Jewish Life April 1957

Î W \S Nison — 5717 April —

1957

REFUGE IN THE HOLY LAND (See Page 7)

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...

the bridge

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One of the best and most appreciated g ifts for any needy family in Israel is still a $10 kosher CARE food package. Non­ profit CARE puts the best possible value into its food packages.

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Morch-April, 1957

¡T Í

Nison 5717

Vol. XXIV, No. 4

• S aul B ernstein , Editor M. M orton R uben stein D r. E ric O ffenbacher R euben E. Gross R abbi S. J. S harfman L ibby K laperman

•

Editorial Associates 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.

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

• Published by O nion of O rthodox J ew ish Congregations of A merica

•

M oses I. F euerstein

President Rabbi H. S. Goldstein, Wil­ liam Weiss, Samuel Nirenstein, William B. Herlands, Max J. Etra, Honorary Pres * idents; B e n ja m in K o e n ig sberg, Nathan K. Gross, Samuel L. Brennglass, S. David Leibowitt, Vice Presidents ; Edward A. Teplow, Treasurer; Reuben E. Gross, Secretary.

Dr. Samson R. Weiss, Executive Vice President.

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E D IT O R IA LS U. S. VIEWS A DEAD H O R S E ___ 3 NEW DIMENSIONS IN THE M ID W E ST ........................ 4 SU C C O R ................................ 6 UNITY ON SCHECHITAH ...___...

6 A R T IC LE S THE RENEWAL OF MASS IMMIGRATION ; .................... 17 I. Halevy-Levin EARLY FALLS THE D E W ............. 14 Jeremy U. Newman BALAAM: KEY TO TOYNBEE . . . . . 16 Reuben E. Gross HASHKOFAH ........................ 1 22 Samson R. Weiss YOM HAATZMAUTH ................ 25 Aryeh Newman NEEDED: JEWISH HOME LIFE___ _ 30 Arthur S. Green YEHUDAH H A LEV I..............

33 Meyer Waxman CAMPAIGN FOR JEWISHNESS ... 48 Jacob Freid SHORT STORY THE MUSEUM PIECE..... .............. 42 Gabriel Gersh PHOTO FEATURES A REMNANT HAS SURVIVED...... 28 PESACH WITH THE BUCHARIM ... 40 BOO K REV IEW S THE MESSAGE OF H IR S C H ........ 57 Leo Jung DEAD SEA POTPOURRI...... ...... 61 Sidney B. Hoenig O N THE JE W ISH RECORD SHIR HASHIRIM READ ALOUD ... 67 Eric Offenbacher Excerpts Selected and Emanuel Getting er.

Translated

by

Rabbi

PHOTO CREDITS: Cover: North African Immig­ rant Child Celebrates Pesach in Israel, 40,41, Louis Goldman; 10-13, United Israel Appeal; 28-29, Sovfoto.

s4*kom<p

Oun(ZoutniÁutoná,

DR. SAMSON R. WEISS is , the Executive Vice-President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Noted Jewish writer and educator, he was formerly the National Director of the National Council of Young Israel, where he founded the Young Israel Institute of Adult Jewish Studies.

JEREMY U. NEWMAN is an assistant civil engineer with the Borough of Manhattan.

He received his BA degree in Biblical Literature at Brown University.

DR. JACOB FREID is the executive director of the Jewish Braille Institute of America.

He received his PhD from Columbia University where he was president of the Jewish Graduate Society. Dr. Freíd has taught sociology at Rutgers University and the College of the City of New York. He is currently a faculty member of the New School of Social Research.

DR. LEO JUNG is the rabbi of the Jewish Center of New York City. Professor of Ethics at Yeshiva University, he is the author of "Living Judaism," "Crumbs and Char­ acter," and his most recent work, "Harvest." *

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I. HALEVY-LEVIN is the Israel Correspondent of J ewish L ife . He is the editor of tl|e

"Israel Argosy," a series of anthologies of the works of leading Israeli writers.

REUBEN E. GROSS is the national Secretary of the UOJCA and chairman of its Armed Forces Commission. An attorney in Staten Island, N. Y., he has served in the U. S. Army and the Israel Air Force.

DR. MEYER WAXMAN, eminent author and educator is Professor Emeritus of Bible, Jewish History and Philosophy at the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago. '

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ARTHUS S. GREEN teaches both public school and Hebrew School in Chicago, 111.

He is the author of numerous articles on the subject of child education.

DR. SIDNEY B. HOENIG is the Director of the Department of Adult Education of Ye­ shiva University, where he is a professor of Jewish History. He is the author of "The Great Sanhedrin" and the booklet "The Duty of the Jewish Woman."

ARYEH NEWMAN is assistant editor of the Torah Education Department of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. He is a frequent contributor to J ew ish L ife.

GABRIEL GERSH, is a New York college student. His story, "The Shtoomer," appeared in the Kislev, 5717 issue of Jew ish L ife .

JEWISH LIFE

E D IT O RIA L S U. S. VIEWS A DEAD HORSE ISRAEL spokesman has stated, in effect, that his government regards as futile further protest against the action of the United Nations in yielding both military and civil control of the Gaza Strip to Egypt. Continued efforts to demand fulfillment of the commitments made by the UN in this connection, he indicated, would be a matter of "flogging a dead horse.” This' acceptance of a fact accomplished through flagrant breach of trust testifies to Israeli realism.

Time, energies, and effort are better spent in other directions.

It would not be amiss, however, for the United Nations and our own Ad­ ministration to do a measure of dead-horse-flogging in this connection. Both have acquitted themselves ill, and have gravely impaired their own interests, in the sequence of developments terminating, up to this time, with their meek submission to Nasser’s seizure of the Gaza Strip.

How eloquent is the contrast between the reaction of the UN and the U. S. Government to Israel’s defensive moves of last October and that shown when Egypt? contemptuously brushing aside its own implicit commitments .together with those of the United Nations, re-entered Gaza: The one brought torrents of burning oratory, a vast show of moral condemnation, crushing, if "silent,” economic sanctions, ruthless pressure bearing mortal threats to Israel’s very existence. The other yielded only the feeblest of sputterings from Washington and UN headquarters, with UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and his top colleagues hastening to humble themselves at Nasser’s feet. Suffering a decisive military defeat at the hands of Israel, Nasser has in turn inflicted a crushing diplomatic defeat upon the United Nations and the United States.

JpOLLOWING the supine submission to Nasser on the Gaza Strip and the return of Israeli forces to the armistice lines, what of the remaining "asumptions” and "suppositions” — spelt out, as is well known, by Secretary of State Dulles to Israeli representatives — which Israel was compelled to accept in trade for its positions of military security? W hat of the direct assur­ "Assum p­ ances given to Israel by our Administration? It is fruitless to tions11 and speak of the honor of a United Nations reduced to the shabbiest " Supposi­ of facades for power blocs. It is useless to look for fulfillment of tions"? obligations from that quarter. But for the United States itself, there can be no question as to the course which not only its honor but the maintenance of its entire position in the world dictates. The United States stands explicitly committed to uphold the security of Israel. Our country, facing the alternative of final disaster in the Middle East, cannot fail to fulfill its commitment.

Events have made a shambles of America’s Middle East policy. Washington is painfully piecing together a new, and one trusts a truer, policy. It is essential March-April, 1957

3

that the process of formulation take careful cognizance of a certain dead horse.

This is a corpse which bears lessons for the living and speaks with the tongues of men. Of many things which it tells, one is clear to all: even as Israels destiny is interwoven with that of America, so are America’s basic interests bound up with the security and freedom of Israel.

NEW DIMENSIONS IN THE MIDWEST W H E N American enterprise is wedded to Jewish purpose, the results are apt to be far-reaching. Two new projects which unite the American genius for undertakings of broad sweep with the Jewish instinct for creative spiritual endeavor offer new dimensions to Torah education on the Midwestern scene.

Chicago’s Hebrew Theological College (Beth Hamidrash LaTorah) and Cleve­ land’s Telshe Yeshiva in America have each undertaken the construction of new campuses of magnificent spiritual, as well as physical, scope. These projects can have immeasurable impact upon American Jewish life.

Founded in 1912, and entering upon its major career with its incorporation as the Hebrew Theological College in 1921, Beth Hamidrash LaTorah has served with high distinction a$ the pioneer and focal point for higher Torah education in the Middle West and West. Now, alive to the needs, responsibilities and opportunities of American Jewry at a decisive moment in Jewish history, assay­ ing with confidence the spiritual potential of Midwestern Jewry, the Chicago institution has addressed itself to the building of a many-faceted new campus in the suburb of Skokie, Illinois. Upon a spacious acreage at that site, there is to be erected a group of handsome modern buildings which will provide, not only greatly enlarged and enhanced facilities for the present schools—the Rab­ binical Division, the Graduate School, the Teachers Institute, the Chicago Jewish Academy, and the Library—but also, and for the first time on the Mid­ western Jewish scene, a Liberal Arts College. The undertaking, when completed, will represent a financial investment of $5,000,000. The investment of money is, of course, as nothing compared with the investment of purpose. The new project of the Hebrew Theological College attests to the belief of the American Jew in himself, to his country, to his faith and to his future.

The Telshe Yeshiva, but fifteen years established in the United States, is a unique phenomenon on the American scene. Against all seeming probabilities, it has succeeded in transplanting onto the soil of Midwestern America, intact, the famed "derech” nurtured for decades in the Lithuanian town of Telshe.

Holding aloft Halochah as the all-encompassing determinant of Jewish values, the Telshe Yeshiva, while viewing all phases of human endeavor, addresses it­ self with complete intensity to the propagation of Torah. W ithin the brief span of its existence in this country, Telshe has made a sure place for itself in the American scheme of things. The rigor of its curriculum and the unfamiliar challenge of its ideology and approach have not proved a deterrent to the attrac­ tion of an American-bred student body. Growing swiftly, the Telshe Yeshiva in America has established the need for, and has achieved, the means of fulfilling a maximum role. The Yeshiva’s new campus, built in Wickliffe, Ohio, at a cost 4

JEWISH LIFE

of $1,500,000, provides the physical facilities through which spiritual achieve­ ments of great consequence can be attained. ^ E R E the Hebrew Theological College and the Telshe Yeshiva to be located on the Eastern seaboard, where American Jewish life is still centered, their , importance would be great. How much greater is their importance p w es*ern wnen located, as they are, in the heartland of America, for ah is rom ise forah everywhere, yet it ever flourishes best where rooted in the surrounding environment.

The Jewish c o m m u n i t i e s i n t h e M i d w e s t e r n a n d W e s t e r n states have grown substantially in numbers and in influence. They have grown, too, in Jewishness. The awareness of Jewish destiny and self-responsibility has arisen here to a keen pitch. The flowering of two great Torah institutions, at this epoch and on this scene, is of providential timeliness. Jewish life has been perpetuated, not by leaps of faith but by just such leaps of Torah. The major expansion of the programs and the equipment of the Hebrew Theological Col­ lege and the Telsne Yeshiva in America bear heartening testimony to the fact that Jews in the Middle West and West are reaching out to a great Jewish goal.

Providential too, surely, is the complementary character of the two insti­ tutions. Both derive from the common stream of Jewish teaching and tradition that has flown unceasingly from Sinai to Eretz Yisroel, from the Land of Israel to Babylonia, from Sura and Pumbeditha to North Africa, Spain, Italy, France and Germany, from these sources to Poland, Lithuania and other lands of Eastern Europe, and from thence to the New World. W ithin the stream are many cur­ rents, each contributing to the force of the flow. The Chicago school and that of Cleveland each offer a distinctive approach. Each, within the framework of common belief and upon the foundation of common principles, derives from a given phase of Jewish experience. Each, in accordance with the pattern of its experience, brings to bear its own emphases. The interplay of the two forces may well serve to broaden the horizons of each, to counteract tendencies to ex­ tremity in any single direction, to enrich the total enviroment in which both have their being. ^ H E Hebrew Theological College, unlike the Telshe Yeshiva, has still to attain its financial goal. Although many difficult weeks of campaigning must elapse before the required funds are secured, there can be little doubt of success. The completion of the campaign and the opening of the new campus will mark the opening of a brilliant new page of American Jewish history.

It is fitting that tribute be paid to the two men who stand at the head of the respective institutions and whose dedicated purpose and high vision are responsible for the undertakings on which their schools are emD d* t d karked. Rabbi Oscar Z. Fasman, the president of the Hebrew e ico e Theological College, is a familiar and admired figure in Jewish eocfers cjrcies throughout the country. His contribution to the develop­ ment and stature of the institution which he heads, and to the advancement of American Jewish life, is beyond measure. Of Rabbi Chaim Mordecai Katz, Rosh Yeshiva of the Telshe Yeshiva in America, who carries March-April, 1957

5

forward the work pioneered by the late Rabbi E. M. Bloch, it can be said that that which he has given to American Jewry is precious indeed. To both, and to the forces which they lead, Jewry in the Middle West, in all America, and throughout the world are deeply indebted. May it be their zechiyah, and that of all of us, to see their great undertakings reaching the fulness of success.

SUCCOR J T IS hardly necessary to underscore the urgency of the current campaign of the United Jewish Appeal and particularly of its $100,000,000 Emergency Rescue Fund. But eleven years since the horrors of Nazidom were brought to a halt, 100,000 Jews and more flee from terror. 50,000 Jews are being driven from Nassers Egypt, 17,000 have fled from Kruschev’s Hungary, thousands of others seek escape from other lands of Jewish doom in eastern Europe and North Africa. For very many of them, the only means of succor is the aid rendered by American Jewry through the United Jewish Appeal.

Amidst the trials of the critical era and in the face of silent economic sanctions imposed by much of the outside world, including the United States, Israel has kept its doors wide open to all who seek haven. Those who arrive, in their thousands, are penniless. They, together with those who yet remain homeless, must be given the elemental necessities of life. American Jewry must not fail to fulfill its obligation.

UNITY ON SHECHITAH CONSIDERATION by the current 85 th Congress of three proposed bills bear­ ing a threat to Shechitah has resulted in a display of Jewish unity rare in the annals of American Jewry. The proposed measures (H.R. 176, 2880 and 3049) would require compulsory adoption of "humane” methods of animal slaughter; Shechitah, to be treated as a privileged exception, would by implica­ tion be deemed "inhumane.” In opposition to these measures, a record number of responsible American Jewish organizations, representing all viewpoints, joined in a common presentation submitted to a recent hearing of the House SubCommittee on Agriculture by Dr. Isaac Lewin, as spokesman, and Leo Pfeifer, as counsel.

European precedents have shown that legislation such as is now proposed is ultimately aimed at prohibition of Shechitah. Once passed, with the issue of religious freedom carefully skirted, the advocates of "humane slaughter” then agitate for elimination of the exemption of Jewish ritual slaughter. Evidence of scientific experts, proving that Shechitah is the most humane form of slaughter known, is blanketed under a drumfire of anti-Jewish propaganda.

It is well that the representative organs of American Jewry have recognized the reality of the danger to Judaism and religious freedom. Much credit is due to the National Community Relations Advisory Council, which, entrusting to the Orthodox Union the task of evolving the platform on which unanimity was gained, organized unity of action. The ad hoc committee now formed, bringing a joint strategy as well as a common voice to bear, offers the effective means of grappling with a threat whose seriousness we ignore at our peril.

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JEWISH LIFE

T lie R en ew al o f M ass Im m igration By 1.

HALEVY-L J erusalem :

J H E WAVE of mass immigration that followed hard upon the estab­ lishment of the State of Israel petered out by the end of 1951. In the course of a period of less than four years, 700,000 immigrants settled in the country, more than doubling its pop­ ulation and profoundly changing its composition. Prior to 1948 the rigor­ ous restrictions imposed upon immi­ gration and the difficulty of adjusting oneself to the conditions then obtain­ ing in Palestine had a selective effect, with the result that in the year the State was founded the Yishuv’s 650,000 Jews constituted a closely-knit, nationally and socially-conscious unit — the nucleus of a nation.

The influx which followed was of a totally different character. In a large measure it was set in motion by the messianic fervor generated by the crea­ tion of the State. This influx brought in two main categories of immigrants — the harried, broken survivors of the European holocaust, and the dessicated heirs of the once-illustrious commun­ ities of North Africa and the Middle East.

For thé most part the latter, who made up the bulk of the immigrants, were ignorant and backward, but once the machinery of absorption and settle­ ment had been geared to their mental­ ity and needs they proved willing ma­ terial in the hands of Israel's colonizers.

For the overwhelming majority of them even the demoralizing immi­ grants' camps, and certainly the imMarch-April, 1957

proved conditions of the maabaroth and the immigrants’ villages, where they were more or less adequately housed and provided with employment, represented a substantially h i g h e r standard of living than they had been accustomed to abroad. Their fatalism and complete lack of initiative, which Government and Jewish Agency offi­ cials made supreme efforts to overcome, were not without a positive aspect.

The newcomers willingly accepted the leadership of the so-called vothikim — veterans (i.e., Jews settled in the coun­ try prior to 1948). All attempts to form them into political parties on a communal basis, ostensibly to further their special interests but really to harness their grievances and frustra­ tions to private ambitions, failed.

Even the Communists, those masters of the art of subversion and exploita­ tion of discontent, found the "second Israel” sterile ground. The newcom­ ers did not seek better prospects else­ where and while 800,000 persons settled in Israel between May 15, 1948, and December 31, 1956, less than 70,000 (of whom forty percent belonged to the category of vothikim) left the country in that period. For purposes of comparison it is just as well to recall that the backwash of re-emigration during the Mandatory period was no less than thirty percent of the total number of immigrants.

The result of all this was that the new arrivals who were prepared, more or less passively, to let things take their 7

course, gave themselves the time to re­ adjust and to settle down.

J 7 0 R A period of three years, 19521954, after some of the main reser­ voirs of potential immigrants were emptied and pressure abroad declined, the State slowly digested this vast ac­ cession of new population. Immigra­ tion dwindled to a trickle, while emi­ gration rose steeply and in 1953 the number of yor’dim exceeded that of olim. Political and economic develop­ ments gave a new impetus to the influx in 1955 and 1956 but it was only to­ wards the end of the latter year that once again it assumed the proportions of a mass movement.

Already at its beginnings it seemed that even if this new wave of immigra­ tion would not assume flood propor­ tions, as in the early years of the State, it might nevertheless overflow the banks set for it. Originally, the arrival of 70,000 newcomers in the present year was envisaged. Events in Eastern Europe and in Egypt have compelled a reassessment of that figure and today the new target of 100,000 is a provi­ sional minimum, which too, may be exceeded.

The difficulties in the way of the integration of this new influx do not stem — or do not stem mainly — from its dimensions. The financial problem is always with us. Despite Israel's present quandary, of which we shall speak later, the prospects are that the necessary sums of money will be raised.

The main sources of mass immigra­ tion in the present year are three: former French North Africa (princi­ pally Morocco), Egypt and Eastern Europe. Of the Jews of Morocco, who will constitute about fifty percent of this year's arrivals, little more need be said than that they belong to the

8

same category as most of the newcom­ ers to this country over the past nine years, with whose problems immigra­ tion and settlement officials are already familiar and qualified to deal. It is those who come from the other coun­ tries that constitute the main difficulty.

TT IS no paradox that the difficulty * is inherent in the fact that the Jews coming from Egypt, and to an even greater extent those coming from Poland and Hungary, are of a higher quality, intellectually and vocationally speaking, and that they constitute an element of which Israel is greatly in need. In occupational structure, to a great degree, they are not unlike the immigrants who reached this country before 1948 — members of the clerical professions and small traders, with a stratum — from Hungary and Poland, mainly — of skilled artisans, intellec­ tuals, and even scientists, a number of the latter of international reputation.

The Jews of Egypt are no new ele­ ment in the colorful spectrum of Israel's population. Already during the war of 1948 an outbreak of xeno­ phobia and anti-Jewish feeling, accom­ panied by acts of violence— a con­ comitant of Egyptian defeats in Israel — set in motion a wave of emigration, making its way deviously, through France and Italy, to Israel. The Egyp­ tian Jewish community, there is no doubt, is by far the most advanced of the Jewries commonly lumped to­ gether— often incongruously — as the "Eastern communities." The call issued

by Cremieux in the forties of the pre­ vious century to ensure a proper school­ ing for all children of the community found an enthusiastic response. The result was a well-educated community, comprising largely of office-workers and businessmen, with a sprinkling of JEWISH LIFE

EGYPTIAN JEWS w ave to Israelis as they arrive in Haifa. Although most were wealthy businessmen in Cairo, the Nasser regime stripped them of all possessions.

f

members of liberal professions, cool in their Jewish-national and religious affiliations, with their own peculiar brand of assimilation, not to their im­ mediate environment but to the dominant, imported French culture.

The Egyptian Jews, accordingly, present a problem resembling that of the non-chalutzic immigrants in the interwar period. They cannot offer many of the skills of which Israel is in need, since Israel is already top-heavy with an inflated clerical and commercial class.

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March-April, 1957

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^ H E Hungarian and Polish com­ munities present a far more favor­ able occupational structure. Under twelve years of Communist rule the Jews in these countries turned away from shopkeeping and some of the traditional Jewish callings, and though an excessively high proportion were absorbed in the government service, there was a steady shift to manual and industrial skills. Despite the fluctua­ tions in the administrations of the country, Hungarian Jews maintained the intellectual standards for which 9

they were noted, producing a compara­ tively large number of highly quali­ fied professional men. It is also of interest to note that despite twelve years of Communist rule, coming after many years of Fascist and Nazi oppres­ sion, it is still largely a religiously orthodox community — a fact, unfor­ tunately exploited by enemies of Zion to divert the refugees reaching Vienna away from Israel and towards new lands of exile.

To the credit of the small army of officials dealing with the transport and integration of the immigrants, it must be placed on record that they have eschewed a bureaucratic approach. They appreciate that the best that Israel can offer falls only too often below the standards many of the newcomers have been used to abroad. The officials realize that undue insistence upon formal equality of treatment for all immigrants, regardless of their back­ ground, would lead not to equality but to crying injustice and eventually, to a new wave of yeridah.

A special office deals with immi­ grants with higher professional quali­ fication— doctors, surgeons, engineers, actors, musicians, even renowned nu­ clear scientists: The list of names, degrees, titles, positions formerly held is dazzling, and is reminiscent of the influx from Germany in the thirties.

veniences. Indeed, the n ew co m ers themselves regard it as an improvement on the hotels where, under the best of conditions, they are irked by the sense of transience and impermanence.

The newcomer is granted a long-term interest-free loan of I£150-200 to help cover his initial personal expenses.

Accommodation is also available in an ulpan — a peculiarly Israeli institution designed to enable new arrivals to master Hebrew before embarking upon the battle of ieadjustment.

Public landsmanshaft and profes­ sional committees assist the officials in placing the newcomers suitably.

W hen employment is found the im­ migrant is given a two-and-a-half- or three-room apartment of the Popular Housing Standard (which he may rent or purchase outright on convenient terms), certainly nothing luxurious, but sufficient to serve its purpose in a period of transition and acclimatiza­ tion.

For doctors, who for a variety of reasons cannot be placed immediately, special arrangements are made to al­ low them a period of ‘observation’ in a hospital, where they can study local conditions and methods of work.

Facilities are provided for them and their families during this waiting period, while they are granted loans of I£200 monthly until they secure per­ manent employment.

TM'EWCOMERS who do not choose to ■ stay with relatives or friends upon arrival in Israel are provided with tem­ porary accommodation in a hotel or maabarah, until they are placed in suit­ able positions. The only thing such a maabarah has in common with the shanty towns which scar the face of Israel is the name. It is a collection of pleasant bungalows, containing two rooms, a kitchen and the usual con-

T H E ARRIVAL of a number of scien­ t i s t s for whose services Israel had to compete with far larger and wealth­ ier countries provides an indication of the calibre of this latest influx into Israel.

Dr. Geza Szamosi, 35, for example, was until only a short while ago Pro­ fessor of Nuclear Physics at the Uni­ versity of Budapest and a Lecturer at

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JEWISH LIFE

the Central Institute of Physical Re­ search in that city. Shocked by the recrudescence of Antisemitism that ac­ companied the Hungarian revolt, Pro­ fessor Szamosi decided to leave that country and to cross the border into Austria. His fame had gone before him and in Vienna he found many tempting offers awaiting him. But as he himself said, Antisemitism — from which he had not suffered personally — was the direct cause of his flight.

He decided to throw in his lot with his own people in Israel. Here, too, he can choose between the Hebrew University, the Weizmann Institute, the Haifa College of Technology and the Ministry of Defense.

Dr. R. Paunz, today a Research Fel­ low at the College of Technology, also comes from Hungary, where he was Lecturer in Pure Physics at the #Seged University, and published a series of studies on quantum chemistry. Dr. Ferenc Korosi, a former Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at Budapest Uni­ versity, has also joined the faculty of the College of Technology as a Re­ search Fellow. Dr. Korosi, an active Zionist, comes from a renowned fam­ ily of scientists. His father was a Professor of Physiology at Budapest University, while his grandfather, Josep Korosi, was a leading Hungarian sta­ tistician.

But Israel is a small country and its absorptive capacity for top scientific (and even normal professional) talent is limited. Moreover, its strict equalitarian standards do not permit it to offer anything remotely approaching what eminent scientists can obtain for the asking elsewhere. Fields in which only a few months ago there was a shortage of personnel today suffer from a surfeit. In other cases the retention of experts is dependent upon the findMarch-April, 1957

ing of the necessary funds, the pro­ vision of laboratories and equipment, which always take time.

BUTTHIS, of course, is the elite of the influx. The more common run of immigrant is also of high vocational standards and for these, too, special facilities for rapid integration are be­ ing created. It has been found neces­ sary to forego what has been a major principle of national planning — that of diverting immigrants from the over­ crowded Coastal Plain to the less densely-populated areas. Many of the newcomers are skilled artisans for whose services there is a demand only in the more populous centers.

Immigrant workers in Israel are al­ ways assured of a warm welcome. The labor organizations have never per­ mitted narrow, short - sighted trade union interests and the fear of lower wages and working conditions to diminish their staunch support for the national open-door policy. The con-

WITH their children at their side, this Egyptian couple step onto Holy Land soil.

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trary is the exception and not the rule in other countries, even for non-Jewish immigrants. In England, for example, despite a shortage of labor in the coal mines, British miners have refused to work side by side with Hungarians; in France the only employment avail­ able is unskilled or agricultural labor.

Every effort is being made to in­ duce newcomers to settle on the land.

The goal set for the current year is 6,000 families, an estimated 25,000 persons, or about twenty-five percent of the expected number of arrivals.

The method adopted is to make agri­ culture more attractive for the-new ­ comers. A very generous scheme has been evolved by Levi Eshkol, Israel’s Minister of Finance, in collaboration

A NEW LIFE awaits these Jewish tots from Cairo as they gaze at debarkation proceed­ ings in Haifa. Temporary accommodation will be provided for them in pleasant bungalows, thus putting an end to the era of tent-city maabaroth.

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JEWISH LIFE

with the various kibbutz and moshav J H E FINANCIAL burden is tremovements. The Eshkol Plan envisages * mendous — an estimated quarter of the settlement of 1,700 families in a billion Israeli pounds must be raised kibbutzim and 1000 in moshavim. in 1957 alone— particularly at a time (The remaining 3,300 families will when both the United States and Soviet be settled in new villages.) The new Russia have seen fit to "impose” sanc­ program is based upon the assumption tions. Israel will probably lose the that from the very outset the newcom­ 25 million dollar grant-in-aid, four ers must be provided with reasonable million dollars in technical aid and accommodation and living conditions 17.5 million of surplus foodstuffs, and must be permitted to experiment while the ban on travel to the country with collective living for one or two —now lifted—has cost the State five years, before committing themselves million dollars. Russia’s breach of its and without foregoing their privileges commercial agreement to supply Israel with 300,000 tons of oil has forced as immigrants. this country to obtain fuel from Vene­ Housing under construction in the zuela at a time when freight charges settlements will remain at the disposal have soared. of the authorities for a period of five The policy adopted of rigorously years, after which it will revert to the cutting back national expenditure, the kibbutz. The prospective settler is floating of a I£40 million Defense given a grant of I£200 per capita for Loan, continuation of the Yahav Hamofurniture and initial equipment. Un­ gen Defense Levy for another year to derlying these arrangements is an ap­ raise an additional I£40 million and preciation that liberal conditions must the decision of organized workers in be offered to these newcomers who Israel to contribute their leave allow­ ances to a special employment fund have suffered so much already and who for immigrants, are some of the meas­ after a long personal experience of ures adopted to close the gap between Communism in practice have devel­ revenue from abroad and the vast sums oped a hatred of anything smacking needed to finance the integration of of collectivism. newcomers in 1957.

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13

• Te filâth Toi "brims with meaning” scientific data shows.

E arly F a lls tlie D ew

By JEREMY U. NEWMAN f^O L U T H JEWS are now wise in the water, which accounts for the dew we ways of Israeli weather. At Suk- see on a cold soda bottle on a warm, koth they offer up Tefillath Geshem, summer day.

Actually, the air may be compared the Prayer for Rain, secure in the knowledge that in Israel rain will fall to a giant sponge, filled with drops of in the ensuing winter months, whereas water. Cold merely squeezes this sponge Pesach will usher in the dry summer and causes the drops of water to be deposited on a convenient surface. The season. radiation of heat from the earth at Tefillath Tal, the Prayer for Dew, night cools the air, and squeezes this oifered at Pesach time, appears to be sponge, causing the dew point to be a mere poetic complement to Tefillath reached, and dew deposited.

G eshem, 5' beautiful, but : ineffectual.

But how much dew is deposited?

Dew is nice, but can never take the Theoretically, Dr. W ent declares, place of rain. "for a whole vyear of 365 cloudless However, the United States Depart- nights, it (the dew) is equivalent to m ent of Agriculture does not take such 15 inches of rain.” a jaundiced view of it. Thé Yearbook But from the -theoretical to the of Agriculture, 1955 (a fascinating actual lies quite a gap. When checked, volume entitled Water) contains an only an inch and a half of dew can be article by Dr. F. W. Went, Professor measured on a given surface during a of Plant Physiology at the California given year, and this seems to evaporfm Institute of Technology. In his article, rapidly.asr the sun rises. ’Tog, Mist, Dew, and Other Sources However, L. L ., Harrold and F. R. of Water,” Dr. W ent meets any skep­ Dreibelbis of Coshocton, .Ohio, took ticism of the citified Diaspora Jews blocks of soil with growing plants in head on by blandly stating, "Because them, and weighed them, day and night dew disappears soon after sunrise; for six (years. Miraculously, as Dr. people often overlooked it as a possible ; "it I'was found that an source of water.” average equivalent of 9-1 inches of , Vapor pressure, relative humidity,- fain w as deposited throughout the year and dew point are common terms ngw,; tin the form of dew.” thanks to air conditioning.

T \ R. W ENT also turned to research FE ALL :know that the air’ contains ^ done not in Ohio, but in Israel by water vapor,, y^hich exerts a vapor Dr. S. Duvdevani.* "Dr. DuvdeVani,” says Dr. Went, pressure. At a given temperature, a ¡relative humidify of 100% means,That *See, "Dew Dradients in Relation to Climate, the air contains all the water vapor, it Soil, and Topography,” by Dr. S. Duvdevani, in j:an hold. A sudden lowering of tem­ Proceedings of the Desert Symposium, Jeru­ perature can cause, condensation of this salem, 1953.

W1

if

JEWISH LIFE

"studied the distribution of dew in Israel . . . (finding that) even in the dry and hot Jordan Valley dew is a common phenomenon and occurs on nearly half the nights. In the Southern Desert (Negev) it is even more fre­ quent.” . :Dr? Duvdevani invented the measur­ ing device which recorded the annual deposition of one and one-half inches cffed^Wj aiid then went to the heart of the problem of the efficacy of dew.

He compared two identical plots in an Israeli field, one exposed to the dew at night, and one covered with a can­ opy between sunset and sunrise, to pre­ vent dew deposition.

"The tests,” says Dr. Went, "showed that , most plants,, such as squash and corn, grew about twice as much when they received dew during the night.

Therefore, it would seem that in a semi-arid area, dew has considerable importance in growth of plants.”

March-April, 1957

W ith 9.1 inches of dew depositing on Israel’s soil where rain does not fall for six months, is it any wonder that Jews throughout the world turn to Him Whose locks of hair are filled with resisey laylah, the nocturnal drop­ lets. To Him Jews appeal thrice daily from Sukkoth to Pesach, "Bless this year and all forms of produce for good; and send dew and rain upon the face of the earth, that we may have plenty from thy bounty.”

Tefillath Tal now brims with mean­ ing, as Jews the world over join in chanting the words of Elazar ha-Kallir on the first of Pesach: "Earth’s depths await the drops of dew, and the grassy meadows long for it; dew to revive life in the clefts of the rocks . ... Grant dew to Thy land,.and make it a joyful bless­ ing; with abundant grain and wine; restore Thy coveted city, with dew . . .

For a blessing, not a curse. For life, not death. For plenty, not scarcity.”

15

• A New View of Toynbee, with a Biblical Precedent Brought to Bear.

Balaam : K ey to T oyn bee

By REUBEN E. GROSS p E W WRITERS and scholars of modern times have made so deep an impact on the public mind as has Arnold Toynbee. His great work, "A Study of History,” has influenced the thinking not only of wide elements in the scholarly world but, significantly, also that of many of important stand­ ing in the world of public affairs. W ith his every word regarded by his follow­ ers as all but sacred, Toynbee is looked upon as a veritable prophet. Of par­ ticular interest to Jews, in the light of this deep influence, is Toynbee's ap­ proach to the Jew and Judaism. The views on this subject manifested in Toynbee’s work are, as is well known, of such extreme prejudice and distor­ tion as to evoke serious foreboding as to their ultimate consequences.

Far-fetched as it may seem, we can shed light on the role of Toynbee by comparing him with a figure of long ages past, one with whom, it might appear at first thought, he enjoys little in common — the Biblical figure of Balaam ben Beor, of whom we read in the Book of Numbers.

The Torah contains no character more enigmatic than Balaam ben Beor.

The Talmud Bavli asks, with inconclu­ sive results, whether he was a prophet or a soothsayer. The Mishnah lists him as one of seven who will have no share in Olam Habah. The Jews of his own generation evidently felt him to be a mortal enemy, inasmuch as they killed him upon his capture. Yet, when we read what Balaam did and said, we have a picture of seemingly incor16

ruptible character, staunch devotion to truth, and resistance to the blandish­ ments and bribes of Balak.

Moreover, Balaam, although counted upon by Balak to bring curse upon Israel, could voice nothing but praise and blessings of the highest order for the Children of Israel, which he em­ bodied in poetry so sublime that it ocuupies a prominent position in the Siddur. This privilege was granted to very few of our Prophets and Rabbis.

Another problem is in the term used in stating the mission upon which Balaam set forth, "kovah li eth ha-om hazeh” (Bemidbor 22:17), usually translated as "curse me this people.”

However, there are words other than "kovah,” like orah and k’lolah, that are normally used in this sense. W hat is the precise meaning of "kovah”?

T H E SOLUTION to these difficulties A occurred to me when I ran across the writings of Arnold Toynbee, who may be deemed a modern Balaam of sorts. Upon re-examining the text of the Torah I concluded that Balaam ben Beor was actually a scientific social an­ alyst. He apparently achieved success in making analytical surveys of various peoples whereby he uncovered their weaknesses. W ith this information he was able to destroy enemies and fortify friends. Like his contemporaries in the Egyptian priesthood who held many mathematical and scientific se­ crets, he displayed this knowledge under layers of hocus pocus. Balak did not clearly understand Balaam, except JEWISH LIFE

that Balak saw that those who Balaam blessed seemed to be blest, and those whom he cursed were apparently cursed. In fact, when Balaam attempted to show that he was “open-eyed” (translate “objective”) and that he could not alter what G-d had wrought, it fell on deaf ears as far as Balak was concerned.

If this seems to be a “drash” and not literal truth, let us examine what Balaam did and said, excluding those portions which talk about him, and we can readily determine whether or not his mental operations are those of a mind that has been disciplined in the scientific method. A scientist’s ^tst task when faced by a phenomenon to observe and then to classify. This is precisely what Balaam attempted.

His first report to Balak was: From the top of rocks 1 see him And from the hills 1 behold him Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone.

And shall not be reckoned among the nations.

who has had the advantage of judging from a history of some thirty-odd cen­ turies, shows an equally remarkable blindness. In reviewing for the New York Times, Maurice Samuel’s sear­ ing attack on Toynbee, “The Professor and The Fossil,” Reinhold Niebuhr has pointed out quite accurately: "Toynbee’s treatment of Jewish culture is certainly subject to criticism . * . be­ cause his general categories are unable to , comprehend unique historical phenomena, such as the survival and spiritual vitality of the Jews through millennia bf the Diaspora.

"Samuel proves what Gentiles should long have known but are inclined to for­ get; that the phenomenon of the Jewish people as a race, a culture and as the bearers of a religion does not fit simply into any of the categories by which we try to comprehend historical phenomena.”

TJA V IN G FAILED to find a caten gory in which the Jews as a people could be classified, Balaam was then urged by Balak to try a less ambitious project, to break the problem down and to view a “merest part” of the Jews, and “not see all of them.” This appears to be a request to survey the TH U S, at the very outset Balaam was constituent parts of the people, its * thwarted in his attempt to classify institutions and laws, its mores and the Childen of Israel. Having observed customs. Following this, Balaam re­ them, he found no known category in ported: None hath beheld failings in which they would fit. Then and there Jacob he uttered a profound sociological Neither hath one seen weakness truth concerning the Jewish people — in Israel that it is unique and unclassifiable.

The Lord his G-d is with him, How much useless ink has been And the shouting for the King is spilled and vain words uttered in sense­ among them. less debate as to whether Jews consti­ Here we have a tribute to Torah tute a nation, a race, a religion or a civilization. The depth of Balaam’s which provided a perfect social sys­ perception is most remarkable, and tem, an armor containing no holes or does indeed appear to border on the chinks.

Behold a people that riseth up prophetic when we consider that he like as a lioness had before him a people whose nation­ And as a lion doth he lift himself hood was a matter of only thirty-odd up. years. By contrast, Arnold Toynbee, March-April, 1957

17

Here is a tribute to the courage and strength, spiritual and physical, grow­ ing out of these perfect institutions.

Again the outraged Balak protested that he did not hire Balaam for this.

Balaam, however, reminded Balak that according to his contract he was to report only what G-d had wrought and not to change things. The exasperated Balak finally gave in and asked for a final survey with the hope that Balaam would find a "hole” that would be "right in the eyes of G-d.”

Thereupon Balaam made his third and final survey of the Jews. He turned his attention this time to the smallest and basic sociological unit — the family. Having noticed how they "dwelt according to their tribes,” he spoke forth the immortal "Mah Tovu — How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob. . . .” Here again, his "open eye” pierced through to see a basic socio­

18

logic fact-— that Jewish endurance rested upon sound family life. ^*HUS we see that Balaam was ac* tually engaged in a sociological anal­ ysis of the Jews. He c o m m e n c e d with a fruitless attempt to classify the people as a whole. He continued and found their institutions and laws flaw­ less. He concluded with a finding that their perfection rested upon a sound foundation — the family.

Much of the misunderstanding of Balaam is attributable to an inaccurate translation of the previously-mentioned word "kovah” as "curse.” The Talmud Bavli (Sanhedrin 92) asks what the term signifies and refers to the section on Balak to show that it means "klolah.” Ula bar Ishmael, however, imme­ diately thereafter in this passage, and not necessarily in disagreement with the foregoing interpretation, says that the word means to "make sieve-like.”

JEWISH LIFE

Our great commentator Rashi, in turn, notes in this connection that “kovah” is derived from “nekev”—meaning a “hole.” The full meaning of “kovah” it seems, is: to dissect, to analyze, to pierce, penetrate, or probe for a weak­ ness. It is related to “klolah,” curse, only in the sense that both words sug­ gest encompassing an object with de­ structive intent. However, while “klo­ lah” means to encompass with evil by magical or supernatural means,” “ko­ vah” implies the use of rational methods.

If some sceptic regards the above as unhistorical and believes that ra­ tional thinking in sociologie terms did not precede Comte he would do well to examine Aristotle’s “Politics,” where we find a highly refined study of com­ parative government. There constitu­ tions are classified in six major cate­ gories, • each containing several sub­ categories. In “Constitutions ” of which only fragments have survived, Aris­ totle analyzed and classified the con­ stitutions of 150 different polities of the ancient world in a highly scientific and objective manner. There must have been unrecorded predecessors to Aris­ totle. W ithout a Newton there could have been no Einstein; and without a Bacon there would have been no Newton. The “Politics” of Aristotle therefore reasonably implies the exist­ ence of a body of scholars in the ancient world in the centuries preced­ ing him, who noted the different types of constitutions then existing, their relative merits and weaknesses. Did not Balaam, himself, take note of Edom, Amalek the Kenites, Assyria and the ships from Kittim that would afflict Assyria? ^ H E ABOVE analysis of Balaam ben Beor has a pertinent application to March-April, 1957

Arnold Toynbee. The former, an an­ cient political scientist, has been char­ acterized as a soothsayer, while the latter, a soothsayer of the present day, unjustly enjoys the reputation of a great historian, and is described by his more ardent admirers as a “prophet.”

In the early 1930’s Arnold Toynbee, a British scholar, began his “A Study of History” — a work that undertakes to uncover the laws governing the rise and fall of empires, the movements of history, and the inner secrets of the development of human institutions.

Before World W ar I he completed six volumes of this monumental work.

Therein he laid down his basic prin­ ciples, illustrating them with seeming erudition and broad sweep, with ex­ amples drawn from Mayan, Chinese, Eskimo, Roman, Hindu, Teutonic, and numerous other civilizations. Every civilization fitted into its proper niche according to Mr. Toynbee’s neat form­ ulas. One people, however, proved difficult to conform to his diagnosis.

According to the rules, the Jewish people should have died out thousands of years ago and this is exactly what happened, says Mr. Toynbee. How then does he square his theory with the facts? By indulging in a bit of name calling. Judaism is a “fossil civ­ ilization,” Toynbee asserts. The “fossil,” however, did not have respect enough for the professor to wait until at least a few more years had passed before giving unimpeachable e v i d e n c e of sound life. While Mr. Toynbee was completing the last four volumes of his great Study, the State of Israel re­ established itself. Little did Ben Gurion realize what a crime he committed against Arnold Toynbee’s Study when he promulgated the Israeli Declaration of Independence. No longer could Jews be dismissed with such mild 19

epithets as "fossils.” In his four post­ war volumes, Mr. Toynbee’s fury rises to a feverish pitch. Zionists are equated with Nazis. He states that the gravest crime of the Nazis is not that they exterminated a multitude of Western Jews, but that they caused the survive ing remnant to stumble into Zionist ways.

J T IS superfluous to undertake a re­ buttal or analysis of Toynbee’s re­ marks. That task has been fulfilled with commendable forensic skill by Eliezer Berkovitz in "Judaism, Fossil or Ferment” (Philosophical Library — New Y ork— 1956) and M a u r i c e Samuel in "The Professor and the Fossil” (Alfred Knopf — New York — 1956).

The first-named book is a sober, calm, critical analysis of Toynbee’s position in regard to the Jews. Sam­ uel’s book, however, is a searing, blaz­ ing attack. Whereas Berkovitz writes with the urgency of a lawyer’s brief before an appellate court, Samuel writes with the dynamism of a sum­ mation before a jury. Needless to say, "The Professor and the Fossil” makes better reading, not only for what it tells about Toynbee but also for what it reveals about Samuel. In his enthu­ siastic recounting of the indestructible creativity of the Jewish spirit along the busiest highways of history, Sam­ uel waxes poetic and mystical. Sooner or later, one is led on this path to the inevitable recognition of Torah min Hashomayim. Samuel, however, re­ fuses to take this last step, after having done such a magnificent job in estab­ lishing all the minor propositions that lead to this conclusion. He is content in leaving "the Jewish drama as a peculiar and, thus far, humanly in­ explicable experience.”

20

It is noteworthy that Samuel finds that the word "fossil” operates in Toyn­ bee’s mind as a substitute word for "curse,” for Samuel says, “Essentially, the old bogyman story of the people accursed (fossilized) and doomed to live on under the curse (fossilization) for its inexplicable crime . . /

JJO W EV ER, like his prototype, all of Toynbee’s efforts to belittle and damn Israel turn out to be unintended salutations. In spite of himself, Toyn­ bee’s writings have served in recent years to emphasize, not only the uniqueness of Jewish contributions to Western thought but the basic nature of these contributions. After complet­ ing his Study, Arnold Toynbee wrote "An Historian’s Approach to Religion” ( Oxford University Press — 1 9 5 6 ) .

Therein he emphasizes the centrality of religion in history, and in character­ istic fashion refers to Judaism, Chris­ tianity, Islam and Communism as the "Judaic religions.”

W hat approach should we as Jews take to this modern Balaam? A Con­ servative writer, flattered by attention from the great historian, takes Maurice Samuel to task for suggesting that Toynbee is an Antisemite. That writer excuses Toynbee’s excesses because the Professor "operates with the symbols of the Christian tradition.” However, an eminent Christian C h u r c h m a n , Reinhold Neibuhr, who presumably also operates with the symbols of the Christian tradition, said: “I am persuaded against my inclination to admit that some hidden prejudice oper­ ates in Toynbee’s mind and betrays itself even in his most benign attempts at ob­ jectivity.”

JF ALL that was involved in Toyn­ bee’s Study was pure scholarship, JEWISH LIFE

the errors could be approached in a whose consequences to Israel are dire calm, unemotional spirit, Mr. Toyn­ indeed. bee’s spleen could be met with a kindly Neither Maurice Samuel nor Eliezer smile. Unfortunately the modern Ba- Berkovitz can be called a Phineas ben laks, the Dulleses and Edens and their Eliezer, although Samuel has fervor and his pen is a deadly javelin. How­ loyal followers in the State Depart­ ever, both have performed a service ments and foreign offices, read Toyn­ in diagnosing, though not curing, the bee’s soothsaying with a reverence Toynbee plague.

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21

H A SH K O F A H Tlie Jewish Concept of Freedom

By SAMSON R. WEISS [W e are pleased to introduce herewith a new JEWISH LIFE feature, “Hashkofah” (Outlook), to appear regularly in our pages. Dr. Weiss, distinguished orthodox Jewish thinker, leader and educator, offers in this series illuminating expositions-in-hrief of Torah concepts in application to modern man.— Editor"^

" . . . and we shall thank Thee in a new song from our redemption and for the deliverance of our souls. Blessed art 7 hou, 0 Lord, who hast redeemed Israel” (Pessach Hagadah, from the blessing over the Second Cup.)

^pORAH, in relating the creation of man, defines his nature and purpose: And G-d created man in His image, in the image of G-d He created him (B'reshith 1:27). Cast in the Divine form, man’s purpose is to fill the mold of the Divine image, the matrix of his creation, and to bespeak through his thoughts and deeds his kinship with the Almighty.

Yet, we are vexed to find the point of juncture with the Almighty, that resemblance which makes us His im­ age. W e are mortal—He is eternal. We are narrow and circumscribed, frail and beset by constant temptation—He is infinite and wise, unchangingly one and absolute. Where, then, do we re­ semble Him? Our philosophers and Bible com­ mentators have wrestled with this problem. Their conclusions can be summed up in one term: "Bchirah” —freedom of choice. Man has been 22

endowed by his Maker with intel­ ligence and the ability to choose, to accept or to reject, and to act by his choice. This is the point of juncture.

On this precious ability is based our kinship with our Maker. Like the Holy One, blessed be He, we can act in sovereignty, by our own and free de­ cision. The entirety of Torah, as it addresses itself by command and pro­ hibition to man, is based on this free­ dom of sovereign, intelligent decision.

M

ALONE, among all creatures, has further the concomitant abil­ ity of critical self-observation. In the very act of choosing, of evaluating, he judges himself. Because he is free, he is also responsible. And because there are always two ways before him, his free choice makes him also the object of divine judgement. Reward and punishment find their justification in Bchirah.

B’chirah is the very pulsebeat of human existence. As long as he lives, man remains under the postulate of the Divine image. Necessarily, therefore, the higher he ascends the mountain of moral and intellectual achievement, the greater becomes his test, his choice, and the wider stretch out before him an

JEWISH LIFE

the horizons of infinity. By nature, man knows of no final accomplishment and his goal is ever expanding. The voice and the call which reach him do not cease. This, too, is part of man’s re­ semblance to the eternal, infinite Crea­ tor.

The permanence of our intellectual substance, one of the fundamentals of our faith, is a further integral part of this basic concept of B’chirah. And thou shalt choose life (D ’vorim 3 1 : 19 ) —-the soul, capable, by Divine en­ dowment, of free choice, is also cap­ able of gaining eternity. Beyond that, man’s spirit can permeate matter and make it share in his eternity. Thus, the narrow confines of his body and of his physical world need not become his grave. If elevated and sanctified by the good choice, man’s body gains resurrection and the entire world bliss and renewal.

J7REEDOM, then, is the essential category of man’s soul, the meeting

March-April, 1957

ground of man and G-d. It is never accomplished by the escape from the physical master. The chains of oppres­ sion may burst asunder, yet the former captive will still remain a slave un­ less he understands and accepts his physical freedom as the opportunity of a self-imposed, freely accepted dis­ cipline, as the G-d-given chance for the exercise of B’chirah. W ithout the "deliverance of our souls” the redemp­ tion from Egypt would have been in vain.

Four expressions of freedom and deliverance are found in Torah’s record of the Exodus from Egypt. W e recall them by the four cups of wine at the Seder. The last and culminating of these expressions reads: And I shall take you unto Me as a people ( Sh’moth 6:7). When did we become His peo­ ple? Say our Sages: on Sinai. For no­ where else will freedom ever be en­ graved but on the Tablets of the Divine Law.

23

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JEWISH LIFE

Y om Haatîzimautn— A N ew Jew ish F estival

By ARYEH NEWMAN NEW festive date has been added to the Jewish calendar—the fifth of Iyar. On that day, nine years ago, the establishment of the state of Israel was proclaimed. In commemoration of that historic event the Israel Chief Rabbinate has issued a special order of prayers and prescribed that the fifth of Iyar be observed as a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing to the Al­ mighty for His miracles of deliverance in the W ar of Independence, for his vouchsafing us atchalta di-geulah—the dawn of the long-awaited Messianic redemption, after nearly two millennia of homelessness and unmitigated exile.

From time immemorial, there has been a characteristic Jewish form of commemorating occasions of national deliverance. First there is thanksgiving usually expressed in the form of a berochah— a benediction. The Sages of old formulated benedictions for every occasion. The Jewish morning prayer contains, for example, a series of berochoth in which we thank G-d lit­ erally for every waking moment and movement: "When he hears the cock crow, he re­ cites: Blessed art Thou O Lord our G-d, King of the Universe, who hath given the cock understanding to discern betwixt day and night . . . when he dons his gar­ ments he recites . . . 'who clothest the naked* . . . as he stands erect , . . 'who makest upright them that are bent*; as he washes his face . , . 'who removest the bonds of sleep from mine eyes and slum­ ber from mine eyelids.**’ (Maimonides* Code, Tefillah, vi. 4.)

Man is obliged to bless the Lord for both good and bad tidings, our Sages March-April, 1957

stated, taking as their text the Scrip­ tural vere: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy G-d with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might ” "Even if he takes thy soul,” they com­ mented (Berochoth, Mishnah ix, 1 ).

JgESIDES, however, the berochoth prescribed for the daily acts of G-d’s bounty which man tends to take for granted, other benedictions were formulated for special occasions, to register our appreciation of what we mortals term miracles. For in reality all existence is a miracle.

Four are required to give thanks, states the Talmud—they that go down to the sea, they that traverse deserts, he who has recovered from sickness, he who has been liberated from imprison­ ment.

Our Sages of old instituted the benediction to be uttered upon escape from danger, reciting such a berochah at any spot which reminded them of some providential act that had been performed for them there, such as being saved from a wild beast.

For a deliverance of public or na­ tional dimensions, state our Sages, everyone concerned is obliged to give thanks.

But then there is another important ingredient of Jewish celebration of national deliverance—shirah, which can be simply rendered as Song with a capital S. W hen the children of Israel saw the glory of Egypt, the flower of its manhood and military might, flounder25

ing helplessly in the waters of the Red Sea, that had but a short while pre­ viously divided at the wave of Moses’ rod to let them safely pass through, they burst into an exultant song of triumph and gratitude: Then sang Moses and the chil­ dren of Israel this song unto the Lord and spake saying, l will sihg unto the Lord, for He hath tri­ umphed gloriously . . .

IJ ,HIS IS regarded as the archetype for all future songs of deliverance to be uttered by the Jewish people. Later the prophets of Israel singled out special Psalms of praise, known as the Hallel (Ps. 112-118) to be recited on these occasions. Chanukkah, the feast of Maccabean deliverance, qualified for the recital of Hallel. According to some authorities Purim did not. Since how­ ever the Talmudic discussion concern­ ing this unfolds the principles which guided our Sages in their institution of new festivals commemmorating events of unusual historic magnitude, we shall quote in full the relevant passage from Gemara in Megillah.

"Forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses prophesied to Israel but none added nor diminished from what was written in the Torah with the exception of the reading of the Meg­ illah on Purim. W hat authority did they find for it? Said Rabbi Chiyya: I f when they went forth from slavery to freedom the Israelites sang Shirah— a song of redemption—all the more so on Purim when they went forth from death to life! ’ ” In that case, continues the Gemara, why is not Hallel recited on Purim? Because, it is answered, Hallel is not recited for a miracle tak­ ing place outside Eretz Yisroel. In that case, how came the departure from Egypt, which was outside Eretz Yisroel, to warrant a redemptive song? The 26

Talmud answers: Before they entered the Promised Land, all countries were qualified, after they entered the Land, all other countries were disqualified.

Rav Nachman stated: The reading of the Megillah constitutes the Hallel as far as Purim is concerned. Rava said: Hallel is appropriate for the Exodus since after being servants of Pharaoh they could say, Praise ye the servants of the Lord ( a quotation from the Hallel psalm )—in other words, the Jewish people achieved freedom and sovereignty under G-d, but in the case of Purim, "we are still servants of Ahasuerus! ” On Purim they were re­ deemed from death but not from exile and subjection. g Y ALL accounts, the Chief Rabbi­ nate has judged, Yom Haatzmauth qualifies for the recital of Hallel as a day of religious thanksgiving. The miracle it commemorates happened in Eretz Israel and at the same time in­ volved the whole Jewish people, chang­ ing their status from that of homeless JEWISH LIFE

exiles to that of a nation with its own independent homeland and marking the delivery of the Jewish community in Israel from slaughter by the Arab invaders.

The ingathering of the exiles and restoration of Jewish sovereignty in Zion epitomised in Yom Haatzmauth carry with them authentic Messianic undertones as the following quotations from our sources indicate: "Great is the ingathering of the exiles as the day on which Heaven and earth were created,” states our Sages in Pesachim.

"The days of the Messiah will be the period when sovreignty is restored to Israël and the Jewish people return to the H oly Land.”

This is a quotation from the Rambam. No wonder then that contem­ porary Rabbinic authority in Israel has recognised Yom ha-Atzmauth as Chag Athchalta di-Geulah—the festival of redemption’s dawning—and has pre­ scribed the recital of thanksgiving Psalms (cxvii, xcvii, xcviii), the Hallel and Haftorah (Isaiah 10: 32-11: 12) without the accompanying benedic­ tions. Tachanun, the daily supplicatory prayers omitted on private and public

feast days, is suspended and a festive shofar blast, thanksgiving meal and the kindling of lights ordained.* ^ H E DATE of this anniversary is * indeed appropriate since it marks the day on which the essence of the miracle took place—when we went forth from slavery to freedom through the proclamation of independence.

The Jewish people assemble this day in their synagogues to give thanks to the Almighty for the restoration of their sovereignty in the land of Israel.

In the liturgy prescribed for the day we pray, to the accompainment of a festive blast of the shofar: "May it be thy will O Lord our G-d, and the G-d of our fathers, that as we have been granted the dawn of redemption, so may we be granted to hear the sound of the trumpet of the Messiah.” "'For a complete version of the order of prayer, customs and appropriate readings from Jewish sources approved by the Israel Chief Rabbinate, readers are referred to Tikkun Yom H a-A tzm uth (Independence Day Manual) issued in Jerusalem bv the Jewish Agency Torah Dept, and available in the U. S.

MAN ISC H E WI TZ

MATZOS • WINE • EGG MATZOS • GEEILTE FISH • BORSCHT * SPONGE CAKE MIX

March-April, 1957

27

A REMNANT HAS SURVIVED The opening in February of Yeshivath Kol Yaakov in Moscow, the first such institution over to be per­ mitted under Soviet Russian rule, w as attended by wide publicity.

The event underlined the fact that in this land num­ bering over 2,000,000 lew s no vestige of Jewish relig­ ious education otherwise remained. Laws forbidding religious education for all under 18 have been tragic­ ally effective. Children and youth have been cut off from their Jewish heritage.

Many see in the establishment of the Yeshivah and the simultaneous publication of the first Siddur and Luach printed under Soviet rule, a political propa­ g a n d ists motive on the part of Russian authorities.

Whatever the purpose behind the move, however, the establishment of Yeshivath Kol Yaakov, and the gather­ ing together of its handful of students, attest that Torah roots have withstood forty years of despotism.

The new yeshivah is in large part a tribute to the efforts of the late Rabbi Solomon Schlifer, who survived its opening by only a few w eeks. Designated by the Soviet authorities as Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Schlifer, while obediently voicing the view of the regime, strove unceasingly to keep Judaism alive through all trials.

¡Jw',^*8®vSS | ' 4r-a -vs.-^ S w^ -sr # t» < - r% r ^ Top Center: A mem­ ber of the Moscow J e w i s h community scans a copy of the new Luach published in Russia for the first time.

Top right: A rela­ tively young Russian Jew—in his late twen­ ties learns a blatt Gemorrah with his Rebbe at the Moscow Yeshivah.

Bottom right: Russia calls this new Siddur, "Siddur Hasholom"— (The Peace Prayer Book).

« n

*»o****<|l|

MMP ,<**»B N * ms»4>Kl' \

g £

£

N eeded: Jew ish H om e L ife F or Jew ish C h ild ren

By ARTHUR S. GREEN JF SOMEONE were to ask, “what is one of the outstanding features of Jewish education ?” the reply would undoubtedly be, “the centrality of chil­ dren in the home”.

The directive which supports this answer takes its cue from the Shema prayer; "Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up”.

Yet in the face of this we find many Jewish parents of today throwing up their hands in desperation with, “We do everything possible for our chil­ dren, yet Jewish life to them is like a disease”. Others lament that cere­ monies like Bar Mitzvah to their sons often mean the end of Jewish life rather than their entry into a “holy nation; a people of priests”. As par­ ents, they wonder why their children fail to respect and honor them as the Divine commandment orders. They wonder why other children from other Jewish homes live the good Jewish life while theirs have drifted astray.

Perplexing as these questions may seem, there is usually one simple an­ swer; different parents. While for the most part, parents are well-meaning in their intentions, many of them neglect setting the right pattern of Jewish life before their children at home; leaving the development of 30

Jewish life to factors other than their own example. Let us examine the home conflicts which explain the spiritual suicide of children. * * * ^ H E R E ARE some parents, who, not fully believing in and practicing Jewish life, at least desire it for their children as something better than what they show them. They send their chil­ dren for spiritual training to religious schools away from a home which is barren of Jewish life. They feel that whatever their children get from reli­ gious schools, be it but a taste in the least, is good for them* better than nothing, and something they can al­ ways use. But merely sending children to religious schools is not enough. The parents themselves must .set the pat­ tern of Jewish life before their chil­ dren at home. Otherwise their children, seeing that Jewish life is one thing at home and another thing in schools, are confused. Still worse, an attitude of resentment and conflict toward the school as well as the home shows up in overt manifestations, often as acute discipline problems. Parents thus learn too late that the religious school can never replace their responsibility in the home.

Then there are parents who feel that obedience to the laws of Jewish life are too burdensome for their children.

They turn to the modern philosophy of education, commonly referred to as laissez-faire or freedom. Though they JEWISH LIFE

mean no harm to Jewish values, they raise their children in an atmosphere where permissiveness, self-expression, creativity, and sympathy are common denominators instead of sanctity, mo­ rality, and obedience to divine laws.

They hope that in this atmosphere their child will select Jewish life at a time when it is more convenient for him or when he is old enough to make his own decisions. But the sad fact is that a childhood in the absence of an aware­ ness of G-d often leads the child to become an entity unto himself; some­ thing which takes a difficult reeduca­ tion should he ever decide on Jewish living for himself as an adult.

Q T H E R PARENTS, overcome with ^ difficulties they met in life in earlier years, blame, among other fac­ tors, Jewish practice as an obstacle to their misgivings. Though not entirely opposed to the values of Jewish life, they substitute psychological guidance or overindulge their children with ma­ terial goods. But in all too many cases, once their child has adjusted to so­ ciety or gets all the things he needs, he is frustrated because again he is on a pedestal as an end in himself with nowhere to turn to but his ego de­ velopment.

Still other parents both believe in and practice a Jewish life at home, but are not intelligently informed. Some­ where in their own childhood they learned, in voices that were forceful and clear, the answers to questions crucial to Jewish life. But when their children ask questions like, "Dad, why can’t we go to a baseball game on Shabbos?” the answers are no longer lucid. Instead, traditional dismissals such as, "What am I sending you to Hebrew school for? Ask your teacher March-April, 1957

there”, substitute for the parents’ neg­ lect of being continually aware and capable of clarification of basic prin­ ciples of Jewish life. Answers like these destroy the child’s faith in the parent; still worse, beget doubt that Jewish life is to be taken seriously at all.

Finally there are families whose parents somehow provide a Jewish home for their children, but it is pre­ sented to them as only part of a dual proposition, because it is presented only in the home. The father is the breadwinner; the mother held in high­ est esteem as mother and keeper of the home. Jewish tradition admits to this. But the conflict arises when the father ceases to be a Jew outside the home, coming home at the end of each day to boast about his exploits and clever tactics in the world of business.

31

Though he passes off this divided world concept to his children as necessity or convenience, deep down inside his children lose faith in the sincerity of his Jewish life at home. They soon begin to take the principles of Jewish life as optional too. The rabbis answer to this that the market place is the true test of Jewish life. "In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man”, is the directive in Pirkey Ovoth. * # # JEW ISH LIFE is not an institutional­ ized life; much less is it an ivory tower existence. Nor is this to say that the institutions of Jewish education for the young are unimportant. On the contrary. Basically, the subject matter of formal Jewish education is reserved to them; Jewish faith, the Scriptural and the Oral Torah, the Hebrew lan­ guage, Jewish history, customs and ceremonies. This is an overwhelming task indeed. Yet practice and observ­ ance has its roots in the home. In fact many of our sacred observances, such as the Shabboth, can have their mean­ ing, beauty, and dignity preserved only through practice in the home. The Passover Seder, for example, which recalls the greatest drama in Jewish his­

tory, is of course especially intended to instruct the children of our deliver­ ance from bondage and the great Ex­ odus which led to the Covenant on Mount Sinai. Jewish tradition demands that the child participate with parents in a great diversity of rituals during the ceremony.

Automation is here. True, it has freed man of the many drudgeries of life, but gadgets and technology have not as yet replaced, nor will ever re­ place, the parental responsibility of the Biblical precept in the Shema prayer. There are no short-cuts to Jewish education of the young. Jewish life begins in the home; religious in­ stitutions supplement it. Desired pa­ rental distinction such as honor and re­ spect from children as well as the satisfaction of seeing our loved ones relive the good Jewish life for them­ selves and for generations to follow must be earned. Let us make the Jew­ ish home one where informed parents accept no substitutes, where both are working honestly together in a con­ tinuous common enterprise; making the home the center of Jewish faith equal with the synagogue as a House of G-d.

PREFERENCE A person should never single out one of his sons for preferential treatment. For it w as Jacob's favoring of Joseph in giving him a garment worth two pieces of silver which started a chain of events that led eventually to the enslavem ent of our forefathers in Egypt.

Babylonian Talmud. Shabboth 10b

GLORY Whosoever pursues glory will find that it runs aw ay from him.

On the other hand, whoever runs a w a y from glory, will find that it catches up with him.

Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin 13b 32

JEWISH LIFE

• His Personality, Life and Poetry.

Y ek u d ali H alevi

By MEYER ^ “HE DESIGNATION ‘‘The Golden Period’' bestowed upon the era ex­ tending from the 9th to the 12 th cen­ tury and limited to the Jews in Spain, needs some clarification. Many charac­ teristics distinguished that period and made it outstanding in the history of Spanish Jewry. But the leading one, which entitled the period to be so de­ signated, is the completeness of per­ sonality possessed by the leaders and scholars of Spanish Jewry at the time.

The split in the soul which almost every Jew, due to historical causes, has carried within him during the long period of exile, was not evident in the lives of the great Jewish poets, philos­ ophers and scholars of Spain during these centuries. They manifest no traces of conflict between "typically Jewish” characteristics, namely those that belong to a Jew through his Jewishness, and those pertaining to society at large, for both types were united in the lives of these Jews in a remarkably harmonious manner.

Paraphrasing the famous statement of the Roman poet, Terentius, "I am a man, and nothing human is strange to me,” we can say of the leaders of that Jewry that nothing human or Jewish was strange to them. Such an excep­ tionally harmonious unity of qualities we find in the character of many great men of the period, such as Samuel Ibn Nagdila (the N agid), Solomon Ibn Gabirol', and Moses Ibn Ezra.

Samuel, Prince of the Jews of Spain, Vizier of the Moslem kingdom of March-April, 1957

Granada, wrote with one hand responsa on religious matters, treatises on He­ brew grammar and poems of great beauty, and in his other hand, or per­ haps in the same hand, he carried proudly a warrior’s sword and led an army in battle. The poetry of Ibn Gabirol is saturated with the most genuine spirit of Judaism, but his philosophy bears the stamp of the general philosophic thought of the time; Ibn Ezra is the most typical poet of love, and simultaneously his religious poetry is stamped with the spirit of penitent pleading for forgive­ ness.

However, even soul harmony is sub­ ject, both in quantity and quality, to differences in degree due to conditions of life. This drop of bitterness which penetrates into a pure and delicate soul frequently hampers the full ex­ pression of its spirit. Thus it happened to Solomon Ibn Gabirol, whose poetic power reached great heights, but dis­ ease and loneliness cast a shadow on his poetry and dimmed its lustre.

J T WAS different with Y e h u d a h Halevi, poet and philosopher. By the grace of G-d he surmounted the tribulations of life and his pure spirit was not darkened by shadows. Of him it can be said that his personality was the most harmonious and complete.

Verily, did another great poet, Hein­ rich Heine, say of him, "When G-d created the soul of Halevi, He was so inspired by His own creation that 33

He kissed it.” It is this kiss, symbol of pure love, which left its impress upon the character and spirit of this poet and philosopher. Universal love, manifested in life in many ways be­ tween man and woman, man and friend, man and his people and country and man and G-d, is revealed in all forms and colors in the poetry of Halevi.

A second elemental distinction of Yehudah Halevi’s personality was pro­ portion and balance. He possessed a personal relationship to every mani­ festation in the world and life. He knew the joy of life as well as its sorrow, the pleasure of love as well as the bitterness of its disappointment.

He enjoyed the company of friends, and the taste and color of wine glad­ dened his heart. He rejoiced at the beauty of the world, and its multi­ colored splendor penetrated into the recesses of his soul. All these strands of personality were entwined by cords of love for his suffering nation and for its distant land where, as he af­

firmed, the Divine Presence (Shechinah) was still hovering in the midst of its ruins.

Viewing the world and* life from the point of Judaism, his keen eyes recognized that Greek philosophy, dominant at the time even among the thinkers in Israel "bears only flowers but no fruit,” He loved flowers and enjoyed their fragrance in measure and proportion, but searched for the fruit, the healthy kernel which sustains the life of man, especially in society.

He sought the kernel, which the tradi­ tion of, his nation nourished in its very beginning, thanks to which Israel could survive in spite of all storms which rose against it.

It is this spiritual fruit which he revealed before the eyes of his breth­ ren in his poetry and thought in its full splendor. No wonder that the re­ markable personality of Yehudah Halevi, in which colors and hues united in harmony, evoked the praises of his contemporaries and the admiration of all chosen spirits in succeeding genera­ tions.

Chooses Medical Profession Y E H U D A H HALEVI was born in the year 1081 in Toledo, where he spent a great part of his life, and later moved to Cordova. W e do not know exactly who his teachers were or from whom he received instruction in both Jewish and secular subjects. It is gen­ erally accepted that in his early youth he attended the academy of Isaac Alfasi, but it is not definitely established.

Be that as it may, his Jewish educa­ tion was wide and deep. He mastered all branches of Talmudics and Jewish law, and possesssed a thorough knowl­ edge of Hebrew grammar and Biblical exegesis. To all of these, many sec34

tions in his famed work the "Kuzari,” and the numerous comments on verses quoted by Abraham Ibn Ezra in his Biblical commentary, bear evidence.

And likewise was he at home in all branches of general culture, the sci­ ences, philosophy and even Christian and Moslem theology, as well, it is hardly necessary to say, in the art of poetry. For a profession he chose, as did many other great men of those days, medicine, in which he was very successful. He complains bitterly in one of his letters, "And thus I am forced to spend all hours of my day and a great part of the night in the vanities of medicine.”

JEWISH LIFE

Still, medicine was only his avoca­ strength of the lion and beauty of the tion, while his vocation was song and gazelle.” Even if we allow that such philosophy. These were the subjects praise contains much of Oriental exag­ in which his soul rejoiced even in his geration, we can still gauge the effect very youth. W e have a poem of his of the poems' of this young singer on in honor of Isaac, son of Baruch Ibn his generation.

Albalia, great scholar and official head The vigorous and beautiful poetry of of all Jewish communities in Anda­ Halevi, served as a magnet which at­ lusia, written at the age of thirteen. tracted to him the hearts of all great It is even possible that this was not men in Spanish Jewry. Isaac Alfasi his first venture in the field of poetry. and others, famous poets, such as Moses and Abraham Ibn Ezra, heads J H E NUMBER of Yehudah Halevi’s of communities and of high offices in poems was large and possessed great royal courts—all were his friends. variety. He sang of love and friend­ ship, and even composed wine songs. y P TO his fiftieth year, Yehudah Being saturated with" love for his peo­ Halevi’s life flowed peacefully like ple and G-d, he wrote many sacred a clear stream. He spent his days joy­ poems. As a result his poetic heritage fully in the company of friends and is considerable; the number of love admirers, and was pleased with the songs exceeds a hundred; that of good which the passing days brought friendship songs reached two hundred him. Then a change entered his soul. and fifty; and the number of sacred Deep religious feeling, always an im­ poems five hundred. There is no doubt portant element in his personality, that not all of his poetic compositions began to dominate his spirit, and the were preserved and that many were religious thinker in him overpowered lost. the happy poet full of the joy of life.

The period in which Halevi sang Henceforth he devoted his poetic harp was marked by an abundance of great to sacred songs. Another result of this poetic productions. Only a few de­ change was the development of his cades had passed since the voices of religious and national philosophy ex­ the great poets Ibn Gabirol and Sam­ pressed in his book, the Kuzari. He uel Ibn Nagdila were silenced, while tried to devote himself entirely to Moses Ibn Ezra was pouring forth his sacred poetry and give up completely vigorous and beautiful songs in the the secular, but he did not succeed. very lifetime of Halevi. Besides these, Even in his later years he wrote a there were many other distinguished number of wonderful love and nature bards. And if in such an age the strain songs. of a young unknown poet could not Several causes brought about this only attract the attention of the mas­ change. First, the dominance of reli­ ters of song, but even arouse their ad­ gious feeling and thought in his soul; miration, we must conclude that his second, revolt against the burden of poetry possessed special traits which the yoke of .Exile; and third, the striv­ made the elder poets stop and wonder. ing for redemption, which ever ani­ The poet and philosopher Joseph Ibn mated the poets of Israel. As a result Zaddik, rabbi at Cordova, characterizes there arose in his heart the impulse to Halevi’s poetry as possessing "the realize the desire, which began to March-April, 1957

35

master him years before, to leave Spain, the land of his birth, and go to Eretz Yisroel. ^ H I L E we cannot fix the date of Halevi’s departure for Pdestine definitely, it seems most probable that it took place in the spring of the year 1141. He spent several months in* tak­ ing leave of his numerous friends in a number of cities. He was honored in all the communities he visited and was offered costly presents. Many leading Jews tried to dissuade him from leav­ ing Spain. In response to their pleas, he wrote a masterful poem wherein he sings of the glories of Eretz Yisroel in soul-stirring stanzas. The journey, which began early in spring, took a number of months, for he arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, a few days before the Sukkoth festival. He spent three months in Egypt, where he was re­ ceived with great honor in a number of communities. The honor, the warm friendship of leading Jews which he enjoyed during his stay, and the natural beauty of the land aroused once more his muse and he wrote a number of friendship poems wherein, as usual with him, love and beauty of nature are exalted.

Scholars and literary historians hold diverse views as to the approximate cause of the decision to leave his only daughter and grandson and embark upon a perilous journey to a desolate

land, partly held at the time by the Crusaders. The most probable is the one, expressed by Simhone, that it was a powerful desire which mastered him at the time to attain religious perfec­ tion which, according to his philoso­ phy, it is impossible to possess except in the land of Israel.

Following Yehudah Halevi’s depar­ ture from Egypt we are left entirely ignorant of the vicissitudes of his last days. W e do not know whether he reached Jerusalem or not, or whether he visited any other cities in the land.

From a poem sent to one of his friends we can surmise that he visited the city of Tyre, for he speaks there of the scholars of that city whose names, he says, are stamped on "the tablets” of his heart. The poem is pervaded by a spirit of despondency which shows that he did not find the repose of soul which he was so ardently seeking.

Henceforth all is blank, and legend takes the place of history.

Legend surrounded Yehudah Hal­ evi’s death with a halo of tragedy. It tells that while he was kneeling at the sacred West Wall (Kothel ha-Maravi ) and singing his famous serenade to Zion, "Zion, dost thou ask for the peace of thy exiles,” a passing Arab horse­ man attacked him and pierced his heart with his lance. Legend thus' makes the poetic lover of Zion not only sing of its glories, but die on its soil.

Arabic Poetry W

HAVE already noted that the great Jewish men of that period, be they scholars of the law, philosophers, or poets, drew no line of demarkation between Jewish and general learning and culture, but partici-. pated in both. It follows therefore that

the poetic compositions of the Jewish poets were to a large degree impressed with the stamp of the general poetic tradition of the Arabs, though it did not impair their originality. The art of poetry, which was always favored by the Arabs, reached its height in

36

JEWISH LIFE

Moslem Spain, for the rich and beau­ tiful nature of Andalusia introduced new notes and also varieties of form in the art unknown to the dwellers of the desert.

On the whole, Arabic poetry, like all Semitic poetry, is primarily a lyric one. It contains few epical poems and hardly any dramas. The lyrics however are of several types. First, there are love songs, for love, which is a deep emotional expression, occupies a lead­ ing place in this poetry, and mostly in a form which enables the poet to ex­ press his deepest emotion, such as the pain experienced by the lovers at part­ ing or the joy in describing the beauty of the beloved. A second type of poetic expression is the poems in praise of friends. This type was prevalent in Arabic literature, for it was due to the support of princes and nobles that poetry occupied such an important place in Arabic social life and culture.

A third type was wine songs which, in spite of the official temperance of the Arabs, as prescribed by the Koran, constitute a considerable portion of Arabic poetry, and finally come the nature poems. However, much of love and nature poetry are interwoven into the friendship poems, or love and na­ ture poetry are joined into one. In addition, Arabic poetry had a more serious facet, namely, moral and re­ ligious poems.

All these types under the influence of Arabac culture entered the Hebrew secular poetry; joy of love and love of beauty in all phases pulsated high in the songs and poems of the Hebrew poetry of that period, and very strongly in the songs of Halevi.

J^ATURALNESS and t h i r s t for beauty are the two leading traits in Halevi’s love and nature poems.

March-April, 1957

Love between man and woman is con­ sidered by him an elemental expres­ sion of human life, and admiration of the desire for beauty formed an in­ separable part of his personality. No wonder then that this type of poem is large in quantity and excels in quality.

Many of these poems were written, as was the custom in those days, on the occasion of the weddings of his numer­ ous friends.

Separation between lovers is the leading motive of most of the songs.

The poet complains at the cruelty of the 'gazelle”—-a favorite appellation in Arabic and Hebrew poetry for the beloved woman — for h e r b e a ut y wounds his heart, while she does not return his love. He does not tire of depicting her beauty in an exquisite way of which the following is an ex­ ample. The bright beauty of the face of the beloved, enhanced by the black­ ness of her hair, is depicted by him in typical Biblical manner. He says to the beloved, "Over your cheeks and hair I pronounce the benediction, One who forms light and creates darkness” (Isaiah XL, 7). And thus he sings of the various manifestations of the beauty of his beloved. In these descrip37

tions there is very little eroticism, but pure expression of admiration and love of beauty.

His nature poems are likewise dis­ tinguished by special qualities. On the whole, they display two phases, one which deals with the beauty revealed • in static nature, and the other with the dynamic; in other words, the earth and sea are the principal subjects of this type of poetry. The main motive in the expression of the static beauty is the depiction of the colors and hues of the flowers and the reflections of the

rays of the sun in the drops of rain and of the dew. The beauty of dy­ namic nature is principally sung about in poems where the sea in its rage and the rise and fall of its waves are given masterful portrayal, thus: The billows roar As the winds roll o’er They fall and soar On the face of the sea.

The heavens grow black And each wave as a stack Rises up then rears back Till the depths you can see.

Poetic Themes Longing I sought Thy presence 'p H E SACRED poetry of Halevi can Lord, with my whole heart did I call be divided into three classes: a) the and pray purely religious poems; b) the relig­ And going out toward Thee ious-national; and c) the songs of Zion.

I found Thee coming to me on the way.

In his sacred poetry, as in his secular, He is even ready to suffer for the Halevi reached the highest point in sake of that love, as he says: the development of Spanish Hebrew The more I suffer The more I love poetry. He uses the old motifs but For your love to me is exceptional. introduces new nuances and meanings, and thus impresses his stamp upon To such heights of the love of G-d only very few of the chosen spirits of the this type of poetry. generations have reached.

Love of G-d is the leading motive in his religious poems. He does not J H E EXCEPTIONAL love of G-d tire of expressing this love in poem and the joy he finds in suffering for after poem. In one of these poems he His Name occupy also an important says: part in his religious national poems.

The themes he deals with in these "When I am far from thee songs are: rebellion against the bur­ I experience death during life But when I cling to thee den of Exile, the nations plea to G-d I shall live even in death.” for succor in its suffering, and the In another poem entitled "G-d expression of longing for redemption.

Where Shall I Find Thee,” which is All these motive were employed by the basis of a well-known folk song earlier poets, and with special strength ascribed to Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of by Gabirol; but with Halevi the form Berdichev and called the "Dudele,” is more stirring, the emotion deeper, and there is also a new note. he says: As is well known, the suffering of O Lord, where shall I find Thee Israel constitutes a p r o b l e m , and All hidden and exalted is Thy place And where shall I not find Thee through the ages it was asked, why is Full of Thy glory is the infinite space. this nation subject to great misery?

He sums up his feelings in the words: The answer usually given was that 38

JEWISH LIFE

Israel’s suffering is a punishment for its sins. Experience, however, contra­ dicted that answer, for the sins of the oppressors of the Jews are inComparably greater. Yet, they thrive and prosper, - while the Jews bend under the heavy yoke of Exile. Halevi, like the other poets, is keenly grieved at the suffering of his people, and in poem after poem he depicts their misery in a most stirring manner. But he also attempts to offer a solution to that grievous problem. He says, true, we suffer bitterly, but it is worth while to suffer and thus sanctify the name of G-d, to show the oppressors that we love Him in spite of all our trib­ ulations on account of the Torah He gave us.

Q f

HALEVI’S numerous religious and religious-national poems, the three Sabbath songs are especially dis­ tinguished by depth of thought, glow­ ing emotion and charm of poetic ex­ pression. Many are the Sabbath songs composed by numerous poets, and a number of them are recited at Shabboth meals as Zemiroth. None of them, however, express the exalted­ ness of the spirit of the day and the light it sheds on the life of both the individual and of Jewry as a whole as do those of Halevi. Of course, only the original Hebrew expresses the emotional vigor and the beauty of form in full, but even a translation gives a glimpse of their charm. He sings: To love of Thee, I drink my cup Peace to Thee, peace to Thee, O seventh day.

Six days are thy slaves While toiling through them full of restlessness All of them seem to me but a few days For the love o f thee, O day of Delight.

To the poet the spirituality of the Sabbath is the very goal of life, and March-April, 1957

the other days of the week are like slaves who prepare the Jews for the Sabbath. He then turns to the source of light it sheds upon life and says: The lamp of my holy day is from the • light of my H oly One The sun and the stars are jealous of my sun for His light is greater.

T H E CROWN of Yehudah Halevi’s poetry is the Songs of Zion sung during his journey to the Land of Israel. The moving spirit is not the longing for redemption, but the love for the land itself, even though it be in a state of ruin. That is the differ­ ence between him and the other poets of redemption. In their songs the cen­ ter is the Jewish people and not the land. The Zion spoken of there is the Zion of the future, not of the present.

Halevi moved the center from the peo­ ple to the land, and his songs- are odes and love songs to it in the present state of ruin and desolation. To him the Divine Presence (Shechinah) flut­ ters there, even in its extreme desola­ tion and "the air of the land still im­ parts life to souls.’’ Never before, through the centuries of Dispersion, had love for the land found such ex­ pression. So it was that Yehudah Halevi’s words found an echo in the hearts of the people, and he alone was declared to be the national poet.

Halevi’s verses saved the longing for redemption from evaporating through the generations. They restored the land of Israel to its proper place in the heart of the people. And through the ages there continued to flow a constant stream of Jews to Palestine, in order to settle there and live their last days there, a stream which strength­ ened the bond between the land and the scattered people. Halevi’s songs of Zion can be considered the prime cause of that movement.

39

Pesach

W ith The Pucharim

Among the many communities that form the polyglot pattern of the Israel scene, none is more colorful than the "Bucharim." This group hails from Bokharia, formerly an in­ dependent Emirate but now a province of the Soviet Asiatic republic of Uzbekistan.

Many of Israel's Bokharians live in Jerusalem, where an entire quarter, Shechunath Bucharim, is named after them. With distinctive traditions and customs, they contribute a rich folklore to Israel's diverse cultural treasury. Characteristically, on Yomim Tovim and other festive occasions, the Bucharim discard Western clothes in favor of their bril­ liantly colored traditional garb.

The intriguing photos presented here, representing traditional Bokharian Pesach scones, were of course previously posed.

Above: The whole family is g a ­ thered together for the Pesach Seder. Dressed in their traditional costumes they road the Hagaddah.

Right: The youngster reading the Four Questions will, one hopes, have learned thorn by heart by the time the real Seder night arrives.

• Poignant Story of a Man Who Rejected the Assembly Line.

T h e M useum P iece By

J HESITATED outside for a moment.

The building looked almost too dilapidated to be occupied. The paint had peeled off the doors and some of the windows were glassless and boarded up with wooden planks. The three or four nameplates were shabby and fad­ ed, as if their owners had not thought them worth removing. Inside, it was dark and dirty and the bare stairs creaked. In one place I stumbled and my weight fell against the banisters, which swayed dangerously outwards.

Yet, in spite of its deserted appear­ ance, the building was in use. There was the sound of men and women talking at their work and the purr of sewing machines as I passed each door along the passage, and there were card­ board signs fixed to the doors: A. Rabinowitz, Isaac Abraham, Israel Levy, and at last, in a neat hand on a square no larger than a visitcard, Joseph Feinberg, Tailor. I knocked and entered.

It was a large room, with the wall­ paper hanging loose in the corners near the ceiling because of the dampness.

There were three men at work: a little hunchback was sewing up vests on a machine under one window; a tall, dark man with oiled, wavy hair pressed suits at a table in the middle, the steam hissing under the iron and the cloth giving off its peculiar bitter smell; and, in a corner by the window, an old man was chalking lines on blue cloth before cutting it. They looked up as I spoke.

"Mr. Feinberg?” I asked.

42

G

^ H E OLD MAN pulled his rimless glasses down to the end of his nose and stared at me. He wore a yarmulka and his hair was quite grey. His beard was thin and wiry. Unlike the other two, he looked very clean.

"Nu, young man, what can I do for you?” he asked.

"I’ve heard that you make sport jackets,” I said.

The old man smiled. "Ive been do­ ing it for over fifty years.”

I took the brown paper parcel from under my arm and laid it on the table.

"Would you make this up?” I asked.

He made no move to examine the cloth.

"I have been taking nothing for some time now,” he replied. He must have guessed my disappointment for he said, with reluctance: "I’m getting old, you see . . . and there is so much else to take care of.”

"Im sorry,” I said. I didn't know what to do next. It had not occurred to me that he might refuse. "You couldn't possibly do it? The cloth was a present from my uncle. He said spe­ cially to bring it to you.”

He looked hard at me again, trying to detect some family likeness by which to recognize me.

"Your uncle?” he asked.

I told him my uncle’s name.

"Well, well, fancy that!” he ex­ claimed. "He was one of my first cus­ tomers when I came to America. And how is he? it’s a long time since I saw him.”

JEWISH LIFE

"He died a year ago”, I said, and the empty feeling, of loss returned for an instant.

"So, a year ago . . . your uncle too,” he said and shook his head. He took off his glasses and polished them on his handkerchief and looked out of the window without a word. When he turned around he had begun to smile and he opened the parcel I had brought.

J T HAPPENED to be a very wet day the next week when I returned to the tailor shop. The streets were swept by gusts of rain and the gutters ran swiftly with black water. Old Fein­ berg was out, but the other two men were at work. The hunchback nodded to me as I entered.

"Come in and wait,” he said. "Mr. Feinberg will be here soon.”

I sat on the edge of a table. The hunchback glanced at the clock on the ^■HE CLOTH was spread out on the wall; he seemed to think that some table. It was a grey tweed with a explanation was necessary why the old faint trace of blue. The old man lightly man should not be at work by nine held it in his hands and examined it. o’clock on a wet morning.

"It is hand-woven,” he said. "A "He doesn’t get here so early now. lovely piece of goods. Your uncle must He goes to shool every morning to have had it for years. They don’t make say Kaddish for his dead wife.” cloth like this any more.”

He turned to the presser. "How long He seemed to have come suddenly she’s been dead, Max?” he asked. to a decision.

The presser picked up the bright "I’ll make it up for my boy,” he and glistening garments from under said, whisking his tape-measure out of the damp cloth and stood for a mo­ his vest pocket. "Take off your jacket.” ment with his hands on his hips.

As he measured me, he said: "Why "A year next month,” he said indif­ did your uncle tell you to bring it to ferently. "I remember that it was the me?” week I took my vacation.”

My uncle was a man of strong views "He had no son, you know,” said the and there were things he would have hunchback. "So every morning for al­ no truck with. One was the idea of most a year he has been going to shool ready-made store clothes. My aunt himself. He is very,strict, very ortho­ often tried to get him to buy them, dox.” but he was immovable and would do He did not look up as he guided the without them rather than compromise. stitches along the hem of a vest with Men were human beings, he would one hand, while turning the handle of argue, not stock-sizes. He saw a name­ the machine with the other. plate outside a house one day and the "A real tragedy, such a man and no name, "Fine-cloth”, attracted him, so son,” he sighed. Then he stopped and he went in. I imagine he found some­ added: "And me with three sons and thing of himself in the old Jew from I’m not strict at all. Some things are Poland, but I was embarrassed at the very strange.” thought of telling all this and I said "Is he very old?” Tasked. rather lamely: "A little over seventy,” he said. "But "He said it was worth a good tailor.” it’s not only his age. It’s more than Mr. Feinberg smiled and said, "Nu, that. How shall I say? Well, look at how can I say I don’t want to do it?” his work. You come in. He measures March-April, 1957

43

you; he cuts the cloth; he sews it up.

He can do the whole job from start to finish. But not me, I do only vests; and Max, he only presses. W e are use­ less without others. Mr. Feinberg says there are no tailors any more.”

■JHE PRESSER stopped his work and suddenly the room was quite still; only the rain swished in gusts against the windows.

"You are a fool, Klein,” he said,

44

peering at us, his eyes out of focus from the close work. "The past is dead.

Why should we be sorry? Today, in the factories, with no effort,, we make a thousand suits while old Feinberg make that jacket. It is sentimental nonsense, this regret.”

"But, Max, we don’t make them so good.”

The presser glared across at Klein.

I could see that they had argued this out before.

JEWISH LIFE

When one suit is worn out, there hook. It was held together by long is another and another, always more. white cotton tacking-stitches; the un­ So it is with food, with every neces­ pressed lapels stood out, stiff and sity. And fools like you want to turn gawky, and it was impossible to im­ the clock back.” agine how it could ever be transformed ’But, Max,” said the hunchback. into a sport jacket. As if he knew what "Mr. Feinberg is such a fine man; is I was thinking, he said: there no longer any place for him?”

"Don’t worry. They always look like The presser sneered. "A fine man, that. It will be a lovely jacket.” yes. But a museum-piece,” he said.

He helped me into it, easing it on The hunchback recoiled as if he had my shoulders, busy with pins and been struck. He made a great effort to marking-chalk. There was a slowness control himself and prespiration ap­ about his movements. He did not fum­ peared on his face. ble or falter, but seemed to be con­ "What right have you to say such serving his strength like a man to­ things?” he shouted, so annoyed that wards the end of a long and tiring he could hardly speak. "Would you journey. have refused to do shoddy work when At the top of the stairs, as he showed it meant easy money? It cost him ten me out, I told him that I was sorry dollars a week to refuse that order. he looked tired and urged him to take Would you have refused?” his time about finishing the jacket.

"What does a fine stitch matter?” He coughed a little and cleared his said the presser. "You make me laugh. throat: Haven’t I said: when one is worn "My days are like a shadow that out, there is always another? There is declineth; and I am withered like plenty for all. Why do you harp on grass,” he quoted, patting my arm.

"It is to be expected.” quality, quality, quality for ever?”

"I can never make you see, Max” I was on my way down the stairs said the hunchback. "It’s not just the when I heard him call after me: money. W hat about the work itself?

"You must take great care of the W e aren’t only stomachs to be filled.” cloth, my boy, great care.”

They stared at each other, confused As I turned into the street I saw and angry. There was a deadlock be­ that he was standing quite still at the tween them. The presser shrugged his top of the stairs, an old man with shoulders. rounded shoulders, whose clothes hung "I don’t follow,” he said, dismissing so loosely that it seemed as if he had the argument. shrivelled inside them.

JJj^T THIS moment old Feinberg came in. He was drenched. Rain dripped from his beard and ran out of the brim of his hat in a stream. His black shoes were a dull greyish color. He looked very tired and as he apologized for having kept me waiting his voice sounded feeble and weary. He got the half-finished jacket down from the March-April, 1957

J T WAS a week later when I re­ turned. His table was empty and his sewing-machine was packed away in its case. There was not even a reel of cotton or a pin to be seen. The light from the window showed a thin film of dust over the polished surface of the table.

"Mr. Feinberg out?” I asked.

45

The hunchback shook his head.

"Very bad news,” he said. "He died last week. He caught a chill after that rain, but he would insist on going to the* synagogue as usual. He managed to see the year out, but it was too much for him.”

"How did he die?” I asked.

"He turned feverish, stayed at home one day and we heard that he died the next morning.” Then he said in a hoarse voice: "He didn’t leave a thing to finish. There’s your jacket.”

I took down the grey cloth and got into a jacket that was lined with pure silk. It fitted me perfectly.

"Its lovely,” I said. It was indeed

very beautiful. In the top pocket was a' piece of paper. I unfolded it and read the message that was written in­ side.

"What does it say?” asked Klein.

I read out the words: "You do not owe me anything. I had much pleasure in making it—J. F.” Klein wiped his nose on his sleeve.

"I have to go next door,” he mut­ tered and left the room.

I looked at the presser. He stared back, smoothing his hair with his thick fingers.

Then he shrugged his shoulders and turned away from me.

REVERENCE It is not proper to sleep in a House oi Study (Beth Hamidrash) and whosoever dozes off in one will find his knowledge becomes torn to shreds.

One should not talk idly in a House oi Study but only words of Torah. Even if someone should sneeze one should not say. "G— d bless you" in a House of Study— certainly not other things.

The sanctity of a House of Study is greater that that of a House of Worship.

Rambam. Hilchoth Talmud Torah 4:9 THE SILENT AMIDAH Why w as the Shemoneih Esrey established as a silent prayer?

— in order to spare penitent sinners any embarrassment. (i.e. when they confess their sins in their prayers).

Babylonian Talmud. Sotah 32b

EQUALITY ON PESACH Even the poorest of Jews should not eat (at the Seder table.

Passover night) unless he first reclines on a couch (in the manner of the rich, as a symbol of freedom and independence).

Pesachim X : 1

46

JEWISH LIFE

Remove The "Chometz" From Garments The same Torah which prohibits Chometz on Passover prohibits linen in a wool garment.

The following firms will have your garments tested by the Shatnes Laboratory — if you request it. Any linen will be replaced FREE without any harm to the garment.

Look for this seal.

BROOKLYN, N.Y.

NEW YORK I

»1

• * ATLANTIC CLOTHES I Allen St. • A. BERMAN 833 Broadway BERNELL CLOTHING CO. 149 Fifth Ave.

BOBBY’S CLOTHES 72 Canal St. •* CHATHAM CLOTHES 52 E. Broadway CRAWFORD CLOTHES Addresses in Tel Book DOUBLE BREASTED CLOTHING CO. 96 E. 14th St. GLICREST CLOTHES 141B 5th Ave. • B. GORDON II Allen St. GRAFF BROS. 25 Canal St. JACOB GRAFF 80 Fifth Ave. HARMAC CLOTHES 134 Fifth Ave. J. M. KLEIN 118 Stanton St. M. KULOK 39 Eldridge St. KALLENS CLOTHES 474 Seventh Ave. KNAPP FIFTH AYE,, 84 Fifth Ave. •

Closed Saturdays

L. LEVY CLOTHES Corp.

28 Elizabeth St. LEBOWITZ & NOBLE 83 Stanton St. • LEVER’S BROS. 176 Canal St. MOE & PHIL 152 Stanton St. NEWMAN BROS. 84 Stanton St. • HARRY ROTHMAN 111 Fifth Ave. SAXONY CLOTHES 198 Canal St. • K. SALZMAN & SON 102 Clinton St. THREE “B” CLOTHES 80 Delancey St. WIND & SHAPER 1144—6th Ave., N.Y.C. WINOKUR CLOTHES 150 Delancey St. WARTELS & RUGOFF 85 Canal St. J. WURZBURGER 165 Stanton St. L. ZUFLACHT 154 Stanton St. Ladies Garments • FERNBACH’S 102 Ave. B., N .Y .C .

* BECKER’S CLOTHES 4213—13th Ave., B’klyn * DAVID’S BOYS SHOP 4305—13th Ave. * • GOLDSUIT BRANCH 316 Roebling St. HERZOG CLOTHES 4209 13th Ave. * HERZOG CLOTHES 164 Havemeyer St., B’klyn •MANDEL’S CUSTOM TAILORS 4215—13th Ave., B’klyn * • MARCY CLOTHES 236 Broadway MAXIS CLOTHES 385 Broadway NARVIN CLOTHES 4603—13th Ave., B’klyn BEN SHORENSTEIN 406 Stone Ave. M. GLUCK’S CLOTHING 210 Broadway, B’klyn * • ROTH & WOLLNER 145 Division Ave., B’klyn Tuxedos to Hire KLEINMAN TUXEDO 2731 Gr. Concourse, Bx. MILLER TUXEDOS 278 Broadway, B’klyn RITZ FORMAL WEAR 429 Stone Ave., B’klyn *

Children’s Clothes

SHATNES LABORATORY OF TORAH UMIZVOTH 203 Lee Avenue, Brooklyn 6, N. Y. — EV 7-8520 Immediate testing Monday and Thursday 8 P.M. to 10, Sunday 10 to 10, oi any time by appointment. Garments may be tested at branches in your area.

March-April, 1957

47

• A Current Re-appraisal of the Battle for Jewish Observance in Jewish Com­ munal Institutions.

C am paign for Jew ish n ess

By JACOB FREID J T WAS a long, dismal trip from the hospital in the Bronx to my home on Long Island. I couldn’t get the scene in the David home out of my mind. Mr. Davids coronary had oc­ curred sometime after dinner, and the urgent need for oxygen made the doc­ tor veto the David’s request that he be taken to the Kosher hospital. It was two miles away, and this hospital was right near by. Furthermore, it was world-renowned.

I thought of the anguished com­ promise with medical emergency that had been made in this and other 'in­ stances, and saw the siege lines form­ ing for another campaign such as the Historic battle for Kashruth in the Long Island Jewish Hospital. It is a modest understatement for the dedicated chair­ man of that struggle, Benjamin Mandelker, to say that "the agitation con­ ducted by the Committee for Kashruth in the Long Island Jewish Hospital had a stimulating effect.” It set an example and taught a lesson to ob­ servant Jews throughout America that has blown a cleansing wind through the Non-Gentile miasma of "Jewish” institutions in which Judaism stifled and gasped for breath.

W hat was that lesson, and why is it important to reconsider it from the perspective of over six years in order to adapt it in the years ahead for crea­ tive, positive Jewish s u r v i v a l in America?

From today’s vantage point the fight for Kashruth in the Long Island Jew48

ish Hospital is seen as a crucial conflict.

At the time when the L.I.J.H. initiated the dual kitchen plan it appeared as merely a pyrrfiic victory; now it as­ sumes the proportion of an historical trend. That it fell short of the objec­ tive of total Kashruth is a measure of the great unfinished task that remains, not a denial of the significant beach­ head that was gained, and of its inspira­ tion for the breakthroughs that came later in many American Jewish com­ munities. W hat happened was that the trend towards Tarfuth which com­ promised and corrupted an entire lost generation of American Jews, was checked in the "Battle of Long Island.” ^ H E STRUGGLE itself was more important than the half-loaf prize of the dual kitchen that was won. For the struggle educated the American Jewish community not only on the Long Island scene of the battlefield, but throughout the nation through the media of the Anglo-Jewish and gen­ eral press. The result has been that the shofar blasts of lay leaders such as Mr. Mandelker, A. B. Joffe, the late Ludwig Lewisohn and their rabbinical allies, while they did not level the walls of Jericho to permit total Kash­ ruth to enter and cleanse Jewish com­ munal institutions of Tarfuth, did create large fissures in that wall, both in Long Island and throughout the land.

Measured in terms of Jewish hos­ pitals, only seven of fifteen supplied JEWISH LIFE

kosher meals in 1953. In 1955 twelve out of sixteen made some provision for kosher food. Today, in the wake of the campaign by the Committee for Religious Observances in Bronx Jewish Institutions, two more hospitals, Montefiore and Bronx, can be added to the significant gains for Kashruth. This box score is the result of that battle and its consequent trend, as the delin­ quent leaders of institutional boards and their non-observant and anti­ observant professional personnel who staffed "Jewish” institutions, reacted to the intelligent and righteous efforts of an aroused community. Both the lay and professional heads of our health and social-welfare agencies — as Jews who associated with Jews who didn’t associate with J ews — r e l u c t a n t l y , grudgingly, but pragmatically found themselves forced to bend to the com­ munity demand to the extent of offer­ ing partial Kashruth through the Kosher plate and the dual kitchen.

Further, the New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, shocked into awareness of the need for better rela­ tions with the religious community, established a special religious depart­ ment, whose staff has been a staunch ally of Jewish observance.

It can be stated that today there is a new atmosphere for conducting the on-going battles of this campaign.

Once-stubborn barriers are making con­ cessions to this new atmosphere, even if it is granted that in certain cases this is an opportunistic tactic, acknowl­ edging the fact that if they cannot change the present weather, they will dress according to the climate. And that climate has in part been marked by a return to Jewish standards and to the overt expressions of that return, which are traditional Jewish religious observance in dignity, self-respect and reverence.

Why was there a departure in the first place to which a return was so necessary?

"A mericanization11 ^"HE GREAT Jewish migration to Torah, with its precepts and practices, the United States began in 1880 and the Jewish spirit. $$$$ and continued to 1924. Jews by the The tragic error of the immigrant thousands left the Eastern European generation was its failure to know that pale-of-pogroms for the ghettos of the moral qualities and Torah prin­ the big cities. America was the land ciples of Judaism, related to the quali­ of the second chance, where the old ties of American life and Jeffersonian deprivations gave way to the new op­ principles, have given this nation so portunities. Unfortunately, they brought much of its spiritual stature in civil­ the immigrant’s inferiority complex ization. It was bamboozled by the with them, which left them at a dis­ shoddy glibness of a melting pot advantage in discussions with their "Americanization”, and the half-baked first-generation American offspring. rationalist-secularist sophomorism of They did not understand that their the "Americanized” college first genera­ most important possession, as it had tion. It was just about at the end of been for all Jewish immigrants since the Great Migration that Walter Lippthe destruction of the Temple, was the man in 1922 described the Melting March-April, 1957

49

Pot pageant on the Fourth of July in an automobile town where many for­ eign born workers were employed.

"In the center o f the baseball park at . second base stood a huge wooden and canvas pot. There were flights of steps up to the rim on two sides. After the audience had settled itself and the band had played, a procession came through an opening at one side of the field. It was made up of men of all the foreign nationalities em­ ployed in the factories. They wore their native costumes, they were singing their national songs . . . and carried the ban­ ners of all Europe. The master of cere­ monies was the principal of the grade school dressed as Uncle Sam. He led them to the pot. He directed them up the steps to the rim and inside. H e called them out again on the other side. They came, dressed in derby hats, coats, pants, vest, stiff collar and polka dot ties, undoubtedly, each with an Eversharp pencil in his pocket . . ,**

For their part, many American Jewish college students in the twenties sought to shed and run away from their Jewishness. Many were duped by the false revelation of Marxism, and still suffer retroactive punishment for their childish indiscretion. Others were Jewishly illiterate cosmopolitans and assimilationists— "Non - Gentiles”— and ardent wooers of secularism. This was the taint that infected our communal institutions.

■JHROUGH this sad legacy of the immigrant years, American Jews were taught that the consequences of our failure to acquire Jewish knowl­ edge, awareness and understanding is not mere ignorance of things Jewish, but a spiritual and psychological void too. The vacuum is filled by the nonJewish environment with a thousand and one subtle insinuations, halftruths, distorted evaluations and in­ nuendos about any and all phases of Jewish life which gain acceptance as “Jewish knowledge”. The self-hatred 50

resulting from such “knowledge”, the hurt it does to Jewish personalities, modern psychiatry tells us, is great indeed.

Jewish communal institutions were infiltrated and subverted from any Jew­ ish purpose, orientation or spirit hy the least sympathetic, most ignorant elements of American Jewry who con­ trolled them. In an ironic paradox, Jewish institutions were run by lay boards, professional administrators and social work staffs driven by their animosity for their religious-cultural heritage and their lack of biological foresight in being born Jews. Like the lemmings in their frenzied, suicidal dash to the sea, they drowned every vestige of positive, wholesome Jewish­ ness in the institutions which they cor­ rupted with Tarfuth.

Since the time of William James, certain psychologists have argued that you first run away and then become afraid. It might be added that those who flee then justify and rationalize their fears by arguments of a new enviroment, and new p a t t e r n s of Americanism required by the release from the ghettos bondage. So the baby was thrown out with the bath as the traditional Jewish practices were re­ jected.

TXTITH THESE most unwholesome f elements in charge of our institu­ tions the realization finally came that a great deal of Jewish generosity was being perverted into vitiating Judaism, Jewishness and Jews. This was not Tzedakah but sacrilege. Added to this realization were first the appreciation of the poisoning effect of this situation and, second, the demonstrated fiction of the entire premise on which escap­ ism and self-hatred thrived.

Men like Alexander Pekelis and JEWISH LIFE

Kurt Lewin, whose research and con­ clusions changed our entire pattern of combating racial and religious pre­ judice, took the concept of fear, as a result of running away, several steps further. They showed that the discrimi­ natory practice breeds, confirms and abets the prejudice, Their work con­ firmed this writer’s own observations made as a university teacher of So­

ciology. First you break the horse’s legs and then you shoot it because it’s a cripple.

That is why the anti-Jewish "Jew­ ish” institution was a plague spot exuding its infectious poison of Tarfuth throughout the community, mocking the Abrahamic covenant, and under­ mining the practices of traditional, self-respecting Jewish observance.

The Battle of Long Island ] f j HEN the Board of Founders of the Long Island Jewish Hospital proposed to bring another citadel of Tarfuth into the Jewish community, key figures in the area immediately recognized the danger to Jewish life and set up the Committee for Kashruth in the Long Island Jewish Hospital.

This Committee asserted the integral part which the Dietary Laws play in the way of life of Jewry. "Sickness knows no religious frontiers, but the patients whom it afflicts bring with them their normal patterns of living”, the Committee said, pointing out the emotional and mental distress that violation of this basic pattern would cause the hospitalized observant Jew. "Surely in a Jewish hospital, patients who observe Jewish tradition should not be exposed to such distress.” The vital principle was enunciated that a hospital under Jewish auspices, and supported by the Jewish Community "shall respect the practices of Judaism”, and be "a place where every Jewish patient has the right to be made to feel at home”.

Comparative tables of cost of food per capita per day between Kosher and non-Kosher hospitals destroyed the false argument that it was more ex­ pensive for institutions to be kosher.

March-April, 1957

There was thus no logical or rational reason to aggravate the bodily ills of our Mr. Davids with emotional an­ guish. Just as discriminatory practice confirms prejudice, so positive observ­ ance and education make for an in­ tegrated, wholesome, secure personal­ ity. 'p H E MILITANT campaign waged by the Committee for Kashruth aroused the conscience of masses not only within Long Island but through­ out the country. The support it ac­ quired among all elements bore rev­ olutionary impact. Even to the deJudaized elements in control of com­ munal institutions, it became evident that a new trend was coming to the fore on the community scene. To this trend, they were compelled to realize, they must perforce make some accom­ modation.

The box score in Mr. Mandelker’s Jewish Life article in February, 1955, enumerating the steady series of gains for Jewish observante in com­ munal institutions, was the result of the battle and of the trend to which it gave expression. Thus, the article discloses, did the Jewishly-delinquent trustees of our institutional boards and their non-observant professional em51

ployees who staffed our "Jewish” in­ stitutions give ground before the intel­ ligent and righteous efforts of an aroused community.

The ages have taught us that Jewish observance is part and parcel of a dynamic social understanding of our time and community. As a dynamic process it is continually in flux, will not stand still or mark time, and like the tides and also subject to them, can fall as well as rise. That is why the fight must be waged unceasingly, al-

though on different fields at different times’ The fact of an on-going cam­ paign gives morale to all the front­ line troops, and prevents defections and desertions which would result in backsliding and a return to the statusquo-ante. W e must continue to ^go forward so that our momentum not be lost and we go backward. And wher­ ever there may be evidence of such a retreat it must be contained and prevented.

The Bronx Campaign ^■HE SPECIFIC situation in the Bronx followed from this fact. Whereas for years the ears of the leaders of the Bronx and Montefiore Hospitals had been deaf to the pleas and letters of local Bronx rabbis, the Long Island story acted like a hearing aid upon those ears with Federation supplying an added amplifier.

The spadework in the Bronx was thorough. The Committee for Religious Observances in Bronx Jewish Institu­ tions was organized with Rabbi Lazar Schoenfeld as chairman, and Rabbi Herschel Schachter as co-chairman. The members of the Committee were the signed sponsors of a mimeographed forthright resolution requesting total Kashruth. Based on this expression of support, contacts were made and meet­ ings were arranged with the directors of Bronx and Montefiore Hospitals.

The Committee resolution called upon the leaders of Bronx and Monte­ fiore Hospitals and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, for the "introduction of total Kashruth by these institutions in respectful def­ erence to the expressed sincere wishes of the religious (Bronx) Jewish com­ munity.” The Committee declared that 52

it was "profoundly disturbed that in this, the second largest Jewish com­ munity in the world, there are Jewish institutions affiliated with the Federa­ tion of Jewish Philanthropies, which are insensitive to the religious needs of the community.

"These institutions d i s c r i m i n a t e against traditionally observant Jews by persistently -refusing to provide proper Kosher facilities for their patients, when even several Catholic hospitals serve Kosher catered food”, the Com­ mittee resolution said. Emphasizing that it had patiently waited for the introduction of total Kashruth by the institutions themselves in response to the Jewish community’s p r o f o u n d ' needs and wishes, the C o m m i t t e e poitited out that it had deliberately refrained from public action on this issue for a long time. 'W e now de­ clare that we shall no longer remain silent”, the Committee said. ^ It is the "profound conviction of this Committee”, it announced, that there is a return to tradition on the part of the American Jewish com­ munity. Bronx Jewry, as a preponder­ antly observant Jewish community, was deeply grieved that these institutions JEWISH LIFE

Have not shared in this groundswell of return to the observances of our forefathers. The Committee, therefore, asked that the community institutions join this return to Jewish tradition in dignity and self-respect.

J N KEEPING with this resolution the Committee called upon the Jews of the Bronx to demand that their religious needs and sensibilities be served. 'Tor Jewish institutions to re­ fuse to do so is to deny their Jewish­ ness and to flaunt the wishes of the religious community”.

The resultant outpouring of public sentiment had its effect. The Commit­ tee for Religious Observances in Bronx Jewish Institutions achieved the first steps in the vital effort to make Kosher facilities available to the patients in Bronx Jewish hospitals. In the two major medical institutions, Bronx Hospital and Montefiore Hospital, the Committee succeeded in obtaining the Kosher tray for all patients who ask for it.

Those to whom Judaism is life it­ self are certainly not happy or content with the extent of this victory. It is far from their objective of total Kashruth. W hat has been gained is a beachhead of religious observance where there had been previously only flagrant discrimination against tradi­ tionally observant Jews. A beginning, the action spelt also an end— an end to a generation of total insensitivity on the part of these noted communitysupported hospitals to the religious needs of the community.

This beginning, however, affords the great opportunity to enlarge this open­ ing wedge into the total victory it can become with sustained and united effort. Progress toward the objective of total Kashruth and religious observMarch-April, 1957

ances in Bronx Jewish institutions will depend upon community education and the persistent support of its religious and lay leaders and the members of its congregations. In this effort the rabbi has the responsibility of leader­ ship. Possibly the strongest weapon to follow through in the wake of such a start is community information.

J N THIS CASE the Bronx rabbinate publicized from their pulpits that kosher service, after many years, was finally available at Bronx and Monte­ fiore Hospitals. All congregational members were impressed with the im­ portance of each person doing his part to bring about a groundswell of return to Jewish observance. The congregants were instructed to spread the word to their families, friends and neighbors.

The fact was emphasized that the Kosher tray is available for the asking, and that anyone they know who is a patient at either of these two hospitals should be encouraged to request it.

This is vital, because only if our lay patients desire the Kosher tray suf­ ficiently to ask for it, will it be af­ forded and the progress of the cam­ paign for Kashruth and Jewish observ­ ance continued. The public response of the Jewish patients in these institu­ tions to the availability of the Kosher tray must show that it is needed, wanted, and indeed is inadequate.

Only community support and strong action brought about this break in the wrall of resistance the religious Bronx Jewish community has been unable to breach until now. The existence of a policing problem must also be recog­ nized, for if community leaders are not alert and vigilant these institutions will backslide. Rabbis and lay leaders must supply the motivation and in53

terest. They must make certain to visit any members of their congregation who may be patients at such a hospital and, when they do, they must be sure to determine whether it is easy or com­ plicated for the patient to obtain Ko­ sher food. In this way they can see to it that the hospital administrations

toe the mark in making the Kosher tray readily available.

W ith persistent, vigilant support the Jewish community will continue to move toward its objective of total Kashruth and Jewish religious observ­ ance.

V/hat Have W e Learned?

J T MUST be recognized that only a social-work in-service training in­ stitute can impart to the social work­ ers who staff our Jewish social welfare and health agencies the vital awareness and understanding of what the Jewish community wants from its institutions.

Unless such in-service training is pro­ vided, our institutions will remain in­ sensitive to the Jewish wishes of the community in general, and to the Jew­ ish needs of the individuals they serve.

The result would be failure to either plan properly for the Jewish commu­ nity requirements in the future or to establish in the present a Jewish spirit in Jewish institutions.

Such institutes, under the joint spon­ sorship of the local federation or wel­ fare fund and the community’s rabbis, would fulfill a most essential educa­ tional function, similar to the in-serv­ ice alertness program which the local Board of Education conducts for its own teachers. Experience emphasizes the urgent need for such a program if there is to be a significant Tewish element in agencies supported by the Jewish community. Otherwise, the trend towards anti-Kashruth and nega­ tivism in Tewish institutions, now checked, will certainly be resumed.

Further, attendance at these in-service

54

training courses must be .made com­ pulsory.

The curriculum should consider the problems of Jewish identity, groupbelongingness, acculturation, etc. It should give an understanding of the Jews as a religious and ethnic group, with traditional religious practices and ceremonies. Indeed, the complex of problems with which the various so­ cial, health and welfare agencies deal should be refracted against the Jew and his psychology, his religious and cultural heritage and history, his rela­ tion to himself, to his past and to nonJewish society, and his adjustment to the free American democratic environ­ ment, its changing patterns of family and group life, its economic and en­ vironmental mobility, its attitudes and discriminatory practices.

II N ONGOING campaign must con­ tinually expose public Tarfuth as "an irrational aberration of the escap­ ist Jew”. And not least of all, our religious bodies ought well to consider the establishment of a Commission staffed by personnel who will give pro­ fessional leadership, guidance and skill­ ful dedicated effort to this important campaign for creative Jewish observ­ ance and identity without anxieties, neuroses, conflicts or fears.

JEWISH LIFE

1st Two-Year Gift Subscription, $3; 2nd Two-Year Gift Subscription, $2.50.

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March-April, 1957

55

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3

The Message of Hirsch

By LEO JUNG JUDAISM ETERNAL, a translation of Samson Raphael Hirsch’s famous writings, by Dayan Dr. I. Grunfeld, two volumes, published by the Soncino Press, London, 1956.

TUST ABOUT a hundred and two ^ years ago, Samson Raphael Hirsch burst like a sun of kindness, with heal­ ings on his wings, upon the disor­ ganized, bewildered, despondent Jewry of Frankfort on the Main. Reform had demoralized and decimated the community, its advocates had known or respected no limits in their destruc­ tive fury.

The culture of Rousseau, Lessing and Goethe had created new vistas for the youth. Napoleon’s abortive Sanhedrin had offered unheard-of prospects of emancipation for the Ghetto-ridden, Ghetto-tired Jew of the century. Even after the dictator’s de­ March-April, 1957

feat, the letters of his proclamations were still floating in the air. It took decades for the common people to realize that his edicts promising the emancipation of the Jewis from civil disabilities assumed, as their com­ pensating reaction, their total eman­ cipation from Judaism, the faith of their fathers.

The new world had apparently no use for Orthodoxy. The latter lacked a message for impatient youth, who were breathless for salvation, for a less tense and more abundant life. But the great rabbis of the time could but navigate the ocean of the Tal­ mud. They had little chance of dis­ covering the roots of the beat in modern culture in the sober legis­ lation of the Torah and in the fiery denunciation of the Prophets. The implication of the Talmud for the better new world they could not 57

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JEWISH LIFE

convey, because the latter, by de­ liberate choice, remained for them a book locked by seven seals.

was generally quoted that Hirsch’s work ought to be translated into Ger­ man before any foreign version were assayed.

Dayan Grunfeld, an inspired dis­ ciple and champion of the master’s message, had very great difficulties to overcome. He did valiantly. The selection deserve high praise as judici­ ous, the rendering, as very felicitous.

Much of the enduring work of Sam­ son Raphael Hirsch is presented in the best possible manner, sufficiently strong, clear, and simple, to attract, impress, and sustainedly influence the throughitful reader.

OAMSON RAPHAEL HIRSCH unit­ ed great Halochic authority with full grasp of western civilization on its highest level. He had the eloquence that inspired multitudes, the style that captivated the youth, the academic ease that impressed the literati, and the dynamics that developed a mere minyon of loyalists into a mighty power, spiritual and financial, whose emissaries -car-red- the banner of “Torah Im Derech E retz” to all the corners of the globe. Only a thorough lamdan would know how to appreciate TpHE SONCINO PRESS, in accord A with its fine tradition, has provided Hirsch’s lamdanwth. Only a thorough generously for the exterior of the philologist could perceive the ingeni­ two volumes.

“Judaism Eternal” is ous boldness of his interpretations, based on biliteralism—(the latter was one of the books essential to any pften expounded and opposed, but is Torah-true man or woman who de­ slowly coming into its own. The sires to learn more about the rich Hirsch community became a living heritage of our people and to find symbol of genuine Jewishness sans the answer to many modern prob­ batlanuth, its attitudes esthetically and lems. It will help English-speaking intellectually excellent, yet, by its own Jews to weave the golden strands of claim, “only the old faith, presented in concord with its own principles Hirsch’s thoughts, suggestions, evalu­ and in discord with all heathenisms, ations, into an abiding texture of Judaism conveyed in the categories of ancient or modern,” the best thought of our time. “Juda­ One of the major handicaps with ism Eternal” will be studied, quoted, which Hirsch’s writings had to con­ and translated into more satisfying tend with was his diffuse style. Es­ patterns of Jewish life, long after to­ pecially in his “Gesammelte Schriften,” there occur passages, sentences, day’s best sellers will be forgotten.

Our warmest thanks to Dayan clauses, rolling on magnificently, but often more than a page long. To Grunfeld. May he be granted the an English reader they seem hopeless­ zechuth to continue in good health and ly involved and cumbersome, beyond cheer his splendid work, vital alike relief and belief/ Indeed, the bon mot to Torah and Israel.

March-April, 1957

59

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Dead Sea Potpourri BySIDNEY B. H0EN1G

T H E M E A N I N G OF T H E D E A D S E A SCROLLS, by A. Powell Davies, published by the New American Library. A Signet Key Book.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, by J. M. Allegro. A Pelican Book.

THE ESSENES, Their History and Doctrines, THE KABBALAH, Its Doctrines, Development and Lit­ erature, by Christian D. Ginsburg, published by the Macmillan Com­ pany, New York. rpHE TENDENCY to give finality to the Dead Sea discoveries as being most ancient is evidenced in the many popular paper editions dealing with the Dead Sea Scrolls which have recently appeared. One must remem­ ber however, that “final evaluatioh is yet to come, and the situation is Hill fluid.” In the booklet by Dr. A. Powell Davies, the entire story of the Dead Sea Scrolls is again recounted. The author’s purpose is to note how these shed new light on Christian origins.

He reviews the details of the dis­ covery and the dating, which is still a subject of debate. One wonders with Professor Albright whether the new evidence will revolutionize the approach to the beginnings of Chris­ tianity. Unlike other writers, Davies does note the views of Dr. Solomon Zeitlin, who regards these scrolls as not of the period of the second Com­ monwealth.

March-April, 1957

It is to the author’s credit that he makes reference, to the Karaite sect which lived in caves, and notes that some scholars think that these scrolls must be of Karaitic origin because of the resemblances to the finds. Yet, he negates this, too, though not very effectively.

The bulk of the book deals with a description of a “Sect of the Scrolls.”

This is a very fine review of the background of Jewish history, an analysis of the concept of “a chosen people,” a summary of the Apocrypal writings which were excluded from the Bible, and a full description of the Essenes. His conclusion is “The community of Qurnran was thus an Essenic community.”

To the reviewer this approach is strange, for there is no reference at all in the Scrolls to the Eis-senes. Find­ ing similarities between texts and sects and ideas can well be done by any able thinker or scholar. But such is in the realm of conjecture.

Since this work is mlainly concerned with authenticating the Scrolls with Christianity, the last chapter deals wlith Albert Schweitzer’s views of Jesus and the conjectures of the rela­ tionship of the Scrolls to Christian origins. The fact that all religions plead for righteousness and brother­ hood as the paths to good life, both for the individual and for society, demonstrates that there is, as yet, nothing startlingly new in the Scrolls.

61

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JEWISH LIFE

A SIMILAR approach to the rela*** tionsihip of the Scrolls to Christian teachings is found in J. M. Allegro’s Pelican book. As one of the active workers in the “Scrollery,” he also reviews the entire background of the finding and purchases of the Scrolls, the analysis of the contents of the different texts, the site of the excava­ tions at Qumran, and a description of the life and discipline of “the sect.”

Here, too, the association with the Essenes is stressed.

The writing is very facile, but does not add anything to understanding of the problem. The last chapter, dealing with the copper scroll, sim­ ply retells of the latest find, but does not give any final scholarly deduction. Unfortunately, the zeal that the author shows in behalf of the authenticity of these Scrolls makes him disregard opposing views—not mentioning one word of the opinion of Professor' Zeitlin. In all fairness, one feels that so long as no final conclusion has been reached, the pub­ lic should receive both sides of the story in any narrative or report presented.

A PPARENTLY, the acceptance of the relationship of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Essenes has become so popular that Macmillan Company de­ cided to reprint Christian D. Ginsburg’s essay on The Essenes: Their History and Doctrines, which was first written in 1864. At that time this meshumad declared, “It is very surprising that the Essenes, whose ex­ emplary virtues elicited the un­ bounded admiration of even the Greeks and Romans, and whose doc­ trines and practices contributed so materially to the spread of Christiani­ ty, should be so little known among March-April, 1957

intelligent Christians.” Hence, Gins­ burg sought to give an evaluation of this sect. He collected all which was written by the ancients, such as Philo, Pliny, Josephus, Eusebius, etc., and sought to show the progress of the Essenes, their relationship both to Judaism and Christianity, the sig­ nificance of their names, etc.

All of this information Ginsburg tried to associate with Talmudic no­ tions. He disagreed with those who declared that the Essenes were of Greek origin and tried to establish that the parallels between Pythagoreanism and Essenism are more imagi­ nary that real. It was his belief that in doctrine as well as in practice the Essenes and the Pharisees were near­ ly alike. Subsequently he asserted that the identity of many of the precepts and practices of Essenism and Chris­ tianity is unquestionable.

The author then reviewed the dif­ ferent opinions of the scholars who had delved into this matter, begin­ ning with De Rossi of 1577, Christian scholars of the 16th and 17th cen­ tury, and such men as Rappaport and Frankel of the 18th century. Since this book was written in 1864, the latest scholar whose works on the Essenes are analyzed by Ginsburg is Graetz of 1863. /Y N E CAN well understand that the ^ deep interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls has prompted the publishing company to reissue this work, but the reviewer is amazed that, in the process, the Macmillan Company did not bring it up to date. Can one quote today such authorities as Schurer of 1907 who regarded Essenism as “a separation from the soil of Judaism proper which was, perhaps, effected in the 2nd century (B.C.E.) under 63

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JEWISH LIFE

Greek influence, with the view of realizing the ideals akin to Pythagorism, but with an addition to its Jew­ ish foundation?”

Scholars such as Pfeiffer in the “History of the New Testament Times” and Zeitlin in his Jewish Quar­ terly Review have brought the matter up to date. Interestingly, Zeitlin sup­ ports, contrary to Schurer, Ginsburg’s view that the Essenes mentioned by Philo and Josephus are the Chasidim (the Pious) referred to in the first two books of Maccabees and Josippon. H§ stresses, however, that the Essenes a<v cepted the Pentaeuch and perhaps the

Prophets, but rejected a belief in the Messiah. As such, it is wholly im­ possible to associate the Essenes with the Sectarians mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls. We have not, as yet, reached the point where we are sure of the facts which the Dead Sea Scrolls seem to reveal. Until scholars have assembled all of the works, we must still keep our conjectures in hand. In a recent article A. M. Haberman of Israel asserted that “in the Scrolls we find reflected a Sadducean sect in its main body.” The vast litera­ ture on the Scrolls still awaits un­ hurried, patient analysis and evalua­ tion.

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65

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JEWISH LIFE

On The Jewish Record iniiiiHiif&iiQfijfnireiiiiinitMiinmmiMiiiitiiiMiiiiiiiiiiuiilffljjlHfflffl

Shir

By ERIC TN RECENT years recording companies, large and small, have given over part of their repertoire to the “Spoken Word.”- Competing with the electronic mass media of well-known prominence they provide the record collector, in the intimacy of his living room, with private performances of the towering masterpieces of drama and poetry, running the gamut all the way from classical to contemporjary.* ¡Current catalogues list such titles ¡as “Sandburg Reads Sandburg” or T. S. Eliot reciting his own works. Not that the author necessarily is the best interpreter of his own creations, but the widespread feeling pervades that poetry, in order to be comprehended in all its sonic beauty, must be heard as well as read.

If this be true of modern poetry how much more does it apply to the supreme: writings in our Holy Scrip­ tures which are expressed in verse.

Each of the five Megilloth—Esther, Shir Hashirim, Ruth, Eychah and Koheleth—has been incorporated into the synagogue service, and each is recited at a given holiday season. Undoubt­ edly, the exquisite poetic beauty qf Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs), re­ cited in the synagogue on Sha^wfch

HashirimAloud OFFEN Choi Hamoed Pesach, is universally recognized. For it matters little if the story of the Shulammite, “the fairest among women,” and her lover is to be construed literally or, allegorically, as the spiritual marriage between the Al­ mighty and His people Israel. Its sanctity is expressed in the statement of the great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Akiba, that “the whole world attained its supreme value only on the day when the Song of Songs was given to Israel,” and that “if the other books of the Bible are holy, the Song of Songs is ‘holy of holies’ ” (Yadaim 3:5).

In the light of this authoritative judgment it is regrettable how rela­ tively few people are truly familiar with the contents and deeper signifi­ cance of the Song of Songs. This re­ viewer accordingly approached with caution a long-playing record entitled “The Song of Songs” which has just been issued by a new recording com­ pany with the trade name “Experiences Anonymes.” The listening experience, be it said, is definitely specific. One side of the record is at once inspiring and exhilarating while the other yields utter confusion.

Side 2 of the disc contains the com? piété Hebrew text read in faultiest

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March-Aprjl, 1957

¡1

ANNOUNCEMENT OF TERMINATION OF © SUPERVISION OF DROMEDARY CAKE MIXES The K ashruth Division of the Union of Orthodox Jew ish Con­ gregations of America announces th a t the DROMEDARY CAKE M IXES produced by The Dromedary Company of New York City are no longer under the © certification of the Union.

Henceforth, none of the DROMEDARY CAKE M IXES will bear the Union's © certification a fte r existing packages now re­ m aining in the stores are consumed.

This term ination was due to the desire on the p a rt of the com­ pany to make changes in the ingredients used in the production of the products which no longer would conform w ith requirem ents of K ashruth.

The public is fu rth e r informed* however, th a t the following Drom edary products will continue to be under the Union's certifi­ cation and will bear © endorsement : Dromedary D ale Nut Roll Dromedary C hocolate Nut Roll Drom edary O range Nut Roll Dromedary Fruits and P eels Dromedary Shredded Cocoanut Dromedary Pim ientos

68

JEWISH LIFE

Sephardi pronunciation by Morris Carnovsky, famous actor of charac­ ter roles on stage and screen. In this high-fidelity reproduction, excellently engineered, his deep resonant voice interprets as it speaks. Now there is tender inflection when it relates to the Shulammite’s loneliness and yearning for her lover, now heraldic bearing for the sixty mighty men encircling and guarding the King’s resting place. Mr, Carnovsky shows thorough understanding for these dif­ ficult and often unconnected chapters of poetry without ever becoming overemotional or sentimental. His correct accentuation deserves particular praise, and the long flowing lines elicit the listener’s delight. If it is modern Hebrew that you want, spoken

at its cultural best, you will discover it here as a dynamic, living language.

Unfortunately, the experiment of­ fered on Side 1, superimposing the English text over the Hebrew and having them both read (more or less) simultaneously, is to be considered a failure. It would be likened to a for­ eign language motion picture in which the original dialogue and the English sub-titles are spoken at the same time.

Naturally, the experiment results in confusion and neither text being clear­ ly discernible. Furthermore, the fact that the English (King James) ver­ sion on this record has been parceled out among three different readers makes the bedlam so much worse.

What a pity this version, a Song of Songs to end all songs!

The new Long Playing phonograph record

MODZITZER MELAVE-MALKE MELODIES * 9 inspiring chasidic songs * 30 minutes of music, recorded for the first time by the

Modzitzer Choral Ensemble Price: $4.25 (postage ind.)

can be obtained at all leading record shops, or by writing directly to

NEGINAH RECORDS 1613 President Street Brooklyn 13, N. Y. PR 4-5596

UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF A M ERICA

____________ _ Kosher commodities and establishments under official © supervision and en-

___________

KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Issued Nisan, 5717 — A pril, 1957 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 M U SS E L M A N 'S (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

APPLE SAUCE M U SSE L M A N 'S (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

ASPIRIN , © P APC (Aspirin, Phenacetin, Caffine) © P Aspirin (5 gr.)

(Freeda Pharmaceutical Co., N. Y.)

H EIN Z— with © label only Strained Cream of Tuna Strained Bananas Strained Creamed Spinach Strained Creamed Garden Viegetables * Strained Creamed Corn * Strained Koko-Kokonut Pudding Strained Vegetables Strained Fruits Chopped Mixed Vegetables * Strtfined Potatoes 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, PaJ BEECH-NUT— with © label only Strained Vegetables * Strained Creamed Peas * Strained Creamed Corn

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

BEANS H E IN Z BEA N S with molasses sauce H EIN Z BEANS in tomato sauce (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

BEVERAGES * © P C O n FLAVORED SO D A * © P COTT M IXERS (Coft Beverage Corp.f New Haven, Conn.)

BLEACHES * PUREX BEADS O'BLEACH (Purex Corp., Ud., South Gate, Calif.)

f & ^ & ^ C A K E S . c o o k ie s fE S fc J CRACKERS © P BA RTO N 'S B O N B O N N IER E (Barton's Candy Corp., Brooklyn, N. Y.) * © P C O N TIN EN TA L 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.j

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.

March-April, 1957

71

<s>

<S>

UOJCA KASH RUTH DIRECTORY

Cakes (Coat'd) EDUCATOR— with (0) label only * CRAX * SEA PILOT * SALTINES * T H IN SIES * THIN UNSALTED TOP CRACKER (Pareve) * VAN ILLA O VALS * CHO CO LATE O VALS * C O C O N U T CHOCOLATE CHIP C O O K IE S * M A C A R O O N DELITE S A N D W IC H C O O K IE S * PIZZA CRACKERS * H OLIDAY ASSORTMENT * O rS .E R CRACKERS * FESTIVE ASSORTMENT (Megowen-Educator Food Co.> Lowell, Mass.)

MOTHER'S FAMILY G R A N D M A 'S TREASURE ISLAN D OLD M IS S IO N (Mother's Cake & Cookie Co., Oakland, Cal.) G O LD EN CRACKNEL E G G BISCUITS (Golden Cracknel & Spec. Co., Detroit, Mich.) ® P HENRY'S RETAIL BAKE SH O P (Forest Hills, N. Y.) RY-KRISP (Ralston-Purina Co., St. Louis, Mo.) * OLD L O N D O N MELBA TOAST * OLD L O N D O N MELBA R O U N D S * LADY MELBA (King Kone Corp., N. Y., N. Y.) * VIM ETS V IT A M IN C O O K IE S (Vimets Inc., Oceanside, N. Y.) DEVO NSH EER * MELBA TOASTS * MELBA RO U N D S * BREAD CRUMBS * BAR BITS * Q'BITS * Q'BITS CRO U T O N S (Devonsheer Melba York, N. J.)

© P BARTON 'S B O N B O N N IER E (Barton's Candy Corp., Brooklyn, N. Y.) :

CATERERS * WECHSLER CATERERS (Hotel Olcott, N. Y.)

CEREALS SK IN N E R 'S Raisin-Bran Raisin Wheat (Skinner Mfg. Co./ Omaha, Neb.) RALSTON Instant Ralston Regular Ralston (Ralston-Purina Co., St. Louis, Mo.)

CHAMPAGNE * © P CARMEL— Bearing Hechsher of Chief Rabbinate of Israel (Carmel Wine Co., Inc., N. Y. C.)

CONDIMENTS, SEASONING © P G O L D 'S HORSERADISH (Gold Pure Foods, Brooklyn, N Y.) © P V IT A 'S HORSERADISH (Vita Food Prod., Inc., N. Y. C.) H EIN Z Horseradish 57 Sauce Chilli Sauce Hot Dog Relish Barbecue Relish Worcestershire Sauce Tomato Ketchup (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) LAW RY'S SEA SO N ED 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 Corp.,

CAKE FLOUR S W A N S D O W N REGULAR S W A N S D O W N SELF R IS IN G (General Foods Corp., White Plains, N. Y.)

72

CA N D Y

West

New

O K PEARL C O R N STARCH O K POW D. C O R N STARCH O K W A X Y M A IZ E STARCH O K C O R N SYRUP U N M IXED O K DRI-SWEET C O R N SYRUP SO LIDS (The Hubinger Co., Keokuk, Iowa)

CORN STARCH— Packaged PO P 'S

JEWISH LIFE

®

UOJCÁ KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

TIGER (The Hubinger Co., Keokuk, Iowa)

COTTAGE CHEESE © P DELW O OD (Middletown Milk & Cream Co., Yonkers, N. Y.)

CRANBERRY SAUCE © P EATMOR (Morris April Brothers, Bridgeton, N. J.) © P APRIL O R CH A RDS (Morris April Brothers, Bridgeton, N. J.)

DESSERT TOPPING Q W IP (Avoset Company, San Francisco, Cal.)

DIETETIC FOODS © P M OTHER'S LOW CALORIE BORSCHT (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) • SU G A R IN E LIQ U ID SWEETENER (The Suganne Co.. Mt. Vernon, III.) • c a n LO W CALORIE S O D A (Cott Beverage Corp., New Haven, Conn.) * © P ZEEZ-TABS (Freeda Pharmaceutical Co., N. Y. C.)

DETERGENTS (See also Dishwashing Detergents) • ALL (Monsanto Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo.) G L IM (B. T. Babbit Inc., New York, N. Y.) • AD • FAB • KIRKM AN * • KIR KM AN BLUE • SUPER SU DS BLUE • LIQ U ID VEL • VEL (Colgate-Palmolive Co., Jersey City, N. J.) • A M E R IC A N FAMILY • CHEER * • DASH • DREFT JOY • OXYDOL • TIDE * • BLUE DOT DUZ • BIZ BLUE LIQ UID (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati Ohio) • TREND • LIQ U ID TREND (Purex Corp. Ltd., South Gate, Calif.)

• A SSO CIA TED

March-April, 1957

®

(Associated Food Stores, Inc., Jamaica, N. Y.) * FAIR MART ALL PURPOSE DETERGENT (Michael's Fair Mart, Brooklyn, N. Y.) * W A L D B A U M 'S DETERGENT (Waldbaum's, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.)

DIAPER W ASHING & DEODORANTS * DIAPER SWEET (Bu-Tay Prod., Ltd., Los Angeles, Cal.)

DISHW ASHING M ACH IN E DETERGENTS (See also Detergents) * • DISH -W ASH ER ALL (Monsanto Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo.) * FIN ISH (Economic Laboratory, Inc., St. Paul, Minn.) * C A SC A D E (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio)

DRESSINGS GARBER'S M IS R O C H I SALAD D R ESSIN G (Garber's Eagle Oil Corp., B'klyn, N. Y.) H E IN Z FRENCH D R ESSIN G (H„ J. Heinz C o ., Pittsburgh, Pa.) MOTHER'S Salad Dressing © P Mayonnaise (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) * W ISH -B O N E ITALIAN SALAD D RESSIN G (K. C. Wishbone Salad Dressing Co., Kansas City, Mo.) * TRIM SALAD D RESSIN G * TRIM CHEF D R ESSIN G (Trim Food, Philadelphia, Pa.)

* D E M IN G 'S SA L M O N (Doming & Gould Co., Bellingham, Wash.) * EATWELL TUNA (Star-Kist Foods, Inc., Terminal Island, Cal.) M OTHER'S OLD FASH IO N ED @ P Gefllte Fish (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.l ROYAL SN A C K

73

(Q )

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY

Fish Products (Cont'd) Cream Herring Matjes Fillets Spiced Herring Lunch Herring Herring Cocktail Tidbits Salmon (in wine sauce) (Marine Foods, Detroit, Mich.)

STAR-KIST * Tuna * Egg Noodles & Tuna Dinner (Star-Kist Foods, Inc., Terminal Island, Cal.) VITA— with © label only * 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.) * © P M O D E R N RECIPE GEFILTE FISH (Adlers Food Packing Co., Bklyn, N. Y.)

FLAVORS * © P MERORY FLAVORS, IN C. (Clifton, N. J.)

FLAVOR IMPROVER ACCENT (Ac'cent International, Chicago, III.) * © P GREAT WESTERN M O N O S O D IU M GLUTAM AtE (M SG ) (The Great Western Sugar Co., Denver, Colo.)

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

FOOD FREEZER PLAN YITZCH OK GOLDBERG & S O N S (New York, N. Y.)

1

FROZEN FOODS

(g )

* LADY ILENE FROZEN CAKES (Lady llene Inc., Brockport, N. Y.) M ILAD Y 'S Blintzes (blueberry, cherry, cheese, potato-— all are milchig) Waffles (Milady Food Prod., Brooklyn, N. Y.) ASSO CIA TED WAFFLES (Associated Food Stores Corp., N. Y. C.) © P M O T H E R S FROZEN GEFILTE FISH (Mother's Food Prod, Newark, N. J.) * KARMEL KOSHER C H ICK EN PIE * KARMEL KOSHER BEEF PIE (Karmel Kosher Prod., N. Y.) * SU N K IST LEM ON CONCENTRATE * E XC H A N G E LEM ON CONCENTRATE * CAL-GROVE LEM ON CONCENTRATE * C A LE M O N LEM ON CONCENTRATE (Exchange Lemon Prod. Co., Corona, Cal.) * SU N K IST FROZEN CONCENTRATED O R A N G E JUICE (Exchange Orange Prod., Ontario, Cal.)

FRUIT (Dried)— bulk only © P C A LIF O R N IA P A C K IN G CORP. (San Francisco, Cal.)

FRU ITS— Packaged DROM EDARY Fruits and Peels Moist Coconut Shredded Coconut (The Dromedary Co., N. Y. C.) M U SSE L M A N 'S Cherries Sliced Apples (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

GLYCERIDES EM COL M SV K — with © label only (The Emulsol Corp., Chicago, III.) * DISTILLED M O N O G L Y C ER ID E EMULSIFIER— with © label only (Distillation Products Industries, Division Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y.) * A LD O 33K M O N O -D IG LY CER ID E — with © label only.

(Glyco Prod. Co., Inc. N. Y. C.)

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

HONEY * NIFTY FROZEN WAFFLES (Nifty Food Corp., Brockport, N. Y.)

74

© P GARBER'S M IS R O C H I (Garber Eagle Oil Corp., B'klyn, N. Y.)

JEWISH LIFE

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY INDUSTRIAL CLEANSERS

(See also Scouring Powders, Detergents and Dishwashing Detergents) BRIGHT SAIL (A & P Food Stores, N. Y.) ® P BRILLO PRODUCTS (Brillo Mfg. Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.) C A M E O COPPER CLEANER (B. T. Babbitt Co., N. Y. C.) DURA SO A P FILLED PADS (Durawool, Inc., Queens Village, N. Y.) * • COM ET • SPIC & SPAN (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio) * • G EO RG E (Bu-tay Prod., Ltd., Los Angeles, £al.)

• LIQ UID TREND • NEW , BLUE DUTCH CLEANSER • TREND (Purex Corp., Ltd., South Gate, Cal.) MY PAL (Pal Products Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.) S O I LAX (Economics Laboratory, Inc., St. Paul, Minn.)

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

ARCTIC SYNTEX M BEADS * LOW FOAM DETERGENT (Colgate-Palmolive Co.; Jersey City, N. J.) IN STITUTIO N X ' W W m O RVUS EXTRA GRANULES O RVUS HY-TEMP GRANULES O RVUS NEUTRAL GRANULES CREAM SU DS (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio)

JAMS AN D JELLIES H E IN Z JELLIES (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) © P BARTO N 'S B O N B O N N IER E (Barton's Candy Corp., Brooklyn, N. Y.)

JUICES H E IN Z TOM ATO JUICE (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) M U SSELM A N 'S Apple Juice Tomato Juice (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.) * SU NKIST LEM ON JUICE * EXC H A N G E LEM ON JUICE * CAL-GROVE LEM ON JUICE (Exchange Lemon Prod. Co., Corona, Cal.) * SU NKIST FROZEN CONCENTRATED O R A N G E JUICE (Exchange Orange. Prod., Ontario, Cal.) * © P VERY FINE APPLE JUICE * © P VERY FINE PRUNE JUICE (New England Apple Prod., Littleton, Mass.)

ICE CREAM, SHERBET © P BA RTO N 'S B O N B O N N IE R E (Barton's Candy Corp., Brooklyn, N. Y.) C O ST A 'S FRENCH ICE CREAM (Costa's Ice Cream Co., Woodbridge, N. J.)

All items listed in this Directory bear the ©

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

seal.

Items listed © P are kosher for Passover when bearing this or any other UO JCA Passover hechsh^r on the label.

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

March-April, 1957

endorsement.

75

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY Margarine {Cant'd)

MEAT TENDERIZER

M AR-PAV (pareve) M IO L O (milchig— -bulk only) N U -M Ä ID (milchig) TABLE-KING (milchig) (Miami Margarine Co., Cincinnati, Ohio) M OTH ER'S PAREVE (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N . J.) N A T IO N A L M A R G A R IN E SH O R T E N IN G (National Yeast Corp., Belleville, N. J.) N E W YORKER (milchig) (Roslyn Distributors, Inc., Middle Village, N. Y.)

MARMALADE * K IN G KELLY O R A N G E M AR M A LAD E (King Kelly Marmalade Co., Bellflower, Cal.)

MARSHMALLOW TOPPING M A R SH M A LLO W FLUFF

(Durkee-Mewer,

IncEast Lynn, Matt.)

* P E N N A N T M AR SH M AL-O (Union Storch & Roftnlng Ind.)

M AYONNAISE * © P M OTHER'S (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N . J.)

AD O LPH 'S {Adolph's Food Products, Burbank, Cal.)

MEDICINES

* © P EFFERVESCENT M IN ERA L SALT * © P D IG E ST IO N A N T A C ID C O M P O U N D (Freeda Pharmaceutical Co., N. Y. C.)

MELBA TOAST * OLD L O N D O N MELBA TOAST * OLD L O N D O N MELBA R O U N D S * LADY MELBA (King Kone Corp., N. Y., N. Y.) D EVO NSH EER * MELBA TOASTS * MELBA RO U N D S * BAR BITS * Q 'BITS * Q'BITS C RO U T O N S (Devonsheer Melba Corp., West N. J.)

New

MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG) A C 'C E N T (Ac'cent International, Chicago, III.) * @ P GREAT WESTERN M S G (Great Western Sugar Co., Denver, Colo.)

MUSTARD

MEATS AND PROVISIONS ©P ©P ®P ®P ©P ©P ©P

YITZCH OK G O LDBERG'S Meats Corned Beef Tongue Frozen Meats Salami Frankfurters Pastrami (I . Goldberg & Sons, 220 Delancey St., N. Y. C.)

MT. S IN A I © P Bologna P Corned Beef P Frankfurters © P Pastrami © P Salami © P Tongue (Oxford Provisions, Inc., 135 Walton St., Bklyn., N. Y.)

S

76

H E IN Z Brown Mustard Yellow Mustard (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) '

NOODLES & M ACARONI PRODUCTS * BUITO NI M A C A R O N I PRODUCTS (Buitoni Foods Corp., So. Hackensack, N. J.) GREENFIELD E G G N O O D LES {Golden Cracknel & Specialty Co., Detroit, Mich.) h e in z M a c a r o n i c r e o l e (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) PEN N SY L V A N IA DUTCH EG G N O O DLES (Megs Macaroni Prod., Harrisburg, Pa.) SK IN N E R 'S (Skinner Mfg. Co., Omaha, Neb.) * SO PH IE TUCKER {Sophie Tucker Foods, Inc., Baltimore, Md.) * STAR-KIST E G G N O O D LES & T U N A D IN N E R (Star-Kist Foods, Inc., Terminal Island, Cal.)

JEWISH LIFE

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY POULTRY— Frozen • YITZCH OK GOLDBERG & S O N S (New York, N. Y.) • MENORAH * • NER (Menorah Products, Inc., Boston, Mass.) © P GARBER'S M IS R O C H I (Garber Eagle O il Corp., B'klyn, N. Y.) M AZOLA (Corn Products Refining Corp., N. Y. C.) © P NUTOLA (Nutola Products Co., B'klyn, N. Y.) © P PURITAN OIL— with © label only (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio)

OVEN CLEANERS * • HEP SAFE-T-SPRAY * • BESTWAY (Bostwick Labs, Bridgeport, Conn.)

PREPARED SALADS M OTHER'S Cucumber Salad Potato Salad (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) VITA— with © label only * Tuna Salad * Spring Garden Salad * Herring Salad (Vita Food Prod., Inc., N. Y. C.)

PEANUT BUTTER BEECH-NUT (Beech-Nut Packing Co., N. Y. C.)

RELISHES PICKLES, ETC.

PIE FILLINGS M U SS E L M A N 'S (C. H. Musselman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

POPCORN TV TIME PO PC O RN (TV Time Foods, Inc., Chicago, III.)

KOBEY'S Potato Chips Shoestring Potatoes (Tasty Foods Inc., Denver, Col.) M O N A R C H SH O EST RIN G POTATOES (Monarch Finer Foods, Division of Con­ solidated Foods Corp., Chicago, ill.)

SU N G LO Potato Chips Shoestring Potatoes (Tasty Foods, Inc., Denver, Col.) © P W A R N E R 'S POTATO C H IPS (East Coast Food Corp., Riverhead, N

March-April, 1957

H E IN Z Pickles Dill Gherkins Dill Sandwich Chips India Relish Hot Dog Relish Pickled Onions Sweet Relish Sweet Cucumber Disks Sweet Cucumber Sticks * Sweet Dill Strips * Polish Style Dill Pickles * Barbecue Relish Hamburger Relish * Candied Krink>L-Chips * Garlic flavored1 Spiced Pickles Chips (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.) DOLLY M A D IS O N (H. W. Madison Co., Cleveland, Ohio) M OTHER'S © P Pickles © P Gherkins

Y,

© P Sweet Red Peppers

77

UOJCA KASH (Ulf W fclRECTÖtV Relishes, Pickles (Cont'd). © P Pimentoes 1 ■ ^ Jti ¡1 © P Pickled Tomatoes ■' w ® P Pickled Country C abbage * Hot Cherry Peppers * Pickled Country Deluxe * Spears (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.) C A R O L IN A BEAUTY LITTLE SISTER W A Y PACK PLAYMATES LITTLE REBEL M O U N T OLIVE PICK OF C A R O L IN A M O P IC O (Mount Ofive Pickle Co., Mt. Olivet, 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 * Spanish Olives (Vita Food Products, Inc., N. Y. C.) * L'ART Sweet Cauliflower & Onions * L'ART Sweet Relish * M AN H AT TA N Sweet Pickles * M A D IS O N PICKLES (Green Bay Food Co., Greenbay Wise.)

RESORTS © P PINE V IE W HOTEL (Fallsburg, N. Y.) © P W A S H IN G T O N HOTEL (Rockaway Park, N. Y.) © P M O N S E Y PARK HOTEL (Monsey, N. Y.) © P LAUREL PARK HOTEL So. Fallsburg, N . Y

78

RICE H E IN Z SP A N ISH RICE (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

SALAD OIL ® P PURITAN OIL— with © label only (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio)

SALT • M Ö G E N D A V ID KOSHER SALT (Carey Salt Co., Hutchinson, Kansas) • M O R T O N C O ARSE KOSHER SALT • M Ö R tO N FINE TABLE SALT • M O R T O N IO D IZ E D SALT lMorton Salt Co.> Chicago, III.) • • • • •

RED C R O SS FINE TABLE SALT RED C RO SS IO D IZED SALT ; STERLING FINE TABLE SALT • STERLING KOSHER C O ARSE SALT STERLING IO D IZ ED SALT (International Salt Co., Scranton, Pa.)

SAUCES H EIN Z SA V O RY SAUCE (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

SCOURING p o w d I er (See also Household Cleaners, Detergents and Dishwashing Detergents) BAB-O (with Bleach) • BABBIT'S CLEANSER C A M E O CLEANSER (B. T. Babbit Co., N. Y. C.) • AJAX BEN HUR (bulk only) • KIR KM AN CLEANSER (Colgate-Palmolive Co., Jersey City, N. J.) • GARBER'S M IS R O C H I CLEANSER (Garber Eagle Oil Co., New York) KITCHEN KLENZER (Fitzpatrick Bros., Chicago, III.) N E W # BLUE DUTCH CLEANSER (Purex Corp., Ltd., South Gate, Cal.) • LUSTRO PO L ISH IN G POW DER M Y PAL

JEWISH LIFE

(0 )

UOJCA KASH RUTH DIRECTORY

Scouring Powder (Coat'd)

,(B)

* N ATCO * SUPERCAKE (Supreme Oil Co., N. Y. C.)

• PALCO POLISH POW DER PAL-LO (Pal Products Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.

SOAP

* SAIL (A & P Food Stores, N. Y.)

© P NUTOLA KOSHER SO A P (Nutola Fat Products Co., B'klyn, N. Y.) © P BRILLO KOSHER SO A P (Brillo Manufacturing Co., B'klyn, N. Y.) * © P LORI H A N D SO A P (Freeda Pharmaceutical Co., N. Y. C.)

* C R ISC O — with © label only (The Procter & Gamble Co.) © P GARBER'S M IS R O C H I PAREVE FAT (Garber Eagle Oil, Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.) © P NUT-OLA VEGETABLE SH O R T E N IN G [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 * GLO RO — with © label only * PURITAN— with © label only * M A R IG O L D — with © label only (The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati Ohio)

G O LD 'S © P Borscht Schav Russel (Gold Pure Food Prod., B'klyn, N. Y.) H EIN Z Condensed Cream of Mushroom (Dairy) Condensed Cream of Green Pea (Dairy) Condensed Cream of Celery (Dairy) Condensed Gumbo Creole (Dairy) Condensed Cream of Tomato (Dairy) Condensed Vegetarian Vegetable (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh/ Pa.)

N A T IO N A L M A R G A R IN E SH O R T E N IN G (National Yeast Corp., Belleville, N. J.)

MOTHER'S © P Borscht Cream Style Borscht Cream Style Schav (Mother's Food Products, Newark, N. J.)

DELMAR M A R G A R IN E SH O R T E N IN G (Delmar Prod. Corp., Cincinnati, Ohio)

SOUP M IX

* HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE SHORT­ E N IN G — with © label only (The Humko Co., Memphis, Tenn.) * FLAVABEST * A D M IR A T IO N

All items listed in this Directory bear the ©

NUTOLA Chicken Noodle Soup Mix NUTOLA Noodle Soup Mix (Nutola Fat Ptoducts Co., B'klyn, N. Y.)

seal.

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

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

March-April, 1957

endorsement.

79

UOJCA KASHRUTH DIRECTORY SOUR CREAM

VEGETABLES (Dehydrated)

© P DELW O OD (Middletown Milk & Cream Co., Yonkers, N. Y.)

© P B A SIC VEGETABLE PROD — with © label only (San Francisco, Cal.) © P GENTRY, In c — with © (Los Angeles, Cal.)

label only

VINEGAR © P GARBER'S M IS R O C H I (Garber Eagle Oil Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.) H E IN Z Cider M alt Salad Vinegar Tarragon White Rex Amber (H. J. Heinz Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.)

© P GARBER'S M IS R O C H I (Garber Eagle Oil Co., Brooklyn, N . Y.) ® P GENTRY PAPRIKA— with © label only (Gentry, Inc., Los Angeles, Cal.) LAW RY'S SE A SO N E D SALT (Lowry's Products Inc., Los Angeles, Cal.) S E A S O N IN G C O M P O U N D S — with label only (Wm. J. Stange, E. Paterson, N. J.)

M U SSEL M A N 'S Cider Vinegar (C. H. Mussulman Co., Biglerville, Pa.)

©

V IT A M IN S (Bulk) COLLETT-WEEK CO. (Ossining, N. Y.)

STEARATES * PLYMOUTH C A LCIU M STEARATE M K — with © label only (M. W .

Parsons-Plymouth,Inc., N.

V IT A M IN TABLETS

SUGAR

*

® P FLO-SWEET LIQ U ID SU G A R ® P FLO-SWEET GRANULATED SU G A R (R.fined Syrups & Sugars, Inc., Yonkers, N. Y.) * • SU G A R IN E L IQ U ID SWEETENER (Tfce eC rin a g u S o., Ml. Vernon, III./

SYRUP ® P BA RTO N 'S B O N B O N N IE R E (Barton's Candy C o Brooklyn, N. Y.)

TZITZITH LEON V O G E L («6 Allen S t , N . Y. C.) M. W O L O Z IN & CO. (36 Eldridge S t , N. Y. C.) Z IO N TALIS M FG. CO., IN C. (48 Eldridge S t , N. Y. C.)

VEGETABLES DROM EDARY PIM IEN T O S (The Dromedary Co., N. Y. C.) * C A V ERN M U SH R O O M PRODUCTS (K~B Products Co., Hudson, N. Y.)

80

* * *

KOBEE KOVITE KOVITE M VITALETS PANLEX KO-LIVER HI-KOVITE (Freeda A gar Prod., N. Y. C.)

WATER SOFTENER & BLUING * R A IN DROPS (Bu-layProd., Lid., Los Angeles, Col.)

W IN E & LIQUEURS ® P HERSH'S KOSHER W IN E S (Hungarian Grape Products, Inc., N. Y.) * © P CARMEL— bearing hechsher of Chief Rabbinate of Israel (Carmel Wine Co., Inc., N. Y.) * ® P RU TM AN 'S BRAND (Putman Wine Co., Cleveland, Ohio) * © P YEHUDA BRAN D (Yehuda Wine Co., N. Y. C.) * © P SH O L O M BRAN D (U. S. Wine Co., St. Louis, Mo.) * ® P G A N -ED EN BRAN D (U. S. Wine & Liquor Co., Chicago)

JEWISH LIFE

TRY THESE FAMOUS KOSHER AND P A R V S O R K AND TIME SAVERS! V E L makes dishes shine without washing or wiping!

M l mm S ,ClldtoH<w*!

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

AJAX Cleanser with “Foaming Action” Foams as it cleans all types of tile, porcelain surfaces, pots and p a n s. . . up to tw ice as easy, twice as fast! Floats dirt and grease right down the drain!

N ew form ula FAB giv e s you more active dirt re m o ve r!

M ilder to hands, new F A B gets the dirt out of E V E R Y T H IN G you wash.

Wonderful for dishes, too!

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

C O LG A T E-P A LM O LIV E CO M PA N Y

HESNZ FOODS ARE NOT KOSHER FOR PASSOVER The © seal of endorsement of The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America on rhany labels of Heinz Foods i%your guarantee that these varieties are Kosher for year ’round use.

THEY ARE NOT, HOWEVER, KOSHER FOR PASSOVER! To avoid any misunderstandings we make this pre-Passover state­ ment to you again this year.

H, d. H E I N Z C O M P A N Y P itts b u rg h , P e n n s y lv a n ia M a k e r s o f th e ^5 7 */ V a r ie t ie s