Jewish Life February 1956

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\8 Adar — 5716

February— 1956

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AMERICAN POLICY AND IS R A E L.. . . .

AND N O W IN E N G L A N D ..................

SPEARHEADS AND S T A N D A R D S ....

S aul B ernstein , Editor M. M orton R ubenstein D r. E ric O ffenbacher R euben E. Gross R abbi S. J. S harfman L ibby R la per m a n

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M. J udah M etchik

Assistant Editor

Inside Illustrations by N orman N odel

JEW ISH LIFE is published bi-monthly. Subscription two years $3.00, three years $4.00, four years' $5.00.

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

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President Rabbi H. S. Goldstein, Wil­ liam Weiss, Samuel Nirensteiri, William B. Herlands, Max J. Etra, Honorary Pres­ idents; B e n j a m i n Koenigsberg, Nathan K. Gross, Ben­ jamin Mandelker, Samuel L..

Brennglass, Vice Presidents; Edward A. Teplow, Treas­ urer; Reuben E. Gross, Sec^ retary.

Saul Bernstein, Administrator

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A RTIC LES LETS KEEP SECTARIANISM OUT OF THE SCH O O LS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7 Gilbert Klaperman THE TRUTH ABOUT COMMUNIST A N TISEM ITISM ..................... ........... ......... 13 Joseph Fried THE RABBI AND THE CO M M U N ITY.. . 22 Samuel Belkin A N G LO JEWRY: A TERCENTENARY VIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _______ . . . . . 26 Cecil Roth THE PARADOX O F BRITISH JE W R Y .. . 31 Joseph Yahalom ADOPTION IN JEWISH LA W ................. 38 Morris Max A VALIANT W OM AN — W HO CAN FIND? ............................

43 Esther Marine MIDDLE EASTERN B A C K D R O P ...______47 I. Halevy-Levin REB MENDELE MARCHES TO TREBLINKA _____. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Moshe Prager

Editorial Associates

O nion of O rthodox J ew ish Congregations of A merica

EDITO RIALS

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FEATURES A M O N G OUR CO N TRIBU TO RS.. . . . .

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.......................

UO JCA KASHRUTH D IR EC TO R Y.. . . . .

Excerpts By David M. Hausdorff

PHOTO CREDITS: Cover (Induction of Rabbi Dr. Solomon Gaon in 1946 as Haham of Sephardi Community of Great Britain. At left is the Lord Mayor of London), 36, International News Photos; 36, Look Magazine; 21, 51, 53, Wide World; 28, Universal Jewish En­ cyclopedia; 29, ''Anglo-Jewish Por­ traits"; 35, H. Sonnenfeld; 50, Eisenstark; 54, Israel Speaks.

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r fm a a ÿ Ou* DR. SAMUEL BELKIN is the distinguished president of Yeshiva University. Re­ ceiving his Semichah at the age of seventeen, he went on to obtain his Ph.D. at Brown University. Dr. Belkin has been associated with Yeshiva University since 1935 and assumed its presidency in 1943. Noted-as a ta-mid chochom, he is an authority also in the field of Hellenistic Jewish literature.

JOSEPH FRIED is a free lance, writer who has recently returned from Israel, Hie has served as foreign correspondent for several major news agencies.

RABBI GILBERT KLAPERMAN -is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Sholom in Cedarhurst, Long Island.'He received his Doctorate from Yeshiva University, where he is an instructor of Sociology. Rabbi Klaperman is the secretary of the Rabbinical Council' of America,

CECIL ROTH, eminent Anglo-Jewish ¿historian, is the author of many outstanding works including, "The Jews of Venice,” "A History of the Marranos," and "A Short History of the Jewish People," He is a frequent contributor to J e w is h L ife .

RABBI MORRIS MAX is chairman of -the-'Committee on Family and Marriage '«of the Rabbinical Council of America, He is the Rav of the Queens Jewish Center in Forest Hills, N. Y., and is the author of the booklet "Thé Jewish Concept of Marriage."

ESTHER MARINE is the founder arid president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Union-of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America's Women's Branch.- The wife, of Rabbi Isadora Marine and the mother of two children, she is British-born and a graduate of the London School of-Economics and Political Science.

MOSHE PRAGER has been active in the field of Hebrew and; Yiddish journalism for over a quarter, of a century. Born and educated in Warsaw, Poland, he is currently engaged in research on contemporary Jewish history. An anthology, which he compiled, of. religious songs and short stories written by victims of the Nazis, was published receritly.

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JEWISH LIFE

AMERICAN POLICY AND ISRAEL pO L L O W IN G each other in short order, the Washington Conference of major national Jewish organizations and the Washington visit of British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden have both illuminated the grim danger in which Israel lies today. This common effect was not, needless to say, the result of an identical intent. Quite the contrary. Although both events were concerned with the problem of security in the Near East, the Jewish conference viewed this need as inseparable from the welfare of Israel, while the British spokesman carried in his baggage a very different doctrine. Which view will prevail? Upon the answer to this question hangs the fate of Israel, and perhaps of world peace. ^ H E R E is no evidence as yet that the Washington Conference of Jewish Organ­ izations has borne serious impact on the course of American policy in the Near East. Nonetheless, the bringing together of representatives of the seventeen leading American Jewish organizations—representing the overA V oice whelming majority of American Jews and every form of Jewish to b e communal interest—was an achievement in itself. In demonH eard strating the intensity of American Jewish concern with the present danger to the State of Israel, the Conference was a voice which the State Department must hear, if not heed.

The British visit, on the other hand, appears to have initially borne telling results upon the shaping of American policy in various world areas. The state­ ments issued following the meetings of the respective heads of government tended to be ambiguous as to most points of policy agreed upon—or, in the case of the rather warm South Arabian oil war, disagreed upon—but were least ambiguous with respect to the Israel-Arab situation. Here there was a distinct indication that the two governments are moving towards the sacrifice of Israel in attempted appeasement of its much more powerful, and aggressive, Arab neighbors; p R IM E MINISTER Eden5s mission was evoked by the collapse of Britain's own program in the Near and Middle East. The sadly-bungled Britain-Iraq-IranPakistan pact had apparently been designed to secure Britain's position in that area vis-a-vis both Soviet Russia and the United States. It has had the opposite effect. India has drawn closer to the Soviet Russia, while Egypt too, leading the other Arab states except Iraq in its train, has entered into alliance with the Com­ munist world. Now Britain turns to the United States for help, offering her a partnership in the pact at bargain-counter rates. The situation, British spokes­ men cold-bloodedly propose, can be retrieved by buying back the favor of Egypt, such price to include the elimination, or at least the truncation of Israel. Elements in the State Department, already predisposed to such a “solution," are pressing our government for its adoption.

Subsequent State Department-inspired reports suggest that “teeth" are to February, 1956

3

be put into the Tripartite guarantee of the Israel-Arab borders by the United States, Britain and France. This does not remove fears as to our Near East policy.

Egypt is now being heavily armed by the Soviets. Britain too, in pursuance of the attempt to outbid the Communists, is rushing arms to Egypt. It is a certainty that Egypt’s massive new armaments, from either source, are not to be directed against the Communist forces but against the Jewish State. Israel itself has received no equivalent supply of arms and, though far outmatched in weapons and faced by obvious military aggression, has so far been denied a security pact by the Western Powers. There is grim reason to fear that the teeth in the Tri­ partite Declaration are to be clamped down only on Israel. ^ H E PLEA by Secretary of State Dulles that foreign policy be kept out of the forthcoming electoral campaign implies an uneasy awareness that the present trend of Near East policy is profoundly objectionable to vast numbers of Americans. Mr. Dulles’ plea is unlikely to find a favorable reS tifle sponse. There can be no suppressing a great weight of American P ublic public opinion, non-Jewish no less than Jewish, which rejects a Opinion? Near East policy incompatible with morality and with sound prin­ ciples of security for this country and the free world as a whole. To all who are not blinded by sheer prejudice, appeasement of the aggressor Arab states stands as an expedient bound to defeat its purpose.

The Washington Conference of Jewish Organizations has made clear both the duty and the disposition of American Jews. Israel and the United States alike are endangered by the present course of policy. As Jews and as Americans, it is our duty to exert every effort within our power to induce our Government to change to a course which will make, not for the destruction of the Jewish State but for its security, a course that will bring peace and not war, a course that in upholding moral principle, will bring to bear against Communism the one force around which free men may rally, the ultimate safeguard of American freedom.

AND NOW IN ENGLAND g

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T H E TERCENTENARY which is now being celebrated by British Jewry is a significant event for all Jews. While providing an appropriate occasion for tribute to British Jewry’s accomplishments through three centuries, the anniver­ sary, like the recently concluded American Jewish Tercentenary, serves a more important purpose: that of bringing home the pivotal responsibilities of Englishspeaking Jews for the future of Judaism and the Jewish people.

Less than a tenth the size of its American counterpart, the significance of Britain’s Jewish community is far out of proportion to its numbers. After the satanic work of Hitler, it remains not merely the largest but the most articulate and Jewishly-conscious yishuv in Europe. Its relationship to the British Com­ monwealth and Empire—-still a great force in world affairs—emphasizes its strategic position. The spiritual potential of British Jewry counts most of all: nurtured by many streams, this community is endowed with capacity for self­ development as a creative Jewish force. Upon its 300th anniversary, the question to be answered is, can Anglo-Jewry fulfill its Jewish capacities?

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JEWISH LIFE

J7LSEWHERE in this issue, articles explore the favorable and unfavorable factors in the lives of British Jews. Both will ring familiarly on American Jewish ears. The conclusion is evident that, in Britain as in America, Jewish creative forces have not kept pace with the forces of dissolution. No longer can the balance be redressed, as formerly, by inflow from the Jewish centers of East­ ern Europe. The implications of this situation are pervading wider and wider elements of both communities. The desire to spur creative activity waxes. But, in both countries, recognition of the sole ultimate source of Jewish life-plasm lags behind constructive purpose. Whether in Britain or the United States, Jewish life cannot be built without Jewish living, nor Jewish living without Jewish belief rooted in the Torah from which the Jew springs.

JpORTUNATELY, in both English-speaking countries institutions are increasingly to be found in which the Torah way of life is nurtured—yeshivoth and yeshivoth ketanoth, as well as a maturing synagogue life and other forms .of Torah-directed endeavor. But as yet, for great numbers of American and British Jews, and for many of those in a position of leadership, these institutions and forces are viewed as exotic phenomena occupying positions on the periphery of communal life. So far, only the minority recognize them as the matrix of Jewish being, as the very center of the scene, with all other communal expressions to be judged in relation to them and to the values which they generate.

Illustrating this situation, we in America have seen a series of elaborate Tercentenary celebrations in which the Torah institutions played the most minor part. That a similar outlook prevails in England is indicated by the special Tercentenary issue of the world-famed Jewish Chronicle of London, the recog­ nized organ of British Jewry. Abounding in articles on the most diverse subjects relevent to the occasion, the issue contains in its sixty large pages but a few paragraphs on "Jewish Education,” giving no more than a chronological outline in which distinguished yeshivoth are ignored and the remarkable Gateshead Torah community is dismissed with the sentence: "Two schools were also opened in Gateshead. Torah learning, as such, has no place whatsoever in this issue celebrating three hundred years of Anglo-Jewish life.

JF WE ARE to assure that British Jewry and American Jewry celebrate yet an­ other centenary, there must be a drastic revision of the scale of values in many phases of communal and personal life. W e must harness the desire to build Jewish life—and there can be no doubt of this will—to the will to build Jewishly, B uild ° n tme Jewisil foundations. Through Divine Providence, the Jews Qn of the English-speaking lands have been given the right to live, Jew ish aS .w .e^ as t0 wors^tp, in accordance with the precepts of their F oundations re^3ion>while sharing in full the civil rights of their non-Jewish neighbors. To the extent that we have failed to exercise this op­ portunity, to that extent has Jewish life been destroyed. To the degree that American and British Jews henceforth nurture Jewish life, to that degree will our communities be perpetuated and stand as a pillar of world Jewry.

February, 1956

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SPEARHEADS AND STANDARDS T H E FORTHCOMING Chag Hasemichah of Yeshiva University, marking the Rabbinic ordination of 120 new graduates of its Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theo­ logical Seminary, constitutes another milestone in the development of American Jewry. The role exercised by the Rabbis trained by Yeshiva University and the several other American orthodox yeshivoth and seminaries, by their lay graduates and by these institutions themselves, increases in significance from day to day.

Jews throughout America and the world over owe an imperishable debt to all of our bastions of Torah learning.

This debt is now being widely acknowledged. In the constant growth and broadened support of Americas major Torah centers, evidence can be seen of the response,which they are evoking among the Jewish public. The sense of community responsibility to the Torah institutions is penetrating the roots of American Jewish life. In turn, these schools manifest a wider awareness of their reciprocal responsibilities to the community. Increasingly, it is being realized that our yeshivoth and seminaries must not only imbue their talmidim with Torah knowledge and Torah principle, but must also work shoulder to shoulder with them in implementing these teachings on the community scene.

Too often in past years has the new musmoch found himself struggling against conditions for which he is psychologically and technically unprepared. In how many cases has the Rabbi been placed in congregations in which disregard for basic tenets is proclaimed the sovereign standard—and in which his moral posi­ tion is weakened by the very fact of his having been sent there unconditionally.

A theory has prevailed in recent years in which the Rabbi is viewed as the spearhead of an attack upon entrenched hefkemth. Boldly conceived, this approach is undoubtedly inspired by the sense of moral duty. It can work, however, only if the force which wields the spear never loses its grip nor misses its aim. Failing that, it can be self-destructive.

■^yMTH GROWING mutual awareness that Yeshivoth and Community are co­ extensive with each other, the musmochim of our great schools can enter upon their tasks with greater confidence. As the article by Dr. Samuel Belkin, appearing elsewhere in this issue, so effectively shows, the right, and yes, the G-d given responsibility to insist upon application of the basic standards which the Rabbi affirms can no longer be disregarded. In fulfillment of their responsibilities, our yeshivoth more and more recognize their obligation to strengthen the hands of their graduates in guiding the individuals and congregations in their care, to help them bring understanding of the Mitzvoth and acceptance of the binding requirements of Jewish living and Jewish worship.

These measures of enlightened aid and of moral discipline are today being recognized as the ultimate obligation of the centers of Torah learning not mere­ ly to their graduates but equally to the Jewish community, to Jewish history and the Jewish faith. So armed, Rabbi and congregation can face their common problems on a basis of mutuality of purpose. W ith this better prospect before us we congratulate the new musmochim and extend every good wish for their lifelong success.

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JEWISH LIFE

• T h e D uty o f Religious Education Belongs to the H om e and the Synagogue, the A uthor Asserts.

By GILBERT KLAPERM AN COM M UNITIES throughout the public schools should participate in United States are being increas­ teaching religion. They are: (a) for ingly confronted with the issue of the schools to teach a "common core” "religion and the public schools.” The of all religions, (b) the factual or problem-—which, though presently objective study about religion and (c) acute, actually dates back many years the teaching of moral and spiritual —arises in two general ways. The values in the schools. first concerns the introduction in the In contrast with any of these ap­ schools of specific religious or secta­ proaches, a wide body of American rian practices. These include release sentiment, both Jewish and nontime programs, Bible reading and dis­ Jewish, unequivocally supports the tribution, prayers and religious and principle of separation of church and joint religious holiday observances state which is guaranteed by the (Christmas and Christmas-Chanukah) first amendment of the Constitution. and the like.

Therefore, they are opposed to reli­ W ithin recent years, however, ef­ gious or sectarian practices in the forts have been increased to involve public schools in any form and believe the public schools directly in the that the interests of both the state teaching of religion. Important Chris­ and religion are best served if the tian religious bodies, as well as influ­ public schools do not attempt to assist ential forces in the educational world, the home and the institutions of spiri­ have become identified with them. tual life in teaching religion.

Basically, three approaches are being This viewpoint has been adopted explored by those who believe the by numerous national representative February, 1956

7

Jewish groups, and has been incor­ porated in formal statements issued during the past few years by the National Community Relations Ad­ visory Council and the Synagogue Council of America.

well?

Furthermore, why should schools remain "neutral” to religion when a drifting world cries so desper­ ately for spiritual guidance, the re­ affirmation of spiritual values and the replenishing of the spiritual reservoirs?

K T FIRST reading, the "Guiding T H E QUESTION of religion and ■ Statement for S u p e rv iso rs and **■public education was brought to the forefront of national attention when, Teachers on Moral and Spiritual on June 14, 1955, the Board of Values and the Schools” issued by the Superintendents of the New York New York Superintendents represents City Board of Education proposed the a general endorsement of everything issuance of a guide for the teaching that all religious Americans stand for. of moral and spiritual values in the In essence the "Statement” recom­ public schools. The release of the mends that the public schools use proposed statement evoked immediate every means at their disposal to reaction, with expressions of strong "strengthen the moral and spiritual opposition coming from a number of values common to all . . . faiths,” to Jewish, Christian and non-sectarian "encourage the belief in G-d, to organizations and leaders. The New "identify G-d as the ultimate source York Board of Rabbis and local of natural and moral law,” and at branches of major national commun­ appropriate levels and in appropriate ity relations agencies, the United contexts . . . teach the role of religion Parents Association, the New York and encourage factual study about Teachers Guild AFL-CIO, and the religion . . . ” The statement of the New York New York Civil Liberties Union all opposed the proposed guide. The City educators was made in the spirit Protestant Council of New York City of a similar general statement by the called for revision of the guide in Board of Regents of the University order to "take proper account of the of the State of New York in 1951 rights of those teachers, parents and which. was supplemented in March others in the community who take a 1955 by a more specific series of non-theistic position with respect to recommendations for programs in the ethical and moral values.” Support schools stressing "the Moral and Spiri­ for the guide, however, came from the tual Heritage of America.”

In their earlier statement, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and the Catholic Teachers Asso­ Regents expressed the conviction that a fundamental belief in G-d is the ciation of Brooklyn.

To the general community the posi­ best security against the dangers of tion adopted by the opponents of the these difficult days. They urged the guide may appear confusing and be­ adoption of their recommendations wildering. Some say that since the that such training be introduced in public schools are eminently designed the schools as "the best way of insur­ to transmit the cultural and democra­ ing that this government and our tic legacy to our children, why not way of life shall not perish from the permit them to extend and enrich the earth.”

If the Regents and the Superinfacilities for religious education as 8

JEWISH LIFE

tendents had meant only to accentuate the need and importance of good citizenship, ethics and morality, the Jewish organizations would stand wholeheartedly behind it, as they have been committed for many generations to the inclusion of these teachings in the cultural climate of the public schools.

But the teaching of ''spiritual va­ lues” implies more than the fostering of the secular aspects of morality. As it is envisioned by the Superinten­ dents, "morality and religion are in fa c tJinterrelated.” Consequently the introduction of moral values in the schools implies the teaching of reli­ gion and is an open invitation to the presentation of sectarian and theo­ logical .concepts far beyond what is the legitimate subject matter of public school instruction.

WELL-MEANING, although un­ wary, Christian high school teach­ er recently illustrated how even the most well-intentioned introduction of a religious justification of a moral deed is fraught with un-American overtones. Summing up a student discussion on charity, the teacher pointed out that the virtue was desir­ able because it was enjoined as a major obligation of man by the founder of her faith. The implication by the teacher that New Testament sources constitute the highest religious and moral authority was unfair to her non-Christian students and constituted an invasion of the religious freedom of her classroom population.

W hat the teacher may have done unwittingly can become standard school room procedure if plans such as that of the New York Superin­ tendents are adopted. For while they do not envisage any specific courses February, 1956

of study or separate periods of in­ struction, they recommend that the teacher be alerted to impart the Amer­ ican appreciation of the spiritual values (by which, the context indicates, is meant religious teaching) "in all areas of instruction . . . notably in literature, art, social studies, and music [where] opportunities are available for placing religion and religious institutions in appropriate context as phases of American culture.”

By not channeling the proposed instruction to one course or period, the Superintendents have posed a peril to the other subjects of the school curriculum. At the present time there is no friction between the sub­ jects that are taught in the public schools. Mathematics and the social studies are in no conflict, but religion, as interpreted by some, and science might be brought into a head-on clash.

Teaching the Theory of Evolution in a biology class could, under such cir­ cumstances, conceivably give birth to a new Scopes trial. Similarly the reli­ gious program might find fault with the literature course, raising the ques­ tion of the suitability of certain read­ ing matter hitherto unquestioned.

J^EMOCRACY in the United States has flourished in a large measure because of the cherished belief that religion must never be injected into a state-supported institution or ex­ posed to the jurisdiction of the state.

Any action that weakens that principle —even one that improves the appre­ ciation and reverence for religion-— endangers religious liberty and threat­ ens our other beloved freedoms.

Opening the public school to the teach­ ing of religion would mark a serious violation of the principle of a separa­ tion between church and state and a 9

sanction for these values, however, is another matter.

further intrusion of sectarian influ­ ences upon the public schools.

Besides breaching the wall of sepa­ ration between church and state, which in itself would be sufficient to militate against the plan, the im­ plementing of the New York Superin­ tendents’ "Guide” would prove clumsy and unfeasible.

For example, there is no objection to revealing the role that religion in general has played in the history of man and in the evolution of society, when such teaching flows from the natural needs of a classroom situation or as it pertains to the subject matter being studied. Indeed, the schools must share with the home and reli­ gious institutions the responsibility for encouraging the behavior that leads to proper social action, and they have performed commendably in this regard. Whether the average teacher is prepared to introduce the religious 10

W S ONE who has taught compara­ tive religion in an American uni­ versity, the writer can attest to the difficulty that even a trained scholar faces in being objective and dispas­ sionate about religions other than his own. Granting the skill and devotion of our public school teachers, we must nevertheless realize that few of them possess the special competence and impartiality required for this task.

Our teachers are prepared and certi­ fied to teach secular subjects-—not to teach religion. Teachers themselves, exposed to such a situation, are forced to admit their inadequacy. In one community where religion was in­ troduced into the school system, the teachers soon threw up their hands in resignation, unable to cope with the many classroom situations that dev­ eloped. They finally had to put forth the suggestion which flowed logically from their predicament—to call in clergymen of all faiths in order to give the actual called for instruction.

The average teacher is not qualified to interpret religious values. This is true whether or not the teacher may himself be a pious and practicing member of a religious faith. The basic question must be faced: how could teachers be prepared to teach these religious values? Certainly, their training period would have to be ex­ tended beyond the long years already required. Furthermore, their course of study would present a challenge to the educators of America. For exam­ ple, who would instruct these future teachers of religion? Would clergy­ men be invited to teach in the statesupported normal schools and schools of education? Assuming that teachers can be readied with p ro p er. book JEWISH LIFE

knowledge, how will we be guaran­ teed their impartiality and emotional stability towards other faiths? And how can we really be sure that a nonJewish teacher, for example, as deeply religious as he may be, can conscien­ tiously and properly teach children the fundamentals of the Jewish faith or impart to them a belief in G-d as that term is understood by Jews?

FURTHERM ORE, will would-be teachers be exposed to a religious test to determine whether they are devout enough to give an orientation in religious values, and will an atheist, agnostic or a religiously unaffiliated individual be automatically denied the right to teach this course? If so, for the first time in contemporary American history a religious test would be used to disqualify teachers in the public school system.

The dilemma into which the Super­ intendents' proposal projects us is that religious instruction should be given only by qualified teachers of religion, but this requirement simply denies the basic right to religious dissent; the right not to believe is the very guarantee of religious free­ dom.

Finding acceptably qualified teach­ ers represents only part of the prob­ lem. Formulating the exact content matter of the spiritual values to be indoctrinated is even more difficult.

To be entirely consistent, all points of view of the almost 200 Protestant faiths, Catholicism, Judaism and per­ haps Buddhism or Confucianism and Mohammedanism should be repre­ sented. Rival sectarian groups will exert tremendous pressures to give their point of view a prominent, satisfactory and undefiled presenta­ tion. Faculty members, Parent-Teach­ ers Associations, other interested February, 1956

parties and even students may become spies and informers to check on teach­ ers who are in charge of the program in order to protect their vested interests.

To eliminate this frightening pos­ sibility, there are those who advocate the teaching of a "common core” of religion. This course would be com­ posed of a common denominator of beliefs extracted frqm the faiths cur­ rent in the community, and developed into an eclectic and, at the same time, non-sectarian, religious potpouri. Such a watered-down . program would founder on the rocks of meaningless generalizations, platitudes and tru­ isms. Furthermore, by being too gen­ eral it would become emptied of all that is spiritually meaningful in every religious faith.

Either type of program would be unable to sidestep the interreligious strife that would follow the unavoid­ able classroom discussions on the meaning of G-d, the different ways of worshipping G-d and other rituals and concepts of faith. W ith our heterogeneous school population, the enormity of the task cannot be under­ estimated.

J N SHORT, the "New York Board of Superintendents' Guiding State­ ment for Supervisors and Teachers on Moral and Spiritual Values and the Schools” carries a three-fold danger: (1) It is a threat to the separation of church and state, an invasion of the religious freedom of students and a potential unconstitutional bar to non-believing teachers.

(2) It is an unrealistic program that will either present a watereddown meaningless substitute for the personal faiths of school children or a more specific teaching of doctrines that will confuse the students exposed 11

to it. In any case it can never be formulated into an academic presenta­ tion that will satisfy all religious groups or that can be taught with guaranteed impartiality and fairness.

In addition, it may create super­ pressure groups that will seek special privileges, exert undesirable influences and otherwise interfere in the ad­ ministration of the program. ( 3 ) It may undermine the inviol­ ability of academic instruction by introducing a potential deterrent to free expression and free articulation in the arts and sciences.

JpO R THESE reasons, and because of the implied criticism that reli­ gious groups are derelict in their responsibility for the religious educa­ tion of their children, Jewish repre­ sentative groups have expressed vigor­ ous objection to the introduction of

religious teaching in the schools. Cer­ tainly Jewry throughout the ages, by the organization of schools and yeshivoth and in its high regard for Biblical and religious studies, has affirmed its unalterable commitment to the teach­ ing of religious values. Indeed, the Jewish religious community has de­ voted a major part of its financial expenditure to the religious education of its children and to the support of the institutions dedicated to this pur­ pose. This must be our stand in the years to come.

Because of the realities of religious differences among its pupils, the public schools should * continue to teach the secular subjects for which they are best suited. Religious instruc­ tion should remain in the home and in the hands of organized churches and synagogues.

PAIRS AND OPPOSITES The Almighty created everything in pairs and opposites, with­ out which nature could not exist. Without death there could be no evil, without evil no death. Without peace there could be no evil, without evil no peace. If all men were fools, they would not real­ ize they were fools; if all were wise, they would not realize they were wise. If all were poor, they would not recognize wealth; if all were wealthy, they would not recognize poverty. He created loveliness and repulsiveness, male and female, fire and water, iron and wood, light and darkness, heat and cold, food and famine, drink and thirst, water and land, deeds and inaction, anxiety and satisfaction, laughter and weeping, cure and sickness.

If there is no pious man, there is no evil man; if no evil, no piety.

All to make known the greatness of the Holy One, blessed is He, for He created everything in pairs and partnership, and every­ thing has its opposite, except the Holy One, blessed is He, Himself —for He is One, and there is no other!

—Midrosh Temurah 12

JEWISH LIFE

é In the W ake of Soviet Terror.

By JOSEPH FRIED JTAJNT ECHOES of a familiar har­ rowing refrain are resounding from beyond the sound-proof dungeon that has become half of an enslaved Europe and the enforced "home” of 2,500,000 Soviet and Eastern European Jews trapped by Communism. Harmonized with the more vocal political chords rendered by the Kremlin and hummed by the Communist press, the hate mel­ ody, despite its new lyrics* is painfully similar to the Antisemitic chant first composed by the Nazis.

Here are samplings of the latest Communist-authored lyrics: Scores of Jews arrested in mid­ night raids on hundreds of Moscow apartments during autumn^ follow­ ing searches by police raiders for publications in Yiddish and He­ brew; deportations of Jews in Hun­ gary to slave labor camps continue; a typographical onslaught on Israel coupled with anti-Jewish innuendos in the Russian and satellite press which feature wholely one-sided ac­ counts of Israel-Arab clashes in which the Jews are branded "proFebruary, 1956

vocators”; jamming of Yiddish and Hebrew broadcasts to Eastern Eu­ rope by Communist monitors; a fullscale propaganda offensive aimed at convincing Jews trapped in the sat­ ellite nations that escape to a "slave state” like Israel isn’t even worth thinking about, let alone risking arrest and imprisonment; and the refusal of the Rumanian Govern­ ment to release even a single im­ prisoned Zionist or other Jewish leader under a sweeping amnesty declaration several m o n th s ago which freed hundreds of one-time Nazi collaborators and minor war criminals.

While the new developments take sinister form, the near-culminating phase of an overall blueprint to erase Judaism from the face of half of Europe is nearing completion. Com­ munism throughout Eastern Europe is repeating with methodic accuracy the basic and-Jewish formula first con­ cocted in 1917 when the infant Party declared that "there is no room in the New Russia for an organized Jew13

Author's Note: In compiling the material for this article I have relied on documented statements and testimony of, and interviews with, the follow­ ing individuals: Henry E. Schultz, national chairman, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith; Dr. Isaac Glickman, former executive chairman, Federation of the Jewish Communities of Hungary; Dr. Jacob T. Zuckerman, national vice chairman, Jewish Labor Committee; Dr. Zoltán Klar, former President of the Hungarian Jewish Council, Budapest; Dr. Solomon M. Schwarz, expert on conditions of Soviet Jewry, author of "Soviet Russia and the Jews"; Gregori Aronson, expert on Soviet Russia, for the Jewish Labor Committee; Bronislaw Teichholz, former chairman of International Committee of Jew­ ish Refugees from Concentration Camps; Dr. Israel Goldstein, national president, American Jewish Congress; Herschel Weinrauch, former Soviet editor, who spent six years in Birobidjan; and Senator Herbert Lehman of New York.

I have also used the following for additional background material: Reports smuggled from behind the Curtain by sources of the Jewish Labor Committee, Congressional reports on the treatment of Jews by the Soviet, the London Observer, the London Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Observer and the Israeli and Yiddish press.

ish community.” Like in the Soviet Union, the sweeping edict to eradicate Jewish religious and cultural life has already succeeded in liquidating the legitimate institutions of Judaism in Hungary, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Poland and other countries under the Soviet yoke.

W HY Soviet Antisemitism? Totali­ tarian Communism has singled out the Jewish minority within its borders and the coniines of its vast domain as a special target because of its attach­ ment to a culture, history and faith far distant from the adherence and sup­ pression upon which Communism de­ pends in order to rule. On one hand, Communist propaganda mills hammer away at spreading the myth which boasts the absence of Antisemitism within Red borders. On the other, Commissars from the days of Lenin to the era of Krushchev have completed a near-full circle in their orbit aimed at wiping out Judaism.

14

W hat motivates the most recent anti-Jewish activities of Soviet Russia?

Communism’s high stakes in the Mid­ dle East, most political experts agree, are at its core. Wooing and winning the Arab’s affections is a twin-pronged focal point of Soviet strategy today.

Whether Europe’s helpless Jews un­ der Communism may provide a con­ venient form of dowry in the passion­ ate Red-Islamic romance remains a mute and terrifying question.

But decades before the Kremlin flirted with the idea of infiltrating the strategic Middle East, Communism’s chieftains were busily engaged in rid­ ding their own domains of Jews.

J J O W WELL the Soviet master plan against Jewish religious and cul­ tural life succeeded even in its formulative stage can be judged by the dis­ appearance of thousands of rabbis and Jewish community leaders in the first seven years of Soviet control in Rus­ sia. On the heels of these deportations, JEWISH LIFE

million copies of 653 books published in Hebrew and Yiddish were cir­ culated in 1933. This year not a single book appeared. The Nazis burned books — the Reds ban them.

YIDDISH PRESS: This cartoon, portraying a Jew who is caught distributing anticom­ munist literature, appeared in a Party-run Warsaw Yiddish weekly. The leaflets are entitled "Espionage," "Diversion" and "Sabotage."

religious schools were outlawed and the observance of Jewish holidays pro­ hibited. Only smuggling from the out­ side provided Jews with religious ar­ ticles and publications.

Rooting out religion at the core* Communism went to work on Jewish schools. More than 830 such institu­ tions flourished in the Ukraine, 262 others in Byelorussia. So reported of­ ficial Soviet statistics in 1931. Not one remains in the Soviet Union today.

Even if they did, students would have no books from which to study. Three February, 1956

^*HE SAME dismal fate befell Hebrew and Yiddish newspapers.. Where once fifty-five non-Communist publi­ cations in both languages were widely circulated, all that exists today is a scant handful of propaganda puff sheets, one reportedly resurrected in Birobijan, the so-called "Jewish Au­ tonomous Republic” and another in Poland.

Described by one who has regularly translated its contents over three years as a "Pravda with a Yiddish accent,” the Warsaw weekly sticks close to the Communist Party line. A good idea as to its constructiveness and the lofty editorial plain in which it dwells can be had by observing the paper’s coarse front-page editorial cartoons.

A recent issue, coinciding with the Soviet anti-Israel line, depicts an un­ mistakably sinister, gangster-type char­ acter garbed in a well-fitting business suit and wavirfg the Mögen Dovid.

Overshadowing and grasping the arm of this Nazi-like caricature of the Jew is a^ Nordic character in workman’s overalls: the People, no less. From the Jew’s grasped hand falls three leaflets entitled: "Espionage,” "Diversion” and "Sabotage.” The cartoon’s grim title: "His Fate.”

No doubt the Warshaw sheet and others of its nature which the Com­ munists may find appropriate to create for short-lived durations are not with­ out their benefits. A party-ruled Yid­ dish paper here or there provides a convenient propaganda showcase for foreign consumption. A far cry, in­ deed, from the Yiddish press of Rus15

sia which gave birth to the popular writers and poets of a generation ago.

The same holds true of the Yiddish theatre, also a once-flourishing aspect of Jewish life in the Soviet. There is no longer any organized Jewish theatre in either Russia or the satellites. All that remains within the Communist world today is a vaudeville-like troupe which from time to time makes a cir­ cuit run of the larger communities.

A newspaper correspondent who only last year spent considerable time in the Soviet Union reported that several times a year there are concerts and readings of Jewish music and litera­ ture.

"But,” he remarked significantly, "the selections are poor and almost never changed, so that few people at­ tend.”

J H E SITUATION regarding syna­ gogues is appalling. Only a handful

MOSCOW'S RABBI: A recent photograph of Rabbi S. Schleifer, rabbi of Moscow's "showcase" synagogue.

16

of the Soviet's major cities today have synagogues. All are housed in dilapi­ dated structures with the exception of the Moscow Synagogue, the latter a convenient "typical” to which the Com­ munists point in "proving” their case that Jewish religious life has not been molested in Soviet Russia. Much at­ tention has been given to the crowded Moscow synagogue during Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur. Pictures of such religious enthusiasm hardly con­ form with Communist claims that Russian Jewry is no longer interested in Judaism. However, they do fill an­ other Red aim: Since many tourists never travel beyond Moscow itself, the "evidence” of religious freedom some­ times tends to have a convincing tone about it.

A recent Western visitor noted that in each of the synagogues toured on ordinary Sabbaths, sermons dealt with political subjects, mostly "peace” and attacks on "war mongers.” The attend­ ances were overwhelmingly composed of elderly people. Of sixty worshippers in a Leningrad synagogue, only two appeared to be below forty years of age and of 150 counted in the Moscow Synagogue, a city with a Jewish pop­ ulation exceeding 500,000, a half dozen were judged by the visitor as being younger than forty.

Our visitor would have done well for accuracy had he deducted four "worshippers” from his count. Infor­ mation smuggled out of Soviet Russia reports that at least that number of MVD agents are assigned each Sab­ bath service in Moscow to keep attend­ ance rolls of their own and check the types of sermons delivered. The same is true of the other synagogues per­ mitted to exist today under Commun­ ism.

JEWISH LIFE

YET DESPITE the curtain of fear, to Tel Aviv from a tour of Russia to Jews trapped behind the Iron Cur­ tain take grave risks to break through to their co-religionists abroad. A prom­ inent Israeli journalist who recently toured Russia told of how, in the midst of a synagogue service, a worshipper praying directly behind him leaned over while chanting to whisper: "Don’t forget us, my brother. Tell the world of our plight.” Then the worshipper lapsed back to his prayers.

The leader of a delegation of Israeli women Communists recently returned

report that "the Soviet is not intolerant of religion, it is only impatient that it run its course and dissipate itself.”

The record, however, shows clearly that Communist "impatience” has long since given way to a policy of ex­ pediency in liquidating Judaism and synagogue life. Religious organiza­ tions, which have served as pillars in upholding the Jewish household else­ where, are simply non-existent in the Soviet Union or her satellite empire.

But let us peer a little more closely at this record.

Pre-War Policy L O N G BEFORE World W ar II, tens of thousands of Jews were deposited in Siberian labor camps, a grim downpayment on the hundreds of thousands who were to follow. Throughout the late 1930s and on the eve of the Nazi invasion of Russia, thousands more were imprisoned on a variety of charges which ranged from "cosmo­ politanism” to "counter-revolutionaryism.” The prison sentences were often as long as the terms used as charges.

While accusations differed, one factor remained the same throughout: all were Jews.

In reality, Russian Jewry enjoyed only a partial and brief respite during World W ar II. Even as Jewish citizens fought heroically at the front, an Antisemitic campaign raged rampantly on the home front. Anti-Jewish slogans were chalked on walls from Moscow to Kiev and Jewish soldiers bedecked with war medals were barred admis­ sion to the higher echelons of officer training schools as "unreliables.”

It was at the war’s beginning that the Communists set out to convince the outside world that Soviet Russia was February, 1956

saving countless thousands of Jews from Nazi extermination. For this purpose, the Reds organized their Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Two well-known Polish Jewish Socialists, Victor Alter and Henryk Erlich, re­ fused to play the roles of Communist mouthpieces in the new front group and were duly executed.

The record shows that in some in­ stances Soviet authorities contributed substantially to the tremendous toll in Jewish lives taken by the Nazis. Rus­ sian Commissars time and again point­ edly refused to sanction any planned action to evacuate vast Russian Jew­ ish populations stranded in the wake of the German advance, though they knew these were slated for total ex­ termination if abandoned to the Nazis.

While agents of the Anti-Fascist Committee in a half dozen Western countries disseminated the legend that the Soviet Government engaged in ar­ duous efforts to save the Jews from the Nazis, Soviet frontier guards and Se­ cret Police often actually barred their escape. In Vilna alone, 20,000 Jews fleeing certain death at the hands of 17

H arm lncezer m unkaszotgälatost hazaszàltitanak O noszopszûgbôl Jifetszabadutdsutdn kikerOtt fogtyokatls ha.zahO.ldlk MagyuT©r*zâg m<»szkv;ii kflvflf. Szekiü Càyulii meghaiaimazort, niinfszler, aki jeIciilésiélel %ége,tt hsrzaérkezett Budapestre. az orosz küiügyi hivatal tàiuogàtâsâval làrgyalô^ba boésâjtkozott a moszkvai antifaMszta szovetseggel. Eanek erediiiênyelceppen IrgrovidfbbidSii b e l u h o r k e r f i l v a 1 a ni e n n y I O r o s z * o r s z àg b a u t ar tó z k o d ó ma­ gyar niuukaszolgâlatos * hazaszàllitasàra.

A nuinkaszolgâlatosokoit kivül huzaktildik azokal is, akik a felszabadulâs utân kerfiltek kl Oroszorszégba. Igazolni tudJàk és hogy azoknak a tâborâba tartoznak, akik Hitler és Szàlasi rémuralma alali üMôzést szenvedtek.

A nagyjelentôséyfi megâllapodàsrôi Szekiü Gyùla moszkvai kdvetOnk szerdân szamolt be a AIagyaror»zâgi Zsidôk Tàrsa-

dalrai Sztivetségének elnökseye elött. luelyet felkért, hoyy a l e y r o i i d e b t i i ddì i b e i ö l y y ö j t s e ö * $ z e %a l a r n e n n > i m u n k a s z o l y à l a l o s s z e ni éIvi a d a t a i t , amit iti Budapest«*!» lajstromozni iogiiak és Szekiü kbvet szeinélyesen| rövid üton juttatja llletékes helyre Moszkvabai», bogy niinél eldbb ütnak Indulhassaiiak a foglyokat hazaszAllitó vonatok.

Jeleutést tett Szekfü Gynla arrol is, hogy az elsü iistàl màr äladtu az aiitilasiszla szovelség vezetösegeiiek. E bb e n ajegyzékben szàzhusz oljan m u n k a s z o l g a l a t o s n e v e szere p e l , a k i k n e k a h o z z à t a r lozol s z e m é l y e s e n k ér t ék lei m o s z k .v a i k ö v e t f i n k e t a z l nt e r v e b « i ó r a . Ez a szàzhusz munkaszolgälato elüreläthatoati még ebben a hóitapbùu eliiidul haza. Magyarorszagra

HUNGARY'S MISSING JEWS: The Hungarian Communist organ, "Figyelo," announced in 1946 that 90,000 Jewish victims of Hitlerism had found safety in the Soviet Union and would be returned to their homes in Hungary immediately. In reality, less than 1,000 were permitted to return.

the Nazis were turned back by Soviet sentries guarding the entrance to Rus­ sian territory. The same happened all along the Soviet border and within Red territory itself.

T H E END of World W ar II only * accentuated the Communist antiJewish drive partly interrupted when Panzer units crossed Soviet frontiers to launch Hitler’s mad adventure.

Ironically enough, the Communists were to pick up where Hitler left off in respect to the Jews of Eastern Eu­ rope. A series of pogroms in 1945-46 which claimed dozens of Jewish vic­ tims in Poland and Hungary were 18

directly traced to instigation by Com­ munists. Next came mass deportations of survivors of Nazi death camps to Siberian ‘work centers.” Scores of Hungarian and Rumanian Jews pro­ tested in the only way left them. They committed suicide.

At home, meanwhile, the Reds worked overtime in setting new rec­ ords in jailing Jews. By 1953, the American Jewish Year Book estimated that as many as 600,000 Jews — almost one third of Russia’s entire Jewish population— had been relegated to forced confinement in slave labor camps.

Swelling this vast figure are cattlecarloads of Jewish deportees from HunJEWISH LIFE

gary, Rumania and Poland. Their properties confiscated and a brand of shiftless Middle Class bourgeoisie” stamped in identity books, thousands of Jews were then carted off to far­ away servitude. Despite a half dozen pacts which promised the restitution of Jewish property confiscated by the Nazis, not a single Communist-dom­ inated country made good its promise.

Quite the contrary. The Reds went in for confiscations of their own, seizing Jewish orphanages, old folks homes and other institutions.

Antisemitism masquerading as antiZionism has swept all of Communism's empire. Hundreds of Zionist leaders in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Rumania were hauled into court­ rooms, tried secretly and hustled off to slave labor camps. Soon, leaders of Jewish charity; . organizations, promi­ nent non-Zionist Socialists and the last remaining Jewish intellectuals oc­ cupied adjoining cells.

A fast-talking ex-tool of the Nazis, Louis Stoeckler, emerged as a favorite of the Communists in Hungary. He was not without previous experience.

Stoeckler had faithfully served the Nazi occupational forces in Hungary during World W ar II as a member of the "Judenrat,” a body of Jewish dupes

formed to entrap their co-religionists into believing that their destinations were "interment camps,”, all the while knowing the cattle trains were bound for crematoriums. Stoeckler was the Red-appointed "President of the Jew­ ish Community in Hungary.”

But where Stoeckler and other dupes survived the Nazis, even their lot was a grim one under Communism. Sys­ tematic liquidation of Jews within the Party carried on over three decades have provided limited room and board for unlimited periods in Siberia to thousands of Stoecklers, loyal Com­ munists who preached rampant antiZionism before the sermon was pulled from under them and their presence was no longer desired by fellow-Communists.

Few tears need be shed for the Jew­ ish Quislings and the half dozen oncepowerful Party Titans like Czecho­ slovakia’s Rudolf Slansky, Hungary’s Gabor Peter and others of Jewish ori­ gin purged by Communism. Though each forsook his people and dodged Jewishness for years, all were to go to the gallows as Jews. Moscow was to remind them. Ironically, the charges that brought death sentences read: "Zionist conspiracy,” "Jewish nation­ alism” and "espionage for Israel.”

New Techniques ^ H I L E the Commissars have em­ ployed a patent and grimly mo­ notonous formula of deportations, frauds and lies which serve as grim markers along the road to Jewish liquidation, the C o m m u n ists have shown themselves to be not adverse to the utilization of new techniques which may prove effective in helping shatter the Jewish will to resist a Redprescribed forced amnesia.

February, 1956

The most recent technique of this nature had its beginnings some months ago, when the Israel Government con­ cluded an agreement with Communistdominated Eastern European countries for an exchange of tourists. The Israelis harbored hopes that at long last some sort of man-in-the-street contact might be established between citizens of the new Jewish State and their isolated co-religionists.

19

The strategists of Communism had an entirely different plan in ‘mind, as the Israelis soon learned to their dis­ may. Legations of a half dozen Com­ munist satellites did indeed grant visas to Israeli citizens for Eastern European visits, but their choices were limited to a hand-picked few with long records, of Communist affiliations.

Only weeks later did Israelis get an inkling as to4the voyagers’ itineraries.

The handful of Israeli Communists and pro-Reds whose trips had been so energetically facilitated were spending time at the finest resorts as "guests of the Peoples’ Republics.” But they were also paying their way in true Com­ munist fashion.

In dozens of widely advertised mass meetings, the disguised Israeli* Com­ munists, masquerading as average citi­ zens of the Jewish State, publicly damned Israel, described the "perse­ cution of the working classes,” the "poverty and unemployment plaguing the Jews in Israel” and devoted a good few minutes of each speech to vivid descriptions of how the Israeli Gov­ ernment had succeeded in converting

the country into "an American war base where the imperialists enslave the laborer.” The renegade Israelis scoffed at "rumors” in the "Capitalist press” to the effect that some Eastern Eu­ ropean Jews secretly harbored a desire to migrate to the Jewish State. The speakers went on to assure audiences that Communist-enslaved Jews were actually a liberated people who "never had it so good.” Said one lecturer: "If you really want to experience en­ slavement, then come to Israel.”

How a "slave state” like Israel had allowed one of its self-proclaimed cap­ tives so convenient an escape was not touched upon in the course of the many addresses.

So effective an avenue for anti-Israel propaganda has the tourist pact which the Communist country legation de­ scribed at its offset as "a constructive two-way bridge of understanding be­ tween our peoples” proven, that plans are reportedly under way by the Reds to increase the number of subsidized visits by certain Israelis to the Soviet domains in Eastern Europe.

Ultimate Aim

TJSING THESE and other tactics, the Soviet Union and her slave state junior partners, are intent upon de­ priving the tattered remnants of H it­ ler’s onslaught of their last and most cherished possession: their identity as Jews. Where the Nazis failed, the Communists, using a brutal yet more subtle scheme of Jewish destruction, may yet succeed. Everything points to it.

A Communism concerned with its followings abroad has sought hard to cover up a trail of Antisemitism which has left a hounded and broken Jewry 20

strewn in its wake. Since the 1953 Prague trials in which Israel was branded a "vile tool of the American imperialists” and Zionists officially listed in the Communist press as "fore­ most among the human scum,” fresh efforts have been made by the Reds to talk away Communist Antisemitism.

It has failed to convince many of the outstanding experts on the sub­ ject. And it is well to remember that news of deportations, arrests and open acts of anti-Jewishness are — like the imprisonment in mid-January of a dozen Czech Jews for "espionage for Israel” — often concealed behind the JEWISH LIFE

"JEWISH HOMELAND": The only synagogue in Birobijan, the Soviet's so-called Jewish province, has no rabbi. Man standing at the door is the shool's cantor.

cloak of rigid censorship and police control. "Significant” facts like the continuance in office of a handful of prominent Jewish .Communists, the re­ cently trumpeted decision of the Soviet Union to reprint for the first time since 1917 a number of Jewish prayer books and the permitting of a few score aged and chronically ill Rus­ sian Jews to go to Israel, are purposely afforded the widest circulations.

N° AMOUNT of strategy and ma­ neuvering, however, can hide the truth. Communist leadership aims at eradicating Judaism and Jews — spir­ itual incompatibles with Communism -— even as it aims at world dominaFebruary, 1956

tion. And while an opportune tech­ nique here and there may disguise but hardly alter its chosen course in the over all political field, so a temporary switch in party line vis-a-vis its cap­ tive Jews is hardly a creditable assur­ ance of the future. Like a condemned man, the Jews may receive one reprieve following another. Whether these convenient reprieves mean eventual pardon is quite another matter. All else aside, the free world is learning to reckon realistically with Communist determination to realize its goals. If this holds true in so many other spheres, why not in Communisms thoroughly documented hostility to Judaism?

21

The Rabbi and the Community

By SAMUEL BELKIN

[Editor's Note: W e welcome the opportunity to publish this significant message by the president of Yeshiva University. The article expounds the basic principles of Rabbi-congregation relationships and exposes the assimilationist basis of the "mixed seating77 problem. Unequivocally voicing a position shared by all leading Halochic authorities, Dr. Belkin7s article indicates a definitive policy whose im^ plementation will base American Jewish religious life on firmer foundations.]

J H E JEWISH FAITH is a demo­ can appreciate, all the better, the char­ cratic theocracy that recognizes the acter and place of the Rabbi in Israel. potential ability of every human being The Rabbi is the custodian of the to commune with G-d. Man and his ideals for which the Synagogue stands.

Maker require no intermediary. Juda­ He must, first, symbolize the Beth ism has, therefore, never known of any Haknesseth. It is his duty to be the distinction between Rabbi and layman leader of the Jewish community and with regard to ecclesiastical attributes of all that pertains to community or religious obligations. The Rabbi is welfare. Again, the Rabbi must sym­ not a super-religious personality, nor bolize the "Beth Hatfilah”; he must does he possess a private door to god­ in his own life personify Jewish piety. liness. Both he and the layman are Above all, however, the Rabbi must equally responsible for the fulfillment symbolize the "Beth Hamidrash,” for of the duties placed upon all Jews by the reservoir from which he draws his the Torah. W e might well characterize inspiration is the Torah. A Rabbi, him in the words of the late George from the historic point of view, is one Foot Moore as a "diplomaed Doctor who is imbued with the conviction of of Law.” The Rabbinate, however, the centrality of Torah learning and without being an association of Jewish Torah practice as the essence of Juda­ ministers, priests or theologians, has, ism. Thus his true function is to be nevertheless, exercised the most pro­ the Jewish scholar, the authority on found influence upon the course of Jewish Law, teaching the Torah to his Jewish life; so much so, that its very community. continuity may be said to depend upon the proper functioning of the Rab­ ^■HERE IS MORE to the Torah than binate. a cursory glance can reveal. Rabbi If we understand the real significance Judah oncé said that whoever trans­ and meaning of the Synagogue, we lates a verse of the Torah in strict lit22

JEWISH LIFE

eralness is a falsifier, and he who makes additions or changes in it is a blasphemer. It is the Rabbi who must bring to his people the hidden treas­ ures that rest in the commentaries and that are contained in the rich reposi­ tories of Jewish learning. If one claim­ ing to a be a Rabbi does not have the profound knowledge of' the Torah expounded in the Oral Law, and is without "Semichah” or true Rabbinic authority, he, therefore, is unable to forge a link in the precious chain of scholarship which is the Rabbinate, tracing its way back to the beginnings of our spiritual existence, and he will either ignorantly falsify the essence of the Torah "or constantly endeavor to change the Law in order to adjust it to his own outlook—indeed, an act of blasphemy.

One must bear in mind that Judaism does not consist only of theological dogma. The Rabbi is not simply a theologian trained* to think of Judaism solely in terms of doctrines, beliefs and articles of faith. Theology, as a separate branch of study, has never been a central element in Judaism.

This is not to say, as have some mod­ ern scholars, that since Judaism re­ quires no confession of faith, it has, then, no dogmas at all. On the con­ trary, Maimonides’ thirteen articles of faith, for example, are recognized as fundamental beliefs of Judaism. Juda­ ism does not, however, recognize ab­ stract beliefs in themselves as the fun­ damentals of its religious life. It is the duties and obligations revealed in the Torah that are fundamentals of Judaism. It is through practical obedi­

ence to the Will of G-d as manifested in the Torah, that a Jew reveals his knowledge of the Existence of G-d and the Unity of G-d. In Judaism, theology per se has no meaning unless interpreted in terms of conduct, in terms of its effect on human activity.

QALVATION in Judaism is not ob­ tained by acceptance of theological dogma alone, but through the genuine love of G-d that fulfills itself in action, in the observance of the Law. It is to the understanding of the law of the Torah as a Divine way of life that Jews have concentrated their entire energy.

Yeshivoth were, therefore, never "Theological Seminaries,” but schools in which Torah in all its manifestations was studied. For this reason, the "Yeshivah Rabbi” symbolizes, above all, Torah learning and Torah practice.

As one who is trained in the Halochah, he knows the true meaning of the Law, and as one who has knowledge of the Hagadah he can explain the higher moral and spiritual purpose that one fulfills by the observance of its pre­ cepts.

This position is occupied today only by the Rabbinate in America with traditional Semichah. After watching thè antics of numerous so-called "Rab­ bis,” the American Jewish community, now reaching maturity, has learned to admire the disciplined attitude of the young, American, orthodox Rabbi in his personal and community life. Our "Yeshivah Rabbis” are quickly coming to the fore as the true leaders of American Jewry.

False Assumptions *JHE RABBI alone, however, cannot be the symbol of embodiment of those things which Judaism requires February, 1956

from each of its members. He cannot be the sole guardian of Jewish ideals nor the community agent for the ob23

servance of Torah, Yet how often have we heard tell of communities that are unable to provide a Kosher home for the Rabbi whom they have requested, if that be his need. The members of such synagogues under­ stand fully that the Rabbi must ob­ serve Kashruth, but see nothing wrong in their own negative attitude towards its observance. For them, the Rabbi thus becomes not only the representa­ tive of the Jewish community and the authoritative interpreter of Jewish tradition but the sole personification of things Jewish. This present-day gap between the Rabbi and the laity with regard to religious observance is one of our most challenging problems.

One of the peculiar results of this situation is the assumption by the laity of certain prerogatives not within its purview. The Rabbinate, in carrying out its duty of teaching Torah and Judaism, has always been the accepted authority and guide for Jewish life.

No matter how observant or learned a community had been, all questions pertaining to Synagogue practice and religious observance were always de­ cided by the Rabbi. Even in those communities where laymen were as learned as the Rabbi — for the Rabbi has no monopoly on learning — his ruling was always accepted. Was it not for this purpose that he had been chosen by the community as its leader? ^O D A Y , however, when some of our laity openly admit their lack of Jewish learning and their laxity of observance perhaps because of these very factors, they have relegated to themselves the authority of decision in matters of religious law, an authority which belongs only to the Rabbi by 24

virtue of his "Semichah,” his training and knowledge.

When, for example, a community desires to build a new synagogue or schoolhouse, the Rabbi becomes the prime mover in the campaign, func­ tioning as the leader, the worker and fund raiser. But when fundamental questions arise concerning the struc­ ture of the synagogue, the type of instruction to be given in the school and matters of synagogue worship which border along the fundamentals of Jewish law, the members of the congregation have in some cases as­ sumed the authority to take decisions by vote. Synagogue boards disregard the Rabbi, ^ote to abrogate traditional standards of the Synagogue and intro­ duce features which are anti-Jewish in character. Majority rule becomes Jew­ ish Law! But of what value is majority rule if its decisions negate the laws of the Torah, and, destroying Jewish tra­ dition, destroy Judaism, as well.

The great Jewish scholar, Nachmanides, was once asked whether the rule of the majority, the accepted norm in Jewish law, can be applied to the opinions of many general practitioners as against the judgment of one out­ standing specialist. His answer was, of course, that in a case of that sort the opinion of the specialist must be accepted. Must not this principle, now, be applied to the Rabbi who is the genuine exponent of the traditions of Israel? Since he is the interpreter of Torah Law which is eternally bind­ ing upon every Jew, he must be recog­ nized as the indispensable guide for the spiritual and religious needs of his congregation.

True, the Rabbi is not infallible nor are his teachings or his decisions im­ mune from error. The Rabbi, however, JEWISH LIFE

does not merely express his personal opinion. He states the law as found in the Shulchon Oruch and that decisión is binding upon the community,

Unless recognized Jewish authority can prove that the Rabbi has not correctly interpreted the law, his decision must remain binding.

Mixed Seating ^ H E R E is another terribly serious matter stemming from this same root with which we must reckon at this time — the matter of separation of men and women in the Synagogue. It is an unquestionable historic fact that as a symbol of Jewish purity, mixed seating has always been foreign to the Synagogue. The past 30 years in America, however, have seen destruc­ tive action by irreligious, organized Temple bodies whose real motivation — let us. not be satisfied by rationaliza­ tions— was firstly, the desire to imi­ tate the Church— imitation has been the characteristic feature of the nontraditional Jewish community for the last century — and secondly, a desire to achieve an actual separation from the traditional Rabbinate and from the traditional community, as the early Church, for example, changed the Sab­ bath to Sunday in order to show a tangible division from Jewish tradi­ tion. Hence, non-orthodox bodies have not merely tolerated, but actually wel­ comed and encouraged this breach in Jewish tradition as they have striven for fundamental changes in the Prayer Book, thus abrogating not only Jewish practice but renouncing fundamental beliefs of Judaism.

The problem is presented most challengirlgly by the synagogues now being erected and by the architectural plans now being prepared for the future.

Where some congregations hesitate to make changes in existing structures for sentimental if not religious reasons, February, 1956

they feel hardly any obligation to con­ tinue the tradition in a new synagogue.

These are facts with which we must reckon and concerning which we must take a united stand.

It is the duty of a Rabbi who finds himself in a community which has, through ignorance of Jewish tradition, drifted from an understanding and practice of Jewish observance, to make every effort to restore the true stand­ ards of the Synagogue. W e dare not, by passive acceptance of a condition, not of our own making, permit the Synagogue to drift down the already too-well-trodden path of imitation and assimilation. "Mixed pews” can be checked if we make it our responsibil­ ity to do so!

Our laity must be shown the de­ structive results brought about by the breakdown of the traditional Syna­ gogue and their energies must be brought to bear to strengthen and pre­ serve the orthodox — the historic Syna­ gogue. A few people can no longer be permitted to force the issue at con­ gregational meetings and vote to abro­ gate basic tradition. All this will re­ quire dedication and struggle. The results of acquiescence, however, are obvious.’ They spell our own destruc­ tion.

Only if the traditional synagogue will base itself upon a single and firm policy toward Jewish observance, will the Synagogue and the Rabbi again become the great unifying and creative forces in Jewish life.

25

A T e r c e n te n a r y V ie w

By CECIL ROTH ^■HERE IS a significant difference of phraseology between what may be termed the "Foundation Documents’’ of American and English Jewry re­ spectively. The ' famous communica­ tion of the Dutch West India Com­ pany to Peter Stuyvesant in New Amsterdam, in April 1655, instructed him to allow the Jewish refugees who had arrived there from Brazil to re­ main undisturbed so long as "the poor among them do not become a burden to the Company or the community, but be supported by their own N a­ tion.” The petition of Menasseh ben Israel and the group of London Mar­ ranos to Oliver Cromwell on March 24, 1656, to which the Lord Protector ultimately gave, it seems, his verbal assent, asked for permission that "wee may . . . meete at owre . . . devotions in our Particular houses without feere of Molestation . . . and may be buryed in such place . . . as wee shall thinck Convenient.”

It is possible I think to suggest that this difference of phraseology has been reflected, albeit no doubt fortuitously, in the different patterns of the history of the Jewish communities of the United States of America and of Great Britain, which is now celebrating the tercentenary of its establishment, hard after yours. In a certain sense, there 26

has always been something of a secular nature about American Jewry. It is to some extent at least — at all events in the eyes of its neighbours — an ethnic or social unity, rather than, or as well as, a purely religious body. I believe it is correct to say that in some places the first nudeus of communal organi­ zation was a charitable or social body, not, as has always been the case else­ where in Jewish history, the Synagogue.

The leadership of the community is in large measure secular, by which I mean that in many instances the leaders have graduated from non-religious bodies and are not necessarily actively associated with synagogal organiza­ tions. American Jewry has nobly car­ ried out its undertaking that "the poor among them do not become a burden . . . but be supported by their own Nation.”

J N CONTRAST to this, the motive force in Anglo-Jewry from the be­ ginning was to be enabled "to meete at owre devotions.” The basic organi­ zation is the Synagogue, and the com­ munity at large is an extension of the Synagogue. This has implied no doubt elements of weakness as well as of strength. For in the Victorian period the Synagogue was equated with the Church; and just as the Church buildJEWISH LIFE

ing was active only on one day each week, so the activity of the English Synagogue was all but restricted to the Saturday morning, social and cultural activities on week-days being shame­ fully neglected. W e are now paying the penalty for this. Great efforts are being made to redress the balance, though not with the same generosity and breadth of vision as are known among all sections of the community in America.

On the other hand, the Synagogue has been the center and foundation of all the greater and more important Jewish organizations in England, thus imparting to it a very great element of its strength^ Up to a few years ago ( conditions are now, alas, changed) it was difficult to find any prominent communal leader who was not a mem­ ber of and closely associated with a Synagogue — this was regarded as a sine qua non and it was through asso­ ciation with synagogal affairs and management that a man made his name known in the community and became involved in affairs of wider scope.

All the most important communal organizations sprang up—spontaneous­ ly for the most part, in the character­ istic British fashion—out of synagogal organization. The Board of Deputies of British Jews, which has shown itself the most effective and solidly-estab­ lished Jewish "political” organization, in the Old World at least, owes its origin to the joint action of the Sephardi and Ashkenazi synagogues in London for presenting a loyal petition at the time of the accession of King George III to the throne in 1760: It later expanded to embrace other con­ gregations. At the present moment, the membership of the Board of Dep­ uties is to be counted by hundreds and all manner of institutions now have February, 1956

their "deputies,” but the backbone of the representation is still synagogal.

Similarly, the major Anglo-Jewish charitable organization — the famous Jewish Board of Guardians in London, so greatly admired and copied else­ where, began as a joint Charity Com­ mittee of the "City” synagogues. The wealthiest, best-organized and most powerful Anglo-Jewish organization, which subsidizes or provides the im­ petus for a vast number of minor ben­ eficent activities, is the United Syna­ gogue in London, whose president is to be reckoned, together with the presi­ dent of the Board of Deputies, the "lay head” of British Jewry. Were it not for the basic synagogal organiza­ tion in England, the whole structure of the community would topple over.

W? MAY add to this another point.

Jewry in England is essentially what is now termed (to my mind un­ fortunately) an "orthodox” commun­ ity. Reform Judaism became estab­ lished in England in 1840, but it was Reform of a mild kind, which at the beginning observed Kashruth and at one time formally all but recognized the position, if not the authority, of the Chief Rabbinate. Up to the pres­ ent century, there were only three Reform synagogues in the entire coun­ try (one each in London, Manchester and Bradford). This picture no longer applies. Reform Judaism has ex­ panded during the past couple of dec­ ades, both in London and in the Prov­ inces; and it has become a good deal less conservative. Moreover, during the past generation the Liberal Jewish movement, far more extreme (corre­ sponding to left-wing American Re­ form) has become strongly established.

Nevertheless, "orthodox” Judaism has maintained its position. The vast 27

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28

JEWISH LIFE

majority of English Jews who are mem­ bers of synagogues belong to orthodox communities. The United Synagogue is orthodox, as is also the Chief Rab­ binate which it to a great extent main­ tains; and since the Chief Rabbi is generally regarded as the religious head of Anglo-Jewry (in the same way as the Archbishop of Canterbury is of the Church of England, or the Cardinal of Westminster of English Roman Catholicism), and since the office has received incidental mention in Acts of Parliament and so on, it may be said that the outside world, too, re­ gards orthodox Judaism as the 'official” Judaism of the Anglo-Jewish com­ munity. To this I would venture to add that it is what might be termed a "decorous” orthodoxy. I recall that when I first visited New York, up­ wards of thirty years ago, I was told that there were not more than one or two "decorous” orthodox services in the city of the sort that would appeal to one of English background. Ortho­ PORTRAIT: Rabbi Aaron Hart (1670-1756), dox Judaism in England had a longer the first Chief Rabbi of Great Britain. period of acclimatization.

J ^ O R IS THIS merely a matter of form and of lip service. Up to a generation ago, Anglo-Jewry, taken as a whole, was an observant Jewry. It was highly integrated and acclimatized.

It had produced cabinet ministers, members of parliament, eminent writ­ ers, distinguished artists, leaders of society. But by and large it remained deeply attached to tradition. The syna­ gogues were not merely maintained -1? they were frequented. The communal magnates — a good number of them anyway — observed the laws of Kashruth in their homes. There were ele­ gant country houses where the neigh­ boring gentry would be entertained in the Succah. Business houses of worldFebruary, 1956

wide renown were closed, on the Sab­ bath. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. In the last couple of decades, the new generation of the older AngloJewry has to a very regrettable extent left the path of traditional observance, and the same is the case with a large proportion of those who have suc­ ceeded them.

Yet, nevertheless, organized AngloJewry still bears the impress of its strongly conservative past. It is hardly conceivable that a communal meeting should be held on a Friday night. It is "not done” to drive to synagogue on the Sabbath. It is taken for granted that a communal function or institu29

tion should be run on Kosher lines, and no communal charity dares to over­ look this matter. Individuals may do as they please, but the traditional de­ cencies are at least respected.

Does it come to more than this?

There are two different aspects that must be considered in answer. One is that the nostalgic picture I have given applies to the past rather than to the present, and that the general roseate impression of the strength of Orthodoxy in this country is based to a great extent on inadequate observa­ tion. For the fact that conventions are observed publicly does not prove that convictions are deep-rooted, that syna­ gogues are sometimes crowded some­ times conceals the fact that the grand­ children of the founders are sometimes to be sought rather in the neighboring church, and that strongly orthodox spokesmen a^e vocal does not mean that they are influential. In fact, a re­ ligious and sociological study of the record and fate of the splendid AngloJewry of fifty years ago would have a depressing result. At the same time, the later immigrants who in 1905 were only beginning to establish themselves in the country have to a great extent followed their lead. Up to a short while ago, I myself was very pessi­ mistic indeed about the entire AngloJewish future, and I did not hesitate

to say so in print on more than one occasion.

J AM bound to say now, however, that I see some reason to modify my former pessimistic outlook. I am in the lucky position of being in close touch with the younger generation, with the Jewish undergraduates, and it is obvious that there is now a dif­ ferent spirit among them. I am not quite sure what is the reason. It may be in part the fact that they now derive from a somewhat different stratum of society. It may be the consequences of the establishment of the State of Israel. I am inclined t o ,think that a good deal of credit is to be assigned to the youth movements to which so many of the undergraduates of the present generation belonged. But the fact remains that in Jewish keenness, in interest in knowledge, in attach­ ment to tradition, they represent a veritable revival, which offers consid­ erable hopes for the future.

It may be that the inter-war genera­ tion of Anglo-Jewry, distracted by so many other cares, lost a great deal of its historic spirit while it preserved the historic forms. As we begin the fourth century of our life in this land, there seems to be hope at least that the historic forms will be infused again with a new life.

PRESERVATION Man was created singly—as an individual—to teach that he who destroys one soul is considered as if he had destroyed the entire world; he who preserves one soul is considered as though he had preserved the entire world. And further, for the sake of peace, so that no man can say; "My father was greater than yours!"

—Sanhedrin 37a 30

JEWISH LIFE

By JOSEPH YAHALOM

^ H E ANGLO-JEWISH community, which this year is celebrating the tercentenary of Jewish resettlement in England, presents a curious paradox.

Outwardly the community seems to be flourishing; new synagogues are being built and considerable amounts of money are being given to home and Israeli charities. But a closer examina­ tion shows that there are serious flaws in the constitution of the community which if not eradicated might grad­ ually undermine its strength and pos­ sibly lead to the emergence of a totally new Anglo-Jewry.

However, any examination of Brit­ ish Jewry must start with the stressing of a number of fundamental points.

Anglo-Jewry is still overwhelmingly orthodox and is intensely conscious of its traditional Jewish heritage. The majority of British Jews are either themselves immigrants from Eastern or Central Europe or the sons or grand­ sons of such immigrants. There is an February, 1956

intense kinship with the people of Eretz Yisroel, British Jews have shown no lack of courage in attacking British statesmen who, like the late Ernest Bevin, have tried to harm the State of Israel. Only the Jewish community of the United States can rival AngloJewry among the communities of the Diaspora in work for Klal Yisroel and in bringing succor to the oppressed Jewries of the world. ^■HE GREAT majority of synagogues in the Greater London area, in which nearly 300,000 Jews live, are orthodox.

In the provinces the position is the same. Moreover, provincial AngloJewry. is perhaps even more tradition­ ally conscious than London Jewry.

There are thriving orthodox Jewish communities in such great centers as Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liver­ pool, Cardiff, Glasgow — most of them with their own Battey Din. And two other communities, those of Gateshead 31

and Sunderland, give a remarkable lead to the whole of British Jewry in the development of a thoroughly or­ thodox Jewish life.

Gateshead, in the northeastern cor­ ner of England, provides an extraor­ dinary example of how a score of devoted Jews can, by unflinching ad­ herence to traditional Judaism, trans­ form a corner of England into a center of thriving Jewish life. The Gates­ head Yeshivah with several hundred students, is today the finest in Europe, In addition there are centers for higher Talmudical studies and for the train­ ing of orthodox Jewish teachers. And there are other centers with fine Yeshivoth—in London, Sunderland, Man­ chester and Liverpool, for example.

The truly remarkable growth of Jewish Day Schools and of religious Jewish education generally has played a notable role in checking the spread of assimilation and in helping to build a younger generation conscious of its traditional Jewish heritage. The Jew­ ish Secondary School Movement was founded in 1929 by the late Rabbi Dr. Victor Schonfeld. These schools com­ bine the teaching of secular subjects with Hebrew and Jewish subjects and their courses lead to the London Uni­ versity Intermediate Examination. Un­ der the leadership of the late Dr. Schonfeld’s son, Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schonfeld, the schools have made great progress. By now, many thousands of Jewish children have passed through them. The Jewish Day Schools are a credit to Dr. Schonfeld and to the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congre­ gations of which he is the Presiding Rabbi and under whose auspices they are run.

In addition, thele are a number of other independent Jewish schools, such as the Northwest London Jewish Day 32

Schools and the Solomon Wolf son School, and a great net of Hebrew classes in London and the provinces, apart from the considerable number of Talmud Torahs. In London there is the London Board of Jewish Religious Education, whose classes have an en­ rollment of some 14,000 pupils.

An example of the intense attach­ ment to traditional Judaism among the Jews of Britain was the recent state­ ment that there would be only ortho­ dox Jewish teaching in a new school being established by the British Zionist Federation. No Zionist or any other Jewish group — apart, of course, from the Reform movements — could at this moment establish with any hope of success a school at which orthodox Jewish teaching was not adopted.

J H E UNDOUBTED spiritual leadA ership of the great majority of British Jews is held by a deeply ortho­ dox Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Israel Brodie.

He is the Chief Rabbi not only of British Jewry but of the British Com­ monwealth and Empire. The Chief Rabbinate has developed out of the office of the Rabbi of the Great Syna­ gogue, Duke’s Place, London. Since the 18th century Ashkenazi congrega­ tions which were established first in the provinces and then in British do­ mains have looked upon the successive Rabbis of London’s Great Synagogue as their spiritual leader. Chief Rabbi Brodies jurisdiction is acknowledged by the great majority of British Jews.

Himself an intense believer in tradi­ tional Judaism, he has greatly strength­ ened Orthodoxy in Britain by his example.

The London Beth Din, over which the Chief Rabbi presides, is also ac­ knowledged as the supreme religious court for British Jewry, and sittings JEWISH LIFE

of the Beth Din take place every day of the week. There are also Battey Din of high repute in a number of provin­ cial centers such as Manchester and Leeds.

An important role in orthodox Jew­ ish life in Britain is played by the Boards of Shechitah, the foremost of which is the London Shechita Board which was founded in 1804. The great majority, of London Jewish butchers are under the supervision of the Board.

Any butcher who by some act loses the license issued by the Board is faced with the probable failure of his busi­ ness, for almost all his customers would take their trade to another butcher to make sure they were buying Kosher meat. The recent attempt by a Member of Parliament to introduce an anti-Shechitah Bill in the House of Commons brought forth a united cam­ paign by British Jewry in defense of this basic Jewish law.

restaurants and of the meals at Jewish festive gatherings. There is, too, the Sabbath Observance Bureau which ob­ tains employment for Jews who do not want to desecrate the Sabbath.

^^FFICIAL Anglo-Jewish Orthodoxy in the Greater London area is personified by the United Synagogue, at the head of which is the Hon. Ewen E. S. Montagu, a Queen’s Counsel and the Judge Advocate of the Fleet, a highly important office under the Crown. The United Synagogue, num­ bering seventy-five affiliated congrega­ tions with a membership of about 31,000 families, is the largest single synagogal body in the United King­ dom. It is concentrated in the Greater London area but it has immense in­ fluence over the religious life of the whole of Anglo-Jewry. The United Synagogue is excelleiitly organized.

It has a sound financial basis and is the main supporter of the Chief Rab­ 'p H E SEPHARDI Jewish community binate and of the London Board of — the oldest Jewish community in Jewish Religious Education.

Britain-—under the leadership of the So well in fact is the United Syna­ Haham, Rabbi Dr. S. Gaon, is also gogue organized that one quite fre­ adding its weight to the fight to pre­ quently hears the charge that admin­ serve orthodox Jewish values in Great istration is in danger of pushing out Britain. Their magnificent parent syna­ the spiritual message. This criticism gogue, the Bevis Marks, is one of the is greatly exaggerated but it neverthe­ glorious possessions of European Jewry less hides a very important truth. The and one of the finest historical relig­ lay administrators of the United Syna­ ious buildings in Britain. gogue have great power, both at head­ There are other vitally important quarters and at the individual syna­ institutions which help to strengthen gogues, which are run by Boards of and revivify «traditional Judaism in Management. The late Sir Robert Britain. There is, for example, Jews’ Wale Cohen, of Shell Oil fame, was College in London. This institution, a great business figure in Britain but which trains rabbis and ministers and he devoted himself wholeheartedly to of which the Chief Rabbi is President, the welfare of the community and of recently celebrated its 100th anniver­ the United Synagogue in particular. sary. There is the Kashruth Commis­ But he was a man who liked his own sion, which supervises the Kashruth of way and he was frequently in conflict large numbers of Jewish hotels and with the late Chief Rabbi, Dr. J. H. February, 1956

33

Hertz, and emerged victorious on more than one occasion. The present Chief Rabbi is a man who genuinely believes in peace and goes to great lengths to avoid communal conflicts, but even he has been unable to avoid some exchanges with the Hon. Mr. Montagu in regard to the London Beth Din.

has moved to other centers such as the Northwest. It is significant that the United Synagogue has decided not to rebuild the historic Synagogue in Dukes Place, destroyed by the Ger­ mans, but to build another Great Synagogue in Marble Arch iii the cen­ ter of London.

While the Federation has been strug­ gling— and providing the community with some rather undignified squabbles — the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, founded thirty years ago, has been making great forward strides. The Union, a large number of whose members were German ref­ ugees, has the fervent loyalty of the traditionally frum Jews. W ith its great educational activities— as has already been pointed out, the Secondary Jew­ ish Schools Movement is associated with it — and its Shechitah organiza­ tion, which is independent of the Lon­ don Shechitah Board, the Union plays a vital role in Jewish life in Greater London and throughout the country.

There have been controversies between the London Shechitah Board and the Union Shechitah organization and this may lead to an important communal conflict.

J W O OTHER highly important or­ thodox communities in the Greater London area are contributing to the maintenance of traditional Judaism.

Both of these congregational bodies, in fact, claim that their members are more orthodox than the majority of the members of the United Synagogue.

The Federation of Synagogues was founded in 1887 by the first Lord Swaythling in the eastern districts of London. His aim was to bring some order among the various little syna­ gogues which had been established by Jewish immigrants from Europe. The Federation was greatly weakened by the exodus of the Jewish population during recent decades to the "higher class" districts of London. This ex­ odus was sharply accelerated by the heavy German bombing of the East End in the last war. Today the Jewish population of the East End is prob­ J H E UNITED SYNAGOGUE, al­ ably no more than 20,000. A consid­ though much stronger in member­ erable number of the thirty-five syna­ ship and finances than the Union of gogues belonging to the Federation Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, has have been officially described as "re­ much reason to fear the advance of this dundant." Once the cradle of Anglo- vigorous young group. One of thq Jewry, the East End is now having to mainstays of "official" Anglo-Jewish fight hard for survival. Today, unfor­ Orthodoxy under the banner of the tunately, only the ghost of the colorful United Synagogue has been the London and pulsating Jewish life of forty years Beth Din. In recent months, however, ago walks the streets of Whitechapel the Beth Din has been greatly weak­ and Commercial Road. The Federa­ ened by the departure of Dayan tion of Synagogues is striving hard to Yecheskel Abramsky for Israel and bring back some of the glories of the the serious illness of Dayan Dr. I. past. Jewish life in the London area Grunfeld. The Union, on the other 34 JEWISH LIFE

LANDMARK: The interior of Bevis Marks, historic parent synagogue of the Sephardi Jewish community in London.

hand, has recently brought from Israel essential, nevertheless, that the London an outstanding Halochic scholar, Rabbi Beth Din should be strengthened by Henach Padwa, as its Principal Rab­ a Talmudic scholar of the stature, of binical Authority. In effect, the Union Dayan Abramsky but so far all the now has its own Beth Din. It is not efforts to do so have failed. at all unlikely that the Union "Beth Din” might be recognized by an in­ creasing number of Jews. It should, J T IS AGAINST this background—* however, be stressed that the Union which must be kept firmly in mind leaders have strongly disclaimed any —of Orthodoxy being supreme in the desire to take away any of the author­ life of the Anglo-Jewish community ity from the London Beth Din. It is —that must be discussed the less February, 1956

35

bright side of British Jewry which presents such a remarkable paradox.

A recently published book on AngloJewry, "A Minority in Britain,” dis­ closes some of the weaknesses which beset the community. The author dis­ cusses the problem of marriages out of faith, the decline in the Jewish birth­ rate, a trend towards assimilation. In addition he mentions a fundamental weakness—the widespread lack of knowledge of Judaism.

A minister of an orthodox synago­ gue in London, Rabbi M. Spira, has frequently complained that he hardly sees a Jewish book when he visits any

SPIRITUAL LEADER: Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie is shown here in the uniform of the Chief of Jewish Chaplains, a position he held until 1946 when he was appointed Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth and Empire.

36

of his congregants. Although such dis­ tinguished publishing enterprises as the Soncino Press, the East and West Library and Vallentine and Michell provide the community with books that stimulate Jewish learning in all its facets, Anglo-Jewish scholarship remains the property of a very small circle. Dr. A. Cohen, a former Presi­ dent of the British Board of Deputies, has complained that few Jewish stu­ dents at the Universities are inter­ ested Ienough to undertake the study of the Hebrew language or of Jewish history and culture.

Marriages out of the faith present a problem with which the community is becoming increasingly concerned.

It is now affecting almost all sections of the community and is probably on a larger scale than even the pessimis­ tic dare to admit. Dayan Dr. I. Grunfeld, of the London Beth Din, has stated that at least ten per cent and possibly twelve and a half per cent of the marriages of Jews in Britain were outside the faith. This, he has admitted, is a conservative estimate as it does not take into account the proselytisations granted by the Liberal and Reform congregations. The Chief Rabbi too, while stressing that fore­ casts of impending doom where the Jewish community was concerned were never "safe,” has pointed to certain features which threaten the vitality of communal life. He refers to the aggressive infiltration of the Liberal and Reform movements, the growth of intermarriage, the usurpation of a blatant Am - Ha - Aratzuth, and th e weakening in matters of faith and observance.

Q R T H O D O X Y IN BRITAIN is now having to meet the challenge of the Reform and Liberal movements, JEWISH LIFE

which have made undoubted progress.

Reform in Britain has developed on more conservative lines than its coun­ terpart elsewhere. Its leaders state that the movement stands between ortho­ dox Judaism and the Liberal move­ ment. The service in the Reform con­ gregations resembles the traditional Jewish service but many of the prayers are either omitted or shortened. He­ brew still plays a predominant part in the service. In contrast, the Liberal movement has departed entirely from the Jewish mode of worship and Eng­ lish has almost entirely taken the place of Hebrew.

The Reform movement, whose con­ gregations form the Association of Synagogues in Great Britain, has par­ ticularly made progress, and its main congregation, the West London Syna­ gogue of British Jews, claims the largest membership of any single con­ gregation of Jews in Britain.

Another danger sign to British Jewry lies in the fact that in Greater London, with a Jewish population of about 300,000, only about 161,000 individuals were registered with kosher butchers in 1950.

y E T , DESPITE all these adverse fac­ tors, Orthodoxy in Britain remains the supreme movement in Jewish life.

The feeling for traditional Judaism among the majority of British Jews is intense, even in cases when the in­ dividual does not himself carry out all the tenets of the Torah. Any attack on the tenets of orthodox Judaism brings forth a tremendous reaction, as was shown recently when a wellknown physician, Dr. Eustace Chesser — known more for his sexological books than for his pronouncements on religious questions—harshly criticized the system of mikvaoth. So intense was the reaction to his criticism that the doctor was forced to make an apology.

But if Jewry in Britain is hot only to survive but also to strengthen it­ self and prosper, it is essential that a much greater number of baal-habattim should be conversant with Jewish teaching. W ith a greater immersion in the spring of Jewish learning Jewry in Britain could have a glorious future reminiscent of some of the achieve­ ments of Continental European Jewry.

FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN The brain consists of three lobes, each of which is the seat of a different function. The anterior lobe, in front of the head, holds memory; the middle lobe holds the intellect. That is why a man lowers his head when thinking of things he has never known, since the intellect acts upon the imagination and evolves new ideas; he raises his head with thinking of what he once knew but has forgotten, because then the intellect comes in contact with the memory and revives forgotten ideas.

—Sefer Sha'ashu'im IX, 7 TEMPER, TEMPER The only thing a hot-tempered man accomplishes is the harmful effect of his excitement on himself.

-—Kiddushin 40b February, 1956

37

By MORRIS M A X

J H E ADOPTION of children by Jewish young couples has now be­ come a more frequent occurrence than ever before. The religious problems that have been created by this new trend have never been discussed openly.

Consequently, difficulties have arisen which have been insurmountable at times and which have made of some of the adopted children a liability to the Jewish people as a whole.

In the days of the Talmud as well as throughout Jewish history the only children that were adopted were either Jewish orphans or those Jewish chil­ dren whose parents could not ade­ quately provide for them. Such an adoption was regarded as a great mitzvah. In the words of our sages (Sanhedrin 19b) "he who rears an orphan in his own home is regarded

by Scripture as if he actually gave birth to him.” Rearing an orphan meant not only providing for all his physical needs. It also implied the sacred duty of transmitting to him our great Jew38

ish heritage. Hence Rabbi Sh’muel bar Nachmani explicitly states (ibid) that "he who teaches Torah to the son of his friend is also regarded by Scripture as if he gave birth to him.”

It was the sacred obligation of the Jewish community to provide homes for those unfortunate children who were deprived of a normal upbringing or training. It was not unusual there­ fore for parents who were blessed with several children to take into their homes one of these unfortunate Jewish children who were either real orphans or "living orphans.”

‘JO D A Y the situation is quite dif­ ferent. Young couples who are un­ able to have children of their own — and the number of such Jewish couples has increased considerably in the last two decades — find it a vital necessity, for their own happiness and for their own personality development, to have a child in their home. Consequently, when they turn to Jewish social welJEWISH LIFE

fare agencies to provide them with a child for adoption, they are so eager to be one of the chosen few who are fortunate to receive a baby that they do not look into the parental back­ ground of the child. Although the agencies claim that they make available to the prospective parents information concerning the natural father and mother of the child, the average young couple does not concern itself too much with the Jewish background of the real parents. As long as they have a baby to take home they are satisfied.

When the baby grows up, however, and especially when the child matures — when he reaches Bar Mitzvah or when he begins to think of marriage — the adoptive parents are suddenly made aware of numerous religious problems that they had never pre­ viously considered. Those parents are under the impression that, because they have legally adopted this child, it is their own flesh and blood for all practical purposes. Such is not the case from the Jewish point of view.

To make a child one of "your own Jewish flesh and blood,” one must first become cognizant of the aims and purposes of Jewish living. When G-d said to Israel on Mt. Sinai (Shemoth 19 : 5) Y e shall he mine own treasure from among all people, He preceded it with the provision Now therefore, if ye will hearken unto My voice in­ deed, and keep My covenant; and He followed it with the injunction And

ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

The Jewish commentator from Italy, Obadiah Sforno, adds this significant interpretation to these sentences: "Al­ though the whole human race is pre­ cious unto Me, more than any other existing inferior beings-—as our Sages said — ‘Beloved is man for he was created in the image (of G -d),’ nev­ ertheless ye shall be Mine own treas­ ure from among them all . . . in that you shall be a kingdom of priests charged with the task to instruct and teach the whole of mankind in order that they may call upon the name of G-d and serve Him with one consent.”

In other words, through his own unique way of living in accordance with the will of G-d as embodied in the Torah, through teaching by his own example, will the Jew show that he is a member of a G-dly people. By accepting the G-dly standards of Jew­ ish Law rather than by following his own emotions or the ever-changing standards of society, will he be able to carry out the noble purposes of Jewish life. As Sforno concludes, "Just as G-d is holy and eternal so must Israel be eternally holy.” Good and spiritually sturdy Jewish stock, which is the end-result of the laws of Fam­ ily Purity, is therefore fundamental to the eternal survival of our People.

Let us therefore examine what Jew­ ish Law has to say about this question of adoption.

Necessary Precautions J^CCO RD IN G to Jewish Law, the adoption of a stranger’s child does not make him legally the child of the young couple who adopted him. Should the adoptive parents have a child of their own, the adopted child remains February, 1956

unrelated to his "brother” or "sister.”

On the other hand, should the natural parents who gave the child away for adoption, give birth to another boy or girl, the brother or sister relationship with the adopted child remains the 39

same even if they never saw each remarry because she thought that she other. There have been cases such as had no brother-in-law and then her one in which a brother and sister were natural brother-in-law appears, she actually married without knowing of must still have Chalitzah if she is to their relationship because one of them continue living with her second hus­ had been given away as a baby for band. A duly ordained rabbi must, adoption. They had never seen each however, be consulted in this matter, other; they met at college as total for there are other legal points which strangers, were married and even had must be taken care of to continue the children; and only then did they dis­ marriage. cover that they both had the same Still another precaution must be natural father and mother. The tragedy taken even if the natural mother is that resulted from that discovery was Jewish. If the natural mother was one that could not be overcome. Ac­ married and the child was born as a cording to Jewish Law, the two were result of an extra-marital relationship, no longer permitted to live together ‘then the child is a "mamzer” of whom as husband and wife. Each one of it is said in the Torah that he "shall their children was a "mamzer” — a not come into the congregation of the bastard — who was not permitted to Lord (Bemidbor 23:3). That means marry a Jew or Jewess unless he or that he or she is not permitted to she was also a ' mamzer” or a prose­ marry a Jewish girl or boy, as the case lyte. may be. The same is true if the natural The first rule for parents adopting mother had been married and had a child should therefore be: Find out been granted a civil divorce but had who the father and mother of the not received a Get, a Jewish divorce. child are. Do they have other chil­ Such a woman is considered by Jewish dren? If not, keep in touch with them law as a married woman. If she bears for they may bear children after they give their child away for adoption. a child after relationship with a man In that way when the adopted child other than her own former husband grows up and begins to think of mar­ that child is a "mamzer.” Moreover, if riage, the adoptive parents may obviate she had been remarried in a civil cckirt such tragedies as the above. but had not previously received a Get, Another reason for finding out the child is still considered a "mamzer.” whether the adopted boy has a natural brother is in a case of "Chalitzah” (the Y ^H ERE the unwed mother is not Biblically-prescribed rite devolving — Jewish there are more complica­ in lieu of levirate marriage — upon tions which must be regarded by the the brother of a deceased husband, without which his widowed sister-in- adoptive parents. A child born of a law may not remarry. See Bemidbor : non-Jewish mother is legally a non25:1 5-9). Should this adopted son Jew even if the father is Jewish. Con­ marry and die without leaving any sequently a Jewish couple adopting a children, the widow cannot remarry, child of a non-Jewish mother must according to Jewish Law, unless the convert the child to Judaism if he or natural brother of her deceased hus­ she is to be considered as their adopted band gives her Chalitzah. Should she Jewish child. If the child is a boy he 40

JEWISH LIFE

must be circumcized in the presence fore the age of twelve she has the of a Beth Din, a court, and the bless­ right to declare that she refuses to ing for circumcizing a proselyte must accept the obligations of Judaism and be recited by the Mohel. A Jewish she remains a non-Jewess despite her name is given him at the time of cir­ submersion in the Mikvah at an earlier cumcision. But his conversion is not age. yet completed. He must be submerged in the Mikvah as soon as he is old JEWISH couple, therefore, who enough to be submerged without being harmed. This is usually done in the adopt a child born of a non-Jew­ presence of a Beth Din. Judaism, ish mother, unwed or married, must however, does not recognize forced or realize the sacred obligation they have unwitting conversions as valid. Ac­ to give that child an effective Jewish cordingly, before the age of thirteen, training that shall leave the child with in the case of an adopted boy, a rabbi a positive approach to Judaism and an should ascertain the extent of his Jew- ; appreciation of our great Jewish heri­ ish education in order to make certain tage. When Jewish parents fail to that he is conscious of the privilege give their natural child a thorough that is his as a proselyte to fulfill the Jewish upbringing they are negligent Mitzvoth as a mature Jew. He has the in their most sacred obligation but right before the age of thirteen to de­ their child remains Jewish—true, a clare that he refuses to accept the obli­ non-observant or ignorant Jew, but a gations of Judaism and he remains a , Jew nonetheless. Jewish parents, how­ non-Jew, even though he had been cir- \ ever, who adopt a child of a non-Jew­ cumcized as a child and had been taken » ish mother and fail to give him or through the ceremony of Tevillah in her a thorough Jewish training may be the Mikvah in the presence of a Beth broken-hearted when they learn that Din. "their child” has decided not to be a Should the child be a girl then a Jew. That is his privilege and his Jewish name can not be given to her right. Their negligence can therefore until she has observed the ceremony result in a catastrophe for themselves of the submersion in the Mikvah. Be­ and for the child.

Agency Policies ■JHE ABOVE considerations must be taken into account not only by Jew­ ish couples who adopt a child given to them by a private individual but also by those Jewish agencies who are ready to serve Jewish childless couples.

At a recent meeting of the Execu­ tive Committee of the National Com­ munity Relations Advisory Council, Judge Justine Wise Polier of New York City’s Domestic Relations Court, February, 1956

and Florence Brown, director of Louise Wise Services, a Jewish adoption agency, were invited to give a presen­ tation and to participate in a discus­ sion on the issue of child-adoption across religious lines.

Some of the statistics and points of view presented should be of great interest to Jews who regard the prin­ ciple of family purity as basic to the survival of the Jewish people. To 41

quote a memorandum prepared for "the constituent agencies who would wish to discuss the issue within their own organizations”: "In 1953, 80,000 adoption applications ~ were filed . . . (the figure includes children of all faiths) but it does not include an indeterminate number of cases in which children were taken into homes without any formal adoption proceedings . . .

Children o f Jewish natural mothers avail­ able for adoption numbered perhaps l /2 5 of the number of Jewish families seeking to adopt children . . .

"Louise Wise Services accepts children of non-Jewish mothers for placement with Jewish adoptive parents in special circum­ stances. In each case, however, the agency seeks first to refer the natural mother to an agency of her own religious faith. If the mother then expresses a desire to have her child placed with a Jewish family the agency accepts the child for adoption. The overwhelming majority of children placed

by Louise Wise Services are the children of Jewish mothers.

"In private (non-agency) placements it is known that many children of nonJewish parentage are placed with Jewish families for adoption.”

It is evident from the foregoing that the religious problems discussed in this article are no longer merely academic. W e must approach them realistically. Disregarding them will involve the Jewish community more and more deeply as the complications described above will bring to light tragedies which can not be met and satisfactorily overcome.

3 to proselytism. Jewish social agen­ cies, maintained by funds collected from all Jews, should therefore not go contrary to the principles of our Faith.

It is true that Jews are obligated to

give charity for non-Jewish children who are in need (See Talmud Gitin6la, and Yoreh Deah-151) but simply because we feed, clothe and shelter them we are not allowed to "force” them to accept Judaism. Taking a helpless baby, who from the point of view of Jewish Law is a non-Jew (where the natural mother is a nonJew) and under the guise of giving "first consideration to the need of a child for a good permanent family relationship” subjecting him to relig­ ious restrictions which upon maturity he may choose to regard as unneces­ sary, is incompatible alike with the principles of American democracy and with Jewish religious belief.

Where "special circumstances” arise, the least that the Jewish agency can do is to refer the adoptive parents to a rabbi who is authorized (ordained with Semichah) to decide religious questions so that they may be informed of their serious and sacred obligations in those ‘ special circumstances.”

The responsible organs of American Jewish religious life must address themselves to the study and solution of the problems discussed in this ar­ ticle, and to the maintenance, in gen­ eral, of the standards of Family Purity which have always distinguished our people, Israel. Towards this purpose, the Rabbinical Council of America has established its Committee on Fam­ ily and Marriage. This Committee stands ready to be of service to the agencies who are coping with the problems of adoption and to those parents who wish to make certain that they have done everything necessary to assure the child’s happiness as a Jew;

Whoever visits an invalid takes away one-sixtieth of his pain.

—Nedarim 39b

42

JEWISH LIFE

valian t w ife-w h o can find?

By ESTHER M ARINE ##J 7 0 R THE SAKE of the righteous woman Israel was redeemed,” is a famous saying of our Rabbis. Mod­ ern psychologists would call a right­ eous woman a mature, well adjusted personality. She is the kind of person who sees to the needs of her family —their physical needs, their emotional needs, and their spiritual needs.

An article in Parents Magazine re­ cently bore the striking title, "Which are you first, wife or mother?” At first sight this might seem to be merely academic, but when we look further into this question and study what we have seen of good marriages, we know that this question attacks a very basic problem. The love of hus­ band for wife and wife for husband is the very foundation of any mar­ riage. This love comes before all else and is later able to grow and encom­ pass the love for children, which alone enables them to develop into mature adulthood. I am naturally not refer­ ring to the romantic love featured in the neighborhood movie, but the toFebruary, 1956

getherness of spirit, the understanding and empathy, which is the blessing of the Jewish home and the envy of the world. This togetherness does not just occur, but is brought about through divine inspiration, through affection and sympathy, through the laws of Family Purity, and through the observance of Sabbath and the Festivals.

Today the wife is often able to hold the fort safe, while outside the storm may be raging ready to engulf her hus­ band and all her family. She is queen in the home and as such she is able to create the Jewish atmosphere from which her husband goes forth. I have said she is queen, and I know she has a king, and it is important that she share with him and relegate to him problems that are specifically his. Too many women think they are queen with a prince consort and take over many of the duties and joys that right­ fully belong to the husband. They take complete care of the children, run their homes and their husbands, and 43

even take over his sacred functions in the synagogue. Experience has shown us that this passive role of the man leads to emotional maladjustment in the children whose personalities often become twisted through over-solicitous mothers. The man, too, is unhappy in his role as prince consort and longs to be king. "Maternal over-protection,” as cited by Dr. David Levy, can also be seen in the instance of a wife fight­ ing her husbands battles and not having the insight to allow him to take care of himself.

a hypocrite. He will not have a posi­ tive feeling of identification with his people and religion, for they have been discredited by his very own parents. He will not feel secure within himself; he will not know about the great culture that is his inheritance and birthright, for he will have left Hebrew School just when he was start--' ing to learn, just after his Bar Mitzvah.

■JHIS MODERN age of stress and strain has presented the home with tremendous tasks, paramount of which is the laying of religious faith that ■pttE EMOTIONAL aspects of living will last a lifetime. The most impor­ are receiving increasing attention tant factor in the home is the creation in these troubled times. The problem of an atmosphere in which spiritual child and delinquent child are traced values will be caught as much as back to the broken home, the incon­ taught. One writer has called it "spir­ sistent parents. It has been seen that itual osmosis” or religion by contagion inconsistency in our treatment of chil­ . . . religious values transmitted through dren is a major factor in mental break­ the medium of the unspoken. Thus down in later life. How many say Jiving Judaism will teach Torah Juda­ "Don't do as I do; do as I say.” Chil­ ism to our children and make them dren cannot be hoodwinked; they are feel spiritually secure in moments of the first to test us, try us out and find crisis. us wanting. They expose the modern A discussion of the ceremonial of theories of child care before we have the Sabbath will illustrate the feeling assimilated them ourselves. that it creates for the child. For as the Then there is the mother who sends psychologists say, "Feeling is the mo­ her child to Hebrew School, who is tive force behind all our actions.” interested in his learning as much as Shabboth — what does it mean for possible, but whose actions at home the lucky child brought up in the run contrary to everything taught at home spiritually secure, emotionally school. She is not particular about sound, rich in experience and unend­ Kashruth at home or perhaps she is ing in feeling? but she announces to all and sundry The pleasure and expectation that I eat anything out.” She goes to the awaits the Sabbath queen, the day synagogue three times a year but never endowed by parents as very special in considers entering at any other time. the week, the day when father and Shabboth is the time to buy needed mother complement each other in clothing or visit the dentist. How does deeds filled with religious significance a child in such a home feel? He be­ and feeling. The lighting of the lieves the Jewish religion is just some­ candles, the blessing of the children, thing he learns at school. Later he will the welcoming of Shabboth, bring awe reluctantly admit that his mother was and wonder to the child. Some mothers 44

JEWISH LIFE

share with their daughters the cere­ mony of Licht Benshen, and so at an early age these little girls perform with pride the responsibility of lighting the sacred Sabbath candles.

Shabboth is a holy day and so its importance is stressed by a change, a change in our food — our meals are more elaborate, a change in our clothes -—we wear our very best. Perhaps we keep the most pleasant books to read on this day or special delicacies to eat after dinner. By all these methods the heightened feeling for Shabboth is brought to dwell in the heart and soul of the child.

The Friday evening — a special oc­ casion for the child, an added privi­ lege, a moment filled with wonder; the family together, a happy warmth pervading everything; the Kiddush, the challahs, a satisfying meal, Z’miroth singing, bring moments to the child that will stand the test of the assimilat­ ing forces.

Shabboth itself — the synagogue in the morning, the feeling of being part of a family group, a part of a Torah

February, 1956

group, receiving encouragement in do­ ing what their hero and heroine, their father and mother, are doing. The afternoon — a time for a little study, a little play, and then to end the day, Havdolah, a division between Shabboth and the rest of the week«?—a twisted candle for light, a cup of wine, the smell of spices, these bring us the presence of an invisible G-d. Only by performing these ceremonies can the lives of our children be enriched Jewishly and thus may they be moved by these outward signs of an inner faith.

HAVE talked of the husband, f the children, their needs and de­ sires. But what of the woman herself?

Too many people tend to consider her self-sufficient, all-knowing and all­ giving, and perhaps the woman herself has in a way fostered this myth. The fairy stories all end with marriage but for us our full adult life just begins at this stage. It often seems such a pity that marriage for some is just a state of stagnation — no need now to dress up and lo o k a ttra c tiv e , no need

45

to keep abreast of the times— the man has been caught, the marriage consummated. Knowing how looking after a house and small children can change from a joyous task to a burden­ some routine, it is even more impor­ tant after marriage to keep up ones morale, to look pleasing to oneself and the family, to keep up with the latest news events and cultural activity, so that conversation is not always the latest recipe or cute thing the baby did. Recently the famed Dr. Benjamin Spock proposed something that is dear to every woman. It is time: an allotted period every week just for oneself. It is time to leave the home and to do the hundred-and-one things outside of the home that every woman loves. Go to a meeting, visit the library, meet a friend, develop a par­ ticular hobby or interest or, as Anne Morrow ^Lindbergh says in "Gift of the Sea, just have time to pause in our world of stress and strain.

Harold Laski, the political scientist, spoke of the need for every person to develop his own particular potential.

This is only possible if woman has some time that is completely her own.

Many will not be able to afford an afternoon a week; maybe they could arrange an evening when Papa could baby-sit. This is essential if young mothers are to maintain their equili­ brium and be personalities in their own right.

J^ONG AGO Solomon, wisest of men, wrote the outstanding Proverb which is a standard for all time: She openeth her m outh w ith wisdom and in her tongue is the law of Kindness.

She looketh well to the ways o f her house­ hold and* eateth not the bread o f idleness.

H er children rise up and call her blessed and her husband also and he praiseth her* Many daughters have done virtuously bu t thou excellest them all.

MAN'S OWN NATURE It is absolutely untrue that a man must do or refrain from doing a certain thing; the constellation at the time of his birth does not determine his line of conduct. No compulsion or external influence is exerted, unless it is his own nature to be weak.

—Maimonides, Eight Chapters, VIII

HIS OWN DOING Man is his own worst enemy. This is reminiscent of the parable told about the creation of iron, which caused the trees to tremble and complain. But the iron remarked: "Why tremble? If none of you gives me a handle, none of you will be harmed!"

—B'reishith Rabbah V 46

JEWISH LIFE

By 1. HALEVY-LEV1N Jerusalem :

T H E TEMPERATURE of the Middle 'Eastern cauldron, constantly sim­ mering since the liquidation of the French and British Mandates, has sud­ denly, jumped to boiling point as a result of the Egyptian-Soviet arms deal.

To get this situation into proper focus and to assess the diverse pressures to which Israel is subject, it is necessary to examine some of the less transient forces at work.

It is not certain whether Jamal Ab­ dul Nasser, Dictator of Egypt, can really be reckoned among the less transient forces. Rulers in all coun­ tries of the Middle East—barring Israel of course — have proved notori­ ously short-lived. Nasser, for the time being, seems to be one of the excep­ tions. His career has been meteoric, but he appears to be firmer in the saddle than most of his living contem­ poraries or immediate predecessors.

February, 1956

TAMAL ABDUL NASSER first hit ' the headlines in the autumn of 1948 in the concluding stage of the Israel-Arab War, when as aide to Brig­ adier Taha - - the "Black Tiger” — Sudanese C. O. of the Egyptian Ninth Brigade, he had to complete arrange­ ments for the withdrawal of the de­ feated Egyptian forces, under UN pro­ tection, from the Faluja pocket. Israel’s magnanimity in not destroying the be­ sieged Egyptians, as she could easily have done, proved a sound investment producing dividends some months later in the Egyptian decision to sign an armistice agreement. Egypt’s example, emulated by the other belligerent Arab States, with the exception of Iraq, put an end to the abortive invasion of Israel. It was on the Israeli front, under the simulus of the military de­ bacle, that the revolutionary Egyptian Free Officers Movement, in which Nas47

tiie leading spirit, took shape. his position. He frustrated a counter­ The members of the Movement coup by a group of pro-Naguib cav­ were all young and were conscious of alry officers; broke the Muslim Broth­ the need of an older officer to serve as erhood, which claims to have millions their leader (as some thought), or as of adherents throughout all the Islamic a figurehead ( as others, including Nas­ countries; escaped assassination and ser, did). Taha, the only Egyptian senior officer to put up anything of a thereby buttressed his popularity; emerged at the Bandung Conference fight in the War, was a Sudanese and as a leading exponent of neutralism — black. Mohammed Naguib, who had after Nehru; removed from influence led the left prong of the Egyptian Major Salah Salem, his right-hand thrust, had no particular military tal­ man; and finally closed an arms deal en t— his forces had been held up for two months by Kfar Darom, a with the Communists, which places him in an excellent position to extort tiny Hapoel Hamizrachi village in the political and economic concessions heart of what is today the Gaza Strip. (worth hundreds of millions of dol­ But he had been wounded in action lars) from the Western Powers. and so his reputation as a war hero was unassailable. The fact that Naguib J N EXTERNAL p o lic y N a s s e r’s was half Sudanese — on his mother’s achievements have been more scin­ Si u j WaS -in h*s *avor- Apparently tillating than real. Whatever histor­ Abdul Hakim Amar — then a young ians may say, he is given credit for officer on Naguibs staff and one of having got the British out of Suez.

Nassers closest aides, today Egyptian But closer reading of his record fails Minister of Defense and simultane­ to reveal anything really formidable. ously Commander-in-Chief of the joint On the contrary, his army may make Egyptian and Syrian and of the Egyp- a brave show in processions with its tian-Sudan armies — did not have dif­ British-supplied Centurion tanks and ficulty in persuading Naguib to join jet-planes, but its real quality was ap­ the conspirators. parent at Gaza, Khan Yunis, Qunteila and El-Sabha. His treatment of Naguib J^JASSER waited patiently for four and Salah Salem have lost him Sudan, years before he gave Farouk’s though his people are too ignorant and throne the slight push that was all that apathetic to appreciate the magnitude was necessary to upset it. Overnight of the loss. He has lost the leadership Naguib became Dictator and Nasser of the Arab peoples and seems set the real power in the land. But Nas­ fair to isolating Egypt from her nat­ ser s love of the limelight was too ural allies — the Arab States — with strong to allow him to play second exception of Saudi Arabia. And the fiddle. So he staged a coup, first mak- consequences of his master stroke — ing Naguib President ( European-style, the Soviet arms deal — may yet prove not American) and then putting him that he has hoisted Egypt on his petard. under house arrest, where he remains But it is his lack of success in the to this day, a potential rallying point economic and social spheres and the for Nasser’s many enemies. state of his country that nourish Nas­ In the two years in which he has ser s bellicose mood and may drive wielded power, Nasser has proved re­ him to war. His country is not threat­ markably successful in consolidating ened, certainly not by Israel. The only 48 JEWISH LIFE

possible bone of contention between the two States is the 75,000 acre Gaza Strip, which, if it involved taking the 300,000 refugees that it accommodates, Israel would not have as a gift. The key to Nasser’s aggressive policy must be sought (a) in his big ideas; (b) in his country’s plight. ^ H E R E IS nothing niggardly about * Nasser’s imperialism. It is conceived in terms of continents. The only limi­ tation that he recognizes at all is that it must be consummated in successive phases. But even the first phase is of dimensions sufficient to daunt a more timid spirit. It comprises no less than the unification under Egyptian hege­ mony of the Arabic-speaking world from the Pillars of Hercules to the Euphrates, and deep down into Africa.

Nasser is already busy on this part of his program. His net has been flung wide and his agents are busy foment­ ing trouble in Algeria, in Equatorial Africa, in Iraq — and in the various countries in between. It is here that Nasser’s opposition to the Baghdad Pact, which gave undue prominence to Iraq, Egypt’s main rival for the Arab leadership, must be sought.

There is another sphere, according to Nasser, of which Egypt must be­ come the center, the entire African continent, where, as he significantly points out, two hundred million Afri­ cans face five million white Europeans.

The rapid spread of Islam among the Central African tribes, which is caus­ ing so much concern to Christian mis­ sionary societies, shows that this am­ bition, too, is not without a kernel of substance.

■BUT the fulcrum of these megalo­ maniac ambitions, Egypt, is one of the poorest countries in the world, in­ deed the poorest, despite the fine faFebruary, 1956

cades of Alexandria and Cairo, if real per capita income is used as a standard.

Ninety-seven per cent of Egypt is desert, and the five million acres of cultivated land (equalling the area of Israel) must sustain a population of 22.5 millions, which, incidentally has the highest birth rate in the world.

The Nile Valley is the world’s most intensively cultivated area, but it also has the highest density of rural pop­ ulation. The hopeless plight of the country’s economy is aggravated by the glaringly unequal distribution of wealth. In a country the economy of which is overwhelmingly agricultural, three out of the four million bread­ winners who engage in farming own less than half an acre of land. Laborers earn about seventeen American cents for a twelve-hour day. Sanitation, hygiene, are simply non-existent, ex­ cept in the European quarters of the two major cities. The "evil diseases of Egypt,” a byword already when Moses led his people to the Promised Land (Bemidbor 7:15; 28:60) have new scientific names — pellagra, bilharzia, trachoma, malaria, even cholera now and again — but their virulence is unabated. Of the condition of the Egyptian fellahin, who make up the bulk of the population, Doreen Warriner, a British expert, says "it is one of unrelieved horror.” And Charles Rissawi, a leading Egyptian economist, has underlined the significance of a steadily dropping total consumption of cereals, meat, textiles, tobacco and coffee, despite the rapid increase in population.

Small wonder then that Nasser, now that he is deprived of the British lightning conductor in Suez, is trying — as many observers indeed proph­ esied he would — to divert the resent­ ment of his people against his goahead Israeli neighbor.

49

The Aswan Dam J T IS against this background of squalor, destitution and disease, that the latest Western move to counter Soviet penetration into Egypt, namely the decision of the United States, Brit­ ain and the World Bank, to grant $450 million in credits for the con­ struction of the Aswan Dam, must be assessed.

The Aswan Dam is part of the Century Storage Project, an irrigation and power scheme of breath-taking scope, involving regulation of the Nile flow in Abyssinia, Uganda, Sudan and in Egypt itself. In Uganda it envisages raising the water level of Lakes Vic­ toria and Albert by one meter. It will cost an estimated $1.3 billion, will increase Egypt's irrigable area by two million acres and its power supply eightfold. It will take ten —■some say twenty — years to complete, and the army of engineers and technicians it will require will prove — so it is hoped — an effective counter-weight to the

corps of military experts Egypt is en­ listing in the People's Democracies.

The scheme, of course, highlights Egypt’s desperate efforts and vital need to a secure closer union with Sudan which already bestraddles its lifeline.

Its proportions ensure that to a very large extent Egypt will be integrated into the Western economic system for many years to come.

Q EFIC IA L statements that Britain does not consider herself com­ mitted to maintain any equilibrium in the supply of arms to the Middle East­ ern countries have heightened interest in the Tripartite Declaration of May 15, 1950. The Declaration signed by Dean Acheson, Robert Schumann and Ernest Bevin was the result of an agreement reached by three Western Powers to maintain the status quo in the Middle East. It set forth the three major principles which were to guide American, British and French policy

ASWAN DAM: Egypt has reached "substantial" agreement with the World Bank for financing the construction of the Aswan High Dam, several miles south of the existing Aswan power and flood control dam.

50

JEWISH LIFE

DICTATOR AND VICTIM: Pictured here as "companions in arms" are Egyptian Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser, right, and Major Salah Salem, Nasser's former National Guidance Administrator, whom he subsequently removed from office in the Egyptian power struggle.

in this area. The sale of arms to all countries in the area was to be reg­ ulated by needs of defense and internal security; aggression was to be pro­ hibited and territorial changes by force were not to be countenancedThe Declaration was a one-sided docu­ ment, for none of the Middle Eastern states subscribed or was invited to sub­ scribe to it. It constituted a recogni­ tion of Israel’s frontiers as laid down in the Armistice Agreements with the neighboring countries; it has stabilized the Middle East and — so far at least — has kept arms supplies within rea­ sonable bounds. Nevertheless, Israel, conscious of the difficulty of putting teeth into such a document, the signa­ tories to which are themselves at cross­ purposes, has sought, unsuccessfully, February, 1956

a more binding security pact with the United States or Great Britain, prefer­ ably the former.

T H E Tripartite .Declaration preceded the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (N A TO ); the Middle East Treaty O rg a n iz a tio n (METO) is an extension of the latter and is intended to secure its right flank. METO is the outcome of AngloAmerican efforts to build up the 'northern tier,” protecting the Middle East from Soviet penetration. The first span of the tier was completed in Feb­ ruary 1955, by the signing of a past between Turkey and Iraq. The pact indicated considerable courage on the part of Iraq, which thereby flouted Egypt’s hegemony, and at the time of 51

writing it still remains the only Arab member of METO. Iraq made sure that Israel would be excluded from joining the pact by Article Five which reads as follows:

cover Britain has successfully negoti­ ated a new treaty with Iraq — which Ernest Bevin signally failed to do in 1948. But the near-revolution in Hashemite Jordan after its govern­ "This pact is open to any Arab League ment had in principle agreed to join member, or any other State interested in the pact, proves that this comeback, the peace and security of the Middle East on th e• conditions th a t his state is recoglike all others, is not going to be^an nized b y both partners to this pact ” easy job.

An exchange of letters appended to Egypt’s hostility to the pact and the document is more explicitly di­ particularly to Iraq’s adhesion to it rected against Israel. In the course of can be summarized under three heads: this exchange Nurie-Said, Iraq’s Prime (a) it threatens to move the Arab Minister wrote (and Premier Men­ center of gravity from Cairo to Bagh­ der es of Turkey expressed his assent): dad (Nasser’s ambitions in this con­ "O ur understanding is that this pact text have already been m entioned); enables our two countries to cooperate in (b) Iraq, by aligning herself along­ resisting any aggression directed against either of them and that in order to ensure side the Western Powers, has under­ the maintenance of peace and security in mined Egypt’s neutralism and has the Middle Eastern regioii we have agreed hindered the latter’s efforts to secure to w ork in close cooperation for effecting major concessions from the West; (c) the carrying out of the United Nations* resolutions concerning< Palestine Iraq’s adherence to the pact implies The pact has since been joined by recognition that Soviet Russia and not Pakistan (in September),' Iran (in Israel is the immediate enemy. Iraq, October) and by Great Britain. So far of course, is the closest geographically the United States has not joined of the Arab States to Soviet Russia, though it sent observers to the METO and is separated from the Caucusus by Conference. The name popularly given a narrow strip of Iranian and Turkish to it "the Baghdad Pact,” and the fact territory. Should Turko-British efforts that Baghdad, Iraqs capital, has been to persuade Jordan to join the pact named the location of the METO eventually prove su cc essfu l, Syria Headquarters, represents an attempt would be practically encircled by to gratify local national sentiment. METO states, and with another turn Prior to the Russo-Egyptian arms of the screw might be compelled to agreement there was hopeful talk that renounce her alliance witli Egypt and the pact organized the first line of to join METO. defense against any Soviet move in the direction of the Middle East. Today this Middle Eastern comthe stress is on its psychological and plex Israel must also keep a wary political aspects. eye on two other military pacts, linking Egypt and her two junior partners, CJO FAR Britain has reaped the main Saudi Arabia and Syria, in an antibenefits of the Baghdad Pact and Israeli alliance. Of the Syro-Egyptian with its help has staged something of Pact, placing the armed forces of the a comeback in the Middle Eastern two countries under a united com­ theatre, after a series of setbacks in mand, Ahmed Shukeiry, Chief Syrian Palestine, Suez, and Iran. Under its delegate to the United Nations said re52 JEWISH LIFE

CZECH ARMS: Egyptian soldiers with a Czech Bazooka and a Czech light machine gun, during recent seven-day maneuvers of the Egyptian-Israel border.

cently that it represents an answer to Israels threat of preventive war. But though Israel is clearly considered the main enemy by the authors of these bilateral pacts, she is not the only one.

The two pacts—-which the sponsors hope to round out with a third, be­ tween Syria and Lebanon — are in­ tended to encircle Israel. But their object is also to provide protection

a g a in s t A rab riv a ls . For S au d ia, for example, her treaty with Egypt ensures support against its inveterate enemies — the Hashemites of Jordon and Iraq. For Syria, it promises Saudian and Egyptian aid against Iraqi expansionism, on the lines of the Fer­ tile Crescent scheme, and an attempt

by Iraq and Turkey to carve up the Republic of Syria between them.

Anglo-American Rivalries A N O TH ER POWERFUL, though less direct and not always ap­ parent, factor which must be taken into account in any appraisal of Israel’s place in the Middle East is the long­ standing Anglo-American rivalry, dra­ matized by their unremitting struggle February, 1956

for the control of oil resources. The first phase in American attempts to gain a foothold in the Middle East and counter-efforts by the British to keep the Americans out concluded in 1928 when two American companies, Stand­ ard Oil of New Jersey and Socony 53

Vacuum, strongly backed by their government, secured a 23.75 per cent interest in the British-controlled Iraq Petroleum C om pany. The British sought to curb further American pen­ etration by the notorious Red Line Agreement, which prohibited com­ panies participating in the IPC from taking separate action to secure oil concessions in an area more or less congruent with the former Turkish mpire, and marked in the map at­ tached to the agreement by a red line — hence the name. The Red Line Agreement effectively hindered the IPC participating companies from securing oil concessions. But it left the door wide open to non-participating Amer­ ican interests who in a series of bril­

liant strokes— matched by remarkable British ineptitude — established them­ selves solidly in Bahrein, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and finally in Iran — an oil area which had been monopolized by Britain for almost half a century and in which the Americans now have a forty per cent interest, equal to the interest of the British themselves.

J T IS in this welter of forces and counter-forces, of dynastic, imperial­ istic, economic, strategic and racial differences, sandwiched between the two colossi of the twentieth century, that the State of Israel, hardly more than a bridgehead on the coasts of Asia, must carve out its destiny.

NEGEV AMBUSH: Maaley Akrabim (Scorpion Pass), scene oi an ambush oi an Israeli 1

by Egyptian infiltrators. The Pass overlooks Har Hahor. which stands majestically the background and is the resting place of Aaron Hacohen.

54 JEWISH LIFE

• A Short Story Based on Historical Fact.

REBMENDELE

M arches To T reb lin k a

By MOSHE PRAGER T>EB MENDELE of Pabyonitz is marching to Treblinka. He really does not march; he runs. A multitude of Jews straggle along — old and young, women with infants in their arms and clinging tots; the sick and the crippled, the blind and the lame.

The procession moves along slowly with halting steps. Only Reb Mendele makes haste, borne by a flaming will, as if all the two hundred and fortyeight parts of his body had been turned into legs for running. . . .

The armed guards, a diabolical leer stamped on their faces, are in no hurry. They are gay, in a clowning mood. From time to time they look at their watches, as if regretting the passing of each irrevocable moment.

They want this amusing game to go on. And they laugh and laugh.

"Ha, ha, your fate is all taken care of, Jew! It won’t run away. . .

Reb Mendele bestirs himself still more. His sparse beard is almost com­ pletely white, except for the middle February, 1956

with its bunch of black hair — a kind of burning black torch. He pays no attention to the barked orders, pushing ever forward, as if intending to pull along with him the whole band of Jews.

Suddenly something of a stumbling block is thrown in front of him. And from this stumbling block rises a sharp child’s cry. Reb Mendele slowly ap­ proaches the weeping bundle, lifting it with trembling hands. The child writhes in his arms, while at the same time a Satanic jeer is heard.

"Ha, ha, Jew! Now you won’t hurry any more, Jew . . . ha, ha, ha!”

TDEB MENDELE carries the crying child in his two arms. The writh­ ing tot puts his two thin hands around his neck;rand Reb Mendele hurries even more, as if trying to outdistance the child’s cry. And in his running he soon reaches a pressed throng, and he can no longer advance at his previous pace. Suddenly Reb Mendele feels his 55

curbed energy coursing from his legs with insane fury and murderous lust. into his mind, and from his mind into They trampled it underfoot, tearing his throat, and from his throat flows a the sacred sheets, as if they felt that stream of words emerging from the in the parchment with its square let­ depths. ters was the very soul of the Jews. At "Can you see, fellow Jews, what I that moment I was at peace again, and am holding in my arms? It’s the sanc­ at that very moment I understood tity of all sanctities, the purest of the aright the meaning of the Scriptures: pure — a Jewish child! Let us think Thou dost teach me wisdom through for a moment, dear Jews. How does mine enemies. The enemy does not the sun in the sky know that it is a £war on my bundle of bones — he wars sun and that it brings a blessing? Be­ on the source of holiness, and then he cause that which is evil and depraved slaughters the Jews. And when he slinks away, hiding in holes and cracks. conspires to shatter the Jewish spirit, And here is a child of the children of he tramples the parchments of the Israel, poor and weak as a fly, despised Torah! ' "Oh, fellow Jews, it is no accident and trodden underfoot like a worm.

And why has Satan with all the ex­ that the Progenitor of Uncleanness has termination camps at his command pounced upon us! Whenever wicked­ and with all the tools of murder in ness strives to gain dominion over the them seen fit to war on the flies and world, it always seeks out its eternal the worms? The impure ones, the enemy, which has not changed, and moment they descry a Jewish child, a wreaks its vengeance upon that im­ thin, weak young bird, which cannot placable enemy. Satan has said in the even say the modeh ani the moment past and still says today: 'It is either they see a Jewish infant in his mothers I or the Jew!* And do you think that lap, the lust for murder is kindled in in our time he wars upon the Jews by them. Why is that? Because the im­ accident? Satan keeps good score. pure power cannot suffer the face of He aims at the rpot of the life of the the Jewish child which beams with world. W e can well see how right are holiness and purity. Oh, the evil the words of Yehudah Halevi: 'Israel devil has a marvelously acute sense of among the nations is like the heart smell, G-d forbid! among the parts of the body/ W hat "Believe me, fellow Jews, each one is the source of life among the parts of us is today lowly, lacking in self- of the body? The heart! And what is respect. W e live in a sin-laden age the source of the powers of purity, and which does not even have the under­ morality, and justice? The belief in standing to accept its tribulations with the One G-d, thou shalt love thy love. I want to make confession before neighbor as thyself, and the four pil­ the whole community: When the mur­ lars of the world, without which the derers began to torture my body, I was world cannot exist, as Scriptures tell terribly wrought up and almost began, us: Mercy and Truth have met; Justice G-d forbid, to question His mercy. . . . and Peace have embraced one another.

But my eyes were immediately opened! And the great consolation of A nd it For when the impure ones found a shall come to pass at the end of days, scroll of the Torah in my room, they whence does it come? The nourishing let me alone, pouncing upon the scroll source of all of these is the heart. And 56

JEWISH LIFE

;.

February, 1956

57

who is it that feels at once the lightest trembling and from whom blood flowed mischance to any of the limbs? The gently, just as one raises up an open heart. And when a Divine visitation scroll of the Torah.

"And here . . . here is the object of comes upon the world, or a curse, or a plague, or any disaster — who is it the eternal war. As hatred toward the that feels it first and suffers more thàn Jewish child increases, hatred and any others? The heart! As David said: cruelty, the depth of the enemy’s cor­ All your breakers and waves have ruption, become clearer and clearer — overwhelmed me. And now, when a corruption bearing its own destruc­ Satan’s brazenness has grown great tion within itself. Before our very and he boasts of subduing the whole eyes destroying Satan has risen to root world, his poisoned spear is aimed di­ out everything; to extinguish every spark of holiness, of loftiness and pur­ rectly at the heart — at the Jew. 'Therefore, I say unto you, sainted ity; Therefore his hatred against every­ Jews, let us not divert our attention thing designated by the name Israel is from the principal objective of thé as strong as death, and his thirst for war. Who are we? A link in the chain blood cannot be quenched. Look of the generations. Generations come around you and see, at the moment and go, but the battle is eternal. In all when Satan thinks that he has already his battles Satan has only one objec­ conquered the world, he is still seized tive— to blot out Israel’s name. And with fear and trembling at the glance how ancient is this war! In the Psalms of a child of the children of Israel. we read: Come, let us destroy them as And even if the whole world shall sink a nation so that the name Israel may into the forty-nine gates of Unclean­ nevermore be remembered. The num­ ness, there will still appear upon the ber of our enemies is as the number ruins of the world the last Jew, the of the nations. Who can count them? single Jew, who will blow the domin­ Pharaoh, Edom and Moab, Amalek and ion of Satan to smithereens and gain Philistia, Sennacherib and Nebuchad­ the final victory!”

Reb Mendele had much more to say, nezzar, Antiochus and Titus, and the Hamans of all ages from Torquemada but words failed him. All the words to Chmelnicki and their offspring. . . . spilled into his innermost being, be­ This is a war that has been going on coming a kind of sweet melody which since the primeval age. And always flooded his whole being. He felt the Satan chooses the mighty ones of every melody penetrating him through and age for his deputies. But what is the through, causing the ends of the nails end of them all? A curse is upon their of hands and feet to tremble with it's heads, and,even memory of them fades. song. Like a broad and sweeping river, The power of wickedness does not en­ the melody swept through him, and dure long, for the truth sprouts from Reb Mendele was borne on its waves. the earth and falsehood has no legs. The melody grew and grew, envelop­ Not a single survivor has remained of ing everything, till . . . till a murder­ Israel’s enemies, may their names be ous hand pulling and plucking his beard dragged him away from it for blotted out!” the moment.

T>EB MENDELE lifted up higher ##I J A , HA, HA, you are the Jew with the prettiest beard, you will lead * ■and higher this child who was 58

JEWISH LIFE

the procession on its last road. Get going!”

Reb Mendele sobered. He turned his face with its sparse beard toward the group. The melody locked within him burst its bonds.

"Hear me, brethren. Do you know where we are heading? W e are on the ancient road of the Sanctification of the Divine Name. Father Abraham led his son to the sacrificial altar, both going with joy and enthusiasm. And both went together — indicates that they made their way joyfully. And we, as we all proceed together to the altar — fathers with their sons, grand­ fathers with their grandchildren, moth­ ers with their grandmothers with their families, community leaders with their people-r^r what a magnificent moment!

Remember, dear Jews, holy and pure, why we are being led to the altar.

Does not Satan himself clearly de­ clare that he found only one fault in us — the name Israel? W e are all going together to sanctify the Holy Name.

But not in haste, Jews. Rest a while.

These are our last moments. Let us perform the commandment of selfsacrifice for the sanctification of the Divine Name with the fullest de­ votion.

"I am ready and prepared to deliver myself my flesh and my veins and my blood and my fat — to the four forms of capital punishment and to all manner of torture—” f l PROFOUND silence reigned over the whole group. All eyes, ex­ pressing a feeling of redemptive de­ liverance, were upon the glowing face of Reb Mendele.

Suddenly the voice of Reb Mendele pierced the stillness. It was a sooth­ ing, paternal voice speaking slowly, gently: "Let someone please bring me a little water that I may wash my hands before making confession. He who brings me water may have half my share of the World to Come.”

(Translated from the Hebrew orig­ inal by Maurice M. Shudofsky.)

THE DIFFERENCE The Almighty's greatness is evident in many things. An example is that with one die a man mints many coins and all are exactly alike. Whereas the Lord, with one die, impressed the same image (of Adam) on all men, yet not one of them is like his neighbor.

—Sanhedrin 37a PARTNERSHIP There are three partners in every child: the Almighty, the father and the mother. The father's share consists of all that'is white, which includes the bones, veins, nails, brain, and the white of the eye; the mother's share consists of all that is red—the skin, flesh, hair and the black part of the eye; the Almighty's share consists of the breath, the soul, the physiognomy, sight, hearing, speech, motive power, understanding, wisdom. When man departs from this world, the Lord removes His share, leaving only those of the father and mother.

—Niddah 31a February, 1956

59

MEMO TO: THE READERS OF JEWISH LIFE FROM: CHARLES BENDHEIM, Nat'1 Chairman, O.U.A. SUBJECT: ORTHODOX UNION ASSOCIATION 1. I would like to invite you to join the Orthodox Union Association, the indi­ vidual membership arm of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

2. The goal of this organization is the preservation of Jewish ideáis and the perpetuation of our religious faith and way of life.

3. I believe it is essential that every loyal Jew participate in this national, vibrant, traditional Jewish movement.

O.U.A. membership brings you personal identification with our great program of religious resurgence.

4. As a member of the Orthodox Union As­ sociation you will receive: a. Jewish Action, monthly news organ of Orthodoxy in America ; b. Holiday Pamphlet Service— bringing into your home booklets and pam­ phlets on Jewish holidays, beliefs and practices ; c. JEWISH LIFE d. Kashruth Bulletins— keeping you posted on new © developments.

5. The annual membership fee of the Ortho­ dox Union Association is only $10.

6. I urge you to join now by filling out and mailing the application below.

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305 Broadway New York 7, N. Y. Please enroll me as a member of the Ortho­ dox* Union Association.

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ORTHODOXY'S POSITION

Portland, Oregon Your lucid and excellent analysis of the relationship of Orthodoxy to the non-orthodox groupings in the American-Jewish community, which appeared in the Kislev, 5716 issue of J e w is h L if e , m e r its w id e sp r e a d and thoughtful attention. For too long now has orthodox Jewry, due to the pressures for communal unity, has been placed in a position of giving tacit approval to reform practices and Torahless forms of Judaism. Your ar­ ticle clearly indicates the point beyond which Orthodoxy may not safely par­ ticipate with the non-orthodox.

You refer to the Halochic decision which forbade the participation of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congrega­ tions of America in the installation of officers ceremony of the Synagogue Council of America, since it was held on the premises of a Reform Temple.

It is difficult for me to conceive any circumstance or occasion which would sanction the presence of a Torah-true Jew in a Reform house of worship.

Our Reform brethren may find it hard to comprehend, but surely every­ one to whom the Word of G-d is dear and sacred must understand that he has no place in a non-orthodox house of worship.

Two incidents in my community re­ late directly to this problem. A year ago the Oregon Tercentenary Com­ mittee decided to hold a community­ wide religious service to mark the February, 1956

celebration of three hundred years of Jewish settlement in America. The predominantly Reform members of the Committee naturally selected the Reform Temple in which to hold the service. (It does have the largest capacity.) It was taken for granted that the orthodox rabbi would par­ ticipate and that he would encourage his membership to attend. As a demo­ cratic gesture, I was invited to sug­ gest the name of a nationally promi­ nent orthodox rabbi who would be invited to deliver the guest sermon. I went along on this point and suggested the name of Dr. Leo Jung. Happily, as I expected, Dr. Jung, on receiving the invitation, graciously refused, ex­ plaining that he could not appear in a Reform pulpit. There was much comment, surprise, but the project was eventually dropped. (We conducted a special Tercentenary Service in our own synagogue.)

Recently I was invited to partici­ pate in the installation of officers cere­ mony of our local B’nai B’rith lodge.

I gladly accepted. Afterward, I was advised that for some (unclear) rea­ son the ceremonies were to be con­ ducted in the Reform Temple. I was compelled to inform the program chairman that I would be unable to participate. I doubt whether my rea­ son was clearly understood.

Articles like yours will eventually make the position of Orthodoxy clear to those of our own convictions and to the Jewish community in general.

Rabbi Solomon Weinberger 61

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JEWISH LIFE

IN OPPOSITION

San Antonio, Texas I have read your magazine with interest for many years and have enjoyed its attractive presentation of traditional Judaism’s point of view.

However, I must take exception to the article concerning the Synagogue Council of America. I think that your point of view comes dangerously close to that of the Catholic hierarchy when you claim to be the “one Jewish re­ ligion, the historic Jewish faith, that which is today designated orthodox Judaism.” The church also voices similar claims concerning its right to pre-eminence in the field of doctrine and salvation.

You also state that “there can be no religious unity between Orthodoxy and heterodoxy—except at the cost of the absorption of one by the other.”

Doesn’t the orthodox group have enough faith in its own strength? Are they afraid of the gjve and take of contact with these other groups? This certainly doesn’t sound like a confi­ dent group to me.

I think that a slight knowledge of our history will reveal that those very unorthodox groups whom you berate have had a profoundly good influence on the development of our faith. The Karaite influence and Saadyah reac­ tion, the interplay (earlier) of the Sadducees, Essenes and Pharisees the influence of the Haskalah on our modern Yeshiva and Teachers Insti­ tute have all been very beneficial. You cannot wish these groups out of exist­ ence. Cooperation and intelligent in­ terplay of forces would benefit all concerned.

Besides, the word “orthodox” itself means stiff, right, unchanging. Our traditional Judaism has been anything but th a t—as a k n o w le d g e o f th e development of Halochah shows. If you continue to base your actions on the opinion of one man, no matter how great an authority he is, with­ out thinking it through yourselves, then you have replaced reason by February, 1956

arbitrary authority. By doing this, you have tied your hands and have aided in the stifling of Judaism’s growth. Remember, Fordham Univer­ sity has always contended “Why think? We have the truth!” Wherein lies the difference between you and them?

Stanley Levin * * * BACKS CHARGE ON CHERUTH

Jerusalem, Israel In your Kislev, 5716 issue, Mr. Mordecai Ben-Emek challenges my char­ acterization of Cheruth as “incipiently fascist.”

The term, of course, must be taken together. There are characteristics of a mature fascist movement (such as, for example, repression of racial and political minorities) which are not to be found in an incipiently fascist movement, which commands the sup­ port of only a small section of public opinion.

For reasons of brevity I shall deal mainly ‘with the period of statehood.

Fascist-type characteristics of the Re­ visionist Movement (Cheruth’s pre­ decessor) in the Mandatory period can be summed up as follows: (a) It was violently anti-labor (the “yoh brechen” campaign directed against the Labor Organization in the th irties); (b) It had a natural tendency towards dissidence, e.g. the creation of the “New” Zionist Organization and of the Irgun Zvai Leumi; (c) Its use of military uniforms and terminology in its internal or­ ganization, e.g. military caps, brown shirts, jackboots; functionaries were given military titles — katzin, mefaked; institutions were called maozim, metzudoth. (d) Cordial relations with Musso­ lini’s Italy. The only greeting from a government sent to the Revisionist Conference held in Vienna in 1935 came from the Italian Government.

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“The Revisionists have adopted a sympathetic attitude towards Italy. Their journal “Hayarden” supports Italy in her dispute with Abyssinia because they are ex­ treme nationalists and bitter ene­ mies of the workers.”

But Cheruth is regarded as incipiently fascist mainly on the basis of its record since 1948. This is distin­ guished by: 1. Its demagogy. Demagogy, of course, is not the monopoly of any one party in this country. Quite the contrary. The distinction is rather one of degree. I choose an example from an issue over which many parties in Israel have shown themselves remark­ ably irresponsible in their efforts to enlist public support especially among the new immigrants—the North Afri­ can exodus. At a Cheruth demonstra­ tion, protesting against the official immigration policy in -Israel, this party hit a new high in demagogy and irresponsibility. One of its banners read: “Mobilize the Israeli fleet to save the Jews of North Africa!”

Now is the evacuation of North African Jewry merely a matter of transport? And are all these financial and absorption schemes upon which the Government, Jewish Agency and foreign experts are working just a trick to sidestep the issue? And as­ suming for one wild moment that the Government gave in to Cheruth pres­ sure and despatched the Israeli fleet (total tonnage 140,000 tons equals two “Queen Elizabeths”) to North Africa for this purpose, what reception could they expect in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria? Do the members of Cheruth really not know why immigrant ships flying the Israeli flag do not put into North African ports?

2. Its highly publicized militarism.

There has been no major hostile in­ cident on Israeli border to which the Cheruth reaction has not been a call to war (as distinct from localized punitive action). These statements are given the widest publicity in the Knes-

66

seth and from public platforms, are, of course, duly reported in the local and foreign press, and are effectively exploited by Israel’s enemies.

3.

The gravest symptom of incipi­ ent fascism is recourse to illegal and violent action. In this context we must recall: (a) The Altalena incident and its tragic consequences. Surely there is no way of defining an attempt by a private organization to run arms into a country and thereby to flout the authority of the legally constituted Government of that country, than as “a putsch”?

■(b) The Cheruth attack on the Knesseth during the German restitu­ tion payments debate some years ago.

This was the only case of civil dis­ turbance in the State of Israel re­ quiring the calling out of the troops.

Mr. Ben-Emek stresses that a “sub­ stantial part of Cheruth support comes from Torah-true Jews.” Even if that were true (my doubts are about the adjective “substantial”) is it at all relevant? The Brith Kanaim, according to all reports, were all Torah-true Jews. Does that mean that incendiary and other bombs constitute a good way of securing Sabbath observance?

The rules of democracy apply to all sections of the population, whatever their political or religious opinions.

I. Halevy-Levin * * * ON "MISSIONARIES UNMASKED"

Washington, D. C. I have had an opportunity to read Rabbi Solomon’s article, “Missionaries Unmasked,” which appeared in the Tishri, 5716 issue of J e w is h L if e .

It is unfortunate that he has taken advantage of the renewal of a Bible correspondence course to tell again the story of this bygone incident in­ volving just one Adventist minister in the Bronx, and to leave the impres­ sion that this is typical of Seventhday Adventist missionary activities today or in the past.

JEWISH LIFE

REFRESHING, FLAVORFUL

FOR KASHRUTH and QUALITY

...DELICIOUS!

Yifzchok Goldberg & Sons Products Tongue — Pastrami |Jj- Salami Corned Beef — Smoked Turkeys Frankfurters FOR YOUR FREEZER, WE SELL WHOLE SIDES OF PRIME BEEF AT DISCOUNT PRICES. KOSHER MADE, FREEZER WRAPPED AND LABELED.

Prepared under Rabbinical Super­ vision, in America's most modern Ice Cream Plant ©

We Deliver Fresh Meats and Poultry EVERY WEEK in all Five Boroughs Under Supervision of ©

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BY

TH E

February, 1956

BAKERS

O F “ OVEN

CRISP”

(UNSALTED)

MATZOHS 67

Due to ignorance I am not able to comment intelligently on the activi­ ties of Mr. Hoffman four years ago, but I do want to assure you that the picture drawn in Rabbi Solomon’s ar­ ticle in no way represents our pur­ poses and methods as a denomination.

We are sympathetic with Rabbi Solomon, however, and understand how his personal experience in the Bronx incident he reports, could cblor his view of the pamphlet which out­ lines our denominational position in contacts with the Jewish people.

It would appear that Rabbi Solomon had achieved his objective four years ago when pressure had brought Mr. Hoffman, as the article reports, finally to display a sign labeling his group, “Hebrew Adventists.” I should think, then, that Rabbi Solomon would find little cause for alarm in this pamphlet inasmuch as our members are in­ structed fully to identify themselves as Seventh-day Adventists. As for “hiding our identity” as Christians, we assume that any identification as Sev­ enth-day Adventists automatically stamps us as Christian, but perhaps we overestimate the degree to which

we are known as a Christian denomi­ nation.

When our members avoid primary emphasis upon beliefs and practices objectionable to their Jewish friends, that ought to be charged to tact and not to deception. I, myself, have a Jewish friend who sells me clothing, and I have long admired the skillful manner in which he dwells upon the features of a suit that he knows ap­ peals to my tastes and habits. I have never charged him with deception be­ cause he does not first emphasize those features to which he feels I might object. I appreciate his feeling for my sensitiveness and the way he avoids remarks that might arouse them.

I want to assure you that our mem­ bers will always approach their Jew­ ish friends in candor and with a gen­ uine respect that derives from our common brotherhood in the worship of one G-d.

Howard B. Weeks Associate Director Public Relations General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

--- JEWISH POCKET BOOKS---

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A series of 12 attractive books illuminat­ ing the Jewish way of life and thought WITH PLASTIC BOOK STAND $3.98 The Book of Passover — 390

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DISPUTE For two and a half years the school of Shammai disputed relig­ ious questions with the school of Hillel—one contending that it would have been better if man had not been created, the other claiming it is better that man has been created than if he had never been. At the end of the disputation, they counted the num­ ber of opinions, and it was found that the majority concurred that it would have been better for man not to have been created; but that since he had been, it w as his duty to examine his actions and to be scrupulous concerning them.

—Eiruvin 13b

68

JEWISH LIFE

EVERY BABY IS SPECIAL TO BEECH-NUT T h a t’s why Beech-Nut takes such care to see that every ingredient that goes into preparing baby’s food is absolutely perfect. @

Choose from 28 Strained Foods 26 Junior Foods • 5 Pre-cooked Cereals

BEECH-NUT

BABY

FOODS

A Neal-Time Treat for Your Family!

People who appreciate the finer things on their table love Kansas City Wish-Bone Italian Dressing. It has the full-flavored goodness that pleases appetites brought up on Old World treats.

Made of a perfect blend of pure oil, vine­ gar, rare Seasonings, and “Just the right touch of garlic,” Wish-Bone on your salad gives “tam” to the entire meal!

A nd I t ’ s K o s h e r !

m

Has the © Seal of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

At Your Favorite Grocery or Delicatessen!

Kansas City

I I I I S H - B O N E Italian DRESSING February, 1956

69

UNION OF ORTHODOX JE W IS H C O N G R E G A T IO N S OF A M ERICA

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

KASHRUTH

DIRECTORY

Issued A dar, 5716 — February, 1956

LOOK FOR THE ©

SEAL— AND BE SURE!

The © seal is your guarantee of communallyresponsibly Kashruth supervision and endorsement, conducted as a public service by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregation of America, UOJCA. All items in this Directory are ©, receive the con­ stant inspection of and are passed upon by the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbinic body of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.

CONSUMERS ARE CAUTIONED TO:

• Make sure that the © seal is on the label of every food product.

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

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

Please note that the © seal of Kashruth supervision and endorsement is exclusively the symbol of: Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 305 Broadway, New York 7, N. Y. BEekman 3-2220 70

JEWISH LIFE

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY APPLE BUTTER MUSSELMAN'S (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

APPLE SAUCE MUSSELMAN'S (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

Strained Plums with Tapioca Cereals Junior Vegetables Junior Fruits Junior Vegetable Soup Junior Banana Dessert Junior Puddings * Junior Plums with Tapioca * Junior Fruit Dessert * Junior Chocolate Pudding (Beech-Nut Packing Co., N. Y. C.)

BEANS HEINZ— with © label only Strained Vegetables & Salmon Strained Cream of Tuna Strained Bananas Strained Creamed Spinach * Strained Creamed Garden Vegetables Strained Vegetables Strained Fruits Chopped Mixed Vegetables Strained Puddings Strained Orange Juice Strained Tomato Soup Strained Vegetable Soup * Strained Mixed Fruit Dessert Pre-Cooked Cereals (Barley, Oatmeal, Rice) Junior Creamed Carrots Junior Vegetables * Junior Mixed Fruit Dessert * Junior Creamed Garden 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

HEINZ BEANS with molasses sauce HEINZ BEANS in tomato sauce (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) FRESHPAK VEGETARIAN BEANS in tomato sauce (Grand Union Food Markets, East Paterson, N. J.)

BLEACHES * PUREX BEADS'O'BLEACH (Purex Corp., Ltd., South Gate, CalifJ

¿ M J ^ H l C A K E S , COOKIES CRACKERS © P BARTON'S BONBONNIERE (Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.) *@ P CONTINENTAL FAVOURITES ( A B C Baking Co., B'klyn, N. Y.) DROMEDARY Chocolate Nut Roll Date Nut Roll Orange Nut Roll (above contain milk) (The Dromedary Co., N. Y. C.)

All items listed in this Directory bear the © seal.

Items listed © P are kosher for Passover when bearing this or any other UOJCA Passover hechsher on the label.

Items listed • are kosher for Passover without Passover hechsher on the label. * indicates new © endorsement.

February, 1956

71

<s>

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Cakes (Cont'd)

CEREALS

SKINNER'S Raisin-Bran Raisin Wheat (Skinner Mfg. Co., Omaha, Neb.)

GOLDEN CRACKNEL EG G BISCUITS (Golden Cracknel & Spec. Co., Detroit, Mich.) * HOMESTYLE (Bloomrich Baking Co., B'klyn, N. Y.)

RALSTON Instant Ralston Regular Ralston (Ralston-Purina Co., St. Louis, Mo.)

RY-KRISP (Ralston-Purina Co., St. Louis, Mo.)

CAKE FLOUR * Swans Down Regular * Swans Down Self Rising (General Foods Corp„ White Plains, N. Y.) ■

DROMEDARY Date Muffin Mix Fudge Frosting Mix Corn Bread Mix Corn Muffin Mix Cup Cake Mix Devil's Food Mix Fruit Cake Mix Gingerbread Mix White Cake Mix * Honey & Spice Mix * Angel Food Mix * Yellow Cake Mix * Pound Cake Mix (The Dromedary Co., N. Y. C.)

CAMPS (for children) * CAMP KE-YU-MA (Grass Lake, Mich., Office: 4779 Glendale Ave., Detroit, Mich.)<

CONDIMENTS, SEASONING © P GOLD'S HORSERADISH (Gold Pure Foods, Brooklyn, N- Y.) HEINZ Horseradish 57 Sauce Chilli Sauce Hot Dog Relish Barbecue Relish Worcestershire Sauce Tomato Ketchup (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) LAWRY'S SEASONED SALT (Lawry's Products, Inc., Los Angeles, Cal.) © P MOTHER'S HORSERADISH (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) PRIDE OF THE FARM CATSUP (Hunt Foods Inc., Fullerton, Cal.)

CORN PRODUCTS— Bulk * * * * *

OK PEARL CORN STARCH OK POWD. CORN STARCH OK WAXY MAIZE STARCH OK CORN SYRUP UNMIXED OK DRI-SWEET CORN SYRUP SOLIDS (The Hubinger Co., Keokuk, Iowa)

CORN STARCH— Packaged * POP'S * TIGER (The Hubinger Co., Keokuk, Iowa)

CRANBERRY SAUCE © P EATMOR (Morris April Brothers, Bridgeton, N. J.) DROMEDARY (The Dromedary Co., N. Y. C.) © P BARTON'S BONBONNIERE (Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.)

72

© P APRIL ORCHARDS (Morris April Brothers, Bridgeton, N. J.)

JEW ISH L IF E

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY DESSERT TOPPING • QWIP (Avoset Company, San Francisco, Cal.)

DIETETIC FOODS © P MOTHER'S LOW CALORIE BORSCHT (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) *•

SUGARINE LIQUID SWEETENER (The Sugarine Co., Mf. Vernon, III.)

DETERGENTS (See also Dishwashing Detergents) • ALL (Monsanto Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo.) GLIM (B. T. Babbit Inc., New York, N. Y.) • AD • FAB • KIRKMAN DETERGENTS • SUPER SUDS BLUE • LIQUID VEL • VEL (Colgate-Palmolive Co., Jersey City, N. J.) • AMERICAN FAMILY • CHEER * • DASH • DREFT JO Y • OXYDOL • TIDE (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati Ohio) • LINCO LIQUID DETERGENT (Lineo Prod. Corp., Chicago, III.) • TREND • LIQUID TREND (Purex Corp. Ltd., South Gate, Calif.)

DISHWASHING MACHINE DETERGENTS (See also Detergents) I

DISH-WASHER ALL (Monsanto Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo.)

• FINISH (Economic Laboratory, Inc., St. Paul, Minn.) * CASCADE (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio)

February, 1956

m

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 Salad Dressing © P Mayonnaise (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) * WISH-BONE ITALIAN SALAD DRESSING (K. C. Wishbone Salad Dressing Co., Kansas City, Mo.)

* DEMING'S SALMON (Deming & Gould Co., Bellingham, Wash.) * EATWELL TUNA (Star-Kist Foods, Inc., Terminal Island, Cal.) MOTHER'S OLD FASHIONED © P Gefilte Fish (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) ROYAL SNACK Cream Herring Matjes Fillets Spiced Herring Lunch Herring Herring Cocktail Tidbits Salmon (in wine sauce) (S. A. Haram Co., N. Y. C.) © P 1000 SPRINGS RAINBOW TROUT (Snake River Trout Co., Buhl, Idaho) STAR-KIST * Tuna * Egg Noodles & Tuna Dinner (Star-Kist Foods, Inc., Terminal Island, Cal.)

73

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Fish P ro d ucts (Cont'd) VITA * Bismarck Herring * Lunch Herring * Cream Fillets * Party Snacks * Cocktail Herring Fillets * Herring in wine sauce * Spiced Anchovies * Pickled Salmon * Whitefish Roe Caviar * Salmon Roe Caviar * Anchovy Paste (Vita Food Products, Inc., N. Y. C.)

FLAVOR IMPROVER A C C EN T (International Minerals and Chemical Co., Chicago, III,) * GREAT WESTERN MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (The Great Western Sugar Co., Denver, Colo.)

FOOD PACKAGES © P CARE (New York, N. Y.)

FOOD FREEZER PLAN YITZCHOK GOLDBERG & SONS (New York, N. Y.)

* SUNKIST LEMON CONCENTRATE * EXCHANGE LEMON CONCENTRATE * CAL-GROVE LEMON CONCENTRATE * CALEMON LEMON CONCENTRATE [Exchange Lemon Prod. Co., Corona, Cal.)

FRUIT (Dried)— bulk only © P CALIFORNIA PACKING CORP. (San Francisco, Cal.)

F R U IT S — Packaged DROMEDARY Dates Fruits and Peels Moist Coconut < Shredded Coconut (The Dromedary Co., N. Y. C.) MUSSELMAN'S Cherries Sliced Apples (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

GLYCERIDES EMCOL MSVK (The Emulsol Corp., Chicago, III.) * DISTILLED MONOGLYCERIDE EMULSIFIER— with © label only TDistillation Products Industries, Division Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N .Y .)

GLYCERINE— Synthetic SHELL SYNTHETIC GLYCERINE (Shell Chemical Co rp., N. Y. C.)

HONEY © P GARBER'S M1SROCHI (Garber Eagle Oil Co rp., B'klyn, N. Y.) MILADY'S Blintzes (blueberry, cherry, cheese, potato— all are milchig) Waffles (Milady Food Prod., Brooklyn, N. Y.) ASSOCIATED WAFFLES (Associated Food Stores Coop., N. Y. C.) PURE DAIRY WAFFLES (Service Frozen Food Co rp., B'klyn, N .Y .) © P 1000 SPRINGS RAINBOW TROUT (Snake River Trout Co., Buhl, Idaho)

74

(See also Scouring Powders, Detergents and Dishwashing Detergents) BRIGHT SAIL (A & P Food Stores, N. Y.)

JEW ISH LIF E

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Household Cleansers (Coni'd) @ P BRILLO PRODUCTS (Brillo Mfg. Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.j CAMEO COPPER CLEANER (Cameo Corp., Chicago, III • DURA SOAP FILLED PADS (Durawool, Inc., Queens Village, N. Y.) •

SPIC & SPAN (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio)

• LIQUID TREND OLD DUTCH CLEANSER • TREND (Purex Corp., Ltd., South Gate, Cal.) MY PAL (Pal Products Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.) SOILAX (Economics Laboratory, Inc., St. Paul, Minn.)

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

ICE CREAM, SHERBET

INDUSTRIAL CLEANSERS ARCTIC SYNTEX M BEADS (Colgate-Palmolive Co., Jersey City, N. J.) INSTITUTION X ORVUS EXTRA GRANULES ORVUS HY-TEMP GRANULES ORVUS NEUTRAL GRANULES CREAM SUDS (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio)

JAMS AND JELLIES HEINZ JELLIES (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) @ P BARTON'S BONBONNIERE (Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.)

JUICES HEINZ TOMATO JUICE (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) MUSSELMAN'S Apple Juice Tomato Juice (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglervilte, Pa.) * SUNKIST LEMON JUICE * EXCHANGE LEMON JUICE * CAL-GROVE LEMON JUICE (Exchange Lemon Prod. Co., Corona, Cal.)

© P BARTON'S BONBONNIERE (Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.)

MARGARINE

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 Metropolitan Food Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.)

CRYSTAL BRAND (milchig) (L. Daitch & Co., N. Y. C.) DILBRO (milchig) (Dilbert Brothers, Inc., Glendale, N. Y.)

All items listed in this Directory bear the © seal.

Items listed © P are kosher for Passover when bearing this or any other UOJCA Passover hechsher on the label.

Items listed • are kosher for Passover without Passover hechsher on the label. * indicates new © endorsement.

February, 1956

75

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Margarine (Coat'd) MAR-PAV (pareve) MIOLO (milchig— bulk only) NU-MAID (milchig) TABLE-KING (milchig) (Miami Margarine Co., Cincinnati, Ohio) MOTHER'S PAREVE (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) NATIONAL MARGARINE SHORTENING (National Yeast Corp„ Belleville, N. J.) NEW YORKER (milchig) (Roslyn Distributors, Inc., Middle Village, N. Y.)

MARSHMALLOW TOPPING MARSHMALLOW FLUFF (Durkee-Mower, Inc., East Lynn, Mass.)

MAYONNAISE * © P MOTHER'S (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.)

MEATS AND PROVISIONS YITZCHOK GOLDBERG'S © P Meats © P Corned Beef © P Tongue @ P Frozen Meats © P Salami © P Frankfurters @ P Pastrami (I. Goldberg & Sons, 220 Delancey St., N. Y. C.) • OXFORD © P Bologna © P Corned Beef © P Frankfurters © P Pastrami © P Salami © P Tongue (Oxford Provisions, Inc., 549 E. 12th St., New York C ity}; ,

SO-TEN (So-Ten Co., Memphis, Tenn.)

MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG) Ac'cent (International Minerals & Chemical Co., Chicago, III.) * GREAT WESTERN MSG (Great Western Sugar Co., Denver, Colo.)

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.) GREENFIELD EG G NOODLES (Golden Cracknel & Specialty Co., Detroit, Mich.)

HEINZ MACARONI CREOLE (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH EG G NOODLES (Megs Macaroni Prod., Harrisburg, Pa.) SKINNER'S (Skinner Mfg. Co., Omaha, Neb.) * SOPHIE TUCKER (Sophie Tucker Foods, Inc., Baltimore Md.) * STAR-KIST EG G NOODLES & TUNA DINNER (Star-Kist Foods, Inc., Terminal Island, Cal.)

MEAT TENDERIZER 'm S M [Adolph

76

,

® P GARBER'S MISROCHI sFood Products, Burbank, Cal.) (Garber Eagle Oil Corp., B’klyn, N.

JEW ISH L IF E

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY OH (Cont'd)

*© P WARNER'S POTATO CHIPS (East Coast Food Corp., Riverhead, N. Y.)

MAZOLA (Corn Products Refining Corp., N. Y. C.) © P NUTOLA (Nutola Products Co., B'klyn, N. Y.)

OVEN CLEANERS *• *•

HEP SAFE-T-SPRAY BESTWAY (Bostwick Labs, Bridgeport, Conn.)

PEANUT BUTTER BEECH-NUT (Beech-Nut Packing Co., N. Y. C.) HEINZ (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

PIE FILLINGS MUSSELMAN'S (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

POPCORN TV TIME POPCORN (B & B Enterprises, Inc., Chicago, III.)

POULTRY— Frozen • YITZCHOK GOLDBERG & SONS (New York, N. Y.) • MENORAH * • NER (Menorah Products, Inc., Boston, Mass.)

PREPARED SALADS HEINZ VEGETABLE SALAD (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) MOTHER'S Cucumber Salad Potato Salad (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) ROYAL SNACK Beet Salad Cole Slaw Cucumber Salad Garden Salad Potato Salad \($. A. Haram Co., N. Y. C.) VITA * Tuna Salad * Spring Garden Salad * Herring Salad (Vita Food Prod., Inc., N. Y. C.)

GORDON'S Potato Chips Tater Sticks Potato Sticks (Gordon Foods, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.) KOBEY'S Potato Chips Shoestring Potatoes (Tasty Foods Inc., Denver, Col.) MONARCH SHOESTRING POTATOES (Monarch Finer Foods, Division of Con­ solidated Foods Corp., Chicago, III.) SUNGLO Potato Chips Shoestring Potatoes (Tasty Foods, Inc., Denver, Col.)

February, 1956

RELISHES PICKLES, ETC. HEINZ Pickles Dill Gherkins Dill Sandwich Chips India Relish Hot Dog Relish Pickled Onions Sweet Relish Cocktail Sauce Southern Style Relish

77

UOJCA KASH RUTH DIRECTORY R elish es, P ick les (C on i'd ) Sweet Cucumber Disks Sweet Cucumber Sticks * Sweet Dill Strips * Barbecue Relish Hamburger Relish (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) DOLLY MADISON (H. W. Madison Co., Cleveland, Ohio) MOTHER'S Pickles Gherkins Sweet Red Peppers Pimentoes Pickled Tomatoes Pickled Country Cabbage Hot Cherry Peppers * Pickled Country Deluxe * Spears (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.)

©P ©P ©P ©P ©P ©P

RICE HEINZ SPANISH RICE (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

SALT • MÖGEN DAVID KOSHER SALT (Carey Salt Co., Hutchinson, Kansas) • MORTON COARSE KOSHER SALT • MORTON FINE TABLE SALT • MORTON IODIZED SALT (Morton Salt Co., Chicago, III.) • RED CROSS FINE TABLE SALT • RED CROSS IODIZED SALT • STERLING FINE TABLE SALT • STERLING KOSHER COARSE SALT • STERLING IODIZED SALT (International Salt Co., Scranton, Pa.)

SAUCES HEINZ SAVORY SAUCE (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

CAROLINA BEAUTY LITTLE SISTER WAY PACK PLAYMATES LITTLE REBEL MOUNT OLIVE PICK OF CAROLINA M OPICO (Mount Olive Pickle Co., Mt. Olive, N. C.) SILVER LANE Pickles Sauerkraut (Silver Lane Pickle Co., East Hartford, Conn.)

VITA * Pickles * Relish * Gherkins * Peppers * Pimentoes * Onions * Kosher Chips * Cauliflower * Sweet Watermelon Rind (Vita Food Products, Inc., N. Y. C.)

SCOURING POWDER

•

CAMEO CLEANSER (Cameo Corp., Chicago, III.) • AJAX BEN HUR (bulk only) • KIRKMAN CLEANSER • NEW O CTAGON CLEANSER (Colgate-Palmolive Co., Jersey City, N. J.) • GARBER'S MISROCHI CLEANSER (Garber Eagle Qil Co., New York)

RESORTS

KITCHEN KLENZER (Fitzpatrick Bros., Chicago, III.)

© P PINE VIEW HOTEL (Fallsburg, N. Y.) © P W ASHINGTON HOTEL (Rockaway Park, N. Y.)

78

(See also Household Cleaners, Detergents and Dishwashing Detergents) BAB-O (with Bleach) BABBIT'S CLEANSER (B. T. Babbit Co., N. Y. C.)

•

OLD DUTCH CLEANSER (Purex Corp., Lfd., South Gate, Cal.)

JEW ISH L IF E

(G)

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

Scouring Pow der (Cant'd) •

(C )

* HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE SHORT­ ENING— with © label only (The Humko Co., Memphis, Tenn.)

LUSTRO POLISHING POWDER MY PAL • PALCO POLISH POWDER PAL-LO (Pal Products Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.

SOAP

• SAIL (A & P Food Stores, N. Y.)

© P BRILLO KOSHER SOAP (Brillo Manufacturing Co., B'klyn, N. Y.)

* CRISCO— with © label only (The Procter & Gamble Co.)

GOLD'S © P Borscht Schav Russel (Gold Pure Food Prod., B'klyn, N. Y.)

© P GARBERS MISROCHI PAREVE FAT (Garber Eagle Oil Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.) © P NUT-OLA VEGETABLE SHORTENING (Nut-Ola Fat Prod., Brooklyn, N. Y.)

SHORTENING— Bulk * * * *

FLAKEWHITE— with © label only PRIMEX— with © label only SWEETEX— with © label only PRIMEX B. & C.— with © label only (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati.

Ohio) NATIONAL MARGARINE SHORTENING (National Yeast Corp., Belleville, N. J.) DELMAR MARGARINE SHORTENING (Delmar Prod. Corp., Cincinnati, Ohio)

* BEATREME CS (Wright & Wagner Dairy Co., Beloit, Wise.)

© P NUTOLA KOSHER SOAP (Nufola Fat Products Co., B'klyn, N. Y.)

HEINZ Cream of Mushroom Celery Cream of Green Vegetable Cream of Tomato Condensed Cream of Mushroom Condensed Cream of Green Pea Condensed Gumbo Creole Condensed Cream of Tomato Condensed Vegetarian Vegetable (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) MOTHER'S © P Borscht Cream Style Borscht Cream Style Schav (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.)

SOUP MIX NUTOLA Chicken Noodle Soup Mix

All items listed in 'this Directory bear the © seal.

Items listed © P are kosher for Passover when bearing this or any other UOJCA Passover hechsher on the label.

Items listed ® are kosher for Passover without Passover hechsher on the label. * indicates new © endorsement.

February, 1956

79

©

<S>

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

Soups, M ix (Con t'd ) Noodle Soup Mix (Nutola Fat Products Co., B'k/yn, N. Y.)

VEGETABLES DROMEDARY PIMIENTOS (The Dromedary Co., N. Y. C.) * CAVERN MUSHROOM PRODUCTS (K-B Products Co., Hudson, N. Y.)

VEGETABLES (Dehydrated) © P BASIC VEGETABLE PROD.— with © label only (San Francisco, Cal.) © P GARBER'S MISROCHI (Garber Eagle Oil Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.) © P GENTRY PAPRIKA (Gentry, Inc., Los Angeles, Cal.) LAWRY'S SEASONED SALT (Lqwry(s Products Inc., Los Angeles, Cal.)

SUGAR © P FLO-SWEET LIQUID SUGAR

© P HUDSON VALLEY REFINED GRANULATED SUGAR (Refined Syrups & Sugars, Inc., Yonkers, N .Y .)

* • SUGAR!NE LIQUID SWEETENER (The Sugarine Co., Mt. Vernon, III.)

© P GENTRY, Inc.-—with © (Los Angeles, Cal.)

label only

VINEGAR © P GARBER'S MISROCHI (Garber Eagle Oil Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.) HEINZ Cider Malt Salad Vinegar Tarragon White Rex Amber (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) MUSSELMAN'S Cider Vinegar (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

VITAMINS (Bulk) COLLETT-WEEK-NIBECKER CO .

(Ossining, N. Y.)

SYRUP © P BARTON'S BONBONNIERE (Barton, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.)

TZITZITH LEON VOGEL (66 Allen St., N. Y. C.)

M. W OLOZIN & CO. (36 Eldridge St., N. Y. C.)

ZION TAUS MFG. CO ., INC. (48 Eldridge St., N. Y. C.)

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VITAMIN TABLETS KOBEE KOVITE VITALETS (Freeda Agar Prod., N. Y. C.)

WINE & LIQUEURS ® P HERSH'S KOSHER W INES (Hungarian Grape Products, Inc., N. Y.) *© P CARMEL— bearing hechsher of Chief Rabbinate of Israel (Carmel Wine Co., Inc., N. Y.)

JEWISH LIFE

M railS J^wpusiiöiMS;äh® PAitVE WORK AND TIME SAVERS! V E L makes dishes shine without washing or wiping! f„ DIS***

STOCKING* llNOE*'*

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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 J A 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!

New formula FAB gives you more active dirt remover!

Milder to hands, new FAB gets the dirt out of EVERYTHING you wash.

Wonderful for dishes, too!

© ., ,tht biggest little spio! in Kosher cookery

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HEINZ VEGETARIAN BEANS • Strictly Kosher