Jewish Life June 1962 by Jewish Action

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5722 Vol. XXIX, No. 5/June, 1962/Sivan 5722

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EDITORIALS FROM THE ALGERIAN CAULDRON..................................

YOUNG ISRAEL ..........................................................................

WILLIAMSBURGH REACHES OUT . . . .

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

THE NEW CHALUZIUTH/ ‘ Irwin Gordon ..........................................................................

A R TIC LES

JU D IT H ^ Melvin Solomon .................................................................. 11 THE MARRAN0S AND THE INQUISITION IN THE NEW WORLD/Jacob B e lle r ............................................. 21

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THE BRITISH MUSEUm J I H. Rabinowlcz ........................................................................ 31

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CAREERS IN THE SOCIAL S C IE N C E s H Walter D u c k a t........................................................................ 47

Published by U n io n O rthodox C o n g r e g a t io n s

M oses

o f

S. R. HIRSCH ON EDUCATIONAL S Y N T H E S IS H Justin Hofm ann..................................................................... 34

FICTION VEIN OF G 0 L D / J Max Robin ................................................................................ 43

J e w is h o f

A m e r ic a

F e u e r s t e in

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 Saul Bernstein, Administrator

POETRY THE W 0 R D |,, Israel Kaminsky

................................................................ 19

REVIEW S THE FEDERATION M O VEM EN T^ Paul H. Vishny ..................................................................... 55

DEPARTM ENTS AMONG OUR CONTRIBUTORS ...........................................

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June, 1962

LETTERS TO THE ED ITO R ..................................................... 61 1

IRWIN GORDON, Connecticut-born, fulfilled a long-cher ished purpose when, with his wife and two children, he under took aliyah to Israel last year. He is now Administrative Di rector of the Jerusalem Teachers College. A musmach of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, he has served in former years as Director of Yeshiva University’s Office of Community Program, as Director of the Community Activities Division of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and as a chaplain with the United States Army. JACOB BELLER is well known in the field of Yiddish Journalism and has contributed a number of articles to J e w is h L i f e . He has traveled widely in the course of his journalistic career, including extensive periods in Spain, Portugal and Latin American lands. Mr. Beller makes his home in Canada. RABBI JUSTIN HOFMANN is Director of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation at the University of Buffalo and Lecturer in the University’s School of Education. He received semichah from Hebrew Theological College, and holds the degree of Doctor of Education. Rabbi Hofmann has contributed a number of articles and reviews to J e w is h L if e and to other Jewish and general periodicals. MAX ROBIN, a writer of growing reputation, has had work published in numerous U.S. and Canadian magazines. Many of his stories, as in the case of the one in this issue, are in spired by recollections of a boyhood spent in the richly Jewish enviroment of Radomysl, a Russian shtetl. ISRAEL KAMINSKY received his B.A. degree in History and Education from Brooklyn College. He also studied at Mesivtah Rabbi Chaim Berlin and is presently teaching at the Prospect Park Day School in Brooklyn. DR. WALTER DUCKAT, supervisor of the Guidance Division of the Federation Employment and Guidance Service, continues his series on career opportunities for observant Jews. Dr. Duckat also serves as vocational consultant for Stern College for Women. MELVIN SANFORD SOLOMON has written numerous arti cles and stories on Jewish themes. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he received his B.B.A. degree from Ohio State University in 1955. He is now an advertising account executive in New York City. DR. H. RABINOWICZ is the spiritual leader of the Dollis Hill Synagogue, London, England. He received semichah from Jews’ College and his Ph.D. from London University. He is the author of “Guide to Hassidism” and “The Slave Who Saved the City,” and of articles on Jewish topics which have appeared in American and British periodicals. Last year Rabbi Rabinowicz spent three months in the United States on the “Sir Robert Waley Cohen Traveling Memorial Scholarship.” JEWISH LIFE

From The Algerian Cauldron AUQHT between two fires, Algeria’s 100,000 Jews are in C flight. The sufferings they have incurred—largely obscured from public notice amidst the horrors of the bloody Algerian scene—leave them no hope of a future in the land of which they have been part for long centuries. Many thousands have already fled, most of them salvaging little or nothing of their means. Others are desperately seeking opportunity to leave, with catas trophe coming closer day by day. Thus yet another Jewry is uprooted and dispersed. In recent generations, Algerian Jews have tended to identify themselves with the political and cultural sphere of France, and now it is to France that most turn for haven. Pouring in large Mass Influx, numbers into a few French cities, their needs are joined to those M ass Problem of many thousand of Jews from Egypt, Tunis, and Morocco who have similarly been uprooted in the flood-tide of Moslem nationalism. The abrupt, uncharted mass migration has inevitably brought tremendous problems. The newcomers must find a liveli hood in occupations for which they are for the most part un trained, must find dwelling amidst housing shortages, must piece together a social pattern in a setting foreign to them, must establish a format for religious observance in the face of con ditions that threaten the destruction of their spiritual lives. The situation presents a formidable challenge alike to the leadership of the uprooted communities and to the established community of French Jewry. There is heartening evidence that the latter is responding with determination to the need before them. The physical scope of the problem is indicated by the fact that the migration may practically double the Jewish population of France, which had been but 350,000. This is equivalent to American Jewry being faced with an influx of five million home less brethren. The problem is accentuated by the marked differ ences in background between French Jews, mostly Ashkenazim of European mold, and the newcomers, largely Sephardim and products of an oriental milieu. June, 1962

EWS everywhere share the challenge and the obligation to aid the uprooted scores of thousands of North African Jews. In large part, the assistance must be and doubtless will be extended through the agencies for overseas Jewish relief and development supported by Jews at large. But there is a key area of need Traditional which calls imperatively for special, additional effort by tradiJew ry’s tional Jewry. The majority of the refugees are devout Jews, Obligation cherishing deeply their religious heritage and traditions. Unless means are provided swiftly for the re-establishment of channels of religious life, all that has been upheld through the trials of ages may now be swept away in chaos.

The religious leadership of the transplanted North African communities and of the French community are straining every effort to provide schools and synagogues, mikvoth and Kashruth facilities. It is the prime duty of orthodox Jewish forces in this country to join shoulder to shoulder in this effort. Let action now be spurred by sad reminders of past experiences, in which so many refugees were lost to the religious fold for lack of adequate channels of aid. The agencies of traditional Judaism must rise—not separately, not spasmodically, but in unison and with fulness of strength—to the call of the uprooted.

Young Israel FIFTIETH anniversary is a major landmark in the history of any organization or institution; after all, such an event occurs but once in a yovel, and is to be duly celebrated. Cer tainly the fiftieth anniversary of the Young Israel movement, which occurs at this time, is an occasion to be marked and war ranting a liberal measure of public tribute. The contribution of this movement to tjie development of American Jewry has been large and fruitful. In essence, Young Israel was born as an instrument of re form and through the vicissitudes of time and growth reform has remained its keynote. Of course, the term “reform’* as ap plied to Young Israel has an opposite significance to that of the heterodox movement bearing this designation. Young Israel is dedicated to the reform of Jews, so that they be true to the Torah, not to the reform of Judaism, so that it conform to the demands of the non-believer. From its original unit on the lower East Side, the Young Israel movement has spread to ninety-three congregations in various parts of metropolitan New York and in some other Fruitful cities, linked together organically through the National Council. Vine The typical Young Israel synagogue is marked by virility and

JEWISH LIFE

among the membership, and by fervent devotion to the ideology of Orthodoxy. The movement generates an influence that is felt far beyond its immediate ranks. IEWING Young Israel in 50-year perspective, one can see as its key contribution the nurturing of a sense of Torah V conviction among young men and women of the post-immigrant generations, a commitment which they have held steadfastly throughout life and have transmitted to their children in turn. Through an era when the process of Americanization became confused with the process of de-Judaiszation, Young Israel spread the teaching that the truly American Jew is the truly Jewish Jew. Within the ranks of Orthodoxy, Young Israelites have formed a distinctive force, bound together by special ties. This special quality has had its less constructive side: there has been some tendency to limitation of relations with other orthodox forces in the community, with resultant restriction of horizon. Recent trends, however, point to a maturing outlook, as indicated by W idening measures undertaken to widen participation in Jewish affairs Horizons both on the national and local levels. It is certainly to be hoped that this policy will be pursued to the fullest, for the participation of Young Israelites in the larger frame of traditional Jewish effort cannot fail to benefit alike the Young Israel movement and the cause to which it is dedicated. Young Israel enters upon its second half-century with rich ness of experience joined to the vigor of youth. May this dis tinguished movement go, B’ezrath Hashem, from strength to strength and from achievement to achievement.

W illiam sburgh Reaches O ut OME current developments have raised questions as to the S future of Brooklyn’s Williamsburgh, that fastness of fervid Jewishness. Announcement has been made that Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Vodaath, one of the world’s greatest strongholds of Torah learning, has approved plans to construct spacious, modern new quarters in Flatbush—still in Brooklyn but some miles from its present location and presenting a decidedly differ ent social setting. Coinciding with this, spokesmen of the Satmarer Chassidim have announced arrangements to establish, in successive stages, a self-contained community in a New Jersey location—in semi-rural surroundings contrasting sharply with June, 1962

their present Williamsburgh center. These moves were preceded some time ago by the establishment of Squaretown, a Kockiand County suburban community established and populated entirely by the Squerer group of Chassidim, transferred from a Williams burgh base. And other institutions and groups whose habitat has been Williamsburgh have in the recent period set up branches and spearhead units in various parts of the metropolitan New York area and beyond. It can be expected that still others will follow suit. These changes are significant. Williamsburgh constitutes an intensive Jewish force, radiating currents which permeate the Jewish world. What develops in, and from, this unique center affects the shape of Jewish life. The outgoing developments have been occasioned in part by external causes. The physical face of the area has been radically Basic changed by the erection of large, city-sponsored housing developDrive ments, bringing a new populace, and by demolition of many buildings to make way for new express motor roads. But to a considerable extent, Jewish Williamsburgh has adjusted itself to these changes. A more basic motivation can be seen in the efflorescence of Williamsburgh’s inherent character. The key in gredient in this is the will to shape a Jewish environment, on Torah terms. The moves outward are the result, not of a wish to separate from that which Williamsburgh represents but, to the contrary, of the drive to bring this very spirit and character to wider areas and new heights. Especially noteworthy among the new developments is the bold move of Torah Vodaath, whose existence made possible the Williamsburgh phenomenon. From its first foundation in 1918, this institution has been in continuous growth, with a present student body of 2,000. It has attracted talmidim from all over the United States and from twenty-eight foreign coun tries. Classes range from kindergarten to post-graduate research Courage studies. Its graduates, among them many talmidey chachomim, of bear with them enduringly the spirit and purpose with which Conviction they have been imbued and form an increasingly potent force in Jewish affairs. To transplant Torah Vodaath from the Wil liamsburgh from which it sprang to a new locale, from an aggregation of improvised old structures to a $4,000,000 designed-to-order new campus, from an atmosphere of make-do to one of clearly conceived progress, this surely bespeaks courage and dedication of a high order. It is of the very char acter of Torah Vodaath that this spirit is born.

JEWISH LIFE

The New Chaluziuth By IRWIN GORDON

J eru salem

HE mass immigration from North Africa, Iraq, Jerusalem, and other eastern communities and the growing immigration from a number of west ern countries has brought about a change in the needs and demands of Israel’s educational system. Since a majority of the new Olim bring with them a tradition of religious observ ance, this change has nowhere been so reflected as in the network of re ligious public schools. The fact is that in the new im migrant centers—the South and Jeru salem—more than 40% of all school age children are enrolled in the gov ernment-sponsored religious public school system. Country-wide, more than 100,000 students, nearly a third of Israel’s total public school popula tion now attend the religious elemen tary schools. Although these figures are not a cause for joy—-much has been spoken and written about the many religious children who are not receiving a tra ditional education—they would never theless give some satisfaction if school

June, 1962

teachers were freely available. For the past two years, unfortunately, there has been a shortage of some hundred religious elementary teachers — and the situation is getting worse. E can assume that the religious system will enroll an additional 4,000-5,000 students each year for the next five years. This is indicated by the rate of growth in recent years: the 1958 enrollment was 78,327; 1959— 86,625; 1960—92,835; 1961—96,571. This normal increase will re quire nearly two hundred new men annually. Israel’s government contemplates an annual immigration of some 50,000 persons for this same period, among them 10,000 children of school age. If we assume, on the basis of past experience, that the religious system will absorb about one-third of them, then we shall have to fill an additional hundred new vacancies from year to year. To this add the approximately 450 new teachers that must be found for the religious system each year by.

reasons of resignations, changes in the student-teacher ration, poor health, and other causes, and the growing need for teachers becomes quite clear. The increasing feminization of the teaching profession has also created a problem for the religious system. Many of the subjects—particularly Talmud in the fifth to eighth grades —and the separate classes for boys and girls that exist in many schools, require men teachers. Even in the elementary schools of Tel Aviv, there has been an increasing shortage of men to teach Talmud in recent years. Tied in with the entire problem is the fact that only 35% of all the teachers now available for the religious elementary system are graduates of fully accredited teachers colleges. The remainder, although generally devoted and capable, lack the professional training that adds so much to a teach er’s ability. O meet the situation, there exist six two-year, post-high school teachers colleges that will this year graduate a total of some 150 qualified teachers. There are also a number of one-year and two-year “Midrashoth,” partly on the high school level, that will graduate an additional 200 par tially qualified teachers. The system can thus expect a shortage of about 400 religious elementary school teach ers in September 1962. The oldest of the religious semina ries is the Jerusalem Teachers College. Founded in 1920 by Eliezer Meir Lifshitz, its faculty has included the late Rabbi Simcha Asaf, Rabbi S. I. Levin, Mordechai ben Yechezkel and Chanoch Yalon, men who have left their mark on Israel through their students no less than by their own significant abilities.

At present this school offers a four year teachers preparatory course on the high school level, followed by the teachers college for two years of pro fessional educational training. The school population numbers some 400 men. Two other schools concerned with training men to teach the elementary grades are the Seminar at Givat Wash ington and the Rechovath Torah In stitute. Each of these institutions will this year graduate some fifteen men as fully qualified teachers. The remaining three schools, the Ephratah Seminary in Jerusalem, the Talpioth Seminary in Tel Aviv, and the Haifa Seminary are all exclusively concerned with training girls as kinder garten and primary grade teachers. n fo rtu n a tely ,

it is only now, when the problem of teacher training has become of overriding importance that educational authori ties are beginning to give it the serious attention that it requires. It is interesting to note that, for the last five years, the number of students interested in preparing themselves to be teachers has remained almost static despite the increase in the number of students graduating from the religious elementary schools, as indicated by the following table:

To Teacher Prep. Schools

Continued To H. S.

Elem. School Graduates

239 238 254 234 267

2110 2612 3198 4378 5110

3269 4421 5457 7147 9160

1957 1958 1959 1960 1961

Now at last we have the beginnings of a recruitment program for the teachers colleges. JEWISH LIFE

The Jerusalem Teachers College.

The years of neglect are further evident in the antiquated structures in which most of the teachers colleges are housed. With only a few excep tions, the school buildings are unat tractive, overcrowded, and lacking in facilities that make possible adaquate teacher preparation. Finally, educa tional authorities have begun to realize that we cannot properly prepare to morrow’s teachers under conditions that militate actively against good teaching. It is to the credit of the present Minister of Education, Abba Eban, that he has broken the barrier of silence that has surrounded the prob lem until now, so that the situation can be brought home to the people at large. The following clipping from Haaretz, a leading Israel newspaper, is indicative of the new turn of events. June, 1962

Mr. Abba Eban, Minister of Edu cation and Culture, stressed the prob lems faced by the country in connection with the shortage of teachers in its elementary and high schools. Presented with the need to recruit as many teach ers as possible, schools have begun to forego quality and accept unlicensed teachers so that there are now thou sands of such teachers in the elemen tary system and hundreds of teachers in the high schools who have not com pleted their college training. Now with the beginning of a na tional awakening to the need for edu cation of our eastern brethren as an integral part of the drive for com munity integration and the settlement of new areas in the Negev and Galil, the teaching profession has been trans formed into a pioneer effort of the first magnitude. Teaching has become the new chalutziuth—-and the teacher the chalutz par excellence. 9

RACTICAL steps are now being taken to enlarge dormitory facili ties in the existing teachers colleges to facilitate the enrollment of out of town students. Efforts are also being made to attract new sudents by open ing teacher preparatory classes at various high schools-—particularly in areas of high immigrant concentra tion, by providing “majors” in Arts and Crafts, Music, Physical Educa tion, and other specialties at the teach ers seminaries; by seeking new sources for grants in aid and stipends for needy students and by the construction of new buildings that will provide the classroom and laboratory facilities that are so desperately needed. The country’s foremost obligation is to develop the latent abilities of its new immigrant children—most of them children of the “edoth hamizrach” who have been settled in new villages and development areas where proper post-elementary school facili ties are still not available. Despite their poor spiritual and material surroundings, it is neverthe less from these children that Israel’s leaders of tomorrow will emerge. Because their numbers give them the majority of Israel’s population, it is they who will determine the lines along which the country’s social, eco nomic, and cultural development will proceed. Precisely for this reason must the observant community protect them from the pulls and pressures of the miHtantly irreligious who are no less

aware of the potential power that lies in the hands of today’s underprivi leged children. These young people know intimately the customs and tra ditions of their community. It is they who will, after completing their train ing, return home to teach a younger generation the meaning and the pur pose of living as men and as active participants in Israel’s struggle for redemption. The majority of these children are the offspring of religious parents. Per centagewise, twice as many of them attend schools of the religious ele mentary system as attend the general system. Yet the economic facts of life faced by most immigrants from Orien tal lands strongly impedes their send ing a son or daughter to school for an additional six or eight years—surely not away from home. This explains, in great measure, the low percentage of elementary school graduates that continue on to high school (see above table). The only way that these young people can be educated is by the pro vision of substantial grants and schol arships that will make it possible for the parents to forego the financial assistance that their son of high school or college age might otherwise con tribute to the family budget. Ultimately, this material question will determine the success or failure of the present recruitment program. For want of any other place to place it at this moment, the burden rests for the most part on the shoulders of the traditional community.

JEWISH LIFE

Judith

By MELVIN SOLOMON

We have done with Hope and Honour, we are lost to Love and Truth, We are dropping down the ladder rung by rung; And the measure of our torment is the measure of our youth . G-d help us, for we knew the worst too young! G e n t l e m e n R a n k e r s , K ip l in g

HIS is the story of a proselyte; the story of a young woman new ly learning the convictions of an ancient religion. This is the story of a girl born in the environment of a German, devoutly Roman Catholic home, trained by the authoritarian perversity of the Nazi Hitler Youth, and now living in America as a Jew. When Lisa Berger was born in 1929, Germany, as much of the world, was suffering in deep depression. Hitler was on the rise, but peace pre vailed. She was born in this year of crises, in Bavaria near Beyreuth— east toward the Czech border. The high mountains,, rolling hills, and rich meadows were her playground. Only the daily Prague to Munich train that passed a few yards from her home cast any thoughts into her young head of far off cities and lands.

June, 1962

Her mother, Greta Berger, a stern, serious woman,. V-was the dominant force in Lisa’s childhood. Enwrapped in her religion, the mother maintained strict obedience to the Roman Catho lic Church and its required practices. Even today Lisa can clearly recall the deep impression that the act of con fession made upon her. Frau Berger observed this ritual to the hilt and one could not deviate from the sched ule. A deep lesson as to what a good Catholic should do was impressed upon Lisa time after time. AX, her father was the opposite of Greta. Religion did not play M an important part in his life. Attend ing church was always a chore he reluctantly performed in accompany ing his wife and child. It would be right to say Max was henpecked, and 11

Most of her non-school time was spent working in the fields and in the home with her mother on domestic chores. It took a few years for Frau Berger to learn the truth about Nazism, and then she attempted to protect her family and home from the influen.ee of Hitler’s plans. On March 15th of their tenth year every German young ster was made to register with the local State Youth Headquarters. When Lisa’s time for registration came, it was Greta’s strong Catholic instinct to ignore the authorities and keep Lisa at home. She succeeded for sev eral months in eluding the registra tion, but one day the officials paid a visit to the peaceful little house be tween the forest and railroad. “Mother saw them driving up to the house and told me to go to the bedroom. I could still hear their voices. There were three of them, but one did all the talking. He warned mother that if I was not registered in the Hitler Youth immediately the family would ‘suffer the consequences’ and subsequently be confined in a Labor Camp. Mother pleaded with them, but needless to say they were not convinced. As Lisa entered the League of Ger man Girls, the Hitler Youth group for girls ten to fourteen, the initial stage of training consisted of complete Nazi indoctrination, primarily the history and world role of Nazidom. Strong antisemitic training manifested itself within this initial stage of nazification. The Jews had never been part of the German peasantry, roving journeymen, wandering scholars, Knights-errant, or 1939: SCHOOLING IN NAZISM effervescent patriots in numbers at all significant. They were identified with P to this time Lisa’s life was merchanistic science, economic ration • somewhat sheltered from Nazi alism, detached internationalism, and indoctrination. Elementary school was metropolitan culture—all of them anathema to the youth movement. All a natural experience and she excelled.

willingly so . . . Greta always knew what to do! Easy-going, out of work frequently, with no trade and rather a weak family man, he did not seem to care much about anything except perhaps to go to town once a week or whenever he could, to have his beer amid conversations about politics. The years of political change in Germany had a marked effect on Max. He was an adventurer obsessed by the German “cause’’;, and “goal.” It could be said that he exemplified the easily influenced Germans of the time, won over by Hitler’s strident message of better times to come, coupled with the mania for a pure German race. No one thought about the ways, the methods, the results. Why should Max? His excursions to the beer platz multiplied as his chauvinism and belief in Hitler waxed. Greta, at the outset, was also taken in by the Nazi propaganda. Hitler, reckoning with the strong re ligious feelings of many Germans, particularly, the peasantry of Bavaria, planned his campaign carefully. As the occasion required, he was apt to affect Christian conviction. Lisa re calls, “I can remember the many evenings my parents would sit beside the radio listening to Hitler give as surance that his regime would ‘firmly protect Christianity, which is our moral basis’; and then conclude by saying ‘ May Almighty G-d show mercy on our work, guide our will, bless our understanding and favor us with the confidence of our people’.”

U 12

JEWISH LIFE

of these anathematized traits and many more were present among and utilized by the Nazis, but they were cleverly concealed by Goebbels and his like.* LASSES became completely regi mented; Hitler Youth songs and marches replaced the usual Schubert songs. Although Lisa sadly recollects this period she fondly remembers the time spent at Free-Summer Camp. This was part of Hitler’s plan for the “future mothers of the National Social ist population.1’ The purpose of the outdoor Summer Camp was to pre pare the girls for their one year of Labor Service called “Faith and Beauty” where they would undergo training in domestic science and prep aration for marriage. The girls were then established in a household or a farm to help the housewife with the care of children, preparation of meals, and general domestic tasks. The Nazi theme was “Each German girl should give a child to the Führer,” and ex tensive domestic training set out to fulfill this goal. Although she went to camp and enjoyed the training and the outdoor life, Lisa was saved from its ultimate goal by time and history. Lisa was completely enveloped in the Hitler Youth program. This was her new life. She was superior in sports. Her strong body, blond hair, and blue eyes made her an ideal child of Germany. The Nazi domestic trainifig came easily to her after Frau Berger’s of prior years.

a sports achievement badge at a sports festival designated to further the Nazi process of assuring the ideal female athlete. The requirements for this decoration are determined by the basic principles of LGG sports: namely, no supreme efforts of virtuosos in particular special ties, but a fairly good record by every one in all fields. Supplemental to this a sound grasp of open-country and hiking practices is required, as well as a knowledge of first aid. All gifted girls are given the chance to develop them selves further by work in Calisthenics and Sports Clubs.*

T the age of twelve she was made the leader of her class. She be came the personification of what the program had in mind for the young girls. It was at this time that Lisa won

During these years Lisa was allowed to live at home, traveling to school each day. The officials believed that Lisa could help the Fatherland best by working in the fields with the crops. In 1942 Max joined the Nazi party as a railroad official. “Father thought that as a result he would be able to get a better position after Germany won the war. The work for the two was hard and the demands by the officials for increased production in creasingly strict. Between studies and farm Work, Lisa’s days were full. The nights were spent for the most part in reading and discussion with her mother. The reading material con sisted mainly of Nazi propaganda pub lications. The foremost among these was the “Stürmer/* ] a lurid weekly newspaper filled with hate propaganda against the Jews. “We were told that the Jews were the cause of our troubles. They slaughtered German children for feasts and the large sums of money they had was taken from Germans. Everything was blamed on the Jews.” Prior to this propaganda Lisa had little knowledge of the Jews.

* Howard Becker, German Youth: Bond or Free, pp. 154, 155.

* Hilde Munske, Model in aller Welt (Berlin, 1936, p. 13).

June, 1962

She only knew of them as shop owners in the cities, primarily Munich, which she occasionally visited with her mother. “They were different from the others, yes, but they did not seem that cruel to me— even after reading the “Stürmer.” The Church was still an active part of their lives, but for Lisa this ac tivity was only external. Her religion had lost inner meaning for her. The mass now was coupled with Hitler Youth meetings and although the Church did not favor Hitler’s war, the priests apparently did not fight him from the pulpit. As she looks back, she recalls: “Each mass was concluded by the priest with either, ‘May G-d give us victory; pray for peace and may our soldiers come back victoriously,’ or ‘May G-d keep our leader’.”

1944-1945!: IN FLIGHT FROM DEFEAT

ITLER’S Germany began to feel defeat at home and at the front. Discouragement and disillusion spread on all sides: Hitler’s dreams were not becoming realities. Hardship, death, and hunger found their way into Lisa’s life. Without food and livestock it became more and more difficult for the two women to operate the house hold. All had been drained away by the war cause. In fear of the oncoming American troops and with complete chaos fac ing them, Lisa accompanied by Frau Berger journeyed to her grandmother’s home in Furth, along the Czech bor der. It was somewhat of a relief to be with relatives again, but when they arrived the situation was no brighter than on the farm.

At this time the American troops were marching rapidly eastward over a defeated Germany. Concentration camps in their way were being liber ated, one after the other. In the wake of this, the Nazis frantically either killed the remaining Jews or trans ported them further inland away from the front. Flossenburg was one such camp, a short distance from Furth. Here the Nazis began a death march of thousands of Jews in an attempt to move them to another camp. Outside Furth the Nazis gave up the march and ruthlessly murdered the remaining Jews in the trenches and adjacent open field. As they shot them down the Nazis ran for their lives, leaving the bodies unburied. A group of townspeople organized to recruit a burial squad. This Catholic community was loathe to undertake the grim task. The men came to Lisa’s grand mother’s home, but were greeted with, “They are only Jews, why should we bury them?” In full view Lisa saw and heard this complete lack of hu man feeling in her own family. And it was as a result of this episode that she lost whatever remaining respect she had for Christianity. She simply could not understand this act of hy pocrisy. Questions in her mind were left unanswered . . . “These Jews were human beings, were they not?” . . , “What if my fate had been to be a Jew?” Lisa was shocked to realize that her family and the people of Furth cared little about this murder ous act and only the stench from the countless corpses made them realize that something had to be done. The corpses were finally buried in a mass grave by the citizens of the town. Lisa and her mother returned to the farm the day the war officially ended. There they waited for Max to return. His whereabouts were not known. JEWISH LIFE

Casualties had been extremely heavy, but they refused to give him up as dead. They returned to the farm house which had remained still standing in its seclusion near the forest. The land was barren, the livestock gone. The two were isolated; food was scarce and they had only what they could grow in the fields. Schools had dis banded; local governments were com pletely fallen apart. The people were now on their own, waiting for the occupation forces to set up their re strictions and controls. The people suffered the defeat. There was no transportation; the trains were no longer running from Prague to Munich, and the roar and rumble of the passing locomotives, once a part of Lisa’s life, were some thing she longed for and missed acutely. But now, instead of the trains, she could see refugees walking along the tracks trudging back in search of their homes. Most of these people, using the railroad tracks as a road to liberation, were the Jews who were freed from the concentration camps. They came hobbling along, wearing their stripped uniforms. Old and young, men and women, came search ing for food and shelter, running from the scourge of death that lay behind them. They would stop at the farm house and rest at the door step, asking for food and directions. Greta and Lisa knew they were Jews. “We gave them food and they shared what we had, which wasn’t much. We could see from their eyes and tortured bodies what they had gone through. Every other day groups came walking along the tracks. We tried to help them, but it wasn’t enough. Occasionally they would tell me of the conditions in the camps and I was horrified.” June, 1962

Lisa continued to be horrified with each group, but nothing could be done. She and Greta were in no physical or economic condition to help them, ex cept for some bread and potatoes to comfort their hungry bodies. N the autumn of 1945, when the countryside was at peace and nature once again prepared for winter, Max came traveling back on foot to his family. He had been held prisoner near Vienna and after his long journey, arrived home to a rejoicing wife and daughter. He returned a defeated soldier, whose defeat showed on his beaten and tired body.

1949: EN ROUTE TO A NEW LIFE

OW at the age of twenty, Lisa decided it was due time she left the farm and sought independence from the restrictions of Greta and Max and country life. She left her home and traveled to the city of Munich. She found a job as a Displaced Persons clerk in the American Con sulate—typing documents. It was dur ing this time that she listened to the stories told by the Jews of their con centration camp experiences. The stream of refugees was endless. “These people tried very hard not to show any of their feelings about the camps, and they did not want to talk about it; they merely cried most of the time and the majority wanted only to leave Germany and go to America. It was during one of the bad days when I saw this helpless old Jewish man sitting and weeping. I went to him and spoke in German. As I under stood his Yiddish, the Consulate had refused to let him through because

they could not get a birth date for the records. When they asked for it, he gave them two dates. While complica tions ensued, the old man became more confused and less and less co herent. He told me his story and then I asked him his birthday. He once again gave me two dates. He finally made it clear to me that one date was the date of birth, the second was the date of circumcision. From the lan guages of German, Yiddish, and Eng lish, I fully explained to the officials and in turn they passed the old man. As we parted he took my hand and softly said in Yiddish, ‘You are a good Jewish girl.’ ” During the next few months Lisa met thousands of Jews who had suf fered hardships from the Nazis. She became more and more sympathetic and began to understand their ways. Through intimate contact with the refugees Lisa began to feel close to them and the feeling of being one of them began to envelope her life. She would visit the Displaced Persons camp often, especially at the High Holy Days, to help them prepare for the holidays. She would get a special joy out of reading the stories from the Bible to the children. From these hours she received happiness un known to her before and the questions that she had pondered at Furth years ago began to find their answers. Juda ism was a meaningful and living re ligion and she craved for further knowledge. 1951-1957: RE-BIRTH

ISA became a secretary at the American base near Munich. It was in September of 1956 that she met Peter, an American soldier. Peter was a Jew from New York City, born

in Germany, who had been smuggled out of the country at eight years of age. His parents remained and later were shipped to Dachau; subsequently they managed to escape to Denmark, later to New York. He and Lisa saw much of each other. These days were spent talkir^g of America, the way and the Jews. Peter spoke of the customs of Judaism, and told her of America and how wonderful it was to live in the land of the free. In time, the two fell in love, but marriage seemed out of the question. There was too much between them to prevent this step: religion, the war, and Peter’s parents. He knew they would not hear of his marrying a German girl, and never a Christian! Peter felt the relationship would prove to be a harmless one, in spite of his affection for Lisa, because of his being temporarily stationed in Germany. Therefore, he made the most of this opportunity of friendship and compassion. In January of 1957, Peter was trans ferred to a post near Paris. The part ing was hard on Lisa. She did not want to lose him; therefore, she man aged to leave Munich and follow him to Paris. She immediately got a job as a secretary-translator at one of the American agencies. N Friday evenings Peter went to O Sabbath services near the base. .On one such Friday, Lisa asked him if she might also attend. The readings and chanting in Hebrew of the ortho dox service impressed her deeply. After the service, upon Lisa’s request, Peter introduced her to the chaplain. At this time Lisa received a phone call from her father telling her of her mother’s death. She immediately flew JEWISH LIFE

back to the farm in time for the burial. Soon after she returned to Paris with the realization that she was now free to arrange her life as she wished. She felt completely at ease and ready to make the most impor tant decision that she had yet to make. When Peter was unable to attend Sabbath services because of Army duties, Lisa went on her own. On one occasion she met the rabbi after serv ices and told him of her desire to convert. This led to several meetings and discussions. She told him of her service in the Hitler Youth and of her family background. “It was hard to convince the rabbi of my inten tions. I believe he thought only of my desire to become Peter’s wife. I pressed the point that I had strong inclinations toward conversion soon after the war in Munich. I also told him of that day at grandmother’s and that my primary reason was to be come a part of this ancient faith.” The rabbi accepted her as a student and told her it would take nearly a year of intensive study and devotion before conversion could take place. Thereupon Lisa met with him three times a week. Wednesday nights were Bible class with a group of ten others attending. They read and discussed Torah and history. Friday nights after services the rabbi and Lisa continued their discussions. He also taught her to read Hebrew. On Sunday mornings the class would meet again and occa sionally have guest speakers lecture on Judaism. In May of 1958 Lisa was ready for the formal ceremony of conver sion. A verbal test, the primary step, was given in the rabbi’s study; here the rabbi questioned Lisa closely as to her reasons for desiring conversion, probed her understanding of Jewish laws, beliefs, and observances, tested June. 1962

her belief in Judaism and her com mitment to its faithful observance. The second day she was taken to a Mikveh, “a gathering of waters,” immersing herself in the ritual pool symbolizing purification and dedication, as pre scribed by Jewish law. There, reborn, she was given her Jewish name. It was her choice to be called Judith. There followed the Sunday reception where friends gathered in the chapel for congratulations. Judith, as she heqceforth was named, had no intention of going back to the farm, knowing her father would not understand. She later wrote and told him of the conversion and explained her reasons, hoping that he would not be bitter. She received the answer that she rather expected, that he completely broke with her. After her return to Paris, Peter and Judith delved into discussion of their future. Marriage still seemed to be impossible due to his parents’ com plete refusal to accept her. It was at this critical time that Peter was trans ferred back to the United States and discharged. They corresponded for some months, but the romance took the natural course and cooled and eventually the correspondence ceased. ^

EVERAL months later some American friends in Paris offered to sponsor Judith’s emigration to America. In May of 1959 she arrived in New York. Soon after arriving she telephoned Peter’s home; his mother answered and bluntly told her that Peter was married and was not living in New York. In spite of this shock, Lisa determined to make the best of the situation. She found a job at a hospital as a secretary to a physician,

joined religious groups and began studies at Columbia University in philosophy and science. “Looking back over my life, you can say it has been rather contradic tory. My childhood was filled with the tragedy of Hitler’s Germany and now I am a Jew in America. My life has contained, for the most part, rigid training in domestic chores, religion, and Hitler Youth programs. I re mained confused throughout those years—each part continued to offset the other. Obedience was the prime consideration and free thought was al ways difficult; my intellect was cur tailed. After living under Hitler and then realizing all that had occurred I could not easily understand how it all happened. The historical explana tions are there, but the human ones are still obscure. I felt a complete guilt in the situation, but I also saw my fellow Germans and family, who throughout my childhood taught me how to be a good Catholic, merely

stand by and watch, or pretend not to see the massacre of the Jews. I could not be a good Christian after that; I simply lost what ever faith I had. “I, however, found in Judaism a new life, a living religion filled with good and human understanding. J have no desire to go back to Germany; I can only hope to forget my life there, and I hope someday to travel to Israel and perhaps work on a kibbutz for a year or two. I have a strong desire to surround myself in Judaism completely and learn more about its ways. I realize I am only a convert and I’m new, but I want to become a part of the people.” This, then, is the story of Lisa who became Judith. Then she said— Let me find favour in thy sight, my Lord; for that thou hast comforted me and for that thou hast spoken to the heart of thy hand maid, though 1 be not as one of thy handmaids.------ R uth 2:13.

JEWISH LIFE

THE WORD By ISRAEL KAMINSKY

All the World was Silent— Then was Heard the Sound: “I AM THE LORD, YOUR G-D” — M id r a s h R a b b a h

o lap of wave In mirror-sea Agleam In wide expectancy; From forest shadows Not a howl Of hunger On its daily prowl; No warble Of spring-touched bird Beneath the sign Of silence heard; No word from man, His utterance stilled In soul with silence Strangely filled; Alone, supreme In the stillness odd, Only the Word Of the Only G-d, In clap of splendor, Ne’er to depart From the trembling sapphire Of every heart.

June, 1962

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JEWISH LIFE

The Marranos and the Inquisition in the New World

By JACOB BELLER

N the most far-flung points of the Latin American continent, in the most primitive areas untouched as yet by modern civilization, it is possible today to come across living relics of the Jewish martyrology of four hun dred years ago when the Spanish In quisition burned at the stake those suspected of secret attachment to Juda ism. The Inquisition tribunal pursued them to the New World where they had fled to escape its wrath and there these courts functioned punctiliously and relentlessly sentencing to death those found guilty of the crime of Judaizing. In my travels through the remote areas of Latin America I have come across traces of these Marränos who had passed on the knowledge of Juda ism from one generation to another despite the perils of the Inquisition, and who today, four centuries later,

June, 1962

are living witnesses of that epoch. These exist in the form of secluded sects which observe Jewish practices, practices that in the course of their isolated life over the course of cen turies have become mangled and twisted. I shared a Pesach Seder with one of these groups called the Hijos de Sion (Sons of Zion) and once visited such a community also in Portugal. It is understandable why so many Marranos concentrated in the New World. The discovery of new con tinents by Spain and Portugal took place at the very time that these two countries started their persecution of Jews and “New Christians” (who were outwardly Christians but in private observed Judaism). It is a fact that a substantial number of those involved in the New World ex plorations were Marranos. “It was in m

the same month in which the Spanish King and Queen ordered all professing Jews to be expelled from their domin ions,” we are reminded by Columbus in his journal, “that they gave me the order to prepare an expedition of suitable men to seek new territories.” There are a number of items of evi dence pointing to a Marrano origin for Columbus, something that Spain has always sought to deny. Whatever Columbus was, there is no doubt, however, that there were many Marranos in his expedition, and that it was due to the persuasion of two in fluential Marranos, Luis de Santagel, the royal treasurer, and Gabriel San chez, treasurer of Aragon, that the queen took Columbus’ plan seriously. One of the few “authentic” Christians involved in the plans was the royal secretary Juan de Coloma, whose wife was of Marrano origin. Both the physician and the interpreter Luis de Torres were Marranos or of Marrano parentage and the first crew member who sighted land—Roderigo de Triaga—was a Marrano. arranos

also figured in the

Portuguese expeditions. Because M of the intense competition between the two countries, their plans were kept concealed. The Jew Abraham Zacuto had discovered the means of enabling regular transoceanic trips; the Jewish mathematician, Pedro Nunez, helped considerably in the plans of the expedition. All the cosmographers and geographers at the Portuguese court were Jews. Jafurda Cresques, a Jew, was the first to pro pose a marine school in Portugal, an institution which was to assist greatly later in the discovery and exploration of new continents. After the decree of 1492 expelling all professing Jews from the kingdom 22

of Spain, there was a mass migration of Jews to nearby Portugal. The ruler of Portugal admitted them to his realm on payment of a tax, for a limited period, provided that they would leave the country in Portuguese ships on the expiry of the period. In 1496, when the king of Portugal married a princess of the Spanish ruling dynasty, a condition of the match was that the bride would not set foot on the soil of Portugal until it was cleansed of Jews. A year later Portugal followed the example of Spain. Both countries, however, were en gaged in the historic rivalry for the New World and for such ambitious and grandiose projects they needed the capital of these Jews as well as their enterprise, boldness, and initia tive. The Marranos on their part, feel ing that they had much to gain by way of gambling for a new-found freedom, were ready for any risk. Their hope was that in the territories of the New World they would be far from the ever-present eye of the In quisition and would be free to prac tice their faith. Moreover, both the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs gave certain concessions to those Mar ranos willing to settle in the New World and even negotiated franchises with those who would battle with the Indians and annex new territories for the Crown. In the year 1509 in the city of Seville an agreement was com pleted between the New Christians and the Spanish Crown by which, in payment of the sum of 20,000 ducats, they were free to travel to the newly discovered colonies where they would be allowed to carry on trade for two years. There were many such contracts entered into. The Marrano Fernando Noronha negotiated with the King of JEWISH LIFE

Portugal on behalf of a group of Marranos in 1506. These chose to go to Brazil where for one year they would be freed from taxation on a territory of a thousand quintales which they would cultivate; in the second year they would pay one sixth of the nor mal tax. The Marranos actually were the first to cultivate sugar plantations there. An island three hundred miles from Belem today bears the name of its founder, Fernando Noronha. N 1580 Luis de Carvajal, who was governor of the province of Nuevo Leon in Mexico, received permission of Philip II in Toledo to go to New Spain and open up new territories. With a group of a hundred soldiers and sixty heads of families he landed in Tampico and there the greater part of this expedition, who were Mar ranos, reverted to Judaism. Luis de Carvajal later brought in a number of Marranos from Brazil. Nine years later, when the Inquisition reached Mexico, he was arrested and charged with having fasted on the P ay of Atonement, having eaten Matzoth on Passover, of observing the Jewish Sabbath, and of having buried his father with the Jewish rites. The In quisition gave him the opportunity of repenting; he could fast every Friday and repeat the Ave Maria fifty times each day. He was again arrested with his whole family on the charge of backsliding and he was burned at an auto-da-fe. Manuel Bautista Perez of Lima suffered a similar fate. He was an important and influential person with the Viceroy of Lima and bore the title El Capitan Grande. He had made the Viceroy the offer of repairing the entire vice-regal arsenal. Soon after ward an informer reported that

June. 1962

Manuel Perez’ home, which was di rectly opposite the Franciscan mon astery, was a secret meeting place of Marranos, and that Manuel himself was the head of this community of “Portuguese” (this was the name given in the Spanish territories to the Marranos who came from Portugal). He was arrested on the charge of con spiring with the Dutch, who at that time had their West Indian fleet on the Pacific coast ready to invade Peru and to liberate the Jews. Twelve others were burned at the stake and the rest were condemned to serve as galley slaves. After the revelations in Lima the influx of “Portuguese” to Chile grew so great that the inhabitants appealed to the Viceroy to form a new Inquisi tion tribunal in Buenos Aires to deal with the new stream of “Portuguese” who were spreading out from there in alarming fashion to Argentina and other areas. Carlos Lorrain de Castro, a mem ber of the Chilean Academy of His tory, mentions in his book a number of Marranos who were important per sonalities in Chile’s colonial period. One of these is Roderigo de Arganos, an official in the expedition of Diego Almagro, the conqueror of Chile. In return for his participation Arganos asked the King of Spain to give him an area of 2,500 kilometres along the sea coast and the titles of Adelantado (Governor), General, and Marquis. He was killed in battle with the Indians. Among the Marranos was also Francisco de Villagro, ruler of Chile; and Diego Garcia de Casseres, pro visional governor; Alonsa de Ersillo, Chilean poet and author of La Aruncania, the country’s national epic, who fought alongside the Chilean hero 23

Pedro de Valdivia, and many other personalities, who are the ancestors of the country’s present aristocracy. The Chilean Jewish historian, Ginter Behm, writes in his book “Jews in Chile in the Colonial Period” pub lished by the University of Santiago: “Hundreds of aristocratic families to day bear the names of Marranos who came to Chile in the years between 1530 and 1565.” Of these Dr. Behm has counted 154 family names. N Brazil, where most of the Mar ranos had fled for refuge after cer tain parts of it were occupied by the Dutch, they founded open Jewish communities in Bahia and Recife (Pernambuco)—the first such com munities in the Western Hemisphere. The Dutch West India Company, a third of whose shares were owned by ex-Marranos living in Holland, par ticipated in the capture of these centers. It is known that Jewish naval officers took part in the fighting. By the year 1640 the Jewish population of these two Brazilian towns outnum bered the non-Jews. Their first rabbi was Aboab Isaac de Fonseca, son of a “New Christian.” Their congrega tion was named Kehillah Kedoshah Tzur Yisrael. It is noteworthy that both in Brazil and Chile it happened that Marrano fought Marrano. In Chile Rodrigo de Arganos, the lieutenant of Diego de Almagro, carried on a campaign against the Araucanian tribe of Indians whose ranks had been joined by many fugitive Marranos who sought to fight back against their persecutors. This fratricide was even more pro nounced in the fighting that went on between Portugal and the Netherlands. In thé Netherlands there was a large community of ex-Marranos who under Dutch tolerance had openly declared

:24

themselves as Jews. These established contact with Marranos in other coun tries and sought to help them. David Peixotto organized a fleet of eighteen ships for the capture of Pernambuco. He even conceived the plan, while he was en route, of assaulting and burn ing the headquarters of the Inquisi-* tion in Portugal. Jewish officers shared in the capture of Bahia in 1663. The tactic for the battle was planned by Moses Cohen (whose Marrano name in Portuguese was Vaez Henriques Antonio). When the turn came for the Por tuguese to regain these two towns, the Marranos living there fought for the Dutch and imposed a tax upon themselves for the defense. Rabbi Isaac Aboab de Fonseca proclaimed a fast and from the synagogue pulpit urged the Jews to help defend the city. They fought bravely. When it seemed that they had fought off the Portuguese they held a day of prayer and thanksgiving led by their rabbi. However a second attack by the Portuguese forced the city’s capitula tion. There were Marranos from Por tugal among the invading forces who had a decisive role in forcing this surrender. Joao (John II), King of Portugal, had somewhat eased the state of his Marranos and made con cessions to those found practicing Judaism. In recognition of this leni ency a number of Portuguese Mar ranos organized a ship company called Companhia de Bolsa which con tributed manpower and ships to the siege of Pernambuco. It was led by the Marrano Duarte da Silva and played no small part in the fall of Pernambuco. VEN before the founding of these two communities there were many “Christianos Nuevos” in Brazil before

JEWISH LIFE

tne establishment of the Inquisition there in 1593. In the years 15731567 the influx of New Christians was so great that their immigration was banned by a decree. Even the church pulpits were occupied by “Jewish” priests. Many Marrano fa milies gave a son to the Church in order to have a priest of their own for confessional purposes and also to help cover up their own Judaic prac tices. Arthur Hehl Neiva, who was advisor to Brazil’s Institute for Immi gration, is of the opinion that there is today no Brazilian of Portuguese ancestry without Jewish blood in his veins. It is noteworthy that the Inquisi tion tribunal was located only in northern Brazil. The Inquisition was never successful in installing itself in the south; there were too many Mar ranos in the southern population who

created an atmosphere quite unfavor able to its establishment. It is an ac knowledged fact that Joan Ramalho, the pioneer of Brazilian settlement, one of the prime builders of the city of Sao Paulo, was a crypto-Jew. A careful research was carried out on the personal signature of this semi legendary figure and it was found that it was always written in the shape of a horse-shoe revealing the two Hebrew letters Kuf and Tzadey, the initials of the Hebrew words: Kohen Tzedek, one of the appellations of priestly descent. In the year 1902 the Historic and Geographic Institute of Sao Paulo conducted an investigation and came to the conclusion that Joana Ramalho was a Jew, who had fled Portugal for fear of the Inquisition, or who with other capable and high placed Marranos had been commissioned by the

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A copy of the signature of Joan Ramalho, founder of the city of Sao Paulo, which includes the initials Kuf Tzadey, signifying “Kohen Tzedek."

June. 1962

King of Portugal to carry out a proj ect in the newly discovered territories of the Western Hemisphere. This con clusion was signed by all the members of the research committee except one. Dr. Horacio de Carvalho wrote a monograph on Joano Ramalho in the Revista de Instituto wherein he comes to the conclusion that Ramalho’s signature is a secret clue to his Jewishness. N contrast to the situation in the Spanish colonies, the Inquisition in Portuguese-governed Brazil was de pendent on the mother country. In 1579 the Bishop of Salvador (Bahia) was given Inquisitorial powers; all accused persons, however, had to be sent before the tribunal in Portugal. In Lima and in Mexico the Inquisition courts were autonomous and func tioned on their own responsibility. In 1570, less than 50 years after Pizarro’s conquest of Peru, the Spanish mon arch Philip II sent a special emissary there to establish the Inquisition with jurisdiction over the areas of Rio del Plata, Paraguay, Tucuman (Argen tina), Chile, and Bolivia. The representatives of the Holy In quisition proclaimed a manifesto to all living in the continent that they would prevent great mischief to the Catholic Church if they would imme diately report anyone they saw resting from work on the seventh day of the week, or wearing different clothes and setting clean linen on the table on the seventh day, lighting candles on Fri day night and refraining from lighting fire on Saturday, soaking meat in water before cooking it, eating meat on Catholic fast days, fasting on a day in September, shaking their body during prayers, cleansing the dead in water and then pouring the water out, and various other practices by which

Jews can be identified. These were what the Inquisition agents watched for in their constant search for secret Judaizers. Despite the vigilant eye of the In quisition and its real and ever-present danger, the Marranos continued to maintain their concealed Judaism. Jt would suffice to mention one case: in 1575 Benito Diaz de Santiago had the royal franchise of collecting taxes in the districts of Pernambuco and Bahia. He owned a sugar refinery in Camaragibe. In this refinery there was a secret synagogue where the Marranos came together on the Sabbath and on festivals to pray together. The Flor entine traveller Felipe Cavalcanti (who informed on them) tells of how the shammosh would attach a piece of cloth to his finger and walk through the town: this was a signal that it was a day to assemble in the syn agogue and hidden code existed in all centers where Marranos lived. ISTORIC relics of this period can be found today in all Latin American countries. In his book “Historia de Buenos A ires” the his torian Romulo Zabala writes that in 1601 the influx of “Portuguese” had reached such proportions that it was proposed to set up an Inquisition court in Buenos Aires, to cover Chile, Paraguay, and Tucuman. A second Argentine historian, Ruiz Guinazu, writes in his book “Inquisición En America” that by the year 1636 the migration of Jews (he refers to them by no other designation) to the shores of La Plata was so alarming that the city fathers appealed to the viceroy in Lima to set up an Inquisition bureau forthwith in the old colonial city of Tucuman. More than one historian of these countries has on various occasions

JEWISH LIFE

emphasized that the aristocratic ele ments in their society today are de scendants of the Marranos. When the Balfour Declaration was issued a re porter asked the Chilean archbishop for his reaction to the news. The archbishop’s answer was that this was a means of righting an old wrong done to the Jewish people, and he added that perhaps it’s a secret that the head of the church in Chile him self is a descendant of these secret Jews of old. . . . It occurs occasionally in some of these countries where there are now new Jewish communities established in this century that they are ap proached by prominent persons high up in the political or social hierarchy with a request for the burial of their parents who have specified in their wills that they are to be interred in a Jewish cemetery. The sons and grand children, wearing crucifixes around their necks, will accompany the body of their mother or grandmother to a Jewish burial place. Others specify that they want their body placed on board a ship and cast into the sea. In Baranquilla I attended such a funeral of a well-born Colombian who left this kind of will with the consul of Holland. In Colombia in the province of Anteojo there was a heavy concentra tion of Marranos of whom evidences still remain. When Charles Lindbergh made his goodwill tour of South America he visited Anteojo and was given an official reception by the civic leaders who told him: “Our province was founded by Jews who assumed the Christian faith. For years we were isolated from the world in the moun tains.” There is a historic Jewish cemetery in the town of Medellin where there lie buried the province’s June. 1962

founding fathers. Upon the death of the noted Colombian writer Isaacs Jorge, a descendant of Marranos, his will revealed that he wanted to be buried there. His novel “Maria” is Latin America’s “national novel.” To this day young couples place flowers on his tomb before their wedding. Patriotic students march to his tomb on his anniversary every year. In the heart of Cali, the Colombian “flower city,” there stands a monument to him, a figure beloved and hallowed by all Colombians. O this day there are living re minders of that period. The Mar ranos who observed their faith in their hiding places and passed on the pray ers and rites from one generation to another for four centuries, emerged from their secrecy when the winds of freedom began to prevail. Despite the attenuated and adulterated form the traditions had assumed, enough con sciousness remained for them to de clare their Jewishness openly and to seek to re-join their people, in some cases to return to the newly regained Jewish state. I had the opportunity of meeting these newly revealed great grandchildren of the crypto-Jews and even to be with them on two Pesach sedorim. My first experience with them took place in Portugal. This was many years ago, in the 1930’s, when they were first re-discovered and there was some excitement about it in the world of Jewry. A Committee on the Por tuguese Marranos had been estab lished in London. I then happened to be in a town in northern Brazil, a community of twenty Jewish families all of whom were engaged in the char acteristically Jewish occupation of “clientele” (peddling). One of these

Jewish peddlers told me that in two local houses he had seen women light ing candles on Friday evening and then taking the candles down to the cellar. I also heard that there was a family who refrained from working on Saturday and avoided eating pork. This aroused my interest and I visited them at home. They told me they had come a few years previously from Portugal to work in the harvest. Thousands of Portuguese used to come for seasonal work every year, most of whom would return home. These families had stayed on. They explained that most people in their town in Portugal—Belmonte— were Cristianos Nuevos and observed various Jewish rites. The oldest wom an among them recited a prayer at my request. It was in Portuguese but ended with Adoshem. I repeated the Shema Yisroel to her, and hearing the first two words she grew quite excited, rising from her chair and calling to others: “He’s one of us, a hermano (brother).” T was a sunny morning when our ship approached the port of Lisbon. Ancient looking palaces, domes, and church steeples were outlined against the sky as the ship glided into the harbor. Against the background of a mountain range, the Casa dos Reyes (royal palace) arose majestically, re minding me of the tragic decrees sealed there that tortured and burned so many thousands of my brethren on the autos-da-fe. My first visit was to the synagogue of Lisbon, located in a courtyard. After the prayers I had a lengthy chat with the rabbi. He explained that the structure was built in the reign of King Manoel. The Jews of that day received permission to build a syna

gogue but it could not be erected fac ing a street. My second stop was at the Museo do Camara. As a foreign journalist from a friendly country I was hospitably received. I was able to see only remnants of a Torah scroll showing a passage from the 32nd chapter of D’vorim in a glass case and some fragments of a tombstone with some no longer legible Hebrew words. When I told the curator that I was primarily interested in relics of the Inquisition he replied in all inno cence that there was no longer any such thing in Portugal— “it was so long, long ago” . . . I took a train to Belmonte in order to be with the Marranos for Pesach bringing with me necessary supplies. The train passed small towns and farming villages; at each station men and women came to meet the train, the women in modern dress wearing broad sweeping hats, the men in aprons which served as a sort of work-overall. My clothing set me off as a foreigner and they would look at me with some curiosity. When I got into conversation with them and mentioned I was heading for Belmonte they warned me not to go there: the townspeople, they cautioned, were all heretics, people who did not go to church. A second person whispered that they were Judeus (Jews). HEN I arrived there, winding my way through narrow streets lined with tiny houses surrounded by gardens, I asked for the family whose name had been given me in Brazil. I was received very affably. I was shown the town and introduced to all. It happened to be a market day and pointing to the men and women stand ing at their booths wearing odd look ing capes, my companion said: “These

JEWISH LIFE

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are all Judeus.” On a wooden bench there lay a pile of silver and gold crucifixes. “Who are asked. “There are still us,” my guide replied) in the cross. But we their minds. It’s still said with some embarral waiting for a rabino.’ And so we went fr | to the next. Because most of the townspeod The modest houses we I all preparing for the In my honor some of tl come together for a cc at the home of the sei3 When I entered the hou) eve the men, women June, 1962

were seated around a table covered with white linen. They all arose at my and called out: “Be greeted, within our walls, son of Isaac, and Jacob!’’ I was of the leader, a patri|king man with a white ceremony began with a Portuguese: “Great G-d, Jniverse Adoshem” (this brew was frequently rejhe table lay matzoth— l! They were cracked roll—pieces that had |nto the oven and had fire. At the window ap whose wick cast an liniscent perhaps of Iver meals their ancesiin dark cellars hidden 29

away from the eyes of the Inquisition. The mood soon changed. They all arose, joined hands, and danced what resembled a Chassidic step around the table singing Andamos e cantamos (We go and we sing). They circled the table seven times like the seven hakofoth of Simchath Torah. This was followed by prayers quite new to me as, for instance, a prayer about Daniel in the lion’s den, a prayer about the Prophet Habbakuk, and others. It seemed to me, listening to some of the prayers, that they had merged Pesach with Simchath Torah and even with the Fast of the Ninth of Ov, all together. Apparently in the distant past the ever-present fear of the Inquisition had caused them to blur the distinctions between the vari ous festivals and they had been left with distorted ideas of Judaism with which they were now openly seeking to identify.

OR a while at the time there was considerable excitement in the Jewish world with this mass return to Judaism of the Portuguese Mar ranos. This took place in other Por tuguese centers in addition to Bel monte. One of the leaders in this movement was Barros Basto, a cap.tain in the army and a hero of the Portuguese revolution. Along with others, intellectuals, bankers, lawyers and teachers, a kehillah was estab lished in Oporto a n d a periodical was started with the Hebrew name “HaLapid” (The Torch). Jewish com munities sprang up in other parts of Portugal. Leading Jewish scholars such as Lucien Wolf of England took an interest in this revival. A syna gogue was built in Oporto and a rabbi — Shalom Treitman — was brought from Poland. However, in recent years nothing more has been heard about these restored Marranos.

E d it o r s N o t e :

Mr. Beliefs report of his experiences with communities of Marrano descendants in Latin American countries will

JEWISH LIFE

The British Museum By H. RABIN0WICZ T is one hundred years old, the magnificent dome of the British Museum Reading Room, but infinitely older are many of the 6,000,000 printed books, 75,000 manuscripts, and 9,000 incunabula in this farfamed library, the greatest collection of valuable manuscripts that the world has ever known. Scholars and biblio philes journey from every corner of the literate globe to this literary shrine, this mecca of the mind. And how rich the variety, how wide the scope of this gabled world of words! Subjects ob scure and subjects commonplace are clearly catalogued for incredibly easy access. The masterpieces of the past are at the reader’s fingertips as readily as the products of the present, from a Mazarin Bible, the Codex Sineticus, or a Caxton first edition to a recent pamphlet on Ritual Slaughter. The Biblical verse, “And though thy beginnings were small, yet thy end shall greatly increase,” applies aptly to the history of the Museum’s He brew collection. Two hundred years ago it simply did not exist. Yet Jewry today can take special pride in this renowned repository of Hebraic treas ures. The first Earl of Oxford, Robert Harley (1661-1724) was a major benefactor. His wife had brought him a dowry of a quarter of a million pounds sterling, so Harley was able to

June. 1962

follow his bibliophile bend. He was assisted by Humfrey Wanley (16721726) at an annual salary of <£12. A conscientious book collector, Har ley conceived “as part of a Library’s Keeper’s duty to know what books are extant in other Libraries besides his own.” In 1753 the Duchess of Portland sold the Harley Collection to Parliament for £10,000. Among these 8,000 items were 130 Hebrew manuscripts. r I ^ HREE manuscripts were preJL sented by the broker Solomon Da Costa (1690-1769) with the fol lowing covering letter: “Thus saith Solomon, son of the humble, pious, and honored Isaac Da Costa, surnamed Athias, late of the City of Amsterdam, deceased, one of the people called Jews which are scattered among the nations and from among that part of the captives of Jerusalem which settled in Spain. I have already dwelt fifty-four years and upwards, with security, advantage and ease of mind in this renowned metrop olis, eminent above all others for the number, valor, freedom, commerce, knowledge, ingenuity, politeness, and humility of its inhabitants . . . whereas a most stately monument hath been lately erected and endowed by the wisdom and munificence of the British legislature . . . an house abounding in books, old and new, written and printed, and in the choicest curiosities 31

both natural and artificial, with intent to preserve the same to succeeding generations in benefit to the people of these nations and of the whole earth . . . as a small token of my esteem, love, reverence, and gratitude, to this magnanimous nation and as a thanks giving offering in part, for the gener ous protection and numberless bless ings which I have enjoyed under it.” During the first four decades of the 19th century the Library acquired manuscripts from the orientalist and Irish Wesleyan minister, Adam Clarke (1762-1932), from the Reina Library of Milan, and from the library of the Duke of Sussex (1774-1843), sixth son of George III. By mid-century, Leopold Dukes (1810-1891) the Hun garian historian, who spent thirty-nine years in London, listed three hundred Hebrew manuscripts in the British Museum. The Library was fortunate in its staff. In 1846 the bookseller Asher recommended a scholarly candidate, and at the age of forty-one Joseph Zedner (1840-1871) was appointed Assistant in the Department of Printed Books. Zedner was born in GrossGlogau, birthplace of Joseph Lehmann of Berlin and of Solomon Munk of Paris. Zedner, pupil of Rabbi Akiba Eger, eventually became a tutor in the house of the bookseller Asher. In 1848 he published Auswahl Historischer Stuecke (A collection of historical authors from the 2nd century to the present day, containing punctuated text, German translation and explana tory notes). A practising Jew, Zedner accepted the position at the museum on the express condition that he was to be free to observe the Jewish Sab bath and Festivals. Under Zedner’s care the collection flourished. In 1859 he compiled a list of 1,000 desiderata and his catalogue of 891 pages pub 32

lished in 1867 received the highest praise. Steinschneider constantly ac knowledges his indebtedness to Zedner. “The accuracy and trustworthiness which characterize the author render his work the best guide in the field.” N 1865 the Museum paid Asher & Co. <£1,000 for the library of the scholarly collector Joseph Almanzi (1801-1860), secretary of the congre gation of Trieste, who had died at the age of 59. Many of these 332 manu scripts were of Italian origin and many had belonged to Chayyim Joseph David Azulai (1724-1800) , author of Shem Hagedolim, the standard dic tionary of Jewish literary history. Acquisition of the Almanzi collection, sponsored by Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797-1897), Principal Librarian of the British Museum, placed thé Mu seum among the world’s foremost col lectors of Hebraica. In 1848 the Museum acquired the 4,420 volumes of Heiman Joseph Michael (1792-1846) of Hamburg. Not since Oxford University’s pur chase of Rabbi David Oppenheimer’s Collection in 1829 has a library ob|| tained with one single purchase so momentous an array of Hebrew books, embracing every department of Jew ish literature and learning. The Ac counts and Papers of the British Museum record the transaction with pride: “The most remarkable addition to the library is the collection of Hebrew works formed by the late H. J. Michael of Hamburg. The collection, well known and highly praised by critics— among others by Zunz—consisted ac cording to the printed catalogue of 5,400 volumes of which, after the re jection of duplicates or copies other wise objectionable, 4,420 forming 3,970 distinct works were purchased by the

JEWISH LIFE

Museum. Among them are about 400 Bibles and Commentaries, 2,020 theo logical works, 380 Liturgical works, 230 works on the Kabbalah, 860 on Science. The volumes are enriched by the manuscript notes of several dis tinguished Hebrew scholars. The manu script notes of the collector himself, the learned Dr. Michael, deserve special mention. Up to the moment of his death (in 1846, at the age of 54) he was indefatigable in collating his printed books with manuscripts, marking the variations.” In 1867 there were “upwards of 10,000 printed books” enumerated in Zedner’s 900 pages “Catalogue of the Hebrew Books in the Library of the British Museum.” By 1894, when Samuel van Straalen, Assistant in the Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts, published his “Cata logue of Hebrew Books in the British Museum acquired during the years 1862-92,” there were another 7,800 entries. It is difficult to ascertain with any degree of accuracy the number of Hebrew books in the Museum today. A rough estimate would be 30,000. But in addition to the Hebrew books in the Oriental Room there are many books of Judaica, including Yiddish and Ladino, scattered through the huge general catalogue. HE Library possesses most of the T works printed in Italy by the pre eminent printers of the 16th century. From Elizabethan England stems Oration de utilitate trium Linguarum by R. Wakefield (d. 1537), Professor of Hebrew at Louvain. This book was printed in London in 1524 and con tains one of the earliest specimens of Hebrew and Arabic type in England. Noteworthy too, is the first all-Hebrew book printed in England. It was en titled Decision del Doctissimo by Zevi June. 1962

ben Jacob Ashkenazi and it appeared in 1705. The Museum has nearly 100 incunabula, 237 books printed between 1500 and 1540, and thirty-eight books which are either unique or exceed ingly rare. The British Museum has always led the way in catalogue publication. It was the first library in the world to publish (1881-1905) a complete catalogue of its books (except for Orientalia and Manuscripts). George M. Margoliouth, who succeeded Rein hardt Hoerning in 1891 as Assistant Keeper in the Oriental Department, compiled a “Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts of the British Museum.” This comprehensive work, published in three volumes, de scribes 1,206 manuscripts. The fourth part of the Catalogue by Joseph Leveen, Assistant Keeper at the time and later to become Keeper in the De partment of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts is to be found in the Students’ eighty-nine manuscripts not dealt with in the earlier parts. A hand written list of the Genizah fragments is available on request. A list of the Gaster manuscripts is to be found in the Students’ Room. Two Hebrew manscripts are described in Charles Rieu’s (1820-1902) supplement in his great Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts (3 vols. 1879-83). But with regard to its sizable collection of Hebrew books the Museum somehow lagged behind. No Hebrew catalogue has been pub lished since 1894. The Oriental Room has a card index of Hebrew books ac quired since 1953. But there is not even a card index of the Hebrew books acquired between 1894 and 1953. Some fifty years overdue is a new printed Catalogue or at least an up-to-date index of the acquisitions of the last half century. 33

S. R. Hirsch on Educational Synthesis By JUSTIN HOFMANN

HE Day School is in the opinion of many the most promising development in American Jewish edu cation. First, it allows for the inten sification of Jewish studies. Children are available for a significantly longer period of Hebrew instruction than in the conventional religious school. Moreover, the most productive hours of the day, the morning hours, can be utilized for Jewish studies. Finally, a much more positive atmosphere can he created for these studies than was ever possible in the afternoon school. But while the Jewish Day School re solves some of the major problems of American Jewish education, it brings into sharp focus several others. Fore most among these is the problem of the proper relationship of Jewish and general studies. Although not a new problem on the Jewish horizon, the phenomenal growth of the day schools makes consideration and solution of this issue more urgent than ever be fore.

There appear to exist two major attitudes with respect to the relation ship of Jewish and general studies in Jewish day schools in America. The first amounts to a failure to face the problem altogether. Those taking this position, in effect, bring together two separate schools under one roof. An almost complete dichotomy prevails between the Jewish and the general studies departments. There are two distinct faculties which make no at tempt to relate to one another. Not infrequently, schools are to be found with two principals, one to administer the Jewish studies and the other the general studies department. Neither is integration achieved by those uphold ing the second attitude on this ques tion. But while on the part of those representing the first view there is a recognition of the importance of both the Jewish and the general area, this is not true of the second position. This considers Jewish studies as the only ones possessing any real worth. JEWISH LIFE

the desired result. In the modern world it is not possible to isolate people from contact with the general culture. Secondly, ?such a negative approach would have to be coupled with a misrepresentation of the value of general culture. But only those who lack knowledge of this culture, Hirsch insists, could present it in derogatory terms. The fact is that there is much of value in the general culture even from a Jewish point of view. Finally HE relationship of Jewish and Hirsch notes, the demands of modern general studies occupied Rabbi life are such that a general education Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), is an absolute necessity. This being when he pioneered with a Jewish Day the case, it is preferable that young School on the secondary school level sters receive this education under in Frankfurt, Germany, in the middle Jewish rather than under non-Jewish of the Nineteenth Century. Hirsch auspices.* Equally unsatisfactory, Hirsch con posed for himself a number of im cluded, is the pattern of attending a portant questions. Should Jews steeped in Jewish tradition and learning in Jewish religious school in the after clude such subjects as literature, phi noon and a public school in the morn losophy, and science in their formal ing. Hirsch’s objection is based on a educational experience, or should they threefold consideration. A general edu continue to remain aloof to them? Do cation obtained in a non-Jewish school general studies pose a threat to Jewish will lack a Jewish orientation. At best, commitments, or do they supplement it will ignore the Jewish point of view. and support them? If general studies But more likely than not, it will be are to be included, shall they be con antagonistic to Jewish teachings. More sidered as equal in importance with over, Jewish students will enter their Jewish studies? What about conflicting afternoon religion classes with their ideas? Shall Jewish ideas give way to energies spent and envious of their general culture or shall conflicts be friends who, at that very time, are resolved in favor of Jewish ideas? Is enjoying a period of play. In addi it possible to bring about a synthesis tion, they are probably being taught of Jewish and general knowledge, or by religious school teachers whose must there be a dichotomy, so that own Hebrew background is limited, Jews will have to learn to live in two whose enthusiasm is minimal, whose general education was sadly neglected, intellectual worlds? and who, all in all, compare most un Rabbi Hirsch rejected the negative favorable with their general studies approach to general knowledge, an teachers. Is it any wonder, then, approach which, no doubt, enjoyed a Hirsch exclaims, “that your children great deal of support in the Jewish are interested in everything but in community of his day. To begin with, Hebrew. . . .” Hirsch asserts, denying children a gen * S. R. Hirsch, Gesammelte Schriften, (Frank furt a, Main: 1902). eral education is not likely to achieve 35 June, 1962

General studies are merely tolerated as a legal requirement and as a prac tical necessity. No great importance is attributed to them. If anything, they are thought of as detracting from Jewish studies. Consequently, the very minimum allocation of time and care is given to them. Both of these two attitudes share in common the failure to relate Jewish to general studies in a meaningful way.

HE only real solution of the edu cational predicament of the mod ern Jew^,, Hirsch maintained, is the development of a school that would combine Jewish and general studies in its program. This pattern, Hirsch as serted, was clearly anticipated by our Sages in the maxim, yofeh talmud torah im derech eretz (Good is the study of Torah together with general culture), and in the statement, im en torah en derech eretz— im en derech eretz en torah (Where there is no Torah, there is no general culture— where there is no general culture, there is no Torah).* Hirsch described several of the fea tures, which such a school should pos sess. Both areas of study should be pursued with equal seriousness and with equal care. Sufficient time and energy should be devoted to both. Moreover, Jewish and general studies should be moulded into a unified whole. Religious knowledge and re ligious aspiration, Hirsch proposed, should be brought into an intimate connection with what is a “true gen eral education.” Specifically Jewish in sights and generally human wisdom shall be treated as a “unified educa tional element.” Hirsch thus takes a firm stand against those who belittle the importance of a general educa tion. He also opposes the dichotomy that often prevails between the He brew and the general studies depart ments. He suggests, in fact, that in the school that he envisions there must be achieved a certain synthesis of Jewish and general knowledge. Hirsch further specified the char acter of this synthesis. General knowl edge, he asserted, should be viewed from the perspective of “Jewish truths”

* Festschrift Zum 75 Jahrigen Bestehen Der Realschule Mit Lizeuni Der Isr. Religionsgesellschaft Frankfurt Am Main, (1928).

and the results of general studies should be utilized for a fuller under standing of the Jewish heritage. It is this feature of the proposed syn thesis that differentiates it from the approach of certain non-orthodox groups. “To them,” Hirsch wrote, “progress is the absolute and religion is conditioned by it. To them, religion has validity only insofar as it agrees with religion.” (Gesammelte Schriften) EPEATEDLY, Samson Raphael Hirsch emphasized that the wis dom of the Jewish heritage shall as sume a position of supremacy in this educational synthesis. “The core and crown of all knowledge for every Israelite shall be Torah . . . ,” he asserts in Horeb. “There is a helpmeet for this Torah knowledge, it is: Knowl edge of nature and of m an .. . . There is a second helpmeet: Knowledge of history. But all this shall be only sup porting knowledge for his real knowl edge — for Torah. At the hand of Torah and Prophets let him become acquainted with G-d in nature and in history. . . General knowledge is here relegated to the position of a “hand maiden” to Torah. Its major role is to support the insights of wis dom and understanding that are found in Torah Mendel Hirsch, the son of S. R. Hirsch and his successor as the direc tor of the Realschule which he had founded, was in complete agreement with his father’s conception of the nature of the relationship of Jewish and general studies. Mendel Hirsch defines a “Jewish Realschule as not merely a school that is attended by Jewish children and that teaches He brew along with general subjects. It is rather a school in which prevails a “mutual penetration” of the two

JEWISH LIFE

major subject areas. “However," he hastens to add, “not in the sense that the Jewish element first has to obtain clarification and enlightenment from the realm of general knowledge, but rather that all knowledge is viewed and grasped in the light of the Jewish conception. . . .” N S. R. Hirsch’s view it is absolutely essential that to Torah shall be as signed the position of priority in the synthesis; that Jews shall understand G-d, the world, and man only through Torah. Any attempt to reverse the order of priority by seeking knowl edge of G-d through a study of man and the world is bound to lead to erroneous conceptions. Human reason, Hirsch states categorically, is led to the existence of a “first power,” a so-called Urkraft. But human reason, he points out emphatically, cannot infer the notion of a “personal G-d,” the kind of G-d who appears in the verses of the Torah, “Him you will not have—omnipotent, life-giving, alljust, all-loving, high above all and yet near everywhere” (Horeb). Moreover, the conception of man and the world must be derived from the study of Torah. Hirsch goes on to say. Only by following this approach will the world be Understood as the handiwork of G-d and all creatures as the servants of His wise purpose. From the study of Torah will also emerge the true conception of the Israelite as “the foremost servant in the large realm of beings, who freely fulfills the will of G-d that was revealed to him.” In short, Hirsch was convinced that only by assigning a position of priority to Torah will the proposed synthesis of Jewish and general studies be pre vented from doing any violence to the spiritual convictions of Judaism.

June, 1962

HE Hirschian conception of the synthesis of Jewish and general knowledge involves both a positive and a negative element of selection. The positive aspect of his method con sists of an affirmation of those ideas of general knowledge that are judged to be consistent with the principles of Judaism. The negative aspect involves a recognition and rejection of the ideas of general culture that are found to be in conflict with Jewish tradition.

Several examples of how this syn thesis is to be achieved were supplied by Rabbi Hirsch. One of these was provided on the occasion of a Schiller celebration. Hirsch’s enthusiastic ap praisal of Schiller’s poetry was based on Schiller’s religious conceptions of life, the world, and history. “Who understood as he did to sing words of faith about freedom, about virtue, and about G-d . . . ?” Hirsch ex claims. It was Schiller, he continues, who wrote about family life in all its dignity and exalted meaning, who ex pressed sublime thoughts about eternal things and purposes, and who spoke of the ultimate victory of right over might. But all these ideas. Hirsch con cludes, are truly Jewish ideas and conceptions. Consciously or subcon sciously they were drawn by the great poet from the treasure house of Judaism. (Gesammelte Schriften) N the other hand, Hirsch was led O to reject certain ideas which he judged to be in conflict with Judaism. Thus, in a critical essay on a certain materialistic view of the world, he comments on the fact that, while there is a growing number of scholars, there is much that is false and worthless in what passes for scholarly work. As an example of what he means he cites the notion of the eternity of matter. The 37

conception of “a world which contains exclusively within itself the grounds of its own structures,” Hirsch con siders a purely speculative and rather primitive notion. A further illustra tion is provided by the discussion of the literature of Romanticism. It would be a grave mistake, writes the anonymous author in the Festschrift, to try to force the ideas of this litera ture into agreement with Judaism. The proper approach is rather to recognize them for what they are. Thus, in the case of Romantic litera ture, one should affirm its understand ing of the supersensual as well as its intimations of the divine, he suggests. Its degenerations, its pessimism, and its blurred sensitivity, however, should be rejected. “Thus,” the author con tinues, “some of the literary phe nomena of the present which are characterized by a sincere search for truth, by a spiritualization of matter and yearning of soul, remind us of related tones of our Jewish-national literature of the remote past and should be appreciated accordingly; however, when they result in unsteadiness and mysticism, they are to be conceived and criticized as appearances of the period.” Here as before, the prin ciple of selection is the “Jewish stand point.” Hirsch realizes the synthesis of Jewish and general knowledge through the application of this principle. HE intellectual foundation of the Hirschian synthesis is the concep tion of the unity of all truth. “In the view of Judaism,” Hirsch writes, “there lives the consciousness that truth, like its ultimate source, namely the one and only G-d, is undivided, and hence its recognition, the recogni tion of truth, can also be only a uni-

fied, undivided one.” Hirsch thus grounds his monistic conception of truth upon which his educational syn thesis is based in the theological mon ism of Judaism. But while truth is one, the ways in which it is mediated are two. “Two revelations are lying before you: Na ture—and Torah,” Hirsch asserts in his “Nineteen Letters.” Insofar as these two revelations reflect a single truth, they must be approached with equal seriousness, Hirsch is likely to say. To favor the study of nature at the expense of Torah learning would be as fallacious as to concentrate on the study of Torah and to neglect the study of nature. The conception of the unity of truth, Hirsch believed, makes the syn thesis of Jewish and general knowl edge possible. The rationality of Judaism, he maintained, makes it a relatively easy task. The rationality of Judaism is seen in the empirical basis of its affirmations. Such funda mental convictions of Judaism as the existence of G-d and His direction of the course of nature and of history are derived from the historical experi ence of the Jewish people, Hirsch asserts. Even such an apparently irra tional concept as that of a miracle, he goes on to say, is consistent with this position. A miracle is an irrational concept only if it is considered in the context of a naturalism or a mechan ism. If it is considered in the intellec tual framework of Judaism, however, it does make sense. In the light of the teleological conceptions of Judaism the concept serves to explain certain aspects of Jewish historical experi ence. It is in this sense that it is to be judged a rational conception, not fundamentally different from those explanatory devices of experience JEWISH LIFE

known as scientific principles, Hirsch notes. (Gesammelte Schriften) T should be pointed out, however, that Judaism and science do not derive their ideas from experience in the same way. Judaism is first and foremost a commitment to certain principles of a faith. Science, on the other hand, does not involve a com mitment to any particular idea. It represents a commitment to human reason. The faith of the scientist is primarily a faith in a method. It is the faith that the use of logical pro cedures known as the scientific meth od will lead to more satisfactory results in the search for truth than any other method.

There is thus a significant difference between the way Judaism derives its ideas from the historical experience of the Jewish people and the way science derives its ideas from experi ence in general. In the case of Judaism it would be more correct to say that its ideas are reflected in Jewish experi ence. They are not really derived from it. The commitment to the ideas is prior to the examination of the em pirical data. Science, on the other hand, does not approach the data of experience with a commitment to a certain explanation. It rather ap proaches them with hypotheses, with suggested solutions, tentatively held. There is no a priori preference for a given idea. The selection of the ex planatory principle follows the exam ination of the empirical data. Even after a principle has been selected, the case may be reopened at any time for re-examination and possible re vision. The “rationality” of Judaism thus differs in important respects from the “rationality” of science. June. 1962

IRSCH goes even beyond the above-noted assertion of ration ality. He claims that no rational con ception of nature and of history is possible without the fundamental ideas of Judaism. In fact, Hirsch continues, only since men became acquainted with the theological conceptions of Judaism did they begin to formulate rational conceptions of nature and of history. Even the most irreligious scholar, at the moment he attempts to deduce from the phenomena the laws of nature and of history, must pre suppose the existence of G-d, Hirsch concludes. No further elaboration of this assertion is offered. Hirsch may have had in mind the principle of the unity of nature which science pre supposes and which has a certain resemblance to the Jewish conception of monotheism. To overlook the im portant differences between these two conceptions, however, must be judged an oversimplification of the issue.

Hirsch seems to argue with greater validity when he turns to historical considerations. He seeks to support his thesis of the feasibility of an edu cational synthesis by stating that such a synthesis has been achieved in the past. Although Hirsch does not iden tify the historical period to which he is referring, it may be safe to assume that it is the encounter of Judaism with Arabic culture at the time of the “Golden Age” in Spain, between the Tenth and the Fourteenth Centuries. The Jewish intellectual giants of that era were not only profound scholars of Judaism, but were also thoroughly conversant with the culture of their time. They were translators, inter preters, and transmitters of that cul ture. But most important for he present context, they were synthe sizers. They tried to forge some kind 39

of a consistent position out of the apparently conflicting views of Juda ism and Greek-Arabic wisdom. If this feat was achieved in the past, Hirsch seems to reason quite convincingly, it can be repeated in the present. UT why did the position which Hirsch took on the matter of an educational synthesis encounter so much opposition in the Jewish com munity of his day? Inasmuch as such a synthesis has existed in the past and inasmuch as Judaism shares with gen eral culture a rational approach to life as Hirsch had claimed, his proposal should have found widespread accept ance. Hirsch offered as an explanation the long isolation of Jews from gen eral culture. In the course of time an estrangement took place. Religious in stitutions, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, grew suspicious of general knowledge and transmitted this suspicion from one generation to the next. But while there may have been some grounds for this suspicion in the case of other faiths, there was no valid basis for it among the Jewish people, Hirsch says. Judaism is unique in that it does not make an exclusive claim to salvation. It is the only religion, according to Hirsch, that does not say extra me nulla salus and that “welcomes with joy every progress in enlightenment and goodness” regardless of whence it originates. This friendly attitude toward intel lectual and moral progress, no matter what the source, Hirsch sees reflected in the blessing which Jews recite on encountering a great Gentile scholar. In short, Hirsch interprets the oppo sition to his views as far from being an indication of any serious conflict between Judaism and general culture. He attributes it rather to historical cir

cumstances which, although long past, are still exerting their negative influ ence in the present. HE educational synthesis which Hirsch envisioned was succinctly summarized in his formulation of educational means and ends. The unification of Jewish and general knowledge, he states, must be realized in the curriculum of the Jewish school as well as in the school’s end product —the educated Jew. In the school cur riculum, Jewish and general knowl edge must become the “intimately related, mutually complementary parts of a great, harmonious educational whole. . . .” The program of the school must reflect the conditions of modern life outside the school. Just as modern life has ceased to be divisi ble into a Jewish and a non-Jewish compartment, so the curriculum can no longer be compartmentalized, Hirsch maintains. In like manner, the educational product must be a unified one. The “modern Jew” must be “an intellectually and morally educated Jew and an intellectually and morally educated citizen.” It is no longer possible, Hirsch asserts, to separate “modern” and “Jew.” The educational ideal is a person who is both “modern” and “Jewish” in every dimension of human experience. S. R. Hirsch’s educational synthesis is noteworthy for several reasons. To begin with, it comes to grips with a problem that has not yet been dealt with sufficiently in American Jewish education. Secondly, it represents a formulation that may well point the way for American Jewry. The Hirschian synthesis combines a positive at titude toward general studies with a determination to preserve Jewish tra dition. The pursuit of general studies,

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Hirsch maintained, should be en couraged both for practical and theo retical reasons. But a position of priority is to be enjoyed by Jewish learning in the sense that general knowledge is to be evaluated in terms of Jewish conceptions. In this way, he felt, the principles of Judaism need not be comprimised and general studies need not be neglected. HE successful implementation of the Hirschian synthesis, it seems, depends very much on the attitudes that permeate the particular school that is doing the implementing. The priority position granted to Jewish studies could easily lead to a down grading of general studies in the stu dents’ minds. A definite attitudinal consensus on part of the faculty and the administration of the school is re quired lest the tension that may de velop between Jewish and general studies upset the balance that is con sidered appropriate for the two subject areas. Great care needs to be taken to maintain the equal seriousness toward Jewish and general studies which Hirsch promulgates. In short, the danger to be guarded against in the Hirschian proposal is the emer gence of a negative attitude toward general studies. The way in which the synthesis is applied could conceivably pose a prob lem in the area of the sciences. While it appears quite feasible to evaluate philosophical positions and literary ex pressions in terms of Jewish concep tions, it is much more difficult to apply the same method to the sciences. The sciences represent the area of empiri cal fact rather than speculation or evaluation. Facts, however, cannot be selected in terms of certain value pref erences. Agreement or disagreement

June. 1962

with the Jewish tradition is an irre levant and inappropriate standard when applied to the sciences. The only appropriate and relevant methods of criticism in the sciences are the logical procedures known as the scientific method. The foregoing considerations should not be taken to mean, however, that the Hirschian proposal is faced with an insurmountable difficulty. It is pos sible to adopt the position that the Bible is the canon of religion and morality and not a book of science. Thus, no conflict between Judaism and empirical science need arise and, consequently, a selection of scientific facts in terms of Jewish conceptions does not become necessary. But while scientific facts are not subject to critical evaluation in terms of Jewish ideals, various other aspects of science are not exempt from it. Thus, the procedures used in the proc ess of inquiry as well as the applica tion of the results of scientific inquiry may properly be subjected to the test of Jewish ethics. Experiments that would result in physical or psychologi cal ill-effects, not to speak of loss of human life, could not be approved of by Judaism. Similarly, the use of scientific knowledge for immoral pur poses could appropriately be rejected. HE synthesis formulated by S. R. Hirsch may well find application beyond the area of formal education. It may be generalized to point the way for the modern Jew out of his intellectual predicament. Ever since the dawn of the modern period in Jewish history, the emancipation of the Jews in Central and Western Europe at the beginning of the Nine teenth Century, Jews have been settled with a most troublesome ques-

tion: How to live in two civilizations. Every modern Jew faces this very question and is compelled to respond to it. Several major alternative courses are open to him. He may choose to turn his back on his Jewish heritage and decide to live in Western civiliza tion only. This is the path of assimila tion. Or he may determine to isolate himself from the surrounding civiliza tion and live exclusively in the Jewish tradition. This is the path of intellec tual ghetto-ization. Neither of these alternatives appears to prove satisfac tory for the vast number of modern Jews. Most modern Jews are willing to renounce neither their Jewishness

nor Western civilization. They have apparently chosen to live in two cul tural worlds. But they have so far failed, to any appreciable extent, to bridge these two worlds. Even the average Jewish college graduate has not seriously attempted to relate his Jewish commitments to the world view, the moral, political, and aesthetic convictions, of Western civilization. It is in the fulfillment of this task that the Hirschian synthesis may prove of much help to him. In S. R. Hirsch’s formula for education he may discover the instrument for a con structive solution of his intellectual predicament

JEWISH LIFE

A S to r y

Vein of Gold By MAX ROBIN

Y father was a jeweler, but the bench, with no more than a ring in M name Goldsmith, by which he his hands, when he might have worked was known, carried a more suitable ring. And his reputation went well with his calling. People spoke of him as an honest man, who earned little, but who didn’t work too hard. If a woman came to order a wedding-band for her daughter, father took the measure of the girl’s finger; and the hope of the mother was that he might be ready on time. My father’s motto was, not to dis appoint any one for a wedding or a holiday. And he never did. He knew when to work; and who would deny that he also knew how? I have seen father stay up nights, blowing his fuses till his face was blackened with smoke; and he would file and solder and saw. He loved his work. He was original, too, and he was always learning; it appeared that he was always learning from himself, and that he would con tinue to find new things to learn. He was a big, strong man; so it was strange to see him, bent over his June, 1962

in a smithy or a foundry, if only to give vent to the energy which, like a vein of gold, ran through the stem of his body. But father chose to create; create little things that were like playthings in his fingers which seemed surpris ingly delicate for a man of his size. He designed and engraved, all by himself; and he made the liveliest, tiniest nests, with teeth that were sharp and grasping—the kind we never even saw in the mouth of the cutest fish; and in these nests he set his stones of startlingly vivacious hues that shone as much brighter than ever did the stars on the darkest, coldest nights. I would sit by and watch and father didn’t mind. I would fall asleep, ad miring his skill and the patience that he gave to it; and I knew that father would soon lift me, and carry me to bed; he would cover me and tuck me snugly high around the shoulders, no worse than mother did. 43

As from the cloud-bed of a dream I would be aware of father and of the darkness in the bedroom, of the warmth that wrapped us both. I would settle into a sleep that was better than a dream; and from far away I would still hear the tap-tap of a hammer; and somewhere, some how I would know that father was creating. HE profit father made was negli gible against the immeasurable de votion that he gave to his task. Travelers would come to our home —strange men, with beards that varied from the shape of a broom to the crown of a carrot, and in garb to re mind one of Biblical times, their boots and sandals telling tales of the dust and mud of many distant roads. Father’s shop was in a corner of one of the rooms in which we lived. The strangers, hard and dry with the cunning of savage, undivulged silence, their tongues unaccustomed to the lan guage we used, brought treasures for father to appraise and sometimes to purchase. To me it was all a wonder ful mystery: who were those men, how did they procure their quaint, antique treasure, and why their will ingness to part with it; where would they go next, and what would they buy for their money? Bread and tea and sugar and herring? Foreign coins would be tossed into the lap of father; some of them so old, several of us would disagree on deciphering a date which a century of unknown hands had taken to efface. Father would sit with the men, who looked to me like pirates; the flints in their eyes were like the edge of a dagger—cold, sharp, and pitiless. Yet father did not act as if he was afraid. He would give these heroes of mine,

who crowded and cluttered my fancy, to drink; and himself, not infrequent ly, he would yield to a sip and a gulp. There were times when father let himself be curious about the wander ers who stopped at our home; and one surmised he was more concerned with the lives and adventures of these men than he was with the advantages that might be his at the end of the deal. He would take in gold and silver; he would melt it, and he would have a supply on hand. Always I wondered: what if those wayfarers who had sold their treasure to father should come back in the night, when we all slept. . .? That, maybe, was a reason I stayed up with father. But he really wasn’t afraid. He had treated the men right. “When you’ll grow up,” he said, “remember that your father was an honest man and his heart was too full for fear. He did his work, and he did no one harm. Remember, child, you do the same.” I felt that this I would remember, and that, whatever happened, I would never, I must never forget these words of my father. NE day a delegation of Jews came to our house. They spoke O long, and father listened earnestly. “You may depend on me,” he said. “My name means more to me than gold.” The three Jews went, and father, after he had taken them to the door, sat down, and out of a sack they had left with him, he poured out on the table gold coins in a screaming, sunbright cascade. It was real money, only some of the coins had been punc tured. They were “shmiris.” Mother was curious. But father remained thoughtful, serious. And Mother seemed to understand. JEWISH LIFE

“Put the ‘shmiris’ back in the sack and let me hide it for you,” she suggested. Father laid one hand on the pile of gold, while with the other he kept stroking his forehead. Was there a doubt he harbored in his mind, or did a stray and unwelcome thought crop up to tempt him? “If you don’t know what to do with it,” again asked mother, “why did you take the order? Go, tell them you are not going to do it.” It was all a mystery to me, especial ly when father, without having yet uttered a word, with deliberate slow handfuls started to return the gold to the bag. We ate supper in silence, and father went out that evening. Mother couldn’t put me to sleep: something was pend ing; something might happen soon— something must. It was as if life itself hung in the balance—life, as it struck me, that was more important than the life of the body. Herself, mother was too upset to go about her usual work, and only when father returned and she had taken a quick look at his face, did she retire to the kitchen. I felt sorry for her then. She was one who spoke very little, and she had the reputation of being a wise woman. Her friends were few, but those were known to speak well of her. She was different from father; and I sided now with one, now with the other. “Go to sleep, my son,” said father to me. But I wasn’t going to leave him alone that evening; a thought in my own mind told me not to; nor did I feel convinced that father really wanted me to go to sleep. And I didn’t go to sleep—not I. june, 1962

UT I dreamed I was a man, towering to a height the equal of father’s. I wore a dark hat, its brim was wide, with a skull-cap underneath; my beard was black, but my face was tender with understand ing. To be sure, I was a rabbi, atten tive to the strings inside, the hidden thoughts which stirred in me as though they were a sensitive antenna respon sive to the world outside. I was the honest man my father had trained me to be. From near and far people came to me: came to be consoled, to be healed where no doctor could reach them in their troubles. And as with a light illuminated them in their hearts, until, like the gaseous air of an un ventilated room, their troubles dis solved and vanished. And those who had come to me oppressed and dis tracted, left me healed and whole. And as a token of their recovery, and so their recovery might last, I gave a gold “shmiri” to each man, woman and child. Little by little I had been becoming aware of the ascendent sound of voices; and as my eyes opened, I saw father, and a smaller man with him. He was the town’s other jeweler, and he was saying to father: “You don’t understand — you are not looking at it the right way. They came with the ‘shmiris’ and asked you to make the ornaments for the Torah. All right. You are not giving them brass for gold. You are giving them gold. Only they don’t have to know that it’s not the gold of the ‘shmiris’ . . . ”

T this point mother appeared in the door. “I don’t like what you are saying,” she addressed the jeweler. “I don’t like that my husband went to you for advice.”

But father denied he had gone any where for advice. He had stopped over to consult the older goldsmith about the donation which a number of wealthy Jews had made for the synagogue and which had been en trusted to him to convert from “shmiris” to the golden ornaments of the Holy Scroll. “Why did you go?” mother insisted, as she turned to him. “This was a thing in your own hands. I told you to return the order if you did not care to take it.” But the other jeweler explained that he did not come to advise my father to cheat the Jews of their donation. G-d forbid! But gold was gold; and instead of using coin, which would have to be melted, prepared, father could use the supply of crude gold he already had on hand, to which he offered to add some of his own if necessary. “Because,” he further troubled to explain, “the value of gold, when you buy it, is less than the value of gold coin when you spend it. So no one would lose, and we would gain. I too, am still an honest Jew. . .” “Under no circumstances!” main tained mother. “The ‘shmiris’ are sacred things, dispensed by the rabbis in token that a sick soul has been healed. They mean more than gold to those who received them and now offer them for a permanent gift to the synagogue. This is worth more than gold, more than. . .” Father hadn’t spoken; but there had been on his face, all this while, a serene expression which became stranded there. He stood up, and with elastic stride he went to the cupboard. From there he took the decanter, two glasses. He returned, filled the glasses, gave one to the jeweler, kept one for 46

himself; and while the rest of us looked on, he said: “Did you really think that I ever would do such a thing?” Father looked up, and there were tears in his eyes. From joy father was crying, from re lief; and my heart welled, and I* too would have cried had I spoken, I felt so good. “Here sits my child.” he continued. “Come here— ” he called me. But be fore I had time to move, he was over at my side, and he lifted me up from my seat. “My child has been here,” he said, “and he knows what’s going on. Do you think there is gold in the world for which I could sell my soul and betray this son of mine and my wife —where are you?” He turned to mother, and her too he clasped close to his side. “Don’t let me deny,” he said, “that the spirit of evil was in me. He’s in all of us. Well, what can we do? Let him stay in us! But we must never let him rear his head so that he does with us what he likes. If there is evil in us let us use it to enhance the good. And so now let us drink—two good Jews—to all that is dear to us, and let us not forget to drink to the evil in us, that it may continue to make us more and more good.” The other Jew, too, drank, and they both had twinkles in their faces. I could only beam my happiness. But mother was firm. “Time to go to sleep,” she said. “Not yet!” affirmed father. “This is the night to begin our good work. We are two jewelers in town, and we shall do this job together. Let us go and melt the ‘shmiris’.” I heard no objection from mother; and I stayed up, to watch and learn. JEWISH LIFE

Careers in The Social Sciences By WALTER DUCKAT

ABOUT 50,000 professionally trained J \ persons are engaged in what is known as the “social sciences.” This broad term covers diverse activities ranging from studies of the beginning of man to analyses of the latest elec tion returns. Within this range lie numerous areas of career opportunity for the religiously observant Jew. The social sciences, whose practi tioners have become increasingly im portant in our society, are usually divided into five major branches: an thropology, history, economics, politi cal science, and sociology. Anthropolo gists specialize in the study of primitive groups, the culture of all nations, and the civilizations of past ages. Historians study and analyze the records of the past and attempt to shed light on the present and on the future. Economists deal with methods of producing goods and services and how they are distrib uted. The political scientist analyzes government in its various forms. This area is the oldest branch of the social June, 1962

sciences and on many points dovetails with history, law, economies, and phi losophy. The sociologist devotes him self to the behavior and relationships of people in groups such as the family, the community, and social and reli gious minorities, as well as to the im pact of group living on individuals. AS in many professional fields, Jews

Jr jl have also contributed significantly to the social sciences. Persons of Jew ish birth or extraction have been and are among the leaders of the social sciences. A number of historical fac tors conspired to thrust Jews into a position of prominence in this area. As a highly cosmopolitan and minority group and long time victims of dis criminatory behavior, Jews have been especially sensitive to the problems of minority groups and zealous in cor recting them* Beyond this, however, the deep-seated solicitude for the disad vantaged prevalent among Jews derives from the Biblical emphasis on social 47

justice with which Judaism is impreg nated, and which deeply influenced the Western world. The contributions of individual Jews to the social sciences can only be sketched briefly. In anthropology, we have Solomon Reinach, who also wrote works on sociology and folklore. In the United States, the names of Robert Lowie of the University of California and the late Franz Boas of Columbia are outstanding. In history, Jews of various lands have made important contributions, including such American figures as the Arthur Schlesingers, senior and junior, Oscar Handlin, Salo Baron, and Daniel Boorstein. In sociology, the French Jew Emile Durkheim, who was the first to ana lyze the social and psychological effects of the division of labor and society, is credited not only with transforming the sociology of his time but of all the social sciences and psychology in France since 1900. His countryman Renee Worms was the founder of the Revue Internationale de Sociologie. Max Nordau, perhaps best known to Jews because of his association and early support of Theodor Herzl, also achieved international fame as a soci ologist. The Italian Jew Cesare Lombroso, also an outstanding Zionist, be came known as the founder of the scientific school of criminology. Other distinguished names are Karl Mann heim, Albert Salomon, and David Riesman. In economics, there is a galaxy of Jewish names, including such major figures as David Ricardo and Ferdi nand Lasalle. In our time, outstanding economists include Burns, Ginzberg, Keyserling, and Lubin. . HILE political science originated in ancient Greece, it owed much

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to Jews in both ancient and modem times. According to Prof. William Ebenstein of Princeton: “The contri bution of Jewish civilization to the political heritage of the world has been immense; the idea of the brotherhood of man, of one world, is deeply rooted in the Jewish conception of mono theism as transmitted through the Bible.” He adds, “Biblical opposition to slavery, its insistence on a weekly day of rest, its protective legislation for the weak were the highest form of political and social ethics although not actually political science.” In political science, the late Harold Laski of England was internationally famous for his writings and lectures. In the United States, the recognized dean of political journalists and ana lysts is the widely syndicated Walter Lippmann. Other outstanding experts are Max Lerner, Frederick Schuman, and Louis Fischer. D istinguished names in public opinion and com munications are Paul Lazarsfeld and Edward L. Bemays. The latter is bet ter known as a public relations adviser but he has written widely on social psychology and propaganda. HE various social sciences are closely alliëd, so that precise de marcations are difficult to make. An thropology has been called the most wide-ranging of the social sciences. Conspicuous among its contributions has been the development of the idea of culture; viz: that the total life pat tern and activities of a tribe or group plays a crucial part in the development of human beings. Anthropologists usually make ex peditions to sites of the cultures which they are studying. They may dig to discover early people. They custom arily live among the people they are observing. Living conditions during

JEWISH LIFE

primitive and they usually share these conditions and scrupulously record everything they observe about the be havior of the tribe. Generally, they also learn the language of the tribe, their expeditions are often extremely They usually collect samples of the products made by the tribe; tools, pot tery, weapons, clothing, etc. After their expedition is completed, they work on their notes and materials, consult other studies which may have been made and write their reports. It is apparent from the above that the Shomer Shabboth who is consider ing a career in anthropology would face extremely difficult religious prob lems while he is in the field. Once these are surmounted, however, he could with a Ph.D. degree obtain employment as a college teacher which constitutes the major source of em ployment for anthropologists. A small number of anthropologists are also employed as curators in museums, as linguists for governmental agencies and as administrators of international stu dent exchange and fellowship grant programs. HERE are two main divisions of anthropologists; physical and cul T tural or social. The physical anthro pologist studies the origin, develop ment and life cycle, physical character istics, and distribution of the races of man. This is primarily a natural sci ence and is steeped in human biology, the scientific measurement of the body and its parts in the use of statistical methods to analyze biological data. The cultural anthropologist studies ethnology, archaeology, primitive lin guistics, and applied anthropology. The ethnologist studies primitive tribes and their entire way of life. Some special ize in the psychological and social beJune, 1962

havior of the individual as influenced by the group. Archaeologists investigate the past by digging into places believed to be the sites of form er civilizations. Archaeologists prefer to consider them selves as a separate profession, apart from anthropology. Anthropologists however, usually include archaeology under their broad professional group ing. Primitive linguistics includes the study of the languages of primitive and non-literate people. These experts study phonetics, the growth and his torical development of languages. Em ploying comparative methods, they point out the distribution of languages containing similar elements. They have also simplified alphabets and grammars and the teaching of difficult languages. Applied anthropology deals with the application of the knowledge and methods of anthropology to the solution of such practical problems as social work, industrial relations, mi nority problems, etc.

IKE most social scientists, the ma jority of anthropologists work as college teachers, the second largest group works for the Federal Govern ment, mainly in museums and in governmentally supervised parks, monu ments, and trusteeships areas. Others work for non-profit foundations and research organizations. Those who possess a bachelor’s de gree may sometimes obtain teaching assistantships or jobs as research as sistants. A Ph.D. however, is neces sary for the better positions. Trained anthropologists are expected to have had basic research experience in the field. Since the first job the anthro pologist obtains is usually through* the anthropological department of his uni versity, careful selection of a school 49

is important. Some universities have affiliations with museums which can provide the necessary field work ex perience, and some offer opportunities for archaeological expeditions during the summer. The best opportunities in this field will pontinue to be in college teaching, although museums too are expected to add to their staff. Some anthropologists will be needed for mental and public health work and for general community survey work. Salaries for college instructors in these social sciences range from about $4,500 to $5,500 a year. In a majority of the colleges, professors earn from 60 to 70 per cent more than instruc tors. In a few universities, professors can earn up to $25,000 a year. Be ginning salaries in the Federal Gov ernment ranges from $4,355 to $5,355 a year depending on the applicant’s college record. Those with one to two years of graduate training are eligible for beginning salaries of $5,355 to $6,435 a year, while those who possess a Ph.D. start at $7,560 a year and may rise to about $15,000 a year. The approximate current beginning salary for anthropolgists with an M.A. degree is about $5,500 to $6,800 for Ph.D.’s. There have been several outstanding women anthropologists, notably Mar garet Mead and Ruth Benedict. In this and other social sciences, women who perform precisely the same work as men usually earn about $1,000 a year less than men. The rigors of living among natives, however, usually de ters many women from pursuing this profession. OCIOLOGY, often called the sci• ence of society, deals with the whole range of situations in which human beings are involved—at work,

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at home, or at play. Besides college teaching which absorbs about threefourths of the employed sociologists, those in this field also engage in re search, consultation, technical writing and editing, management, and adminis tration. Some sociologists combine two or more of these activities along with college training. In making their studies, sociologists use a variety of methods, including case studies of individuals and fam ilies, and surveys of various communi ties, studying the ways in which the community affects marriage and fam ily life, the factors which influence divorce, delinquency, crime, and other social relationships. Sociologists specialize in one of many areas. Among the major groups are historical and theoretical sociology. The specialist in these fields studies the origin and development of current customs and institutions, the history of ideas and the nature of society. Edu cational sociologists study the educa tional system and the influence of edu cation on the community. The social psychologist employs both sociology and psychology to probe the behavior of individuals acting in groups, how public opinion develops, the influence of propaganda on people’s behavior, and how an individual acts differently when he is part of a group and when he is alone. Rural sociologists study the ways and institutions of rural communities, how rural living may be improved, while the urban sociologist studies how the various type of cities developed, the way people live in them, and the many problems which arise in most cities: housing, recreation, city plan ning, delinquency, employment, etc. The sociologist who specializes in race and minorities studies the rela tionships between groups, the causes JEWISH LIFE

of conflicts and how good will may be compared with other governments; promoted. Some sociologists specialize public administration and how the na in population, its growth, and the rea tions of the world deal with mutual sons for the changes in population problems* diplomacy and agreements distribution. Others study the effect of and international relationships; politi physical environment on the occupa cal theory, public opinion, constitu tions, health, and activities of individ tional and administrative law, or the uals and groups. Some concentrate on powers of government and the rights the cause and prevention of crime of citizens; political parties and how while still others study such formal they operate, propaganda, and com organizations as the family, the state, munications. Some specialists study marriage, etc. and the way life is in political theory and philosophy, legis fluenced by the laws, habits and out lation and government, government look of the community. and economic conditions, or the influ Most opportunities in sociology will ence of government on business and continue to be in college teaching. labor relations. Some opportunities are also expected The approximate median salary for in city, state, and Federal agencies and political scientists currently is about in non-profit agencies. The widest $6,300 for those holding M.A. degrees range of positions are expected to be and about $7,100 for those with open for those well trained in research Ph.D’s. Those holding professorships and advanced statistics. Other openings at better known universities earn sub are anticipated in social psychology, stantially higher salaries. rural sociology, community develop Political scientists are mainly em ment population, market research, cor ployed in college teaching. Others are rection, mental health, and in the study engaged in administrative work, most of juvenile delinquency. frequently in personnel, budget ana Approximate median salaries for lysis and international relations. Many sociologists with M.A. degrees is about are in research, some are consultants $5,100 while those with Ph.D. degrees, to co lleg es or m u n ic ip a l re se a rc h the median is about $6,800. Here too, bureaus, government agencies and civic those who direct projects often earn and taxpayers associations. Over 10,$10,000 and more a year. 000 persons are believed to be em ployed in various phases of political science. As in most phases of the OUNG persons who are consider social sciences, graduate training is ing political science as a career usually required for professional em should know that this specialty in ployment. More than 100 schools of cludes government at every le v e l- higher learning offer graduate training local and state, regional, national, and in a wide range of subjects. Most also international. Most opportunities in offer field training. The outlook for this work are in college teaching. Some those with Ph.D.’s is considered good. political scientists engage in research for private or public agencies, ad HE historian studies the past and ministration or consultative work. tries to explain the causes as well Political science embraces the fol lowing main branches: How our gov as the effects of historical events. His ernment developed and its nature as specialized training equips him to ex-

June, 1962

tract relevant information from orig inal records and present them in a logical and interesting manner. To per form his duties well, he should be able to read one or more foreign language well so as to use literature in other languages. He should know how to use source material found in different locations and be familiar with related social sciences such as geography, eco nomics, psychology, etc., and have the ability to use statistics and archaeo logical techniques. Most historians specialize in a combination of research with teaching. Some work for his torical societies or museums and gov ernmental agencies. The latter manage archives and historical records and prepare literature and exhibits about their collections. The largest sector of the social sci ences is economics. About 20,000 persons are professionally employed as economists. These specialists study how men make their living and the factors affecting this process. Because of the many facets of economics, most economists specialize in one or more of six main fields where economics principles are applied. The economic theorists study vari ous types of government and their economic systems. The labor econo mist probes all factors affecting the income and welfare of labor, its rela tionship with management and the effect of labor policies on the entire nation. The specialist in socio-ecb* nomics studies such problems as popu lation growth and migration or the occupational and income distribution of our population. Some economists spe cialize in banking and finance; others concentrate on industrial economics which involves the study of various types of business groups, of how goods are produced and marketed and the factors influencing their cost. Then, 52

there is the agricultural economist who deals with the factors involved in pro ducing farm products and their rela tionship to farm income, international trade, tariff and other relevant factors. Some economists specialize in one or more fields such as taxes, wages, tariffs, inflation, unemployment, international trade, etc. BOUT one-half of working econo mists are employed as college teachers. About one-third work as researchers in government or in private agencies. Others also write and serve as consultants. Most governmental economists engage in research and administrative work. They may make studies of, and issue reports on basic economic problems such as.the effect of automation, problems of the work ing mother or of other aspects of labor, etc. Most economists in the Federal Gov ernment specialize in business, agricul ture, international trade, labor, etc. Other Federal economists work as stat isticians, intelligence specialists, for eign affairs specialists, or in other related jobs. ’ Large business firms and banks also hire economists who analyze domestic and international trade, the conditions which may affect the interests of their firm or their clients. They attempt to aid management either to expand or to contract its activities or act on other practical matters. While it is possible to obtain entry jobs in government and in pri vate industry with a master’s or even a bachelor degree, it is highly desirable to obtain a Ph.D. for the more respon sible and better paying jobs both in college teaching as well as in private industry. Because of this, it is impor tant to select a good graduate school

JEWISH LIFE

which offers good training in research methods and statistics as well as good research facilities and opportunities for practical experience. Salaries for economists, especially in private indus try, top those of other social scientists. The approximate median for Ph.D.’s is currently about $8,200. There are some economists in private industry earning $25,000 a year and more. Iff college teaching their salaries depend on their reputation and the school and correspond to that prevailing for other college teachers. Those who plan to enter one of the social sciences should even in high school take as many courses in history, civics, geography, economics and math, as possible. In college, they should major in the social sciences such as sociology, economics, labor problems, psychology, etc.

HE outlook in the various branches T of the social sciences ranges from satisfactory in anthropology and politi cal science to excellent for economists and historians. In general, opportuni ties are expected to increase substan tially, mainly because of the expected increase in the number of college teachers. Other positive factors are the increasing use of social scientists in gov ernment and industry because of the growing use of social science methods in coping with social and economic problems. As indicated, those who possess Ph.D.’s will encounter little difficulty in marketing their skills, espe cially those who are well trained in statistical research methods. For the Shomer Shabboth who possesses the necessary requirements and person ality, a career in the social science may prove to be very rewarding.

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JEWISH LIFE

Book Bevietv

The Federation Movement By PAUL H. VISHNY A HERITAGE AFFIRMED, by Harry L. Lurie. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of Amer ica, 1961. 481 pp. $6.00. fX lH E development of the Jewish JL federation movement is something of a mirror of the Jewish community in America. While the federation is primarily thought of as a means to the unified, organized collection and distribution of funds, it is more than that. It has been, as the author of this book notes, “an expression of Jewish group awareness.” More sig nificantly, it has been a response to the needs of American Jewish com munal life, and a reflection of its values. It is always pertinent, there fore, to view critically the needs of American Jews which find support in PAUL H. VISHNY, an attorney by profession, is an ordained graduate of Hebrew Theological College and received his LL.B. degree from DePaul University. An active figure in the American Jewish Congress, his interests include a host of Jewish, civic, and professional agencies. His articles and reviews have appeared in Jewish and legal publications. June, 1962

the federations, and the nature of the federation’s response to what it deems worthy of support. This volume, which is a history and analysis of the Jewish federation movement in America, is an important contribution to the understanding of the Jewish community. The author is uniquely qualified to describe the movement. For about twenty years, he served as the executive director of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. One may sense, as this reviewer did in reading this study, that Lurie is a devoted ex ponent of the federation movement, and this may contribute to the high position which the federation occupies in his view. To one who lives in any of the very large urban centers of Jewish life, with a complex array of institutions and organizations, the full significance of the movement may not always be apparent. It must be re called that, except for the largest cities, the federations are charged with responsibility for most all local 55

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JEWISH LIFE

and national as well as overseas in stitutions. In most cities, the federa tion is also the moving force behind the community relations program for the Jewish community. HE first formal Jewish federation T in America was organized in Bos ton in 1895. In its early history, as developed by the author, the federa tion expressed the concern of the existing community for the urgent needs of poor immigrants from east ern Europe. Its organization was de signed purely to meet the need for increased charitable aid, and its bene ficiary agencies were concerned with the welfare of persons in need of relief, employment, vocational skills and the like. As time went on and the mobile Jewish community achieved greater economic security, the role of the federation, and the nature of its beneficiaries changed. The needs for relief and certain other agencies, such as orphanages, were greatly dimin ished or eliminated. During prosperous years, as in 1928 and 1929, Jewish leaders began to question the justification for Jew ish welfare agencies. Some became interested in the contributions which Jewish philanthropy could make to Jewish culture. But the depression of the 1930’s, the horrible plunder and murder of the Jewish communities of Europe, the needs of the displaced persons, and the establishment of the State of Israel, gave a different char acter to the activities of federations. A greater share of the funds collected were of necessity spent to meet the critical overseas needs. In recent years, despite the con-, tinued overseas needs, many changes have taken place within the Jewish community and in the functions of June, 1962

Jewish welfare agencies. For many years, the welfare institutions have been more than charities—they have become instruments for the further ance of the total health and welfare needs of a community in which in dividuals are able to pay for the needed services. The non-sectarian character of hospitals, including those under Jewish auspices, has meant that Jews and others enter hospitals with out regard to sectarian sponsorship. The family service agencies, which now tend to charge for their services, are focusing their attention more on the problems of family relationships and individual adjustment. Jewish education has also become an accepted part of federation re sponsibility in relatively recent years. Most recently, the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds has initiated a study of the needs of day schools, which have not yet received widespread communal support. ERHAPS the most important chapter in this book deals with the future of federations. It is here that the most serious questions are to be asked. What values and needs of the community are the federations likely to meet in the future? Certain of the welfare agencies continue to meet the special needs of the Jewish community. Institutions for the care of the young, and of the old, play an important role in the communal life of a people. The need for facilities for the aged, particu larly the chronically ill, will continue to increase and must be met. As to general health and welfare agencies, Lurie is undoubtedly correct in predicting their continued support by the Jewish community. Not only do these institutions express the con-

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cern of the community for its own health, and the training of competent Jewish professionals, but they con tribute to the fulfillment of Jewish responsibility to the general com munity and to the sharing of burdens which are likewise being met by other religious groups. Yet, the continuing and increasing trend for government to bear the burden of health and wel fare services, the growth of private insurance plans, the economic security of the Jewish population, and the trend to non-sectarianism in the use of agencies, also raise questions of priority in the application of federal funds. It may be that the bulk of major contributors and, indeed, most persons, are not yet attuned to the critical importance of education, schol arship, and cultural expression. Lurie predicts that “cultural and education al agencies will share increasingly” in the broader function of federations.

June, 1962

Lurie also believes that Jewish phi lanthropy will become more interested in non-sectarian higher education under Jewish auspices, while the arts and scholarship will be supported more by individuals or foundations. It may be that he is correct. One would hope that this interest will be secondary to the demands of Jewish education, including the necessity for capital funds. What is needed is an urgent effort to assure the continued survival of an educated, meaningful Jewish com munity under the particular condi tions of American life. This must occupy a prior position in Jewish planning. Such a community will, of course, express itself in many ways and require various services. But, central to the particular personality of the historic Jewish community, is the process of education. Torah is its highest value.

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JEWISH LIFE

Letters to the Editor

B IK E L ON JUDAISM

Little Neck, N. Y. Although I am personally non orthodox, I read J e w is h L if e with appreciation for the viewpoint which it represents. Perhaps it will be of interest to your readers to share with me a letter I received from Mr. Theo dore Bikel, the well-known Israeli actor and folk-singer. His letter was in response to one from myself, in which I commented on remarks he had made on a TV program dealing with racial and religious prejudice. I had expressed to Mr. Bikel the opinion that his views on Judaism were them selves biased. His reply is attached. Shirley D. Brody (We agree with Mrs . Brody that Mr, BikeVs letter is of unusual interest, and are pleased to publish it here-

Dear Mrs. Brody: I shall not enter into a theological dispute with you, or with anybody else for that matter, on the question of Orthdoxy vs. Reform. In the first in stance neither of us is most probably fully qualified to represent any side in this dialogue. Secondly my objections to the ways of the Reformed Syna gogue are not really theological in June, 1962

nature. They are sociological and emo tional. I have no doubt that the con scientious Reform Jew is no less strict in his adherence to the religious teach ings of the Reform movement than any other Jew can possibly be. That however, is not my point at all. Let me take the sociological aspect first: My intense and fiercely proud faith in Judaism and its precepts is firmly rooted in the heritage we share as Jews. That heritage embodies within its multi-faceted character the whole spectrum of Jewish life both secular and religious; the attitude toward learning, toward wisdom, the endur ance of persecution and the spiritual triumph over it, the unbreachable faith in the Word, and the customs and rites which evolved from the ad herence to the Word. That means, in some instances, that even seemingly unnecessary “rituals” are being gone through, yet without the ritual Jews would not have survived and we would not stand here today. We owe our very freedom, that self-same freedom which allows you to reject the ancient ritual, to the ritual itself. How ludi crous, useless and unnecessary it seems to us that for 2,000 years in the Diaspora Jews would have prayed for rain when they were not allowed to wield a ploughshare in the lands of exile. Moreover, they prayed for rain 61

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JEWISH LIFE

when the rainy season was due not in Poland or Russia but in Palestine which was alive in a collective group memory only. How easily could a “reformer” have pointed out the il logicality of our forefathers’ action, and, had such a modernizer succeeded, you and I would have been deprived today of one of the most beautiful pieces of literature in the Jewish liturgy, the prayer for rain. Who are we to decide what befits our almighty 20th Century? Who are we to mold our Judaism rather than have it mold us? I said this was a sociological point and I shall stick to that line. In going to look at the Reform temple, its architecture, its contents, and the be haviour of the worshippers therein I am absurdly reminded of the Protes tant chapel next door. You will prob ably flare up in fury at the compari son, but nonetheless to me it is ines capable. I am, you must remember, a Jew who came from Central Europe and then arrived on these shores by way of Israel and England. My Jews, you see, wear the same face, and gail all over, and speak the same lan guage in whichever country. Reformed American Jews, I am afraid, do not. They are a peculiarly American or Anglo-Saxon phenomenon. Even the Reformed Jews of America and the Reforfhed Jews of Germany do not see eye to eye and can hardly worship in each others temples for they are de prived of their central tool, the He brew language. And when I say He brew, Mrs. Brody, I don’t mean a perfunctary lip service of half-a-page of a fragment of a prayer in lieu of the whole. That is precisely what our forefathers meant when they coined the phrase, “to slip through the fin gers of a debt.” No argument of ex pediency is valid in my eyes that robs me and possibly my children of one of June. 1962

the proudest possessions I have: my Hebrew Bible, my Hebrew Talmud, my Hebrew prayerbook. “Would you rather the kids mumble an unintelli gible string of words” someone asked me recently; and I replied “No, I would not, I would make it my busi ness to see that the words would be intelligible as my father made it his business to see that I read and learned —and understood what it was that I had read and learned.” While we are on the subject of being like the Jones’; tell me how heavy did the yarmulke weigh on the heads of the Reformed congregants so that it had to be dispensed with? Must I be shamed in a house dedicated to Jewish worship by being asked to remove my hat? You chide the ortho dox for segregating men and women; possibly in ignorance of the fact that this “segregation” is one of love; that, in recognition of the love and attraction men and women feel for each other, it was thought best they should not d istra c t each o th er’s thoughts during the hours of worship. I wonder what the Reform argument would be in explaining the removal of the hat. I know it is not always done and not everywhere, but it is done nonetheless, and it hurts me. And so we have slipped from the sociological into the emotional and there, I suppose, for me lies the crux of the matter. I can quite readily for give a Reform service for leaving me unmoved because after all I was not brought up to accept it as my own, but I cannot possibly forgive the Re form service for leaving its own con gregation unmoved. This I have ob served myself; a stiffness, a reliance on official interpreters, five gentlemen on a podium, plus a cellist, on Kol Nidre night to express the feelings of a thousand; and the thousand sat 63

there and then stood up and some times said so-called “responsive” pray ers in very refined English—and there was no soul in it. It was an attempt to express in dramatic terms the story of Kol Nidre, if you will, but I looked at the faces around me and they were no different from the faces I see in an audience. A synagogue does not re quire an audience, it requires partici pants. The next day I walked two miles to a strange city to look for the poor Jews. Their synagogue was not very clean, nor were their prayer shawls . . . both were well worn and well used, and they were loud and not always in tune, but each one of them had a pipe

line direct to G-d, and they were my Jews. That is what I mean, Mrs. Brody, when I say that I am—if anything— an orthodox Jew who sometimes breaks the rules because when I feel the need to be with Jews—and among Jews—and I feel the need more and more of late—then I go where I find the real ones, the ones that are not ashamed of their hat and their beard and their tears. Please forgive me for having been so long-winded and perhaps overly emotional but I would be less than myself if I were not so. Sincerely, Theodore Bikel

JEWISH LIFE

ff«2

ANNOUNCEMENT

64th A nniversary B iennial N a tio n a l Convention OF THE

U nion o f Orthodox Jewish Congregations o f A m erica w ill be held n"',K AT THE Sheraton-Park H otel in W A S H IN G T O N , D . C. on W ednesday, Novem ber 21 — Sunday, Novem ber 2 5 ,1962 Cheshvan 24 to Cheshvan 28, 5723 • PLEASE RESERVE THESE DATES

Thanksgiving Week . . . in the Nation's Capital