Jewish Life October 1955 by Jewish Action

Serfs or Children? —

Israel Abrahams

Israels Political New Look — / . HalevymLevin

Missionaries Unmasked Victor Solomon

The Pattern of South African Jewry — Eugene Dus chins ky

I Escaped The SS S. B. Unsdorfer

Calendar Reform — Postponed or Abandoned —

Isaac Lewin

1 ^

H E B R E W BIBLE printed in Amsterdam 1659-1660 by Joseph Athias. The First Edition of one of the most beautiful Hebrew Bibles ever produced and the first to be divided into verses. The text was based on Buxtorf’s 6th rabbinical Bible. In this rare and unusual Bible the Five Books of Moses are followed by the scrolls.

“ Peace be b o th u n t o thee, an d peace be to th y house, an d peace be u n t o all t h a t t h o u h a s t .” 1 SA M UEL 25:6

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Sept.-Oct., 1955

n"n

Tishri, 5716

Vol. XXIII No. 1

EDITORIALS SAVE NORTH AFRICAN JEWRY ...^ i ......... 5 THE DULLES PLAN >,.... 6 THE STRONGER CURRENT 6

S aul B ernstein , Editor M. MortoN R ubenstein D r. E riC Offenbacher R euben E. Gross R abbi S. j . S harfm an

ARTICLES SERFS OR CHILDREN? ................................ 8 . Israel Abrahams ISRAEL'S POLITICAL NEW LOOK ... 11 I. Halevy-Levin THE CASE OF SPITEFUL CHARITY ....... ... 33 David S. Shapiro PIONEERS OF JEWISH ART.... 38 Alfred Werner MISSIONARIES UNMASKED ....ffij f f f 45 Victor Solomon MITZVAH BY MACHETE ■•*».»v/ 55 Chaplain Reuben E. Gross CALENDAR REFORM — POSTPONED OR ABANDONED ................. 59 Isaac Lewin TO THE POINT . 71 Nissan Gordon

Editorial Associates M. J udah Metchik

Assistant Editor Cover by P aul HAusdorff

Inside Illustration by N orman N odel

SHORT STORY

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

I ESCAPED THE SS S. B. Unsdorfer

BOOK REVIEWS

Published by U nion of Orthodox J ew ish Congregations of A merica

Rabbi H. S. Goldstein, Wil liam Weiss, Samuel Nirenstein, William B. Herlands, Max J. Etra, Honorary Presidents; Samuel L. Brennglass, Nathan K. Gross, Benjamin Koenigsberg, Ben jamin Mandelker, Vice Pres idents ; Edward A. Teplow, Treasurer; Reuben E. Gross, Secretary. , Saul Bernstein, Adm inistrator

STOREHOUSE OF TRADITION 77 Seymour Silbermintz MAKING JUDAISM A DENOMINATION ... 81 Israel Klavan

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Moses J # ^ euerstein

President

AMONG OUR CONTRIBUTORS f

.i& |||3

KASHRUTH DIRECTORY ..*'■■**81' f lf B l 85 Photo Credits: Pg. 13, Zionist Revisionists; 16 (top), 18, 19, H. Sonnenfeld; 17 (top), Poale Agudath Israel; 17 (bottom), Israel Office of Information; 28, 32, Universal Jewish Encyclopedia; 29, BJoch Publishing Co.

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Jewish LIFE

Antony

OurContributor^

RABBI ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, the Chief Rabbi of Cape Town, South Africa, is one of the leading personalities of the South African Jewish community. He is professor of Hebrew at the University' of Cape Town,

•,

DR. ISAAC LEWIN is the principal of the Central Yeshiva High School for

Girls, in Brooklyn, N. Y. and professor of Jewish History in Yeshiva University. He is the chairman of the American Section of the Agudath Israel World Organization. The author of numerous works on the international problems of the Jewish people, Dr. Lewin's most recent book, "Religious Jewry and the United Nations," was re viewed in the Tishri, 5715 issue of JEWISH LIFE. I .

RABBI EUGENE DUSCHINSKY is the executive director of the World Federa

tion of Hungarian Jews. A former resident of Cape Town, South Africa, he was Chief Rabbi of Rakospalota, Hungary from 1940 to 1948. He is the co-author of "The Jews in the Soviet Satellities." *

NISSAN GORDON is a columnist for the Jewish Day-Journal. A graduate of the Mesifta Torah Vodaath, he writes feature material for Dos Yiddishes Vort. *

RABBI VICTOR SOLOMON, newly-appointed spiritual leader of Congregation

Chesed Shel Emeth in Wilmington, Delaware, is a graduate of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanon Theological Seminary. He received his Masters degree from Hunter College.

SEYMOUR SILBERMINTZ is a well-known choral conductor specializing in the field of Jewish music. He is the editor of "Songs of Israel."

ALFRED WERNER is the associate editor of the Chicago Jewish Forum. His prolific writings on the subject of Jewish art have been published in numerous Anglo-Jewish publications. * *

RABBI ISRAEL KLAVAN is the executive secretary!-of the Rabbinical Council*

of America.

* ’’ .* " * v'’' CHAPLAIN (1st Lt.) REUBEN E. GROSS, whose "saga of the Sukkah" (see

Page 55) occurred last Sukkoth, is still stationed at the Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. A graduate of Yeshiva University and a musmoch of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanon Theological Seminary, he is due to receive his Masters degree in Political Science next month from the University of Manila.

S ep t.f Oct., 1955

Jewish LIFE

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EDITORIALS SAVE NORTH AFRICAN JEWRY “It was our neighbors who did it,” she said. “We had been living next door to them for twenty years” T H E QUOTATION is from a recent Reuters dispatch to The New York Times. It emanated from Mazapan, French Morocco, scene of a 36hour pogrom in which 20 Jews are reported to have been massacred, 100 others injured and the homes of all 2,000 Jews of this centuries-old Jewish community reduced to “charred rubble.” The neighborly touch is all too suggestive of Nazi Germany. This ghastly event, but one of the series of frenzied attacks on Jews in French North Africa, was not prompted by strife between the Jews of these lands and their neighbors. Set amidst the thunderous clash of nationalist uprisings against French rule in Morocco, Algiers and Tunis, the very irrelevance of these pogroms to personal relationships between Jew and Moslem underlines the untenability of Jewish life in this area. Eventually, without doubt, the awakened national aspirations of the peo ples of French North Africa will achieve a greater or less measure of triumph. In seeking to conform with the expected pattern of modern states, the nationalist forces may offer assurances of minority rights and personal security to their Jewish populace. But -A apart from the long interval of turbulence which must elapse before stability is reached — Jews have learned to attach little weight to such assurances. The good neighbors of Mazapan have demonstrated that Jews can no longer live freely or safely in their midst. T H E FATE of Jewry in North Africa is foreshadowed in the fearful * story of Jewry in Central and Eastern Europe, despite all difference of scene and social development. It is clear that the Jews of Morocco, Algiers and Tunis realize that they must either leave Israel, these lands or face destruction. They plead, with desOr - ? perate urgency, for speedy transfer to Israel. For political and economic reasons of their own, both the French and the North African nationalists are opposed to permitting large-scale Jewish emigration. Certain Jewish forces, too, clinging to the delusion that Jew-hatred can be palliated by paper agreements, have allied themselves with this view. It is imperative that these obstacles be thrust aside; the lives of 500,000 North African Jews can not be further endangered in the interest of French colonialism, Arab nationalism or Jewish assimilationism. North African Jewry must be saved, now. 5 Sept. - Oct., 1955

THE DULLES PLAN OECRETARY OF STATE Dulles has astonished the world by the public ^ presentation of a drastic proposal for securing peace between Israel and her warring Arab neighbors. The sensational aspect of the proposal lies in its having been made, ‘rather than in its substance. The world has grown so accustomed to pussyfooting with the Arab-Israel problem that a forthright plan to terminate the conflict bears breath-taking impact. The Dulles plan, entailing the fixing of permanent borders guaran teed by international treaty and compensation by Israel to Arab refugees financed by an international loan, is being subject to suspicious scrutiny on all sides. Diverse motives are being imputed to the promulgation of the proposal domestic political needs of the Administration, the coun tering of Soviet influence in the Middle East, the* need to create a di version in that explosive area, almost every possible motive, in fact, except the obvious one: to put an end to a senseless conflict which is doing injury to, and must increasingly injure, all parties concerned. Evaluation of the substantive merits of the Dulles proposal must await clarification of its text. Initial reaction from Israeli sources indi cates apprehension that the plan may envisage divorcing Jerusalem and parts of the Negev from Israel. This being obviously unacceptable to Is rael under any circumstances, such an intent would, of course, invalidate the whole proceeding. The State Department, it is to be hoped, will demonstrate its good faith by removing apprehensions on this score. T>Y VIRTUE of both the definitive nature of the plan and of the public method of its presentation, the prestige of President Eisenhower’s Administration has become involved in its implementation. This is good augury for its success. In the final analysis, the United States, deeply committed in the Middle East, is the most powerful force in that area. Our Government, the Dulles plan says in effect, has both the means and the determination to make peace between Israel and the Arab states. With this premise, and granting the need for elucidation of important points, the plan can hardly fail of its purpose. THE STRONGER CURRENT TOURING THE Yomim Noroim of 5716, services will be held at the largest number of Jewish houses of worship in American Jewish history. The great migration of American Jews from old to new neighborhoods and suburbs of the large cities, reaching its crest, has brought in its wake an abundance of new communal structures. These, together with those longer established, undoubtedly add up to an unprecedented total. With each institution attracting its circle of participants, it is, likely too 6

Jewish LIFE

that the number attending High Holy Days services this year will ex ceed that of the previous years. In the light of the former trend away from religious observance, the current development offers new hope. ■^jHIS HOPE is qualified, however, by the character of many of the new institutions and the attitudes of those attending them. Some of the new structures are Jewish houses of worship, but not houses of Jewish worship. The creeds they espouse are but pallid Shadows shadows of real Judaism. Others have but tenuous claim of of any kind to the designation “house of worship,” Judaism for, apart from the High Holy Days services, they function mainly as social centers. For all of their bricks-and-mortar permanence, these types of institutions can be con sidered as belonging to the category of “mushroom synagogues.” Those who patronize them may well be deemed mushroom Jews. TF THE mushroom synagogue and the mushroom Jew were to be reckoned the prevailing force in American Jewry, hope for the future might well be abandoned. Fortunately, that is not the case. In4;contrast to the character of much of the new growth, well over 3,000 of America’s 4,000-odd Jewish congregations are orthodox. The orthodox Synagogue is making steady inroads in the new neighborhoods and suburban areas, as well as persisting in the old. It is the orthodox institutions which, day in and day out, week in and week out, collectively house the vast majority of worshippers and serve the majority of American Jews. It is in these real synagogues that the blood and sinew of American Jewry continues to be nurtured. TOUT THE ultimate, if presently least visible, force in American Jewish life is that which has ever prevailed throughout Jewish history. It is the call to be Jewish, to be a nation of priests, a holy people. In re cent years this call has often fallen on resistant ears. The Immersed in material comforts, cushioned by social Jewish freedom and divorced from his heritage, the Amen? Call can Jew hears but dimly and with indifference the message of Mount Sinai. Yet hear it he must. Even though he may but attend, spectator-like, at a temple performance, there will be a moment in his cursory High Holy Days attendance when the call will penetrate his reluctant ears and find its echo in his heart. Every day takes its toll in American Jewish life, yet every Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur offers its redemption. The current that turns our people away from the faith of their fathers is powerful indeed, but that which turns us forward to the Torah will yet prove itself stronger and, with G-d’s grace, will prevail. Sept. - Oct., 1955

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Towards a Positive Jewish Outlook: a Rosh Hashonah Message.

T>OSH HASHONAH is pre-emi or contributed as much, pro rata, nently Yom Ha-Din. It is a to the treasures of civilization; time for re-appraisal, for the re- nor suffered such overwhelming evaluation of existing standards and calamities at every epoch almost concepts; it is a time of challenge of its existence. We are proud of and self-questioning. In contem our resilience; we have outlived plating this theme, I will restrict our persecutors. But what is the myself here to just one question — secret of our survival? Wherein a simple Machzor query -4# yet one lies the source of our invincible that stands at the very heart of. strength ? Two theories are advanced: some our present-day problems, one that probes the crisis of our generation see the explanation in the glorious to its depths. Im Jcevonim im ha- Jewish spiritual ethos—our Torahavodim — “Be we children or be life; and some—not necessarily in we slaves?” Which are we? a spirit of cynicism—aver that We are accustomed to point with Antisemitism has been no small no little pride to the antiquity of the Jew. We are an old people; contributory factor to our national Dubnow calls us historicissimus — longevity. If it were not that we the most historical of peoples, be were so often avodim — “slaves” cause of the unbroken continuity § |§ | we might have ceased to be of our national existence. No other bonim — “children” — worthy people has lived as long as Israel; epigoni of our heroic ancestors. 8

Jewish LIFE

'pH IS IS a heart-searching reflec tion. It required, we must con cede, a persecuting Pharaoh to make Israel nationally conscious and willing to follow Moses, the liberator; it needed a Haman to

Sept. - Oct., 1955

compel Queen Esther to reveal her Jewish identity; both Hitler and Bevin made their indirect and cer tainly unintended contribution to the rebirth of the State of Israel. The oppressive thought at times asserts itself that Antisemitism is a vital element in Jewish life. It is the necessary goad by whose sharp prod the Jew is kept Jewishly alive; otherwise he would sink into a state of fatal spiritual atro phy and die unto Judaism through an overdose of emancipation. To this very day, despite all the bitter lessons of our history, there are Jews—sometimes they even aspire to communal leadership—who re gard Antisemitism as the focal point of all Jewish endeavor and its circumvention as the ultimate goal of all our planning and striv ing. For them, if we analyze their muddled philosophy carefully, Ju-

daism has no positive content, no significant values for our current life and its issues. In their con ception it is but a vast negation—^ in fact, mainly anti-Antisemitism! This invidious Auschauung — often expressed implicitly rather than voiced explicitly — is the canker that eats the Jewish heart out of our children. Youth longs, with a Weltschmerz that only the young and idealistic can feel, for a positive attitude to life; they ask for a philosophy that will answer their questioning, that will provide them with a pattern of action, that will offer a remedy for the aching spiritual and social malaise of hu manity. They cry from the deeps of their soul for a faith, for with out it life becomes a demoralizing void. And all that we give them, in many instances, is the shame and fear of Antisemistism. ■PHE TIME is overdue for a A change of orientation in our at titude towards Judaism. Let us cease harping on the Antisemite. We are actually playing into his foul hands when we make him the centre of our Jewish thinking. Let us realize that when humanity has at least reached maturity and out grown Antisemitism and all other forms of racialism, both we and the world will still have need of Jewish principles and ideals. Let us refrain from giving primary emphasis to the antiquity of Ju daism; it is far more important to stress the ultra-modernity of

Jewish teaching. Judaism has a vital word for our own times, for our own problems, for the dangers that threaten our present world. It is a word of rebuke and a word of comfort; a word of justice and a word of love; a word of restraint and a word of inspiring command to climb higher, ever higher, along the steep ascent of civilization. An earnest examination of the funda ments of our spiritual heritage must convince the objective stu dent that so far from being old and obsolete, the precepts incul cated by our Torah-Faith are so far in advance of the current con cepts of our age that it will require measureless epochs before mankind is abreast of the Jewish ethic and has the moral equipment to imple ment the timeless ideals of Jewish tradition. Let us put an end to the danger ous doubt. Jews we must be; this truth is writ large on every page of our story. Let us accept the will of Providence with a joyful ardor worthy of the glorious des tiny vouchsafed unto us. Let us break loose forever from the chains of assimilationist bondage—that corrupting spiritual slavery in the midst of political and economic freedom that has been the deadly malaise of the emancipated Jew in almost every generation—and let us so live in the sight of man and G-d that the whole world acclaim us free men, yea, children of the Most High.

Jewish LIFE

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Religious Parties Can Now Secure Basic Gains, Our Israel C orrespondent Reports .

J erusalem :

jyrOSHEH SHARETT has handed

President Ben-Zvi the resigna tion of hiis government. In keeping with the Law of Transition (Chok Hamaavar -8; also known as IsraeFs “Little Constitution”) he and his Cabinet will remain in office until a new government is formed. The Third Knesseth has dispersed until after the Holy Days, the long re cess providing a convenient oppor tunity for inter-party negotiations, which are likely to be long and hard. Every election has its surprises and every Knesseth its problems, but in the present composition of IsraeFs parliament the formation of a stable government will prove a formidable task. For the dura tion of the Third Knesseth, at least, the communal and one-man parties have been completely eliminated. The small and medium parties have been strengthened, while the two major parties in the Second Knes seth, Mapai and the General Zion ists, have both suffered severe Sept. - Oct., 1955

losses. Other political develop ments militate against the renewal of the Mapai-General Zionist pact. The circumstances under which the General Zionists, despite their mem bership in the government, ab stained on a motion of no confidence (on the Kastner-Greenwald case) and thereby brought about the fall of the Sharett Government, which was later reformed «»without them, indicates that Mr. Ben Gurion will have to revert to old alliances in forming a new government. The General Zionists themselves attri bute their defeat to their partner ship with Mapai instead of con tinuing as an opposition party. J^SID E FROM political arithmetic, there is clearly an interest in analyzing the election results and in trying to explain new shifts and alignments. A variety of reasons have been adduced to explain the decline of Mapai from 47 to 40 seats in the Knesseth. Obviously a party which 11

has held office for so long serves as a natural target for whatever sins of omission and commission the administration is charged with. Nevertheless, it is astonishing that* while Mapai successfully held its ground in 1951, when austerity was at its most rigorous and the eco nomic situation seemect hopeless, it should have lost so heavily under the comparatively favorable condi tions of the present year. Closer scrutiny of the election results rule but the glib explanation of the fickleness of the electorate. Indeed, for a number of seasons the out come of the polls may be inter preted as showing a keener politi cal consciousness and appreciation of the policies at issue. One thing is certain: the shift away from Mapai, the party that controls the labor exchanges, the housing proj ects, land settlement, and innumer able other services and facilities to which the newcomers must have re course, indicates, if not a greater civic courage, ^ t least a conviction that the ballot is secret, and that in Israel they may cast their vote without fear of victimization. A contributory reason for Mapai’s decline, and for the rise of Achduth Ha’avodah and Cheruth —both of which struck an activist note in their election propaganda— may well have been dissatisfac tion with the very cautious foreign policy pursued particularly during Mr. Sharett’s premiership. There is a considerable, and apparently a growing, school of thought in Is rael, that a stronger and more active policy, especially on the bor ders, would produce substantial 12

results. This opinion is fortified by memory of the achievements of the State during its initial years, thanks to just such a policy. The exasperation of many Israelis at the constant nuisance, of infiltra tion and murder on the frontiers constitutes a, factor favoring par ties preaching a strong-arm policy. TH ESE EXPLANATIONS are A ‘relevant so far as they go, but there is certainly one that goes deeper, though it is less palatable. For the newcomers to this country, the government is practically iden tical with Mapai. After the adher ence of the General Zionists to the coalition, Cheruth represented, for this element, the opposition. Their vote for Cheruth must at least in part be taken as an expression of protest by the under-privileged sec tion of the community, which is largely congruent with the new immigrants. This is a deeper-seated and longrange consideration which the mod erate democratic parties would do well to bear in mind. The fact that Cheruth has almost doubled its representation in the Knesseth, while in itself one of the major surprises of the election, is not giving rise to very much concern. Cheruth is regarded as incipiently fascist, but for the time being no party regards it as likely to en danger our democratic way of life. It is even doubtful whether its rise will induce a mood of mutual ac commodation among the socialist parties. Indeed, upon querying a number of more politically-conscious members of Mapai as to Jewish LIFE

whether they preferred, hypotheti cally, a stronger Cheruth or a stronger Mapam (today identical with Hashomer Hatzair), the re sponses indicated a greater dis taste for the latter. Cheruth is not suspect in its loyalties; Mapam is | schizophrenic both in its policies and in its loyalties. Its members have a second homeland, which at any convenient moment they may promote to the place of the first. JT IS VERY instructive that the only party to make a major plank of issues specifically opposed by the religious community, such as civil marriages, the restriction of rabbinical jurisdiction and the like, namely the Progressives, suf:fered a severe disappointment, al though they did gain an additional seat. On the basis of a modest success in the Histadruth elections held three months ago, this party hoped to gain, together with its satellite, the Shopkeepers List, about ten seats. But apparently the electorate does not care for slogans liable to exacerbate the “kulturkampf” or does not con sider them of sufficient impor tance to merit support. Significant ly enough, none of these issues have been included in the party’s conditions for adherence to any future coalition. The new Progressive member will be Gershon Schocken, an able newspaper editor (of the daily Haaretz), an outspoken critic of the government and an avowed op ponent of anything smacking of religion—a fact which the religious parties must take into account. Sept. - Oct., 1955

CHERUTH LEADER: Menachim Begin, head of Cheruth, w hose party almost doubled its Knesseth representation in the recent elections.

A gratifying feature of the re cent elections, in their relation to the religious community, was the abject failure of the propaganda to boycott the elections conducted by the Neturey Karta, headed by the Satmar rebbe, who was espe cially brought from Williamsburgh, New York, for thé purpose. On the contrary, in Jerusalem the cast ing of the vote was converted into something of a religious demon stration, partaking of the charac ter of a Mitzvah, after outstanding religious leaders had specifically instructed their followers to go to the polls. lyfUCH TO their own surprise, A the two religious lists—Hapoel Hamizrachi-Mizrachi and Agudath Israel-Poale AgudahfUi# registered 13

First Knesseth M ap ai------ i ---------- IMfiB 46 seats Cheruth — B- *— — — 14 General Zionists------ 11----- i Hapoel Hamizrachi — ÜBBÜ 6 Mizrachi ------------------— Agudath Israel — ‘-¿L — —

4 3

Poale Agudah —- —■---------- 3 Achduth HaAvodah-----gf — ( (19 Mapam — ( Communists --------- -------- 4 5 Progressives Sephardim — —--------------- - 4 Arab Lists - S ---------------- — 2 Halochamim (Sternists) —— 1 1 Yemenites —• -------------1 WIZO (1) (2) (3) (4)

(a)

7 4 ;':;5 :;V

(4)

Third Knesseth 40 seats 15 13 11 6 10 9 6 V'- 5; 5

After the adherence of Mr. Lipshitz and Mrs. Lamdam, former members of Mapam. After the adhesion of two Sephardim and one Yemenite member. After the defection of Lipshit-Lamdan and Sneh groups. After the adhesion of Dr. Sneh and Dr. Berman, former members of Mapam.

a modest measure of success. The increase in the strength of both groups reflects the element of truth in the claim put forward by opponents of the proposed United Religious Front, that each has a special appeal to make to a distinct circle of supporters, and that sep arately they can enlist more votes than united. By a matter of some hundreds of votes and because it had entered into no agreement re garding surplus votes with any other party, Hapoel HamizrachiMizrachi lost a twelfth seat, which would have been filled by Mrs. Tova Sanhedrai, leaders of the Reli 14

Second Knesseth 47 seats (i) 8 23 (2) 8 ): ) 2 > ) 3 ) ) 2 )

gious Working Women's Organiza tion. Officially, coalition negotiations begin only after President Ben-Zvi has held talks with the party lead ers and has entrusted one of them with the task of forming a govern ment. The obvious choice will be David Ben Gurion, the present Minister of Defense. The Mapai leader, indeed, has lost no time in contacting possible allies. Mr. Ben Gurion likes to follow the presi dential precedent, and his coalition talks in the past have compre hended the entire gamut of parties, with the exception of Cheruth on Jewish LIFE

the extreme Right and the Com in the past, except on the occa munists on the extreme Left. He sions when Ben Gurion decided to has already met with Meir Yaari show Hapoel Hamizrachi that he and Jacob Chazan, Mapam (Hasho- could manage without them. The mer Hatzair) leaders, though it is latter — very much strengthened extremely unlikely that they will if it should succeed in reaching be included even in a very broad an agreement with Agudah-Poale coalition. Agudah—are in an excellent posi Mapam is not an amenable party tion for securing concessions affecand with its Soviet orientation is ing the religious life of the coun neither a convenient nor a coopera try. tive political partner. Achduth HaThe election results have left avodah, now more moderate after Ben Gurion very little room for its separation from Mapam, has maneuvering. An understanding already intimated its willingness with Cheruth, the second largest to join a Mapai-led coalition. It is party in the Knesseth, is out of the not expected to make excessive de question, with Mapam, highly im mands. While the two party lead probable. The putsch within the ers, Ben Gurion and, Tabenkin (of General Zionist Party, after the Achduth Ha’avodah), have not election debacle which has placed come any closer in the course of the younger element in the saddle, this period, and mutual relations rules out that party as a partici have deteriorated because of party pant in the new coalition. This ele strife in the Kibbutz Hameuchad ment places the blame for the coali and especially in the mother of tion agreement, which they are kibbutzim, Ein Charod, the pro convinced led to their defeat, upon spects for an understanding are the Rokach-Bernstein leadership. at least favorable. They are determined not to repeat the error of their elders. T H E KEY to the situation lies ^Similar apprehensions are troub to a considerable extent in the ling the Progressives, who are now hands of Hapoel Hamizrachi-Miz- less than ever willing to tag after rachi, which has eleven members Mapai. One observer has pointed in the House. At the inaugural out that a blow similar to that session of the World Mizrachi which struck the General Zionists Conference (where the two parties would mean the end of the Pro decided to amalgamate, held in gressive Party. All the General Zionists had to the beginning of August, Mosheh Sharett, out-going premier, and show for their too-constitutional Mosheh Shapiro, out-going Mini coalition partnership with Mapai ster of the Interior, publicly in were the fruits of office for a few vited each other to collaborate in party leaders and hangers-on. the formation of a new govern ment. Mapai and Hapoel Hamiz- 170R MAPAI, Hapoel Hamizrachi rachi have gotten along fairly well * is not a difficult partner. The Sept. - Oct., 1955

Hapoel Hamìzrachi

Mosheh Shapiro

Agudath Israel

Rabbi Isaac M. Levin

two parties are in agreement on both foreign and economic policies. However, Hapoel Hamizrachi re gards the Histadruth’s growing economic empire esKdominated by Mapai) with some concern and would like to see certain public services, such as the Workers Sick Fund and the Labor Exchanges, transferred to some form of gov ernment control. There are aspects of internal policy over which they clash—^notably education and set tlement. In the field of education the differences that have arisen since the passage of the State Edu cation Act have not been of a major character. Although religious edu cation continues to operate in an unfriendly atmosphere (the most recent manifestation of which was the demonstrative absence of Pro fessor Benzion Dinur, Minister of Education, from the Bar-Ilan Uni versity dedication exercises), or thodox circles are not dissatisfied with the results. Hapoel Hamiz rachi will demand the Portfolio of Education for Dr. Joseph Burg (at present Minister of Posts), the youngest cabinet minister to have served in Israel, who is eminently fitted for the post. Such an ap pointment has an added signifi cance in view of Hapoel Hamiz rachi efforts to develop State sec ondary education on lines similar to that of the elementary grade. SETTLEMENT on the land lies ■ ostensibly within the compe tence of the Jewish Agency. But Mr. Levi Eshkol, Minister of Fi nance is also the head of the Jew ish Agency’s Settlement DepartJewish LIFE

ment, and in any case, coalition agreements are often very compre hensive documents. Some weeks prior to the elections the two par ties clashed over the diversion of religious settlers from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco to Mapaidominated villages. A truce was agreed upon, but Hapoel Hamizrachi is now insisting upon the abolition of a previous arrange ment whereby no more than twenty percent of the new settlers are permitted to settle in religious vil lages. Other points in the non-religious sphere upon which Hapoel Hamizrachi seeks prior agreement with Mapai are an increased pace of immigration from Morocco and North Africa, in view of the rapid ly deteriorating situation there; a more vigorous anti-inflation pol icy! and the nationalization of the country’s water resources. A word of explanation is necessary on this last point. The capital of the Mekoroth Water Company, the main instrument of water development in this country, was subscribed by the government, the National In stitutions and the Histadruth. To all intents and purposes, however, it is controlled by the Histadruth (that is, Mapai). The government’s role is confined to that of banker, providing very cheap investment and operational capital. Obviously so fundamental and vital a public service cannot be left in the hands of a sectional interest. TPHE MAIN demands of the reli gious parties will be, of course, in the religious sphere—legislation Sept. - Oct., 1955

Poale Agudath Israel

Benjamin Mintz

Mizrachi

Rabbi Mordecai Nurok

of a comprehensive Sabbath obser vance law and the prohibition of pig-breeding. Both Hapoel Hamizrachj* ang? the, Agudath parties in: eluded a demand for the abolition of compulsory military service for women in their .election platforms, and Rabbi Levin has mtade Agudah support fur the govern ment conditional upon Mapai’s ac ceptance , of this demand. But it is on this point that the prospects of agreement are slimmest. Wheth er the conscription of women is justified or not from the purely defense point of view is still a moot question. It is difficult to obtain opinion that is both authoritative and objective. But as I have pointed out in previous ar-

MERGER: Hapoel Hamizrachi and Mizrachi d elegates voted recently to merge their two world movements. Above, Rabbi Wolf Gold, who w as elected to the new group's presidium.

tides, the right of women to be conscripted is regarded in Israel as an integral aspect of women’s political and social equality. More over, after the great controversy that raged over this issue two years ago, it has become a question of prestige for Ben Gurion, upon which he will make no concessions. There is another more material aspect to these negotiations: the allocation of spheres of influence, namely, ministries in the Cabinet and mayoralties in the municipali ties. Hapoel Hamizrachi will seek to retain the Ministry of the In terior, taken over by Mr. Shapiro after the re-formation of the Sharett Government and the ex clusion of the General Zionists. The Ministry of the Interior exercises, because of the extent of its con trol over the municipalities, a con siderable influence on maintenance of Sabbath observance (through local Sabbath by-laws), on the pro hibition of pig-breeding, on schools and on local Religious Councils. In the short period in which Mr. Shapiro has held this portfolio he has approved a Sabbath ordinance passed by an overwhelming major ity of the Jerusalem City Council but which his predecessor, Mr. Is rael Rokach, refused to counte nance; he has endorsed a series of bans upon pig-breeding passed by various local authorities; and he has settled a long-standing dispute between the Ministry of the In terior and Mr. Pinchas Rashish, Mapai Mayor of Petach Tikvah, who is supported by Hapoel Hamiz rachi. The Ministry of Religious Affairs will also bd held by Hapoel Jewish LIFE

POLITICAL NEGOTIATIONS: Golda M eyerson, M apai leader, in a conference with officials of the religious parties. Author Halevy-Levin reports that Hapoel Hamizrachi is prepared to trade support for Mrs. M eyerson as mayor of Tel Aviv for Mapai support of a religious candidate in Jerusalem.

Hamizrachi, while Rabbi I. M Levin will probably once again head the Ministry of Social Wel fare, if Agudah decides to join the coalition.

twenty-one seats (Agudah—3; Ha poel Hamizrachi—3; other parties: Mapai—6; Cheruth—4; Progres sives—2; General Zionists—1; WIZO—1; Mapam—1). In Tel Aviv, on the other hand, ^JONTROL of the municipalities though Mapai has scored an im is an important counter in this pressive victory and has headed inter-party haggling. In Israel the the polls, it needs the support of municipal and the Knesseth elec the two Hapoel Hamizrachi-Miztions are held simultaneously—a rachi councillors to secure the maytotally unsatisfactory arrangement oral office for Mrs. Golda Myerin view of the different sets of son. As a result of the opposition problems facing the national and of the religious parties to the the local administrations. For pracT candidature of Israel Rokach, be tical and prestige reasons the reli cause of his anti-religious attitude gious parties insist upon a religi during his tenure of the Ministry ous mayor of Jerusalem, though of Interior, the General Zionists they command only six out of the have decided to nominate the outSept. - Oct., 1955 19

going mayor, Chaim Lebanon, who is personally more sympathetically regarded. Hapoel Hapnzrachi ^E$g prepared to trade Support for Mrs. Myerson, for Mapai support of its mayoral candidate in Jerusalem. Because of the opposition of Mapai and othertparties to exMayor Kariv, Hapoel Hamizrachi has suggested Dr. Nebenzahl, who was included in its list despite the fact that he is not a member of either the Mizrachi or Hapoel Hamizrachi. Dr. Nebenzahl is Hon orary Swedish Consul General in Jerusalem, and has served on a number of public bodies. It is re ported that his candidature will be supported by Agudah. It is inter esting that in their efforts to gain the mayoralty of Jerusalem for themselves, the various parties have placed prominent personali ties at the head of their lists of candidates—the General Zionists, Meir Grossman (Head of the Jew ish Agency's Economic Depart ment) ; Agudath Israel, Rabbi Moshe Porush (a former Deputy Mayor); Cheruth, Dr. A. Altman (Member of the Knesseth); Mapai, Gershon Agron (American-born editor of the English-language Jerusalem Post), TSRAEL POLITICS under conditions of proportional represen tation is a kind of multi-lateral chess-game, with each against all. Mr. Ben Gurion, disappointed at the decline of his own party and

theyiiminishing prpkpect of introdulllj^ the constituency system in this country, has referred bitterly to the conversion of the country into “a federation of parties." Is rael's electoral system certainly needs overhauling, though all par ties, with the exception of Mapai, prefer the devil they know to the one they don't. The results of three general elec tions held in Israel indicate a de clining degree of fragmentation. After the elimination of the cpnmunal lists—-the Arabs of course, are in a category by themselves— the Jewish parties represent, if not definite opinions and interests, at least clearly distinguishable shades of opinion. A process of coales cence is not such a distant pro spect, and the number of parties may well decline. Moreover, it is not at all certain that if any party did gain a majority it would not use its power to perpetuate its hold on the country. Political life in other countries proves the reality of such a danger to democracy. On the other hand, in Israel the emergence of only one strong party and a comparatively large number of small and medium parties does not make for stable government. Certainly Israel's poli tical leaders will have acquitted themselves well if the Third Knes seth repeats the feat of the Second and lasts out its full term of four years.

Jewish LIFE

A Chossid’s Strange Tale By S. B. UNSDORFER ■PHEY call him Reb Yiedl. There are probably no more than a handful of Jews in the whole of Stamford Hill—that's the “heimishe” district in North London— who know his surname. Reb Yiedl is of a type which was so frequent ly seen in pre-war Poland, Rumania etc., and has now become such a rare figure in the western world. A smallish man with a large dark brown beard and always a smile on his round face. His thick-rim med glasses, towering over a wellshaped nose, hide a pair of deep brown eyes. Reb Yiedl is a true Chossid and loves every minute of Chassidic life.. Recently I had occasion to visit him in his small one-room flat. It is a modestly furnished place, sur prisingly clean and packed with Seforim, mostly of Chassidic bio graphies. But what caughf my Sept. j§ Oct., 1955

eyes immediately was a brand new British passport displayed promi nently in the forefront of what he called his china cabinet. “Is this your passport, Reb Yiedl?" I asked. “Of course. Sure," he answered. “Do you think I collect other peo ple's passports?" “But why keep it in the china cabinet? You are not the only per son with a British passport," I said teasingly. “Ah, but you don't know the his tory behind this. This passport is a landmark, a milestone in my life. Have a Vcha/yim with me and I'll tell you the story." I really did not have the time, but could not supress my curiosity. I took the shnapps which he had prepared for me. He took his drink with Chassidic relish and with a 21

deep “Aach” began to speak. This is what he said: ^XfHEN the American liberating ¥ forces were about 50 kilome ters from the concentration camp in which I was imprisoned, the Germans began to evacuate the camp. Long columns of a «thousand to fifteen-hundred Jewish prison ers were sent on a march lasting from two to three weeks. From this death march only a handful of men managed to survive. I was in one of the columns, dragging wea rily along Germany’s highways. On the seventh day, as our lines be came thinner and thinner, so the noise of machine guns increased hourly. We were closely guarded: six SS-men marching in front, scores of others flanking both sides, and six others marching abreast a hundred yards in the rear of the last column of men. They carried sub-machine guns, and any prisoner found lying on the ground or dragging along too slowly was shot mercilessly. Although I was already worn out from this dreadful march, without food apart from some dry bread and artificial honey, I was deter mined to survive it. I had a dyna mic will-power to keep going, feel ing sure that liberation could not be far. It was late in the after noon when a sudden agonizing stitch gripped my side. I crumpled up on the ground, lying helpless and unable to move. With fear of death in my eyes, I watched column after column marching past me. I noticed the last six SS-men coming nearer and nearer. In a panic I 22

pressed frantically against my side hoping to release this paralyzing cramp. But as soon as I tried to get on my feet, the pain returned and forced me to the ground. I prayed feverishly to G-d for mercy, and looking up, I found myself at the feet of an SS-man. “Please don’t shoot me/’ I cried. “I shall be all right in a minute . . . I can still march . . . I can still be used for hard labor . . . just let me rest for another minute . . .’’ Fantastic as these words may have sounded to the ears of those to whom killing a defenceless man was an aspira tion rather than a crime, they did not shoot me. “You’d better be quick,” he said, “or I’ll come back for you.” T RECOVERED a few minutes later and was about to rejoin the column of marching corpses, when I noticed a haystack in the middle of a field. As if pushed by an unknown force, I ran to hide in it. I had no chance of escaping further. With my striped jacket and the yellow triangle on my lapel, I could not get a hundred yards without being caught. I must have slept there for a good many hours, waking up in the early hours of the next morning. Suddenly, from the distance, I noticed a column of men marching towards me. At first I thought that this was yet another troop of Jewish prisoners, but later I recog nized them. They were British prisoners-of-war. Unlike our own columns, they were not as closely guarded. There was a consider able gap between one guard and Jewish LIFE

the other. I crawled along on my stomach, as near as I could get and then, in a fraction of a second, pushed myself into the center of the marching soldiers. They did not know who I was, knew noth ing of my striped jacket, but some how allowed me to march along. It appeared to me that they were quite happy with my sudden ap pearance, and, in fact, passed me an army cap and jacket, which I put on while marching. Later I was to learn that one of their boys managed to slip away during the march, and I was more than wel come to make up the required number. When we reached a camp, I was interviewed by a British officer. I could not speak a single word of English. An interpreter was called and I told him my story. The soldiers, on hearing my plight, were more than kind to me. They shared their own rations with me, and helped me to recuperate as much as possible. IXTHEN WE stood for the count ” in the barracks square every morning, I had a feeling that one of the German guards was looking for me. He seemed to walk along the lines again and again, until he had seen me. My suspicion was proved correct. Some days later he came into the barracks and said to me: “Where do you live in Eng land? What is your home address?” With my heart missing a beat and blood rushing into my head I an swered, as the soldiers had taught me, “Nicht shpreche deutsch.” Al though I managed to shake him Sept. - Oct., 1955

off, mainly through the help of some other soldiers, I knew from his questions that he was out to get me. True enough, next day he caught me by surprise, gripped me with both his hands and, as if try ing to shake the truth out of me, shouted: “You are not British. You are a Jew, escaped from the camps . . . It's true, isn’t it!” The suddenness of his attack and the firm grip of his hands destroyed my resistance completely. I admit ted it and, speaking in German, be gan to plead for my life. “I have lost all my family,” I cried, “please don’t hand me over . . . not now, not in the last minutes of the war . . .” I kept on and on until, 23

as if in a fit of madness I shouted at him “Don’t you fear G-d? You have a chance to save a life!” He stared at me for a few moments and then let go of my hands. “May the G-d who helped you until now, continue to protect you,” he said. I could not believe my own ears. I thought I was dreaming. .But there he was, yet another SS-man let ting me go. T E N DAYS later we were liber ated by American troops.. I was told that I could not go home with the British troops. I felt unhappy. I had no home anywhere. I wanted to leave the country which had brought so much unhappiness and sorrow upon me. I went to the American commanding officer. He was a Jew. He said that my jour ney to Britain depended entirely on British authorities. If they would admit me, then he would al low me to join the transport, al though I was not a prisoner-ofwar. I went to the British com

manding officer. He was kind and gentle. “I’ll try my best for you,” he promised. A few days later, the very day when our camp was being liquidated and the boys were ready to return to England, the Com manding Officer called me to his office. “You can come with us, if you still want to,” he said with a smile. “The Home Office has granted a special permit for you.” I thanked him a thousand times, and arrived in England while the war was still on. * * * “N OW I am a British citizen,” ^ Reb Y iedle concluded his strange tale. “I am proud of it. I am a full member of this great nation which has saved my life and helped me to find a new home.” The shnapps bottle was almost empty. It took more than one l’chayim to appreciate this extra ordinary story. I patted Reb Yiedl on his back, murmuring, “a proud Chossid and a proud citizen of the Queen.”

JUDGMENT The fate of everything in nature is under judgment • on Rosh Hashonah, and is sealed on various days: The fate of grain on Passover; the fate of fruit on Shavuoth; the fate of water on Sukkoth. Man's fate, however, is sealed on Yom Kippur. —Talmud, Rosh Hashonah, 16a.

Jewish LIFE

By EUGENE DUSCHINSKY THE distant southern shores greatest single donors to the Na of Africa, in the land of rich tional Funds. For many years it gold mines and diamond fields, the proudly held the record of giving home of the greatest white popu the maximal per capita contribu lation in the whole of the “Black tions to all national causes and Continent,” a Jewish community of participating most actively in continues to thrive. world Jewish affairs. In modern times South African From the numerical point of Jewry has given our people such view,Wthe Jewish community of outstanding leaders of world re South Africa, together with that nown as the late Chief Rabbi Dr. of the Rhodesias, does not exceed J. H. Hertz (who was not born the number of 120,000 souls. Al in South Africa, but held office most 90 percent of the community there), and 4^bba Eban, Israel’s dwell in four cities. More than chief delegate to the United Na half of South Africa’s Jews livé tions and ambassador to the United in Johannesburg and surroundings, States. It gave pur people hundreds and about one fourth of them live of volunteers during Israel’s War in Cape Town, “the Mother City” of Independence, and some of the of Southern Africa, once the origiSept. - Pet., 1955

Jews fought on both sides, while others fled the war zones seeking refuge in the safety of the coast, TJISTORICALLY speaking, South mainly in Cape Town. The peace * * African Jewry is a young com treaty created the Union of South munity. The Union of South Africa Africa, embracing the former celebrated the tercentenary of its British Colonies of the Cape and European settlement as late as Natal, and the Afrikaaner (Boer) 1952. The beginnings of recorded Republics of the Orange Free State and organized Jewish life date and the Transvaal, ultimately gain back to the 1840’s. It was then ing the status of a Dominion of that the first Yom Kippur services the Commonwealth. A series of immigration waves were held and a small congrega tion established in the capital of brought the country's Jewish popu the Colony of the Cape of Good lation to its present size. The last Hope. Styling itself Tikvath Israel, such wave, bringing a few ship The Hope of Israel, the congrega loads of refugees from Nazi Ger tion ordered its first Torah scrolls many, reached South Africa in from Frankfort-on-Main. They soon 1936. built a synagogue, the first one in Africa south of the Equator. r * HAIM WEIZMANN, in his Today this structure, standing in ^ “Trial and Error," devotes a the shadow of the Great Synagogue special chapter to his impressions erected on its side on Government gained during his visit to South Avenue in 1904, serves as a shrine Africa. He found a closely knit destined to house a Museum of community, hailing mainly from a few districts of Lithuania. Deeply Jewish Africana. The masses of Jewish population impressed by the intense Zionism began to arrive only in the 1880’s, displayed, he remarks that this was following the great waves of emi the communal pattern which Rus gration from Russia. Not all of the sian Jewry as a whole would have arrivals stayed in the coastal cities evolved, had it not been for the of the Cape Colony. Many thou advent of Bolshevism in the land sands of them trekked inland, into of the Czars. Even today the main characteris the heart of the Republic of the Transvaal, where the city of tics of South African Jewry are Johannesburg was just founded the homogeneity, inner unity and above the bountiful gold-fields of voluntary discipline displayed in the Reef and the Witwatersrand, most fields of communal endeavor. Church and State are separated under the legendary President in the Union. No constitutional Kruger. The two decades that followed status is enjoyed by the representa were difficult times in South tive organizations of any “commu Africa. The country soon became nity" in the legal structure of the embroiled in the Boer War. Many country. South Africa, however, is Jewish LIFE 26

nal center of Jewish settlement on the subcontinent.

not a “melting pot” ; its people think in terms of national, ethnic and religious groups or “commu nities,” like in so many sections of the formerly colonial compo nents of the British Commonwealth. Apart from the Native (Black) nations—Zulus, Bantus, Xosas— and the colored communities — Cape Coloreds, Malays, Hindus — the white inhabitants are also divided into many communities: the Afrikaaners, the English, the South West African German set tlers and other small groups. All of these are distinctly separated from each other by the factors of

language, religion, culture, ties with the “old home,” and in some cases by elements of occupation, urban-rural relations and by diver gent loyalties. The pattern of the general society is that of a mosaic, wherein group consciousness and group loyalty is taken for granted and constitutes the order of the day. Under such conditions the existence of the Jewish community as a distinct group fits into the pattern of South African society naturally, not causing undue fears or self-accusations of split loyal ties, segregation or ghettoism.

Active Religious Identification

YIDDISH is still widely used; it is estimated that there are over 2,000 Jews who can speak He brew. Afrikaans is understood and spoken by those educated in the bilingual schools of the Union and especially by those who lived for any length of time in the rural districts. With the increasing urbanization of the Jewish popu lation English is becoming the main tongue, the “lingua franca” of the community. Jews in South Africa are ex tremely well-informed in all mat ters of world Jewry by a vigorous, colorful Jewish weekly and month ly press, published in English, Yid dish and also Hebrew. Five week lies and more than half-a-dozen monthlies keep the community in touch with Jewish events, local and universal, publishing articles by outstanding contemporary Jewish writers and focusing the attention Sept. - Oct., 1955

of South African Jews on develop ments in Israel, and on events in the religious and communal field at home and abroad. The extent of Jewish interests is reflected by some figures. In the city of Cape Town and its sur roundings alone, about thirty syna gogues have over 10,000 regular members, which means that ap proximately three-quarters of the community identify themselves ac tively with the religious organiza tion. Over sixty percent of Jewish children receive Jewish education. In the past five years eight palatial synagogues, communal halls and > Talmud Torahs were erected in that city. In the elections to the Jerusalem Zionist Congress 38,000 votes were cast, more than in Great Britain, which has a Jewish population more than four times the size of that of South Africa. Every third 27

whole of the Union of South Africa and the Rhodesias, and are respec tively headed by the Chief Rabbis of Johannesburg and Cape Town. All matters of Kashruth, Gittin (religious divorces) and conver T O E ORIGINAL influence in the sions are within the exclusive spiritual, cultural and commu jurisdiction of these two Battey nal pattern of South African Jewry Din. No other rabbi is authorized came from Lithuania and England. to deal with these matters. This More than half of the Rabbinate system establishes high standards is English trained, while most of and eliminates confusion and di the Hebrew teachers hail from vergence. A great stimulus was Lithuania, with a few late arrivals given to orthodox, unity by the visit from Israel. Homogeneity and uni of Chief Rabbi Brodie of England formity prevailed in the religious and Chief Rabbi Herzog of Israel pattern until about fifteen years in the past three years, while Chief ago, when Reform established it Rabbi Unterman of Tel Aviv self, just as the great numbers of opened the Kashruth week in refugees from Germany arrived Johannesburg, a great undertak and settled. Today the Reform ing, connected with conferences, Movement has about 8,000 mem preaching tours, exhibitions and bers with six temples in four cities. press campaigns, to consolidate All other congregations are or Kashruth in the Jewish home. thodox. Their strictly traditional standards of synagogues and wor ship are based on the Ashkenazi Lithuanian and British pattern, the equivalent of the orthodox stand ards of modern synagogues in the United States. Mixed pews are unknown, mixed choirs or organs are not thought of. All prayers are conducted in Hebrew; and undue pomp at funerals or strange cult of the dead is absent; sermons are delivered in English; partly in Yid dish. The orthodox congregations of CAPETOWN: The Great Synagogue the country are today organized in two territorial bodies: the Fed of Cape Town, S.A. eration of Synagogues of the Transvaal, and thé United Council TWO GREAT problems, however, A demand solution in South of Hebrew Congregations in the Cape. The two Battey pin serve the African Jewry’s religious life: that

person actually voted in these Zion^ ist elections, which were conducted on a serious scale, with press, placards, public meetings, district ballot booths, automobiles etc.

Jewish LIFE

of the decline of Sabbath obser vance, and of the dangerously in creasing number of mixed mar riages, which is said to have reached the ten percent mark. The main weapon for continuity in Jewish life is sought in the field of national-traditional Jewish education. The Boards of Educa tion in Johannesburg and Cape Town direct the educational work in a system consisting of Kinder gartens, Day Schools, Talmud Torahs and Teachers' Seminaries. They operate correspondence cour ses for children in the rural dis tricts, maintain hostels in the edu cational centers for students from the countryside, appoint traveling teachers for some rural districts; they edit textbooks and have opened a Hillel house at Cape Town University. Two Yeshivoth have been established: the B’nai Akiva movement’s Yeshivah in Johannes burg and the Taehkemoni Yeshi vah Ketanah in Cape Town. Re cently a survey was conducted of the more than 3,000 Jewish uni versity students in the country, by Rabbi Louis Milgrom, Hillel Di rector of the University of Minne sota, who was specially invited for this purpose by the South African Board of Jewish Deputies in 1953. The theme of Jewish education is modern Hebrew, Tanach, His tory and the Land of Israel. How ever, many educational circles feel that greater stress should be placed on the purely religious element, with the definite aim of educating youth toward a close identification with and participation in the life of the synagogue, the real center Sept. - Oct., 1955

RELIGIOUS LEADER: Chief Rabbi Louis I. Rabinowitz of Johannesburg, S. A.

of true Jewish life in the Diaspora. ZIONISM and the personal stake ** in Israel of the average South African Jew is the greatest potent force in the community, which has never permitted any anti-Zionist movement |H8! right or left — to strike roots. Only he who witnessed the al most delirious scenes of rejoicing in the streets of Johannesburg upon the arrival of the first diplo matic representative of Israel, Mr. David E. Goitein, in 1949, can have a true picture of the deep love this community has for Zion. Many hundreds visit Israel every year, using the services of El Al, which maintains weekly flights between 29

Johannesburg and Lydda. The city of Ashkelon, Afridar, Afritaass, the South African Hostel in Tel Aviv, the Nautical School in Haifa, the Achuzath Sarah Home in B’nai B’rak and a number of chairs in the Hebrew University are only a few of the institutions created by South African Zionists in Israel, apart from the constant support given through the United Israel Appeal. The bulk of South African Zion ists are of the General Zionist out look, whilst the Socialist-Zionists (Mapai) and the Revisionists each represent about twenty percent of Zionist public opinion. Mizrachi doubled its strength, but is still only about one-tenth of the Zionist Movement of the country. The most recent development is that of the non-Party Zionists, who advocate the view that Zionism in the Dias

pora should not be patterned along the lines of Israeli parties. TN THE FIELDS of local, Union wide and international Jewish activities the representative organ ization of the community is the Board of Deputies. It maintains committees in all provinces and represents the community vis-a-vis the Government and international Jewish organizations. As the “watchdog of the community” it combats Antisemitism and also cares for the overall cultural, reli gious and public relations needs. The Board of Deputies initiated the United Communal Fund for South African Jewry, which main tains the Boards of Education and about twelve national Jewish or ganizations. The Board has also established the office of Rabbi to Country Communities. It has cul-

JOHANNESBURG: The Great S ynagogue of Johannesburg« S.A.

Jewish LIFE

tural offices to organize lectures and exhibitions throughout the country, and to maintain the Peo ple’s College with outstanding local and visiting lecturers. The Board publishes a fine monthly magazine, “Jewish Affairs” and many pub lications of general interest. The internal charitable work of South African Jewry is also of high standards. These needs are served by three homes for the aged, two orphanages, Free Loan Boards, Sheltered Employment Agencies, Sick Bènefit Societies, Friendly As sociations, Central Chevrah Kadishahs (run on the non-profit ba sis), Kosher Kitchens in Public Hospitals — institutions which are to the credit of a community gen erously aware of its duties and responsibilities. The intensively Jewish interests of the community do not cause any neglect of the civic and patriotic

duties of the Jew as a South Afri can citizen. As early as the 1890’s the mayor of Cape Town was a Jew, who, at the same time, held the office of Chairman of the Con gregation and was a founder of a Talmud Torah. Since then many Jews have served on city councils, and last year the mayors of both Cape Town and Johannesburg were Jews, the latter being the Presi dent of the Great Beth Hamedrash of Johannesburg. Jews serve as members of Parliament, some of them hold Cabinet ranks in many of the Union’s Governments, some serve as judges, and there are many Jews in the civil service on several levels of government work. During the World War the cream of Jewish youth volunteered and served in the campaigns from Eritrea and Somaliland through El Alamein to Italy.

Ethical Problems

XKTITH THE advent to power of ■ ^ the Nationalist Party in 1947, many people gave expression to worries concerning the future of the Jewish community. These ap prehensions were born of for mer openly Antisemitic utterances voiced, prior to their attainment of power, by influential and lead ing members of the Nationalist Party. The neutralist Nationalist Party could not forget that the majority of votes in Parliament with which South Africa’s partici pation in World War II was achieved exactly coincided with the number of Jewish MP’s. Sept. - Oct., 1955

In the eight years of the Na tionalist Government, however, there is nothing on the record of the Government which could be viewed as Antisemitic. The Govern ment’s relationship with Israel is very friendly. This friendliness was accentuated by the visit to Israel of Dr. Malan, the first Prime Minister of any country ever to have visited Israel. These friendly relationships were not dis turbed even by the votes Israel cast against South Africa in the United Nations on the racial problem. Jewish life in South Africa, how ever, is not free of problems of 31

conscience and ethical soul-search ing. “Apartheid,” the official policy of the present Government, and racial segregation, the age-old pat tern of South African society, create a paradox for the Jew’ who cannot forget Hitlerism and the loss of six million - of his kin to the Moloch fires of racialism, a memory which precludes him from subscribing to the doctrines of racial discrimination. On the other hand, the Jews in South Africa are members of the white race, active partners in and benefici aries of the existing structure of the country. And while historical experiences of the past decades make every Jew afraid of the poli cy of supremacy of one race over another, it is equally felt that in the event of black upheavals, the white-hating fury of the Native would know no differentiation among whites, racialist or liberal, Jew or non-Jew. This was indi cated in the 1953 Port Elizabeth riots, among the victims of which there was a Catholic nun serving the Native sick and a Jewish motion picture operator entertain ing the black population of the Native location. There is no Jew on the National-

ist Party’s list of members of Par liament, while at least eight Jewish opposition! members were elected in constituencies prominently inha bited by Jews, whom the National ist Party did not oppose in the elections. It is also not far from logical that the comparatively great aliyah of young people from South Africa is stimulated by the wish of Jew ish youth to live in a society where racial discrimination is unknown. jP^T THE far ends of Africa there lives a united, well organized, proud, disciplined, prosperous Jew ish community, identifying itself with the Jewish religion, making conscious efforts for the perpetua tion of Jewish life, displaying a sense of Jewish responsibility and solidarity and, above all, an ardent love for Zion. It is, at the same time, a community not free of ethical problems, great problems of the human conscience. May it thrive in peace and find its equilibrium by turning to the Almighty for the solution of its own problems, interwoven as they are with those of the whole of mankind.

OF ELEMENTS AND ANIMALS Though the h eavens and the earth consist of entirely dif ferent elem ents, they were yet created as a unit, like a pot and its cover. The Divine resolution to bestow a companion upon Adam met the w ishes of man, who had been overcome by a feeling of loneliness and isolation when all anim als came to him in pairs to be named.

Jewish LIFE

• From the Responso, Literature .

Second in a Series.

TN A VILLAGE in one of the Arabic-speaking countries, there lived centuries ago a learned man who earned a meagre livelihood. In order to augment his income he travelled to different communities to perform the rite of circumcision, B’rith Milah. It so happened that this poor scholar had words with another individual who was appar ently well-to-do. We have no ink ling as to who was responsible for the quarrel br as to the motives. Nevertheless, the second indivi dual became so embittered that he decided to do something to injure the poor scholar. It most likely never occurred to him to harm the latter directly ; but he sought some indirect way to cause him grief. The well-to-do person was also ca pable of performing B’rith Milah. (Based on Maimonides’ Responsa, by Alfred Freimann, no. 386)

Sept. - Oct., 1955

edited

He learned of a case where it was necessary to perform the rite and he offered his services. No one sus pecting any questionable motive, his offer was accepted. He per formed the ceremony and received the fee. The plotter then selfrighteously proclaimed that he did not need the money himself; so he donated the money for a charitable purpose. Thus this man had his revenge. He had deprived his enemy of some of his income, and he presented himself to his friends as a very pious and charitable Jew who refused to enjoy the profits of a Mitzvah. However, some who knew what had taken place became aware of the inside story. They had their doubts as to the honesty of this man. They were perplexed as to how they were to regard him. Could he actually be branded a sin33

ner who needed to repent and must ask forgiveness? Could he be rep rimanded for his deed? How about the money donated to charity? Do the poor have a right to enjoy this money? Jews were very scrupulous about these moral problems. They wanted to be sure that they did not misjudge a man. The poor did not want to enjoy money to which they were not entitled. In order to find an answer to the searching problems of their hearts, they turned to the great master of the day, Rabbi Moses the son of Maimon (Rambam, Maimonides). TUfAIMONIDES was very vehe* A ment in his answer. He did not make any attempt to find an extenuation for the culprit. He pointed out how reprehensible his action was on every count. The

meritorious deed which the <man purported to perform by distribut ing K’is fee to charity was a Mitzvah performed through an aveyrah, a transgression, which is no Mitzvah at all. Maimonides applies to this case the category mentioned in the Talmud regarding the thief who stole wheat, baked bread, sep arated the challah fr(the priestly portion),, and made the blessing over it; this is not regarded as a benediction, but rather as blas phemy'|Baba Kama 94a). So this individual has no merit as per forming the great commandment of Tzedokah, charity. In addition, Rambam asserts, this man violated the great com mandment of Vayikra 19:18: Thou shalt not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. This commandment

Jewish LIFE

contains a prohibition even against refraining from doing a favor on account of feelings of revenge. It certainly interdicts doing harm in a positive way. This man had also violated the law against deception, which for bids misrepresentation even where monetary gain is not involved. He had done a despicable thing while trying at the same time to impress people with his piety and charitable nature. One who was unaware of his feud with his fellow would surely think of him as a just and generous man. In addition, the vengeance-seeker had violated the law which forbids any person from entering into his fellow’s trade or occupation. He had encroached up on his fellow’s livelihood and had violated the commandment of re

moving his neighbor’s landmark. Tt LL THIS reprimand would be justified even if the violator were a poor man and needed the money. How much worse is the offense when it comes from a man who does not need the money and who is committed against his neigh bor. The act under these circum stances must be branded as sheer cruelty and vengeance of a vile nature. Rambam’s responsum has come to us in Arabic, and though some what incomplete, it gives full ex pression to the highly ethical and? moral consciousness of the great teacher in Israel, Moses ben Maimon, whose outlook was completely molded by the ethical character of the Halochah.

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Jewish LIFE

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• The Changing Environment of the 19th Century

Brought New Opportunities to the Jewish Artist .

P “ ia tie e n A

By ALFRED WERNER Q E N R E PAINTING is defined as a class of painting in which scenes from ordinary* everyday life are treated. Genre paintings are found on the walls of Egyptian and Etruscan tombs, on Greek and Roman vases, in the art of Asia. From the Christian Middle Ages to the 19th century, however, this sort of painting was held in low esteem by the high-born patrons of art, aristocrats or church digni taries, who, apart from portrai ture, gave the artist a choice only between religious, allegorical or historical subjects. Yet even dur ing the feudal period genre paint ing was practised, though on a modest scale, by the illustrators of books, religious or otherwise, who adorned manuscripts with minia ture harvest scènes, portrayal of burghers in the pursuit of their homely occupations, and other un heroic scenes. Jewish scribes fre quently adorned Haggadoth and Megilloth with delightful descrip tions of the more pleasant aspects of communal life, especially the celebration of festivals. Wherever the middle class came to the fore, especially in what is 38

. . . . I ¡1

.. ...

now Belgium and the Netherlands, genre painting was appreciated. The bourgeois preferred pictures showing himself and his kind in situations and moods that he could understand, pictures that told a story in a didactic, sentimental, romantic, or even satirical vein but always a simple tale—and there were many clever craftsmen, some touched with genius, to fill his orders. The Jew, who arrived as a practising artist on the scene in the second or third decade of the 19th century, found himself in most European countries, and certainly in the United States of America, in a society in which the middle classes had taken the reins of government from the aristocracy, where the influence of the Church was broken or greatly reduced, and where he was not required to adopt Christianity and produce Christian or feudal art. T H E POLITICAL and economic maturity achieved by the mid dle ,class after the French Revolu tion changed, among other things, the scope and demands of the art market. Suddenly, thousands, or Jewish LIFE

tens of thousands, of new art pat rons—well-to-do lawyers, business men, politicians, civic leaders-— needed portraitists as well as lim ners of genre pictures. The Jewish-born artist soon dis covered, to his immense delight, that the Gentile patrons did not discriminate against h i m | ^ j as they might have done a hundred years earlier as long as he gave them what they wanted. And he did, on the whole. Often his earliest patrons were Jews who had risen high in the realm of finance (such as the vari ous branches of the Rothschilds) and whose tastes were as conven tional as those of their Christian competitors. A growing number of middle-class Jews had, as yet, neither developed a taste of their own, nor were bold enough to fol low the general trend, but had at least thrown overboard the prej udice against pictures and picturemaking, and were ready to accept works of art^ with a “Jewish motif.” Here, then, Jewish artists were ready to fill the orders—and soon there were also non-Jews com peting for commissions. Gentiles, too, acquired pictures with Jewish motifs, this being an age in which the Jew, newly released from the Ghetto, was regarded with benevo lent curiosity as an exotic. JJfQ R IT Z D A N IEL O PP E N . HEIM, who was born at Hanau near Frankfort-6n-Main in Decem ber 1799 or in January 1800, was the firs# professing Jew to achieve a more thhn fleeting success in the field of art. His well-to-do ‘parents Sept. - Oct.; 1955

gave him not only the traditional cheder training but also sent him to the gymnasium and, when hé gave evidence of his talent, to the local art school. He was takén up by members of the nobility who in vited him to their castle, where the boy was allowed to make copies of what everyone belidved to be genuine works by Raphael, Correg gio, Leonardo da Vinci, and other Old Masters. According to Oppenheim’s autobiography, the artist, in his eighteenth year, began his three years of serious study at the Royal Academy of Munich.* From Munich he proceeded to Paris where he worked for a time under the direction of Jéan Baptiste Regnault, celebrated for his his torical paintings. In 1821, Oppenheim went to Rome where he was to remain for four years. There he labored con scientiously at the San Lucca Academy. His drawings and oils of biblical episodes, made duif ing his stay in Italy and shortly after his return to Germany in 1825, >were once widely appre ciated ;, Hagar’s Parting was ac quired by the Elector of Hesse* Susanna and thè Elder# by one of the Rothschilds. Today, one can still admire the excellent composi tion, with its skillful grouping, but must reject the theatricality of the scenes, with the same banal emo tionality that ma|rs so much' 18th century Italian painting. Oppenheim’s talent was better * Oppenheim’s grandson, Alfred, in a post script to this posthumous autobiography, claims, however, that the artist lirSt studied at the Staedel Institute of Frankfort on Main, which had just been organized.

suited to the portrayal of the world and men and women of his era. Ten drawings for Goethe’s idyll, Hermann and Dorothea earned him the aged poet’s extrava gant praise. He was the ideal illus trator for this love story told in simple language (if in Homeric rhythms) and set in a peaceful Ger man village. Ç IX YEARS later, in 1833, the artist started a picture that brought him considerable renown, and became the beginning of a series, which gained him lasting fame. Return of a Jewish Volun teer from the Wars of Liberation to his Family Still Living in Ac? cordance to the Old Tradition made timely appearance at a moment when the enfranchisement of Ger

man Jews was vigorously debated. The picture certainly supported the arguments of those advocating full civil rights. It was bought by the Jews of Baden and presented to Gabriel Riesser, the spokesman of German Jewry and ardent cham pion of Jewish emancipation. The picture tells a story, and tells it well. Wounded in battle, and still carrying his right arm in a sling, the young officer obviously has just arrived at his parental home. The family clusters around him. The pious father, an open He brew book before him, regards the decoration on his son’s breast with paternal pride, but also with some uneasiness, since it is in the shape of a cross. Encouraged by the success of

Oppenheim's "The Bar Mitzvah Speech."

Jewish LIFE

"The Fegst of Weeks" by Oppenheim.

this picture, Oppenheim followed in the course of years with nine teen other canvases on Jewish motifs. Eventually he was asked by a firm that wished to reproduce the series for publication, to repeat these oils in grey gouache (gris aille) in order to facilitate photo graphic reproduction, which was then (about 1865) inadequate to deal with color and the tonal values of paintings. He painstakingly un dertook this imposing task and with brilliant results. The album, Bilder aus dem Altjuedischen Familievleben (Pictures of Old-Time Jewish Family Life) went through many editions and was also issued in the United States. A family is shown in several canvases celebrat ing the various festivals; an old rabbi quizzes a youngster; an in fant is held up to touch the Scroll in the synagogue; a Talmud student is invited to the Sabbath dinner — these were the kind of pictures the middle-class Jew understood and en joyed. In addition to these careful des criptions of gracious and unhurried life, of stately dignity and decorous orderliness, Oppenheim made many other large and once celebrated pic tures — Felix Mendelssohn Playing for Old Goethe at Weimar; Moses Mendelssohn Received by Frederick the great; Lavater and Moses Mendelssohn §|- to mention only a few. Today they are all but for gotten, while Oppenheim is still held in high regard for his por traits of Boerne, Heine, Riesser and the Rothschilds, which a?e not only well-painted but are profound psy chological studies. 42

Oppenheim continued to paint until a few days before his death in 1882 in his skillful, charmingly naive manner, oblivious to the changes that style and taste had undergone since his student days at Rome. In 1900 the Frankfort Kunstyerein arranged a very large memorial exhibition devoted to his work. TN THE first third of the nineJs teenth century all Jewish ar tists came from those places in the Western World where the Jew had been accepted into non-Jewish so ciety and where little, if any, obstacle impeded his career as an artist. The second third witnessed the entry into the arts of Jews born and reared on the fringes of eastern Europe: Leonard Horowitz in Slovakia, Isidor Kaufmann in Hungary, Moritz Gottlieb in Gali cia. The only one born of that huge reservoir of power and genius, Russian Jewry, before the middle of the last century was Mark Antokolski, the sculptor. Later, the Czarist empire was to be the soil from which sprung those talents which were to play a considerable role in the development of Jewish art, and an even greater and more conspicuous part in the maturing of what is now called Modern Art. Leopold Horowitz was born in a small Slovakian town near Kosice in 1838. He went to Vienna to study at the Academy and subse quently lived for several years in Paris, where he received encour agement from the leading critic, Theophile Gautier. Known for genre pictures of infancy and childhood, Jewish LIFE

he was also widely sought as a portraitist. Becoming one of the most celebrated portrait painters of his era (he died in 1917) he numbered among his clientele the top aristocracy of Austria-Hun gary ia n d Germany, as well as writers like Mor Jokai and George Brandes. Some of the best like nesses of the Austrian Emper or, Francis Joseph I, were by Horowitz who, painting in the tra dition of the Old Masters, espe cially that of Van Dyck, delighted his patrons with his careful techni que, the natural poses and simple backgrounds he preferred. ABOUT 1870 Horowitz made a trip to Warsaw, and from this journey came several paintings on Jewish themes. The most cele brated of them, Prayers in a Polish Synagogue on the Anniversary of the Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, received a prize at the Vienna Exposition of 1873. The figures are life-size, and, as usual in Horowitz’ work, well-drawn. The mourners, some of them in stock inged feet and all disheveled, are shown in the shool seated on low stools or on the ground. Some are sunken in silent sorrow, others are weeping aloud. In the center is an old man in gloomy meditation over a heavy book, while another aged man, this one obviously blind, tot ters into the gloomy room sup ported by the firm of a boy. Once widely admired, the picture now strikes us as having too much stage-acting, too much gesticula tion at the expense of inner feel ings, of real emotion. Sept. - Oct., 1955

TSIDOR KAUFMAN (b. Arad, gjjj Hungary, 1854; d. Vienna 1921) was also over-rated during his life time. One of his many admirers even called him a modern Holbein. But his work, nevertheless, had merits which were not appreciated until more than twenty years after his death. It was wrong to expect the bold realism of the French school from an artist who received his training, not in the Paris fcf the Impressionists, but in conser vative Budapest and Vienna. His first artistic period — historical painting in the pompous tradition of Munkacsi and Piloty — is, in deed, of no importance. His discovery of eastern Europe changed both his outlook and style. He travelled through the forlorn villages of Galicia, Russian Poland and the Ukraine, making countless sketches. Whereas the interiors in Gppenheim’s pictures are those of pleasant German middle-class homes, and the dramatis personae are German burghers observing Jewish rites, Kaufmann conjured up a fascinating and colorful world entirely different from thát mí his patrons. The artist’s pointed brush reproduced with remarkable skill every nuancé of the objects he por trayed. Whatever he produced is in good! taste, never coarse or vulgar. It was therefore unfortunate that Kaufmann was not guided by the principle of his contemporary in Berlin, Max Liebermann —- “Kunst ist die Kunst wegzulassen,” art is the art of omission. ^Kaufmann often overwhelms and confuses the beholder with too many details, 43

each assigned as much importance as the next one. In his groups, such as The Rabbi’s Visit (which was bought by Emperor Francis Joseph I), there is always the story-telling quality, yet this anec dotal character is harder to accept than in Oppenheim’s Jewish Fam ily cycle. Superior to these painted anec dotes, however, are the heads of rabbis or young students, rendered by Kaufmann with a love and pre cision comparable to those in the works of 17th century Dutch mas ters. Only, the mystery is missing, the deep sorrow in the face of the ghetto Jew, the dynamism sans theatricality to be seen in the work of his contemporary, Mauricy Gott lieb. O pT T L IE B was born in 1856 at Drohobycz, Galicia. The unu sually gifted boy was only sixteen when he went to Cracow to study at the Academy under the greatest Polish master, Jan Matejko. From Cracow —* where he pro bably was the first art student of the Jewish faith—he proceeded, for further studies, to Munich and Vienna. However, when Matejko made a pilgrimage to Rome in order to present the Pope with one of his own paintings as a token of Poland’s loyalty to the Papacy, he took along his favorite pupil. In fact, at a festive dinner in Rome Matejko drained his glass of wine in honor of Gottlieb, barely twenty, hailing him as “the young master, the most hopeful disciple of Polish art, whom I greet as my successor, 44

in the presence of this illustrious assembly.” A fellow student, Siemiradski, felt offended in his “holiest feel ings” by the praise bestowed on a Jew, and urged Gottlieb to remem ber that he was, despite it all, only a “pariah.” In a sense, Praying Jews on the Day of Atonement (1878) was a reply to the antiSemite’s challenge. In rich, yet subtle colors, and in Matejko’s mo numental style, Gottlieb showed the earnest, dignified men in the act of prayer, the Jewish women in their Oriental beauty. As a gauntlet flung before the arrogant Siemiradski, Gottlieb gave to one of the pray ing men his own features. The painting caused a sensation in Jewish circles. The Hebrew press hailed it as a genuinely Jewish masterpiece (and, indeed, it had nothing of the make-believe and exhibitionism of Horowitz’ work on the same subject, finished a half decade earlier). Praying Jews paved the way for the coming gen eration of eastern European artists, as it showed them, as well as their parents and educators, that art and Judaism need not be antagonistic. In 1918, the painting was acquired by a German art collector. Gottlieb died in Italy of tubercu losis of the larynx, at the age of twenty-three, so suddenly that it was rumored he had been mur dered. While his art did not reach the heights of completeness and maturity that he would have scaled had fate been kinder to him, he has, nevertheless, attained a niche of honor in the history of general as well as Jewish art. Jewish LIFE

QEVERAL WEEKS ago the mailman delivered a letter which began: “Dear Student, Our records indicate that some time ago you were a student of our free Bible Correspondence Course* Due to an unfortunate incident your lessons were dis continued. Please accept our apology . . . . . ” It went on to promise a beautiful diploma to be awarded at the con clusion of the course. The aim of the organization behind this pro gram, as stated in the letter, is to acquaint “our Jewish people” with the “Book our Hebrew Prophets wrote and gave to the world.” The letterhead design consisted of a multicolored Torah and Chumosh resting on a Reading Table. The Sept. - Oct., 19f55

words “Torah Institute” and a non committal post office box number completed the picture. So they are back in business, I mused, as I placed the letter in my filing cabinet in the section marked Missionaries. How did I know? I had been a very active participant in the “unfortunate incident” men tioned by my correspondent. An accumulation of incriminating evi dence under Missionaries in my file relates the incredible story of a campaign of soul-snatching and misrepresentation unleashed against an unsuspecting commu nity of Jews. The methods em ployed by the missionary group in attaining their aims and the steps subsequently taken by the Jewish community to frustrate their de signs deserve retelling in the wake 45

of manifest evidence to the effect that the Christian sect respon sible for the original outrage, the Seventh-day Adventists, has not yet abandoned its covetous designs on the Jewish people. In a confidential booklet published by the General Conference of Seventhday Adventists called “How To Win The Jews,” which recently came into my possession, the author considers bringing the Christian message to the Jews as

one of “the important tasks con fronting the remnant church . . .” and calls it “our duty in regard to these ‘lost sheep’,” Experience has shown that they are guided by the philosophy that all means are justified in relation to their effec tiveness in producing the desired ends. Ethical principles are sacri ficed without any apparent hesita tion on the altar of an avowed pro gram of numerical expansionism.

É Ultra-Orthodox but Independent" FIRST contact with this group occurred four years ago. A neighbor, disturbed by extreme ly peculiar activities in a local synagogue, approached me with a request that I look into the matter. The whole thing, as he described it to me, sounded strange and in triguing. The “synagogue” was a handsome building in the East Bronx, situated in the midst of a predominantly Jewish neighbor hood. The “rabbi” repeatedly de scribed himself as ultra-orthodox. When a worshipper made an issue of the fact that he regularly drove up to, the “synagogue” on Shabboth, he would reply that he was “ultra-orthodox but independent.” The services he conducted were emasculated and far from tradi tional. A piano accompanied the “Chazon.” The “Kabbolath Shabboth” consisted of a few hymns from the Reform Union Hymnal, a responsive reading in English, a sermon entitled “Who Is G-d?” and Adon Olom. So this was an “ultra-orthodox” synagogue! 46

That Friday night I directed my steps towards the “synagogue” on Fairmont Place and 176th Street. As I rounded the corner my eyes were greeted by a gaudy neon sign high on a pole, proclaiming that this was the “Bronx Community Temple/* Two bright Mogen Dovids flanked the lettering. Ad jacent to the large corner lot be longing to the same group stood the imposing yellow-brick structure of the mysterious “synagogue.” A Yiddish-English sign announced in flashy gold lettering that the “synagogue” was at the disposal of the Jewish community for wed dings, Bar Mitzvahs and other simchas. The building was liberally decorated with Mogen Dovids. The occupants seemed to have embraced this symbol with the ardor of de votees. T H E STRAINS of a few solated voices chanting an off-key hymn to the accompaniment of a choppy piano floated through an open window. As I came to the Jewish LIFE

door, I noticed an over-sized Mezuzah on the door-post. Upon my en trance, a cherub-faced usher came forward and, after a warm “Good Shabbos” greeting, took my hand and led me to a waiting seat. On my left sat a middle-aged woman with markedly non-Jewish features. With a demeanor that be trayed experience she handed me a Union Hymnal, opened to the appropriate page and invited my participation. I looked about me and saw several sheepish-looking Jews, men and women of different ages, each with an open Hymnal in his hand; innocent lambs who had strayed or had been lured into this wolves' lair. How vulnerable we are, I thought. After the singing of the hymn a boyish-looking man, apparently in his forties, made his way to the “bima.” “This is Rabbi Hoffman,” my neighbor whispered to me in a tone of restrained enthusiasm. “Rabbi” Hoffman fumbled with the tzitzith of his Talith and ad justed the oversized yarmulke on his head. He smiled a wide, forced smile, cleared his throat and began to speak. His accent was that of the Middle West. He made a deter mined effort to reach his audience, punctuating every sentence with Yiddish words and idioms. But neither his folksy phrases nor the fervent denunciations of tarfuth and ehillul Shabboth to which he gave utterance could sufficiently conceal the fraud being committed. As he went on and on, I became the more convinced that the man with the big yarmulke and the Sept. - Oct., 1955

silk Talith was not & rabbi but a non-Jewish impostor* As I sat there listening to this missionary in disguise my anger was kindled against those parents who neglected the Jewish education and training of their children, who now sat helpless and confused in a church—and did not detect the cheap camouflage. One did not need deep insight to feel that he was listening to an evangelist preacher on Sunday morning and not to a “rabbi” on Shabboth eve. His Yid dish was a dead give-away. His references to the Jews in the second and third person betrayed him for what he was. But no one took the hint. On the contrary, after the “service” was over a small circle of worshippers con gregated on the corner under the neon sign to discuss the merits of the new “synagogue.” One Jew with a heavy accent declared that “Rabbi” Hoffman was the type of “modern” rabbi we need. I smiled and walked home. QOMETHING, I felt, just had to ^ be done to rouse the Jewish community from its indifference to this fatal threat. I decided to bring the matter to the attention of a prominent local rabbi. I learned from him that I had not been the first one to complain. I urged that a meeting of a board of local rabbis be called to investi gate the matter. The rabbi agreed with me and promised to keep me informed of the progress of his ef forts. Within two days I was called to 47

HOW TO THROUGH OUR LITERATURE

This booklet of instruction is for our church members O N LY. It is not to be given to non-Adventists. Please save it for future reference.

Published by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Facsimiles of the title page and excerpts from a confidential pamphlet published by the General Conférence of Seventh-day Adventists illus trate the methods employed by this sect in their missionary activities.

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Suggestions on General Methods of Approach

In meeting Jewish people with whom you have had no previous contact, oftén the most effective way of breaking down prejudice is to emphasize the points of similarity in our respective religious beliefs. Inform them that we observe the seventh-day Sabbath from Friday sundown to Saturday sun down, and that we follow the instruction given through Moses to abstain from the use of swine's flesh. Many a Jew will be surprised to learn that our believers have been willing1to sacrifice remunerative

- «alili ili.' vVli'l a u . .1

In your conversation with Jewish people, do not use such strong expres sions is missions, gospel, missionary work, church, conversion, Jesus, Christ (use Messiah instead), baptism, et cetera.

An excellent way of creating a bond of friendship and good will wit the religious class of Jews is to incorporate one or two simple Hebrew words in your conversation. We suggest a few very common Hebrew words: Shalom, a salutation which is as common as our “Hello,” and which means “peace." Your Jewish friend may reciprocate by saying, “Shalom Aleihhem,” which signifies “Unto you peace." Shalom is accented on the second syllable. Shabbos, meaning Sabbath; the accent is on the first syllable. hazir (with strong gutteral “h” sound), meaning swine's flesh. „xordiv .::^;.*he d i

..........

| p of dbc. ic clarified in oiafci be fully liiuoctrinatelf11! ^ riruth. ane following suggestions have been found helpful and effective: 1. Do not give your reader the impression that you are teaching him the Bible. You are reading the Bible with him. 2. Do not inform him of your plan to give him more than that one study; just make your appointments from week to week, one at a time. 3. Teach your Jewish prospect how to find the texts in his Bible by the use of the index printed in either the front or the back of the Bible.

Circulating the Literature by Mail

If you plan to mail the literature to Jewish homes, the names can t)3 selected from your telephone directory. The following names are most gen erally Jewish: Abrahams, Abrahamson, Abramovitz, Abelman, Abelson, Adler (fre quently), Appelman, Ash Bachrach, Bachman (sometimes), Bear (sometimes), Bass (sometimes), 3erg (frequently), Berman (very frequently), Bernstein, Binder, BL

report to a committee of rabbis. They listened to my story with expressions of pain and amaze ment. This was something new. If it were true then something had to be done. My testimony was borne out by the fragmentary *re ports of other eyewitnesses. It was

quite evident that the matter called for drastic measures. After some understandable hesitiation, the committee, constituting itself as a Beth Din,* commissioned me to join the missionary group in order to ferret out the necessary infor mation.

The Lambs Become Lions

■pHAT SAME week I enrolled in the Bible Correspondence course offered by the group. As the days rolled by I became more and more involved in their activities. They of fered religious “services” on Friday evenings and “health” lectures with movies on Wednesday evenings. I was there. I listened to their conver sations and studied their habits. I acquired their literature and gained their confidence. All avenues of contact brought conclusive evidence that the group in charge of the Bronx Community Temple was indeed Christian, professing the faith of Seventh-day Adventism; that “Rabbi” Hoffman was not a rabbi but a Christian and a mis sionary master-minding a plot. Further research revealed conclu sively that the “synagogue” was, in fact, a nest of missionaries, and that a number of them were listed as such by the very names they were using in their present activi ties. From time to time, I would “in vite” a number of yeshivah stu—

:—

* Only as a Shaliach Beth Din (representa tive of a Jewish court) could Jewish law permit me to associate with missionaries (Mesisim).

dents to question the “rabbi” about his activities and affiliation. He would remain steadfast in his con tention that he was “ultra-orthodox but independent.” As time pro gressed and our information became overwhelmingly incriminating we increased our pressure on them. The community was at last aroused and the fake synagogue began to find it impossible to conduct a ser vice. Jews from distant places came to watch the farce in action. Be cause of our efforts the masque rade was, in effect, over. The lambs had become lions! Every service ended in a riot. The plan had back fired. But the missionaries still main tained that they were a bona fide ultra-orthodox Jewish congrega tion. Our next task was to force them to admit their true identity and to make it official by announc ing it on a sign posted on the building. Their recalcitrance in this matter forced us to increase our pressure. Services had to be suspended because they had become a pandemonium of accusations and denials. Our first objective had been secured. We had fought them to a standstill. Jewish LIFE

TN A SURPRISE move the mis sionaries distributed literature claiming that they were ready to reveal their true identity. An over flow crowd gathered in the “syna gogue” on the announced night. Hundreds of late-comers milled in the streets. It was a restless, im patient crowd. It consisted of peo ple who had been fooled. They had been taken advantage of, and they sought retribution. The fact that no physical violence was committed that night stands as a tribute to Jewish self-restraint and civility. I shudder when I consider the possi ble outcome of a reversed situa tion. A hushed silence descended over the audience as a wan and nervous “Rabbi” Hoffman ascended the stairs to the “bima.” He fumbled with his papers, adjusted his over sized yarmulke and cleared his throat. Everyone moved forward in his seat. An electric tension filled the atmosphere before the first words of this long-awaited admis sion of guilt were uttered. Hoff man began to speak. But he did not speak of guilt or admission. He spoke incoherently and nervously, almost as though in a trance. An angry voice called for a clear ad mission or denial of affiliation

with a Christian sect. Hoffman again invoked his previous argu ment that he was ultra-orthodox because he observed the Mosaic laws 6f Shabboth and Kashruth and that his group was “indepen dent” in the sense that it had no connection with any Jewish or Christian body . . . But the admis sion finally and falteringly came forth: they were loosely affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventists. The badly frightened mission aries did not know what to expect from their erstwhile victims. Any thing could have happened. But the crowd simply left the big hall, satisfied that the impostors had been publicly exposed. The milling throng outside dispersed without incident. Only one small group re mained on the corner of Fairmount Place and 176th Street. Under the neon sign stood the group that had at one time sung the praises of the “liberal synagogue” and “modern Rabbi.” They were look ing up at the big sign and smiling sheepishly as I passed. The following week a new sign joined the others on the wall of the “synagogue.” In Yiddish and English it read: “Hebrew Adven tists.”

The Need For Vigilance

T AM NOW inclined to fear that our initial optimism was prema ture. The matter which was sup posed to have been closed four years ago is apparently slated for rebirth. Missionaries are preparing for a second round. A recent visit Sept. - Oct., 1955

paid to a Seventh-day Adventist Church supplied me with inval uable information that points out the fact that proselytizing of that group among Jews still continues unabated. With the “unfortunate incident” 51

four years ago, the “synagogue” became an admitted Seventh-day Adventist house of worship. The Bible Correspondence Course died a mysterious death. The connection between the two was obvious de spite the attempt at anonymity. Furthermore, I had succeeded in obtaining a set of tracts that were identical in content with those sup plied by the “Torah Institute — Bible Correspondence School.” The return address, however, told the whole story. The addressor was the Seventh-day Adventist. Several weeks ago the Bible Cor respondence Course was renewed as mysteriously as it had vanished a few years before. The letter which accompanied the first lesson excused the school for the “inter ruption.” The first few lessons bear such innocuous titles a s : “Jewish Contributions to Civiliza tion” and “Why I Believe In G-d.” But my files tell me that tract No. 20 is entitled “Who Is the Jew ish Messiah? (25 prophesies about

Jesus)” and that tract No. 34 bears the title “Does the Old Testament Teach That G-d Has a Son?” A recently constructed Seventhday Adventist church in northern New Jersey is bustling with mis sionary literature and plans for an intensive program of conversionistic activities. A fabulous treasure chest has been donated by faithful members throughout the country. They are well trained, perfectly disciplined. The local Jewish com munity is unaware and unprepared for the eventual onslaught. How many other Jewish communities are waiting like sitting ducks, ignorant of the designs on their spiritual lives by fanatic neigh bors? How many Jewish children will fall victim to these sinister plots? Scores of Jewish youngsters have already sat at the feet of mis sionary teachers in the Bronx. Who will be the vigilantes to alert the more rural communities to the threatening danger?

AS A GLITTERING MIRROR Holy Writ does not say: "And G-d saw the sackcloth and the ashes of the people of N iniveh/' and therefore He spared them, but rather that G-d sa w their "works/' that they turned from the evil and from the violence that w as in their hands. The soul of man should be as a glittering mirror; when there is rust on the mirror the face is not reflected by it. So w hen there is sin in the man he cannot see G-d. —Wisdom of Solomon

Jewish LIFE

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By CHAPLAIN REUBEN E. GROSS |g A typically hot day in the Receiving an affirmative reply he ^ tropical climate of Luzon, in said to the young American of i the Philippine Islands, two grim- ficer: “We are ready, sir.” And ready they were—not, how looking Filipino brothers silently entered the office of a young Air ever, for any surreptitious military Force officer during the desolate mission but in preparation for the noon hour. Bearing thirty-inch fulfillment of the Mitzvah of build machetes in their hands, their ing a Sukkah — the first of its sudden appearance surprised the kind in the history of the United young lieutenant who had been States Air Force ! The construction of this junglequietly working alone at his desk. The officer surveyed the situa made Sukkah at Clark Air Force tion quickly and silently followed Base required several weeks of the Filipinos. The three men planning. Military authorization Walked along the edge of the Air for the use of Filipino personnel, Base, one of the Filipinos leading the first step in “Operation Suk the procession with his machete, kah,” was easily obtained. Dia while his brother covered the rear. grams of Sukkahs were presented They walked silently into the to the Filipinos and carefully ex depths of the nearby Pampanga plained. C o rrect measurements Jungle. After a few minutes the were made and a site chosen—all one in front turned and asked his based on the needs of the local brother, in the native Tagalog, if Air Force Base and the feasibility he thought it was a good. spot. of construction. 55 Sept. - Oct., 1955

TOP: Chaplain (1st Lt.) Reuben E. Gross, holds ethrog and lulov in his junglem ade Sukkah in the Philippines. RIGHT: Airman First Class Arnold Coleman and the Chaplain recite the Hallel on Choi Hamoed.

Of especial importance in the building of the Sukkah was, of course, to see that it conformed to the requirements of Jewish law. The Shulchan Oruch, the Code of Jewish Law, specifies that the Suk56

kah must be a temporary struc ture, with a covering that does not give the appearance of permanence. The roof, for instance, must not be attached to the walls, and all the materials used must be proJewish LIFE

ducts of the soil. The din also re quires that there be sufficient cov ering to permit more shade within the Sukkah than sunlight. JS T FIRST it was feared that these requirements would be hard to fulfill under the conditions of a Philippine Islands military outpost. It turned out, however, that the construction of a Sukkah from materials taken out of a jungle in the Philippines was, per haps, less difficult than similar at tempts made annually by thousands of Jews in Chicago, Tel Aviv or London. The walls and the schach were made from gigantic banana leaves, which are some eight feet long and more than two feet wide. The leaves were thrown across a bam boo roof frame and were strung vertically along the walls. As the Jewish Chapel at the Base is adja cent to the Pampanga Jungles, it was not difficult to transport the thirty bamboo poles used for the Sukkah’s framework. The poles grow to lengths of over twenty feet, and cutting them is not a complicated task. However, it does take skill because the machete is a dangerous weapon. In the hands of a Filipino, the feat becomes as simple as hammering in a nail. ■ytrITH THE cooperation of his * * assistant, Staff Sergeant Ira Weiner, of Baytown, Texas and the two Filipinos, the writer, as chaplain, was able to provide a truly religious atmosphere to the Sukkoth festival. After services on Erev Sukkoth, the Jewish person 58

nel at the Base were invited to the Sukkah for Kiddu^h and for a Sukkoth party. The meaning of the Sukkah Was explained, zemiroth were sung, personal reminiscences of the holiday celebration at home were exchanged. For some of the men, it was the first time they had entered a Sukkah. The inspira tion they derived from that Yom Tov made our jungle-style Sukkah the most memorable event the writer has had in his military life.

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Jewish LIFE

• Leading Nations Oppose UN Adoption of the “Blank Day” Plan.

Will India Further Sponsor This Ominous Project?

CALENDAR REFO RM ^

0 X

^ 0 ^ '

By ISAAC LEWIN October 28, 1953, the permament representative of India to the United Nations addressed a communication to the SecretaryGeneral of the U.N. in which he transmitted a plan for the reform of the Gregorian calendar proposed by the “World Calendar Associa tion” in New York. “The purpose of the plan,” wrote the representa tive of India in his communication, “is to adopt for the whole world, from 1 January 1956, a new, fixed, uniform and invariable calendar.” A detailed memorandum describ ing all the advantages of the new proposed calendar was added to the communication. In the conclusion of his communication, the repre sentative of India requested that the plan for the reform of the calendar be included in the agenda for the 18th session of the Econo Sept. - Oct., 1955

mic and Social Council to be held in 1954. The request of India, a member of the Economic and Social Coun cil, was granted. The Council dis cussed the plan of calendar reform at its meeting of July 28, 1954, in Geneva. At this meeting, the only delega tion which supported the proposal without qualification was the dele gation of the Soviet Union, whose representative, Mr. Kumykin, said “that the Soviet Union delegation was in favor of the proposed calen dar reform.” Other delegations, in cluding that of India, suggested that the Secretary-General of the United Nations be requested to obtain the views of governments on the matter and to place them before the Council at its next session. The representative of a 59

the views of a cross-section of the nations of the world. However, suddenly and unex pectedly, at the opening meeting of the session of the Economic andr Social Council on May 16, 1955, the representative of India moved to defer consideration of calendar reform question for a full year. The representative of the United States opposed the motion for post ponement. Mohammed Mir Khan, the delegate of Pakistan, reiterated that public opinion in his country was definitedly opposed to calen dar reform for religious reasons. Nevertheless, the Indian motion was carried. The consideration of calendar reform was postponed by The Big Surprise the Council until May 1956. An analysis of the answers of "DY THE TIME the Economic and Social Council again had to con the 32 governments will show that sider the problem of calendar re this surprise move was made be form last May, the replies of the cause the proposal was headed following 32 countries had arrived for certain defeat. No doubt the in the office of the Secretary-Gen “World Calendar Association” will eral : Australia, Burma, Canada, leave no stone unturned during the Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, coming year in order to convince Finland, France, Germany, Iraq, governments that they should sup Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lux port the proposal. Let us, however, have a clear embourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, picture as to what the proposed Paraguay, Philippines, Portugal, reform consists of. Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, The Idea O f The "Blank Day" Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America, Union of South Africa and Yugoslavia. All the TTHE BASIC idea of the proposal of the “World Calendar Asso answers were circulated in extenso in a special document ; (E/2701) ciation” is the introduction of a and three addenda to it. According blank day, “Worldsday,” without to standards of the United Nations, any weekday name and without 32 replies out of 80 queries is quite being counted among the days of satisfactory and, besides, the coun the month, as the 365th day of tries which replied could undoubt the year and, in a leap year, the edly be considered as expressing interposition of a second blank day Jewish LIFE 60

Moslem country, Pakistan, stated that his government was “unshakably opposed” to the specific proposal put forward. The Council then adopted a resolution proposed jointly by India and Yugoslavia requesting the Secretary-General, to ask the governments of members and non-members of the United Nations to study the problem and express their views by early 1955. In the same resolution, the Coun cil decided to consider the matter again at its resumed 19th session in May 1955, together with the replies received from the govern ments.

CONFERENCE: Dr. Isaac Lewin (right), representing the Agudath Israel World Organization, discusses the calendar reform proposal with Akbar Adil, Pakistan delegate to the Economic and Social Council.

between June 30 and July 1. Con sequently, the seven day sabbatical cycle observed from time imme morial by the entire civilized world would be disrupted, causing incal culable damage and unimaginable chaos. Suppose the new calendar would be introduced on January 1, 1956, as suggested by the “World Calen dar Association.” Since 1956 is a leap year, Sunday, the day after June 30, which is a Saturday, would be declared a blank day, a “Worldsday,” without name and without date. The next day, really Monday, July 2, would be de clared Sunday, July 1. The se quence of days of the week would be completely broken during the Sept. - Oct., 1955

six months period from July to December, and the difference be tween the real and the new cal endar wduld be one day. How ever, after December 30 another blank day, another “Worldsday,” would be introduced, which would cause the sequence of days of the week to be broken again. During 1957, every real Sunday would be called Friday by the new calendar, every real Saturday—Thursday, and every real Friday-—Wednesday. In 1958, due to another break in the sequence of days of the week caused by another “Worldsday” be tween December 30 and January 1, the real Sunday would be called Thursday, Saturday—Wednesday, and Friday—Tuesday. This chaos 61

would go on indefinitely. Every year the days of the week would be shifted around, thus causing unimaginable confusion. What would be the practical con sequences in various fields of hu man life? We will dwell briefly o n , three aspects of the problem : the religious, the economic and the in ternational. The Religious Consequences

■PHE CHAOS which “Worldsday” might cause all religious de nominations is indescribable. Since even the “World Calendar Association” , does not assume the role of* a religious reform organization, it has settled the matter to its own satisfaction by stating that religi ous observance of weekly holidays remains untouched. But, practical ly speaking, calendar reform de stroys the observance of such holife days. The religious day of rest cannot be changed by a reform of the civil calendar. Everybody will agree on that. Consequently, the religious day of rest would become displaced and nomadic. Countless millions of people who observe a religious day of rest would, besides the confusion as to the fixity of the day itself, be faced with a dilemma: they would either keep two days of rest, the religious and the civil one, or give up their faith and keep the new calendar. Since the law would enforce the civil day of rest, leav ing it to the discretion of every individual to work on the religious day of rest or not, religious liberty would, practically, come to an end. 62

There are many fields in which there exists a legal compulsion with regard to the performance of certain duties. As an example let us take the situation in the school system. Most states make school attendance of children under a cer tain age compulsory. With a noma dic religious day of rest, the child would be expected to attend school every week on a day which the conscientious Christian, Jewish or Moslem parent would deem to be his true day of rest* If the child would not attend school on that day, the parent would be punished. This would certainly amount to religious persecution. QHOULD WE today, when the ^ promotion of human rights is considered a basic concept of a democratic society, go back to the darkness of religious oppression ? For millennia the world has re cognized the sanctity of the Bibli cal precept r (Shemoth 20:8—11): Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the Lord thy G-d. . In our age, when two world wars have almost shattered and unbal anced the spiritual foundation of mankind, religion remains the rock on which we must build our future. There is no justification for any reform in the calendar which would require, as its price, the annihila tion of religion. * Published in the pamphlet “The World Calendar at Geneva, 1954” of the World Calendar Association, page 7.

Jewish LIFE

From Julius Caesar To Gregory X III

JT IS worthwhile to note that for many centuries nobody even a t tempted to change the sequence of the seven-day week. After Julius Caesar and his astronomer, Sosi genes of Alexandria, reformed the Roman calendar, in 45 B.C., Em peror Constantine, in 321, built the calendar on the sound foundation of a seven-day week. Since then the sequence of days of the week has never been touched. When Pope Gregory XIII changed the calendar* in 1582, he advanced the year by ten days by declaring that October 4 of that year would be followed by October 15. He did not change the sequence of days of the week. October 4 was a Thursday, and the following day, although declared October 15, nevertheless remained a Friday. Several Protestant countries did not immediately adopt the change. Great Britain waited until 1752 and then introduced the missing period into the calendar. However, it also did not touch the weekly sequence of days. Thursday, Sep tember 3, 1752, was declared Thursday, September 14. Thus all calendar changes showed their re spect for the traditional Biblical principle of the seven-day week. Everybody agreed that a reform of the calendar could not change the seven-day week. Truly was the proposal for the introduction of a blank day once characterized as “a death-blow to the conception of the Bible and a distortion of the command of G-d Sept. - Oct, 1955

for a day of rest sanctioned by Him, as contrasted to a man-made day of economic relaxation.” *J*HE FEELINGS of the prota gonists of calendar reform to wards religious authorities can be illustrated by a quotation from a statement* of Mr. Moghnad Saha of India before the Committee on Non-Governmental Organiza tions of the Economic and Social Council meeting in Geneva on July 7, 1954. Speaking of the length of the present months, Mr. Saha said that “there is not the slightest scientific justification for these varying lengths. They are said to have been due To the caprice of two Roman dictators/ ” The two dictators are, of course, Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII. If the strongest ally of the “World Calendar Association” be fore the Economic and Social Coun cil chose to call Pope Gregory XIII a “dictator,” compared him to Julius Caesar and called his act a “caprice,” it is not necessary to look for understanding for religi ous feelings among the protagom ists of calendar reform. The Economic Aspect

T VENTURE to say that the eco nomic disadvantage of the blank day would far exceed its alleged advantages. From the statistical and commercial point of view prac tically nothing would be achieved by the reform. Those who wish to use a system of, accounting * (Summary Record of the 819 meeting of ECOSOC).

other than that based upon present have legal consequences and which months are now doing so. The high would occur on a “Worldsday” ly heralded advantage of the pro would cause additional trouble to posed calendar reform—that it the courts.’ They would be outside, would, simplify the count of the of the calendar, since they would months because every month would happen neither on a day of the start and end on the same day of • week nor on a day of the month. It was once remarked by a com the week—becomes meaningless if we consider the detrimental conse petent authority that wherever quences of the blank day device there is need for accuracy in statis for such a vital side of business tics and for any close compara activities as bookkeeping. There bility of statistics for different can be no doubt that the insertion periods, this need cannot be met of one, or sometimes two, “Worlds- through changes in the calendar. days” in a year would necessitate The astronomical facts which are a special bookkeeping system for related to the calendar prevent any< the month of December and, in leap calendar from having perfect sym years, also for the month of June. metry in all its parts. Besides this, For life would continue on these the business importance of days of blank days. Railroads and airlines the week, the length of the busi would continue their operations. ness year, and the time for begin Factories which require uninter ning the fiscal year differ materi rupted production would not be ally among the fields of business. halted. How would banks and in surance companies compute the in The International Complications terest for the blank days? How would the specific pay roll for the TOTOBODY CAN expect a calendar week with the additional day be A reform with such far-reaching consequences as the blank day de arranged ? Very serious complications must vice to be forced upon all the na arise for people who would observe tions in the world. It would there the weekly day of rest in consis fore mean, practically, that even tency with the religious calendar. in case of its adoption by some With the five-day . work week ac countries, others would still reject cepted by a great many industries, it. This would cause complete con religious observants would be com fusion in international relations. Let us take, as an example, an pelled to stay away from work on re-designated Sabbaths, which international airline. The time is would fall on week-days. As a mat arranged, as we all know, accord ter of religious conscience, they ing to the days of the week. A could not go to work on the true plane leaves New York on a Sunday Sabbaths. For them, therefore, the evening, arrives in London or in five-day week would become an en Paris on Monday, and continues through Beirut to Karachi, where forced four-day week. Besides this, all events which it arrives on Tuesday. If one of Jewish LIFE 64

INTERVIEW: N ewsm en at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City question Dr, Le win, center, regarding the Jewish position on calendar reform.

the countries involved would adopt a new calendar with the blank day device, which would cause the weekly days to shift, no interna tional time-table might be possible. The plane which would leave New York on a Sunday according to the old calendar (equivalent to a Thursday in the new calendar in the given year) would arrive in one place on a Friday and in another on a Monday, while the real difference would be a flight of just several hours. The confusion in international relations caused by the blank day device would be so great that no body would be in a position to be come orientated, not even the authors of the proposed calendar reform. Sept. - Oct., 1955

Governments Reply

N ANALYSIS of the answers which were sent to the Secre tary-General of the United Nations by the 32 governments prior to the opening of the resumed 19th ses sion of the Economic and Social Council shows that only two gov ernments, Monaco and Thailand, expressed themselves in favor of the proposed reform. However, even Monaco made the reservation that any reform would have to be made universally because “the introduc tion of a new calendar in some countries only would not attain the objectives aimed at by the authors of the draft reform and would fur ther aggravate the present situa tion.” 65

Fifteen governments answered between the proposed calendar and that they opposed any reform of the Gregorian one. With regard to the Gregorian calendar. Four gov criticism raised against the uneven ernments stated that they definite distribution over the year of holi ly were opposed to the plan with days and festival days, it may be the blank day device. Six govern pointed out that a more rational ments suggested that the agree distribution is possible without al ment of religious authorities be tering the principles of the Greg secured before any reform be orian Calendar.” The Government of New Zealand enacted. Five governments were cabled this reply to the Secretarymore or less undecided. Very wisely one of the govern General : “New Zealand Government, hav ments, Sweden, said: “The incon veniences connected with the irre ing studied the proposed World gularities of the present calendar Calendar, considers practical ad are scarcely as great -'-Ms those vantages claimed for it insufficient which would be caused by the pro to justify its adoption in face of posed calendar reform.” The same strong opposition of many faiths government rejected as “exagger which speak for large proportion ated” the arguments of the memo of world’s population. Government randum accompanying the proposal furthermore believes that calendar for a “World Calendar Reform.” reform is unnecessary and would One of the arguments, for instance, be ill-advised at present time.” stated that “the consensus of opin ion is that a new time system is rPHE MOST enlightened attitude was taken by the United States necessary, adhering to the cus tomary twelve months ; an invaria Government: “The United States Government ble calendar, perpetually the same, more regular, scientific and advan does not favor any action by the tageous from every point of view United Nations to revise the pre than the present Gregorian Calen sent calendar. This government dar.” To this presumptuous-state cannot in any way promote a ment of the “World Calendar As change of this nature, which would sociation” the Swedish Government intimately effect every inhabitant of this country, unless such a re remarked as follows: “It may be contested on good form were favored by a substantial grounds that the consensus of opin majority of the citizens of the ion should find a new* calendar United States acting through their necessary. It must also be denied representatives in the Congress of that the proposed calendar should the United States. “There is no evidence of such be more scientific than the present one; from the scientific point of support in the United States for view the deciding quality is the calendar reform. Large numbers average length of the year and in of United States citizens oppose this regard there is no difference the plan for calendar reform which 66

Jewish LIFE

is* now before the Economic and Social Council. Their opposition is based on religious grounds, since the introduction of a ‘blank day’ at the end of each year would dis rupt the seven-day sabbatical cycle. Moreover, this government holds that it would be inappropriate for the United Nations, which repre sents many different religious and social beliefs throughout the world, to sponsor any revision of the exis ting calendar that would conflict with the principles of important religious faiths. This government, furthermore, recommends that no further study of the subject should be undertaken. Such a study would require the use of manpower and funds which could be more use fully devoted to more vital and urgent tasks. In view of the current studies of the problem being made individually by governments in the course of preparing their views for the Secretary-General, as well as of the previous study made by the Secretary-General in 1947, it is felt that any additional study of the subject at this time would serve no useful purpose.” T H E FRENCH Government, in its reply, wrote: “This question has already been carefully studied in France. In De cember 1930, after consultation with the most important scientific, professional and religious bodies, the National Economic Council drafted a detailed report which was published in the Journal offi ciel de la République Française . . . . The French Government considers, however, that a reform of this kind Sept. - Oct., 1955

requires very wide support from public opinion. That does not seem to be the case at the present time. . . “Moreover, although many scien tific organizations have welcomed the proposed reform, some have objected to the introduction of a ‘blank day’ at the end of the year. Furthermore, in addition to the views which have already been ex pressed and which are summarized above, it is essential to take into account the repercussions which the proposed change could inevitab ly have on the way of life of the working population. In the present circumstances, it seems safe to say that the great body of public opin ion is not prepared to abandon the traditional calendar.” The British Government con cluded its reply as follows: “While Her Majesty’s Govern ment will be interested to see the replies of other governments on this question, for their own part they are not persuaded that the time is ripe for any examination of the question of calendar reform. With so many more pressing prob lems confronting the United Na tions they would consider it wrong for the Economic and Social Coun cil’s energies to be dissipated on a scheme of this kind unless it re ceived such general support as to promise that it could be brought to early fruition.” It seems now that even the strongest protagonists of calendar reform can no longer claim that there is broad support for their idea. The official documents of the Economic and Social Council 67

marked “E/2701” very eloquently disprove any such thesis. What Will Be India's Ultimate Stand?

TNDIA, which introduced the calendar reform plan of the “World Calendar Association” to the United Nations, was evidently mis led. In all probability the delegation of India was informed that the plan with the blank day device would arouse enthusiasm the world over. Nobody in the Indian U.N. delegations anticipated the almost unanimous rejection of the plan by the governments which received the questionnaire of the SecretaryGeneral. The problem which interests many people today is: will India abandon the whole plan before it returns to the Economic and Social Council in May 1956? Or will it once more fall into the trap laid by the “World Calendar Associa tion?” Assuredly, the postpone ment of the decision of the Eco nomic and Social Council will be used by the “World Calendar As sociation” to strengthen its propa ganda among the various govern ments and to exert pressure on all of them, particularly on the Indian government more than on any other. It is interesting to note that India herself did not reply to the questionnaire which she proposed and which was subsequently sent to all the governments. It may also bè pointed but that India, while 6&

officially’bringing the proposal of the “World Calendar Association” before the United Nations, never openly endorsed it. A confirmation of this view can be seen in the statement of the delegate of India at the meeting of the Economic and Social Council on July 28, 1954, to the effect that “his delegation had no desire to be dogmatic in the matter and had no intention of offending anyone’s religious and other susceptibilities. He would like to see the civil calendar re formed without change to the rëligious calendars . . .” * T H E REPRESENTATIVE of India, Mr. Vira, said correctly at the same meeting of the Economic and Social Council that “unless the reforms were carried universally, only chaos would result.” The an swers of the governments to the questionnaire of the SecretaryGeneral undoubtedly proved to India that if anything in this mat ter might be considered universal, it must be the rejection of the cal endar reform. Chaos seems to be the certain result if some nations adopt a new calendar, while the majority reject it. Will the government of India now agree to withdraw the whole plan of calendar reform based on the anti-religious and discrimina tory “Blank Day” device? Such a move would be a wonderful step to ward the promotion of that most essential human right cherished by all mankind-^freedom of religion. * (Summary Record of the 819 meeting of ECOSOC).

Jewish LIFE

TO THE POINT. By NISSAN GORDON We are pleased to introduce herewith as a new feature of J ewish L ife a department offering comment on current developments in the Jewish scene.—Editor ^ A Personal Note You may have heard the story about the apparently con tradictory reports which were once brought back to a small vil lage in Lithuania by two fellow townsmen who had just re turned from a visit to Vilna: “Vilna,” said one, “is a city of sin and G-dlessness, a city without Torah, without the fear of G-d and His Mitzvoth. To this the other rejoined, “Vilna is a city where the voice of Torah is never stilled and its illustrious name as 'The Jerusa lem of Lithuania’ has been most fittingly bestowed upon it. When this controversy reached the ears of the local Rabbi, he called the two baalebatim to a brief interrogation and after a short consultation issued his decision, stating, “Both reports are true . . . and each person has correctly related where he was and what he saw . . .” # This sagacious anecdote always comes to my mind when 1 reflect upon the various conflicting views of Jewish life in Am-; erica and abroad, and upon the status and role, the successes and failures and future prospects, of orthodox Jewry. Similarity of circumstances seems to offer a parallel with the above-mentioned conflicting remarks on Vilna, and the wise rabbi’s peace com promise would be very appropriate when applied to the Jewish — and particularly the American Jewish — scene. Although this reporter is not so optimistic that he can over look the many dark and blurred spots on our American Jewish horizon, neither is he so pessimistic that he fails to observe those many shining lighthouses of Torah-true Yiddishkeit that are rising throughout the length and breadth of the whole country and ushering in a new era. In a great measure it will be to these lighthouses and what Sept. - Oct,, 1955 69

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they represent that this column will be dedicated. It will attempt within the limited means at our disposal to strengthen our faith in the Divine Promise that the Torah shall never remain forgotten among the Children of Israel. Rabbi Doctor and Doctor Rabbi Upon the initiative of the eminent Dr. Falk Schlessinger, head of the famous Shaarey Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem, who has just returned to his post after a short visit to this country, a permanent organization of religious physicians in this country has been formed at a meeting in a West Side Hotel in New York City. The main task of this newly organized “Association of Or thodox Jewish Physicians” will be to help further Torah Judaism by utilizing the factor of health towards strengthening the ob servance of such Mitzvoth as Kashruth, Taharath Hamispochah, Milah according to the Din, etc. Moror and Korech A Polish Gaon onee said that as long as rabbis endeavor to be doctors it is a symptom that Yiddishkeit is sick. Perhaps we can behold a favorable harbinger in this attempt on the part of our religious doctors to become rabbis! The Belzer Rabbi, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports, compared the duty of voting in the latest Israel elections to the Mitzvah of eating Moror on Pesach. Just imagine the far better results that would have accrued if the religious parties would have made a “Korech” (sandwich) and would have joined to gether in one united bloc for the Israel elections! A Lesson from the Moon Very soon, the scientists assure us, we will be able to make contact with the moon and learn all we want about the universe hidden in the realm of the cosmic planets. A Midrashic story tells about the moon’s complaint to the Creator that no two kings should have the same crown. The moon suggested that the size of the sun be reduced. The Almighty replied by reducing the size of the moon. If and when man does reach the moon there is one definite lesson that he could learn from the “man in the moon.” That is — not to ask or pray for the diminishing of others and thereby have to suffer the con sequences as the mood did. So useful a lesson might make the trouble of a trip to the moon well worth while. Moscow and Spring Valley Shmulik Reshevsky, the American chess champion who has 71 Sept. - Oct., 1955

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just returned from a triumphant tournament held in Moscow, will be tendered a testimonial dinner by the Yeshiva and Mesifta of Spring Valley where his two sons are talmidim. No wonder the rumors are current in and around Spring Valley that Michail Botwinik, the Russian champion, has lost to the local yeshivah . . . A "Comrade11 Carrying a Talith and Tephilin When. Reshevsky landed at the Moscow airport, his Russian opponent, Botwinik, insisted on carrying his suitcases to the waiting taxi. Little did Comrade Botwinik know that the satchel he carried contained Reshevsky’s Talith, Tephilin, and some canned food the American player took along for his twelve day stay in Moscow. Reshevsky is, as you may surmise, a genuinely religious young man. Before moving recently to Spring Valley, Reshevsky was a regular “dawener” in the Lubavitcher Shtibbel on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. The Privilege of Dying A communique from Bonn, Germany, brings the joyous news that Jews will once again be accepted as soldiers in the German army. Giving the Jew the right to die, instead of to live, is an old German tradition. The irony of this last “democratic” decree is that Jews will be privileged to serve and strengthen a country that will eventually repeat its past performance of war and de struction. Such is the fate of the Jew among the nations . . . The Big Four and the Big Three During the same period when the Big Four met at Geneva to find a solution to end the Cold War, Rabbi David Hollander, President of the Rabbinical Council of America, spoke of a Cold War that is being waged within rabbinical circles. It would be most desirable, and perhaps not a bad idea, for the Rabbinical Big Three (Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, Rabbinical Council of America, Rab binical Alliance of America) to follow in the footsteps of the Big Four and sit down to a Round Table Conference . . . with a bottle of “mashke” on it too . . . Hot and Cold Rabbi Chaim Heller’s lecture at the Yeshiva University Graduate School on the hottest Monday in the sweltering month of July attracted a fine audience of rabbis, writers, teachers and many other Talmidey Chachomim. We wonder why the public Sept. - Oct., 1955

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can’t have an opportunity to warm up by the Torah fire of this great personality during the cold winter days and nights, instead of making it even hotter during the hot summer. Front Line Fighters A rabbi of an orthodox synagogue in New Jersey related at the convention of the Rabbinical Alliance, in the name of the late Lubavitcher Rabbi of blessed memory, that the rabbis of former years may have been better soldiers but they were never at the front, while the rabbis of today may be weaker soldiers but they are constantly on the battle line. I am wondering whether anyone possesses the statistics of the casualty rate on this front. Old Gemorah and New Atom Out of a total of 600 scientists assembled at the Atoms for Peace conference in Geneva more than a sixth, 104 to be exact, are Jewish. The U.S. is leading in that field too, with 62 Jewish scientists out of a total membership of 324. Instead of raising “Gehorah Kepelech,” we are emphasizing the development of atom scientists, and it is no complicated problem to figure out when the world was better off — with the old Gemorah or with the new atom. Mission and Commission Eugene William Landy, the 21-year-old Jewish cadet of the Maritime Academy, has been refused a commission in the Naval Reserve because of his mother’s leftist past. It certainly is tragic to see a brilliant son losing a commis sion in the Navy because of the mistake of a mother who strayed from right to left. How many hundreds of thousands of Jewish men and women have lost their mission in life because of parents who strayed from right to wrong in failing to live as Jews them selves and to bring up their families proud of their Jewishness. Tel. BElle Harbor 5-9671 - 9552

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bo o k r e v ie w s Storehouse of Tradition By SEYMOUR SILBERMINTZ ANTHOLOGY OF JEWISH MUSIC, Compiled and Edited by Chemjo Vin aver. E. B. Marks Music Corp., New York, 1955, 304 pp>., $10. TT IS PLEASANT to be able to report on the release of a work of un usual quality, of admirable distinc tion. Chemjo Vinaver, master inter preter of choral art, the uncompromis ing artist, standard bearer and cham pion of Jewish music at its best, has done it again.'4'Widely known in this country, since 1938, for his superior achievements as a conductor, com poser and arranger of serious pur pose, Vinaver is noted too for his high aims and crusading vigor. A published work of his of this calibre comes as a most welcome contribution to, and expression of, Jewish life. One glance at the book in question should confirm this opinion. From the striking frontispiece by Marc Chagall to every last detail of typography and clarity of musical no tation (virtually error-free), the fine taste, loving care and artistic sensi tivity of the editor is reflected in each of the book’s three hundred-odd pages. A closer look proves to be even more rewarding. It is readily apparent that most of the contents, which inSept. - Oct., 1911

elude many a rare gem, is material obtainable elsewhere only with diffi culty if at all. There is much music, good, traditional Jewish music, pub lished here for the first time. In fact, in addition to its other merits, the book abounds in first-hand notations, original source material which might otherwise have been /‘lost.” This in itself is a great service. ■FHE “Anthology of Jewish Music” is a veritable storehouse of tradi tion. It is a repository of “living” music of an East European Jewry that, but for scattered remnants, is no more. Part One, “Sacred Chant,” con sists of some unusual examples of Biblical cantillation for the chanting of the Scriptures, followed by a large section, “Prayer Chants of the Syna gogue (Nusachoth).” Here are in cluded a goodly selection of syna gogue classicsLin the form of cantorial recitatives and scores of choral com positions for the Sabbath and Holy Days. An interesting group of Psalmsettings concludes the section. Part Two, “Religious Folk; Song,” is subdivided into five groupings of Sabbath Zemiroth (Table Hymns) and a substantial section of Chassidic Nigunim. Each musicafeselec77

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tion in the book is accompanied by its Hebrew text and English trans lation, in addition to the usual trans literation that goes with the music. Explanatory notes in English and He brew preceding each section and selection are quite good, providing more than adequate background in formation and commentary. The “An thology” certainly presents a wide range of material which should satis fy many tastes, many needs. But it will take the additional volumes in the projected series to fully expand each section and ultimately realize a totality nof material that is compre hensive, not only representative. It is an ambitious but worthy task that yet remains to be done. pURTHER comment, some critical — * though minor when viewed be side the considerable over-all achievement is offered here. Although the Chassidic Nigun, essentially a word less song, is actually sung with impro vised syllables meaningless in them selves (e.g., bam, bom, dai, doi, ya, ba, bo, oi . . .), it is rather strange to find such syllables printed along with the music. To one familiar with the Chassidic Nigun, not from books but from first-hand, “live” experience, this is superfluous, even disturbing. After all, these folk melodies are generally sung by a group and each Chossid im provises the syllables in his own way. The music's the thing. The uninitiated, on the other hand, may perhaps be helped by these examples to under stand the style, , A more interesting “first” is the occasional transliteration according to a characteristic Chassidic (?) accent. “Kodosh boruch hu” thus becomes “Ku-doish bu-rich hi.” Sept. - Oct., 1955

Some chants, claimed by Vinaver as Chassidic, are, to the knowledge of this writer, equally traditional in the non-Chassidic Ashkenazic synagogue, such as “L’Dovid Mizmor,” “Ashrey Ho-Om,” and “Shir Hamaalos Mimaamakim.” He refers to a Chassidic mode, which is puzzling if intended as a musical term but makes sense if “a manner of praying” is what is meant. He also credits a version of a cantillation to the “Chabad” Chassi dim, from whose “Sefer Hanigunim” the excerpt is quoted. Close examin ation will reveal that this chant varies from and yet is basically that of the Ashkenazic ritual in common practice. No two Torah readers (even of the same tradition) will chant exactly alike. Nor will the same reader neces sarily chant a given text in exactly the same manner every time. Varia tions always occur. It is one of the characteristics of a true idiom of all oral tradition, that many similar, fundamentally identical, yet different versions exist and are accepted side by side. Yet, once a folk song or a chant is committed to notation it be comes fixed, set, in a straight-jacket, as it were. In losing that freedom which comes from individual inter pretation and results in natural, hu man variation, the music no longer lives, does not breathe as before (as testified by Ralph Vaughan Williams and other eminent international folk song authorities). Hence, a Chabad reader will perhaps chant the Torah in approximately the manner quoted. But, then again, so will many, many others, be they Chassidim or not, chant similarly. 79

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■PHE BUSINESS of folk singing, or that of chanting, whether of Torah reading, liturgical recitation (nusach hat’filah) or other similar musical ex pression is not the exact, cut and dried affair which the documentation of the printed page might lead you to believe. It is just impossible to include all ex tant variants; and so an editor selects and notates one, quotes another, and, valid as these versions may be in them selves, they are only one or two of many that still remain to be “col lected.” TIN EXCEPTIONAL volume for your library, superior in many ways, this work is sure to set a

standard for Jewish music publica tion that will be definitive for years to come. It is a real treasure chest, to be taken down from the shelf, delved into again and again. If ever one wanted a representative sampling, a survey of the musical cul ture of Eastern European Jewry in one volume, this is it, and more. All lovers of Jewish tradition and its musical manifestations will want to own a copy of this esthetically beauti ful and historically important collec tion. A hearty “Y’yoshor Kochachem” to Mr. Vinaver and all who supported and assisted in its preparation. We impatiently await Volume II!

Making Judaism a Denomination By ISRAEL KLAVAN A GUIDE TO THE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA, Edited by Leo Rosten. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1955, 281 pp., $3.50. ■PHE RESURGENCE of interest in M<urreligion in the United States is attested to by the number of books and articles on the subject that have been pouring off the presses of thè nation. Even the large national maga zines have turned to the theme of religion with a variety of descriptive articles about the religious beliefs of the American people. “A Guide to the Religions of America” appeared as a series of articles in Look magazine in the period between 1952 and 1955. The articles have now been gathered into book form by Leo Rosten, with Sept. - Oct., 1955

the addition of a large appendix of interesting information and facts about the status of religion in this country. The average reader will find the volume both interesting and informa tive. Certainly, all of us can gain by some knowledge of the religious be liefs of our neighbors. By and large these individual articles which utilize the question-and-answer technique, have been written by distinguished Churchmen of »each denomination. Of necessity the descriptions are sketchy and cover only the major tenets of each faith. The fact that different people have written these articles make a comparative study a little dif ficult, and the lay reader will some times find it quite difficult to under81

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stand the distinguishing features of the various Protestant denominations. ■"PHIS REVIEWER must, of necesx sity, confine his major critical re marks to the article on Judaism which was prepared by Dr. Morris H. Kertzer, a Conservative clergyman on the staff of the American Jewish Com mittee. Dr. Kertzer has made a sin cere effort to write an adequate ar ticle about Judaism. The net results, however, are far from adequate. The major shortcoming lies in the fact that Judaism seems to be lumped with some fifteen Christian denominations and becomes lost somewhere between the Episcopalians and Lutherans. The casual reader is almost likely to as sume that Judaism is but another de nomination. Judaism cannot be en compassed in the frames of reference which are normally ascribed to Chris tianity. The very term “religion” as a descriptive word for Judaism is open to question. Judaism, as the author aptly puts it, is a way of life, and the various doctrinal problems with which other churchmen concern themselves have small reference to it. What is perhaps most disturbing about the article is the fact that in the space of eight pages the author has attempted not only to describe Judaism, but also to tell about the various religious groups that now make up the American Jewish com munity. The result, of course, is that it is almost impossible for the reader to know what Judaism really repre sents in the realm of concept and prac tice. One wonders how a term such as Halochah, which is a foundation stone of Judaism, is omitted. The place of Israel in the Jewish religious scheme Sept. - Oct., 1955

is misrepresented when the only ref erence to it by the author is an as surance to the reader that American Jews have no dual loyalty. The Am erican Jewish Committee influence is much too apparent there. Certain statements which the au thor makes with a great deal of as surance are subject to serious ques tion, such as: “They no longer accept the literal idea of heaven and hell”; “Kosher food restrictions were health measures”; “A safe case is that less than 20 percent of the Jews in Am erica conform strictly to the laws gov erning kosher food.” *pHE BOOK contains a large ap* pendix giving detailed facts and figures on religion in the United . States. These figures are certainly very interesting and informative, and the reader will have frequent recourse to them. Here again, however, when references are made to Jewish con cepts, there are mis-statements. In one section entitled “Doctrines and Beliefs,” prepared by Stanley I. Stuber, the following statements are made: “Many Jews accept Jesus as a child of G-d, as a Jew and as a prophet or inspired teacher”; “Jews are permit ted to attend Christian churches as visitors, not as worshippers.” On the question of birth control he lists the Jewish view as “permitted and even advocated when it is for the welfare of all concerned.” The latter state ment is at least somewhat improved in another section prepared by Nixon and Kaplan, which states: “The Jew ish religion has traditionally been op posed to birth control when practiced for purely selfish reasons.” 83

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Yitzchok Goldberg & Sons Products

A REAL delicatessen treat H A DA R TRY OUR

FOR YOUR FREEZER, WE SELL WHOLE SIDES OF PRIME BEEF AT DISCOUNT PRICES. KOSHER MADE, FREEZER WRAPPED AND LABELED.

Corned Beef, Pastrami, Tongue

We Deliver Fresh M eats and Poultry

Frankfurters, Salami, Bologna

(0) Supervision and endorsement

OXFORD PROVISION, Inc. 549 E. 12th St.

N ew York City

Phone: ORegon 3-2770

Tongue —- Pastrami —< Salami Corned Beef — Smoked Turkeys Frankfurters

EVERY WEEK in all Five Boroughs

Under Supervision of

<§)

220 DELANCEY STREET New York 2, N ew York GRamercy 5-6915-6

Jewish LIFE

UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATI ONS OF AMERI CA

Kosher commodities and establishments under official © supervision and en dorsement.

KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Issued Tishri, 5715 — October, 1955 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 Ortho dox Jewish Congregations of America—UOJCA. All © products are passed upon by, and receive the* constant inspection of, the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbinic^ b ody 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 each © product to ascertain whether it is a meat or dairy product. The © does not necessarily mean that the product is Pareve.

— • jpHj Please note that the @ seal of Kashruth supervision and endorsement is exclusively ~the symbol of: Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 305 Broadway, New York 7, N. Y. BEekman 3-2220

Sept.; - Oct., 1955

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 Ileebshev on label. * Indicates new © endorsement. ^

Apple Butter Musselman’s

(The C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

Apple Sauce Musselman’s

(The C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

Junior Fruits Junior Vegetable Soup Junior Banana Dessert Junior Buddings Junior Plums with Tapioca Junior Fruit Dessert Junior Chocolate Pudding \ (Beech-Nut Packing Co., N.Y.C.)

Beans Heinz Oven Baked Beans with mo

lasses sauce

Heinz Oven Baked Beans in tomato

sauce (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) Heinz — with @ label only

Strained Vegetables & Salmon *Strained Bananas *Strained Creamed Spinach Strained Cream of Tuna Strained Vegetables Strained Fruits Chopped Mixed Vegetables Strained Puddings Strained Orange Juice Strained Tomato Soup Strained Vegetable Soup Pre-Cooked Cereals (Barley, Oat meal, Rice) Junior Creamed Carrots Junior Vegetables Junior Fruits Junior Vegetable Soups Junior Puddings (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) Beech-Nut — with © label only

Strained Vegetables Strained Fruits Strained Vegetable Soup Strained Tomato Soup Strained Puddings Strained Fruit Dessert Strained Plums with Tapioca Cereals Junior Vegetables 86

Freshpak Vegetarian Beans in Tomato Sauce

(Grand Union Food Markets, East Paterson, N.J.)

Beans & Frankfurters White Rose

(Seeman Bros., Inc., N.Y., N.Y.)

[CAKES, COOKIES CRACKERS @P Barton’s Bonbonniere

(Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N^Y.) ^Continental Favourites

(ABC- Baking Co., Inc., B’klyn, 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 & 8 pec. Co., Detroit, Mich.) Ry-Krisp

(Ralston-Purina, St. Louis, Mo.)

Jewish LIFE

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

CONDIMENTS SEASONINGS

CAKE MIXES Dromedary Date Muffin Mix Fudge Frosting Mix Corn Bread Mix Corn Muffin Mix Cup Cake Mix Devil 's Food Mix F ru it Cake Mix Gingerbread Mix W hite Cake Mix *Honey & Spice Mix *Angel Food Mix *Yellow Cake Mix

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

Camps (for children)

{Gold Pure Foods, B’klyn, N.Y.) Heinz Horse Radish 57 Sauce Hot Dog Relish Chili Sauce Worcestershire-Sauce Tomato Ketchup *Barbecue Relish

{H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

{Lawry’s Products Inc., Los Angeles, Cal.)

*Camp Ke-Yu-Ma

{Grass Lake, Michigan; Office: 3304 Webb Avenue, Detroit, Mich.)

Mother’s *©P Horse Radish

Camp Mohaph

{Mother’s Food Products, Newark, N.J.)

{Glen Spey, N.Y. — N.Y. office 4320 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Pride of the Farm Catsup

{Hunt Food Prod., Fullerton, Cal.)

Corn Products— Bulk

CANDY © P Barton’s Bonbonniere

{Barton, Inc.; Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Cereals Skinner’s Raisin-Bran Raisin W heat

{Skinner Mfg. Go., Omaha, Neb.) Ralston In stan t Ralston , Regular Ralston

{Ralston Purina Co., St. Louis, Mo.)

Sept. - Oct., 1955

*OK Pearl Corn Starch *OK Powdered Com Starch *OK Waxy Maize Com Starch *OK Dri-Sweet Corn Syrup Solids *OK Com Syrup

{The Hubinger Co., Keokuk, Iowa)

Corn Starch— Packaged *Pop’s *Tiger

{The Hubinger Co., Keokuk, Iowa)

Cranberry Sauce © P April Orchards

{Morris April Brothers, Bridgeton, N.J.)

Dromedary

{The Hills Brothers Co., N.Y.C.)

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

All items listed below bear the © seal. Items listed © P are Kosher for Passover when bearing this or other UOJCA Passover Heclisher on label. Items listed • are Kosher for Passover without Passover »^Hechsher on label. * Indicates new w’© endorsement, -

Cranberry Sauce ICont'di

*Wish-Bone Italian Salad Dressing

(K. C. Wishbone Salad Dressing Po. Inc., Kansas City, Mo.)

(Morris April Brothers,) Bridget òri, N.J.)

Dessert Topping *Qwip

(Avoset Co., San Francisco, Cal.)

Dietetic Foods @P Mother’s Low Calorie Borscht

(Mother’s Food Products, Newark, N. J.) Sugarine Liquid Sweetener

(Sugarine Co., Mt. Vernon, III.)

Dishwashing Machine Detergents •

All *Dish-All

(Monsanto Chemical Co.y^ St. Louis, Mo.) ^Finish

(Economics Laboratory, Inc., St. Paul, Minn.) *Ad *Super-Suds Blue

(Colgate-Palmolive Co., Jersey City, N.J.)

Dressings Garber’s Misrochi Salad Dressing

(Garber’s Eagle Oil Corp., B’klyn, N.Y.) Heinz French Dressing

(H . J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) Mother’s @P Mayonnaise *Salad Dressing

(Mother’s Food Products, Newark, N.J.) 88

Boyal Snack Cream Herring Spiced H erring M atjes Fillets Lunch H erring H erring Cocktail Tidbits Salmon (in wine sauce)

(S. A. Haram Co., N.Y.C.) Mother’s Old Fashioned © P Geiilte Fish Sweet & Sour Fish

(Mother’s Food Prodli Newark, N.J.) Breast O’Chicken Tuna

(Breast O’Chicken Tuna, IncJ^S San Diego, Calif.) *E atwell Tuna

(Star-Kist Foods, Inc.y^ Terminal Island, Cal.) Star-Kist *Tuna *Egg If oodles and Tuna Dinner *Frozen Tuna Pie

(Star-Kist Foods, Inc., Terminal Island, Cal.) *©P 1000 Springs Rainbow Trout

(Snake River Trout Co., r Buhl, Idaho) *Deming’s Salmon

(Deming & Gould Co., Bellingham, Wash.)

Jewish LIFE

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

Flavor Improver A ccen t

(International Minerals and Chemical Co., Chicago, III.)

*Sunkist Lemon Concentrate "Exchange Lemon Concentrate *Cal-Grove Lemon Cencentrate "Calemon Lemon Concentrate

(Exchange Lemon Prod. Co., Corona, Cal.)

{Mew York, N.Y.)

Fruit — I Dried — bulk only I

Food Freezer Plan

@P California Packing Corp.

Yitzchok Goldberg & Sons

(New York, N.Y.)

(San Francisco, Cal.)

Fruits — (Packaged)

FROZEN FOODS

Frozen Foods Milady’s Blintzes (blueberry, cherry, cheese potato—all are milchig) Waffles

(Milady Food Prod., B’klyn, N.Y.) Associated Waffles

(Associated Food Stores Corn., N.Y.C.) Pure Dairy Waffles

(Cranberry Growers, Inc., Wisconsin Rapids, Wise.)

Dromedary DatesF ruits and Peels Moist Coconut^,, Shredded Coconut

(The Hills Brothers Co., N.Y.C.) Musselman’s Cherries Sliced Apples

(The C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

(Orthodox Kosher Products, B’klyn, N.Y.)

Glycerides Emcol MSVK

Home Town Blintzes Fishcakes Pancakes

- (Distillation Prod. Industries, Div. Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y.)

(Home Town Foods, Inc., Harris, N.Y.)

Glycerine — Synthetic

(Snake River Trout Co., Buhl, Idaho) Star-Kist *Tuna Pie

(Star-Kist Foods, Inc.yi Terminal Island, Cal.)

Sept. I Oct., 1955

*Shell Synthetic Glycerine

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

Honey @P Garber’s Misrochi

(Garber Eagle Oil Corp., & B’klyn, N.Y.)

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY All item s listed below bear the © seal. Item s listed © P are Kosher for Passover when bearing this or other U OJCA Passover Hechsher on label. Item s listed • are Kosher for Passover w ithout Pfessover ^Hechsher on label. * I n d ic a te s n e w © e n d o r se m e n t.4

•

Trend *Liquid Trend

(Purex Cory. Ltd., South Gate, Cal.) *Lineo Liquid Detergent

(Brillo Mfg. Co., B’klyn, N.Y.) ♦Bright Sail

(A & P Food Stores, N.Y.C.) Cameo Copper Cleaner

{Cameo Cory., Chicago, III.) ♦Ad • Fab • Kirkman Detergents *Super Suds Blue

• Vel

*Liquid Vel

{Colgate-Palmolive Co.^ Jersey City, N.J.) Soilax

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

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

My Pal

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

Cheer Dreft Joy Oxydol Spie & Span Tide

• • •

(Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, Ohio) ♦Sail

(Sinclair Mfg., Co., Toledo, Ohio)

(Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y.) Costa’s French Ice Cream

(Costa’s Ice Cream Co., (Woodbridge, N.J.) Met Tee-Vee

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

Industrial Cleansers Artie Syntex M. Beads

(Colgate-Palmolive C04 Jersey City, N.J.) Institution X Orvus Extra Granules Orvus Hy-Temp Granules Orvus Neutral Granules Cream Suds

(Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, Ohio)

Jams and Jellies Berish’s Beal Kosher Pure F ru it Jam s Marmalade Marmalade B utter

(Orthodox Kosher Products, B’klyn, N.Y.) Heinz Jellies

(H. J. Heinz Coíf^Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Jewish LIFE

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Jams and Jellies I Cant'd I

New Yorker (milchig)

(Roslyn Distributors, Middle Village, N.Y.

(Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Juices Heinz Tomato Juice

(H. J . Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) Musselman’s Apple Juiee Tomato Juice

(The C. H. Musselman Biglerville, Pa.)

Marshmallow Topping Marshmallow Fluff

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

Mayonnaise *@P Mother’s

(Mother’s Food Products, Newark, N.J.)

*Sunkist Lemon Juice ^Exchange Lemon Juice *Cal-Grove Lemon Juice

MEATS AND PROVISIONS

(Exchange Lemon Prod. Co., .Corona, Cal.)

Berish’s Real Kosher (milchig)

(Orthodox Kosher Products, B’klyn, N.Y.) Crystal Brand (milchig)

(L. Daitch & Co., N.Y.C.) Dilbro (milchig)

(Dilbert Bros., Glendale, N .Y.) Mar-Parv (pareve) Miolo (milchig—bulk only) Nu-Maid (milchig) Table-Eäng (milchig) 1

(Miami Margarine Co., Cincinnati, Ohio) Mother’s (milchig) Mother’s Pareve

(Mother’s Food Products, Newark, N J .)

Sept. -1 Oct., 1955

Yitzchok Goldberg’s • Meats © P Corned Beef © P Tongue • Frozen Meats © P Salami © P F rankfurters Pastram i (I. Goldberg & Sons, 220 Delancey St., N.Y.C.) Oxford © P Bologna © P Corned Beef @ P Pastram i © P F rankfurters @P Salami @P Tongue

(Oxford Provisions, Inc., , 549 E. 12th St., N.Y.C.)

Meat Tenderizer Adolph’s

(Adolph’s Food Products, Burbank, Cal.) So-Ten

(Sg~Ten Co., Memphis, Tenn.)

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.

Mustard Heinz

Brown Mustard Yellow Mustard (H . J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Noodles & Macaroni Products -Buitoni Macaroni Products

(Buitoni Foods Corp., So. Hackensack, N.J.)

Peanut Butter Beech-Nut

(Beech-Nut Packing Co., N.Y., N.Y.) Heinz

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

Pie Fillings Musselman’s

*Greenfield’s Noodle Products (Golden Cracknel & Spec. Co.,

(The C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

Detroit, Mich.) Heinz Macaroni Creole

(H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) ^Pennsylvania Dutch Egg Noodles

Popcorn TV Time Popcorn (B & B Enterprises, Inc., ,

Chicago, III.)

(Megs Macaroni Co., Harrisburg, Pa.) Skinner’s Macaroni Products

(Skinner Mfg. Co., Omaha, Neb.)

POTATO CHIPS

*Sophie Tucker’s Noodle & Macaroni Products

(Sophie Tucker’s Food Products Co., Inc., Baltimore, Md.)

*Star-Kist Egg Noodle & Tuna Dinner

(Star-Kist Food Inc., Terminal Island, Cal.)

Gordon’s

Potato Chips Potato Sticks Tater Sticks (Gordon Foods, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.) Kobey’s

Potato Chips Shoestring Potatoes (Tasty Foods Inc., Denver, Col.) Monarch Shoestring Potatoes

(Monarch Finer Foods, Div. of Con solidated Foods, Chicago, III.) @P Garber’s Misrochi (Garber Eagle Oil Corp., B’klyn, N.Y:) Mazola

(Corn Products Refining Corp., N.Y.C.)

Sunglo

Potato Chips Shoestring Potatoes (Tasty Foods I n C ., Denver, Col.) *©P Warner’s Potato Chips (East Coast Food Corp., Riverhead, N.Y.)

Jewish LIFE

■

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

Poultry — Frozen •

Yitzchok Golclberg & Sons

(New York, N.Y.) •

Menorah *Ner

{Ménoràh Products, Inc.)

Prepared Salads Royal Snack Beet Salad, Cole Slaw, Cucumber Salad, Garden Salad, Potato Salad

(S. A. Maram Co., N.Y.C.)

Mother’s Cucumber Salad Potato Salad

(Mother's Food Products, Newark, N.J.)

Heinz Vegetable Salad

(H- / . Heinz Gq,,t Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Pudding @P Berish’s Real Kosher Chocolate Pudding

(Orthodox Kosher Products, B’klyn, N.Y.) f'

Relish es PICKLES, ETC.

Southern Style Relish Hamburger Relish *Barbecue Relish

(H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) Dolly Madison Pickles

(H. W. Madison Co., Cleveland, O.)

Mother’s © P Pickles © P Gherkins @P Sweet Red Peppers © P Pimentoes © P Pickled Tomatoes @P Sauerkraut Deluxe @P Pickled Country Cabbage Diced Sweet Pepper Relish Corn Relish Sweet Pickled Watermelon Rind Sweet Diced M ustard Pickle Grenadine Melon Balls M int Melon Balls r Kosher New Spears California Pimentoes Hot Cherry Peppers

(Mother's Food Products, Newark, N.J.) Carolina Beauty Pickles

(Mount Olive Pickle Co.;; Mount Olive, N.C.) Silver Lane Pickles Sauerkraut

(Silver Lane Pickle Co.,- * East Hartford, Conn.)

Rice Heinz Pickles Dill Gherkins Dill Sandwich Chips India Relish Hot Dog Relish Pickled Onions Sweet Relish *Sweet Dill Strips Sweet Cucumber Disks Sweet Cucumber -Sticks Cocktail Sauce

Sept. - Oct., 1955

Heinz Spanish Rice

(H. / . Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

(Fallsburg, N.Y.) @P Washington Hotel

(Rockaway Park, N.Y.)

*Zimra Adult Camp

(Tolland, Mass.—N. Y. office: 55 Liberty St.) 93

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 • aré Koshé¡|| for Passover without Passover ^Hechsher on label. * Indicates new © endorsement.

Salt •

{Cudahy Packing Co., Omaha, Neb.)

Mögen David Kosher Salt

• • •

(Carey Salt Co., Hutchinson, Kansas)

•

Morton Coarse Kosher Salt Morton Pine Table Salt Morton Iodized Salt

•

{Morton Salt Co., Chicago, III.) • • •

Lustro Polishing Powder My Pal Palco Polish Powder Pal-Lo

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

Red Cross Pine Table Salt Sterling Fine Table Salt Sterling Kosher Coarse Salt

{International Salt Coii} Scranton, Pa.)

Sauces Heinz Savory Sauce (iZ. / . Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

SCOURING POWDER {See also Household Cleansers and Dishwashing Detergents) •

Ajax Ben Hur (bulk only) Kirkman Cleanser New Octagon Cleanser ( Colgate-Palmolive Co.,

• •

Jersey City, N.J.) *Bab-0 (with bleach)

{B. T. Babbitt Co., N.Y., N.Y.)

Cameo Cleanser

{Cameo Corp., Chicago, III) ♦Dura Soap Filled Pads

{Durawool, Inc., Queens Village, N.Y.) •

Garber’s Misrochi Cleanser

{Garber’s Eagle Oil Corp., B’klyn, N. Y.) Kitchen Klenzer

{Fitzpatrick Bros., Chicago, III.)

{Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, Ohio) © P Garber’s Misrochi Pareve Fat {Garber’s Eagle Oil Corp.; B’lcJlyn.) ©P Nut-Ola Vegetable Shortening {Nut-Ola Fat Prod., Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Shortening — Bulk *Beatreme CS {Wright & Wagner Dairy Co.,

Beloit, Wise.) Delmar Margarine Shortening

{Delmar Products Corp., Cinn., O.) *Flake White—with © label only *Primex—with © label only *Sweetex—with @ label only *Primex B & C—with © label only {Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, Ohio) ♦Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening

{National Yeast Corp., Belleville, N.J.)

Silver Cleaner ♦Lamco Silver Polish1

{Lamco Chemical Co., Inc., Boston, Mass.)

Jewish LIFE

UOJC KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Soap ©P Nutola Kosher Soap (Nut-Ola Fat ProdB rooklyn, N.Y.) ©P Brillo Kosher Soap (BnMo Mfg., Co., B’klyn, N.Y.)

SOUPS Gold’s

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 (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) Mother’s

Soup

Mix

Joyce Egg Noodle Soup Mix

(Joyce Food Products, I Paterson, N.J.) Nutola

Chicken Noodle Soup Mix Noodle Soup Mix (Nutola Fat Products, B’klyn, N.Y.)

Sept. - Oct,, 1955

SPICE

SPICES

(Refined Syrups & Sugars, Inc. Yonkers, N.Y:) *®P Sugarine Liquid Sweetener (Sugarine Co., Mt. Vernon, III)

Syrup © P Berish’s Real Kosher Chocolate Syrup True Fruit Syrups Imitation Fruit Syrups (Orthodox Kosher Products, B’klyn, N.Y.) ©P Barton’s Bonbonniere (Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Tzitzith Woolen M. Wolozin & Co.

(36 Eldrige St., N.Y.C.) Rayon, for Rayon Taleythim Leon Vogel

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

M. Wolozin & Co.

(36 Eldridge Si., N.Y.C.) Zion Talis Manufacturing Co., Inc.

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

Vegetables

Tarragon W hite Bex Amber

Dromedary Pimientos

(The Hills Brothers CaJl t:'N.YiC.)

(H. J. Hemz^mJo., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

*Cavem Canned Mushrooms

Musselman ’s Cider Vinegar

(K-B Products, Hudson, N. V.)

(San Francisco, Cal.)

Vitamins — ■ Bulk Collett-Week-Nibecker Co.

(Ossining, N. Y.)

(Los Angeles, Cal.)

Vitamin Tablets Kobee Kovite Vitalets

(Garber Eagle Oil Co., B’klyn, N.Ÿ.) Heinz Cider M alt Salad Vinegar

(The C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

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

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

filtoaifAicok for ~fki6

Jewish LIFE

p r THESE FAMOUS KOSHER AND ' P Ä R v Ä O R i P i i Ä i i t ' SAVERS! V E L makes dishes shine without washing or wiping! DISHES | STOCKINGS

UNGS«'e V»OOt*M *

SoKindtoHondsl

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!

A JA X Cleanser with “Foaming Action 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!

MEWTV* I

UÄI

t -g M t iS i

N e w form ula FAB give s you more active dirt rem o ver! Milder to hands, new FAB gets the dirt out of EVERYTHING you wash. Wonderful for dishes, too!

C O l& A $ f .v P A .L M O U V E C O M P A N Y

Happy New Year! M ay 5716 usher in an era of peace, happiness and well-being!

H. J. H E I N Z C O M P A N Y F I T T S S U R G H , FA. M A K i t S O f THE m

vAiiirict

There are more than forty H EINZ FOODS t h a t bear on their labels the © seal of endorsement of t h e u n i o n o f o r t h o d o x JEW ISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA