Jewish Life June 1961 by Jewish Action

T R IA L OF A M A S S -K IL L E R T H E E IC H M A N N T R IA L R E -V IE W E D ON R E V E L A T IO N • T H E GAM E J U V E N IL E D E L IN Q U E N C Y I N IS R A E L B E S T SE L L E R D O M M O VES IN T O C A N A L S T R E E T SC O U TIN G A N D T H E O RTH O DO X J E W IS H BO Y

SIVAN, 5721 JUNE, 1961

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Vol. XXVIII, No. 5/June, 1961/Sivan, 5721

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EDITORIALS SABBATH AND THE SUPREME COURT ........................

IN THE BULLDOZER’S PATH .............................................

ARTICLES Saul B ernstein , Editor M. M orton R ubenstein R euben E., G ross Rabbi S. J. Sharfman Libby K laperman Editorial Associates T hea O dem , Editorial Assistant JEWISH LIFE is published bi monthly. Subscription two years $4.00, three years $5.50, four years $7.00, Supporter $10.00, Patron $2 5 00. Editorial and Publication Office: 84 Fifth Avenue N ew York 11, N . Y. ALgopquin 5-4100

TRIAL OF A MASS-KILLER/I. Halevy-Levln ..............

THE EICHMANN TRIAL RE-VIEWED/ Reuben E. Gross ..................................... .............—

SCOUTING AND THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BOY/ Louis M. Tuchman ............................................. ............. 15 BESTSELLERDOM MOVES INTO CANAL STREET/ Charles Raddock ............................................................

SOUTH AMERICA’S JEWISH HERITAGE/ Jacob Beller .......................................................................

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN ISRAEL/ Saul Sigelschiffer ............................................................. 41 ON REVELATION/Joel J. Litke ........................................ 47 CAREERS IN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFESSIONS/ Walter Duckat ....................... 50

FICTION Published by U n io n of O rthodox Jewish C ongregations of A merica M oses I. F euerstein President Benjamin Koenigsberg, Nathan K. Gross, Samuel L. Brennglass, M. Morton Rubenstein, Harold M. Jacobs, Vice Presidents ; Edward A. Teplow, Treasurer; Herbert Berman, Secretary; Harold H. Boxer, Financial Secretary. Dr. Samson R. Weiss Executive Vice President

THE GAME/Philip Arian ....................................

REVIEWS A DOCUMENTARY OF BLOOD AND FIRE AND PILLARS OF SMOKE/Samuel I. Cohen ................ 57 THE BATTLE OF JERICHO/Libby M. Klaperman . . 59 A GOLDEN TREASURY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE/ Pinchas Stolper .....................

DEPARTMENTS AMONG OUR CONTRIBUTORS ...............................

HASHKOFAH: Yochid and K’lal

........................

Drawings by Ahron Gelles

Second Class postage paid at New York, N . Y.

June, 1961

DR. SAUL SIGELSCHIFFER is the principal of Herman Ridder Junior High School 98, The Bronx, and professor of educa tion at Yeshiva University. He recently returned ‘from an eight-month visit to Israel, where he spent considerable time observing the schools and juvenile courts of that country. RABBI LOUIS TUCHMAN, a musmach of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, is chair man of the Scouting Commission of the Rabbinical Council of America and assistant editor of that organization’s journal “Tradition.” Rabbi Tuchman is the spiritual leader of Congre gation Agudath Achim, Freehold, N. J. JACOB BELLER is a much-travelled Yiddish journalist of note. He last contributed to these pages “What Happened to Jewish Colonization in Canada” in the April 1960 issue. Mr. Beller is based at present in Latin America.

among our contributors

REUBEN E. GROSS is chairman of the Joint Commission on Regions and Councils of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Con gregations of America. A practicing attorney, Mr. Gross was educated at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, City College of New York, and Harvard Law School. RABBI JOEL J. LITRE is the spiritual leader of congregation Gemiluth Chassodim in Detroit, Michigan. Rabbi Litke was bom in Germany, studied in London, and received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Toronto. He is a musmach of the Rabbinical Seminary of Canada. CHARLES RADDOCK, labor editor and foreign correspond ent, has written on Jewish affairs for publications in this country and abroad. He has recently completed a history of the Jews entitled “The Rise and Diffusion of the Jewish People.” WALTER DUCKAT is supervisor of the Guidance Division of the Federation Employment and Guidance Service and is voca tional consultant for Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University. PHILIP ARIAN is a Jewish educator who has written plays on Jewish themes, and whose articles and stories have appeared in numerous Jewish publications. This is his first contribution to Je w is h L if e .

JEWISH LIFE

L S

Sabbath and the Suprem e Court HE RULING of the United States Supreme Court that compulsory Sunday Closing laws which do not exempt observers T of the Jewish Sabbath are not inherently unconstitutional is sharply disappointing to the Jewish community. The finding reversed a decision of the United States Massa chusetts District Court, which had brought real hope of an end to the discrimination. The issue cannot be permitted to rest with the present decision. Jewish community action must now again be concentrated on amendment of the discriminatory state laws, and with greater intensity than ever before. The United States Supreme Court acted simultaneously on four cases, two of which had reference to the constitutionality of the Sunday laws as applied to any business while the other The Moral two, involving establishments operated by orthodox Jews, hinged Difference on the question of religious discrimination. The latter cases had the amici curiae support of the Synagogue Council of America and the National Community Relations Advisory Council, agen cies of national Jewish organizations and community councils representing the great majority of American Jews. The Supreme Court finding differed as between the categories both in vote (eight-to-one on the first two, six-to-three and five-to-four respectively on the second two) and in phrasing. In immediate effect the two rulings are hardly to be distinguished from each other, but the moral difference is important. Chief Justice Warren, who said that the court was not in this instance upholding “any conceivable Sunday law,” stressed that if such a law was clearly designed to use “the state’s power to aid religion” it would be unconstitutional. Yet the court majority held that the typical Sunday laws of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, challenged by the orthodox Jewish litigants, do not manifest such character and do not interfere with the free exer cise of religion. Thus the states remain equally free to apply Sunday Closing laws alike to establishments which close on the Jewish Sabbath and those which, like the first two cases, have been open seven days a week. HATEVER the technical merits or demerits of the Supreme Court decision, there can be no doubt as to the gross moral injustice and discriminatory effect of compulsory Sunday Closing laws which do not make provision for the Jewish Sabbath ob server. It is unfortunate that circumstances led to the court’s passing simultaneously on cases of essentially different character.

June, 1961

Wrong One cannot help but surmise that the climate of legal thought Combination might have been different had the issue of religious discrimina tion not become intertwined with that of the per se constitu tionality of Sunday laws in general. Nor was it in any way desirable that a question of religious right become entangled with the claims of seven-days-per-week businesses. The Supreme Court has reversed its previous decisions on occasion. The possibility must be explored of formulating a new action which would establish that Sunday laws which oblige the Jewish Sabbath observer to close his business one day per week more than his competitor impose upon him a burden which is not “tolerable” but crushing. Experience indicates that such a future action should be clear of any association with either secular or purely commercial interests. The immediate front for action, however, must be legisla tive. The issue must now again be fought on the state level, with the crucial battle in the State of New York. There, despite The a Jewish populace of more than 2,500,000, comprising over Legislative one-sixth of the total population, efforts to secure amendment Front have been unavailing through many years. In contrast with some states which have made limited provision for Shomer Shabboth establishments, New York is among many other states which have not. The Joint Committee for a Fair Sabbath Law, called together many years ago by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America with the participation of numerous leading organizations, the Ad Hoc Committee, and other agen cies have pursued the goal continuously, overcoming one ob stacle only to be confronted with another. Future efforts must entail stronger mobilization of Jewish re sources than heretofore. The Jewish community cannot afford to suffer the continued suppression of a basic right. It has long been disputed whether there is, or ought to be, such a thing as Use “the Jewish vote,” but there can be no disputing that there are Voting Jewish voters and in New York particularly, a lot of them. The Strength dissenting opinions in the United States Supreme Court decision should certainly serve as a moral and psychological spur to the job of bringing the issue to the rank and file of Jewish voters, in such a way and to such effect that the state Sunday Closing laws shall finally and decisively be cleansed of anti-Jewish dis crimination.

In The B ulldozer’s Path HE BULLDOZER, that characteristic tool of modern civili zation, has devoured huge slices of the deteriorated areas of American cities, making way for new building projects. Up rooting all within its path, the bulldozer has consumed numerous

JEWISH LIFE

old-established Jewish neighborhoods, razing at one and the same time dingy slums and vibrant centers of religious life. It is good to note that one irreplaceable institution seems to have escaped its omnivorous grasp—Beth Hamedrash Hagodol, cher ished landmark of New York’s Lower East Side. Through 109 years to the present day, this historic synagogue has housed hundreds of worshippers every single day in the year and limud torah has never ceased within its walls. Its site being within the area of a vast apartment housing project, the planners thereof— not seeing Beth Hamedrash Hagodol as an invaluable asset to the rebuilt community—demanded its demolition. The threat was met by determined resistance in which influential private indi viduals joined with religious organizations and community groups. The efforts bore fruit in personal assurances by Mayor Wagner and Clarence J. Davis, chairman of the Housing and Redevelopment Board, that the synagogue would remain un disturbed on its site. N eeds This experience, fortunate though was its conclusion, is an of the urgent reminder of the needs of the new “urbia.” For the past N ew two decades, the phenomenal mass migration to suburbia, shared “Urbia" by a large proportion of the Jewish populace, has been the focus of communal concern. No such concern has been given to the residents of rebuilt city neighborhoods. Among these too are great numbers of Jewish families, and they are subject to no less drastic a process of uprooting, transplantation, and social re-orientation than the residents of new suburbia. But in terms of organization of religious-communal life, the new urbia faces special handicaps. Spread over many square blocks, the city housing projects are self-contained communities in which pro vision is made for shops and supermarkets, bowling alleys and places of entertainment—but none for places of Jewish worship, Jewish education, Jewish living. As a rule, there are no syna gogues in adjacent areas or within Sabbath walking distance, and high prices of real estate and high rentals in the adjacent areas present a formidable barrier to establishment of new congregations. HE VIGOROUS defense of Beth Hamedrash Hagodol points to one sound way of meeting the problem. City housing authorities and the promoters of urban housing developments must be taught that religious institutions are priority necessities of human society, around which—and not over whose pulver ized bones—their projects must be planned.

June, 1961

Trial of a Mass-Killer By !. HALEVY-LEVIN

Je r u sa l e m

HE TRIAL of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem is proceeding smoothly T upon its appointed course. The melo drama of his abduction from Buenos Aires, of the Israel-Argentine dip lomatic imbroglio, and the Security Council debate which followed, have fallen away. Interest throughout the world continues unabated, but not withstanding the massive press, radio, and television facilities specially in stalled to ensure the widest possible coverage it has not degenerated—and clearly will not be allowed to degen erate—into a spectacular show trial. The atmosphere in the packed court room, under the unobtrusively firm and dignified handling of the Presid ing Judge Moshe Landau, though often tense, remains consistently one of sober discussion. Indeed as the nice points of legal competence and prece dent arise the debate takes on an academic, almost abstract, note. In the transparent bullet-proof dock, carefully guarded within by two stal wart policemen, sits the accused, no longer the arrogant, debonair SS offi cer, but a nonentity, sitting stonyfaced, the only outward signs of any emotion being a constant twitching 6

of the hands and, from time to time, of his thin, cruel mouth. So far there has been only one in cident to disturb the even tenor of the proceedings, when one spectator— who, it transpired, had lost all of the sixty members of his family dur ing the Nazi holocaust—rose and screamed at the prisoner, “Bluthund.” He was escorted outside but permitted to return to his seat when he had regained his composure. Throughout the spectators have sat in shocked silence as the incredible tale of horror has been unfolded. By and large it is a special type of audi ence, not given to demonstrating its feelings. The bulk of the seven hun dred-odd seats in the Beth Ha’am where the trial is being held is taken up by foreign pressmen, and most of the balance by diplomats, political leaders, police officers, and public officials. Only twenty seats remain for the general public. R. ROBERT SERVATIUS, EichD mann’s counsel, is a veteran in the defense of Nazi war criminals. At the Nuremberg Trials he defended Fritz Sauchel, Germany’s director of slave labor, Karl Brandt, Reich ComJEWISH LIFE

missioner of Health and Hitler’s pri vate physician, who was charged with conducting inhuman experiments on camp inmates, and Paul Pleiger, a German economic planner. Sauchel and Brandt were hanged, and Pleiger sentenced to fifteen years imprison ment. He is a capable and resolute lawyer, with no Nazi record, other than a spell of war service in the Wehrmacht during World War II. The main lines of his defense are already clear. That Eichmann must be found guilty—and despite the eva sions, prevarications, and spells of amnesia in his rambling 3,500-page deposition of testimony, he has al ready confessed to the substance of his crimes—is abundantly clear to Dr. Servatius. What he is fighting for is to save his client from the gallows. Knowing that the only Israel law-trbesides that against treason in time of war—which provides for the death penalty is the Nazi and Nazi Collab orators (Punishment) Law of 1950. He is banking upon the unwillingness of the judges to impose the first death sentense in the State of Israel. It is significant that Israel’s legis lators and jurists seemed to have regarded execution of the death sentence as a very remote contin gency, as they made no provision as to how it was to be carried out. Servatius’ defense, accordingly, is based first of all on the contention that Eichmann Was no more than a small cog in a vast machine and that as such he acted under duress. The thesis that he was “a faceless bureau crat” interested only in securing per sonal advancement by devoted appli cation to his official duties and gain ing the approval of his superiors has been propounded by no less than Richard Crossman, leading British journalist and Labor Member of June, 1961

Parliament. “The accused,” Dr. Serva tius told the Court at the beginning of the trial, “no longer endangers the welfare of mankind. With the end of the Hitler regime he became a peace ful citizen* It was his misfortune that formerly he was obliged to accept the authority of an inhuman govern ment. He has overcome, he has risen above, the ideas of this government. He has been released from his oath of allegiance [to the Nazi regime].” IS second line of defense is to question the legality of every link in the chain of circumstances which brought his client to the bullet proof dock, from the law under which he is being tried to the trial itself. Dr. Servatius’ assumption is that the sentence if not the verdict can be in fluenced by instilling doubt into public opinion as to whether the accused has really had a fair trial. It is not irrele vant to recall here that Dr. Servatius’ not-modest fee, 12,000 pounds ster ling, is being paid by the State of Israel. From the first day of the trial he has raised the familiar argument in regard to Eichmann’s abduction, the fact that his crimes were not com mitted on Israel territory at a time when the State of Israel was not even in existence, and the question of the neutrality of the judges on the bench. The prosecution, headed by Mr. Gideon Hausner, ¿was well-prepared to dispose of these arguments. Legal precept and precedent were cited to prove that neither manner of arrest nor the retroactivity of the law are material issues in the present instance, while in regard to the plea that the acts committed took place beyond Israel’s borders the Public Prosecutor mentioned (he was not bringing it forward as an argument, he insisted)

that the Germán code itself provides for punishment for acts against Ger man people committed outside Ger many by foreigners. At least one noted American jurist, Mr. Telford Taylor, who served as Public Prosecutor in twelve out of the thirteen Nuremberg Trials, has by inference questioned the propriety of holding the trial in Israel. Eichmann, he has said, should have been tried by a German court. Perhaps he should. But the fact of the matter is that neither West Germany, nor any of the dozen European states whose citizens suffered from Eichmann’s ac tivities ever made any effort to trace and apprehend him, or, for that matter, to have him extradited when he was in custody. Eichmann, of course, continued to live in Germany for many years after the end of the war. The Bonn Government, it is in structive, has washed its hands com pletely of Eichmann. It has refused to contribute anything to the costs of his defense (which, therefore, fall entirely upon the Israel exchequer) or to extend any protection, in any shape or form, to this son of hers in his present straits. Dr. Servatius has already given notice that he will seek an injunction from the German courts to compel Bonn to intervene in Eichmann’s trial. There is no ex tradition treaty between Israel and West Germany. N questioning the neutrality of the Court Dr. Servatius did not—con trary to expectations—query Dr. Ben jamin Halevy’s seat on the bench. (The Presiding Judge Moshe Landau, as a member of the Supreme Court, was appointed by the Minister of Justice. It was within Judge Halevy’s competence as President of thé Jeru salem District Court to appoint the

