Hebrew grammar, called Sepher Haloshon (The Book of Language) in twelve parts, which con­ stitutes the first systematic Hebrew grammar.

A year or two later, though still very young, in 915, at the age of twenty-three, he was confident enough of his own powers to become the champion of traditional, or Rabbanite, Judaism and published the first of his series of works against Karaism, his Kitab Al-Radad Ala Anan (Refu­ tation of Anan).

In that same year Saadia left the land of his birth and even separated himself from his family. He spent a few years in Palestine where he met Abu Kathir, a Hebrew philologist, who gave him additional instruction in the mysteries of the Hebrew language. From there he went to Babylonia where he lived for a few years, and then left for a short time to reside in Aleppo, but in June or July of the year 922 he returned to Babylonia. It was during the early part of that year that Saadia participated in a con­ troversy between the Geonim of Babylonia and Ben Meir, the head of the Palestinian school, about an important point in the Jewish calendar which revolved about the question whether Rosh Hashonah of the year 4684 A.M. (923-24) should be celebrated on the day of the Molad (birth of the moon) or postponed for two days later. This possible postponement is mentioned in the Talmud and depends on the exact time of the appearance of the moon, Ben Meir, offering a certain explanation of the passage in the Talmud, was for the earlier date; the Babylonian Geonim insisted on the postponement.

That postponement of the New Year of 4684 would have required changes in the holidays of preceding years, especially Pesach 4682. Saadia’s cham­ pionship of the Geonic view brought victory to the Babylonian leaders, and his fame grew. It seems that as a reward he was granted by the Academy

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Jewish LIFE

at Sura the title A luf (Master). The title was given to scholars who were third in rank after the Gaon.

23[ FEW years later, in the year 928, when the position of Gaon at the Academy of Sura became vacant, the Exilarch, David ben Zakkai, offered it to Saadia who accepted it. For two years peace reigned between the two. Then a quarrel broke out between them, resulting from a decision

by David in the case of a litigation between heirs involving a large sum of money; This decision Saadia considered unjust, inasmuch as a certain per­ centage of the sum involved was supposed to go to the Exilarch. The de­ cision had to be approved by both Geonim; Kahen Zedek, Gaon of Pumbedita, approved, but Saadia refused in spite of continual requests. David then removed Saadia from office, appointing another man to the position. Saadia retaliated by excommunicating David and declaring his office vacant, and likewise appointing another man in his place. The result was a violent strife in Babylonian Jewry between the two parties. After three years, David and his party applied to the Caliph for decision, and by offering large sums of money as bribes to officials, secured a decree deposing Saadia, and he was compelled to live in retirement at Bagdad. During this retire­ ment he continued to teach his people by publishing a number of important works, the leading of which was the Emunoth ve-Deoth (Doctrines and Beliefs), which initiated Jewish philosophic literature through the ages.

Eventually, on the eve of Purim 936, a reconciliation was effected and Saadia was reinstated as Gaon. In the year 942, Saadia died, thus ending the great and turbulent career of the Gaon.

II: "First in Every Branch" T H E GREAT Biblical exegete, philologist, and philosopher Abraham Ibn Ezra says of the Gaon Saadia: “He was first in every branch of study.”

Using as he does the Hebrew word Rosh which has a double meaning, first in time and first in importance, there is no doubt that he implied in his statement the term “first” in both connotations. He was certainly deserving of such an appellation. There was hardly a branch of Jewish studies in which he did not break a path and for the development of which he did not lay a foundation.

Hebrew grammar and lexicography, without which the extensive Hebrew literature during a whole millennium could not have developed, was practi­ cally not in existence before Saadia. His first work, the Agron, was pri­ marily intended to help poets in versification. In the first of its two parts, words were arranged alphabetically according to the first letters, in the second, according to the final letters to help the poets in writing both acros­ tics and rhymes. The importance consisted in the definitions of the words in Hebrew, which gave all their nuances and meanings. Of great value was the introduction, in which he summarized the history of the Hebrew language and established a number of fundamental rules of Hebrew grammar. He

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thus opened the portals of the Hebrew language to all who sought to avail themselves of the treasures. The second edition of the work contained translations of the words into Arabic, thus widening and enlarging the circle who benefited by its use.

The second book, gepher Halosbon, is practically the first system­ atic grammar, and it contains the first tables of verb conjugations in all forms except the Piel, and also covers rules of punctuation and paradigms of the declensions of nouns, and even includes a discussion of syntax. Many discussions of grammatical subjects are scattered in his commentaries to the Scriptures and to Sepher Hayetzirah, a leading work in mysticism.

It is on these broad and solid foundations that the structure of Hebrew grammar and lexicography was built during the following three centuries. ^■HE PROPER understanding of the Bible became especially important, as pointed out, in the time of Saadia, for through the proper interpreta­ tion, of the text of the Bible, the division in Jewry between the Karaites and the Rabbanites as well as all other types of confusion could be weakened and tradition stabilized. Saadia, whose aspiration to teach his people domi­ nated his soul, devoted himself to that task. And in order to reach the whole people, the broad masses as well as the learned, he undertook to translate the entire Bible into Arabic, the language spoken by all Jews in Islamic countries, and to add to it comfhentaries in the same language.

There were fundamental traits which characterized the higher culture of the Mediaeval period in Jewry and to a degree also in the larger world.

There was, on the one hand, a tendency to follow reason, and on the other hand, an elemental belief in tradition and an endeavor to inculcate loyalty to it in the hearts of the people. These traits formed in Saadia’s works a remarkable amalgam from which there followed two principles. First, that the religious revelation is authentic and so is the tradition stemming from it. It is therefore the duty of every Jew not only to believe in its teachings, but to observe its commandments. Second; that it is impossible that this Revelation or Torah should contain anything which is contrary to reason, for it is given by G-d who is the very foundation of wisdom. And if such contradiction seems on the surface apparent, it is our duty to find a way to remove it and thus prove that reason and tradition supplement each other.

This view, which he later elaborated in his philosophic work more exten­ sively, Saadia wanted to make, through his translation of the Bible and commentaries on it, the heritage of the entire nation.

THUS great work of Saadia accomplished its purpose, revealing not only to the Jews but to the world at large the light of the Torah and Judaism and proving their perfection and their rational basis. It explained the an­ thropomorphic expressions and removed all contradictions whether to reason or to historical and natural facts. Above all, it showed the close connection

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Jewish LIFE

I

1

between the oral tradition (Torah She-b’al Peh) and the written law, and thus undermined all arguments of the Karaites who based themselves on . the Biblical texts. In addition to all these there went into the work such a mastery of all branches of knowledge: philological, historical, and philo­ sophical, which made the text of the Biblical books in its most difficult parts lucid and intelligible.

Saadia not only translated — and every translation is a commentary — and commented on the Bible, but Wrote introductions to a number of books which gave summaries of the thoughts contained within them and brought out their spiritual and intellectual treasures. Of special importance are his introductions to the Books of Proverbs and Job. In the first, which deals with human conduct, he discusses the elements which make conduct right and just and comes to the conclusion, that reason mdst be the dominant element in conduct. In the introduction to Job he grapples with the prob­ lem, why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper, or the problem of Divine justice, and succeeded in lessening to a large degree its difficulty.

This work is a landmark in the millennial endeavor to understand the Bible in all phases of its teachings, and had served as a guidepost to numerous commentators who followed him. Though much of the original work in Arabic was lost, and only a number of the books translated and commented remained — these were later published with translations in Hebrew or European languages ¡1h its influence persisted through the ages. So numer­ ous are the quotations in the works of the later leading commentators, such as Ibn Ezra, Kimhi, and others that there is hardly a chapter of the Bible on the /content of which his voice is not heard.

Ill: Emunofh Ve-Deoth ■y*HE Emunoth Ve-Deoth, written in the year 937, during the time of *■* Saadia’s exile from the Gaonite, is like his translation of and com­ mentary on the Bible, one of his outstanding contributions to the spiritual and intellectual uplifting of his people.

His starting point is that man can attain truth, for G-d gave him reason and the sense data are reliable. Hence the concepts and views that he can draw from these data through the ways of reasoning are true. Error arises only either from lack of mastery of a subject, or from neglect of study and not following the way of reason. Therefore, pitying his brethren “who are drowning in the sea of error,” he undertook to help them. He states at first the three sources of knowledge in general: sense data; second, intuitive knowledge, such as all men possess even if at times they do not act accordingly; and “necessary knowledge,1” namely, such that man must accept, for its denial contradicts logic or reason or sense data. To these three he adds true tradition, which must be accepted as he later proves.

Saadia proceeds then, in nine of the ten sections of the book, to prove the truth of Judaism and its principal beliefs and dogmas, and their ac­ cordance with reason.

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35

In the first section, which he calls Chidush (Creation, or Creation from Nothing) he offers four proofs from Reason for the existence of G-d. The proofs can be called indirect, for they demonstrate that the world was created, and since he also demonstrates by several proofs that a thing can­ not create itself, it follows that there is a Creator. He uses Aristotelian principles in his proofs, but in a way which concludes against Aiistotle’s teaching that the world is eternal.

In the next section he elucidates the proper conception of the Deity.

G-d must be conceived by man in some way, for otherwise He has no re­ lation to man. Such a conception can be conveyed by means of attributes or qualities which are ascribed to Him. Saadia posits the following essential attributes: One, not only one in number, but possessing absolute unity and simplicity of substance, Living, Wise, Potent, and Incompatibility with His creatures.

B UT HERE begins the difficulty, for attributes mean additions to the essence of a being and several attributes mean multiplicity in the Deity, which is contrary to unity. He removes this by saying that all the attributes are included in one concept — Creator — and creation is an activity. It is because of the limitation of the human language that we express them in several words. In reality, Creator implies living, wise, and potent, for only One who possesses these qualities could create the world, and consequently there is in the G-dhead absolute unity and simplicity. Besides, He is above all nature of bodies, for He is the creator of all, and thus is above all changes and composition. As for such attributes mentioned in the Bible as merciful, gracious, loving, and others, all of which denote being subject to affection from other beings, these are not really attributes, but only ex­ pressions to designate ways of approval of human action according to human standards, and man transfers them to G-d figuratively. Saadia also offers numerous explanations of many anthropomorphic expressions in the Bible and proves that they are only employed in a metaphorical manner, so that all men, no matter of what degree of intellectuality, should be impressed with the greatness, holiness, and majesty of G-d. In accordance with such exalted conception of G-d, he asserts that the revelations at Sinai, as well as all visions spoken of by the prophets, were special creations by G-d — creatidns which could be seen or heard in order that men should be properly impressed and Divine teaching inculcated in their hearts.

T H E DISCUSSION of the Torah is taken up in the third section. In regard to the Torah, there are a number of questions which are to .be answered. The first is, G-d being so exalted, why then should He enter into relation with lowly man, reveal Himself to him, and give him a Torah?

The answer is, peculiarly enough, given by means of another question, namely, what need had G-d for a world? Why should He have created the world altogether? Saadia, representing the optimistic view of Judaism that

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Jewish LIFE

(I

existence and life is good in itself, says that G-d, who is essentially good, created the world out of His goodness. If this is the case, He also had to give man a Torah to guide him in his path of life.

He then turns to the nature and character of the commandments.

These he divided into two classes, those whose rationality is evident, and those the reason for the fulfillment of which is not evident, but must be obeyed. The commandments of the first class probably could have been enacted by means of man's own reason. As for those of the second class, they also undoubtedly have a rationale for a basis, for G-d who gave them is the source of reason, but the reason is not evident to man. He attempts though to offer some, rational explanations for several groups of this class.

He is quite aware of the question, that if human reason itself could pro­ claim the rational commandments, what need was there for including them in the Torah? His answer is, reason can know their value, but could not determine the necessary particulars, such as the proper time to carry them out, the extent of the action required by the commandment, as well as other details. Confusion would then have ensued, for each individual would then have had different views on these matters. The Torah supplies all these particulars and makes them practical.

TJTOWEVER, the need for revelation and divine inspiration in determining ^ * the proper performance through the ages of even the rational precepts is not entirely removed by the Torah, for the written law also needs clarification. Hence it was supplemented by the Oral Law. Saadia believes then that the prophets were the car­ riers or transm itters of the Oral Torah. This was an important point in Saadia’s view of Judaism, for it undermines the contention of the Karaites. This leads him to offer a de­ finition of prophecy and proofs for its au­ thenticity. The prophet, says he, is divinely inspired and the authenticity of his message is proven by his ability to perform miracles.

This power is not innate with him, but is given him by G-d at the time he prophesies.

It is given to him so that the people should trust his message, and also that he himself should be convinced of the authenticity of his message. In addition, his teaching must possess inner value and must not contradict either reason or moral laws.

Saadia butressed his view1 about the au­ thenticity of the written and the oral law by

July - August, 1954

proving the value of tradition in human life. He demonstrated that without tradition neither individual, nor social,* nor political life could be carried on.

Saadia knows well that tradition can contain errors either through mis­ understanding of facts by those who bear the tradition, or even by falsifying certain aspects for a purpose. This, says he, may happen to tradition of individuals, but not to one carried on by a large group for generations.

The consensus ominum, i.e., general agreement, is a guarantee against it.

Were there any error or falsehood in it, it would crop out in the course of time.

“T'HE FINAL question in regard to the Torah is: Is it eternal and * immutable? In other words, was there any other revelation which abro­ gated at least a part of the Torah as the Christians and the Mohammedans claimed? Saadia offers numerous proofs that such a thing could not have happened as it would be contrary to the rational conception of the nature of the G-dhead. The Torah, says he, adds to many commandments the words that “they are to be kept for all your generations.” It is evident then that the eternity and immutability of the Law is emphasized by the Torah itself. Second, the prophets repeatedly stress the eternity of the Jewish people. Jeremiah says: I f these, ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall cease from being a nation before me forever” (Jer. Ch. XXXI, 35, 36). Then, concludes Saadia, since the Jews are a nation only through the Torah, it follows that the eternity of the Jewish people likewise assures the eternity of the Torah. The strength of this argument rests on the fact that both Christianity and Islam assert the veracity of the Bible and consider the words of the prophets divine utterances. Their claim for abrogation of the Torah is thus void.

JN THE fourth section, Saadia takes up the question of obedience to G-d’s ^ commandments. He explains at length the right nature of worshipping G-d, but here he is forced to grapple with the difficult problems of G-d’s prescience and human freedom in choice of conduct. Saadia says that G-d’s knowledge of man’s action does not disturb human freedom. He attempts to explain by an example from human life. Suppose a man standing on a high mountain sees at a distance a march of an army. Some soldiers had already passed a certain point, some are passing, and some will pass it.

But his sight does not alter the route of the march. However, the problem is not entirely solved and later philosophers still continued to grapple with it, but a beginning of the solution was made.

Human freedom brings us to the question of reward and punishment, and again a problem crops up, namely, that of Job why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. This problem was already dealt with in the Talmud, and Saadia repeats some of the answers given there, but finally comes to the conclusion that the real reward and punishment is primarily

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Jewish LIFE

reserved to the time after death, in this world there is only partial reward and punishment. The wicked may be rewarded for some good deeds and the righteous may be punished for some of his transgressions, but since no­ body is completely wicked or completely righteous, the Tzadik may suffer and the Rosha may prosper at times. The mention pf the hereafter leads to a discussion of the soul and its immortality which the philosopher takes up in the sixth section. The soul, according to him, is created by G-d be­ fore one is born. It is manifested in life by the appetitive faculty (Nefesh), expressed in desires for satisfaction of physical needs, such as food, copu­ lation, etc.; the emotional or the spirit (Ruaoh), which embraces feelings, such as love, hatred, courage, and the faculty of the intellect and reasoning in its various forms (Neshomah). These are the same faculties which are recognized by Plato and Aristotle and accepted by all later religious phi­ losophers. It is the last of these three faculties which distinguishes man from all other creatures, for plants share in the first faculty, and animals also in the second. The soul is immortal, for it is a spiritual substance, and besides, we must assume its immortality, for since the justice of G-d is not carried out in this world, it must be relegated to the Hereafter. rHHE LAST three sections are devoted to the Hereafter or eschatology.

Saadia tries to explain Resurrection in a somewhat scientific way, but he is quite aware of the weakness of such effort, and finally declares it a miracle, and since G-d can perform miracles for He is omnipotent, resur­ rection is no exception. It is moreover a necessary miracle, for, as mentioned, life is too short to carry out complete justice, and it must therefore be carried out in a later time.

The same demand for the fulfillment of the justice of G-d is a guarantee for the coming of the Messiah and the Messianic era. Jews had suffered so much, and the Messianic era is their reward. This era with all its “good time” will be enjoyed both by the Jews who live at the time and by Jews of past generations who will be resurrected and partake of the good. It is evident that Saadia asserts that Resurrection will precede the Messianic era,.

This view is contrary to the Talmud and Midrosh, which aver that Résur­ rection will take place after the Messianic era preceding the World to Come (Olam ha-Ba). Resurrection is limited to the members of the Jewish nation as the reward of the righteous, but the penitent wicked ones will rise.

Those wicked ones who did not repent will not be resurrected and will not participate in the good of the Messianic era. At the end of the Messianic era, there will come into being a world where life will be of a spiritual nature, and all those who-were resurrected will be transported bodily into the new world. Those wicked who did not rise previously will now rise to receive their punishment. Both the reward and punishment are spiritualized

by Saadia, though he attempts to combine them in a way with the Gehenna

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(Hell) and Gan Eden (Paradise).

The tenth section, dealing with ethics and human conduct, seems to be a separate treatise and an appendix. As usual Saadia offers an ex­ tensive analysis of various theories of conduct, and then offers his own theory which can be characterized briefly as of harmony. It asserts that each faculty of the soul — see above ¡pip must have its share in conduct, but in a limited way in order not to transgress upon the province of other faculties, and thus harmony in life will be established. He adds one more condition, namely, that the satisfaction of the needs of the two other facul­ ties must be under control of the faculty of reason and in accordance with the precepts of the Torah.

IV: Other Contributions QJAADI A also contributed much to other branches of Jewish knowledge ^ besides those discussed. Of course, the first are his Halochic works which were numerous, including many Responsa, and also an Arabic intro­ duction, no longer extant, to the Talmud. Another work, preserved in He­ brew translation, is the Interpretation of the Thirteen Rules of Rabbi Ishmael, which bore the basis of motivated Halochah or Midrosh. This is of exceptional value, as it explains the application of these rules in a most lucid manner. He also wrote commentaries to the tractates Pesachim, Sota, Baba Metziah, Baba Bathra, and the sixth order of the Mishnah, Taliarotk.

All have been lost, and are primarily known by quotations and by some fragments recently discovered in the Cairo Genitzah. Of Saadia’s numerous Halochic codes, only the book on the law of inheritance (Sefer ha-Yerushah) is preserved. Saadia composed also numerous religious poems, several of which are incorporated in various Machzorim, but the most important liturgical work is his Siddur where a complete order of prayers is given, and also includes all the laws of the ritual as well as a large number of Piyyutim by earlier Paitanim and some of his own. The Siddur was re­ cently published and is an outstanding work in Jewish literature.

Saadia also wrote a number of works on chronology and history. These are: a Book on Chronology, covering the period from Creation to his own times; Seder Tannoim ve-Amoraim (The Order of Generations of the Tannaim and Amoraim); and a biography of Judah the Prince, the redactor of the Mishnah.

■■FAKING into consideration these numerous works in all fields of knowledge, A which were written during a short period of thirty years, as he began to write at the age of twenty, we are amazed at the genius and exceptional ability of the man. He certainly realized his own dictum quoted above, namely, he himself was the gift of G-d to his people in time of confusion, for he taught and inspired not only his own generation, but many suc­ ceeding ones.

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Jewish LIFE

By MORRIS BESDIN THE CHRISTIANITY OF SHOLEM ASCH,, An Appraisal From the Jewish Viewpoint, by Chaim Liebermàn, Philosophical Library, New York, 1953, pp. 276, $3.00.

■PHIS book is a bitter and passion* ate indictment of Sholem Asch, charging him with grievous offenses against the Jewish religion and peo­ ple. Also, it presents an effective refutation of the Christian dogmas and prejudices that are expounded with apparent sympathy and endorse­ ment by Asch, in his series of novels on the Christian theme.

With the intense zeal of a prosecu­ tor, Chaim Lieberman denounces Sho­ lem Asch as guilty of fraud and cor­ ruption in the use of his literary medium to ensnare his Jewish read­ ers into the fold of Christianity. No less sérious is the charge that Asch has, in his books, given expression to

July - August, 1954

numerous vicious and harmful Antisemitic prejudices.

These accusations against so prom­ inent a Yiddish writer, whose books in English translation have achieved such wide acclaim and popularity, would appear to be utterly incredible were it not for the mass of evidence that is adduced to validate them. By copious quotation from Asch’s Christological works and by detailed analy­ sis of their scheme and content, Lieb­ erman is able to submit a bill of particulars that is undeniable.

T IEBERMAN emphasizes that the Christology of Asciis books is particularly dangerous in its influ­ ence upon our impressionable Jewish youth, most of whom lack a basic understanding and appreciation of Judaism. Their ignorance and con­ fusion in matters of religion make them an open target for the subtle

41

deception of Asch’s Christian propa­ ganda. This reviewer knows from his experience as an army chaplain that many Jewish boys in the army were profoundly disturbed and ‘shaken in their Jewish faith as a result of reading “The Nazarene” and “The Apostle” of Asch.

Of course, there is nothing new about the publication of missionary tracts that are aimed to “save” Jew­ ish souls. Since the inception of Christianity, the Church has sought to convey its religious gospel to the Jewish people, and even today untold millions of dollars are spent in Chris­ tian missionary efforts among Jews.

In this endeavor Jewish apostates have always been particularly active and have excelled in their missionary zeal as well as in their malice to the religion and people of their origin.

It is, however, a known fact that missionary propaganda among Jews has in the past achieved but little success. The wave of conversions, such as took place in western Europe during the Nineteenth Century, were clearly not due to missionary per­ suasion but to social and economic factors. The dazzling impact of the Emancipation, the urge to enter Christian society and the professions and the desire for economic advance­ ment led many unconscionable, ambi­ tious Jews to a formal profession of Christianity. But the vast majority of them never accepted the dogmas of Christian theology, which they found to be repellent and contrary to reason.

T H E WRITINGS of Sholem Asch are, as Lieberman indicates, more

42

likely to seduce the mind of Jewish readers because Asch poses as a loyal Jew and disclaims any intention of Christian propaganda. Moreover, he does not directly preach Christianity but imperceptibly weaves the basic doctrines of Christian belief into the fabric of his novels. And he does this with subtle skill and sinister talent.

Lieberman’s analysis reveals that Asch, in “The Nazarene” and in “The Apostle,” follows faithfully the Chris­ tian gospel story, which he embel­ lishes with imaginative detail that endows it with an atmosphere of realism and veracity. His approach to the gospel is entirely uncritical and indicates a confident belief in the historical truth of the Christian narrative, which he recounts with a tone of mystic awe and reverence that is easily transmitted to the un­ suspecting and susceptible reader.

This is most damaging, because so much of Christian dogma is founded upon what the gospels relate as fact and proof. If Asch can inspire be­ lief in the fabulous supernatural events that are claimed for the Naza­ rene and Paul, then he can also es­ tablish in the minds of his readers the Christian tenets that are derived from them.

Asch shows no discrimination in his acceptance and sponsorship of Christian dogma and theology. The Virgin Birth, the Trinity, the Mes­ sianic claims of the Nazarene, the Resurrection, Original Sin, Vicarious Atonement — the entire fantastic scheme of Paulian theology is pre­ sented by him not merely with favor and approval but in a tone of un-

Jewish LIFE

questioning support and advocacy.

T IE BERMAN is particularly effective in demonstrating Asch’s ma­ lignant corruption of Jewish teach­ ing and sources in endeavoring to ex­ pound the superiority of Christian theology. A good part of Lieberman’s book is, therefore, devoted to an exposition of authentic Jewish be­ lief and teaching, in refutation of the claims of Christianity. A start­ ling commentary upon the vaunted Jewish scholarship of Asch is pro­ vided in the appendix to the book, where are listed a series of examples of Asch’s ignorance in the use of simple Hebrew texts, sufficient to qualify him as a distinguished AmHaaretz.

Like the apostates who felt im­ pelled to justify their treachery by venting their hatred against the Jew­ ish people, so does Asch, who has not formally renounced the Jewish faith, manifest in his writings such prejudice and antipathy for the Jew­ ish people as to identify him with Antisemitism. Lieberman correctly emphasizes the point that Asch’s lavish and gory account of Crucifix­ ion not only confirms the slanderous charges of Jewish collective guilt and responsibility but is clearly not cal­ culated to diminish Christian hostili­ ty. Certainly, had Asch the slightest concern and feeling for his to rm en ts people he would not have undertaken to aggravate this source and cause of so much Jewish suffering.

In the books that followed “The Nazarene” and “The* Apostle” Asch continues his crusade against Jews and Judaism. In “Mary,” Asch goes

July - August, 1954

far beyond the gospel sources to add new libels created by his fictional imagination. Thus he describes with terrifying detail the merciless perse­ cution of Mary, the cruel expulsion of her young son from Hebrew school, and the prolonged and agoniz­ ing trial of Mary at the hands of Jewish rabbis who are described as wicked and bloodthirsty. That Asch chose to create and propagate these calumnies is striking evidence of his callous disregard of their potential harm and injuriousness to the Jewish people.

In “Moses,” Asch attempts to Christianize the greatest prophet and teacher of Israel. He doe's not hesi­ tate to pervert the Biblical text in an effort to undermine the Jewish faith and to present the Bible in the light of Christian interpretation.

Aaron is pictured as an arch villain who usurps the priesthood and uses it to establish the sacrificial cult for his own exploitation and without the approval of Moses or G-d. The gold­ en calf episode is related as an at­ tempt by Aaron to impose Egyptian idol-worship upon the Israelites.

Worst of all is Asch’s blasphemous account that denies to the Torah its divine origin and deprives Moses of his position as the chosen Lawgiver.

Asch’s motive is clearly, as Lieber­ man points out, to present the Jewish Bible in terms of the Christian con­ ception of the “Old Testament.”

The last of Asch’s major works to come under Lieberman’s scrutiny is “East River,” which he very accu­ rately characterizes as a defamation of Jewish life and a glorification of intermarriage. The Jewish charac-

43

ters in this book are without excep­ tion unsavory and reflect the slander­ ous conception of the Jew that is current in Antisemitic thought and literature. Their lack of Virtue and moral integrity is intended to justify Asch’s doctrine of Jewish “rédemp­ tion” by intermarriage. Asch thus invites his own people to suicide by assimilation.

T IE B E R M A N has undoubtedly achieved the heights of Kiddush Hashem by his forceful and conclu­ sive expose of Asch. He has done our people a great service by counter­ attacking the pernicious influence of Asch’s missionary writings. It is a book that should be disseminated widely, should be found in every Jew­ ish home and should be made avail­ able in every library. Perhaps in this way some antidote may be pro­ vided for the poison that Asch has injected into the stream of Jewish life.

44

| In spite of the serious and scholar­ ly content of Lieberman’s book, it maintains the interest of the reader from beginning to end. This is so, perhaps, because the intense fervor and dramatic skill with which the author unravels the case against Asch lends to it the intriguing in­ terest of the detective story. A word of praise should also be added for Abraham Burstein whose translation from the Yiddish original is highly commendable.

If there is one item of criticism, it is in regard to the strong invective that Lieberman uses against Asch.

In the opinion of this reviewer, the indictment might have been even more convincing if stated in more temperate terms that would not raise in the minds of the reader the issue of personal animus. But then, how can any G-d fearing, loyal Jew prac­ tice restraint in the face of Asch’s provocation?

Jew ish L IF E

On The Jewish Record

By ERIC OFFENBACHER

ONE G-D, TWO VERSIONS ■TO TRADITIONALLY minded Jews the word interfaith holds obnox­ ious connotations. Too often confu­ sion arises from the meaning of its prefix, with the unhappy result that interfaith develops into interchange of faith, and thus faith itself be­ comes faithless. On the other hand, it cannot be denied ' that the educa­ tional process of a knowledge-seek­ ing Jewish individual should include authentic information as to origin and practices of the worlds other religions. How, then, may that in­ formation be obtained?

About ten years ago, Florence Mary Fitch focused attention on the problem with the publication of her book “One G-d.” In it she attempted to describe the principal beliefs and observances of the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant religions, respective­ ly, placing her richly illustrated chapters side by side. Her idea was based on the Biblical sentence in Chapter II of the Book of Malachi: “Have we not all one Father, has not one G-d created us?” As for the “Jewish Way” the book endeavored to distinguish between orthodox prac­ tices on the one hand, and a section

about “Conservative and Reform Jews” on the other. To this extent a line was drawn between Jews who accept the Torah as of divine origin and those who do not. “One G-d,” commendable in intent, could hardly win complete acceptance by any one religion. Yet a non-Jew’s conception of our religious observances might have been enlightened by the book’s perusal, as was our understanding of the many strange Christian sym­ bols and modes of worship. So far so good.

Now along comes Mr. David Kapp, a veteran of 30 years in the music business and an expert in the record­ ing industry. Observing that in this “atomic and hydrogen age . . . man has a desperate need for . . . some sense of security in an insecure world,” he proposes a “universal be­ lief” in the brotherhood of man, which may best be expressed in the “One G-d” idea related in Mary Fitch’s book (meanwhile past the 18th edition). With Miss Fitch her­ self preparing an excerpted text from the book, Kapp placed the story of the three religions on one single pho-

ONE G-D, The Ways We Worship Him, based on the book by Florence Mary Fitch; dramatized and directed by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee; starring Eddie Albert, the Gramercy Players, University Interfaith Chorale, 50 voices from the choir of Teachers College, Dr. Harry Robert Wilson, Director.

Soloists.

Produced by David Kapp.

KAPP RECORDS No. KL-1000. One 12” 33 1 /3 RPM Record, list price $5.95.

July - August, 1954

, 45

Announcing A Limited Edition of a 'Traditional

SABBATH IN THE SYNAGOGUE ^on

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with the Famous Cantor SHOLOM KATZ and An All-Male Choir Directed by SEYMOUR SILBERMINTZ

ERE is your chanqe, to acquire a rich

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The Jewish Music Documentary Society wasfounded to preserve the besf examples of a rich cultural heritage. It is currently recording a cycle of Jewish liturgical music', of which SAB­ BATH IN THE SYNAGOGUE is the first re­ lease. This album is now ready for distribution to subscribers only; will not be sold in any stores.

The Society was very fortunate in obtaining the services of Cantor Katz, and with him a superb all-male choir directed by Seymour Sil­ bermintz. Just listening to these records fly a spiritual experience you will never forget!

The Westminster Recording Co. used the latest high fidelity technique and pressed the records of pure vinyl. The three double-face records which comprise the set are encased in a luxurious gold-stamped leather album. Play: ing time, approximately two and a half hours.

Mail coupon below for your album now.

Cantor Sholom Katz was nearly executed in a Na­ zi concentration camp back in 1942. Along with 2,000 other Jews who were doomed to die, he was digging his own grave.

But as he labored he sang The Prayer for The Dead. An of­ ficer noticed his great voice, spared his life, and allowed him to escape. In 1952, he was chosen to receive the award as “The Outstanding Cantor of The Year.”

Seymour Silbermintz is famous in Jewish music cir­ cles. He has taught at the Juilliard, where he received his master’s degree, and at Brook­ lyn College, where he conduc­ ted the Choral Society. As Mu­ sic Director for the Jewish Music Documentary Society, Mr. Silbermintz helps chart its course and conducts the superb choir which bears his name.

* Jewish Music Documentary Society, Inc., D ept.JL ; 275 Seventh Avenue, New York 1, N. Y.

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Please send me SABBATH IN THE SYNAGOGUE, in the special Limited Edition of three doable-face long playing 12" records of pure vinyl, in a beautiful gold-stamped leather album. It is understood that if for any reason I am not delighted with this album, I may return it within 7 days for a full refund. (Price, $25.00) I I Bill me Q Check for $25.00 enclosed | O Please send your illustrated brochure on SABBATH IN THE SYNA­ GOGUE, without cost or obligation.

Complete TEXT in BOTH HEBREW and ENGLISH In order that listen­ ers may follow every word of the Sabbath Service, the full He­ brew text, together w it h a n E n g l i s h t r a n s la t io n ,' trans­ literation and com­ mentary, is provided in a 24-page booklet.

(Prepared by Dr. Sid­ ney Hoenig of Yeshiva University.)

46

| Name_____________________ I S

A d dress.

[ City__—

J©wish LIFE

nograph record. He expresses the fond hope thereby that, while the book was read by thousands, the spoken word would be heard by “mil­ lions of people.”

■DEFORE reviewing the recording ^ proper, which incidentally makes use of all modern techniques and may be recommended for excellent sound reproduction, let us take a look at the album cover, fashioned exactly after the book, and the accompanying literary material bound into it. It is deeply regrettable that, contrary to Miss Fitch’s method in the book, she has picked passages from the “Jew­ ish Way” which represent the nontraditional point of view exclusively.

Samples: “Their fathers, long ago, established the custom of setting aside one day in the week for rest and worship.” “The second great commandment is ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’ ” (repeated in the Epilogue on the record). “Their teachings say that it is necessary to eat wholesome food.” Instead of these dubious statements a complete He­ brew and English printed text of the program which is heard on this record would have been more helpful.

It is missing.

And now to the record itself. (For obvious reasons we shall consider here the “Jewish Way” only.) Be it stated at the outset that a greater hodgepodge of selections and arrange­ ments has never been brewed. This causes a lack of continuity of mood which is painfully evident through­ out. Would that at least the various prayers had been offered in Hebrew and sung by an all-Jewish synagogue choir! The story opens with the “One July - August, 1954

G-d” tune, especially composed for this disc. This theme song, strikingly secular in character, sounds as if originated in the Entertainment World, a realm from which the nar­ rator, Eddie Albert, was chosen. This gentleman, accompanied by a Jewish girl Debby, a Catholic boy Michael and a Protestant boy Tommy, is mak­ ing the rounds of the various Houses of Worship. One should expect him then, to be greeted at the synagogue with a rousing Ma Tovu. Lewandowski’s composition is indeed produced in beautiful intonation by a mixed choir — but only as No. 2 on these Jewish tidbits, having been preceded by the ever popular Kol Nidre. This prayer, recited apparently by a can­ tor alone, does not convey the solemn­ ity of the occasion. A brief descrip­ tion of the synagogue structure and its interior ritual appurtenances is succeeded by the Sh’ma Yisroel.

Following the Reform order of ser­ vice an English supplication for peace is heard with its stillness sud­ denly pierced by the unannounced sound of a Shofar (described as the only “musical instrument” used on the record). After explanation of the frightening interlude, serenity re­ turns with the traditional Yigdal and a rather spotty account of a Friday evening at home. But as soon as one begins to visualize the atmosphere, he is jolted once more with a drummed up “Rock of Ages.” Con­ necting the holidays of Chanukah and Pesach as both signifying “Days of Liberation,” the Rabbi’s comment­ ary likens them to our 4th of July (what a theme for the Jewish Ter­ centenary this year!). A couple of sentences from the Ma Nishtanah

47

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48

Jew ish L IF E

do not disclose the Seder idea in the slightest. The potpourri continues with a familiar rendition of Adon Olom. Before Lewandowski is again honored this time with his famous concluding chorus Halleluyah, Psalm 150 (in English!) — the story of Hillel, who was asked by a Roman

to teach him all of the Torah stand­ ing on one foot, is enacted. The ques­ tion, paraphrased, may well be asked of Mr. Kapp: Why could he not find an equally all-inclusive (and satis­ fying) answer for presenting all of the Jewish religion recording on one band?

ADONAI ECHAD, THE LORD IS ONE. Complete. Friday Evening and Saturday Services, sung by the Chorus of the Israeli Temple of Milan (Italy), directed by Vittore Veneziani.

Soloists: Jole Jacchia (Mezzo-Soprano) and Vasco Campagnano (Tenor).

COLOSSEUM RECORDS No> OLPS-lOsi... One 12” 33 1 /3 RPM Record, list price $5.95.

rpH IS RECORD reveals an entirely i different approach. Dedicated to the 3000th Anniversary of Jerusalem, the inspirational over-all idea, as quoted from the brief jacket hotes, appears to be the same as above, “The Lord is One” — “One” for the whole world. But the resemblance of the two discs ends right there. Here we have a compact part of the week­ ly Shabboth Service presented entire­ ly in Hebrew by a Synagogue Choir with outstanding professional solo­ ists. If the production cannot be listed as an unqualified success, the short­ comings are mostly technical not ideological. There is a mix-up of Sep­ hardic and Ashkenazic pronunciations in the opening L ’cho Dodi, the Can­ tor (a lyric tenor of “La Scala”) intoning in the former, the choir res­ ponding in the latter. For all the polyphonic beauty of the music and some real aural splendor in the chor­ al parts, many attacks are not pre­ cise, which is especially disturbing in a-cappella numbers beginning in uni­ son. Another annoying feature is the pronounced warble in the female voices, although their passionate ferv­ or in the interpretation of many prayers is highly impressive in their;

July r August, 1954

emotional impact. If one can condone a mixed choir (at least on records) from the orthodox point of view, a woman soloist proclaiming the “Gadla Hashew,” is shockingly out of place.

Nonetheless, Signorina Jacchia (er­ roneously listed as a soprano on the sleeve), possesses a voluptuous con­ tralto voice with a remarkably wide range. Her counterpart, Signor Cam­ pagnano, delivers himself of the Kiddush with typical sobs a la Pagliacci (which makes you wonder if he un­ derstands what he is talking about).

The intonation of the entire ensem­ ble generally is uneven and not al­ ways clean, nor is the diction ever a model of clarity. The conductor, Vit­ tore Veneziani (also a “La Scala” m an), holds all forces neatly together though his crescendo effects are fre­ quently overdone* It is a pity that the sources for the music are not given. Hence our non-Italian ears have to content themselves with some familiar High Holy Day tunes which are clearly recognizable. It is to be assumed that the printed Hebrew text with its deviations is the one used in the Italian liturgy. Full Eng­ lish translation is provided. Finally, a question for the makers of this

49

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50

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Sabbath and Kashruth strictly observed Jewish LIFE

record also: If the Lord is to be “One,” why pronounce His holy name a dozenfold over?

Postlude BOTH records reviewed above, the Sh’ma Yisroel is highlighted as the central pillar of Jewish be­ lief or as the central rallying point for a “universal belief.” To this writ­ er such interpretation uncovers a ma­ jor fallacy in the “One G-d” idea.

Does not “Hashem Echod99 proclaim the oneness of the Creator of Heav­ en and Earth, to the exclusion of any other superior being? Is this not the original Abrahamitic monotheistic

concept affirmed by the Jewish peo­ ple throughout the ages and trans­ mitted down to the non-Jewish world as well? Are not Kapp, Fitch et al., striving for the same theistic concept [G-d] for all religious worship rather than for the Echod who cannot be amplified by the variants of Christian dogma? We will not lose ourselves in disputes on the subject of religious philosophy. Suffice it to conclude that various beliefs may co-exist side by side in peaceful harmony. The cause of “brotherhood of man” will not be helped by more interfaith but by a more intensive intraf&ith. needed to bolster each individual religion.

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July - August, 1954

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51

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52

Jewish LIFE

Ì

J Letters to the Editor

FILLING THE "GAP"

|/

The Bronx, New York I have long been interested in the furtherance of yeshivah education on the American Jewish scene. I should like, therefore, to offer a few sugges­ tions which may help implement the needs so aptly pointed out by Norbert Hoffner in his article “The Ideologi­ cal Gap,” which appeared in the Nisan issue of J e w i s h L i f e .

I propose that an appropriate com­ mission of Jewish scholars be ap­ pointed by a yeshivah organization or a combination of all yeshivah founda­ tions, to prepare a school text which would cover the ideological needs of a yeshivah student. This text should contain chapters each of which will deal with another aspect of the ques­ tions on Jewish religion and its basic foundations.

The suggested format of each chapter is as follows: First there should be an outline of questions usually asked about a par­ ticular idea and some basic principles behind the idea. After this there should be a number of source read­ ings intended to answer the questions asked, in- the outline__and to explain

July - August, 1954

the principles stated in the outline.

Each reading should be a selection from a historical Jewish work (Tanach, Talmud, Meforshim) or the writings of a contemporary Jewish scholar. Some should be in English, others in Hebrew. If any works by non-Jewish scholars are relevant to the question involved, these works should be used. They may shed light oh how Jewish ideals have been ac­ cepted by non-Jews or how our pre­ cepts are falsely comprehended by others. Each chapter should end with a statement of the exact sources from which each article was ex­ tracted, as well as suggestions for further readings.

This ideological text should be writ­ ten for three levels: The elementary yeshivah student or Talmud Torah student; the yeshivah high school student; students of the yeshivah college level and of secular colleges.

Joshua Adler *. * * THE FIRST "COHEYN"

Brooklyn, New York As an avid reader of Orthodox J e w i s h L i f e , I must admit that in addition to its contents being inter-

53

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54

Jewish L IF E

esting, I seldom discover errors of fact.

However, I should like to call to your attention Question 10 in the Bible Quiz on page 42 of the Nisan issue. Ze’ev ben Mordecai answers— “Who was the first ‘Coheyn GadoP ” by saying it was Aaron, and quotes ‘Bemidbar,’ Chapter 3.

However in ‘Vayikrah,’ .Chapter 8, we find th at Moses performed the first ordained sacrifices. And on Verse 2 9 ^ H <L,Moshe hoyah Tmanah’ -i-the Gemara (Zevachim 101,b) has Rav declaring -MP'Moshe Rabbeynu Coheyn Godol Hoyah.” In other words, Moses was the High Priest originally — not merely to “show” Aaron how to function.

David M. Hausdorff * * *

Owing to its educational standards, the yeshivah possessed a very wide reputation and used to attract stu­ dents from many European countries.

Rabbi M. Syringer * * *

A NOTABLE ADDITION

thing Mr. Livneh understands — that America is Goluth. But does he think that a Mapaist Israel is not? Or that Zionism can supplant Torah? Ap­ parently he has no understanding of

New York, New York In the January-February issue of Dr. I. Grunfeld’s article about the yeshivoth in Frankfurt A.M. neglected to include mention of the yeshivah founded and headed by Rabbi Dr. Jacob Hoffman, who is at present Rabbi Emeritus of Congrega­ tion Ohab Zedek in New York. When Rabbi Hoffman was called upon, in 1923, by the Frankfurt community to assume spiritual leadership, one of his first measures was the establish­ ment of his yeshivah, with a staff of most prominent Roshey Yeshivah. In the course of its existence the ye­ shivah had given hundreds of stu­ dents a thorough Jewish and sqcular education. A great number of its former students hold prominent posi­ tions in rabbinic and educational fields.

J e w is h L if e

July “ August, 1954

GOLUTH IN ISRAEL

The Bronx, New York It was a fortunate day when I picked up my first copy of Orthodox J e w i s h L i f e at a newsstand. Your magazine, with its many great writ­ ers, increased my awareness of my Jewish heritage, for which I am grateful.

The last issue of J e w i s h L i f e car­ ried a review of Vol. I of the Modern Israel Library, edited by I. HalevyLevin. Mr. Halevy-Levin chose for Vol. I a Mapaist’s book, “State and Diaspora” by Eliezer Livneh. One

the meaning of his first name.

Isaac Cohen *

*

*

WELCOME NEWS

Nykerk, Holland The publication of my letter, in Which I described our small, isolated Jewish community, in the ‘‘Letters to the Editor” column of J e w i s h L i f e , has resulted in our receiving several communications from people who in­ quired with interest about our vil­ lage, and who have offered to help us with several things.

Your magazine is read by us from the first to the last page and it has given me various moments of strength.

Eli Nenco

55

ONION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA

n"a

Kosher commodities and establishments under official © supervision and en dorsement. t'i...... ...... .....

KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Issued Av, 5714 — August, 1954 LOOK FOR THE <Q) SEAL-AND BE SURE! The © seal is your guarantee of communallyresponsible Kashruth supervision and endorsement, conducted as a public service by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America—UOJC. All items in this Directory are ©, receive the con­ stant inspection of and are passed upon by the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbinic body of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.

CONSUMERS ARE CAUTIONED TO: • Make sure that the © seal is on the label of every food product.

• Make sure that the seal shown on the label is the © — beware of imitations!

• Read carefully?¿the list of ingredients of' eachi© product to ascertain whether it is a meat or dairy product. The © does not necessarily mean that the product is Pareve.

Please note that the © seal of Kashruth supervision and endorsement is exclusively the symbql o f: Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 305 Broadway, New York 7, N.Y. BEekman 3-2220

56

Jewish LIFE

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY All items listed below bear the © seal.

Items listed are Kosher for Passover when bearing this or other UOJC A Passover Hechsher on label.

Items listed @ are Kosher for Passover without Passover ^Hechsher on label. * Indicates new © endorsement. ^

*Freshpak Vegetarian Beans in Tomato Sauce (Grand Union Food Markets, East Paterson, N. J.)

Baby Foods

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(H. J. Heinz Co.y Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Beech-Nut -Bwith @ label only Strained Vegetables Strained Fruits Strained Vegetable Soup Strained Tomato Soup Strained Puddings Strained Fruit Dessert *Strained Plums with Tapioca Cereals Junior Vegetables Junior Fruits Junior Vegetable Soup Junior Banana Dessert Junior Puddings *Junior Plums with Tapioca *Junior Fruit Dessert *Junior Chocolate Pudding

(Beech-Nut Packing CoN. Y. C.) Beans

Heinz Oven Baked Beans with mo­ lasses sauce Heinz Oven Baked Beans in tomato sauce (H. J. Heinz Co.)

July - August, 1954

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Cakesf Cookies and Crackers ©P Barton’s Bonbonniere (Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y.) Dromedary

Chocolate Nut Roll Date Nut Roll Orange Nut Roll (above contain milk) (The Hills Brothers Co., N.Y.C.) Golden Cracknel Egg Biscuits (Golden Cracknel & Spec. Co., Detroit) Ry-Krisp (Ralston-Purina, St. Louis, Mo.) FFV I ts with © label only Macaroon Krisps (foil package) Lemon Thins (foil package) Orange Thins (foil package) Vanilla Thins (foil package) Chocolate Pecan Cookies (foil package) Tea Rings (foil package) Short Bread (foil package) (Southern Biscuit Co., Richmond, Va.; distributed by Mutual Biscuit Co., N.Y.C.)

Cake Mixes

Dromedary Date Muffin Mix Fudge Frosting Mix, (above contain milk) {The Hills Brothers upd., N .Y.C .)

57

U O JC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

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Candy © P Barton's Bonbonniere

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Dressings Garber's Misrochi Salad Dressing

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58

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Jewish LIFE

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY All items listed below bear the © seal.

Items listed © P are Kosher for Passover when bearing this or other UOJC A Passover Hechsher on label.

Items listed • are Kosher for Passover without Passover ^Hechsher on label. * Indicates new © endorsement. ^

Food Freezer Plan Vitzchok Goldberg & Sons

(New York, N.Y.)

Food Packages

@P Care (New York, N.Y.)

Frozen Foods

Unflavored Vegetable Gelatin

(Orthodox Kosher Products, Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Glycerides Emcol MSVK

(The Emulsol Corp., Chicago, 111.)

Milady's Blintzes (blueberry, cherry, cheese, potato—air are milchig) Waffles

Glycerine — Synthetic

Associated *Waffles

© P Garber's Misrochi

(Milady Food Prod., B’klyn, N.Y.)

*Shell Synthetiq Glycerine

(Shell Chemical Corp., N.Y.C.)

Honey

(Garber Eagle Oil Corp.)

(Associated Food Stores Coop., N.Y.C.)

Pure Dairy

*Waffles (Service Frozen Food Corp.^1 B’klyn, N.Y.) Indian Trail

*@P Cranberry Orange Relish (Cranberry Growers, Inc., Wisconsin Rapids, Wise.)

Fantails

*Canapes *Cocktail Frankfurters *Codiish Puffs *Kashe Knishes *Potato Knishes (Chase Food Products Corp., N.Y.C.)

Fruit — (Dried—-bulk only I © P California Packing Corp.

(San Francisco, Cal.)

Fruits — (Packagedi Dromedary Dates Fruits and Peels Moist Coconut Shredded Coconut

(The Bills Brothers Co., N.Y.C.)

Gelatin Desserts — Vegetable Berish’s Real Kosher @P Gel Desserts (flavored)

July - August, 1954

Household Cleansers

(See also Scouring Powders)

© P Brillo Products

(Brillo Mfg. Co., B’klpn, N.Y.)

Cameo Copper Cleaner

(Cameo Corp., Chicago, III.)

Colgate-Palmolive Detergents

(Jersey City, N.J.)

• Arctic Syntex M. beads (bulk only) • Fab • Kirkman Detergents • Vel Pels & Co. Detergents

(Philadelphia, Pa.)

Felso Rol Glim

(B. T. Babbit Inc., New York, N.Y.)

My Pal

(Pal Products Co., Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Procter and Gamble Detergents

(Cincinnati, Ohio)

• Cheer • Dreft • Oxydol

Joy • Spie & Span • Tide

59

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

Household Cleansers ICont'di *Sail

(A & P Food Mbres, N.Y.C.) Soilax

(Economics Laboratory, Inc., St. Paul, Minn.)

•

Sprite

(Sinclair Mfg., Toledo, Ohio) •

Swerl

(Allied Ohem. & Dye Cory., N.Y.C.) • *Trend

{Purex Cory. Ltd., South Gate, Cal.)

Margarine Berish’s Real Kosher (milchig)

(Orthodox Kosher Products)

Crystal Brand (milchig)

(L. Daitch & Go., N.Y.C. ; manufac­ tured by Miami Margarine

Mar-Parv (pareve) Miolo (milchig—bulk only) Nu-Maid (milchig) Table-King (milchig)

(Miami Margarine Co., Cincinnati, Ohio) Mother’s (nr* ¿liig) Mother’s Pareve

(Mother’s Food Products)

Ice Cream, Sherbet © P Barton’s Bonbonniere

(Barton, Inc.)

Marshmallow topping Marshmallow Fluff

(Durkee-M07per, Inc., East Lynn, Mass.)

Costa’s French Ice Cream

(Costa’s Ice Cream Co., Woodbridge, *Met *Tee-Vee

(Marchiony Ice Cream Co., N. Y.C., distributed by Metropolitan Food Co., Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Industrial Cleansers Institution X Orvus Extra Granules Orvus Hy-temp Granules *Orvus Neutral Granules *Cream Suds

(Procter & Gamble)

Jams and Jellies Berish’s Real Kosher Pure Fruit Jams Marmalade Marmalade Butter

(Orthodox Kosher Products)

Heinz Jellies

(H J. Heinz Co.)

© P Barton’s Bonbonniere

(Barton, Inc.)

Juices Heinz Tomato Juice

(H. J. Heinz Co.)

60

Meats and Provisions Yitzchok Goldberg’s

• Meats §0)P Corned Beef Tongue • Frozen Meats ©P Salami @P Frankfurters Pastrami (I. Goldberg & Sons, 220 Delaney St., N.Y.C.) Oxford

*©P Bologna ©P Corned Beef *®P Frankfuters ©P Pastrami *®P Salami @P Tongue (Oxford Provisions, Inc., 549 E. \2th St., N .Y.C .)

Meat Tenderizer Adolph’s

(Adolph’s Food Products, Purbank, Cnl.)

Jewish LIFE

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY All items listed below bear the (y) seal.

Items listed (y)P are Kosher for Passover when hearing this or other UOJGA Passover Hechsher on label.

Items listed ® are Kosher for Passover without Passover * Indicates new (y) endorsement. v Hechsher on label.

Mustard

Heinz lirowu Mu>»}ar»l Yellow M u s ta n l

(//. J. Heinz Co.)

Noodles & Macaroni Products Heinz Macaroni Creole

( //. ,/. Heinz Co.)

Skinner’s

Egg Noodles Spaghetti Macaroni Vermicelli (Skinner Mfg. Co., Omaha, Neb.)

on

© P Garber’s Misroclii

(Ofir ber Eagle Oil Corp.)

Mazóla (Corn I’rodhcts '

Hcfininy :Corp., N.Y.C.) @P Nut ola (XuIola Fat Products Co.)

Peanut Butter Beech-Nut

(Beech-Nut Pachino Co.)

Heinz

(H. J. Heinz Co.)

Potato Chips Blue Ribbon

(lied Dot Foods, Madison, Wis.)

Gordon’s

*Potato Chips *Tater StiglfS? ^Potato Sticks (Gordon Foods, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.)

Poultry — Frozen •

Yitzchok Goldberg & Sons

•

Menorah Parms

(New York. N.Y.)

(Menorah Products, Inc., Boston, Mass.)

Prepared Salads Royal Snack

Beet Salad, Cole Slaw.

Cucumber Salad, Garden Salad, Potato Salad (8. A. Haram Co., N .V ‘Ü.)

July - August, 1954

Pudding

@P Berish’s Real Kosher Chocolate Padding (Orthodox Kosher Product*) Relishes, Picklesf etc.

Heinz

Pickles India Relish Hot Dog Relish Pickled Onions Sweet Relish Cocktail Sauce, Southern Style Relish Hamburger Relish (H. J. Heinz Co.) Dolly Madison Pickles (TI. TV. Madison Co., Cleveland, 0.1

Mother’s @P Pickles @P Gherkins @P Sweet Red Peppers @P Pinientocs (u)P Pickled Tomatoes @P Sauerkraut Deluxe @P Pickled Country Cabbage *Diced Sweet Pepper Relish *Corn Relish *Sweet Pickled Watermelon Rind *Sweet Diced Mustard Pickle ^Grenadine Melon Balls *Mint Melon Balls (Mother's Food Products) Carolina Beauty Pickles

(Mount Olive Pickle Co., Mt. Olive, N.C.)

Silver Lane

Pickles Sauerkraut (Silver Lane Pickle Coif Mast H artford, Conn.)

Resorts

@P Pine View Hotel (Fallsbury, N.Y.) r (g)I? Washington Hotel

(Rockaway Park, N.Y.)

61

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Pal Products Co. Products

Rice Heinz Spanish Rice

(H. J. Heinz Co.)

Sait •

(Brooklyn N.Y.)

• •

Mögen David Kosher Salt

Lustro Polishing Powder My Pal Palco Polish Powder Pal-Lo

(Carey Salt Co., Hutchinson, Kansas)

Morton Salt Co. Products

(Chicago, ill.)

• Morton Coarse Kosher Salt • Morton Fine Table Salt • Morton Iodized Salt

Shortening National Margarine Shortening

International Salt Co. Products

(National Yeast Corp., Belleville, N.J.—Bulk only)

(Scranton, Pa.) • Red Cross Fine Table Salt • Sterling Fine Table Salt • Sterling Kosher Coarse Salt

Delmar Margarine Shortening

Sandwiches — Prepared

® P Garber’s Misrochi Pareve Fat

*Kosher Snak (Kosher Snak Distributors, B’klyn, N. Y.)

© P Nut-Ola Vegetable Shortening

(Debnar Products Corp., Cinn., O. —Bulk only) (Oarber Eagle Oil Co.)

(Nut-Ola Fat Prod., Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Silver Cleaner •

Instant Liquid Dip Silver Cleaner

(Lewal Industries, N.Y.C.)

Scouring Powder (See also Household Cleansers) •

B. T. Babbit Co. Products

• •

Bab-o Babbit ’s Cleanser

Cameo Cleanser (Cameo Corp.)

Colgate-Palmolive Co. Products

• Ajax Ben Hur (bulk only) • Kirknian Cleanser • New Octagon Cleanser •

Garber’s Misrochi Cleanser

(Oarber Eagle Oil Co., New York) Kitchen Klenzer

(Fitzpatrick Bros., Chicago, III.)

•

62

Old Dutch Cleanser

(Cudahy Packing Co., Omaha Neb.)

Soap © P Nutola Kosher Soap

(Nutola Fat Products)

Soups Gold’s @P Borscht Sehav Russel

(Gold Pure Food Prod., B’klyn, N.Y. | Heinz Cream of Mushroom Celery Cream of Green Vegetable Cream of Tomato Condensed Cream of Mushroom Condensed Cream of Green Pea Condensed Gumbo Creole Condensed Cream of Tomato Condensed Vegetarian Vegetable (JET. J. Heim Co.)

Jewish LIFE

U O JC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

©

All items listed below bear the © seal.

Items listed © P are Kosher for Passover when bearing this or other UOJC A Passover Hechsher on label.

Items listed • are Kosher for Passover without Passover Hechsher on label. * Indicates new © endorsement.

Soups l Coni'dI Mothers © P Borscht ‘^¿¡Cream Style Borscht Creàm Style Sehav Mushroom and Barley

{Mother s Food Ptoducts)

Soup Mix Joyce Egg Noodle Soup Mix

{Joyce Food Products, Paterson, N.J.)

Nutola Chicken Noodle Soup Mix Nutola Noodle Soup Mix

{Nutola Fat Products Co.)

©

Tzitzith

WOOLEN

M. Wolozin & Co.

RAYON, FOR RAYON TALEYTHIM Leon Vogel

(66 Allen St., N.Y.C.)

M. Wolozin & Co.

(36 Ehlridge St., N.Y.C.)

Zion Talis Manufacturing Co., Inc.

(48 Eldridge St., N.Y.C.)

Vegetables Dromedary Pimientos

{The Hills Brothers Co., N.Y.C.) Vegetables — Dehydrated ® P Basic Vegetable Prod, --- with© label only

( San Francisco, Cal. )

Spices

i@P Gentry, Inc. — with © label only

{Los Angeles, Calif.)

© P Garber’s Misrochi

Vinegar

© P Gentry Paprika

© P Garber’s Misrochi

{Garber Eagle Oil Co.)

(Gentry, Inc,, Los Angeles, Cal.)

Sugar © P rio-Sweet Liquid Sugar © P Hudson Valley Befined Granulated Sugar

{Refined Syrups & Sugars, Inc., Yonkers, N.Y.)

Syrup @P Berish’s Beal Kosher Chocolate Syrup True Fruit Syrups Imitation Fruit Syrups

{Orthodox Kosher Products)

© P Barton’s Bonbonniere

{Barton, Inc.)

Tomato Juice Heinz

{II. J. Heinz Co.)

July - August, 1954

{Garber Eagle Oil Co.)

Heinz Ciclrr Malt Salad Vinegar Tarragon White Rex Amber

{H. J. Heinz Co.) Vitamins — Bulk Collett-Week-Nibecker Co.

{Ossining, N.Y.)

Vitamin Tablets *Kobee *Kovite *Vitalets

{Freeda Agar Prod., N.Y.C.)

Wine © P Hersh’s Kosher Wines

{Hungarian Grape Products, Inc., N.Y.)

63

L E BO W I T Z

Pine View Hotel Fallsburg 7, N. Y. O

Summer Vacationland for Orthodox Jewry Open for High Holy Days, including Succoth Io I

Expertly Supervised Day Camp Air-Cooled New Building New Elevator o

© Supervision and Endorsement o

Phone: Fallsburg 700

HEBREW PUBLISHING CO. 77-79 Delancey“St. N.Y.2. N.Y. Our Latest Publications Designed for Modern Hebrew Schools

THE STUDENT BIBLE

By M. H. Lewittes GENESIS in 2 Parts Part I $1.25 , Part II $1.25

HEROES OF JEWISH HISTORY Part I^ -F ro m Abraham To Moses $1.75 Part II-—From Joshua To Jeremiah $2.25 With exercises, projects and games

MODERN HEBREW

Hotel Diplomat Kosher Kitchen is under the supervision of Rabbi Abraham Reichlin •

By Harry Blumberg & Mordecai Lewittes A First-Year course in reading, grammar and conversation.

Part I $2.25 Part II $2.75

Hotel Diplomat can accommodate from 50 to 1,000 people.

SELECT READINGS IN HEBREW LITERATURE

•

By Blumberg and Lewittes

$1.25

MODERN HEBREW LITERATURE

By Zeldner and Epstein

$2.25

J. Edward Saltzman, owner and caterer

SIPPURIM KALLIM

By E. Horowitz

$1.25

PRACTICAL HEBREW DICTIONARY

By Dr. M. Glenn

$3.50

SPEAK HEBREW

By Dr. Daniel Persky

64

108 West 43rd St., New York Telephone BRyant 9-2387-8-9

$1.25

Jew ish L IF E

V EL makes dishes shine without washing or wiping!

Vel soaks dishes clean. Don’t wash, just soak; don’t wipe, just rinse. And the hand test proves there’s no “Detergent Burn” to hands with VEL. It’s marVELous!

AJAX Cleanser with “ Foaming Foams as it cleans all types of tile, porcelain surfaces, pots and pans. . . up to twice as easy, twice as fast! Floats dirt and grease right down the drain!

5IANTSIX!

FA B washes clothes whiter without a bleach Whiter than any other product with a bleach in thè wash water. Saves work, saves hands- Washable colors look brighter, too. Also wonderful for dishes.

WONDERFUL FOR DISHES, TOO!

ALL OF THESE FINE PRODUCTS BEAR THE SEAL, OF APPROVAL OF THE UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA

O L G A T E - P A L M O L IV E C O M P A N Y

They're b o th th e sam e b ean s You may find Heinz Kosher Vegetarian Baked Beans at your food store with the old familiar label on the can... the label you have known for more than 20 years. Or you may find the new attractive modern label with the picture of the pot of beans in front. No matter which label it is, the beans are the same... strictly Kosher, strictly pareve, strictly oven-baked! And strictly delicious! The © seal o f t h e u n i o n o p ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA is On both labels. Look for it today!

H EIN Z K O SH ER BAKED BEANS VeqctâÂioM,