two District Court judges to sit to gether with Dr. Landau. Because he had heard the Kastner trial, in the course of which he stated that in his dealings with Eichmann Kastner had “sold himself to the devil,” it was felt in certain legal circles that he should not serve on this bench of judges. Dr. Halevy decided to dis regard these objections.) Dr. Servatius is also fighting the admissability of certain evidence, no tably sworn statements made in the course of the trials of Nazi war crim inals, principally those of Dieter Wisliceny, Eichmann’s top aide in Hun gary and elsewhere, and Rudolf Hoess, commandant of the Auschwitz camp, both of whom had incriminated Eichmann in their evidence. In Com mon Law (which Israel has inherited from the Mandatory regime) such statements are regarded as hearsay and cannot be admitted as evidence. But Israel’s Nazi (Punishment) Law, like the American and English prac tice in the anti-Nazi trials, has de viated from the Common Law rule, and such evidence is accepted. A pas sage from Hoess’s autobiography written in a Polish prison shortly before he was executed reads as fol lows: “Eichmann was completely obsessed with his mission and also convinced that this extermination action was necessary in order to preserve the German people in the future from the destructive intentions of the Jews. This was the way in which he regarded his task, and he employed all his energy in fulfilling the plans for extermination which the Reichsfuhrer SS had made.” S might have been foreseen the Defense Counsel has naturally A raised the difficulty of bringing de fense witnesses to Israel. His junior JEWISH LIFE

counsel has scoured Germany but it seems that he has not found anyone willing to expose himself to self-in crimination in testifying on Eichmann’s behalf. Critics of the trial have made much of this, but in an ordinary criminal case no accused man would be permitted to argue that he could call his accomplices to testify on his behalf provided they were granted a similar legal safeconduct. The Public Prosecutor has made it clear that any person regarded as a Nazi war criminal under Israel law will be subject to arrest and trial the moment he treads on Israel soil. Jerusalem and Bonn, needless to say, differ in their interpretation of what constitutes a Nazi crime and so even witnesses who have been cleared by West German courts are not immune from arrest in this coun try. The Court, however, has stated that in view of this situation witnesses will be enabled to testify before a German court, in keeping with the ar rangements between Israel and West Germany under the Legal Assistance

to Foreign States Law. The West German court will be asked to take evidence from the witnesses on the basis of lists of questions prepared by the defense and the prosecution respectively. In view of the fact that German court procedure does not provide for cross-examination of wit nesses, representatives of both the de fense and the prosecution will be enabled to submit supplementary questions arising out of the witnesses’ previous answers. Dr. Max Merten, Military Governor of Greece during the German occupation of that coun try, has already indicated his willing ness to testify on behalf of Eichmann, recalling the latter’s cooperation “in an attempt to save Jewish women and children in Salonika.” Dr. Merten was sentenced only a few years ago to twenty-five years imprisonment by a Greek court for his war crimes, but for some obscure reason was released after serving eight months of his sen tence. Greek Jewry, it should be re called, was almost entirely destroyed during Dr. Merten’s term of office.

International Reaction

HE reaction in various quarters the trial is proceeding comes for T both here and abroad to the many of them as an anticlimax. This sombre drama that is being played is one of the reasons for the bad press out in Jerusalem will not affect the course of justice, but it is an important ancillary aspect. It is not only Eich mann who is on trial. Many of the journalists, especially among the American and English contingents, came anticipating a spectacular show trial. The twelve months of careful preparation, the ramified publicity arrangements, seemed to justify their expectations. The matter-of-fact, and at times even dull, manner in which June, 1961

the prosecution got when it opened its documents to refute Dr. Servatius’ legal objections to the court’s compe tence, etc. It is only now that when the indictment of the Nazy policy of genocide is in progress, and tale upon tale of horror from every land in Europe is being told, that the press men can find the “angles” to satisfy their editors and readers. Closer to home, the reaction of the teenagers, few of whom have ever 9

known a Hitler or an Eichmann, or any regime other than the free State of Israel, has been closely observed. High school students, taking advan tage of the prolonged strike of their teachers, have crowded into the Ratisbonne Hall where the trial is being televised, and into the small space set aside for the general public in the courtroom. There is no doubt that the trial has brought home to them some thing of the tragedy of the Jews of Europe. But with their down-to-earth approach they cannot grasp why there were so few instances of organized armed resistance, particularly once the assassins’ objective of total destruction of the Jewish people was clear. Upon the Asian and African Jews of Israel, many of whom have only recently acquired the habit of reading a news paper, the trial has had a similar effect. It has made more palpable for them the prolonged horror of the Eu ropean catastrophe, which previously —for many of them—seemed less real than the Book of Lamentations. the Arab press faithfully reflects mood in neighboring countries Iit Fthesupplies grim food for thought. So far the reaction has been typically confused and contradictory. The figure of six million victims is marked down as highly exaggerated and Eichmann?s guilt correspondingly reduced. The Nazis did not even kill one mil lion Jews, Hussein Zulficar Sabry, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs told the UAR National Assembly. Al-Difaa, a newspaper published in the Old City of Jerusalem, asked a few days ago: “Why should we try Eichmann for his share in purging Europe from a plague called the Jews and refrain from trying Truman for killing half a million Japanese?” There has not been a single expres 10

sion of any commiseration with the victims or condemnation of the genocide. The question: Why did Israel have the trial at all? continues to perplex Israelis no less than foreigners. T ’here is pride in this country at the effici ency of the Israel agents who tracked the mass-murderer down to his hiding place, but many Jews in the street feel justice would have been amply served if he had been shot down where and when he was found, a fate meted out, probably, to not a few of his accomplices and henchmen. But that the purpose of the trial is not to satisfy any thirst for revenge (“Old Testament justice,” used in a pejorative sense, has become hack neyed, in this context, among nonJewish observers), is proved by the trial itself. Indeed there is a formi dable body of opinion that the holding of the trial is not in the Israel or gen eral Jewish interest. It may well provide fuel for the smoldering fire of Antisemitism. It will probably ex acerbate relations between Israel and Germany, in whose improvement both countries are interested, just at a time when a major German loan is said to be imminent. It is causing exasper ation in the West, where it is felt that no purpose will be served by raking over Germany’s unsavory past. It is even causing discomfort in England, which did not raise a finger to restrict Eichmann’s massacres—even to the extent of bombing Auschwitz—and treated the survivors with callous realpolitik when the war was over. Perhaps, consciously or unconsciously, this is why so many of the British observers are undisguisedly unsym pathetic. The Russians, | too, have their difficulties in explaining Israel’s motives in bringing Eichmann to trial, but they have found a typical solution. JEWISH LIFE

There is, we are told, a secret agree ment between Ben Gurion and Ade nauer to tone down the guilt of West Germany. UT the reason in fact, though not quite rational—if what is ra tional is equated with self-interest—is quite simple. As long as the killer was at large the Jewish sense of justice remained frustrated. Not only must justice be done but justice had to be seen to be done. It would not have been done adequately by a hole-andcorner killing. It could only be done

by placing Eichmann’s crimes within the context of Nazi bestiality and the world’s indifference. In this sense, and only in this sense, despite the distinctly unfriendly tone of her com ment, the British writer Rebecca West has gone to the heart of the matter. “Legally,” she has said, “the Eichmann trial is absurd. I think that one of the main reasons for it may be that the Israelis feel the need to convince the world of the need for the State of Israel.” In the Eichmann trial Israel is the spokesman of all Jewry.

The Eichmann Trial Re-Viewed By REUBEN E. GROSS

HE capture and indictment of not and should not advance the inter Adolf Eichmann is unquestion ests of any religion or religious group T ably one of the greatest pieces of within the state. Accordingly, the Su poetic justice to befall any of the Nazi leaders. This arch-enemy of the Jew ish people, who so diabolically plotted the destruction of six million innocent lives, has only one life against which retribution might be vented, but he escaped and preserved that one life, undetected and undiscovered by all the great power and might of Western civilization for fifteen years, until he was tracked and caught by agents of the very people whom he condemned as inferior and unworthy of breathing the air and seeing the light of day. His trial, however, presents a pene trating challenge to the judicial system of Israel. The reaction to this chal lenge has already revealed the incon sistencies and contradictions inherent in the political theory of Medinath Yisroel. As this writer has noted in a previ ous article,* the courts of Israel have uncritically adopted the common law of England. Inherent in this system of law are certain assumptions concern ing the relationship of religion and the state. One such assumption is that the secular courts of a modern state will * J ewish LiFJ?|^Sisan 5718/A pril 1958.

preme Court of Israel has rejected Torah as a binding source of judicial precedent. Jews in Israel are merely Israelis of Mosaic persuasion, accord ing to this theory. If this theory is followed to its logi cal conclusion, the right of the State of Israel to try Eichmann can be legalistically questioned. No crime was committed by him on its territory; nor did he commit a crime against its citizens; nor did he violate any laws of Israel, for there were no Israel laws nor Israel citizens before 1948. The Knesseth, it is true, did pass a law in 1950 condemning Nazi acts, but that law is ex post facto and extra-terri torial. Eichmann’s crimes, within the context of its present jurisprudential approach, is simply this: He sought to exterminate the coreligionists of the majority religion in Israel! If religion and state are to be kept separate, the courts of a secular nation should not be used to advance the interests of any one religious group. If this description of Eichmann’s offense seems cold and unrealistic, the fault is not in logic. It lies solely in the assumption from which this de scription proceeds. The indictment of JEWISH LIFE

Eichmann charges him with crimes against the “Jewish people.” Who and what are the Jewish people? Absent Torah, they are nothing but a socio logical figment. If Torah is disre garded, the Jewish people are less than a religious group. On the other hand, if Torah is accepted as of proper binding force, there is no problem at all in Eichmann’s seizure and indictment. Insofar as a violation of substantive law is concerned there is no problem of extra-territoriality nor of ex post facto legislation for he is properly charged with violation of the Noachide commendment against shedding blood, which is an ancient, divine prohibition addressed to all men in all places at all times. Likewise, the procedural aspects of the case present no prob lem. The Israeli representatives who seized him were related to many of the deceased and therefore, as the go’aley hadam, have the right and duty to bring to book the murderers of their deceased kin before such court as they may elect. HE CRUX of the secularist’s di lemma is how to preserve the con cept of the “Jewish people” and yet to deny Torah—how to retain their cor porate existence and simultaneously to annul their corporate charter. At Sinai the Almighty informed us that on that day we became unto Him as a people. Today the secularists assert that Torah is but a legend. Neverthe less, they insist on acting and speaking in the name of the people that Torah incorporated at Mount Sinai. The same dilemma is the core of the recent conflict of “mi hu yehudi” The entire Jewish world stood firm in defining a Jew only in accordance with traditional Torah rules. Ben-Gurion, however, sought to redefine the term

June, 1961

“Jew” as a loose, malleable, sociologi cal concept. He could not abandon thè concept of the Jewish people entirely, for then Israel would be but a small, Levantine state, bereft of a noble and ancient history and divorced from charitable and influential brethren abroad. On the other hand he is un willing to accept the rule of Torah. He, therefore, tried to annul the defi nition of Torah in regard to this funda mental matter and to substitute his own definition of a Jew, thinking he could split what our Sages declared to be part of an indissoluble unity, Yisroel V3oraitha. The Eichmann case dramatizes this dilemma more sharply. The question asked generally is this: Is Israel the proper forum to try Eichmann? The retort is that Eichmann’s crimes were committed against the Jewish people, and he should be tried by them. This is but another example of the Israeli secularist’s amazing capacity to talk Hebrew and simultaneously to think b’laz (gentilese). When talking of am Yisroel,” he is thinking not of the seed Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, forged in the furnace of oppression and consecrated by Mitzvoth to their Creator, but of a folk-people having a common cultural background of legend, history, music, and art, some what attached to each other by senti ment and ties of blood. Ben-Gurion is very fond of quoting Micah: “Do jus tice (mishpot), love kindness, and walk humbly with your G-d.” by mishpot Micah clearly meant the mishpotim of Moshe Rabbenu, but Ben-Gurion cites this verse to prove that the justice of Coke (who, para doxically j thought more highly of Biblical precedents than Ben-Gurion) and the common law of England suf ficed. By to “walk humbly with your G-d” Micah meant in the ji^thways of 13

trial in Israel. So great is the disparity between law and justice in this mat ter! If, as it might fairly be said, the worth of any system of jurisprudence is its ability to do justice, then existing systems are sorely strained to obtain a passing grade on this test. On the other hand, a system of jurisprudence based on Torah—which has been rejected by the self-same State of Israel with objections that it is primitive, tribal, inflexible, and in applicable to modern times—solves all the problems inherent in the Eich mann case with the deft neatness that characterizes the placing down of the final pieces of a jig-saw puzzle. The invocation of the Noachide Commandments completely solves the ex post facto problem, which some would like to brush off as a “mere legalism.” Treating his seizure by next of kin of the murdered victims, as go’aley hadam, is to speak in terms which all men can understand, there by bypassing all charges of illegality and kidnaping by Israel and the Jew ish people. The problem of against whom did Eichmann sin—which is so difficult in our man-centered thinking --w hether against Humanity, against the Jewish People, or against the spe cific victims— are perfectly answered by an approach based on Torah: The Almighty forbade the shedding of blood of creatures made in His image. Any other answer has its built-in problem. No matter how this matter is ana lyzed, if Torah is used as a key, the pieces fall into their proper places. Otherwise they fall askew.

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Halochah, but to the liberal Israeli this connotes nothing more than Spinozistic ethics. The Eichmann case brings this per version of traditional" Zionism to a dead end. In its heart, the world knows that this son of Amalek should be brought to book only before a Jewish court. Under purely Jewish law, which is the fount from which the great principles of other systems have arisen, clear justice can be rend ered without sophistry. In the trial of Eichmann, more than Eichmann is being tried. The capacity of the courts of Israel to render mishpot or to petti fog in an alien tradition will be weighed in the balance of History. F EVER there was a case that demonstrated the Divine origin of Torah law, it is the Eichmann case. No group of jurists could have thought up a neater set of hypothetical facts to demonstrate the point. Every aspect of the case may be discussed only in superlatives. Eichmann has committed the blackest, most inexcusable crime in all history—in number of murd ered, means, cold-bloodedness—no Nero, Genghis Khan, Torquemada can match him. As a matter of justice it is most fitting that the reborn Jewish State should try this brother of Haman (to which his name transliterates in Hebrew—ach-heman). Yet, West ern civilization, the highest form of man-made culture, with an especial pride in its jurisprudence, is badly conscience-stricken in an attempt to find a category within which it could properly indict Eichmann’s crime for

Scouting and The Orthodox Jewish Boy By LOUIS M. TUCHMAN

HIS past year, the Boy Scouts of America celebrated the organ ization’s Golden Jubilee. From the time the movement was first organized in this country in 1911, it has grown tremendously. In fact, it has by far exceeded the visions and expectations of the original founders of this move ment. Today, as a result of the great interest which the American commu nity has in scouting, we find troops sponsored by numerous and diverse types of organizations—from the secular public school, to the various veterans groups, communal organiza tions, and of course religious institu tions.

With the increase in the number of synagogues sponsoring scout troops, the twelfth point of the Scout Law, namely, “A Scout is Reverent,” as sumed even greater importance. Scouts not only met within synagogue walls, but were also required to re spect their faith by observing Sabbath and Kashruth on scouting expeditions, and by participating in synagogue services. Also, service projects were directed to the synagogue in addi tion to the community at large. A number of years ago, in order to further strengthen the ties of Judaism and Scouting, the Ner Tamid Award for Jewish scouts was instituted. In June, 1961

this manner, Jewish scouts who ob served the tenets of their religion were rewarded as scouts, rather than as individuals whose families were affiliated with any given synagogue. The peak of maturity amongst Jewish scouts within the greater scouting movement was reached this past summer, when, at the National Jamboree held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, more than 250 scouts and leaders observed Kashruth and Shabboth during the entire Jamboree period—not as second-class citizens, but as scouts whose rights and reli gious convictions had to be met by the movement which lays such great stress upon a scout’s religion and observance. In addition to this great undertaking, which was ably handled by the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, history was also made by a group of eighty scouts and leaders, comprising two bus loads that travelled from New York to Colorado Springs and back. During the entire trip, which lasted four weeks, the tenets of Judaism were staunchly upheld. The group not only observed Kashruth and Shabboth all along the way, but conducted daily morning and evening services, and found some time too for a bit of study. It is extremely gratifying to the 15

writer to have been selected by the Jewish Committee on Scouting to serve both as chaplain to this con tingent and as Kashruth supervisor during the entire Jamboree period.

our prime care. The question of Shabboth observance was easily solved. The itinerary was so organized that the first Shabboth was spent at Ama rillo Air Force Base, Amarillo, Texas, as guests of the U.S. Air Force. The next two Sabbaths were observed at the Jamboree site in Colorado Springs. And, the fourth Shabboth was ob served at each individual scout’s home, for the contingent returned home on Friday afternoon.

ECAUSE this was a new venture both for the Jewish Committee on Scouting and for the Greater New York Councils, Boy Scouts of Amer ica, ample time had to be allotted during which adequate preparations could be made. In a series of meetings and discussions with Mr. A1 Nichols, co-ordinator of this program for the HE following steps were taken to Greater New York Councils, several arrange for a smooth operation major premises had to be understood with regard to the serving of kosher and accepted in order to assure the food. We got in touch with the ortho success of the operation. dox rabbis of the various communities 1. The religiously observant Jewishalong the way by mail or telephone scouts and leaders were entitled to and the request was made for the kosher food as a matter of right, not serving of kosher food. These men of sufferance. Therefore, adequate well understood our problem and preparations for the serving of nour ishing and satisfying food must be were extremely cooperative in helping made all along the way. We wanted us to meet the problem and challenge. our Jewish scouts to be proud of Thus, whenever we arrived at these points, our boys were served a whole rather than ashamed of their faith. 2. Because of the great distance some supper and then proceeded to we had to travel, steps were planned the synagogue to conduct the Maariv so that kosher food could be secured service. In the morning, following at convenient intervals. In addition, Shacharith, a very hearty breakfast we had to reach a satisfactory camp was served and box lunches were sup ing site early Friday afternoon in plied for use on route to the next stop. order to prepare for the Sabbath and In addition, in order to meet any to remain there during the entire day. emergency situations, the Jewish Com 3. Arrangements also had to bemittee on Scouting sent along cases made for the serving of kosher food of gefilte fish and canned kosher at the Jamboree. We were interested in giving the observant scouts the chicken and soup. Fortunately these very same high quality and variety supplies were needed only in one in of food as was received by the other stance. Prior to the departure from New scouts at the Jamboree. 4. All Kashruth arrangements were York City, one morning was spent in to be made under the direction, or supervising preparation of sandwiches to have the approval, of the appointed to be used at the first scheduled lunch chaplain and Kashruth supervisor, or stop. Here, too, the cooperation of his designated representative. our supplier was most commendable. Our first scheduled stop was Co From the above, it is quite evident that the serving of kosher food was lumbus, Ohio, which is more than four

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hundred miles from New York. When we arrived in Columbus, we found Rabbi David Stavsky and his com mittee anxiously awaiting our scouts. The boys washed up and entered the social hall for their first evening meal. After reciting Hamotzi, they sat down to eat a most delicious meal. Follow ing the meal, the group joined in Birchath Hamozon and then went into the synagogue for services.

city along the way. These included St. Louis, Missouri; Kansas City, Mis souri; Wichita, Kansas; Amarillo, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Niagara Falls, New York. At all times, no finer reception could have been given. It was as if the communities decided to “roll out the red carpet” of wel come for all these individuals who, so far from home, still maintained their traditions and religious prin ciples.

T this point an interesting inci dent occurred. In the synagogue, as in so many synagogues throughout F COURSE, one of the greatest the country, there were several older feeding problems confronted us men who were quite skeptical about at the Jamboree itself. The nearest the religiosity of these young scouts. area from which kosher food could be One of them was quite outspoken. obtained was Denver; Colorado; ap He complained to his rabbi, when he proximately fifty miles from the Jam heard that eighty scouts were coming boree site. The cooperation of Rabbi through and desired food, by stating Samuel Adelman was most commend as follows: “Fressen kenen zey; ober able. He succeeded in interesting a davenen velen zey nisht ” (They will single supplier to send in first-quality stuff themselves with food, but will meats, bread, cakes and cookies, and certainly not participate in prayer.) approved canned goods in order that This attitude was related to me by observant Jewish scouts might have Rabbi Stavsky. On the morning that as wholesome and as varied a menu we were scheduled to leave Columbus, as the other scouts and personnel at the* entire group went into the shool the Jamboree. to daven. Every boy donned his tefillin Let me note the manner in which and a full morning service was held. this food was trucked into, the camp When the gentleman who had area. During the quiet hours of the scoffed at these young scouts—with night, when the entire camp was fast out knowing them at all—was in asleep, the supply trucks would travel troduced to me, I said to him, “Well, along the roads on the camp grounds you see these boys have eaten kosher and drop complete packages at vari food, and they have also not forgotten ous designated spots. The truckers to daven.” The man looked at me knew that they must deposit enough somewhat abashed, thought for a food for one or two of the three units, moment, and said: “Gut, gut, zey depending upon the number of indivi essen kosher und zey davenen. Ober duals requesting it, at any given area. tzitzis trogen zey?” This food was then stored by adult With the exception of this one in personnel in separate sections of huge stance of expressed doubt, the entire army field refrigerators and never group was extremely well received came into contact with any other not only in Columbus but in every food stored there. The commissary

June, 1961

directors were informed of the num These men were most helpful in ber of kosher units under their juris making this tour the huge success diction and I* in turn, travelled to that is was. One cannot but think back with various sections in order to ascertain that a plentiful supply of food was pride of the community leaders who given to the proper troop units. Here, devoted their time, effort, and energies too, scouting officials were most coop in order to make this a wonderful erative and most effective in maintain Jewish experience for all who partic ing a spirit of harmony in the camp ipated. From the very first stop in sites, regardless of the type of food Columbus to the last stop in Niagara which was eaten by the various scouts. Falls, the various Jewish communities Another aspect of this wonderful spared no effort to serve the needs tour and experience was the thrill of these religious young men. The which one received when witnessing hospitality arrangements were mo more than 2,500 Jewish scouts, bilized by Rabbi Stavsky in Colum leaders, and guests attending services, bus; by Rabbi M. H. Eichenstein and under the skies, at the foot of Pike’s Hyman Flaks of the United Orthodox Peak, reminiscent of our patriarchs, Jewish Community of St. Louis; by of whom we read time and again that Rabbi Abraham Danzig in Kansas their walks in the fields were invari City; by Rabbi Norman Bernhard in ably for the purpose of prayer. These Wichita; Rabbi Arthur Bluhm in young men who were fortunate Amarillo, Texas; Rabbi Isaac Nadoff enough to take this thirty-day tour in Des Moines; Rabbi William Gold made good use of their tefillin every in Chicago; and Rabbi Hayim Donin morning, and conducted themselves in Detroit. In each of these places admirably and traditionally daily and we found that we were accepted with on Shabboth. On Tisha B’av a great open arms. The hands of these reli majority of the boys, although travel gious leaders were strengthened by ling several hundred miles in the heat their Sisterhoods, synagogue officials, of day, decided to maintain the rab kosher caterers, and all those who binic dictum of fasting for the entire are interested in maintaining a high day. These young men also conducted level of Kashruth observance. a service at Amarillo Air Force Base In all areas, the Jewish community Chapel, where a minyon is a rarity was proud to see that the orthodoxy for the base lacks a full time Jewish preached by their rabbis was not on chaplain. the wane nor on the downgrade, but rather vibrant and very much alive. They felt that the future for orthodox rj^ H IS notable, successful under- Judaism was quite secure if it will JL taking could never have mate eventually rest, as it must, in the rialized were it not for the interest hands of these young men. and desire on the part of the scouts and their leaders. But, we must also F WHAT significance was this remember that this certainly could entire trip? Naturally, it indicates not have been as successful as it was that regularly scheduled tours can be were it not for the aid and under made throughout the length and standing of our orthodox leaders in breadth of our land by religiously the cities across our great nation. observant groups. However, it in-

JEWISH LIFE

dicates something more. It indicates that the Scout movement is strong enough to attract observant young men to its midst. It points to the fact that within scouting there are no lines drawn. Each individual is treated as a member of his own religious group. Within the Scout movement one can and should observe the tenets of his faith. Community after community began to feel the lively spirit of Juda ism through their meetings with these scouts. The scouts in turn proved, once and for all, that they can partic ipate in regular outdoor activities, in pioneering skills, and, at the same time, remain true to their faith.

June, 1961

Scouting trains young men to be self-sufficient while it continues to teach them to be observant and to grow up as well adjusted men in any given society. Can we look forward to more organized tours of this kind? Shall this be the forerunner for tours spon sored by religious organizations as well? The answer must be in the affirmative. Our young people must be taught to be self-reliant and must be taught the skills and the methods of these scouts in order to find their rightful place in any area of society in which they may eventually find themselves.

Bestsellerdom Moves Into Canal Street By CHARLES RADDOCK

ONTRARY to what the general Or, the 10,000 new sets that Canal public thinks, the term “bestseller” Street claims it has recently sold with is as ambiguous as most popular terms out great effort from coast to coast. Canal Street, which cuts through used in the arts. In the American literary world, for example—that is, the heart of the Jewish portion of in the trade— “bestseller” may apply New York’s famed East Side like the to a novel that has sold no more than River Seine the streets of Paris, has 15,000 copies, or to a non-fiction now become the Talmudic Madison tome like William L. Shirer’s “The Avenue, you might say. Or, the rab Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,’’ binic Fourth Avenue, where the He which has already reached a sale of brew book quays are lined with books approximately 250,000, a phenomenal and browsers as in the one-time city achievement for any book on what is of Warsaw, a great center of Hebrew sometimes called “current affairs” or publishing. On Canal Street, the Tal “contemporary history.” My source mudic intelligentsia meet, with Sunday for this information is no less a best the big red-letter day for browsing in seller authority than the publicity di dozens of Hebrew book emporiums rector of Simon and Schuster, Inc., a within a radius of no more than four company sometimes credited with in or five Ne\v York city blocks. venting the term. When you compare these statistics with the 1,500 copies sold since 1960 O Canal Street they come from all of Israel Eldad’s very popular Hegyover town and from out of town, onoth Hamikrah, a surprising “best from Jewish suburbia, and from points seller” in the U.S.A. and primarily a as remote as Hollywood and Texas to commentary on the Bible, you would leaf through the latest de luxe edition say that Hebrew bestsellers are surely of the giant twenty-one-volume Baby no indication of a Hebrew literary lonian Talmud, or a new lithographed renaissance in American Jewry. Nor runoff of some she’eloth uteshuvoth even when you compare the estimated (responsa) compendium long out of 100,000 sets of the Babylonian Tal print. Since the legendary East Side mud reputedly sold in the United still abounds in yeshivoth and mesivStates during the past twenty-five years. toth, and since the many like institu-

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tions of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, Crown Heights, and Boro Park are within easy subway access, the quays are often crowded with teen-age intel ligentsia mingling their Newyorkese with the Yiddish of their learned elders. Even for Canal Street, where Hebraica and Judaica abound, this is something new, it seems. Behind the new bricks of the East Side, appar ently, a kind of literary transforma tion has been going on for the past decade. Describe it as you will, thou sands of Jewish homes the country over are making shelf room for Canal Street reproductions of Hebraica over which copyright restrictions no longer prevail and in some instances, we hear, over which copyrights do prevail. Be it as it may, the East Side is now justified in regarding itself as the Jewish ‘‘publishers’ row” of North America because Canal Street has be come the hub of an unprecedented literary activity. As one of the oldtimers put it the other day,> “When Mohammed called us ‘The People of the Book’ he must’ve had a preview of Canal Street.” ;-? This old-timer will tell you that even in its heyday “Little Jerusalem” never saw anything like it. By “Little Jerusalem” he means of course that narrow one-mile stretch bounded on the north by Fourteenth Street and on the south by the East River. In popu lar usage today, “East Side” applies to that section of Manhattan beginning with “aristocratic” Sutton Place. Not so long ago, however, it meant the “ghetto,” or “melting pot,” a term made famous by the late Israel Zangwill, whose stories had London’s “ghetto” for their setting. But nowhere even in Zangwill’s stories was the “literary” aspect of the London “East Side” (East End) touched upon. The June. 1961

heart of Hebrew publishing in his day was still the Polish city of Warsaw. When Zangwill visited these shores after World War I, he found New York’s East Side a thriving Yiddish speaking community, with Yiddish vaudeville houses and theatres, Yid dish coffee-houses, and Yiddish-speak ing laborers working for a pittance in sweatshops, lodged in so-called rail road flats which housed immigrant kith and kin between the “borax” furniture and. the foot-pedaled Singer sewing machine. While “Yom Kippur balls” staged by Yiddish anarchists were already a thing of the past when he arrived, the Yiddish press still boasted hundreds of thousands of readers, and Yiddish books and pam phlets were being sold in equal num bers on every conceivable subject— primarily secular, with no relation whatever to our sacred classics. HINGS are different now. The “six million,” of course, are re sponsible for this new kind of renais sance. And no doubt the establishment of the State of Israel, too. And certainly the rise and growth of the aforementioned yeshivoth and mesivtoth, and with them the hundreds of Jewish day schools, nurturing a phenomenal efflorescence of Torah learning. Yet even as important as these are, it is the new lithographic techniques that have made an impact on what was even then a compara tively untapped market. It no longer takes much capital to launch a literary project. At one time, however, books set up in Hebrew, or in Yiddish, had a hard time of it from their very inception. At best the market was always limited. It did not pay manufacturers of printing equipment even to turn

out the basic machines that could handle twenty-nine quadratic Hebrew ages, which compose the ancient He brew classics. Besides, few American Jewish parents would think of appren ticing a book-minded son to a He brew printer to ground him in a “trade,” as they used to call it in Yiddish. The process, besides, even as late as a generation ago was com paratively crude. And expensive, though labor was cheaper in the letterpress era. Man-hours, for example, that were once required to set up a Chumosh—with its forty-two com mentaries in “Rashi script- (the tra ditional cursive type-face ascribed to the great eleventh-century Bible com mentator)—were too costly for the private entrepreneur. In those days, when an immigrant accumulated some capital, the cloak-and-suit business was his inevitable investment. If Yid dish classics like those of Sholom Aleichem and Mendele saw the light of day, it was because Yiddish dailies issued them as “premiums” to sub scribers and readers. Though the two Yiddish dailies are still doing it today, Yiddish, it is gen erally conceded, is a dying language, unfortunately, and the order of the day is Hebrew. Hebrew has gained a new lease on life since 1948, concur rently with the introduction of Hebrew into the curricula of the high schools and colleges of New York, Chicago, and Boston. But the renaissance of Hebrew publishing is influenced in only minor degree by this source. Modern Hebrew literature—to which high school and college Hebrew courses are attuned—as yet commands only to minor degree the continuing characters, plus their vowel appendinterest of graduates of these courses. It is works of traditional religious character that are in demand. It is the 22

growth in the ranks of those who ap preciate such works that seems to be creating the market for them. HIS might not have affected pub lishing to the extent which devel oped, however, if a modernized version of the linotype process had not arrived on the scene to make things easier. The linotype process, as we know, is barely younger than the type writer. But unlike the typewriter, which has barely changed basically, the new techniques which revolution ized the printing and publishing indus tries, particularly lithography, have affected the state of Hebrew beyond the wildest imaginings. The voluminous Rabbinic literature, for example, a field of learning hitherto confined to the lamdan and a handful of bibliophiles, has become an object of short-term operation and small capital investment. Investments by “refugee” arrivals range anywhere —Canal Street will confess—from $500 for a Chasidic “lives of the saints” to $50,000 for a part-leather bound set of “Shass.” In some in stances, the project may originate in the mind of a Chasid who feels his tzaddik’s magnum opus has too long been out of print, that a mere invest ment would rescue it from oblivion. In other instances, a several-volume set will originate in the pocket of a sound, practical merchant who feels the rising potential of the Hebrew book market. Sacred considerations aside, how ever, this branch of Hebrew publish ing is attaining the status of what is regarded as “big business” on Canal Street. In a number of cases on so grand a scale that between private and “combine” capital the outlays have run beyond seven figures per annum

JEWISH LIFE

and a turnover commensurate with the proverbial affluence of the Ameri can Jewish consumer. This is no mean achievement when you stop to think that only yesterday many of these in vestors languished in Maidanek and Auschwitz. All of them, by the way, are pious devotees of religious and Rabbinic literature, and many of them bearded and garbed in Chasidic attire. A stroll through Canal Street, East Broadway, Eldridge Street, Suffolk and Norfolk streets will find you any day face to face with Jews of schol arly bearing carrying paper-bags of home-made lunch in one hand and a man-size Talmudic tract in the other. If the weather is good, you may behold a pious bibliophile stop ping in front of a bleak East Side doorway to finger the fine “fresh” Rashi print just off the press, remind ing him perhaps of the famous “Vilna Shass” given him as a bar mitzvah gift by his sire in the old country. The new kind of literary “picture taking,” in other words, makes it pos sible for poor pious scholars to own a “five-foot shelf” of Talmudica and Rabbinica, at one time the hallmark of every pious Jewish household—a “Vilna Shass.” ONNOISSEURS in those days regarded the “Vilna” imprint as the imprimatur of Talmudic authen ticity, which only a few could afford. The Vilna imprint—that is, the “Romm” colophon—was the mark of excellence, with a long tradition be hind it. That tradition goes back to the fifteenth century, a century made famous by Johann Gutenberg, who began to toy with moveable type in molds in the ancient Jewish com munity of Mayence (Mainz). Gutenberg was not a Jew, but an-

June, 1961

other printer—De Caderousse, a Jew in southern France—equally, it is believed, began to experiment at about the same time. Shortly after, another Jew, Israel Nathan Soncino by name, launched a Hebrew press in Italy, hardly a generation after Gutenberg had run off his now famous Mazarin Bible. Without going into details, suffice it to say that the Soncino im print became a feature of every private and public Jewish book col lection. His son, his grandson, and his great-grandson continued the Soncino printing tradition. In our own day, the first responsible English transla tion of the Talmud bears a Soncino imprint, though, I must add, published by a firm of no relation to that illus trious family, the name being revived in tribute to the primacy and fame of the Soncino tradition. The Soncino colophon was a mark of excellence almost to modern times and never emulated for well nigh three centuries, until another enter prising Jew, Baruch ben Joseph Romm, opened a small print shop in Grodno, Lithuania—and finally in Vilna. In 1892, after a succession of Romms, the most famous edition of the Babylonian Talmud was issued. Never surpassed, say the cognoscenti, since. “The Widow and the Brothers Romm” then, still remains the su preme colophon for Talmud and Chumosh editions. O be sure, there are no Israel T Nathan Soncinos today, nor Ba ruch ben Joseph Romms who would single-handedly undertake many-volumed editions of Talmud or Shulchon Oruch or Rambam. But lithography has made it easy for the enterprising to follow in the footsteps of the mas ters. 23

is not merely an “offset” edition, “electrotyped” edition, or “photo graphed” edition. A flagrant instance of such com petitive and misrepresentational tac tics, it is reported on “the street,” is the new “pocket edition” of the abovementioned English translation of the British-published Soncino Talmud. It is obviously a “bootleg” edition, and a formal prohibition on it has been pronounced by the Union of Ortho dox Rabbis of the United States and Canada and the Rabbinical Council of America. Because it is ideal for seminary students, however, it has managed to achieve the rank of under ground bestsellerdom, despite the fact that pious booksellers go along with the rabbinical ban. But that has always been a hazard of the book publishing industry, with some of the most reputable AngloSaxon publishers guilty of similar acts of “reprint.” The copyright laws are so inconclusive even in “gentile” pub lishing, so to say, that the matter is never decided before it finally gets to the courts. In the case of the Son HEIR optimism, it would seem, cino Talmud, it appears, the British is not altogether visionary, except publisher had overlooked the one fine for a fly in the ointment. Many of the point of Washington copyright, leav hopeful entrepreneurs in Talmudic ing the American fate of his pioneer publishers’ row sometimes overlook project to the mercy of Canal Street. the credit-line due the original pub Evidently, he had not given thought lisher on the flyleaf page. The copy- to the possibility of Canal Street capi boys two and three generations ago tal being earmarked for a miniature set all those complex Hebrew and “offset” version of his enterprise, a Aramaic letters by hand, often far phenomenal—and laudable—achieve into the night, in sacred dedication, ment. and sometimes under sweatshop con ditions, in the poor bailiwicks of Rus ESPITE this one unsavory aspect sia and Poland. In short, the original of the literary renaissance cen colophon may be missing from the fresh Canal Street edition and the tered in Manhattan’s East Side, the impression given the book buyer that revival of Hebrew publishing is gath the new East Side edition has been ering momentum. From the Yiddish printed from newly set type; that it era to the Talmudic era, you might

To such a degree has the process been simplified that the improverished East Side’s publishers have already run off six full-fledged editions of the Talmud and Mishnah, including the Jerusalem Talmud (primarily designed for scholars). Besides sundry editions of the twenty-four books of our Bible, with their dozens of commentaries and exegesis, plus numerous Chasidic perennials, hymnals, responsa for the rabbinical elite—plus the “bible” of the mystics, the Zohar, for many years out of print. Strange as it may seem, Canal Street now supplies Israel, where no less an efflorescence of pub lishing has been visible. Thus, though Talmudic study may still be confined to the learned, even the skeptics who always bemoan the state of yiddishkeit in North America happily admit that this bull market in sacred Hebrew literature augurs well for “Jewish America.” Even as a “gift item,” they will tell you, a de luxe edition of Talmud “is a good thing to have in a Jewish home.”

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sum it up, Jewish publishing has found new life in a million ancient “offset” pages, spurred by a belated but unmistakable resurrection of Jew ishness. In the days before printing, pious Jews used to quote the Talmudic Sages, to wit : “The men of the Great Assembly fasted twenty-four fasts on account of the copyists—that they not become rich.” If the copyists—printers in our vernacular—became rich they might be tempted to abandon the “in dustry” of Torah-copying. The best seller “boom” on Canal Street, how ever, has not reached such proportions yet, and the “long pull” calculation of Talmudic bestsellerdom does not point to such an eventuality. For it takes, it is estimated, a minimum of three

to five years before a new edition of Talmud or responsa exhausts its mar ket. The public is increasing, how ever, and the market expanding. Many Canal Street entrepreneurs indeed loudly bemoan the lot of the Hebrew book dealer. Compared with other merchants—merchants of “mun dane” staples—their profit margin leaves much to be desired. But what ever the material rewards to the pub lishers, Jewry as a whole reaps im measurable spiritual rewards from their enterprise. Time was when the Talmud was the “bestseller” through out the Jewish world. The current renaissance in the publishing of Torah literature gives hope that the truer, nobler standards of Jewish life may again prevail in the Jewish world.

iiushhttStth Yochid and K’lal By SAMSON R. WEISS

“Lift up the head of the entire congregation of the sons of Israel according to their families, by the house of their fathers, in the number of their names,, every male individually** (Bemidbor 1:2). In Bemidbor Rabbah I saw as follows: “In the number of their names indi vidually,** The Holy One, blessed be He, told him to count them with honor and greatness, every one of them. You shall not ask, He told Moshe, of the head of the family, How many are there in your family, how many sons do you have?* but every single one of them shall pass before you in awe and honor. This is why it is written: “In the number of their names, from twenty years on upward, according to their heads?* (Bemidbor 1:18), (Ramban, Commentary to Torah, Bemidbor 1:45)

HE complexity of modern living tends to make man progressively dependent on society—the market, the organization, the city, and the state— obliterating his own personal and es sential uniqueness. He is valued— often, tragically, even by himselfrfby his “contribution” to the larger social unit and by his ability to become a participant in its composite endeavor and intent. Concomitantly, the sub mersion of any tendency to differ has emerged as a prerequisite of such par ticipation. Not everywhere is such loss of per sonal uniqueness regarded as unde sirable. A large part of humanity is presently governed by systems which demand of their subjects total con formity and identification with the national and global aspirations of the ruling party and its ideology, which, in these systems, are co-extensive with the state and its doctrine. Even in

some of the major democracies the encroachment of the state upon the freedoms of its citizens increasingly is assuming proportions which imperil the very foundations of a free society. Thus, man is being slowly relegated to a role of participation in mass mo tion. He traverses his road by march ing in step with others, one of the many, a fraction of the aggregate, a mere number in a count of which only the sum-total is still of any perti nence. A world view which conceives of the universe as a creation and regards existence as the continuous manifes tation of the Creator’s will and wis dom, cannot possibly accept such no tions of man’s place in society. The work of creation finds its climax in man—single, individual man. The Revelation on Sinai transforms Israel from a family of tribes into a nation precisely because every individual acJEWISH LIFE

cepted the covenant as binding upon himself personally. “I am the Al mighty G-d who brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage”—this is addressed, as is every subsequent word of the Decalogue and as are most of the Commandments and prohibitions of the Torah, to the yochid, to the individual whose life is vouchsafed by his Maker, whose suf fering is known to Him, and whose prayers He hears. HAT there occurred a time in history when an entire people joined in a prophetic view transcend ing all possible achievement of the speculative intellect—perceiving the true reality of life and existence as G-d-given and G-d-sheltered—makes that hour on Sinai the pivotal experi ence of all humanity. Having recog nized on Sinai his own constant and immediate link to his G-d, the Jew forever sees in his fellow man an equally sovereign, free, and unique manifestation of the selfsame phe nomenon which he himself represents and which defies description: creation. The sanctity of existence therefore supersedes all others on the Jewish scale of values, for it is the purest reflection in this world of the sanctity of the Almighty. Many of the laws of the Torah be speak the higher potency of the k ’lal, of the many, in advancing life’s di vinely set purposes. The k’lal and the congregation have duties and preroga tives going beyond those of any indi vidual. Yet, the congregation of Israel

June, 1961

is not an amorphous mass. On the contrary, the Jew is bidden to join with the congregation because only in congregation can he fulfill these duties and attain these prerogatives. It is within the k’lal that the yochid can reach his fullest moral and intellectual potential; and it is the essential duty and concern of the k’lal to provide the yochid with the climate and the means of reaching this potential, for the yochid forever remains the primary purpose of the k’lal. The Jewish col lectivity thus is based on the concept of individual responsibility, from which there is no dispensation, neither by solitariness nor by submersion. FTER Sinai, the members of the Jewish tribes were to be counted by the shekel, the equal contribution assuring every Jew of his individual portion in the communal worship and sacrifice; and when this count was totalled to arrive at the number of the Jewish army, the Teacher and the Priest and the Princes of the tribes did not debase their people by this count. Everyone passing muster before them appeared as the yochid, as the utterly irreplaceable, unique, and sacred being in whom the Oneness of his Maker is so gloriously reflected. In awe and in honor they stepped forward and thus entered “the secret of the nation and the writ of the sons of Israel” (Ramban, loc. cit.). We are the people who shall never permit man to be toppled from the throne of creation.

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JEWISH LIFE

The Game By PHILIP ARIAN

T was the game that drew them together. The knowledge that they shared in a special kind of diversion familiar only to themselves gave each a sense of camaraderie he had not known since his army days. Not one would have admitted that the game was more than a harmless distraction, yet not one would have willingly missed participating in the daily ses sion. It would begin at approximately 7:45 A.M. when one by one, they would enter the corner sandwich shop known as the Koffee Klatch. The ritual would begin with a cup of cof fee and a danish placed opposite each participant on a corner table looking out on the street. Lou Glazer was usually the last to enter. It was his custom to cheerfully greet Sid, the proprietor of the Koffee Klatch, with an offensive remark con cerning the quality of the establish ment’s coffee and then to proceed to those awaiting him at the corner table. Lou Glazer was the owner of a thriving appliance business half-way down the block from the sandwich shop. He was respected by his friends because he was a hustler. He had built up his business in the last three years on long hours, an ingratiating person ality, and a hard-hitting sales ap proach. With Lou’s arrival the men at the

corner table would put down their coffee cups and sit back in happy anticipation of beginning the game. Seated around the table would be the Cohen brothers, the owners of a neigh borhood shoe store. Marv Walinsky, an insurance salesman, and Dr. Har vey Salzburger, a dentist whose office was above the Koffee Klatch. It just didn’t seem right if Lou Glazer wasn’t there. The few times they had gathered without him, they had quickly tired of each other’s com pany and had grown impatient to leave and begin their day’s work. At these times the coffee had tasted flat and the game seemed childish. But when Lou was with them, the few moments spent together before opening their stores and offices and as suming their daily adult responsibil ities, made them feel like carefree high school kids again. 66X17TELL, boys—another day, anW other dollar!” And with this Lou would slap one or two of them on the back. “Hey, there goes Old Man Rosenberg, and look at that— right on the button again—7:52,” and the game would begin. From the window overlooking the street the boys had a clear, comfort able view of half the block. They had watched day after day as Old Man Rosenberg had trudged down the street 2,9

towards the small shool on the oppo site corner, there to participate in the daily minyon. They had seen the deliberate steps of the other minyon participants pass ing through the shool doors on sum mer and winter mornings. From their vantage point the boys had learned to determine at exactly what moment each member of the daily minyon would arrive at the synagogue. They had also studied the idio syncrasies of the minyon participants. Old Man Rosenberg would habitually take a large handkerchief out of his pocket just before opening the syna gogue door and emphatically blow his nose before making his entrance. Abe Kahan would get out of his car quick ly, walk briskly up to the door, and turn around once as if surveying the street before entering the shool. These morning scenes fascinated the observers in the Koffee Klatch. They enjoyed their daily sport of clocking the men arriving at the shool and of dissecting the character, family, and personal life of each man. After a time, they would know his economic and social status, his family problems, and sometimes even his most cherished hopes and dreams. If, on occasion, a new participant in the service was unfamiliar to them, they would create an image of his per sonality based on his walk and his dress until research into the facts would confirm or contradict this men tal picture. In a closely knit suburban community such as this, it was not difficult to unearth the true facts about anyone. HE game was the most fascinating one they had ever played. It was a strange kind of a club, this minyon, and Lou Glazer and the boys felt themselves to be the omniscient his

T 30

torians and chroniclers of the club. Protected by the window glass, they felt they were observing another world where strange men came together to engage in some kind of holy exercise in Hebrew mumbo-jumbo. The Koffee Klatch observers were not confirmed scorners however; they felt that while religion was irrelevant to men busy making a buck, it was good that it was there when you needed it. They saw the minyon pri marily as a haven for old, retired men (what else did they have to do with their lives?) or for Kaddish-sayers fulfilling an unpleasant religious duty. From their side of the window the boys saw the parade of the minyon men as a welcome moment of other worldly diversion from the real busi ness of living.

N ONE spring day in mid-April O the game became much more than a pleasant distraction. Old Man Rosenberg had arrived at the shool at his regular time, as had the other members of the minyon. A young man they had never seen before was now approaching the syna gogue entrance. He was shori, stocky, and well-dressed, and walked with a sureness as if he were accustomed to making decisions easily and decisively. “Well, there’s a new one,” called out Lou Glazer. “I’ve never seen him be fore.” “Looks like a doctor to me—or maybe a dentist,” said Dr. Harvey Salzburger. “That’s all I need— more competition.” The boys proceeded to analyze the newcomer and tentatively decided he was forty-two, married, the father of two girls, and good at poker; Some of these suppositions were confirmed the following morning. Mrs. Mary Walinsky, feeling it her duty as JEWISH LIFE

ft l

the wife of an insurance salesman to get to know as much as she could about everyone in town, had discov ered that the new minyon member, Jack Siegel, was indeed forty-two, and good at poker. However, he was not a doctor but an attorney, and although he had two children, they were both boys. “Some wife,” sighed Marv Walinsky. “She could compete with any private detective.” “Yeah, but who died?” asked Lou Glazer. “Who’s he saying Kaddish for?” “I’ll get Sherlock back on the trail again,” Marv Walinsky assured him. On the following mornings Jack Siegel appeared regularly at the min yon. Finally Marv Walinsky reported that after extensive investigation, as far as could be determined, no one had died recently in Jack Siegel’s family. “But he’s got some reputation as a lawyer. A real go-getter. Young as he is, he’ll probably be up for a judgeship in the state one of these days.” “Then what’s he doing at the min yon?” asked Lou Glazer. “He must be saying Kaddish for somebody.” ACH morning, as Jack Siegel made his appearance at the synagogue, the boys repeated the same question: “Who is he saying Kaddish for?” The mystery which was represented by the young attorney’s attendance at the service supplied a new, unex pected dimension to the game. The boys relished the moments in the sand wich shop before Jack Siegel was expected to arrive. Would he show up this morning or would the mystery end as unexpectedly as it had begun? Meanwhile it had been definitely established that no one had died in Jack Siegel’s family. This fact stimu

lated the boys to engage in extended speculation. The Cohen brothers, who consist ently agreed with each other, decided that Jack Siegel’s father must be a rabbi and that Jack was attending the minyon out of honor for the old man. Dr. Harvey Salzburger theorized that Jack Siegel might be in serious trouble and was attending the minyon out of desperation. Lou Glazer insisted that Siegel was reciting Kaddish for someone who, although not related, must have been very close to him. Morning after morning no other subject was discussed. Jack Siegel’s motive for attending the morning min yon had the Koffee Klatch observers mystified and intrigued. It was Dr. Harvey Salzburger who felt that they had speculated long enough. “Boys, I’m going to take the bull by the horns. Resnick the Shammos has an appointment with me to day. I’m going to ask him outright about our friend Siegel.” None of them expressed it, but they all realized they had secretly relished the suspense of not knowing the full truth about the mysterious Siegel. They reluctantly endorsed Dr. Salzburger’s proposal. HE excitement was high in the Koffee Klatch on the following morning. When they had all gathered, Dr. Salzburger began his report: “Our friend Jack Siegel is not reciting Kad dish for anyone, related or unrelated; his father is not a rabbi; and he is not in any trouble.” “So?” they pressed him. “So—he just comes to pray.” “What do you mean?” asked Lou Glazer. “Just what I said. He comes to the shool to daven—to pray.”

The boys cocked their heads to one side as if they hadn’t heard the words correctly. Lou Glazer was incredulous. “I don’t get you, Harvey. Guys like that just don’t take a half an hour out of the day’s rat race to daven—unless they have to.” “This fellow apparently does,” said Dr. Salzburger. “Now, wait a minute,” Lou inter rupted. “You know who comes to the minyon. It’s either the old men or the Kaddish-zoggers. You can bet your last nickel that even Resnick the Shammos comes because it’s his job.” “I don’t get it myself,” said Marv Walinsky, “but maybe all that davening business means something to Jack Siegel.” “Look,” said Lou, “when that guy’s davening, I’ll bet you two-to-one he’s thinking about his law practice and maybe about that judgeship, and who knows what else.” “Maybe this fellow Siegel finds something he likes at the minyon,” said Dr. Salzburger.

66O U R E ,” said Lou, “I like what I find in our temple too. My girl’s confirmation last year—my par ents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary the year before—sure, I like being in tem ple. But davening every morning with out having a reason? Who do we know that really appreciates that and goes out of his way to do it?” “Maybe we know the wrong peo ple,” said one of the Cohen brothers. “Let me tell you something,” said Lou. “We’re like all the others. Our generation just doesn’t need praying today. Maybe it was important to our parents and grandparents, but we’re more sophisticated and it just doesn’t do anything to us. Now when a suc cessful man like Jack Siegel comes to 32

the minyon, he*s doing it for a reason, and not because he loves davening.” “Isn’t it possible,” asked' Dr. Salz burger, “that Jack Siegel’s reason for coming might just be that he has a need to pray?” :fj“You don’t believe that, Harvey,” said Lou. “You’re a professional man like Siegel. You went to college like he did. You even went to cheder. What happened to you? Why don’t you have the need to pray? You know what it is. You’ve learned the hard way that no amount of praying is going to help you get more patients. I’ll say this for you—at least you’re not a hypocrite. You don’t daven be cause you know darn well that it makes no difference at all one way or the other. Your life goes on the same— davening or no davening.” “But maybe to some fellows like Jack Siegel, it does make a differ ence,” said Dr. Salzburger. “I’ll admit you’re right about me, Lou, and right about all of our friends. But maybe Siegel has found something we just didn’t know was there. Maybe we didn’t know how to look for it, or maybe we didn’t even try.” “Jack Siegel is no different from you and me,” said Lou. “As Jews we’re all pretty much the same. We belong to a beautiful temple with a half-a-million dollar mortgage; we send our kids to Sunday School; we give to UJA; we even go to Friday night services when we can; but let’s not kid ourselves—we don’t daven. And why should we? What does it really mean to us?” W \7 ~ OU could be right,” said Marv JL Walinsky, “but I’m willing to give Jack Siegel the benefit of the doubt. It’s sort of refreshing to believe that maybe there’s a guy around who doesn’t need a motive in order to JEWISH LIFE

daven. It’s funny—-here we’ve been sitting morning after morning look ing out from behind this window. It’s been a game to us and now here comes successful Jack Siegel who for all appearances is just like us, and he lets us know that maybe all of this minyon business is not a game after all—that is just might be the real thing,” “What has happened,” said Dr. Salzburger, “is that we’ve played the game with our own rules, and Siegel has come along and upset all of the cards. Up to now this minyon thing has been an escape, a pleasant diver sion before going to work, something to be enjoyed with coffee and danish, but frankly I don’t think I’d feel so good now watching him morning after morning. Siegel acts as if he knows what he stands for as a Jew. I’d be reminded every morning that I’m not sure at all of what I stand for. Looking out this window would be like looking through a mirror. And who needs that this early in the morn ing?” They all looked intently at Dr. Salzburger. “You’ve got something there,” said Marv. “Siegel has taken all the fun out of it. I never thought the day

June, 1961

would come when we could tell Sid we don’t care how dirty his window is. Well, I’d better hit the trail and try to get rid of some insurance policies.” HE Cohen brothers pushed back their chairs and one of them looked at his watch* “It’s getting late, almost time to open the store.” ; “Hey, what’s the rush, fellows?” called out Lou. “It’s still early; we’ve always sat longer than this. Why are you deserting me?” “Time to stop playing games,” said Dr. Salzburger. “You coming?”" “I don’t know what’s the matter with you guys,” said Lou impatiently. “You just don’t know how to relax anymore. I’m going to finish my coffee.” They left Lou sitting alone at the corner table gazing out the large front window at the small shod on the opposite corner. Finally Sid came over to clear off the still warm coffee clips and the half-eaten pieces of danish. “Say, Lou, what happened to the others?” “I don’t know. I just didn’t get it. Somebody must have died.”

South America’s Jewish Heritage By JACOB BELLER EW ISH com m unities in L atin America have been carrying on anniversary celebrations marking vari ous milestones of their existence. The Argentine Jewish community—largest on the South American continent— has just completed its centenary; like wise the Jewish communities of Brazil, Chile, and Peru recently observed their fiftieth and hundredth anniver saries. These, of course, are official anni versaries. The unofficial historical dates, of which only nebulous traces have survived, go back to a period centuries ago, when important Jewish communities existed in South America —long before any existed in what is now the United States. The first twenty-three Jews who landed in New Amsterdam in 1664 were only a tiny fraction of the thou sands of Jews who fled Brazil at that time, when Portugal reconquered the Brazilian sub-continent from Holland after a five-year war. Some of these Jews fleeing the Inquisition escaped to nearby countries and islands. In par ticular they sought places with free ports where they were safe from the Inquisition which continued its perse cution, relentlessly hounding its vic tims to the farthest lands of the new world. According to the generally accepted historical facts, it was the Marranos

who founded the first Jewish com munity in Recife, Pernambuco, when the country was conquered by Hol land. To this day there are vestiges and recognizable signs in that city of what was once the Jewish quarter. The community was called Tsur Yisrael (Rock of Israel) and had a rabbi named Isaac Aboav, a descendant of Marranos. (This name, incidentally, has still survived in certain Latin American countries: the owner of the opera in Guayaquil, Ecuador, for ex ample, bears the name Isaac Aboav, though he has lost all Jewish identi fication.)

CCORDING to the Brazilian his torian Pedro Caiman (“History of Brazil”) the first Jewish settlers came to Brazil as early as 1506 as fugitives from the Inquisition. They settled in the city of Bahia, not in Pernambuco as is generally supposed. A similar account is given in the book “Destiny and Achievement of the Jews in Brazil” by Kurt Loewenstamm. In this book the author quotes from Juan de Cajal’s aptly named book, “Our Forefathers, the Jews.” In 1903 Ho racio de Carvalho published a mono graph nam ed “ The ‘C ’ of Juan Camalia,” dealing with the signature, of the founder of Sao Paulo who was of Jewish descent. This signature,

JEWISH LIFE

when closely examined contains the two Hebrew letters kaf and tzaddi— the initials of kohen tzedek, origin of the common Jewish surname Katz. Travelling through the rem otest parts of Brazil from the Argentine border to Belem at the mouth of the Amazon, I frequently came across traces of a distant Jewish past. In a little town in the province of Rio Grande do Sul where a Jewish group settled centuries ago, a Brazilian woman, seeing Jews pray for the first time on the High Holy Days, brought them an old tallith which had been handed down in her family for gen erations, telling them that on this day she had seen her grandfather lock himself up for a whole day and re frain from touching food. In Belem I saw an old Jewish ceme tery walled off with an iron fence. Though this town has the oldest Sephardic community in present-day Brazil, the modern community has no link with the original historic Jewish settlement. In the office of Pan Ameri can Airways I was attended by an oldstock Brazilian named Bensimon . . . these are some of the vestigial rem nants of a rich Jewish past in Brazil. After the land was reoccupied by Portugal, almost all the Jews who re mained merged completely with the Brazilian population. Many high-rank ing Brazilians today are of partJewish descent.

S Buenos Aires was a free port in those days, many Marranos escaped to Argentina, where they be came known as “Portuguese,” since Portugal had been their lkst stopping place. In Argentina too there are traces of this first colonial epoch. Many documents abound today in the ar chives of Buenos Aires linking these

June, 1961

“Portuguese” in marriage with lead ing Argentine families of modern times. Monsignor Franceschi is an Argen tine priest who at one time was an active antisemite, but who has lately become quite friendly to the Jews after a trip to the new State of Israel. In his publication Criterio, a devout Catholic periodical, he has written in high praise of the Jewish state. In an interview he gave me at his home he provided many facts and figures on the Jewish past in Argentina. He traced the lineage of many highly placed Argentine families to Jewish origins. He also referred me to a book written by a Christian author on the history of the Inquisition in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The same evidence leads us to the Uruguayan city of Colonia on the Rio de la Plata which divides this country from Argentina. The “Portuguese” were prosperous business magnates whose success aroused the envy of the local merchants. This gave rise to in forming and soon the Inquisition tribu nal took over, pursuing these Jews to the farthest parts of their exile. Two of these “Portuguese,” one a resident of Cordoba and the other Meldonada of Tucuman (the oldest city in Ar gentina), were arrested by the Inqui sition and burned in an auto da fe. One of these martyrs so aroused the Jewish world of that day with the heroism of his Kiddush Hashem that special prayers were written in his honor. Born into a Marrano family which had become completely Chris tianized, he learned of his origin by accident and went over to Judaism. His own sisters betrayed him to the tribunal and he was imprisoned for four years. There he deepened his knowledge of the Mosaic laws, circumcized himself with a sharp stone, and 35

refused to give in to the Inquisition’s demand that he forsake the Jewish faith. He was carried to the death pyre on his sick bed, and with the Shema on his lips sank under the con suming flames of the auto da fe. A German Jewish immigrant who had a paint business in La Paz told me a remarkable tale: A senator from a provincial district of Bolivia, who bears the name of Benkuki, showed him a yellowed, dog-eared Hebrew prayer book which has been in his family for generations, assuring him he was of Jewish ancestry. IGNIFICANT and revealing traces of the Jewish past have remained in Peru and Colombia, the Dutch West Indian island of Curacao, and in Suri nam or Dutch Guiana (where the Jewish Territorialists recently planned some colonization), as well as in the British Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Barbados. Barely fifty years after Francisco Pizarro had first conquered Peru and murdered the Inca kings, the Spanish King Philip II sent a special emis sary to Lima named Servan de Cervella to set up the Inquisition. It remained on the South American scene for two hundred years. Lima was the Inquisitional center for the colonies of Rio del Plata, Paraguay, Tucuman, Santiago, and La Paz. In the year 1641 the representative of the Holy Inquisition published a mani festo to the public advising them that the Holy Church would be relieved of great damage and suffering if they would immediately give information on any man or woman who behaves in the following manner on the seventh day of the week: refrains from work; puts on clothing different from that worn on other days, lays clean linen

on the table; lights candles at home; removes the fat from meat before cooking. Other suspicious' symptoms were eating meat on days forbidden to Catholics; fasting and walking in one’s stockinged feet on a fixed day each year; swaying during prayer or pouring water on one’s hands after a funeral; and hundreds of other symptoms by which crypto-Jews might be identified and brought before the dread Inquisition. In 1578 the first Jewish victim was burned alive in Lima. This was the first in a long, tragic series of victims. On August 11, 1635 a large group of Jews were burned to death, among them Antonio De Costa and Rodri guez de Carrera. On January 23, 1639 Manuel Baptista Perez was executed. He left a considerable estate which the Inquisitors divided among themselves. A year later sixty-three Jews died in a mass conflagration. The last Jewish victim of the Inquisitional Court of Lima was a woman named Maria Anna da Costa, condemned by the court as judia Judaisante, a “Judaizing Jewess.” N the year 1609 the Peruvian In quisitorial High Tribunal wrote a letter to the head of the Inquisition in Spain proposing that an Inquisition court be set up in Cartagena in Co lombia, the reason being that the free port there had attracted many fugi tives of the Inquisition from Portugal and they were spreading thence to other parts of the South American domains. The Inquisition persisted in Peru for 244 years, in which time 130 crypto-Jews were executed. In the very center of Lima, in the building which today houses the Sen ate, there can be seen traces of the Inquisition. There is a street nearby

JEWISH LIFE

whose name has been changed from Matar Judíos (kill Jews) to Que mados Judíos (burned Jews). I visited the building when I was in Lima. What is now the Senate Library was once the Inquisitorial courtroom. The cus todian, accompanied by a young Jew ish resident of the city, guided me through various sections and pointed out the cellars where there were little cells with thick iron grates in the doors. Through these iron grates, I was told, the victims of the Inquisition would be cross-examined, seen by the Inquisitors, but themselves unable to see their questioners. To this very day vestiges of the Jewish past, all but obliterated by the unrelenting hersey hunt, can be found in the heart of the Andes—the “roof of the world.” In San Lorenzo de Potosi, located in the Peruvian mining area, carved portraits of Biblical prophets and kings—Elijah, Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah, and Hezekiah—can be seen on the mountainside. In their flight from the horrors of the Inqui sition, Jews sought out the most iso lated mountain ranges.

HERE was a second Jewish settle ment in Peru which has also dis appeared without a trace. This settle ment dates back but ninety years. In the year 1870, when the Jews of the Prussian province of Posen were un dergoing economic difficulties, an English Jew of German ancestry came to Peru in the interest of a British firm which was constructing railways there. Seeing possibilities of expansion there, he advised some of his coreligionists and landsleute from Posen to immi grate, and soon a modest influx of German Jews started into Peru. They constituted a small community, but, totally isolated from the rest of the

June, 1961

Jewish world, they soon assimilated. Today all that remains is the old cemetery and certain Jewish family names which are seen on some busi ness establishments in the Peruvian capital. As late as 1926 one of the bearers of these names possessed the key to the cemetery gate. This man’s son, incidentally, had risen to a cabi net post in the Peruvian government. He himself had no relationship with Jews, but his sister, because she did not want to intermarry with a non-Jew, had remained a spinster. The last Jew to be buried in that cemetery bore the name of Jacoby. In the archives of the “Beneficiencia,” the community organization of the present-day Jewish colony of Peru, there can be found a long account of a quarrel about a Jew named Fratzel which took place in this nineteenthcentury Kehillah. This Jew’s grand children are today known to be rabid antisemites. History repeats itself. In 1920 when newly arrived Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived to form the Kehillah in Lima, on the eve of the Day of Atonement they rented a house in which to pray. Later on they found, as I was told by the local Zionist leader Melech Niemand, that hundreds of years ago the house was an inn for transients, called “Pilatus.” As it was customary to have strangers constantly going in and out of this house, the Marranos felt secure in using its cellar for clandestine holiday services. The supposition is that the innkeeper was also a Marrano. It did not occur to anyone that there were surreptitious Jewish services going on in this inn. It happened once on the eve of Yom Kippur while the Marranos were re citing the Kol Nidre that a sailor wandered into the cellar by mistake. Seeing Jews dressed in prayer-shawls 37

and white garments, he was frightened out of his wits and ran out shouting. All the worshippers were caught by the Inquisitional Tribunal and burned.

N COLOMBIA there is a province named Antiojo. Its capital city, Medelin, is one of the most beautiful cities of the country. This district was discovered in 1541 and Medelin was founded more than a century later in 1661, its founders being Basques and Marranos who had escaped from the Spanish Inquisition. The Antiojeno will tell you to this day that he is descended from Spanish Jews. When Charles Lindbergh visited this city in his South American tour the city fathers recited the following at the civic reception given for Lind bergh: “More than a hundred years after the founding of this city its Basques, Jews, and Andalusians re mained isolated in these mountains. From the eighteenth century on we founded new cities and our population increased at great pace.” Not only are their Jewish features recognizable in the physiognomies of the Antiojenos, but many of their names to this day have a Jewish ring to them. The wealthiest family of the country is of Jewish descent. The name was changed from Messias Perez to Santa Maria; practically all Santa Marias in the country are of Jewish origin. They had assumed this name for protective purposes as its clearly Christian connotation would divert any suspicion.

In the museum of Cartagena can still be found the decrees and the di rectives of the Inquisition. The girls’ school there on the Plaza Bolivar was the court house of the Inquisition for the other provinces of South America 38

after the headquarters at Lima was found to be inadequate. It is an old, massive, colonial-style building. Oddly enough, very close to this spot today a few score Jewish families have built themselves a little synagogue where they pray on Sabbaths and on holi days, a picture of historic Jewish per sistence. Traces of the Jewish past can also be found in other corners of Colombia. There is a theory that Rodriguez Bastidos, the discoverer of Colombia, came from a crypto-Jewish family. Even in the wild and desolate areas of Guajiro on the Venezuelan border of Biahinda de la Villa where there are thousands of Indians, there can be found descendants of Jews—Indian families with unmistakable names like Cohen. As recently as 1867 there could bq found living evidence of this sixteenth and seventeenth centuries era. Isaac Jorge, one of the most celebrated Colombian authors, in his novel “Maria” described this “CatholicJewish” life in Colombia. The book is regarded as a Colombian classic. When it appeared in English transla tion the American critics awarded it a place of distinction in world letters. In the city of Cali—Colombia’s second largest community—a monument to Isaac Jorge has been erected in the central square.

CAME across vital remains of the old Jewish communities in the area under Dutch sovereignty—both on the continent (Surinam) and in the Carib bean (Curacao). In these areas, be cause the Inquisition never penetrated Dutch territory, the Jews have sur vived to this day—thanks to the lib eral spirit and tolerance for which the

JEWISH LIFE

Netherlands is famed. In Curacao today there are two Jewish communi ties—orthodox and Reform, the first directly descended from that pioneer period, the other established in 1863. When the Jews fled thither from Spain the government always received them with open arms, giving them freedom and full rights. When Jews first came to Curacao the governor issued a de cree exempting them from taxes for ten years. A part of the city was given them for their use, known as the Joodewijk. The news that Jews could enjoy freedom of worship in Curacao spread like wildfire through the communities of secret Jews throughout the Ameri can domains of his Most Catholic Ma jesty—communities living in perpetual dread of the Inquisition. Many found their way there and Curacao’s Jewry expanded greatly. When the Dutch yielded to Portugal in Brazil many Jews accompanied them to Curacao. At this point the Inquisition officials began sending alarming reports to their superiors in Spain. In a memorandum dated 1672 the Archbishop of Cartagena com plains that the discovery of culprits was being blocked and the whole op eration and enforcement of the Inqui sition imperilled by the presence of Curacao. The island had become a center of the “accursed infidels” whose proximity stimulated and provoked heresy in the Spanish and Portuguese domains of the New World. In a second communique the arch bishop protests that the governor of Curacao has refused to extradite the heretic Luis Castro. Castro had been in chains traveling by sea from Carta gena to the seat of “justice” in Cura cao. The ship had been wrecked en route and part of the crew and passen gers, including Castro, had managed June, 1961

to escape to the shores of nearby Curacao. When they were ready to resume their voyage the Dutch gov ernor refused to hand over Luis Castro, giving him the right of asylum as a political refugee. On another occasion a Spanish boat was similarly bound for an Inquisition court with a “cargo” of condemned men. The vessel was surprised by pirates of unknown origin who re leased the prisoners and led them to the free soil of Curacao. It would seem from these accounts that the Jews of Curacao were in dead earnest when it came to rescuing their core ligionists from the certain fate of the Inquisition. MONG the first families who came to Curacao were the Aboave, the de Mesias, the Pereiras, the Cardozos, the Fanescos, the Fernandez, and the Castos de Nahar. These are the same names one meets today on the South American continent, with the differ ence that on the continent the bearers are all Catholics. The tombstones in the Jewish ceme teries of Curacao tell an interesting tale. Many of these are damaged be yond repair. On the two occasions when I visited this Dutch West Indian island I examined these stones to see what could be learned of the past. On some, in the style of that day, can be read the name of the departed man or woman with the dates generally no longer legible. There is a stone of the long forgotten cantor of the commun ity, David Prado, who died in 1701. The inscription starts with the quota tion from the Psalm, “I shall sing to the Lord and intone His praises,” above an image of a harp and some other antique musical instruments which I could not identify. Further on is another Hebrew inscription, very

■

hard to decipher but for the phrase, “And Moses went up to the high places” above the carving of two hands held out in the form of the Kohanic blessing. On a third tomb stone there is an inscription in He brew: “Beneath this stone is buried the body of a faithful and G-d-fearing man, the worthy Joshua de Nahar”— dating to the seventeenth century. Here is the stone of a woman named Esther—also dating from the same century, with half-obliterated quota tions of the Book of Esther. A fifth gravestone starts with “And the Lord remembered Sarah, as He had said.” Reading further, you learn that mother and child died during childbirth. Carved in the stone is a drawing of a young tree felled by an axe. HE Curacao synagogue, named Mikveh Israel, is one of the oldest in the New World—built more than three hundred years ago. It is the synagogue of the Sephardic Jews who have kept the traditional manner of prayer. This congregation was one of those who contributed to the founding of the Shearith Israel synagogue in New York. It is construced on the model of the original Temple in Jeru salem, the architecture being similar to the Portuguese Etz Hayyim syna gogue in Amsterdam. When I visited Mikveh Israel sand was strewn on the floor, a custom which is meant as a reminder of the destruction of the Temple. My second visit was to Tem ple Emanuel, one of the finest build ings in the city, situated in the heart of the city on Queen Wilhelmina Square near the government offices. Temple

Emanuel is the Reform congregation of Curacao. Both rabbis are main tained financially by the Netherlands government. The Jews of Curacao occupy a prominent place in the island’s indus try, finance, export, and import today. Some years ago when the Madura firm marked its centennial anniversary the island’s press published articles on the important contributions Jews have made to the island’s history. The firm was founded in 1837 by Moses Halevy Madura. Today it is Curacao’s largest business concern and the Maduras are sometimes called the “Rothschilds of Curacao.” The anniversary was cele brated almost as a national holiday, and the front pages of the local news papers bore the picture of the founder, Moses Halevy Madura. ATIN America’s Jewish communi ties of today, prosperous for the most part but weak in religious de velopment and facing assimilation on every side, may well find both inspira tion and warning in the record of the past. Practically every part of Latin America bears traces of Jewish life and Jewish endeavor, dating back through four and a half centuries to the very beginnings of European dis covery and settlement of the New World. Interwoven with the very warp and woof of South American history is Jewish martyrdom. The present-day Jew of these lands faces no such grim menace. His right to be a Jew is un challenged. The challenge he does face is that of the upbuilding of his own Jewish life on true, imperishable Jew ish foundations.

JEWISH LIFE

Juvenile Delinquency in Israel By SAUL SIGELSCH IFFER

C O M E YEARS before the forma^ tion of the State of Israel, Bialik, the famous poet, was quoted as saying, “If only the Yishuv had a thief! Then we would really be a nation like other nations.” If crime and criminals are an earn est of nationhood, there is no question that Israel has joined the privileged circle. It used to be the boast of Israelis that they never needed to lock their doors. Since 1948, with the influx of refugees which more than doubled the population; this situation has changed. Despite the fact that doors are now carefully locked, the dockets of the criminal courts are full. An elaborate machinery of crime detec tion and its treatment is in operation, with the usual panoply of police, spe cial judges, probation officers, social workers, psychologists and similar per sonnel that go along with it. It is doubtful that Bialik longed for a Jewish state so completely like the western nations as to match them in lawlessness. The statement attributed to him is an oversimplification of an accepted fact. The Jews have always been a law-abiding people. For in stance, statistics in the United States reveal that the ratio of crime is lower June, 1961

for the Jewish populace than for other ethnic groups. Also, drunkenness and sexual looseness, often connected with crimes of violence, are not character istic of Jews. This is not surprising, however, in a people nourished on the Torah. IGURES supplied by the Israel probation department reveal that there has been a steady rise in juvenile delinquency since 1948: 1949 1,000 1957 3,000 1958 3,400 With statistics not yet complete at the time I got them, the figure for the year 1959 was over 4,000, an increase of 20% over the previous year. Ex pressed in another way, in 1952 there were 105 juvenile delinquents per 100,000 population, while in 1957 there were 169 per 100,000, with the tentative figure for 1959 being about 230 per l 00,000.* These numbers are, of course, for the whole population, including the Arab minority.

* Since this article was written, the figures on juvenile delinquency for 1960 have been released by the Inspector General o f Police, Joseph Nahmias. In his report he states that the figures have risen to “most serious” proportions. Summed up, they reveal the commission of 11,000 juvenile offenses in 1960 as compared with 8,500 in 1959, an increase o f thirty per cent.

while religion may tend to act as a deterrent to delinquency, he had seen “many offenders with yarmulkas.” In his opinion, outer forces are tending to destroy the religious home and to accelerate delinquency. Nevertheless, figures on the number and proportion of youthful offenders who have had a good, religious upbringing, as com pared with other delinquents, would certainly be revealing. When we pursued this matter further, the officer disclosed an atti tude which I found common among the non-religious element. This man was well-trained and extremely com petent. He was thoroughly informed on the newest and most modern aspects of the handling of juvenile problem s. He had spent several months in the United States, chiefly in New York, studying our system. In spite of his grudging admission of O statistics are available as to the the deterrent effect of religion, he ethnic composition or religious feared religious “control.” “Where background of youthful offenders. If would you draw the line?” he asked, such studies have been made, they the usual question of the irreligious or have not been released to the public. the confused. He resorted to the hackneyed argu With reference to ethnic distribution, I was informed that such statistics ment that religious control would mean might tend to put the new immigrants that on Shabboth people would not from North Africa and the Middle be able to “rest in their own way” by East countries in an unfavorable light, swimming or riding. What connection a situation that could prejudice their this had with the problem of juvenile delinquency was not clear. It was as integration. On the matter of religious back though he were saying, “I don’t care ground, the chief probation officer about juvenile delinquency, so long as whom I interviewed declared that I can swim and ride on Shabboth.”

For purposes of policing and con trol, the country is divided into seven administrative districts, each headed by a chief probation officer, six of whom are Jewish and one Arab, the latter supervising the Nazareth district. According to reports from these districts, a significant factor in the growth of juvenile delinquency is its recent spread. It is no longer concen trated in certain older sections like Shechunath Hatikvah and Kfar Sha lom of Jaffa and Tel Aviv, the equiv alent of the Harlem and BedfordStuyvesant areas of New York City. The largest proportion of the 20% increase in 1959 occurred in the Beersheba and Central districts, which contain the heaviest concentrations of new population. Curiously, the Jeru salem area had no increase.

“ External Factors”

HE alarming feature of juvenile crime, according to my informant, was the increase of acts of violence. Eighty percent of crimes were surrep titious offenses against property, such as burglary and stealing, with an in

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crease in recent months in the stealing of cars and motorcycles. The other twenty percent were of the violent type against both persons and property, such as vandalism, hooliganism, and assault. JEWISH LIFE

Recently the police were disturbed by an outbreak of stone-throwing against the windows of passing trains. A case I witnessed in court involved a group of boys who threw stones from a roof, severely injuring a child who was sitting with his parents in front of a movie theater. Another case, which received a great deal of publicity in the press, concerned nine youths accused of raping a girl, a crime regarded with particular revul sion in Israel. However, though in this, as in the two other cases men tioned groups of teenagers were in volved, there are no organized gangs which stage pitched battles against one another. In this respect juvenile crime in Israel differs from that in the United States. There is no doubt that certain “outer forces,” as the chief probation officer phrased it, are a menace to the moral stability of the nation. Among the un seen forces are the unsettling effect of the very rapid, and as yet unconsoli dated, growth of the state, the. difficult economic conditions, the heterogeneity of the unintegrated population, and the feeling which prevails among the people that the government is indif ferent, if not hostile, to the religious traditions of the nation. Easily discernible, however, are other forces which are less subtle and more flagrant in their impact. Fore most among them are the movies, which comprise a powerful factor in both stimulating and aggravating the spread of delinquency and crime. Israel has no movie industry of its own to speak of and films are there fore imported from abroad. Thus, sex and crime pictures which are an im portant part of the regular entertain ment fare of the United States and France, are just as much the ailment of the Israeli public. Movie censorship June, 1961

exists, but like censorship in this country, it is not very effective. Ac cording to comments in the press, efforts to stiffen controls have been relaxed over the last three years in deference to good relations with France. In addition, the lurid outdoor dis plays which advertise these movies contribute to the undermining of moral values. It seemed incongruous to me to see huge billboard posters of almost completely nude women in sug gestive postures brazenly flaunted in the Jewish cities of a Jewish state. It was violative of the high moral char acter and ethical traditions which have made the Jewish people unique. Add to this the sexy pulp magazines in imi tation of those found on American newsstand, and you have a climate of encouragement to undesirable so cial behavior utterly in conflict with the outlook on life of the Jewish people. T IS fortunate, perhaps, that there is no television in Israel. So far the government has frowned upon it, and Ben-Gurion has been most vocal in opposing its introduction, for the rea son that the resources and manpower of the country must be devoted to more productive and essential indus tries. If television were introduced, there would always be the problem of program control. So far, the govern ment-operated radio has been devoted to beneficial purposes: news and pro grams of educational and cultural value. Would the same thing be tru$ of television, which requires elaborate and specialized techniques of program preparation? Would there not be the temptation or the necessity of filling empty spots in the schedule cheaply

and without effort by showing movies? If these proved to be of the same cali bre that we see on our own TV screens, the government itself would be in the equivocal position of en couraging juvenile delinquency. It is just as well that Israel, for the time being anyway, cannot involve itself with this medium. To complete the picture, Israel has

its quota of “sharpies.” They were the clothes and have the appearance that go with sharpie-ism: pointed shoes, narrow pants or jeans, black leather jackets, and bushy hair with long sideburns and with exaggerated pom padour thrust out atop their heads. You see them clustered around the movies in the afternoons and, espe cially, on Saturday nights.

The Corrections System

HIS IS a brief perspective of the situation with respect to juvenile delinquency in Israel. In the struggle against this social disease of Western civilization, Israel employs western methods: the Children’s Court, the probation officer, the psychologist, the social worker, as well as the police. By western standards they do a good job. Like us in the United States, how ever, they are short-handed. For in stance, by legal provision there should be sixty-eight probation officers, but there are only forty-seven on the staff. With only two-thirds of their required complement, it is obvious that the department is overworked. As pointed out previously, many of these officers go abroad for training and study. An aspirant for the posi tion must possess suitable educational and experiential qualifications, includ ing courses in a school of social work. He must also pass an examination which consists of a written test and an interview. He is thus highly quali fied and compares favorably with his American counterpart. The shortage of personnel is espe cially acute in the field of psychology. There is also a dearth of placement institutions, just as there is in this country. The Children’s Court judge

must therefore be ingenious in hand ling the overflow of cases that appear before him. Some offenders may be sent to a mossad (children’s village) or even a kibbutz, others put on pro bation (mivchan), while still others may be fined. It is interesting to note that in this country money fines are generally frowned upon as being punitive in nature, and as hindering the adjust ment of the child. The opposite is true in Israel. Money fines are considered a form of restitution for damaged or stolen property. I witnessed one case, however, where a fine was levied solely as a punitive and deterrent measure. Here a young Arab boy, about eleven years old, had crossed the border into Jordan, a serious matter in Israel be cause of the possibility of espionage. The father received a heavy fine, in addition to the injunction from the judge that he must display greater responsibility for his son. In a country where money comes hard, and where family ties are close, the use of the fine has evidently proved effective. ECAUSE of the overcrowded cal endar, the Children’s Court judge works hard. Sessions opened at 8:30 A.M., and except for a brief recess

JEWISH LIFE

from 11:00 to 11:30, continue through the afternoon until 2:30 or 3:00 P.M. — comprising a five-and-a-half or sixhour day for the judge. Besides hear ing and questioning witnesses, as well as the offender himself, arid reading the reports of the probation officer and social worker, the judge must take his own minutes of the case. For lack of stenographers, most Israeli judges, even those in the higher courts, must make their own notes, which become the official court record of the case. In spite of these burdens, the docket moves swiftly. In one session of less than three hours that I observed, the judge handled eleven cases. When he was finished, the judge looked tired. He was ready for a good nap, and not for a game of golf. In a few cases where sworn testi mony was necessary, an oath was taken on the Bible. It was interesting to see the religious influence enter. Those taking the oath are required to put on a yarmulka. The language of the oath is virtually identical with that used in our courts: “I swear by G-d to tell the whole truth and only the truth.” It is unfortunate that the outward trappings of Israeli courts are not more impressive. Lack of space has forced many government departments to operate in old, dilapidated build ings, sometimes in the rooms of an apartment house. Even the Knesseth meets in a renovated building until the new, beautiful Kiryah, which is in the process of construction on the out skirts of the city not far from the Hebrew University, will be completed. A Dickens would find ready-made ma terial in the bleak, run-down quarters and appointments of the courts. Only in the district courts, where appeals are argued, does one find an external reflection of the majesty and imporJune, 1961

tance of justice. Judges and attorneys wear the black gowns, although not the wigs, of the British courts. But outer appearances are not as important as what takes place within the walls of justice. In my view there was no doubt that the judge of the Children’s Court clearly represented society, and conducted his adjudica tions with the purpose of protecting society while at the same time aiding the adjustment of the youthful of fender. Very often, in our country, the judge of the children’s court gives the impression that he is protecting the delinquent against society, and this raises in the mind of the offender the impression that his offense was incon sequential and harmless. From my observations of the Israeli Children’s Court, however, it seemed that every youngster came away with the feeling that breaking the law was bad, and that he had been given a fair and just hearing by someone who was helpful and considerate even if he did not condone youthful folly or aberra tion. ND YET, in spite of the com mendable efforts to solve the problem of juvenile delinquency, one cannot help pondering that something is amiss. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that Israel is merely imi tating the states of the West, without bringing the genius of its own ap proach to bear on the problem. Jewish society has always had a special in gredient which has made it unique. Call it a secret ingredient if you will, because of the general tendency to overlook or disregard it. This ingredi ent is its religious traditions and ob servances which have shaped the indi vidual to fear G-d and respect man, not merely in theory but in everyday practice. They engender a societal cli-

mate in which there is an awareness of the higher goals of life and a desire to attain them. A person growing up in this climate is subject just as much to inner as to external influences which serve to keep him from crime, or put in another way, from violating the Ten Commandments. Such a climate is developed by edu cation and training along traditional religious lines, with no fear of socalled “religious controls” or “draw ing a line.” It is not my intention to discuss in this article the issue of religious controls. But it is pertinent to indicate that the history of our people points to the creation of a moral social environment rather than the imposi tion of individual coercion which will lead man to righteousness. It is the latter type of “control” which many Israelis fear, and in their fear, confuse with the former. Special juvenile courts, probation officers, psychologists, social workers, police are, in the last analysis, merely

palliatives. They do not go to the root of juvenile delinquency and cannot supply the ultimate solution to the problem. Economic and political, as well as social, conditions are admit tedly important factors, but they have never in themselves been the deter minants of the character and destiny of the Jewish people. T IS only their religious values and their adherence to the customs of their fathers that have sustained and distinguished the Jewish people through the centuries of exile and dispersion. And it is only through these values and traditions that Israel can demonstrate that it is possible for a modern, democratic, industrial state to be free of the social ills, like crime and delinquency, which are the con comitants of industrial societies. This is the unique contribution which the character and genius of the Jewish people can make to world progress through the State of Israel.

JEWISH LIFE

On Revelation By JOEL J. LU K E

INCE Israel became a people, the ligious duty. From the conclusion of S belief in the act of G-d’s Revela philosophical concepts he has learned tion on Mount Sinai was the rock the absolute contradiction of the eter upon which Judaism rested, the sine qua nan of the Jewish religion. The denial of G-d revealing the Ten Com mandments was tantamount to the negation of all Judaism. If G-d did not or could not communicate with man, what assurance was there that man could turn to G-d? If G-d is in capable of addressing Israel, is He not also impotent to respond to their pleas? Hence the whole weight of the Jewish cause was based upon this fact. It is irony indeed that today we have movements in Jewish life that project a form of religion that has no other sanction than the skepticism of their subscribers. In fairness to our brethren, we must concede that it was no arbitrary and invidious whim that led many a mod ern Jew to doubt the truth of the Divine origin of the Decalogue and Torah. Though he may believe in G-d as the Creator of the world, he claims support for his disbelief in Revelation from two sources of knowledge: the studies of philosophy and comparative religion. To these two branches of knowl edge the non-orthodox Jew appeals in reforming and reinterpreting his reJune, 1961

nal and the temporal. They are such mutually exclusive entities, philosoph ical logic holds, so wholly different, that the eternal cannot impinge upon the temporal. Accordingly, the act of Revelation by G-d the Eternal and Infinite would constitute and incursion into time and the finite, a process that is logically invalid. G-d and world are absolutely other, and hence how could G-d’s intrusion into history have taken place? His reliance upon the axio matic nature of reason that neatly compartmentalizes all concepts bars the skeptic from affirming that G-d could have indeed “crashed the bar rier.” Revelation, then, is impossible according to philosophical logic. In a more pedestrian vein studies of comparative religion have been em ployed to undermine the faith in Revelation. Archaeological discoveries have unearthed remains of ancient legal codes. These codes, it is pointed out, treat offenses as murder and theft in a manner that recalls the Ten Com mandments. The Torah, the non-orthodox exclaims, has a parallel in the law books of other peoples. Where then is the originality that is claimed for the Decalogue? Thus on one hand 47

Revelation is said to be impossible, while on the other it is thought to be superfluous. ONESTY and the honor of our faith demand that we do not ignore these charges, but offer a con vincing response. Formidable though the charges may seem at first glance, they have definite inconsistencies and are based on wrong assumptions, and from a solid defense Judaism will emerge stronger and intellectually more compelling. Philosophical analysis posed the im possibility of Revelation on the con sideration that there is no meeting ground between the eternal and the temporal, since they are mutually ex clusive ideas. But if we grant validity to this formulation, we are faced with yet a greater dilemma, one that touches upon Creation itself. How is Creation possible then? Is not Crea tion likewise an intrusion of G-d the Eternal into the historical, and the incursion of the Infinite into the finite? If the non-orthodox is not prepared to recognize the possibility of Revela tion, by the same token he should refuse to admit the possibility of Creation. But he knows that he can not sacrifice his belief in Creation without turning his back on religion and Judaism altogether. Why should we then not hold that the G-d who manifested His power at the time of Creation revealed His will on Sinai? The words of Isaiah long ago warned us that “My thoughts are not your thoughts'- and the poet echoed that “No thought or mental concept can grasp Him” (Shir Hayichud). What may appear to the human mind as paradoxical is resolved by the Divine, the source of all thought. Creation is a mystery indeed, but a

fact nonetheless. So too Revelation, though it may constitute a conceptual predicament, is not invalidated by our failing to comprehend the transcen dence of the Divine Mind. G-d, who intervened into time when He called the world into being, could ajso in curse into history on the peak of Sinai. G-d, who manifested Himself as the Creator, also disclosed Himself as the Revealer. As it has been recogr nized, Revelation is the natural com plement of Creation, both being united in the bond of G-d’s self-willed dis closure.

E may also readily dispose of criticism voiced on the basis of studies in comparative religion. Though backed by scholarly efforts, the conclusions that are drawn from them are highly unwarranted. It was averred that because of the apparent resemblance to the Decalogue of some laws in ancient Babylonian law codes the originality of the Ten Command ments should not be admitted. But this is to completely misunderstand the character, intent, and meaning of the Ten Commandments. It was never asserted that the Decalogue was orig inal in the sense that no man before knew of any of its laws. Even a super ficial glance at the initial chapters of the Bible will clearly show that G-d, Sabbath, murder, and theft (violence) are salient features in the narration. The Creation story is climaxed by the institution of the Sabbath as the day ordained by G-d, and the accounts of Cain and Abel and the Flood are ex plicit in their damnation of murder and violence, all integral parts of the Ten Commandments. What is espoused for the Decalogue is not simply its originality but its Divine authority and sanction as the terms of the Cove-

JEWISH LIFE

nant (b’rith) between G-d and Israel. According to the Sages, Adam and Noah and their descendants were al ready recipients of basic and universal principles of conduct and law, and we therefore should not be surprised to find that the Babylonians and others were familiar with them. Of necessity they had to be, for any organized community must be established upon rules that protect the life and property of its people. Even as G-d implanted in each person the need for food for his well-being, so He showed him a way to manage his affairs. What is significant and unique in the Sinaitic experience is that Israel entered into a holy covenant and committed it self to be a faithful guardian of these laws after other people had repeatedly

June, 1961

spurned them. Israel’s readiness to do and hear transformed what was law into commandments (Mitzvoth) as the the requisites in the reciprocal rela tionship between G-d and the Jewish people that stipulates, And 1 will be your G-d, and you shall be my people (Vayikra 26). Jewish faith cannot be conceived without Revelation. To erect a struc ture of pseudo-Judaism that displaces Revelation is building on air. Revela tion is the central core around which the corpus of Judaism revolves. In simple terms it means that G-d has communicated with man; that before Israel answered, G-d spoke; before man responded, G-d called. There is an Addressee whom man can address, the fountainhead of religious truth.

Careers in the Psychological Professions By WALTER DUCKAT

EW VOCATIONS offer more chal chological practitioners nevertheless lenging opportunities to serve mounts. The qualified male or female others in distress and to advance our knowledge of human behavior than a Shomer Shabboth can find a reward career in the mental health profes ing career in the psychological sions. The shortage of psychiatrists, professions without sustaining econ psychologists, psychiatric case workers, omic loss because of his religious nurses, and others is acute and is convictions. Moreover, the Torahtrue Jew may serve to exemplify the growing worse daily. The reasons for the shortage are fact that it is possible to blend the many. The rigors of modern living best of psychological thought with exact a huge toll in emotional illness. Judaism. The effects are visible in o u r1mount ROBABLY no professional area ing crime rate, the rising number of has been more profoundly in divorces, the increase in family con flict and in disabling fears and anxie fluenced by Jews than the psycholog ties iron! which millions of our popu ical professions. The eminent nonJewish psychiatrist Karl Menninger lation suffer. Almost two million Americans are declared that “although Jewish physi treated annually in mental hospitals, cians are distinguished for their clinics, social agencies, and by private scientific accomplishments in all fields practitioners. It is estimated that one of medicine, they have demonstrated out of ten, or eighteen million persons, a special gift for psychiatry.” need treatment for their emotional Other authorities have also affirmed problems. With the steady growth of that Jews have not only discovered our population and the increasing new diseases and techniques of treat strains which many will face, the num ment in neuro-psychiatry, but have ber of persons who will need psycho changed medical thought, practice, therapy will probably increase. While and the entire outlook of modern new drugs have helped to treat more psychiatry and psychology in its people, the demand for new psy medical application.

As early as 1838, Moritz A. Ramberg (1792-1873), a professor in Berlin, wrote the first formal text on nervous diseases. Many considered him the founder of neuropathology. Robert Remak (1815-1865) authored a classical text book on neurology and discovered an important nerve, named after him. Emanuel Mandel (1839-1907) was a distinguished psychiatrist of his time, who described paranoia and nervous diseases. Joseph Breuer (1842-1925) of Vienna originated the theory of equilibrium, credited with having originated a method of catharsis in the treatment of psycho neuroses. Although his contributions to the Study of emotional behavior have been revised by some of his succes sors, Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis. Though he was not a traditional Jew, Freud proudly proclaimed his Jewish identity. He attributed his skill as an analyst to the uncompromising individuality and intellectual curiosity which he at tributed to his Jewishness. Much of the early and fierce op position to Freud stemmed from the fact that he and all of his earliest and most brilliant followers, save for Carl Jung and Ernest Jones, were Jews. Among these distinguished Jewish disciples were Alfred Adler, Otto Rank, A. Brill, Karl Abraham, and Theodore Reik. HILE psychology as a discipline is a modern development, Jew ish tradition and literature affords many examples of the profound in sights into human behavior shown by our ancestors. Throughout the Bible, in the Prophets, the Psalms, the Wisdom Literature of the Bible, Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkey Avoth),

June, 1961

Maimonides—especially his eight chapters on Ethics, the ethical wills, and Chasidic literature are found many aphorisms on personal problems and interpersonal relationships. Our Sages perceived that the good life was not achieved through sadness, pessimism, or by a grieving heart, but that vitality and joy and useful ac tivity were indispensible to it. A few examples will illustrate their profound understanding of human behavior. One of the cardinal concepts of modern psychology is that of in dividual differences, that no two people are totally alike. The Rabbis expressed this (Midrosh Tanchumah, Pinchas 10) : “Just as the faces of men are not alike so their needs are not alike but everyone has his own mind.” Another familiar adage in Pirkey Avoth is “One virtue leads to another and transgression leads to transgres sions.” Habit, according to modern psychology, leads to the diminution of resistance. Rabbi Isaac in Masecheth Kallah declared: “All the sins of man are carved in his bones.” This is simi lar to the widely held belief in psy chiatry that every experience is in delibly etched on our unconscious. Another well known passage was Rabbi Chisdu’s statement, “A dream uninter preted is like a letter unread.” The practical value of combining study with vocational activities is ex pressed in the passage of Pirkey Avoth, “All study of Torah without work must ultimately be futile and lead to sin.” Although the preponder ance of Jewish tradition views life optimistically and believes in man’s capacity for improvement, it recog nizes that “the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” The Rabbis perceived that we are beset by conflicting desires which they 51

called the Yetzer Hatov and Yetzer Hara. An illuminating study of psy chiatry in the Bible, Talmud, and Zohar was written by the psychiatrist and Jewish scholar Dr. Hirsch L. Gordon in the Jubilee Volume of the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences (Herald Square Press, 1955). ECAUSE there are so many kinds of specialties in the psychological professions, it is pertinent to observe that there is a common denominator to most of their activities. Psycho logists generally seek to explain how our minds work and why. They study the behavior of people, devise and use tests designed to measure aptitudes and personality and in understanding living behavior. Their work is varied and may include teaching in colleges and universities, diagnosing and treat ing mental disorders, counseling, aid ing in selecting workers for employ ment or promotion, and in research activities. About 24,000 psychologists are currently professionally employed, and approximately one-fourth are women. Besides these, there are psy chiatrists, psychiatric case workers, psychiatric nurses, and others. There are two main groups of psy chologists: specialists in applied fields of psychology who work directly with people; and specialists in basic science fields who work chiefly in research or in college and university teaching. More than three-fourths of all psychologists are in applied spe cialties, mainly in applying psycho logical principles and methods to help persons adjust to home, school, social life, and to work. The largest group of applied spe cialists are the clinical psychologists who constitute about one-third of all psychologists. The clinical psycho logist usually has majored in psychol

ogy and has pursued about four years of graduate study in all branches of psychology leading to a Ph.D. degree which usually includes a one-year internship in a clinical setting. Despite his title “clinical psychol ogist,” he may work not only in a hospital clinic for alcoholics, narcotic addicts, etc., but also in courts, prisons, schools, in children’s resi dential centers, community counsel ing service agencies, in the armed forces, as well as teach, engage in research or in private practice. The clinical psychologist diagnoses, treats, and attempts to prevent mental illness. He conducts psychological examinations, interviews and records his observations, and uses projective and other test devices. After his anal ysis, he usually recommends a correc tive program which may include various psychotherapeutic techniques. He may engage in research concerning the causes of mental illness, the im pact of heredity and environment on personal malfunctioning, and evaluate diagnostic and therapeutic methods. He may collaborate with psychiatrists and social workers in treating the mentally ill. ALARIES for clinical psychol ogists and for most psychologists S range from about $6,000 to $7,500 for beginners with a Ph.D. degree. For those who possess considerable experience, salaries range from about $9,000 to $15,000. Persons in charge of large agencies or in private practice or in combination of both earn up to about $25,000 a year. The second largest field in psycho logy comprises specialists in counseling and guidance. These practitioners seek to help students, the physically, men tally or emotionally handicapped to JEWISH LIFE

achieve better educational vocational or social adjustment. There are an estimated thousand industrial psychologists who attempt to apply their skills to industry. They may work for advertising agencies in motivational research, for industry, or for various branches of the govern ment. They may counsel their clients through the use of tests or interviews on how to select or promote person nel. They may suggest how work may be done more effectively and economically. The highest income in psychology is usually earned by in dustrial psychologists, the lowest by college teachers. A sub-group of the industrial psychologists is the human engineering psychologist. He works mainly at designing machines for such activities as interplanetary equip ment capable of sustaining human life. He may study the effects of extreme depths, heat, and cold on humans. He may also test clothing, weapons, and other equipment for the armed forces and for private industry. About 1,500 experimental and physiological psychologists in the United States work for universities, for labor, private industry, for various governmental agencies, and other or ganizations. These specialists engage in basic research with animals or birds and seek to increase our understand ing of human behavior, since in many ways human behavior is akin to that of lower forms of animal life. There are also military psychol ogists who study methods of selecting pilots for the Air Force and other as signments. They investigate the pos sible effects of travelling in space, the effect of fear on soldiers, and other related problems. More than six hundred social psy chologists are mainly engaged in studying the behavior of human beings June, 1961

in groups. Qualities which are neces sary for leadership, factors which create religious, social or political prejudice, techniques to promote the sale of government bonds, or to main tain or increase morale during peace or war, and other problems concern them. e n e r a l l y , the social psychol

ogist designs techniques, usually tests or interviews, to observe group behavior. He later summarizes his findings in the form of an opinion survey or other studies. Most of these specialists hold Ph.D. degrees and work as research directors for private or non-profit organizations or for uni versities. Important too are educational and school psychologists who are mainly involved with improving methods of learning, teaching, and in fostering the personality development of chil dren. The school psychologist may help teachers by administering tests which aid the teacher to serve the child more effectively. They may also help the child to get along better at home, at school, or with other chil dren. Many school children suffer from deficiencies in speech, reading, hear ing, etc., and are helped to overcome them by the school psychologist pr his colleagues. In many schools, the psy chologist is required to possess a teacher’s certificate. In every principal city of the United States and Canada, there are Jewish vocational agencies staffed with voca tional counselors, psychologists, and other personnel. The vocational coun selor, whether he works for a private or governmental agency or school, often plays a highly significant role in aiding his clients to select goals in consonance with their interests, 53

abilities, and opportunities. He often refers his client for treatment for per sonal or family problems. Because our jobs play so important a role in our lives, our mental health may be either favorably or unfavorably affected by our work. The vocational counselor may therefore play a significant role in promoting mental health. The psychologist who specializes in devising and standardizing tests to measure intelligence, aptitude, inter ests, skills, and personality is called a psychometrist. His tests may be used in schools, the armed forces, in vari ous governmental branches, in per sonnel offices, etc. OSITIONS for various types of psychologists are open in local, state, and federal civil service. The federal government pays higher sal aries than city or county jobs, offering to those who possess a Ph.D. salaries from about $7,000 to a maximum of about $14,000 a year. Other psychologists study the psy chological development of human beings and are known as develop mental psychologists. Still others teach, engage in many forms of research in personnel, in advertising, opinion analysis, consumer research, and simi lar fields. About 1,500 new psychologists enter the field annually. There are numerous scholarships available through colleges, the United States Public Health Service, and other sources. The January issue of the “American Psychologist” annually publishes a list of all opportunities for scholarships, teaching or research fellowships for those seeking M.A. or Ph.D. degrees in psychology. Those who seek information about any branch of psychology may write to the American Psychological Asso

ciation, 1333 16th Street, N.W., Washington 6, D.C, Information on traineeships and fellowships may be obtained from colleges and univer sities with graduate psychology de partments and from governmental agencies; Chief, Vocational Counsel ing Department of Medicine and Surgery, Veterans Administration, Washington 25, D.C.; or Chief, Divi sion of Training, Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, U.S. Government, Washington 25, D.C. NOTHER significant mental health worker is the psychiatric case worker. Most of these are women who have completed a two-year post graduate course in social work which yielded them the MSW (Master of Social Work) degree. Part of their graduate course consisted of an intern ship or field work during which they actually worked in a social agency under supervision. This professional worker usually works in organizations such as hos pitals and clinics, schools, child guid ance and family welfare agencies, chil dren’s residence centers, state training schools, etc. She generally seeks to aid persons suffering from nervous or mental disorders. She investigates case situations and gives the psychia trist supplementary information on the patient’s behavior and other sig nificant facts about him. She may also interpret psychiatric treatment to the patient’s family and suggest means of speeding the patient’s recovery. She attempts to help the patient and his family to cope with their problems more effectively by aid ing them to overcome fear, prejudice, and other disabling attitudes hindering acceptance or continuation of psy chiatric cases. She may arrange for institutionalization of the patient if

JEWISH LIFE

recommended by proper authorities. She may help the patient to adjust to community life during treatment or after he is discharged from the in stitution. Psychiatric case workers are in great demand. There are numerous scholarships available for study in the various schools of social work in the United States and Canada. Inter ested persons should write to the Council on Social Work Education, 345 East 46th Street, New York 17, N.Y. These practitioners may also teach, engage in research or in administra tive work for educational, govern mental, or international organizations. Salaries for trained beginners start at about $4,900 to rise to about $7,400 in large cities. Supervisory and administrative salaries range from $7,500 to about $12,000. A few heads of large organizations earn up to $25,000 a year. NOTHER extremely helpful prac titioner on the mental health staff of hospitals is the psychiatric nurse. She attends persons who suffer from emotional disorders in a hospital, sanitarium, institution, or private home. She discharges the doctor’s orders in giving the patient prescribed treatment such as special baths and injections, corrective and other thera peutic treatment. She may also pro mote mental health in school health programs, pre-natal or well baby clinics. She may also teach courses in mental health. The psychiatric nurse usually has acquired nurse’s training plus addi tional courses in college. Her salary ranges from $3,000 to $4,500 a year. Here too, the shortage is very severe. Traineeships paying from $1,500 to $2,400 a year are available through

June, 1961

the Public Health Service. Advanced administrative positions in this field pay from $10,000 to $12,000 a year. Private practitioners’ income varies with the client, but may reach $100 or more a week. The chief figure in the psychological professions is, of course, the psychia trist. His training is one of the longest and most exacting. Among this group the psychoanalyst, however, under goes even longer training and must besides undergo a personal analysis in order to qualify as a psychoanalyst. The prospective psychiatrist should preferably obtain a B.S. degree with many courses in the natural sciences and psychology. Then he must acquire his M.D. degree. This will be followed by a one-year internship in a general hospital and three years of training in a psychiatric teaching hospital, and an additional fourth year if he wishes to qualify as a child psychiatrist. Psychiatrists usually work in hospi tals, community health clinics, schools, the armed forces, courts, children’s residential centers, prisons, and other similar organizations. They also teach, engage in research, administra tive work, and most of them also treat patients privately. The American Psychiatric Association, 1785 Mas sachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washing ton 6, D.C., will provide a list of accredited psychiatric training centers in the United States. For scholarship information write to the school of your choice or to the National Insti tute of Mental Health Training Branch, Bethesda, Maryland. LTHOUGH psychiatrists differ in basic philosophy and methods of treatment, basically they are physi cians who specialize in the study and analysis of human behavior. They may work with all kinds or with only

certain kinds of mental illness. They seek to help their patients to adjust themselves more effectively. They may also determine the sanity of per sons for legal purposes. They not only attempt to help the mentally ill but also to keep people mentally well. 1 The shortage of psychiatrists is extremely acute. There are 11,250 in the United States, or one psychiatrist for approximately 16,400 persons. The psychoanalyst is a special kind of psychiatrist and is usually also a graduate of a medical school. He also undergoes long training sub sequently. He usually limits his prac tice to neurotics rather than more disturbed or psychotic persons. While the psychiatrist will see his patients once or twice a week, psychoanalysts will see their patients from three to five times a week and may treat them from two to four years or more. There are about one thousand medically trained psychoanalysts in the United States, augmented by other “lay” ana lysts who lack medical training. The neurologist is also a physician, a nerve specialist who also deals with the emotional problems of his patients. He too undergoes a long and arduous course of training before he becomes recognized as a neurologist by his peers. Experienced psychiatrists, psy choanalysts, and neurologists earn incomes from $20,000 to about $50,000 a year from either adminis trative work or private practice, or from a combination of both.

Those who consider a career in the psychological professions should possess above-average intelligence, do well in science and mathematics and other courses related to these goalsT Those who deal with clients directly should have a deep interest in people and desire to help them with their problems. In order to achieve this, it is important that they must themselves possess satisfactory emotional bal ance. S ONE weighs the advantages and disadvantages of these pro fessions, certain facts emerge. The advantages are formidable—the satis faction which comes from helping others and from increasing our knowl edge of human behavior. There is greater acceptance of the work of the mental health professions and more research is being conducted. The in come, while less than that of other medical specialties, can be impressive. There are many scholarships available to the well qualified. The disadvantages are the length of time and cost which the more advanced professional divisions re quire, the inevitable emotional strain which this taxing work imposes and the wide differences of opinions which prevail among psychologists, psychia trists, and psychoanalysts. Neverthe less, to the qualified, the compelling factor will be his eagerness to serve others and to learn more about how we tick.

JEWISH LIFE

Booh Bevietvs A Documentary o f Blood and Fire and Pillars o f Smoke By SAMUEL I. COHEN LATE SUMMER FRUIT, Essays by Isaac Lewin. Bloch Publishing Com pany, 174 pp. $3.00. N THE first part of this collection of fifteen essays, an historic sur vey of a generation destroyed, but not lost, is presented with precision and passion. In the latter part of this memorable volume, and indeed be tween the lines of the entire book, is reflected the author’s unceasing and eloquent battle in the cause of ortho dox Jewry. Both the “twilight gen eration” that he describes and the eloquent statements that he made in the public defense of Orthodoxy are well worth recording—and read ing; for both have helped shape contemporary Jewish history. One of orthodox Jewry’s, most dis tinguished scholar-statesmen, Rabbi Dr. Isaac Lewin began public service on the city council of Lodz, Poland. With the outbreak of World War II, he turned his efforts to rescue work, and immediately after the war he was in Europe on relief and rehabilitation missions. As an eminent educator

RABBI SA M U EL I. COHEN, a musmach of M esivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin, is presently pur suing his doctoral studies at Yeshiva University. He is executive director o f the Long Island Zion ist Y outh Commission.

June, 1961

(professor of Jewish history at Ye shiva University and principal of the Central High School for Girls), articu late author (with fifteen published works), and qualified spokesman of Agudath Israel (before national and international bodies), Dr. Lewin’s voice is always heard with respect. On April 2, 1957, when the Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Repre sentatives convened to consider pro posed “humane slaughter” legislation, it was Dr. Lewin who came as the authorized spokesman for twenty-two national Jewish organizations to chal lenge the proposed bills and to defend the rights of religious Jewry. (Similarly, as an accredited non governmental representative of the Agudath Israel World Organization to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, it was at his urging that the U.N. Subcommission on Pre vention of Discrimination and Protec tion of Minorities agreed to study discrimination in the area of religious rights and practices. UT Dr. Lewin brings more to his battle than legislative compe tence. Indeed the pages pf “Late Sum mer F ruit” spell out a passionate

JEWISH LIFE

reverence for G’doley Torah that make this volume what it was** intended to be—a memorial to the Nazi-murdered and martyred rabbis of distinction, “the healthy ripe fruit who are no more.” Comparing the present generation to late summer fruit, Dr. Lewirk writes that “The Nazi holocaust took from us the very best that we possessed; it deprived us of our most godly men and robbed us of our most upright. We lesser men are left to describe the glory of th at which was destroyed.” In his opening essays, “Religious Judaism in Independent Poland” and “Rabbi Aaron Lewin: A Biography,” he describes with clarity and pathos the community life and rabbinic per sonality of yesterday’s Poland. In sub sequent essays, “Polish Yeshivoth in Exile During World War II,” “The Outlawing of Polish Jewry by the Nazis,” “The Religious Life of Jewish

Refugees in Soviet Russia, 1939-1941,” and “An A rtist’s View of the *Statute of Kalish’ ” he paints a poignant por trait of the process of destruction. “Dam va-eysh ve’thimroth oshon”— blood and fire and pillars of smoke1— the words of the Prophet Joel echo as Dr. Lewin describes the reality of Polish Jewry during the war. But Dr. Lewin is no mere historian. His writing, indeed his very perspec tive, couples the glory of the past with the hope for the future. His conclud ing nine essays in this volume are public statements that he made in the battle for this future, crusading in behalf of the religious rights of ob servant Jews. Despite its peaceful-sounding title, “Lat Summer F ruit” is a documen tary on the inhumanity of physical war and antisemitism—and at the same time a manifesto for renewed vigor in the battle for Netzach Yisroel.

The Battle of Jericho By LIBBY M. KLAPERMAN AT THE WALLS OF JERICHO, by Israel I. Taslitt. Bloch Publishing Company, 196 pp. $3.00. HE STORY of the Battle of Jeri cho comes to life vividly in this imaginative re-telling of an exciting historic episode. Mr. Taslitt tells his tale from within the walls of the be sieged city, from the point of view of Rahab and the leaders of Jericho, whom he creatively invents for this purpose. The time span covered is just

LIBBY M. K LA PE R M A N is the author of many stories for Jewish children. She also serves as educational director o f W om en’s Branch of UOJCA.

June, 1961

before Joshua gives the orders to attack Jericho, while the Israelites are encamped on the banks of the Jordan, up to the fall of the city it self. The dramatic episodes are not too far-fetched, and sustain interest and suspense. The evil Heresh, spokesman for the king of Jericho, the dedicated Ethiopian bodyguard Malou, and fi nally Rahab herself, are focal points for the story’s action and develop ment. Teen-agers and pre-teens are sure to enjoy this novel. Educators will find it of great value as excellent sup plementary reading for history and Bible courses. 59

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JEWISH LIFE

A Golden Treasury for Young People By PINCHAS STOLPER

THE GOLDEN SHOES AND OTHER STO R IES, by Gershon Kranzler. Illustrated by Zalman Kleinman; Philipp Feldheim, 195 pp. $2.95. HE STORIES of a people whose heroism was long confined to the struggle for survival through the black night of oppressive exile, whose only ultimate weapon was the knowledge that the G-d who authored the Torah would not forsake them, are uniquely marvelous stories. Told eloquently and movingly by Gershon Kranzler for young people, this fine collection of thirteen short stories which range in their setting from Spain during the Inquisition to the reign of King Solo mon, from an cient A lexandria to medieval Prague, are exciting and suspenseful. Without departing from themes of significance and meaning, and without compromising his desire to paint a picture of true Jewish hero ism—where loyalty to Torah reigns supreme—the author has succeeded in weaving a colorful fabric of actionfilled historical episodes which are as thrilling and adventurous as they are inspiring. Though the stories are fictionalized, they are based on authentic folk mem ories told and retold from generation to generation. Everything in each

RABBI PIN C H A S STOLPER is director o f the UOJCA Youth Department and o f the National Conference o f Synagogue Youth. H e is a musmach o f M esivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin.

June, 1961

story is strongly anchored in Jewish historical experience. Each story has spiritual overtones which will move the reader. Each has been written by a writer who understands and sympa thizes with his characters,. In “The Golden Shoes,” Banai the master builder of the Temple, ex plores the secrets of nature. “The Emperor’s Clothes,” a story from the days of Emperor Caligula, tells of an unpretentious sailor, a talmid chochorn, who saved the Alexandrian com munity through his wisdom and skill. “The Wager” tells of the experiences of a brother and sister, recently dragged from destroyed Jerusalem and sold into slavery in Imperial Rome. Then we met beautiful Dina, “The Calif’s Secretary,” who won the hearts of her people’s enemies. “The Harpist of Granada” is a mov ing tale of rx boy all alone in a foreign city. In “The Two Brothers” we meet the brutality of the Spanish Inquisi tion and learn the meaning of strength, courage, and loyalty. “The Bugler of Giebetstadt” is a story of war and battle, while in “The Golden Chain” we experience the strange ad venture of a Jew who joined the Im perial Army and braved death in order to find a long lost son in the Prague Ghetto. A group of Negro slaves establish their own Jewish com munity in “The Yooden Savannah” while the “Zeide’s Niggun” softened the heart of a bitter adversary. “The 61

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Guest” tells the mysterious story of a strange visitor. Most of the principal characters in this collection are youngsters, so that the young reader readily identifies with the hero. Dr. Kranzler, a thinker and writer known for his many fine previous vol umes as well as numerous contribu tions to Jewish periodicals, is principal of the Talm udical Academy High School in Baltimore and a leading fig ure in the Jewish Day School move ment. He is to be complimented for adding so excellent and useful a vol ume in an area where good reading is still scarce. Jewish educators should make every effort to make copies of this book available to their young people, but frankly one is never too old to enjoy stories so well conceived and written.

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Write for brochure S’CHACH We w ill also supply you w ith 80 bamboo sticks 1% inches in diam eter by 6 feet long to cover entire Sukkah. A D D IT IO N A L .. . . .$18.00 COMMUNITY SIZE U y 2 FT. LONG — 10 FT. W IDE— 7*4 FEET HIGH WILL .ACCOMMODATE U P TO 24 PE R SO N S PRICE $212.00 F.O .B. N .Y . ADDITIONAL fo r Com* m unity size Sukkah, all other features as above .....................................$36.00

Union o f Orthodox Jew ish Congregations of America 84 F ifth Avenue N ew York 11, N . Y. A G entlem en: □ Please ship m e one Packaged Sukkah designed by the Spero Foundation. Check for the am ount of $102 is enclosed. □ I also w a n t 80 bamboo sticks, which w ill cover entiré Sukkah, and I am enclosing an additional $18.00. □ Please send brochure on Sukkah decorations, N a m e ...................... ..................... ..................................................................... A ddress............................................................................................................. City and S ta te ......................................................... .......................................

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FOODS THAT ARE STRICTLY KOSHER, THAT ARE STRICTLY DELICIOUS, AND THAT NOW INCLUDE HEINZ VEGETARIAN BEANS, 7 HEINZ SOUPS, A VARIETY OF HEINZ BABY FOODS, KETCHUP, ETC., LOOK ON TH E LABEL FOR T H E ftS E A L OF KASHRUTH OF THE UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA.