Jewish Life March-April 1968

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NISAN-IYAR 5723 MARCH-APRIL 1968

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March-April 1968

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Gefilte fish ike mother used to make.

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M other’s G efilte F is h . An A m erican* P a ss o v e r tradition .

O nly th e fre sh e st fish . J u s t the right am o u n t of sp ic e s.

S low -sim m ered to bring out the d e licate flavor. For the h o lid ays, for an y day, se rve w hat M other's know s best. Gefilte fish . (Traditio nal O ld -Fashio ned , W hitefish and Y ellow Pike, or All W h itefish.) In ja r s or c a n s. And rem e m b er M other’s M argarine. And

2

KOSHER FOR PASSOVER

B o rsch t. And S ch a v .

And M atzo B a lls.

All P areve and K o sh e r for P a sso v e r.

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U n sa lted G efilte Fish, U n sa lted B o rsch t, an d U n sa lted S o ft or Stick M arg arin e. All Pareve a n d K osher fo r Passover.

JEWISH LIFE

tOB EVERY This handbook answers all your questions about traditional Jewish practices for the Sabbath^ the holidays and every important ceremony.

COMPLETE WITH BENEDICTIONS • TRADITIONAL MENUS AND RECIPES • DIETARY LAWS • HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE Tr e a s u r e f o r

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What preparations are required for Passover? Chanukah? Y om Kippur? On what days do they fall next year? What is ChagH a’asif ? Keren Hayesod? W hy two chalahs on Sabbath Eve? Are candles lit on Purim?

Simchat Torah? What are the benedictions for the rituals and ceremonies for each oc­ casion? What is the history behind the rit­ uals? What are the traditional menus and recipes pertaining to the various holidays?

In simple, everyday language (written in the form o f a mother speaking to her soonlo-be-married daughter), you get all the answers. The editors have thought o f ev­ erything: The history and detailed outline o f all the h olid ays. . . how to prepare for and observe each— in the hom e and syna­ gogue . . . rituals, ceremonies and benedic­ tions for all the major events in the life o f a Jewish family— Brith M ilah, Bar M itzvah, Betrothal and Weddings, Mourning.

How to Observe the Holidays The rich lore and deep significance o f all the holidays are clearly explained, along with the traditional menus and detailed rec­ ipes for each dish: ROSH H A SH A N A H , YO M K IPPUR, SUCCOT, C H A N U K A H , CH AM ISH AH ASA R BISHVAT, P U ­ RIM , PASSOVER, LA G b’OMER, SHAVO U T , TISH A b’A V .

A lso fully covered in fascinating detail are the ceremonies and meanings for: Brith Milah, Pidyon Ha-Ben, Bar Mitzvah, the Bethrothal Contract, Marriage Ceremony, the Ritual Laws concerning mourning (Kaddish and Y ahrzeit).

March-April 1968

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3

As the world is getting smaller, man’s responsibility in that world is

a getting bigger. The recent World Synagogues Conference bears testi­ m o n

8 our c 0 n

t r 1

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t o r s 4

mony that for the orthodox Jew, the situation is no different. RABBI RALPH PELCOVITZ, Rav of Congregation Knesseth Israel in Far Rockaway, New York, and past president of the Rabbinical Al­ liance of America, presents some first-hand observations . . . One of the sub-worlds of American orthodox Jewish life that is growing in importance by leaps and bounds is the college campus. SHNAYER Z. LEIMAN, who studied at Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York, and Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh in Israel, reports from the campus of the University of Pennsylvania where he is a Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Oriental Studies and is active in the Yavneh chapter. . . . The principle and concept of areyvuth means that for the Jew, every other Jew is within arm’s reach—if he would but extend that arm. DR. BERNARD A. POUPKO, chairman of the Rabbi­ nical Board of Greater Pittsburgh, and vice president of the Rabbi­ nical Council of America and of the Religious Zionists of America, again speaks of the plight of Soviet Jewry . . . With Aliyah more than ever a focal issue in Israel-Golah relations, RABBI NORMAN LAMM, Rabbi of The Jewish Center in New York City and Erna Michael professor of Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University, indicates that observations unique to an American perspective are very much in place . . . The booming headlines from Viet Nam remind us all too painfully of the military as major enterprise. HENRY REISER, former member of the UOJCA office staff, in telling of his own experiences reminds us that the Jewish serviceman is no rare figure— and must be given major consideration . . . The richness of the Jewish people lies in many things, including the past that is so much part of the present. Again we meet a giant of a generation past, portrayed by RABBI AARON ROTHKOFF, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Ephraim of Maplewood, New Jersey . . . The in­ fluences of Judaism upon western civilization would be better under­ stood if Judaism itself would be better understood. DR. JUSTIN HOFMANN, Director of the Hillel Foundation at the University of Buffalo (New York), elaborates on one such aspect . . . Our story contributor is LIBBY (MRS. GILBERT) KLAPERMAN, an Editorial Associate of our magazine, who has distinguished herself through the printed word as through her many other endeavors.

JEWISH LIFE

Vol. XXXV, No. 4/March-April 1968/Nisan-lyar 5728

THE EDITOR’S VIEW

Saul B ernstein , Editor R abbi S. J. S harfman L ibby K laperman P aul H . B aris

Editorial Associates E lkanah S chwartz

DIRECTION IN DILEMMA ............................................................

6

IT WAS MADE TO HAPPEN.........................................................

7

ARTICLES THE WORLD CONFERENCE OF SYNAGOGUES/ Ralph P e lc o v lt z .........................................................................

9

THE CAMPUS PROBLEM AND JEWISH EDUCATION/Shnayer Z. Leim an..................................... 22

Assistant Editor

PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF Z IO N SOVIET VERSION/Bernard A. Poupko......................... 29

JEWISH LIFE is published bi-monthly. Subscription two years $4.50, three years $6.00, four years $7.50. Foreign: Add 40 cents per year.

THE LAST RABBI OF K0VN 0/ Aaron Rothkoff ......................................................................... 35

Editorial and Publication Office: 84 Fifth Avenue New York 10011, N. Y. ALgonquin 5-4100

TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF SOCIAL SERVICE/ Justin H o fm a n n ......................................................................... 58

Published by U nio n of Orthodox Jewish C ongregations of A merica

“ UP AND OVER’VNorman Lam m .......................................... 41 ARMED SERVICES DIARY/Henry R e is e r......................... 47

FICTION TALE OF A KVITTEL/Libby M. Klaperm an....................... 54

BOOK REVIEWS UPTOWN/Moses L. Is a a c s ........................................................ 65

J oseph K arasick

AN HONORABLE RELATIONSHIP/Seymour G l i c k . . . .

69

President H arold M. Jacobs Chairman of the Board

THE POETRY OF NELLY SACHS/Sharon D. B a r i s . . .

70

B e n ja m in K o e n ig s b e r g , Nathan K. Gross, David Politi, Dr. Bernard Lander, Harold H, Boxer, Vice Presi­ d e n ts ; M o r r is L. G reen , Treasurer: Dr. A. Abba Walker, Secretary; Michael Kaufman, Financial Secretary.

Dr. Samson R. Weiss Executive Vice President Saul Bernstein, Administrator

DEPARTMENTS CASES FROM THE RESPONSA LITERATURE/ David S. S h a p ir o ......................................................................

63

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

4

LETTERS TO THE E D IT O R .......................... ........................

77

Cover and drawings on pages 40 and 46

by Naama Kitov Drawings on pages 53, 57 and 62 by David Adler

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

March-April 1968

© Copyright 1968 by UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA

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the EDITOR'S VIEW Direction In Dilemma WELLING in freedom amidst the opportunities and abun­ dance of America’s open society, American Jews have much occasion for thankfulness but none for complacency. If there are any among us who have permitted the un-Jewish quali­ ty of smugness to enter their lives, a world rocked by conflict and an America torn by controversy brings them a shocked awakening.

Whether it be Viet Nam or race war, the world power struggle or social disintegration, ideological contests or political battles or economic crises or student revolts, and whether on one side of the much-punctured Iron Curtain or the other, the issues touch Jewish life at sensitive and vulnerable points. Amidst our dilemmas, Pesach brings us reminder that the cosmic libera­ tion from bondage is not merely to be celebrated but must be re-lived. The central reality in our lives is the mighty Hand and out-stretched Arm. From this we gain the sense of Jewish direc­ tion.

In public policy as in the spiritual realm, the finding of the right Jewish direction is at the core of American Jewish need. Interwoven in the American fabric, the Jew is in conThe Basic tinuous interaction with American life. For this reason, if for Criteria no other, the agencies of American Jewry are impelled to pro­ pound positions on major public questions. For this same reason, Jewish position-taking must be attended by extreme care and restraint. Borrowing from non-Jewish sources—to which some Jewish groups are characteristically prone—will not serve Jew­ ish purpose. When Jewish views are offered on public issues, they must fulfill Jewish criteria as to what is requisite.

The great public issues of this era interlock with each other.

At the crux of all, at the present time, is the agonized question of Viet Nam. There, as matters stand today, with the United States caught in a vise and possibilities of an agreed stalemate fading, terrible alternatives confront this country. Whatever course is followed must bear incalculable consequences, on both the domestic and the world scenes. Pressure on public opinion rises to the point of explosion and efforts multiply to attune Jewish position to the swinging pendulum. Let us not confuse stampede with Jewishly considered policy. Let us also be aware that whatever be the outcome of the Viet Nam con­ flict, Jewish life is bound to be subject to new strain.

The course of Jewish policy in this excruciating impasse

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JEWISH LIFE

must be determined not by propaganda clamor and external pressures but by the criteria of Jewish perception. In our search for direction, let our guidelines be Jewish belief and Jewish experience. The mighty Hand and outstretched Arm will not fail us in our search.

It Was Made to Happen OW that the World Conference of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Synagogues is so notably accomplished a fact, efforts to weigh its meaning abound. That the Kinus Olomi was a land­ mark in Jewish history is generally agreed. Opinions vary as to just what gave it this quality, but a consensus seems to be emerging that the central significance of this first-time-ever con­ vocation lies in its very occurrence. Synagogue leaders from twenty-six lands came together in Jerusalem in a world com­ munity context—that, irrespective of the content of their delib­ erations, Tk the ikkur of the matter, according to prevailing opinion. The summation is persuasive but incomplete. It falls short of grasping the implications of a pivotal fact: The World Conference didn’t “just happen.” It was made to happen.

The Kinus was not something that materialized in the nor­ mal flow of circumstances. To the contrary, it was a radical departure from the established pattern of events and was ac­ complished in the face of all the obstacles such a departure entails. The World Conference was willed into being—that is the heart of its meaning. Its fulfillment sprang from the will to grasp a historic need and translate idea into action, persisting through a years-long process of exploring uncharted areas and undefined factors to the determination of what shall be done and then through the months of practical preparation until the goal was attained.

The difference between “it happened” and “it was made to happen” is crucial for the Jewish situation. Today, amidst the Re-apply titanic forces which press so inexhorably on the inner life and Classic outward environment of all men, Jewish being faces total threat.

Stand It would be fatal to rest upon the stand: “There is nothing we can do about the shape of events, we can only try to shield ourselves from their consequences.” This is far from the classic position of the orthodox Jew, which holds: We must mould the conditions of life to Torah standards, not the reverse. Ap­ plying the time-tried stance to the dynamics of the contem­ porary world, we must dare to project Jewish purpose upon the forces and conditions of our time.

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HIS was the governing motif of the World Conference. So conceived, it bespoke a bold remounting of orthodox Jew-

March-April 1968

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ry’s stance in dealing with the surrounding world, even as it marked decisive change in the way traditional Jewish com­ munities relate to each other. And because its program was suffused with this outlook, the core meaning of the World Con­ ference was not a mere abstraction but a pulsating reality. How­ ever “bread and butter” in topic designation, the subject matter of the Kinus was grounded in coherent grasp of today’s world and the projection of Jewish essentials in the necessary dimen­ sion. The response of the many hundreds of delegates attested to their identity with the concept and purposes of the World Conference. In addressing themselves with such intense spirit to the issues and many-faceted agenda before them, the delegates made graphic the meaning of the whole experience.

Within the compass of this experience, the World Con­ ference achieved multiple objectives. A potent demonstration Multiple of the strength and solidarity of the orthodox Synagogue, it Objectives brought orthodox Jewry fresh awareness of their contemporary world role and of their capacity to govern their own direction.

It forged, as never before, close ties between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities and strengthened the bonds between re­ ligious Jewry in Israel and the Golah. Not least of all, the World Conference enabled Torah synagogues and communities the word over to open up avenues of mutual aid and to work together for shared goals. rTXHE character of the World Conference and the fact of its 1 fulfillment have effectively silenced the opposition shrilly voiced against it in some quarters. The agitation that was mounted, marked by patently specious charges and questionable methods, brought embarrassment to the Torah community. It was unfortunate that some eminent figures permitted their names to be associated with a campaign so out of keeping with Torah mentorship. It was surprising that but few among the roster of Roshey Yeshivoth rejected pressure and availed themselves of the opportunity to bring to the massed leadership of the Synagogue the guiding message that was so fitly and so earnestly sought. How priceless this opportunity . . .

The interests of Torah Jewry permit no dichotomies within its ranks. Nor do they permit that communal affairs be exThe Place ploited for personal ends, or that those to whom the community for Each must look for guidance be diverted from their proper role.

What took place at the World Conference of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Synagogues assures that it will bear continuing fruit.

A great task has begun and in its furtherance must be enrolled the broad array of Torah forces— Synagogue and Yeshivah, Rabbinate and laity, home and community. For each, the place of need is open and to each the task beckons. Let us make things happen, the right things, together.

— S. B. 8

JEWISH LIFE

The World Conference of Synagogues A Review and Analysis

By RALPH PELCOVITZ

TT^HEY CAME from the four cor- problems compared, solutions sug­ JL ners of the earth, from “down gested, and all this was most stirring, under” in Australia, from the Eu­ meaningful, and fruitful. The lively ropean continent, England, South personal relationship which charac­ America, South Africa, Canada, and terized the Conference scene was es­ of course from the United States and pecially apparent on a one to one basis Israel. From diverse lands and from —sitting at the dining room table or diverse backgrounds were these dele­ in the lobby, strolling in the streets of gates to the First World Conference Jerusalem and through snatches of of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Syna­ conversation in the hall and audito­ gogues, held this past January in Jeru­ rium during the plenary sessions and salem, an orthodox Jewish UN, as it workshops.

The question, however, will inevi­ were. If not as varied in attire and appearance as the delegates to the tably be asked—what did the World United Nations, neither were they as Conference accomplish? One is tempt­ varied in interest and purpose. As ed to give as an answer the aphorism Torah Jews, they shared a common of Reb Yisroel Salanter even though cause, were committed to the same it loses so much in the translation. A principles, adhered to the same disci­ person, he said, “darf nisht optohn, plines. Quite unlike the delegates at nochtohn, oder auftohn—er darf the United Nations, they were eager tohn” Loosely translated, this means to cooperate with one another. All a man should not do anything spiteful, alike were most concerned for the imitative, or even “accomplish,” a future of Yiddishkeit in their respec­ man need but do. Of course the flavor is lost in the transposition from Yid­ tive communities.

This in itself was probably the great­ dish to English since the play on est plus factor of the Conference— words is on the phrase “tohn” which that Torah-true Jews had come to­ repeats itself in all four expressions. gether to draw strength from each Nonetheless, the thought is there and other, to find renewed enthusiasm applies with special aptness to this, through their awareness that they the first world assemblage of orthodox were not alone and to fulfill the an­ synagogue forces. The tendency today cient call: “Each man to his comrade is to measure all success with the yard­ will say ‘chazak*—be strong!” With stick of tangible accomplishment—we a feeling of historicity pervading the are insistent upon results, concrete atmosphere, ideas were exchanged, and measurable ones. All but lost is March-April 1968

9

the art, and the sensitivity which is part of that art, of gaining a sense of satisfaction through doing—listening to good conversation and stimulating speeches and enjoying challenging yet comforting comradeship.

We realize, however, that we cannot satisfy our readers with these fine but nebulous sentiments. We owe it to ourselves and our fellow orthodox Jews to review the character of the Conference and to evaluate its ac­ tions. Above all, what did it reflect and mirror of our status today, both internally and externally, and what ef­ fect will it have upon our future?

ance at sessions. There were those whose urge to see the Land found vent within the Conference days, de­ spite the provisions for touring in the days preceding or following the Con­ ference* The fact that, notwithstanding this, the sessions were consistently well attended is testimony to the com­ mitment of so large a proportion of the delegate body.

Too, one may well argue that a positive peripheral benefit of the Con­ ference was the introduction of so many Jews to the Land of Israel and the opportunity afforded to the Israelis to be exposed to large numbers of or­ thodox Jews from all over the world.

A PART from the spirit and atmos■tm- phere of the event in its totality, TTNQUESTIONABLY, one of the one is primarily impressed by the U major accomplishments of the magnitude of effort expended, the World Conference was the opportu­ time and talent which went into the nity afforded to dispel the distorted organizing of a convocation encom­ image of the orthodox Jew which had passing many individual organizations, unfortunately been presented through the coordination needed to gather to­ the media of the Israeli press and ra­ gether people from so many countries dio in recent years. The World Con­ while retaining the requisite degree of ference confronted the Israeli public order in the planning and execution with a new image—that of an entire of the many-faceted program. True, constituency of urbane, modern, so­ not every detail went according to phisticated Jews who, though fully in­ plan—for who can be immune to tegrated into their own respective mechanical difficulties? As a pioneer western societies, were totally com­ venture, some miscalculations were to mitted to Torah living and resolved to be allowed for—although one was dis­ perpetuate and strengthen its teach­ mayed by the disregard for time al­ ings. This impact was in itself suf­ lotments by some speakers which ficient justification for an Israel venue marred so moving and impressive an for the Conference. occasion as the Opening Assembly.

The force of this point is emphasized By and large, the program set forth when one considers that the incur­ for this vast undertaking was carried sion of the Conservative and Reform through with notable technical skill. movements is abetted and aided by The choice of location—Jerusalem strident claims that the only way to the Golden and expanded Israel—was capture the youth of Israel for the not an unmixed blessing. The magnetic Jewish faith is by making Judaism pull of the Holy Land and City cer­ more appealing, attractive, and mean­ tainly augmented the number of dele­ ingful—which in their interpretation gates, but also competed with °*tend- means a brand of religion other than 10 JEWISH LIFE

orthodox Judaism. Much effort has been expended by them to convince Israelis that the Jewish religion could only be made relevant and compre­ hensible if an opportunity were af­ forded to transplant to Israel “mod­ ern Judaism” and communicate with the younger generation in a manner that Meah Shearim and the traditional Yeshivah world purportedly could not.

The presence and posture of these comparatively unfamiliar types of or­ thodox Jews from all walks of life, rabbis and laymen both, had striking effect on Israelis o r all kinds. And seeing them debate and discuss issues which came to grips with the very heart of the problems confronting Jewry throughout the world as well as

in Israel, namely the retention of spiri­ tual values among the younger genera­ tion, caused even the more cynical and prejudiced observers to recognize the existence of a new, vibrant, intel­ ligent, and capable traditional leader­ ship, well equipped to bring the mes­ sage of Torah to this generation.

Too, one should not underestimate the significance of the impact made, especially by the United States dele­ gation, upon the Israeli Conference delegates and Synagogue leadership.

In Israel, inter-synagogal organization is still in its infancy, the character of the Israeli synagogue is still not fully developed, and the role played by its leadership in the community is quite negligible. The contrasting vista of the

Upper photo: At the Opening Assembly of the World Conference: President Zalman Shazar of Israel (I.) receives a message while Rabbi Isser Yehudah Unterman, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel (center) converses with Joseph Karasick, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

Lower photo: Rabbi Itzhak Nissim, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel (I.) is introduced to Baron Alain de Rothschild, president of the Consistoire Central of France, (second from r.) by Joseph Karasick, as Rabbi Pesach Z. Levovitz, pres­ ident of the Rabbinical Council of America, (r.) looks on.

March-April 1968

II

well organized and efficiently adminis­ provision to French Rabbinical stu­ tered synagogues of the Western world, dents of opportunity for advanced especially those of the United States, study and internship in the United the influential and dynamic role ex­ States. The sense of areyvuth, that ercised by both the Rabbinate and the special feeling of mutual responsibility lay leadership, the well developed and of one Jew for another, was deeply smoothly functioning youth and edu­ felt, and its good intentions expressed cational programs of our synagogues and pledged. It remains now to be jj-a ll of this was a revelation to the seen whether this spirit will be con­ Israelis and even to many from the tinued and above all implemented in European Continent and other areas. coming months and years.

Small wonder that there was a strong Here again the choice of Jerusalem sentiment, especially among the dele­ was a happy one, for it served to gates of Israel, South Africa, and Latin heighten this sense of mutual respon­ American countries, to establish a per­ sibility and comradeship. King David manent world organization, with a says in the Psalms: “Jerusalem that central headquarters, in the hope that art builded, as a city that is compact this would give them desperately together” and the Yerushalmi com­ needed direction, resources, and aid. ments “a city which makes of all Is­ Nonetheless, this pressure was with­ rael comrades.” Jerusalem the com­ stood, for reasons which will be ex­ plete had this magical effect upon amined later. A concerted effort was those who were assembled together made to impress upon the Israelis and indeed generated a spirit of com­ their responsibility for meeting their radeship which was one of the great needs from within, by drawing from accomplishments of the Conference. their own rich resources, utilizing SRAEL’S religious structure, es­ their well tested, proven imagination pecially that of the Rabbinate and and ingenuity to find unique Israeli answers to what are, after all, unique courts, has for many years been es­ Israeli problems. Of course, it was tablished on a two-track system— made clear that all resources, mate­ Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Parity has rials, and know-how would be made been both the problem and the solu­ available to Israeli synagogue endeavor tion, which is why Israel is blessed as well as to other Jewish communi­ with two Chief Rabbis nationally, Rav ties. Indeed it can be noted at this V’Chacham locally, duality among point that one of the most valuable Dayonim, and of course a multitude results of the Conference was the of synagogues catering to every con­ strengthening of ties between the vari­ ceivable nusach. The tensions in the ous communities represented. A par­ social and political arenas created by ticular instance of this was the further the coming together of Sephardi and cementing of relations between the Ashkenazi Jews in the building of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congrega­ country and the founding of the State, tions of America and the French Jew­ have been at play in the religious area ish Consistory whereby a program of as well. The Army has been one of assistance to French Jewry was un­ the major elements in helping to forge dertaken. This is to include develop­ a semblance of unity among diverse ment of youth work in France and social and ethnic elements. The edu-

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JEWISH LIFE

cational establishments have been a second factor in helping to weld to­ gether these two communities. The Synagogue, unfortunately, has not played any significant role in healing the breach or bridging the gap even though religious loyalties and devo­ tion to Torah and Halochah should be the most natural common deno­ minator and unifying factor of all.

This has been proven in yeshivoth where young men of varied back­ grounds and origins live together and study together in perfect harmony.

The title “World Conference of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Synagogues” in itself was an admirable first step taken in the right direction. The care taken to grant equal time and recog­ nition to Sephardi Rabbinic and lay leaders created a climate of comrade­ ship which must not be understimated

and may well be the initial step on the long road toward unity among the Ashkenazi-Western and SephardiOriental Jewish communities. It is im­ portant to realize that although in numbers the Sephardi community in Israel now represents the majority, nonetheless, due to historic develop­ ments, which are too lengthy and in­ volved to discuss in this article, the Ashkenazi community is in a far more powerful position of authority and influence— a situation which af­ fects the religious community as well.

The sensitivities of the Sephardic com­ munity must be properly recognized and protected if we are to capture and properly channel the inherent spi­ rit of reverence for Torah Judaism which the Sephardi community has in most cases retained. By conducting the session devoted to the Yeshivoth in

A section of the Conference audience reflects the many communities represented.

March-April 1968

13

the leading Sephardic Yeshivah, Porath Yoseph, the convenors of the Conference rendered a great service to the Torah community, a factor which was unfortunately not properly appreciated by the Yeshivah world.

the making of major decisions by key committees involving a comparatively small number of delegates. The deli­ berations at the World Conference which were really definitive were those of the Steering Committee—composed of the top leaders of the participating organizations—and of the Resolutions Committee, likewise representative of these organizations. But this limita­ tion of the delegates’ role produced a certain sense of detachment and ir­ ritation among the more knowledge­ able delegates. In many cases, they had traveled halfway around the world to attend the World Conference and then found themselves reading of important matters in the newspapers, where they might or might not be getting an accurate account. There was also a sense of impatience and frustration on the part of some dele­ gates who found it difficult to under­ stand that not every conclave ends with exciting, concrete, radical inno­ vations and decisions.

Y ITS very nature any major con­ gress is unwieldy and ponderous.

At such events the papers and ad­ dresses delivered at plenary sessions are apt to be geared to a spectator type of audience with their only par­ ticipation exercised through applause or apathy. The World Conference of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Synagogues, while not free of this tendency, was subject to it in less degree than is gen­ erally the case. At the sessions at which general discussion followed the platform presentations, the intensity of delegate involvement was evident.

At other main sessions, there was no similar opportunity for delegate ex­ pression, and the lack was felt. It was to be noted that the workshops, which usually lack the glamour and sense of Objections which found voice on excitement generated at the larger ses­ these points were the principle marks sions, on this occasion proved specially of discontent amidst the many expres­ evocative. It was apparent that the sions of praise and satisfaction voiced delegates— and to those from coun­ by the participants. The first short­ tries other than the United States and coming could have been overcome, Canada the workshop idea was un­ possibly, by reducing the number of familiar—relished this means of active prepared papers and formal presenta­ involvement in intimate groups, where tions and increasing the time alloted they could apply themselves more for floor debate participation. This directly to the problems treated in a may have resulted in a bit more chaos formal fashion at the plenary sessions. but would have been most comforting At the same time they eagerly pro­ and therapeutic for the delegates. The fited by the opportunity for around- second criticism could possibly have the-table exchange of ideas with fel­ been met and tranquilized by present­ low-delegates from countries near and ing a more forceful detailed summary far. at the concluding session, pointing up On the other hand, it was inevitable the accomplishments of the Conference that one usual characteristic of major in a manner not unlike what we have conferences and conventions apply at already outlined. It is understandable the World Conference too—namely, that delegates are anxious to tell their

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JEWISH LIFE

friends, upon returning to their com­ munities, in a succinct manner just what the Conference was all about.

This in turn can only be done if they are themselves clear as to the goals and aims of the Conference and whether or not these were achieved.

We realize that this task of summary and clarification was quite difficult, in view of the fact that the Conference was not aimed at concrete, permanent developments. Nonetheless, more ef­ fort should have been expended and thought given to conclusions which would in turn have enabled the par­ ticipants to convey the results of the conclave to their respective congrega­ tions and communities.

ANY ASK why the responsible M Conference leaders were op­ posed to what is seemingly a most noble and progressive step: the estab­ lishment of a permanent organization which would unite orthodox synago­ gues throughout the world and thereby bring them a measure of unified direc­ tion and action. There was a practical reason for this policy which caused the North American delegations to join with the French and British dele­ gations in limiting the immediate vista to ongoing cooperation and mutual assistance while turning back to the convenors of the First World Con­ ference the responsibility of eventual­ ly calling a second one.

The fact is that the idea of estab­ lishing a permanent world body was precluded from the first in the plan­ ning of the World Conference. The United Synagogue of England and the Consistoire Central of France, both of them key units in any international orthodox Synagogue undertaking, are alike prohibited by their respective charters from becoming constituents March-April 1968

of another permanent organization.

Under the circumstances, there was no alternative but to agree to under­ take the World Conference of Ashke­ nazi and Sephardi Synagogues with this limitation of its purview.

While this limitation was made pub­ lic upon announcing the call to the World Conference, many delegates were unaware of the reasons for it.

It is regrettable that adequate explana­ tion was not made during the Confer­ ence* but apparently the Conference leadership felt it best to de-emphasize the matter, in view of surrounding questions.

Here we must examine the agita­ tion which was raised against the World Conference. This seems to have emanated from two areas, at opposite poles from each other.

The non-orthodox forces of the Jewish world could not be expected to welcome a development represent­ ing a further challenge by an awaken­ ing Orthodoxy to their long-standing hegemony in Jewish affairs. The Con­ servative movement in particular, as­ piring to acquire world status by cap­ turing, through their World Council of Synagogues, the religious commu­ nities of various lands, could see in an orthodox World Conference a threat to their ambitions. They could well foresee what in fact has taken place: the very launching of the World Conference sharpened traditional loy­ alties and gave impetus to their identification with the world Torah community. Orthodoxy’s gain being Heterodoxy’s loss, the advocates of the latter attempted to denigrate the World Conference by minimizing its importance and presenting a distorted picture in the press.

The opposition to the World Con­ ference raised in certain orthodox 15

quarters was motivated by reasons not easily determined. In the initial stages of the planning of the World Confer­ ence, there were few indications of opposition, the project being well re­ ceived on most sides. But when, with World Conference in the immediate offing, its great significance came into clearer view and the popular response became more unmistakable, there sud­ denly emerged a current of hostility.

This stemmed from certain circles in Israel and the United States, with some illustrious figures of the Torah world unfortunately permitting their names to be identified with the opposition.

The orthodox Jewish public at large, puzzled enough by the expressions of hostility to an undertaking that seemed of such needed and unexcep­ tionable worth, was althogether per­ plexed by the failure to cite any reas­ ons for this stand. “We are against the World Conference—it should not take place!”—this, in effect, was the way the opposition was voiced. Even­ tually, when the futility of such pro­ nouncements became marked, efforts were made to give the opposition some meaningful substance. On their part, the sponsors of the World Conference made it a point throughout to ignore the assault, refusing to be drawn into public controversy and to lend them­ selves to a disputation detrimental to Orthodoxy.

Foremost among the charges was the allegation that the World Con­ ference was designed to establish a permanent world organization. Many were at a loss to understand this charge, all the more since it had been made clear, time and again, that such was neither the intent nor the purpose of the convocation.

One can appreciate, however, the reasons for concern as to the emer16

gence of such a plan. There is under­ standable reluctance in vesting au­ thority in a body which might speak in the name of world orthodox Jewry.

There is always the danger that state­ ments might be issued and policies promulgated by those in commanding administrative positions which would not reflect the attitudes and thinking of some constituent elements of the world body.

True, it can be argued that such objections—which can be raised against any collective body, interna­ tional or otherwise—could be met by suitable controls and limitations, and that the only other alternative—namely the continuation of the present chaotic, voiceless impotence of orthodox Jew­ ry on the world scene, letting world Jewish spokesmanship and the direc­ tion of world Jewish affairs remain in the hands of the non-orthodox— poses equally grave problems. Yet this does not gainsay that there is legiti­ mate and understandable reason for hesitation in viewing such a major proposal, if it were projected.

But since, in the present case, the launching of a world organization was a priori ruled out, the issue raised on this score seemed gratuitous. The im­ plications of this are the more troubl­ ing in light of the fact that the policy commitment was directly and repeat­ edly communicated to illustrious To­ rah leaders in both Israel and America.

In even sharper contradiction to the expressed and strongly stressed pur­ poses of the World Conference was the implication that it would serve to undermine Halachic authority and would challenge or even displace the recognized Rabbinates of the various lands. The motivation of this allega­ tion was particularly baffling, in view of the central focus in the Conference JEWISH LIFE

program on the upholding of the au­ thority of the orthodox Rabbinate everywhere and on the sovereign force of the Halochah. Judging by the ar­ ray of leading rabbis, including the Chief Rabbis of Israel and a dozen other countries, who participated in the World Conference, it was apparent the rabbinic circles generally did not share any apprehension on this score.

At one point, too, a rumor began to be circulated that the World Con­ ference was designed to bring into being a Sanhedrin. However, this met with such general incredulity that it was soon abandoned. It was succeeded by less far-fetched expressions of con­ cern that an international convocation of this kind could trigger the birth of a world Rabbinic body and authority.

The centuries-old apprehension as to the establishment of such a body is grounded on the fear that it could come into the hands of elements ill

equipped and basically unqualified, re­ ligiously and historically, to assume such authority who could become the instruments of a move toward reforms and revisions of Jewish law and prac­ tice. While not going so far, in this case, as to assert in the face of the evidence to the contrary that the World Conference was geared to such a pur­ pose, the argument was raised that it might emerge nonetheless. Needless to say, what took place at the World Conference invalidated the fear.

F COURSE there were other con­ siderations and “cheshbonoth” for the opposition from certain Torah circles, some voiced, others implied and perhaps the most important ones were left unsaid and consciously con­ cealed. The Hechal Shelomoh as site of the World Conference proved to be a special stumbling block, for this in­ stitution is a long-time target of the

0

Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits, Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, addresses a session. (I. to r.): Rabbi M. A. Rose of London, Joseph Karasick, Maurice Jaffe of Jerusalem, Rabbi Norman Lamm of New York City, who had also delivered an address at this session, and Dr. Samson R. Weiss, Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union.

March-April 1968

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Yeshivah world and Agudah in Israel.

Since its inception, Hechal Shelomo has been subjected to strong attack led by the late revered Brisker Rav who objected strenuously to the Spiri­ tual Center concept and its position as a “Mercaz” for Torah Jewry. The spectre of a Sanhedrin was ever held forth, fortified by the fact that the seat of the Chief Rabbinate was housed in this imposing edifice. The Agudah had always maintained that Hechal Shelomoh was but an ill-dis­ guised front for Mizrachi. The admin­ istration of Hechal Shelomoh of course has constantly protested that this is incorrect. It should be pointed out that the leading lights of Mizrachi are prominent members of its board of directors. On the other hand, it should be noted that no Mizrachi meetings or gatherings have ever been held in its building. It is hardly necessary to say that no attempt has been made by its administration to pursue the estab­ lishment of a Sanhedrin!

Thus, on the Israeli front, the op­ position was led by the Brisker heirs and some spokesmen of Agudath Is­ rael. It is interesting to note, however, that the United States branch of Agu­ dath Israel took pains, and even space in a Jewish paper, to deny that any ban had been issued against the Con­ ference. The intensity and duration of the Israeli opposition was quite li­ mited. Contrary to newspaper reports in this country, there were no pickets or demonstrations at any of the Con­ ference sessions. Those who arrived on the eve of the Conference did find a few public protest posters adorning the billboards (the favorite channel of communication in Jerusalem) and an item or two of recrimination ap­ peared in opposition press sources.

Both of these manifestations seemed 18

of perfunctory “yotzeh vegen” charac­ ter, and no evidence of tension was to be detected.

In the United States, opposition was more vociferous and persistent. Those Rabbinical groups who opposed the conference, joined surprisingly by the Lubavitcher Rebbe and not so sur­ prisingly by spokesmen of the Yeshi­ vah world, utilized the pages of the Yiddish and Anglo-Jewish press re­ peatedly for their public pronounce­ ments and prohibitions. Other chan­ nels of communication were also used for private pressure aimed at persuad­ ing some of their members and distin­ guished orthodox laymen from attend­ ing the Conference.

There was little popular approval of this stand, with marked division manifesting itself even within those Rabbinical groups which had always identified themselves in the past with the Roshey Yeshivoth and supported them on various issues. This issue caused a radical parting of ways. The average shool Jew also found it dif­ ficult to comprehend this opposition to a conference of orthodox syna­ gogues, since he had for the past de­ cade been trained and educated to look askance only at “mixed groups” and ecumenical projects. Strangely, very little attempt was made to explain the reasons for the opposition, save for a clumsy comparison of the cur­ rent conclave to the ten-year-old pro­ hibition of participating in the dedi­ cation ceremonies of Hechal Shelomo!

One can therefore but assume and conjecture that the failure to explain clearly the reasons for this opposition was because the authentic ones could not readily be revealed. These would have drawn too severely the real lines which separate and divide two major forces within Orthodoxy.

JEWISH LIFE

OR MANY YEARS the Syna­ gogue played the dominant role in the Jewish community. From it flowed the activities of the community, its leadership both Rabbinic and lay was accepted and followed, and its supremacy was unquestioned. The house of study, the school and acade­ my, was supported and nurtured and its leadership respected and revered, but it did not play any prominent role in communal leadership. Authority was vested in the Rabbinate and the com­ munal lay leaders. So it was until the post-World-War II period when the dynamics of orthodox leadership shifted to the Roshey Yeshivoth and the synagogues declined, their power, position, and influence diminished and weakened by a strange combination of forces—the Yeshivah world on the right and the deviationist forces on the left!

In recent years, however, the or­

B

thodox Synagogue regained strength and has begun to reassert itself and the Rabbinate has become more ag­ gressive and vigorous in reclaiming its position of authority. A world con­ ference of synagogues reflects in very dramatic fashion this re-discovered potency of the Synagogue and as such represents a threat to the dominance of other elements of Torah leadership.

To put it boldly and briefly, the World Conference was caught up in a subtle power struggle not of its own making. This may not, however, be cause for dismay and concern, for it indicates the new vitality and vigor of Orthodoxy. We are witnessing the emergence of two forces, the Syna­ gogue and the Yeshivah, which when they learn to live and work together will enhance and strengthen the com­ plexion of the total Jewish community.

Perhaps another reason for the op­ position to the World Conference

Minehah services at the Western Wall on Assarah B'Teveth.

March-April 1968

19

came because of the failure to pro­ perly involve certain bodies and in­ dividuals in its planning and conven­ ing. There was probably no sufficient prior consultation with certain Torah leaders and personalities, and this lent itself to opposing pressures. There has been a tendency in recent years on the part of Synagogue bodies, and certain Rabbinic groups as well, to by-pass the elder statesmen in the Torah world and the Roshey Yeshivoth. Bruised egos react at times with injured silence and at others with wounded outcries. Be that as it may, the criticism is a valid one.

Fortunately, the damage done is not irreparable. There is yet time, at this early stage in the development of these two forces, for rapproche­ ment. Continued attempts must be made in spite of continuing rebuffs.

We realize that there may not be full and complete cooperation but we must find a ‘modus vivendi.’

HE extraordinary success of the World Conference and, in con­ trast, the ineffectiveness of the opposi­ tion, have both been much remarked.

The opposition did dampen for some the enthusiasm and sense of simchah which marked this pioneering project. It caused much aggravation to the leaders, planners, and officials who were intimately involved in the Conference endeavor and no doubt also intimidated the faint-hearted into abstaining from participation. On the other hand it may have served as an impetus to others who resented this pressure and decided to demonstrate their impatience by rejecting what they considered to be an act of terror on the part of but a few irresponsible individuals who were keeping the fires

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of controversy burning. Those who withstood this intimidation demon­ strated a refreshing spirit of indepen­ dence and courageously defended man’s most cherished right, namely his right to make his own decisions.

The fears of the sincere opponents to the Conference, of whom there were no doubt some, happily did not materialize. This caused one wit to observe that the only o;nes who were convinced that something concrete would come forth from the World Conference were those who opposed it . . . Nonetheless, something sub­ stantial did come forth from the First World Conference of Synagogues.

Ties of friendship between Torah-true Jews were established; Ashkenazim and Sephardim came together; Ortho­ doxy projected its true dynamic image in an impressive show of strength and the Synagogue reappeared on the world scene as the leading institution and force in Orthodoxy. As it is true of life, so it was of the Conference: it may have been but half of what was hoped for yet it was twice what we expected. All this bodes well for the future growth and progress of Torah Judaism and Torah Jewry. All this was accomplished with dignity and discipline, with elan and style. “Jeru­ salem the Golden” may well have wit­ nessed the beginning of a new golden age for traditional Judaism.

HE Gerer Rebbe once gave a brilliant interpretation to resolve an apparent difficulty in Pirkey Ovoth.

We are taught that “every assembly which is for the sake of Heaven will in the end be of permanent value and whatever is not will in the end not be of permanent value.” We are also taught that “every controversy which is for the sake of Heaven is destined

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JEWISH LIFE

Dr. Israel H. Brodie, Chief Rabbi Emeritus of the British Commonwealth and Convenor of the Conference, addresses the Concluding Assembly.

to result in something permanent,” which is of course not so of a contro­ versy motivated by less noble reasons.

The difficulty arises, however, in the fact that the Mishnah proceeds in the latter case to ask “What is a contro­ versy for the sake of Heaven?” and then gives us an example, whereas in the case of an assembly no example is cited. The Gerer Rebbe answers that a controversy for the sake of Heaven must prove itself, whereas an assembly need not; it is recognizable by its very character, deeds, and actions!

We submit that this comment and interpretation is most applicable to the World Conference of Ashkenazi

and Sephardi Synagogues and its ac­ complishments, as well as to the furor which accompanied it. The K’lal Yisroel will have to judge whether this was an assembly for the sake of Hea­ ven as they will have to judge the character of the controversy over its convening. We are confident that after the ill tempers have subsided and when the fruits of the Conference will be expanded, unity in the Torah camp will be re-established and the Syna­ gogue and Yeshivah worlds will work together in harmony and peace to help realize the ancient dream: “From Zion shall go forth the Torah and the word of G-d from Jerusalem.”

Copies o f a 40-page “ R eport to UOJCA Congregations on the W orld C onference,” with pictures, and the fu ll text o f the R esolutions, are available at these prices: I — 2 5 copies: 25$ per copy; 2 6 — 1 0 0 copies: 2 0 $ per copy; o ver 1 0 0 copies: 1 5 $ p er copy. O rd er fro m : W orld C onference Com m ittee, UOJCA, 8 4 F ifth Avenue, New Y ork, N.Y. 10011 March-April 1968

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The Campus Problem and Jewish Education

By SHNAYER Z. LEIMAN

WV 7HILE many Jewish leaders are ▼V concerned with elementary and secondary education in the Jewish Day School, few seem concerned with the graduates of the very same institutions who are now in college. Yet the effect of four years of study in the finest yeshivah high school can be, and often is, vitiated by one unguided year on a college campus. It is precisely dur­ ing their four years at college that most students determine the extent of their commitment to Judaism; many will also choose their partner in life during these crucial years. Now it is no secret that the yeshivah high school (and certainly elementary school) graduate is ill-prepared to counter the secular influences that pervade the col­ lege atmosphere. On the simplest level, he will find the observance of many positive and negative command­ ments difficult. Equally serious, if not more so, is his intellectual dilemma; the countless arguments of professors, textbooks, and fellow students will im­ plant questions and raise doubts which may undermine every religious belief he once held sacred.

22

To whom can the student turn? The Hillel director, though usually gener­ ous with traditionally prepared food, cannot provide traditional guidance with equal dexterity. Though kosher food is essential, it is hardly the re­ medy; nor, for that matter, is “Jewish culture,” which the Hillel director of­ fers in abundance. Jewish culture may serve to enhance Judaism, but it can never replace it. In regard to spiritual matters, the amorphous policies of many a Hillel foundation have not alleviated the plight of the Jewish col­ legiate. Too many Hillel directors con­ sider themselves nothing more than just that—directors or programmers— when what the students really seek is spiritual leadership and guidance. In an illuminating article that appeared in a recent issue of Judaism (published by the American Jewish Congress), Richard J. Israel, chaplain to the Jew­ ish students at Yale University, de­ scribed the predicament of the Hillel director. He concluded: What is needed on campus is a rab­ bi whose life reflects the things he thinks are important. If he can sucJEWISH LIFE

Jew should enroll in a university is now, in most circles, more academic than realistic. We must ask: “What are we to do about the many who are attending?”

2. There should be maximum ex­ Thus, Israel feels that the Hillel posure between students and those director, by means of his everyday rabbinical leaders who are attuned to activities, must set a living example the problems on campus and are for the Jewish college student! This capable of influencing Jewish students most elementary observation has been to remain steadfast in their faith. Only long in coming, but it is certainly en­ those rabbis endowed with the ability couraging and welcomed as a first step and the determination to help students resolve their spiritual and intellectual in the right direction.

When, as is often the case, the problems during this crucial period, Hillel director fails to inspire his stu­ can expect to exert any influence on dents or to intensify their commitment their religious lives during and after to Judaism, some will continue to the college years. seek such inspiration off campus; ma­ 3. Rabbis of synagogues near uni­ ny others will no longer seek it at versities, whether they be in remote all. Indifference replaces initial con­ towns or in large metropolitan areas, cern; apathy becomes their most should maintain close contact with salient characteristic. And the tragedy Jewish students. Too often the at­ of indifference on campus plagues not titudes of some rabbis and communal only the Jewish student, but unfor­ leaders express a “hands-off” policy. tunately, the Jewish community off When an unsolved case of homicide campus as well. The two are not un­ presents itself, the Torah requires the related; indeed, they complement one ir ha-kerovah (the nearest city) to another. Not only among Hillel direc­ bear the responsibilities and conse­ tors, but off campus as well, the sad quences for not having protected the fact is that there are too few learned victim. When a young neshomah lies and observant Jews who are willing in jeopardy, should not the ir ha-ke­ and able to maintain a prolonged dis­ rovah offer it proper guidance and cussion with an intelligent yeshivah protection? high school graduate and university 4. All concerned should realize that student, with both parties emerging the majority of potential lay leaders unscathed. who will eventually support yeshivoth, synagogues, and mikvaoth, are now in OW, THEN, is the plight of the colleges throughout the country. An Jewish student on campus to be awesome responsibility therefore rests alleviated? We offer no panacea, but upon the Roshey Yeshivoth, rabbini­ would suggest the following: cal groups, synagogue groups, and 1.

It must be recognized by all con­Jewish educational institutions to take cerned that observant Jews are attend­ every necessary precaution in prevent­ ing universities today in greater num­ ing the alienation of these students bers than ever before; that the ques­ from the Torah community. Much tion of whether or not a traditional progress along these lines has come ceed with his life, his program will fall into line . . . If we act out our concerns, those students who are searching for the same kinds of values we are, will be able to make models of us.

H

March-April 1968

23

from Yavneh, the national Jewish religious college students association; Young Israel *Inter-collegiate, and re­ cently, the Lubavitch movement have also contributed significantly in this area. The programs of Yavneh and Young Israel Inter-collegiate are de­ signed to meet the needs of the Jew­ ish college student. The combined im­ pact of these two groups on the col­ lege campus cannot be overestimated.

Against all obstacles, they have proven that observant Judaism is not off limits on campus. They have courageously promulgated Torah study and practice in the very centers of secularism. They merit the continued support of the Jewish community at large.

lum would most benefit their gradu­ ates even after they have left the in­ stitution. Each yeshivah high school administration would do well to ask itself concerning its student body: “Me-ay in ba’ta?—from what environ­ mental surroundings do our students come? What does their home life con­ sist of? Will our educational goals meet the shortcomings of their im­ mediate surroundings?” Let each ad­ ministration further ask itself: “Le-an attah holech?—where are our gradu­ ates going? Are they enrolling in Yeshivoth Gedoloth or in colleges? In either case, will our students be pre­ pared?”

PECIFICALLY, more stress must be placed on everyday Halochah, S on Jewish thought, on Jewish view­

AVING dealt above with the H pound of cure, let us now turn points vis-à-vis contemporary world our attention to the more significant, views, on Tanach, and on Siddur. and frequently neglected, ounce of prevention. The remarks that follow concern yeshivah high schools whose students generally tend to enroll in colleges; most of the remarks, how­ ever, apply equally as well for yeshi­ vah high schools whose graduates tend to continue their Torah studies at a Yeshivah Gedolah. The suggestions of­ fered are, for the most part, of a gen­ eral nature, and should be qualified in accordance with the specific needs of each institution.

There must be a thorough re-evalu­ ation of the yeshivah high school cur­ riculum, with the thought in mind that for many high school seniors, formal Jewish education will cease up­ on their graduation. Every yeshivah high school has a personality of its own; let it choose a curriculum that suits its personality. All yeshivah high schools should guide themselves by carefully considering which curricu­ 24

1.

Everyday Halochah. No intelli­ gent Jewish student can spiritually survive an extended stay on campus without being proficient in Halochah himself, or having access to another party well versed in it.

2.

Jewish Thought. All aspects of Judaism not clearly defined in Halachic terms are usually included under this heading. Our immediate concern, however, is with those aspects of Jew­ ish thought relating to the greater problems in life. Yeshivah high school students should be familiar with the basic Jewish approaches to the rela­ tion of the individual to society, and the place of both in the divine scheme, as outlined in the Torah. All funda­ mental beliefs, such as those included in the popular formulation of Maimonides’ thirteen Ikkarim, should be taught until students are well versed in them. The dispute of old concern­ ing their exact number in no way JEWISH LIFE

detracts from their intrinsic value; it papers, and other mass media, cannot rather serves to emphasize their im­ be suppressed by religious authorities. portance. Of what use is a yeshivah It is not desirable because by simply high school education, if a student closing one’s eyes to the enemy, not can graduate without having mastered only does the enemy continue to ex­ ist, but in effect, one puts himself at the fundamental tenets of Judaism?

3.

Jewish Viewpoints vis-à-vis Con­the enemy’s mercy. Should we not, in­ temporary World Views. To neglect stead, encourage the serious discus­ modern scholarly views, however sion of currently accepted views, how­ much we may disagree with them, is ever heretical, and analyze their weak­ to invite confusion and dismay. We nesses. Surely it is better to present cannot afford to skirt the issues raised information concerning current view­ by the humanities and the sciences; points than to withhold it and let the to do so is suicidal. To the uninitiated innocent be led astray. Moreover, the mind, Thomas Paine’s “Age of Reas­ yeshivah high school ought to expect on,” Julian Huxley’s “Religion With­ and demand a free and continuous out Revelation,” or Martin Noth’s exchange of ideas on the part of its “History of Israel” could easily prove faculty and student body no less than fatal. Only those students who are is commonplace in the college com­ properly inoculated with a dose of munity. Such an exchange, however, serum containing the dreaded germ is predicated on freedom of inquiry. itself can be expected to remain im­ Some will argue that free and open mune to its deadly effects. It is far discussion in the yeshivah high school better to learn of the alleged problems classroom is inherently dangerous. raised by psychology (concerning de­ This is true to some extent. Far more terminism and free will), biology perilous, however, to the spiritual well­ (concerning evolution, and the possi­ being of our youth, is the overt ble creation of living cells by man), display of intellectual provincialism geology and archaeology (concerning and the restriction of freedom of the age of the universe), Bible criti­ inquiry to limited areas of study. cism (concerning the Divine origin of In this respect, knowledge may be the Torah), etc., while still in the likened to a box of matches, a kitchen favorable atmosphere of the yeshivah knife, and an automobile. When used high school, than to be confronted properly, they are a boon to mankind; with the same issues for the first time, when used improperly, they are des­ on campus. The alternative is to in­ tructive. It is the manipulator, and not stitute a quarantine, Le., the conscious the object, which must bear the blame and deliberate suppression of any men­ for any wanton destruction. tion of non-traditional views, coupled UCH as some of us may dislike with the physical sheltering of our to admit it, many of our genera­ youth by encouraging them to settle only in large orthodox Jewish com­ tion no longer accept Judaism merely munities. Such an alternative, however, because, traditionally, Jews have ac­ is neither feasible nor desirable. It is cepted without question the heritage not feasible because the pervasive ef­ of their fathers. This is a ^generation fects of the book explosion, public that questions and doubts, a genera­ libraries, television, cinema, news- tion that seeks answers. To deny

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March-April 1968

25

yeshivah high school students the op­ portunity of discussing issues that are now, or will soon become, crucial to them, is to imperil their lives as Jews.

Too many yeshivah high school gradu­ ates have strayed from the paths of observant Judaism precisely because they were ignorant of the basic Jewish attitudes concerning contemporary is­ sues, or misinformed about them.

Such ignorance not infrequently be­ speaks a deception on the part of their teachers. Though couched in piety, a deception it remains.

4. Tanach. No other vehicle ex­ presses our religious heritage as well, and students can always return to its study with relative ease. Translations are plentiful and commentaries in English and Hebrew are readily avail­ able. For these and other reasons, it is imperative that Tanach be taught properly. And if it be argued that Tanach is taught in all day schools from the very first grades and up, let us note that every concept of Judaism taught on the infantile and immature level of the elementary school student, must be retaught and relearned on a level commensurate with the mature and groping mind of the high school student. Too often, the minds of Jew­ ish students remain saturated with im­ mature concepts of Judaism which they soon outgrow, but find nothing to replace them with. This is especial­ ly true of Tanach, Siddur, and occa­ sionally even Talmud, as presently taught in yeshivah high schools. The mature mind seeks depth in study; width is a poor substitute.

5. Siddur. For the Jew enmeshed in secular activity, prayer at home and in the synagogue will be his constant source of spiritual enlightenment, a veritable treasury of Yiddishkeit. The synagogue will become his lifeline to

26

all Jewish activity. Here he will pray, study, and busy himself with the af­ fairs of the Jewish community. Yet for many students (and not a few lay­ men) the daily prayers and/or Sab­ bath services are the extent of their commitment to Judaism. How dif­ ferent their attitude would have been if they had but once learned the proper meaning of the prayers they so frequently recite, often by rote! Why is it that so many yeshivah high school graduates, who recite the Shema at least twice a day, cannot render into English the plain sense of the words degonecha, tiroshcha, veyitzkorecha?

Would not prayer have assumed a more important role in their lives, if they had been taught the meaning of those Psalms which appear through­ out the Siddur? Would they not be different Jews today? Rabbis Jacob Emden, S. R. Hirsch, and A. I. Kook are just a few among the many rab­ binical leaders who issued commen­ taries on the Siddur precisely because its constant use makes it the most im­ portant single work influencing the everyday spiritual well-being of the Jew. Its study in yeshivah high schools has been sorely neglected.

IRST place in the yeshivah high school curriculum should right­ fully be reserved for the study of Tal­ mud; and such is the practice in most yeshivah high schools. The study and observance of the Oral Law is what in the final analysis distinguishes the traditional Jew from his errant broth­ er. But such study ought to be con­ fined to those tractates which are Halachically meaningful to the yeshivah student and thus will best serve to develop his identity with Judaism, e.g.

Berochoth, Shabboth, Megillah, and the like. Yet three highly irrelevant

E

JEWISH LIFE

tractates (for everyday Halochah), Bova Kamma, Bova Metzia, and Bova Bathra, are frequently taught in yeshivah high schools. No contemporary student is likely to see in his lifetime an ox gore a cow, nor should he be expected to show any interest in the legal circumstances that were current two thousand years ago in an agri­ cultural society. It is true that the underlying principles, if not the cir­ cumstances, are just as relevant today as they were then; but this is rarely made clear to the student. Moreover, students express little interest in civil law, and such is to be expected even if the terminology and circumstances were to be updated.

Any teacher of Talmud could affirm that the abstract nature of Gemorah goes against the grain of the practicalminded high school student. Half the battle is won when its presentation is made attractive and relevant. Only then can the students’ interest be re­ tained. By selecting for study those tractates whose subject matter is only remotely applicable to modern so­ ciety or practice, the already difficult task of teaching Talmud is unneces­ sarily aggravated. Furthermore, those students who are bored with the cum­ bersome details of theoretical situa­ tions will develop an aversion to Tal­ mudic study. Lack of interest on the part of students expresses itself, among other ways, by the superficiality of their understanding of the Talmudic text. The present situation was aptly described by our Sages, when they said: “This generation occupies itself with Torah like the blind, for it is written (Isaiah 59:10): ‘we grope for the wall like the blind.’ They read, but know not what they read; they March-April 1968

study, but know not what they study.”

(Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 146:8) OUBTLESS, a massechtah such as Bova Kamma is of great heu­ D ristic value for method, for sharpen­ ing the mind, and for serving as an introduction to the commentaries. But this may be advantageous only for the student who will continue his Tal­ mudic studies in a Yeshivah Gedolah; not for students whose formal Jewish education ends when their freshman year at college begins. Administrators must not ask themselves “Which trac­ tates have we been teaching for the past twenty years?” nor even “Which tractates are our teachers best pre­ pared to teach?” but rather “Which tractates will best serve to awaken the Jewish spirit lying dormant in the hearts and minds of yeshivah high school students? Which tractates will enable us to instill a maximum of Yiddishkeit in a minimum of time?”

Whichever tractate is selected for study, it ought to be presented not merely as a Talmudic text, but also as a Halachic source. Yeshivah high schools continue to divorce Halochah (or Shulchon Oruch) from Talmud.

Would not Talmudic study and Halo­ chah become more relevant to the student if the relationship between the two was clearly explained? Every printed page of the Talmud contains an apparatus that links the Talmudic discussion to the respective Codes of Jewish Law. It would be a simple mat­ ter to take advantage of this con­ venient guide to Halochah.

A word about the Aggadic passages in the Talmudic literature is here in place. Every Aggadic passage is a mirror reflecting the most sublime truths of our heritage. Face it directly and you see yourself; tilt it slightly 27

and you see the world around you.

Yet there are some who would will­ fully bypass this unique opportunity to imbue yeshivah high school students with the very spirit of Judaism. Did not the Maharshah comment on the Aggadic passages even as he did on the Halachic passages? Our Sages long ago advised: “If you want to perceive the Creator of Universe, study Aggadah. Through it, you will perceive the Lord and adhere to His ways.” (Sifre on Devorim 11:22) H PH E totality of the above remarks JL in no way questions the general efficacy and unique contribution of the yeshivah high school movement.

It does serve to underscore, in our view, some remaining deficiencies in what has otherwise been a remarkably effective system. If the refinements suggested above become realities, the yeshivah high school graduate will be far better equipped to cope with the hostile views he will encounter on campus and in the secular world.

These, then, are some suggestions which, when implemented, and taken in conjunction with the fruits yielded by the Yeshivoth Gedoloth, hopefully will serve to insure the balance and well being of a future Jewish com­ munity. The implementation of the aforementioned suggestions is, of course, contingent upon their being approved by proper rabbinical and educational authorities.

The discussion presented here has focused upon the traditional Jewish community. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Jewish college students (thousands upon thousands, mostly

28

from assimilated homes) frown upon all that is holy and mock at the Judaism of their forefathers. They neither observe Kashruth nor recite the daily prayers, nor so much as at­ tend Sabbath services. They are the innocent victims of a generation that failed to recognize that American soil would not nurture a Judaism of habit; nor did that generation have sufficient foresight or means to prepare their offspring to face the spiritually hostile culture surrounding them. The new generation thrust onto an entirely dif­ ferent and unfamiliar world scene re­ fused to inherit the Jewish Weltan­ schauung of their fathers, while the older generation realized only when it was too late that it could not cope with the alien culture that encom­ passed its children. Judaism became meaningless to the new generation, and in an attempt to fill the void in their religious lives, they created a new cult, perhaps best described as a hybrid form of American culture and vestigial Judaism. The Mezuzah neck­ lace supplanted the Mezuzah on the doorpost; and the Bar Mitzvah celeb­ ration took on a significance it never had. Traditional Jewish laws, and in some circles, even G-d, were fossilized.

To be sure, they had to be placated on occasion (e.g., Yom Kippur), but they lost all relevancy to the mundane affairs of everyday life. ^ t f 7 E cannot afford to repeat the ▼v error of that older generation.

The passive Judaism that is still pre­ valent among many in our generation must give way to a Judaism which reflects the personal understanding and unrestrained commitment of its bearers.

JEWISH LIFE

Protocols of the Elders of Z io n Soviet Version

by BERNARD A. POUPKO

A LTHOUGH the Kremlin has revealed during the last decade a strange capacity to abandon the rigid orthodoxy of Marxist ideology and its fanatic worship of the Lenin cult, whenever pragmatic considerations demanded revisionism, it has remained notoriously steadfast and tenaciously committed to its inveterate antagonism to Zionism and its merciless hostility to the State of Israel. Not too often can one peruse the pages of Izvestia or Pravda without stumbling upon such references as the “Tel Aviv Mili­ tary Clique,” “The Small Village Mer­ chants constituting the Tel Aviv Gov­ ernment,” “The Nazi-style looting and plundering by the Israeli Army of the peaceful Arab population,” “The bes­ tiality of the Israeli aggressor of the occupied territories,” etc. Eyen when Izvestia reports on the recent snow­ storm in Amman (without any men­ tion of the simultaneous snowstorm in Jerusalem) it devotes three-quarters of the article to the “inhuman treat­ ment” of the Arab refugees by the Israelis. These hysterical and inflam­ matory outbursts are almost regularly March-April 1968

augmented by vulgar and obscene caricatures of Israelis, statesmen, or military leaders, portrayed with the typical Streicher—Goebels Jewish fa­ cial characteristics. Some of these Kremlin literary adventures surpass their antisemitic predecessors in their unrestrained onslaught of hatred and vilification upon the State of Israel, the Zionists, and Jews in general.

The January 22 and 23 issues of Izvestia, Pravda, and Komsomolskaya Pravda are a case in point. The in­ scription above Cartoon One reads: “As a result of the recent visit to the U.S.A. of the Israeli Premier Eshkol an agreement was reached to supply Tel Aviv with American warplanes,” while the descriptive reference below states: “Lover of overseas birds.” The world Phantom appears on the bird­ headed planes in the cage. It is not necessary to elaborate on the general image and the facial expressions which are bestowed upon Israel’s Prime Min­ ister by the cartoonist from Moscow.

This cartoon, quite obviously, is not only anti-Israel but also antisemitic; it has a very striking resemblance to 29

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(Ms raie-r).

Cartoon One

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aoeH H yw . npMomb jupaHflbCKMM arpcccopiM, CoeANlieN* Bue UlTaTU crapaiorca Maoutposan» ee MHpKUMM cJjpaaaMK. (Ms r a m ) ..

Cartoon Two

Mltam i CmhpAcwo* wycnn~ A P M C n Wll l f t i l M pPCCM OipPMNM .

30

Phc. AIL .. ...................

JEWISH LIFE

y

Mf K O Topw x ^M ep N K Ì« iC K N x r~cT ]> aT éró f n o fttN jM C *

m jten c o s a **

H im HSpaM.lkCKMX «nO A pyH H blX » XOCRHO NOpCNIIX CHX &A> »UnOAMfr-

* nn onrpanHi'», a KoropMx 6-1 ^ ao r C1HA mnxxAHT «cjihivkom

rpoMoxAKMM».

(Ha raarr).

Cartoon Three

• « o r «no o c o 6 m m nopy«WNNflM».

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pMC. B. O a « n « w .

Four

March-April 1968

31

the black pages of the Stuermer which paved the way to Maidaneck and Auschwitz.

The inscription above Cartoon Two reads: “Among some American strategists an idea has occurred to create an Israeli auxiliary Navy task force to fulfill assignments which are too enormous for the 6th U.S.A. Fleet.” The inscription below reads: “For special errands.”

The caption above Cartoon Three is: “Rendering military aid to the Is­ raeli aggressor, the U. S. A. aims to masquerade with peace-loving phrases,” while the punch-line below the cartoon reads: “Mirage in the Sinai Desert.” Cartoon Four shows the new fashions for 1968 with Israel in the center flanked by Nazi Germany on the right and the Ku Klux Klan on the left. The Israeli inscription reads: “Expansion of borders.” r I ^HE half-page article in KomsoJL molskaya Pravda of January 23 with a prominent caption “S’Gov or v’Techase—Conspiracy in Texas” is a frightening document of old-fash­ ioned antisemitic invective. The au­ thor, V. Bolmakov, speaks not only of Israelis and Zionists but especially about American Jews “who together with the reactionary forces of the U.S.A. are enthusiastically supporting their government’s barbaric aggres­ sion against the people of Viet Nam.” Concentrating his attention upon the recent Johnson-Eshkol conference in Texas, the author views with alarm “the treacherous conspiracy by the Zionists, the American oil magnates, the U.S.A., and the Bonn Govern­ ments which among others are prepar­ ing and testing new nuclear weapons in the Negev to be used in a future confrontation against the Arabs and 32

all national liberation movements of the Third World, and which resulted in enormous shipments of more arms to Israel.” The author asserts that Eshkol responded to Johnson’s pro­ mise of new arms with an Israeli loan of two hundred million dollars to the U.S.A. to strengthen the American dollar! “The huge funds at the dis­ posal of the Zionists, which are being subsidized by the leading business monopolies of the U.S.A., especially the oil magnates, make it possible for the Zionists to exert incredible influ­ ence upon the general public of the U.S.A., to bribe non-Jews for their devious activities, to carry out a tre­ mendous program of propaganda and to pay American politicians for sup­ port,” the Pravda article states. The Kremlin offers as a “glaring example of this conspiracy the recent visits to Israel of Republican presidential as­ pirants Romney and Percy.” The ar­ ticle bemoans “the successful diaboli­ cal efforts of the Zionists to incite Jewish and non-Jewish public opinion in the U.S.A. against Communism and the Soviet Union.”

The third and the concluding part of the article, under the sub-head “What is Being Prepared,” quotes Moshe Dayan as saying: “Israel must recognize the possibility of a fourth war with the Arab countries,” and serves notice on the “Tel Aviv Military Clique” not to play with fire. “In their future plans and calculations the Is­ raeli militarists and their patrons must consider something else. In their chauvinistic enthusiasm th ey . are for­ getting those forces which stand on the side of peace and decency and that these forces will determine in our own century the course of human his­ tory.”

JEWISH LIFE

N the January 21 issue of Pravda, an article headed “Strange Union” offers the following “expose” :

I

• The secret deal between Ben Gurion and Adenauer reached during their New York Waldorf-Astoria con­ ference in 1960 which committed Is­ rael to withhold the names of no­ torious Nazi criminals from the Eichmann trial in return for Germany’s five hundred million dollars’ worth of arms.

• Israel’s prevention of its citizens from testifying against the Nazi cri­ minal Kroom, the author of the Lidice tragedy.

• The assassination of Zionist Kastner by Israeli secret agents in order to prevent the identification of leading Nazi criminals at his scheduled trial.

• Israel’s prompting West Germany to open a new war on the European continent.

• That more than four hundred West Germany military experts are now in Israel training the Israeli Ar­ my.

• That in spite of the fact that the present Bonn government “is the spiri­ tual heir of those who proclaimed ‘the final solution of the Jewish prob­ lem,’ ” Israel and Germany have for­ ged a conspiracy to subvert the Na­ tional Liberation Movement on the Afro-Asian continents and are plan­ ning to launch another war upon humanity.

W

hy?

There are no answers, and there are many answers if you wish. Irrational behavior cannot always be attributed to rational reasons. During our visit to Leningrad this last summer, I stood, with feelings of nostalgia and recollections of my youth, in Lenin­ grad’s famed “Park of Culture and

March-Aprll 1968

Rest” near the imposing statue of Ivan Andrevich Krylov (1768-1844), Rus­ sia’s greatest author of the fable. He satirized, in homely anecdotes about animals and birds, the slothfulness and greed of Russia’s aristocracy of his day. My first exposure to this re­ markable landmark in Leningrad was at the age of eight when my mother took me along to this park for a stroll.

The artistic genius of Krylov attributes words and actions to birds and ani­ mals which in reality reflect human behaviour, especially human weakness.

This central monument portrays Kry­ lov seated on a pedestal surrounded by the animals and birds of which he so lovingly wrote. As I examined these creatures once again I could not help but recall one of Krylov’s betterknown fables about the wolf and the lamb. On a hot day a gentle lamb approached a stream of water to quench his thirst. A hungry wolf ap­ peared upon the scene and marked the helpless lamb for his prey. Wish­ ing to justify his act, the wolf repri­ manded the lamb: “How dare you spoil my clear water with your dirty snout. Yes, my water—so begrime it not with mud and slime.” The poor lamb attempted to convince the wolf that one could not possibly contami­ nate this running stream. The wolf in turn was not impressed and claimed that if this lamb had not done it that year, it was guilty of having spoiled the stream of water two years past.

The lamb rejected this accusation, pointing out that he was less than one year old. Then again the wolf claimed that if the lamb was innocent, his brother was guilty. Again the lamb defended itself by asserting that he had no brother. The wolf then charged that his father or grandfather was re­ sponsible for this sin. The lamb justi33

fiably claimed that he should not be held responsible for the sins of his father or grandfather. Finally the hungry, avaricious wolf turned to the lamb with a verdict: “Your guilt consists in this: I want to eat you up!”

And to the forest’s depths he dragged the lamb away. The lamb is guilty because the wolf is hungry. The Kremlin is well-aware of Israel’s in­ nocence. They know who was guilty of sabotage, infiltration, murder, eco­ nomic boycott, and strangulation through the blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba. The Kremlin well knows of the military provocations of Nasser.

But the Kremlin, like Krylov’s wolf, is hungry. Its appetite for rule of the Middle East and command of its oil and its determination to subvert the Arabs cannot be satisfied even with the most glaring and irrefutable facts.

Thus, Soviet Russia continues with its monstrous abuse of and accusations against the State of Israel, because its appetite cannot be satisfied.

HEN the Star of David which adorns our Sefer Torah, our W Aron Hakodesh, and the Synagogue edifice, is displayed side by side with the Swastika, humanity’s most odious symbol, when Jews, not merely Zion­ ists and Israelis, are accused of con­ spiring against the peace of the world, one cannot remain indifferent. The hate-mongers of Pravda and Izvestia know quite well that the Russian peo­ ple who lost more than twenty million of their population during World War II and were left with millions of crip­ pled men and women as a result of the Nazi atrocities, regard Nazism as the very incarnation of Man’s most evil instincts. The Slavic sense of group identification and guilt by as34

sociation as attested by the Blood Libel Accusations and the thousands of pogroms in Czarist Russia, is a traditional trait of the Russian peo­ ple. “We have a capacity to suffer, to endure, and also never to forget,” said Dostoevsky. A Soviet Comissar remarked to me last summer in Le­ ningrad: “I am ready to forgive Israel almost everything, even their role as America’s lackey, but not their friend­ ship with West Germany, the world’s most treacherous executioner.” (Of course he was somewhat at a loss when I mentioned East Germany.) The Kremlin capitalizes to the maximum upon this passionate hatred of the German Nazis amongst their popula­ tion and in their unabated abuse which they heap upon the State of Israel.

When Jews of the U.S.A. are ac­ cused of diverting hundreds of mil­ lions of dollars, which are needed to rebuild the slum ghettos of New York, Chicago, and Cleveland, for the pur­ chase of Israeli arms to wage war against the Arabs, when Jews of the world are being indicted for conspiracy with governments to unleash war up­ on humanity, when Zionists and Is­ raelis are ruthlessly equated with Nazi criminals^ when obscene cartoons portray the Jew in the image created by the Protocols Of The Elders of Zion, published in Czarist Russia in 1903, it is high time to awaken and to respond. Let us never forget that it was the mischievous caricature and the hate-mongers’ cry which fed the fires of Treblinka. The descendants of Ivan the Terrible, the Petluras, and the Kelchacks must be given to un­ derstand that Jewish honor and pride and the natural sense of self-preserva­ tion will not permit another Beilis Blood Libel Accusation or another Kishinev pogrom.

JEWISH LIFE

The Last Rabbi of Kovno

By AARON ROTHKOFF

OVNO, the Russian name of Lithuania’s interbellum capitol Kaunas, is located at the confluence of the Neman and Viliya rivers, fiftyfive miles from Vilna. As a Lithu­ anian Jewish center, Kovno was sec­ ond only to Vilna. Since Vilna no longer elected an official Rabbi in modern times, the Rabbinate of Kovno was considered the leading rab­ binical position in Europe. Through­ out the five hundred years that Jews resided in Kovno, its rabbinical lead­ ers were among the brightest lumin­ aries of the Torah world. Rabbi Abraham Dov-Ber Kahane-Shapiro was not only a worthy successor to the sages who preceeded him, but Divine Providence also willed that he be the last Rabbi of Kovno.

The night after Yom Kippur of 1870, a son was born in Kobryn, a district town in the province of Grodno, Russia, to Rabbi Zalman Sender Kahane-Shapiro. The elder Rabbi Shapiro was the grandson of Rabbi Chaim ben Solomon, the

K

March-April 1968

founder of the Volozhiner Yeshivah.

Himself a great scholar, Rav Zalman Sender later achieved fame as the Rabbi and Rosh Yèshivah of the communities of Maltsh and Krinik.

His son, Abraham Dov-Ber, early dis­ played his prodigious abilities and he was known as the “Kobryner Illui.”

His first teacher was his father, and at an early age he entered the Yeshi­ vah founded by his illustrious great­ grandfather. Here he joined the elite group of students who later became the leaders of the Torah world. “The Kobryner Illui” or “Berel from Kob­ ryn” soon was a byword in Yeshivah circles. Not only was he acclaimed for his chiddushey Torah, but he also was an articulate conversationalist and possessed a likable and cordial personality. When he turned twentyone, he married Rachel, the daugh­ ter of the illustrious “Godol from Minsk,” Rabbi Yeruchum Pearlman.

At the home of his father-in-law, he continued his studies and also learned much about the practical aspects of 35

conducting a rabbinate in a large city such as Minsk. Upon the death of his father-in-law in 1895, the young Rabbi Shapiro became the Rabbi of Samolovitz, near Minsk. Here he suc­ ceeded his elder brother-in-law, Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz, who became the new Rabbi of Minsk.

T N this small town, Rabbi Shapiro continued to immerse himself in study, and he readily found the peace of mind to organize his writings. He mastered the Russian, German, and French languages, and acquired the basics of secular knowledge. In 1905, the first volume of his monumental work, D ’var Avrohom, appeared. In this volume, he analyzed and ex­ plained various Talmudic problems, utilizing the classical sources and his own inimitable logic. His lucid style of Hebrew writing also impressed his readers. An added feature of the volume was the inclusion of emenda­ tions by his father on his own eluci­ dations. The volume was warmly re­ ceived by his colleagues and it also widely circulated within the Yeshivah world. The D’var Avrohom placed its author in the first row of the gen­ eration’s Torah authorities. Right be­ fore World War I, in 1913, he pub­ lished a second volume which was essentially a continuation of his first volume. In it he disposed of the scores of questions which other lead­ ing rabbinic scholars had raised in reference to his earlier chiddushim.

However, the pleasant life in Samo­ lovitz could not continue for Rabbi Shapiro. His reputation was now too great to permit his remaining in a secondary community. In 1913, an organized segment of Poland’s Lomza Jewish community selected him as 36

their spiritual leader. He was about to move his family to Lomza when notified about his election as Kovno’s Rabbi. Despite his satisfaction with the Lomza position, he knew that destiny was beckoning with his selec­ tion to the pre-eminent Kovno rab­ binate. Later that year, amid the dark­ ening war clouds, he was installed as Kovno’s Rabbi at the age of fortytwo. Here he developed his abilities as a communal leader par excellence.

With the creation of an independent Lithuania after World War I, and the subsequent autonomy granted its Jew­ ish communities, Rabbi Shapiro be­ came the leading spokesman of ortho­ dox Jewry for the part of Lithuania which was to retain its freedom dur­ ing the entire interbellum period. He helped to organize the Lithuanian Agudath Horabonim and served as its honorary president. He was on good terms with many of the political and diplomatic leaders of Lithuania. He was particularly close to Smetona, the president of the republic, who was enthralled with the “Kovner Rov’s” personality, and awarded him many Lithuanian honors. Because of these vital relationships, Rabbi Shapiro was able to attain the same rights for rabbis and yeshivah students as those afforded gentile clergy and ministry students.

On the local Jewish scene, he played a key role in guiding tradi­ tional interests through the labyrinth of the many Jewish political parties and interests. He actively worked for the constantly growing Yishuv in the Holy Land, and he nurtured the dream of his ultimately settling in Eretz Yisroel. Although close to the Mizrachi viewpoint in outlook and com­ mitment, in 1919 Rabbi Shapiro parJEWISH LIFE

ticipated in the first Agudath Israel conference in Zurich. Here he pro­ posed projects to aid the Yishuv. One of these called for an attempt to work together with the world Zionist or­ ganization in Palestinian matters.

Rabbi Shapiro was appointed to an Agudath Israel committee to meet with Zionist representatives to imple­ ment this idea. However, he did not succeed in these negotiations.

HE “Kovner Rov” worked inces­ santly for Torah education. He served as president of the Kovno Kollel which had been organized by Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor. Here young married graduates of the lead­ ing European yeshivoth continued their Talmudic studies. He supervised the religious schools of his commu­ nity, and he raised funds for all the leading yeshivoth. He answered the many inquiries he received concern­ ing Jewish law, and continued to note his chiddushey Torah. In 1930, he republished a revised edition of the first volume of his D’var Avrohom which continued in great demand. He also arranged a third volume, con­ sisting mainly of elucidations on Sedei Kodshim, and he prepared a volume of his sermons for publication. However, these new works were finally printed posthumously by his son in New York after World War II. A lecture that he delivered before a convention of the Lithuanian Beth Jacob schools on Taharath Ha-Mishpochah was later published in pamphlet format and thousands of copies were distributed.

In this lecture, he revealed his ulti­ mate knowledge of science and hy­ giene as he explained the medical im­ plications of the Law of Mikvah.

Because of his prestigious position

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March-April 1968

in the Jewish world, Rabbi Shapiro was urged to visit America to aid in raising funds for the rehabilitation of the post-World War I Lithuanian Jew­ ish communities. In 1920, he made his first trip to the United States.

Here he made the acquaintance of Rabbi Bernard Revel, the Rosh HaYeshivah of the rapidly growing Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary on New York’s East Side.

On December 9, 1920, at the request of Dr. Revel, Rabbi Shapiro delivered a guest-lecture before the Yeshivah’s student body. The inspiring impact that this European godol made on the students studying in an American Yeshivah can best be gauged from the article which appeared in The Yeshiva News: The students of the Yeshiva were honored last Thursday by the arrival of the Kovner Rov, HaRav HaGaon Abraham Shapiro, in the Yeshiva. At 11 o’clock, the student body assem­ bled in the synagogue to await the guest. At 11:30, the students rose to formally welcome Rabbi Shapiro as he entered accompanied by Dr. Revel, Rabbis Levinthal, Margolies, Aranowitz and many others. Dr. Revel first mounted the pulpit and introduced the worthy guest. Rabbi Shapiro then spoke about various matters concern­ ing Judaism in America. He con­ cluded his address with a learned dis­ course of the Talmud which was heartily enjoyed by those present. As was expected the shiur proved to be very logical in construction and sound in judgment and was classed by all hearers with the Lomdus of the best type.

The great significance of this shiur, however, is not only its thoroughness and scholarship. It is supremely sig­ nificant because it represents the meet­ ing of European scholarship, in the person of Rabbi Shapiro, and the 37

most important Talmudical institution of America.

1924, Rabbi Shapiro returned to IcialNAmerica as a member of an offi­ rabbinical delegation visit which was sponsored by the Central Com­ mittee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War. This organization had been formed in 1914 by leaders of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and it con­ tinued to function after the war to aid in the rehabilitation of European Jew­ ish communities. By 1924, the yeshivoth of Europe and Palestine were in dire financial need. It was decided to have a delegation of three out­ standing rabbinical leaders visit Amer­ ica, under the sponsorship and direc­ tion of the Central Relief. These Rabbis were to spearhead a million dollar campaign for the overseas Yeshivoth. Selected for the delegation were Rabbi Abraham Isaac Ha-Kohen Kook, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Rabbi Moshe Mordecai Ep­ stein, Rosh Ha-Yeshivah of the Slobodka Yeshivah, and the “Kovner Rov.” The delegation succeeded in raising substantial sums as they toured the major American and Canadian cities. On April 15, 1924, the rabbini­ cal delegation was received at the White House by President Calvin Coolidge. Once again, Rabbi Shapiro delivered a shiur at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and he renewed his warm relationship with Dr. Revel. On November 12th, after spending eight months in Amer­ ica, Rabbi Shapiro and his colleagues returned home.

During the desperate days preceeding World War II, numerous attempts were made to gain admission to the 38

United States for European yeshivah students and rabbinical leaders as non­ quota immigrants. Because of his close relationship with Dr. Revel, the “Kovner Rov” did succeed in en­ abling some students to enter America as students of the Rabbi Isaac El­ chanan Theological Seminary. Among those who received visas through the “Kovner Rov’s” efforts were Rabbis Samuel Volk and Chaim Kreiswirth.

Rabbi Volk is today one of the senior Roshey Yeshivah at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and the author of numerous published volumes and articles of chiddushey Torah. Rabbi Kreiswirth was previosly Rosh Yeshivah in the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago, and is currently the rabbi of a large seg­ ment of the vibrant Jewish commu­ nity of Antwerp, Belgium.

A T the outbreak of hostilities due to Hitler’s march into Poland on September 1, 1939, Rabbi Shapiro was in Switzerland recovering from major surgery. His son in America pleaded with him to come to America until the conflict subsided. The “Kov­ ner Rov” showed his son’s telegram to his friends in Switzerland, and they strongly urged him to heed his son’s advice. However, he refused, remark­ ing that “the captain of a ship is the last to leave the sinking vessel. At this time of tribulations for the Jew­ ish people, I must remain with my community.” Later that year, he re­ turned to Kovno, and he completely immersed himself in the new prob­ lems for survival that rapidly en­ gulfed European Jewry. With the con­ tinued advances of Nazi forces across Denmark, Norway, and France, many urged the “Kovner Rov” to depart for JEWISH LIFE

America. Dr. Revel envisioned the Yeshivah’s opening a school for the pursuit of advanced study by rabbini­ cal graduates, to be headed by Rabbi Shapiro. However, these American at­ tempts to save him did not succeed as Rabbi Shapiro remained engrossed with his community. These events come vividly to life in a July 20, 1940 letter to United States Representative Sol Bloom from the American Consul in Kovno: On July 8, 1940, the Rabbi’s son called at the Consular Section of the Legation and discussed his father’s case. He stated that his father had received numerous offers of employ­ ment from the United States, the last being received about six months earl­ ier. Mr. Shapiro did not, however, know any of the details of that offer and did not have a copy of the pro­ posed contract with him. Assuming he referred to the same contract as the Department of State mentioned in its telegram of July 5, 1940, the ex­ amining officers suggested to Mr. Shapiro that his father call at his convenience to discuss his case and bring the copy of the contract with him. The son said that he would pre­ fer to bring the contract himself and he was told that such procedure was satisfactory to this office but that he must understand that no decision could be made until Rabbi Shapiro himself was examined.

On July 17, 1940, a representative of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid and Sheltering Society called in Rabbi Shapiro’s behalf and presented the copy of the contract. He was in­ formed that this office viewed Rabbi Shapiro’s case favorably, but that, again, no decision could be made un­ til the Rabbi was examined. The of­ ficer also stated that he was prepared to interview Rabbi Shapiro at the Rabbi’s convenience and that the Rabbi should bring with him whatMarch-April 1968

ever documents he had to show that he was bom in Russia so that his case could be considered as one chargeable to the quota of the Soviet Union in the event that some ques­ tion came up concerning his status as a non-quota immigrant. Since quota numbers are immediately available for the use of persons who are charge­ able to the quota of the Soviet Union, it was pointed out, the Rabbi was un­ likely to have any difficulty because of quota restrictions if he did not qualify as a non-quota applicant.

The Consular Section of the Lega­ tion is giving Rabbi Shapiro’s case its sympathetic consideration, but it is unable to expedite the matter greatly as long as Rabbi Shapiro sends vari­ ous representatives to this office to discuss his case. As his friends have been informed, this office is prepared to receive him at his convenience.

On June 22, 1941, Kovno was con­ quered by the Nazi hordes, and the final chapter of destruction and execu­ tion began for its Jewish inhabitants.

After the Nazis demanded the forma­ tion of a local Judenraht, the “Kovner Rov” called a meeting of all the Kovno Jewish leaders in his home.

When a zealot rebuked his permitting the majority of irreligious communal leaders to make the crucial decisions, he replied: “These problems are not exclusively the concern of only reli­ gious Jews.” In addition to his own poor health, the “Kovner Rov” was deeply grieved by the sufferings of his brethren. Not only did local Jews turn to him, but Jews from all over Lithuania appealed to Rabbi Shapiro in the vain hope that he could avert the evil decrees of forced labor, im­ prisonment, and execution. During this period, he remarked that “the tribpJatiQns of the entire community make one forget his own pains.” In 39

1942, the aged Rabbi led his commu­ nity as they were incarcerated in the adjacent Slobodka ghetto. As the de­ portations increased, he daily dealt with sorrowful questions submitted by the Judenraht concerning which in­ dividuals were to be surrendered to the Nazis. Soon he was bedridden due to his illness, but he continued to send epistles to the ghetto quarters to comfort his brethren with thoughts of trust in G-d and the ultimate Jew­ ish redemption. During his final ill­ ness, he also wrote his memoirs, but these were later lost in the ruins of the ghetto. In his final days, he re­ marked about his deep regrets that he would not merit burial in the Holy Land. His mind remained totally

40

lucid. During the final week of his life he gathered Kovno’s Vaad Horabonim and lay leaders into his home, and asked their forgiveness for having accepted his salary during the dura­ tion of his illness when his function­ ing was impaired. On Saturday morn­ ing, the twenty-second day of Adar I (February 27th), 1943, he returned his soul to his Creator. On Sunday, despite the severe Nazi decree against public assemblies, over ten thousand surviving ghetto residents accom­ panied the last Rabbi of Kovno to his eternal rest. His wife and eldest son were later executed as the Nazis liquidated the remnants of the once proud Jewish community of Kovno in late 1943.

JEWISH LIFE

"Up and Over" Lessons from the World Conference*

By NORMAN LAMM

N TERMS of goals it had set for itself, the recent World Conference of Orthodox Ashkenazi and Sephardi Synagogues was undoubtedly a suc­ cess. It was the first opportunity of our times for Orthodox Jewish leadership of countries throughout the world to meet with each other, take measure of each other, counsel with each other, share problems and solutions, and en­ courage one another. In this respect, the Conference achieved its goals eminently well.

What emerged from these delibera­ tions were two centers of concern, which we might designate by two He­ brew words which have one common origin: aliyah (rp’by) and hithaluth (mtynn) both of which come from the Hebrew root, aloh, which means: to go up. By this we mean, that the dual concerns of the Conference were Aliyah, the problem of literally emig-

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* Based upon an address at The Jewish Center, New York.

March-April 1968

rating to Israel from all over the world, and Hithaluth, the act of selfimprovement, self-transcendence, self­ elevation in Jewish commitment and in loyalty to Torah.

T IS interesting that both these con­ cepts, of Aliyah and Hithaluth, are discovered by one commentator, Abarbanel, in one word of the Biblical narrative about Israel in the infancy of its history. When the Pharoahs of Egypt became anxious about the growth of the Jewish community and its prosperity, they decided to scheme against the Israelites for fear that they were growing too strong, and because of the suspicion that in case of war they would join the enemy and v’alah min ha-aretz, which literally means: “And he will go up from the land.”

Normally, this is taken to mean that the Pharoahs feared that in case of crisis the Jews would leave Egypt and go on Aliyah to the Land of Israel, much in the same way that the Com-

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munist commissars of Soviet Russia are today worried that if they will open the doors and allow the Iron Curtain to part, that most of the Jew­ ish community of Russia might emig­ rate to the State of Israel. Abarbanel, while agreeing with this interpretation, adds one other insight. He maintains that the phrase can also be interpreted as “they will rise beyond the rest of the land.” He interprets the word min not as derivative, “from,” but comparative, “than.” The concern of the Pharoahs was not only that the Jews would perform Aliyah and go up from the land of Egypt, but that they would experience hithaluth and that they would rise in their stature and in their quality beyond the rest of the population, they would become greater than the rest of the Egyptian popula­ tion.

What bothered the Pharoahs, both­ ered us: the twin problems of Aliyah and Hithaluth. At the risk of sound­ ing frivolous, we might say that our attention was directed to the questions of Jews going “over” to Israel, and of growing “up” in the quality of their commitment—“up and over” being the antidote to “down and out.”

The foremost impression that one takes away from even a brief tour of the State of Israel, provided that one has paid attention not oniy to seeing places but also to meeting people, is the seriousness with which Israelis take the entire question of Aliyah. There is little doubt in my mind that we have paid far too little attention to it, as­ suming unconsciously that when the Israelis speak of Aliyah they are en­ gaged in a kind of ritualistic war dance in which they do not really mean for us to take them with any ernestness.

But that is clearly not the case. The 42

Israelis desperately need us; and we need them even more.

Only 17% of world Jewry now lives in the State of Israel; yet it is there, to use the current colloquialism, “where the action is.” Chief Rabbi Unterman was quite right when he told the Conference that whereas the rov minyan of world Jewry is in Ame­ rica, the rov binyan is in Israel; that is, that while the majority quantita­ tively resides in the United States, the qualitatively weightiest group, which will decide the destiny of our people, is the Jewish community of the State of Israel. Jewish history will be writ­ ten, and is being written, primarily there, not here. And no one should be so self-effacing and modest as to confine himself forever to the mar­ gins and periphery of the arena where history is being forged and molded.

I have no solution to offer on the Aliyah question; our best minds have not yet devised a proper answer to the question. I know that if the tables were reversed, and we would be in Israel and demand of the people now in Israel to come on Aliyah, they would have the same hesitation and reluctance that we experience because of practical matters. But that does not and should not allow us to escape confronting the problem squarely and acknowledging that we must give great weight to the challenge, especially as orthodox Jews. We dare not cut down our ideology to conform to the limita­ tions of current circumstances. We dare not develop a theory of Jewish life which will do away with Aliyah in order to satisfy practical considera­ tions—for then we will have aband­ oned Orthodoxy. Great deeds are de­ manded of us, deep thinking is the challenge of the hour. We must no longer treat Aliyah as a pipedream or JEWISH LIFE

as a piece of perfunctory Israeli pro­ paganda not deserving of our serious attention. It may be true that it is unlikely that the generation now en­ sconced in the business and profes­ sional life of this country will per­ form this mitzvah; but this does not excuse us from so raising the next generation that it will be possible for them to perform Aliyah without the difficulties that face us.

ROM the first problem, that of Aliyah, we proceed to the second center of concern, Hithaluth. The most dramatic case of Hithaluth, or Jewish improvement, I find in Israel itself.

I confess: there was a time when I all but despaired of the secular major­ ity in the State of Israel. Religion had been so subject to the extreme politicization that is endemic to the country; antireligiousness was rampant to such an extent; the belligerence against Torah was so doctrinaire; the machinery of Israel’s religious estab­ lishment was so antiquated—that there was little reason at all for opti­ mism or encouragement. I saw the major, if not the exclusive hope for a Jewish renaissance in the United States.

I have now revised my opinion. I know that all is not well. Those in Israel who are spiritually insensitive will probably remain obtuse and coarse. The religious establishment is, unfortunately, still largely ineffective in reaching out to the great majority of the alienated Jews of Israel. But I de­ tect a new spirit since last June, a sense of apocalyptic fulfillment, a feeling of the imminence of Messianic days, an awareness that we have passed a threshhold in Jewish history, that we

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have crossed a watershed in the story of our people.

Great opportunities are ripening for a mature and enthusiastic approach— by an orthodox Jewry which does not want to segregate itself but wants to live in this world—to the heretofore alienated Israelis.

Permit me to share with you an ex­ perience which, in a manner of speak­ ing, was even more moving than that fabulous Friday night Kabbalath Shabbath at the Western Wall.

Quite by accident, we took advant­ age of the opportunity to pay a visit to a kibbutz, which is one of the northernmost outposts of the State of Israel, on the Lebanese and not far from the Syrian border. The terrain is mountainous and rough, and the members of this agricultural commune must work hard and long hours in order to prosper. Our conversations for these several hours were held with a few people, especially one who was “the old man” of the kibbutz, who had celebrated his 40th birthday only two days earlier. All members of this settlement, which was founded only eighteen years ago by young men and women in their late teens and early twenties, were the children of antireligious socialist idealists of the Kib­ butz movement. But in this particular kibbutz, the children had moved be­ yond the sterile positions of their parents.

For instance, this kibbutz is nonkosher; but they use only kosher meat. Only recently they had intro­ duced a kind of Kabbalath Shabbath service, which included the recitation of va-yeckulu and the communal reading of the Sidrah of the week.

At this time we tried to pursuade them to include the Kiddush as well; I be­ lieve they will accept this recommen43

dation. The members of the kibbutz encouragé only religious ceremonies for their weddings. Their thirteen-year old boys are now taken, as a matter of course, to nearby Safed for their Bar Mitzvah, and they have developed the charming custom of informing each child on his Bar Mitzvah day of his whole family history, as far back as it can be traced into the glories of the Jewish past.

Perhaps most interesting, though tragic to relate, is the following illus­ tration of the difference between the two generations: several months ago one of their members had been killed by accident by a guard who mistook him for a Syrian infiltrator. He was the first person to be buried on their cemetery. The father of the slain kibbutznik, himself a member of an older, well established, thoroughly an­ ti-religious kibbutz, refused on prin­ ciple to recite the Kaddish at his son’s funeral. However, his younger son, who was likewise a member of the younger kibbutz, as well as his friends, did recite the Kaddish!

HE finest indication of the truly religious mood of this young gen­ eration is the attitude they evinced in the conversations. A question they per­ sistently directed at us was, “How is it that we were privileged to achieve such a victory?” That question de­ serves to be studied well. Usually, when Jews turn to a rabbi with a question of this sort, it is just the re­ verse: “Rabbi, why did G-d punish me so much?” But these young and brave men and women put the ques­ tion the other way around: “Rabbi, why was G-d so good to us?” This is clearly indicative of a profoundly re­ ligious stirring that deserves our ut­ most attention. There is a gracious

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humility and spiritual sensitivity un­ der the tough Sabra exterior.

There was, however, one jarring note during this visit that bothered me especially much because of its sym­ bolic significance. It is, I believe, in­ structive and worthy of pondering.

Two of the kibbutzniks produced for us a Mezuzah each, birthday gifts from their wives. They were anxious to af­ fix them properly, with the appropriate blessings, for they would be the first to be seen there. Both of us—the Is­ raeli rabbi who accompanied us, and I—were delighted by the opportunity, and I had the sense of participating in a historic act. My Israeli colleague had the presence of mind to examine the Mezuzah scrolls within the metal tubes before proceeding. They were, alas, completely pasul, invalid; they did not even bear the proper Biblical pas­ sage, the Shema!

It is a frightening symbolic portent of what may come to pass if we are not sufficiently alert and active. The new thirst for Judaism may be slaked by impure waters. There is no guar­ antee that a genuine quest for G-d and Torah and tradition will be satisfied by authentic Judaism. The generation that may shortly be returning to Juda­ ism is long on integrity and short on knowledge. Unless we and our col­ leagues in Israel are there to fill the spiritual void with the Torah tradi­ tion, others may rush in from all over the Diaspora to fill it with the trun­ cated and distorted versions of Juda­ ism that have plagued us in America.

If we do not provide a kosher scroll for the Israeli who seeks a Mezuzah, someone will surely provide him with one that is pasul—and much less ex­ pensive, taxing, and inconvenient.

Whether we are presently geared to reach out to such individuals, to enJEWISH LIFE

gage them in meaningful dialogues, to convince them of the integrity of the religious tradition we represent—that I do not know. I do know that it will be futile to use force or legislation or pressure to prevent our competitors from making their sales-pitch. We shall have to make a convincing case of our own—although I wonder which groups within the religious com­ munity in Israel are both willing and able to execute this task and do it well.

So there is an incipient Hithaluth in Israel, and it is obvious in this small portion of the population, those who live on the kibbutzim, who are the most sensitive idealists and the pace-setters for the rest of Israel. And despite the dangers, this is a wonder­ ful and encouraging development for which we ought to be grateful.

learned to appreciate the different circumstances in different Jewish com­ munities. The element of Hithaluth was evident to anyone who saw the impression that was made upon the large and influential French delega­ tion, or upon the courage that was given, for instance, to that lonely young Rabbi of the dwindling Jewish community of Athens.

There is a great need for further such contacts and more such meet­ ings, without fear and always with de­ dication. Without ever neglecting our local needs, we must strengthen our bonds with the Jews all over the world, and they are the bonds of Torah. But especially important is the continuing interplay and interaction between American and Israeli orthodox Jews.

Together we must strive for spiritual Hithaluth and for actual Aliyah.

"TkOES this mean that we should ” give up on the Golah? No. I dis­ agree with those Israelis who have despaired of the future of Judaism in the Diaspora. I do not believe that love for Israel and the encourage­ ment of Aliyah to Israel should be dependent upon a negative view of Jewish life in the Diaspora. On the contrary, only if there is true Hitha­ luth amongst Jews in the Diaspora, can we ever expect a substantial Aliyah of these Jews to Israel. If our contacts with the Israelis at the World Conference showed their Hithaluth, the very fact of the World Conference was an indication of our Hithaluth.

Organized Orthodoxy in the United States has come of age, in that it has finally seen fit to meet with orthodox Jews of similar disposition throughout the world, despite all the opposition which was quite inane and at times ugly. We broadened our horizons. We

N the interesting debate between G-d and Moses, when Moses is reluctant to accept his prophetic mis­ sion, G-d tells Moses that his brother Aaron is coming towards him. “And he wiil see you and he will be happy in his heart.” Aaron will experience inner joy upon meeting his beloved brother Moses. Yet the Rabbis found an oblique source for criticism of Aaron in this verse. They say, if only Aaron had known that the Torah would record for all posterity his emo­ tional reaction upon meeting Moses, then he would not have been satisfied with experiencing joy in his heart, but he would have greeted Moses with a whole band of drums and fifes.

We live in a time of ha-kathuv machtivo, of Biblical proportions and Scriptural dimensions. The challenge to us is historic and will be recorded for all times. Good will and fine in­ tentions about Israel and Judaism are

March-Apnl 1968

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simply inadequate. To be “happy in the heart” simply will not do.

There are times when history turns a telescope upon a particular period.

At such times, our actions, our move­ ments, our achievements, are meaning­ ful only in the perspective of the great flux of world events which have their origin in the dim past and their climax in the remote future; but our actions by themselves, in a small segment of time, are fairly inconsequential and meaningless.

But there are times when history turns not a telescope but a microscope upon a particular epoch. At such times, every action, every gesture, every deed, almost every word, as­ sumes gigantic proportions. In a period of this kind, whatever we do is in­ vested with enormous significance by itself for all of history.

Today is a period of history’s micro­

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scope. Ha-kathuv machtivo—it is al­ most a period of Biblical magni­ ficence, when all that we say and do and achieve is of the greatest signifi­ cance, when our failures are catastro­ phic and our successes are enduringly illustrious.

NE can hardly blame us, in this U first year of Yisrael Ha-shelemah, the “Whole Israel” of historic dimen­ sions, for experiencing great joy in our hearts. But this joy must not re­ main in our hearts. It must rise up out of the heart, and pull us up with it. It must rise to the occasion.

We must take counsel on how our community can achieve “up and over,” how we can literally rise to Is­ rael in Aliyah, and at the same time rise to a life of Torah and Mitzvoth and Jewish spirituality in ever increas­ ing Hithaluth.

JEWISH LIFE

Armed Services Diary

By HENRY REISER

Military Service presents some form of challenge to all who enter its ranks.

This is even more true if the service­ man is an observant Jew, concerned with maintaining his religious tradi­ tions and identity while fulfilling his military obligation.

The following is a description of my experiences while> completing Army training at Fort Jackson, South Caro­ lina and Fort Ord, California in the first half of 1965. Since one's initial contacts within the military are most important and as basic training is probably one o f the most trying periods a^two-year draftee will have to face during his period of enlist­ ment (with of course, the exception of actual combat), 1 feel that my en­ counters at this time will be of in­ terest.—H. R. HEN I took my pre-induction physical examination and several written tests, I was informed that I would be receiving my “greetings” in the next few months. Therefore, the shock was slightly lessened when three months later, my induction notice arrived in the mail, telling me to report to the Armv Induction Cen­ ter in New York City.

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March-April ! 968

Along with my personal items that I carried to the induction center, I also took along a bag filled with as­ sorted canned goods and some nosherei. This proved quite useful, as it was not until two days later that I would see the Jewish chaplain at Fort Jackson and replenish my food supply.

That morning I was part of a group of seventy inductees (with two of whom I had graduated from high school). We spent the better part of the day with a final physical examina­ tion, completing a multitude of forms and then waiting around for some­ thing to happen. Late in the afternoon, we were bussed to Grand Central Sta­ tion and boarded a train for Washing­ ton, D.C., where we would change to one headed for South Carolina.

When we changed trains in Wash­ ington, I managed to get a single compartment where I dawened and ate in complete privacy, supplement­ ing my food with milk and juice served on the train.

Arriving at Fort Jackson on the afternoon of the following day, we began our in-processing, which would last for several days. Afterwards, we would be assigned to basic training companies. During this time, we 47

and was assigned to the post. He ex­ plained that I would be having my Shabboth meals at the chapeL with several other fellows who were in various stages of basic training. After services and a chicken dinner (pre­ PON arrival at Fort Jackson, I pared by Chaplain Feinstein’s wife had requested to see the Jewish and which we heated in the chapel chaplain soon after we got off the before Shabboth) I returned to the train. The next morning, Rabbi Joseph reception center.

Shabboth morning I again made my Feinstein, at that time the Jewish chaplain on post, and his assistant, way to the chapel for a completely Mike Halpern, paid me a visit at the traditional service and spent the after­ reception station, bringing along some noon at the chapel with the other canned goods and matzoth to vary orthodox soldiers, returning to my my diet. The chaplain had made ar­ barracks after Havdollah. rangements for me to be excused from At the conclusion of my in-process­ processing Friday afternoon, as well ing at the reception station, I was as for the rest of Shabboth to attend assigned to a basic training company. services at the chapel, along with It was here that arrangements were being given time to davven in the made for me to keep my own food morning and taking what I could eat and utensils in a separate section of from the. mess hall in the way of the mess hall, to have use of an fruits and vegetables. He also ex­ empty room in the morning so that plained that once I was assigned to I might davven in privacy, and to be a basic training unit, plans could be excused from training early enough made for storing food in the mess on Erev Shabboth so that I could hall and having my canned goods shower, change clothes, and be at the such as meat and vegetables heated chapel in time for Kabbolath Shab­ there. both.

It was during one of the classifica­ tion tests that I was to be picked uo HE first three weeks of basic by a sergeant and driven to the chapel training, which lasts for eight prior to Shabboth. As the sergeant weeks, are taken up in part with class­ entered the testing room, I raised my room instruction on military justice, hand in order that he recognize me. history and tradition, first aid, hygiene This action was probably unnecessary, and several other subjects. On the as I was the only one in the room active participation side, physical con­ wearing a yarmulke. Keeping this ditioning, bayonet and hand-to-hand mitzvah throughout my tour of active combat training, grenade throwing duty although it brought about a bit (with dummy grenades), and drill of harrassment, did much to enable and ceremony were the daily routine. me to retain my religious and per­ After this phase of training is com­ pleted, the company then begans daily sonal identity.

At the chapel, I met another ortho­ marches to the rifle ranges for fam­ dox G.I., who had completed basic iliarization and firing with the M-14

would undergo medical tests, inocula­ tions, issuance of clothing, and a bat­ tery of classification tests to determine in what areas our capabilities might be utilized while in the army.

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JEWISH LIFE

rifle. This lasts for three weeks and is culminated with a qualification test, during which the trainee must hit a certain number of targets to prove that he is proficient with his weapon.

As the weeks passed the number of “Kosher Boys” (as we called our­ selves) decreased as each in turn com­ pleted basic training and was sent to other posts. The reduction in our numbers led to a most pleasant change in the Shabboth routine. Half of the remaining group would eat at the rabbi’s house and the other half at the home of Dr. Yehuda Sorscher, an orthodox Jewish dentist who was in military service at that time. These meals had the real flavor and mood of Seudoth Shabboth. Then, on Shab­ both afternoon, we would have a shiur with Rabbi Feinstein and Dr. Sorscher -on an alternating basis.

Needless to say, these Shabbatoth were very satisfying, from the nutri­ tional as well as the spiritual point of view; during the week I subsisted mainly on drv cereal and sandwiches which we “KB’s” prepared each Sun­ day morning at the chapel.

In th e vseventh week of training, the company goes on field manuevers at which time they sleep out in tents rather than return to the barracks. At this time, however, several men were placed on a detail in the comoanv area, and I was among them. Our job was to do minor repair work in the barracks, so that thev would be ready for the next cvcle of troops after we left. We would, however, participate in one day of field duty, known as individual tactical training, which was a mandatory requirement for all.

Prior to going out to the field, I placed several sandwiches in mv pack along with some fruit and candy bars March-April 1968

as we would not be returning till late that night. This procedure led to an interesting incident.

At supper time, I was standing in the chow line to get some milk. My company commander, a young first lieutenant, noticed that I was not holding my mess gear in my hand and he gave me a rather puzzled look.

I immediately took out a sandwich and showed it to him. No sooner had I taken two more steps than the brigade commander, a full colonel, started walking towards me. He began inquiring about my well being and the Jewish program, with which he was familiar as his two daughters of­ ten served as baby-sitters for Chaplain and Mrs. Feinstein. The conversation only lasted for a few minutes, but it caused a bit of a stir among the other men in the line; after all, it isn’t every day that a colonel walks up to a private for a chat!

The last week of basic training is taken up with proficiency tests in what we had been taught during the first few weeks, followed by a twoweek leave before reporting for ad­ vanced training.

Perhaps it was a bit of a coincid­ ence that my leave would cover the first days of Pesach, but I certainly had a feeling of “liberation” when I boarded the plane at Columbia Air­ port to fly home.

While basic training proved to be quite a trying experience both phy­ sically and, at times, psychologically, I was able to leave it with the thought that if I could emerge from this trial with my beliefs still intact, I should be able to continue to uphold them for the rest of my tour on active duty.

Boruch Hashem, this thought, due to the understanding and sympathy of 49

many NCO’s and officers with whom I was to come in contact, proved true.

A FTER spending a much-cherished two-week leave at home, I boarded a plane on Choi Hamoed for Califor­ nia. My orders read to report to Fort Ord for training as a chaplain’s as­ sistant. (I had requested this training when I first entered the Army.)

I arrived in San Francisco early in the afternoon, but as it was Erev Shabboth and I still had to fly to Mon­ terey, I was most anxious to get on post and settled before sunset. My anxieties began when I found out that the next Monterey flight would not be until later in the afternoon. I decided to take a bus, which brought me to the post shortly before licht-bentshen time. After signing in at the replace­ ment company from where I would be assigned to a training company, I inquired how I might be excused from any processing until after Shabboth.

I was then sent to see the company commander, a Negro captain, who af­ ter I explained my situation, offered to give me a pass to attend services where I wished. Unfortunately, by that time it was getting dark and I told him that I was not permitted to travel after sunset. He smiled and said he would keep me in the company and that I wouldn’t process or go to my training until Sunday.

During the time that I was in Cali­ fornia, there was no Jewish chaplain assigned to Fort Ord. There was, however, a Jewish assistant chaplain named Jack Buttnick from Seattle, Washington, who handled the Jewish program. We did not get in touch with each other until I arrived at the company where I would be undergo­ ing training on Sunday afternoon. I 50

had spent an uneventful Shabboth in the barracks and davvened in a sep­ arate room. As for food, I had some canned goods in my duffelbag which kept me going.

Shortly after I arrived at my as­ signed company* Jack came to my barracks and we got acquainted. I asked him about services for the last days of Yom Tov, which began that night. He said that he was going to hold services on post and that in order to attend, I would have to get per­ mission from my company com­ mander.

A FTER the first formation at 6:00 ■¿V o’clock the next morning, I asked my platoon sergeant if I could see the CO, explaining that I had to observe special dietary laws and that I would like to have arrangements for this made with the mess hall. He said I could go to the Orderly Room, where the CO’s office was located.

Upon entering the Orderly Room, I found that several other men were waiting on line for various reasons.

As I stood in line the company first sergeant, who is the ranking non-com­ missioned officer on a company level, entered the orderly room. The fact that I was wearing a yarmulke im­ mediately caught his attention and he asked me what I wanted. I told him that I wanted to see the CO in order to get permission to attend services later that morning. He said that he would call for me after my first class and that I would see the CO then.

The class turned out to be an orien­ tation as to what our Clerk-Typist course would consist of, namely typ­ ing instruction, preparation of the dif­ ferent types of military correspond­ ence, handling of classified documents, Army organization and supply, etc.

JEWISH LIFE

When the class ended, the first ser­ geant was waiting to take me to the CO. In accordance with military pro­ cedure, upon reaching the door to his office, I knocked and waited for his reply of “Come in.” When he did so, I entered, stood at attention in front of his desk, saluted and said, “Sir, Private Rieser reports,” waited until he returned my salute, and then brought my arm down.

I explained to the CO that that day and the next were the last two days of the Passover holidays and that I would like to attend services on post, and that I was not permitted to do any work during this time. The CO, a first lieutenant, then excused me while he talked the matter over with the first sergeant.

As I was sitting in the Orderly Room waiting for their decision, the company’s executive officer, a second lieutenant, came over to me, took some change out of his pocket and asked me to go and buy him a pack of cigarettes. I told him that I was observing a religious holiday, during which I could not handle money. He accepted my reply by shrugging his shoulders apd walked away.

Looking back on this incident, I shudder slightly at the consequences it might have led to. Giving an excuse for not wanting to comply with a superior’s request is just not done in the military. But instead of facing dis­ ciplinary action, when the first ser­ geant came out of the CO’s office, he told me that I was on my own until my holiday ended.

A S the chapel was only a short walk from my company area, I immediately started out for services, which began at 10:00 o’clock. (An earlier minyan had been held for basic trainees.)

March-April 1968

After the morning services, which were conducted by Jack Buttnick, we went over to another chapel where “leftovers” from the Sedorim of the week before were stored. We spent the better part of the day at that chapel, where Jack worked with two other assistants. The next day, which was the last day of Pesach, the procedure was the same.

During these two days I had missed a great deal of in-processing and class­ room instruction. It was therefore de­ cided that I be transferred to the other Clerk-Typist company (there were two on post) which was having a new class starting the next week. So I hauled my duffelbag across the road and moved into my new barracks.

My platoon sergeant, a Negro, was quite interested in my religious be­ liefs as he was an active member in his own church. I explained the laws of Shabboth and Kashruth to him.

After speaking to the first sergeant, I received permission to be excused from training on Saturday. As for food, Jack could supply me with can­ ned goods from the Jewish Welfare Board and I could supplement this with my own purchases from the commis­ sary.

For the following nine weeks I had a fairly routine schedule. I attended classes from 8-12 A.M. and then from 1-4 P.M. This was followed by an hour of physical conditioning, after which I was on my own until lightsout at ten o’clock. During this time I caught up on my letter-writing and reading. For further relaxation, I ’d walk over to the company day room and watch T.V. Before hitting the sack, there was a pair of boots and a belt-buckle to be shined as we often had an in-ranks inspection in the morning before classes started.

51

HOVUOTH and a 6th Army Area cialist 6th Class, who was the N.C.O. I.G. (Inspector General) Inspec­ I.C., along with several assistants who tion, which included Fort Ord, were were assigned to the school as instruc­ both just around the corner as I was tors. about to enter my sixth week of train­ Our day began with an in-ranks ing. I went to see my CO about get­ inspection by the N.C.O.I.C. to check ting a three-day pass to attend civilian our personal appearance (haircut and services in San Jose, which was about shave) along with uniform (clean fat­ an hour-and-a-half ride from the fort. igues, shined boots and belt-buckle).

He said that he would have to look Afterwards, we had insrtuction in the into the matter and would give me an various forms that we would be using answer later in the week. I found out in our work as CA’s (film requests, afterwards that he had called Jack activity reports and supply forms). We and thinking the latter was a chap­ also saw films on how the chaplain lain, addressed him as “Sir” through­ works with commanders in assisting out their conversation. This mistaken the indiivdual soldier with problems assumption was probably instrumental that he may have, and the Army’s in getting my request for a pass ap­ character guidance program, where proved. At any rate, I proceeded to chaplains speak to the troops on pre­ get in touch with Rabbi Moshe Twer- scribed subjects on a monthly basis. sky in San Jose. He responded very Denominational requirements of two cordially and upon my telling him of the three major faiths were pre­ that I planned to arrive in San Jose sented by Protestant and Catholic Erev Yom Tov, he undertook to find chaplains, while Jack Buttnick re­ a place for me to stay. ported on Jewish requirements.

When I arrived in San Jose, I was picked up by my hostess, who, since T WAS on my first day at the school her son was attending Yeshiva Uni­ that I found out I would be sent versity in New York, had a room for to Germany upon completing my me. I spent a most pleasant Yom training at Fort Ord. I still had an­ Tov in this hospitable home, catching other two weeks of school to finish— up on some home cooking and lost one for the Clerk-Typist course and sleep as well, of course, as attending the other for Chaplain’s Assistant in­ services. Need I say that it was with struction. My feelings on my next as­ regret that I left San Jose on Motzai signment were mixed. But seing the Yom Tov to return to the post. expressions on the faces of four of The following week, instead of my classmates who were told that they going to my regular classes, I fell out would be sent to Viet Nam, I realized with the other men in my class and that I was quite fortunate. those from the class before us to start The second week of CA school was my first week of a two-week course at highlighted by visits from two chap­ the Chaplain’s Assistant school. The lains, one of whom had recently re­ school, which was located in a chapel building, was set up with both a class­ turned from Viet Nam while the other room and offices. A Protestant chap­ was on active reserve duty at a nearby lain served as the O.I.C. (Officer-in- Army hospital. Both men gave some Charge) and he was assisted by a Spe- insights as to how their duties com-

S

I

52

JE W IS H LIFE

pared and differed with that of a had some free time, I went to see chaplain assigned to a post in the Chaplain Albert Dimont, who was States. From their talks, we saw how then the senior of the two Jewish an assistant’s job can differ depending chaplains on post. As I could not get on where he is stationed. a pass to go home for the weekend, he On completing CA school, I was called the replacement company where assigned to work at one of the chapels I was staying and arranged that I on post as there had been a slight would not be shipped out or go mixup on my orders and new ones had through any processing on Shabboth. to be requested. My duties consisted That Shabboth I attended services of answering phone calls, handling on post and in the afternoon ate at appointments for the chaplains, typ­ Chaplain Dimont’s house with his fa­ ing, and keeping the chapel in shape, mily and his assistant along with an­ both inside and outside. other orthodox fellow who was await­ The workload was not heavy but ing orders for Hawaii as a CA. with waiting for orders which could While waiting to leave Fort Dix, come at any time, my mind was un­ I had myself put on detail at the easy. Since my class had already chapel, performing various chores and shipped out, I had to change barracks making good use of the well-stocked for an incoming class, and this did kosher kitchen there. did not help my sense of permanency After spending six days at Ford either. However, after working at the Dix, I boarded a plane for Frankfurt, chapel for three weeks, I received Germany, from where I would be fur­ orders and began to process out from ther assigned. With this flight my Fort Ord to go to Fort Dix, New “career” as a trainee came to an end.

Jersey for shipping over to Germany. Upon being assigned, I would be work­ ing in my MOS (military occupational ARRIVED at Fort Dix on the specialty). This was something that I morning of July 15th, which hap­ was looking forward to and the follow­ pened to be a Friday. (It seems as if ing months saw that I was not dis­ I had a knack for this.) As soon as I appointed.

I

March-April 1968

q. r.

53

A Story

Tale of a Kvittel

By LIBBY M. KLAPERMAN

A S SOON as they had decided to make the trip to the Holy Land, Dora began her preparations, pur­ chasing, before anything else, a longsleeved cotton print dress that she would wear at the Wall. The pilgrim­ age was crucial to her, although she could note quite understand why. The television pictures of the victorious Israeli soldiers dancing before the Kothel, of the top brass making their visits to it, merged in her imagina­ tion with the memory of an old, familiar print which depicted turbaned Jews, in a long ago and ancient time, sitting at the Western Wall. She yearned for the moment when she too would be there, a moment that would clarify all her doubts and anxieties, that would, like a silver sliver of light in dark clouds, illuminate her path.

When she analyzed it, she felt guilty at the dissatisfaction that op­ pressed her. She and Abe were a popular couple in the religious circle in which they moved. They owned their own home and lived in reason­ able comfort. The children were all 54

married off, except for Mike who was still single—but she had long ago given up worrying about him. The years had passed with the usual bal­ ance of joy and sorrow. What was it that she was seeking so desperately at the Wall?

Her religious life was comfortable and comforting. It was pleasant being in shool on Shabboth and chatting with their friends, and exchanging Kiddush invitations. She and Abe, raised under the sheltered wings of religion, had continued that pattern unquestioningly, and her children, too, would continue it. Already Laura was president of her Mizrachi chapter, and her oldest, Alan, had started a new shool in his community. And yet, there was an underlying discontent in her life, an awareness that she had missed something. The smugness of her friends, the self-righteousness they exuded, their narrowness, was dis­ tressing and repugnant to her. She wondered if they were ever tortured, as she was, by doubts of the mean­ ingfulness of some of the observances they practiced so sanctimoniously.

JE W IS H LIFE

Their attitude of pitying superiority towards non-observers led her to be­ lieve that they were not. She often thought of her relationship to the Almighty, never for one moment questioning His personal interest in her. But often, too, nagging riddles would eat at her soul, until she felt that she should be labeled an “Apikoris.” f I TALKING it over with Abe, Dora -»■ found him compassionate and lov­ ing, as if this facet of her personality made her even more desirable to him.

But he didn’t really understand her restlessness, her sense of failure in her religious life. “You,think too much,” he teased her. “Stop verbalizing everything.”

But she couldn’t help herself. Ly­ ing awake and thinking of the flight the next day, Dora began to think of what Tehillim she would say, and what she would pray for. She and Abe had decided that of course they would leave their “Kvittlach” at the Wall. It had made front page news when Moshe Dayan left his Kvittel.

Her circle had thought it ludicrous how ignorant non-religious Jews were, and how they had to be told what a Kvittel was. On Hoshannah Rabbah, each of the men went to the Rebbe with a Kvittel, even though they were really not Chassidim in the true sense of the word, and the Rebbe was re­ mote from their lives and not at all as close to them as the Rabbi of the synagogue in which they dawened every Shabboth. The Kvittel was a concession to the mystical aspects of religious life; the men didn’t truly be­ lieve in its efficacy, as Chassidim do.

They felt it was the traditional thing for a religious Jew to bring a Kvittel March-April 1968

on Hoshannah Rabbah. And when even Dayan wrote a Kvittel, what a glorious justification of the correct­ ness of the old traditions! “Goes to show you—when the chips are down, everyone returns to them.”

Dora herself had never written a Kvittel. Her father had been an arch Mithnaged, and had scoffed at Rebbeyim and Miracle Workers. What did one write in a note to the Al­ mighty? She had laughingly, as if it were a minor thing, asked the ques­ tions of the Rabbi. He had suggested that it would be sufficient if she wrote the Hebrew names of all her loved ones on a piece of paper and put it into the Wall. At the time, it sounded so perfectly right. It was as though one were saying to the Almighty, “Here we are. Do with us as we de­ serve, and as You please.” " D UT now that she was on her way, it didn’t seem enough. What took the highest priority in her life?

Moshe Dayan had not asked anything for himself; he had just asked for the peace of Israel. He could just as well have said that his note was personal, and not revealed what he had written.

But obviously, even by the pattern of his life, the peace of the State of Israel was more important to him than his own personal existence. . . .

And on the other hand, all that mat­ tered to her, was existing. Did she really have no other goals in life?

Was living a long life, surviving at all odds, the most important thing for her? The more she thought about it, the unhappier she became.

On the pane, in the comfortable euphoria of being in the world and yet above it, neither here nor there, she composed the Kvittel she would 55

write. She thought of jotting down a Utopian wish like “Bring peace and understanding to all,” or “Make the world a happy place to live in,” but it would be fooling the Almighty to write in such general terms when what she really wanted was special consideration for herself. She could not go to the Wall under any false pretenses.

“For heaven’s sake,” Abe told her, “don’t write a Kvittel at all; it’s not a Din from the Torah.”

“But I want to write one. It’s im­ portant to me.”

She wrestled with her life and how to express its keenest desire. When she was a little girl, she had been enchanted by the fairy tale of the lad who had been given three wishes. In her fantasy, at different stages of her growing up, she would grant herself three wishes and imagine how her life would then be. It was as though now, standing before the Wall, she would be given the chance to express her dearest wish. And what was it? Was it that Mike should find a Jewish girl and get settled? And that every­ one should be cured of their illnesses —she of her arthritis, and Abe of his ulcer, and Laura of her backaches?

How did one write that? “Find a girl for Mike. Keep everyone well.” It sounded petty and presumptuous to be so specific. She decided to take out the sentence about Mike, and leave the line asking for good health.

She kept repeating the litany, “Keep everyone well,” changing its composition until she finally found a scrap of paper in her handbag and wrote on it, “Let all our loved ones live a full and long life.”

She folded the paper up carefully and placed it in her wallet, together 56

with the Hebrew names of all the children and grandchildren.

But the uneasiness persisted as the plane screeched through the air, and she half drowsed and half dreamed.

She could visualize hundreds and thousands of Kvitlach, all bearing special requests, being laid at the feet of the Almighty. How pitiful, selfish, wasted, and empty these re­ quests were!

T Lod Airport, the hot, dry air of Israel did not in any way detract from the glory of what she was experiencing. She felt as though she were coming home, a safe, secure, “at last” feeling that she never had known at any other time or place.

This was the special charisma of Israel for every single Jew. Around her, there were people kissing the earth; others were standing, dazed, as though mesmerized by the impact of the Land.

She and Abe had planned to go right on to Jerusalem from the air­ port. To be in Israel and not to be at the Wall seemed a terrible denial of all their hopes and dreams. Ex­ hausted as they were, they did not sleep that entire night, spending most of it in wonderous appreciation of the hills of Yerusholayim, and ready at an early hour to go to the Wall.

They walked into the Old City through the Lion’s Gate, up the long hill, already beginning to bustle with many people. Her first sight of the Wall, the dusty square before it, the rubble around it, brought an ache to her heart. She and Abe lost each other, overcome by the moment it­ self. Abe was already in the men’s section, putting on his Tefillin, tears

*

JE W IS H LIFE

coursing down his cheeks. In the wo­ men’s section, a few old women, ker­ chiefed and bent, with gnarled hands whose open palms leaned on the Wall as though for support, prayed feel­ ingly. Dora felt a surge of emotion that could not be explained, an awe­ some sense of history, of oneness with past and future. She thought of her parents and her grandparents and of her children and their children, all in one magnificent moment. She felt her lips touch the Wall, cool in that early morning. She let her tears flow freely and her hands linger carressingly on the stones. The mystical, inexplicable power of the Wall bathed her, gave her a new dimension and a new vi­ sion, a new understanding of herself.

She would never be the same again.

She stood there and wept for a long time. She cried, not out of any personal need, but out of a blinding awareness of the Almighty’s Presence

March-April 1968

everywhere. Never before had she faced the Almighty so honestly. She understood for the first time all the familiar prayers, so easy to slip into that one hardly noticed them. “Teach us to count the length of our days. . . .” “Man is as a fleeting shadow. . . .” “Thou art the Potter, we the clay.” She knew now how small she was in the vast nature of the Uni­ verse, and she understood at last the eternality and destiny of the Jewish people. The ancient stones, the moss straining through the crevices, breathed of thousands of years of Jewish travail and anguish and pur­ pose that struck a respondent chord in her soul. She felt the glory of the great privilege that was hers, and tremulously pronounced the Shehecheyonu.

Later, she realized that she had forgotten the Kvittel. G-d had given without even having been asked.

57

Toward a Theology of Social Service

by JUSTIN HOFMANN

C tU 'E L P IN G OTHERS” is a gen­ i i erally accepted value of Westtern civilization. It lies at the base of the vast network of social services that may be found in every sizable American community. It is the major motivating force for the establishment of family counselling centers, homes for the aged, recreational facilities for the young, and scholarship programs for those unable to finance their edu­ cation.

The origin of this value must be traced to the Hebraic rather than to the Hellenic component of our cul­ ture. Greek society exhibited too many glaring examples of lack of social concern and its philosopher spokes­ men failed to express any deep feel­ ings of human compassion. They pre­ ferred the approach of cold and de­ tached reason to that of warmth,emo­ tion, and “heart.” It was the Jewish heritage with its proclamation of “The world will be built by kindness” (Psalms 89:3), that gave rise to the 58

notion of social service. In the clas­ sical rabbinic tradition, g'milluth chassodim—deeds of loving-kindness —are characterized as one of the three pillars upon which the world stands. (Pirkey Ovoth I, 2) They em­ body one of the two basic moral prin­ ciples by which people should relate to one another.

Deeds of loving-kindness are those actions that flow from the principle of love rather than that of justice.

Let us suppose that one person con­ tracts for the services of another. In that case, the former must pay wages to the latter. The payment of such wages has nothing to do with love.

It represents the just compensation for work done. Similarly, if one man de­ stroys the property of another, then he must right the wrong he has com­ mitted through payment for the dam­ ages incurred. Justice demands no less. But if a person helps another attain economic security by assisting him in the acquisition of professional JE W IS H LIFE

skills or if he visits him in time of sickness, it is not justice that impels those deeds. It is rather a matter of love and kindness. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch expresses this distinc­ tion clearly and succinctly when he writes: “Mishpot and chok teach you justice, mitzvah teaches you love.” ( Versuche iiber Jissroels Pflichten in der Zerstreuung, 1837, p. 472) Hirsch’s classification of mishpotim includes the first two examples cited above. The latter two examples of G’milluth Chassodim are classified un­ der Mitzvoth.

It should be pointed out, however, that while G’milluth Chassodim is a manifestation of love, it is not a volun­ tary matter. The Jew is obligated to perform these deeds of love no less than he is obligated to live up to the claims of justice. It is thus not in the nature or degree of obligation that G’milluth Chasodim differs from Mi­ shpotim, but rather in the ethical principle which it exemplifies.

OW is this obligation to practise H love toward others grounded theologically? What renders these deeds of kindness religiously so im­ portant? In the first place, they are expressions of the Divine will just like all the other categories of com­ mandments in the Jewish tradition.

Their religious importance derives from the fact that G-d commanded us to perform them. To practise “deeds of loving-kindness” then is to fulfil a Divine commandment and this, in the view of Judaism, is one of the most important ways of serving G-d.

One could go even one step further and say that in practising love toward one’s fellow-man one emulates the example which G-d Himself set for March-April 1968

us. This is usually referred to as the principle of imitatio dei. In the daily morning liturgy G-d is described as the Gomel Chassodim Tovim—the One Who practises good deeds of lov­ ing-kindness. (Joseph H. Hertz, Daily Prayerbook, p. 24) An examination of Talmudic literature reveals a number of references to G-d’s role as Gomel Chessed. On one occasion the Rabbis inquire, “What is the meaning of the verse (Devorim 13,5), ‘You shall walk after the Lord your G-d’? Is it posible for man to walk after the Divine Presence? Is it not already stated (ibid. 4,24), ‘For the Lord is a consuming fire’? The meaning is rather to walk after the qualities of the Holy One, blessed be He. Just as He clothes the naked, as it is written (Bereshith 3, 21), ‘And the Lord G-d made for Adam and for his wife gar­ ments of skins, and clothed them,* so you should also clothe the naked.

Just as the Almighty visited the sick, as it is written (ibid). 18,1), ‘And the Lord appeared unto him by the terebinths of Mamre,’ so should you visit the sick. Just as the Almighty comforted the mourners, as it is writ­ ten (ibid. 25,11), ‘And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that G-d blessed Isaac, his son,’ so should you comfort the mourners. Just as the Almighty buried the dead, as it is written (Devorim 34,6), ‘And He buried him in the valley,’ so should you bury the dead.” (Sotah 14a) The Midrash supplements this statement with a reference to several other deeds of loving-kindness in which G-d en­ gaged: blessing the bridegrooms and adorning the brides. Verses in Bere­ shith 1 and 2 are cited in support of this assertion. (Bereshith Rabbah 8) The religious importance of practising G’milluth Chassodim, it may thus be 59

concluded, lies, at least in part, in the fact that it constitutes an emulation of the divine life.

In emulating the actions of G-d one is not only realizing goodness, but also helping G-d do His work. This appears to be the sense of a statement attributed to Rabbi Yochanan, who was puzzled by the verse, “He that is gracious unto the poor, lendeth un­ to the Lord, and his good deed will He repay unto him.” (Mishley 19, 17) The implication of this verse, he observed, is that in helping the poor, one becomes a creditor of G-d, a notion which Rabbi Yochanan found difficult to accept, for “creditor” to him connoted superiority. (Bova Bathra 10a) The fact that by giving to the poor, one becomes a creditor of G-d further implies, however, that providing for the poor is really the responsibility of G-d and that if man assumes this burden he is, in effect, doing G-d’s work. In practising G’milluth Chassodim man thus rises above himself and becomes a partner with G-d in caring for mankind. In this way man achieves a new cosmic status and his life acquires a new and more exalted meaning.

AN’S ROLE as G-d’s partner in M the performance of deeds of loving-kindness is given a novel in­ terpretation in the Sepher HaChinuch.

There is good reason for G-d to per­ mit a human being to assume the sup­ port of the poor, the author notes.

To begin with, the recipient is made to feel much more uneasy, for it is much less embarrassing to accept a gift from the Almighty than from an­ other human being. By undergoing this unpleasant experience, however, he is helped to achieve forgiveness

60

for the sins which led to his state of poverty in the first place. A second contributing factor toward achieving this forgiveness is the fact that sus­ tenance received at the hand of an­ other man is bound to be much more scanty than that received directly from G-d. (Sepher HaChinuch 66) In a sense, this interpretation elevates the importance of the role played by man as G-d’s helper. Man is merely G-d’s assistant, to be sure. But he performs the task assigned to him in a manner in which G-d Himself could not per­ form it. Because of his very human limitations, his actions have a benefi­ cial side effect which G-d’s actions, due to His exalted character, do not possess.

There are some passages to indicate that only through practising deeds of loving-kindness does man become tru­ ly human. This appears to be the sense of Hillel’s statement, “If I am not for myself, who is for me; and if I am only for myself, what am I; and if not now, when?” (Pirkey Ovoth I, 14) Man must be for himself, Hillel as­ serts, but he must not be only for himself. He must be selfish to some extent in order to survive, but if all his actions are motivated by selfish goals, he becomes inhuman. It is con­ cern for other people that makes man truly human. Humanness involves selfdiscipline. It is a moral attainment characterized by the transcending of one’s narrow self-interests. Rabbi Yo­ chanan expressed it in this manner: “Happy is Israel. When they occupy themselves with the study of Torah and with the practice of G’milluth Chassodim, their inclination ( Yetzer) is given into their hands and not they given into the hand of their inclinaJE W IS H LIFE

tion.” (Avodah Zarah5b) To gain con­ HE relationship between the per­ trol over one’s “inclination” is to be­ formance of deeds of loving kind­ come truly human. In the substituting ness and man’s spiritual future is fur­ of a moral principle for an animal ther elaborated in a statement attri­ tendency, man first becomes truly buted to Rabbi Meir, who pondered man. The reason that G-d asked Is­ the question, “Why does not G-d sup­ rael to observe the commandments of port the poor inasmuch as He alleged­ loving-kindness, a medieval rabbi re­ ly loves the poor?” The answer is, flected, was to enable them to culti­ “In order that we may be saved vate their moral character. (Sepher through them from the judgment of HaChinuch 216.)

Geyehinom.” (Bova Bathra 10a) In other passages, the relation of Is there a logical connection be­ G’milluth Chassodim to forgiveness tween giving Tzedakah and the avoid­ of sins is stressed. Rabbi Elazar used ance of Geyehinom? In what sense is to say, “While the Temple was stand­ this particular act especially well suited ing, a person used to be able to take to achieving this end? To answer this his shekel and achieve atonement [by question, the Talmud draws on an al­ purchasing a sacrifice and offering it legory: “This is to be likened to two on the altar]. But now that there is sheep that passed through the water, no longer a Temple, if one gives Tze- one shorn and the other not. The dakah it is well. And if one does not, shorn one passed and the unshorn one the idolaters will come and take it did not pass.” (Gitin 7a) In other by force. But in spite of it, it is ac­ words, the burden of worldly goods counted Tzedakah, as it is written may blur one’s spiritual vision. A per­ (Isaiah 60, 17), ‘. . . and your oppres­ son who is too heavily loaded down sors (meaning your oppressors’ extor­ with material possessions and con­ tions) will be Tzedakah.’ ” (Bova cerns may suffer spiritual impairments.

Bathra 9a) Giving Tzedakah, it ap­ His preoccupation with worldly goods pears from this statement, takes the may thus set him on the course to place of the sacrificial offering in the Geyehinom. The only way in which Temple at Jerusalem. Just as the sacri­ he can alter his course and avoid this fices of former days served as vehicles destination is by casting off his mate­ in the process of attaining atonement, rial weights. G’milluth Chassodim is so does Tzedakah today. This is also the means by which these material the meaning of the assertion in the weights may be lifted.

High Holy Days liturgy, “And repen­ Not only in order to avoid punish­ tance, prayer, and Tzedakah avert the ment, but also to become eligible for severe decree.” (Dr. H. Adler, Service rewards should G’milluth Chassodim of the Synagogue: New Year's, p. be practised. Thus, Rabbi Chiya used 147) The reason one should practise to counsel his wife, “If a poor man deeds of loving-kindness is, according approaches, offer him bread immedi­ ately, so that others may offer it to to these sources, to safeguard one’s your children.” (Shabboth 151b) Im­ spiritual destiny. By means of engag­ plicit in this statement is the welling in G’milluth Chassodim spiritual known Jewish conception of retribu­ blemishes are removed and one’s spiri­ tion according to the principle of tual purity is regained. midah k'neged midah, It is the view

T

March-April 1968

61

that reward and punishment are in some ways like the actions which in­ duced them. Thus, the act of giving Tzedakah will stand the giver in good stead should he or his descendents ever require assistance.

Basic to an understanding of G’milluth Chassodim is the Jewish convic­ tion that the world cannot exist with­ out the practice of love and that it is one of man’s major duties to contri­ bute to the well-being of the commu­ nity. Reference has already been made above to the statement of Shimon Hatzaddik, “Upon three things the world is founded: On Torah, on Divine wor­ ship, and on deeds of loving-kind­ ness.” (Pirkey Ovoth I, 1) These are the three pillars which hold up the world. Remove any one of them and the world collapses. In the Jewish view, it is thus inconceivable to have a functioning, not to speak of a flou­ rishing, community without the prac­ tice of love. Equally deep seated in the Jewish tradition is the notion of the social responsibility of man. The life task of man, it is felt very strong­ ly, includes making a contribution to the well-being of the community.

Thus, among those who are not eligi­ ble to serve as witnesses or judges, ac­ cording to Jewish law, is the profes­ sional gambler. The reason for this, the commentators note, is that the gambler does not contribute to the public welfare. (Sanhedrin III, 3)

T IS apparent from what has been said that while the carrying on of social services of all kinds expresses a love for man and a willingness to be helpful to other people, its theological import in Judaism is not exhausted by this. In Judaism it derives added sig­ nificance from certain spiritual and moral implications. The performance of social services is judged an act of worship no less valuable than a formal service of prayer. Moreover, it con­ stitutes an emulation of the Divine life and thus an action of supreme goodness, since the life of G-d re­ presents, of course, the acme of per­ fection. There is even a kind of cos­ mic dimension to this human act of helpfulness. Through it man becomes a partner with G-d in caring for those in need. And what is more, because of his very human imperfections, man is able to perform this task in a man­ ner in which G-d Himself could not.

Additional significance for rendering social services may be discerned in its power of avoiding punishment and attaining forgiveness of transgressions and even reward. Finally, the per­ formance of social services brings about the moral transformation of man and constitutes the fulfilment of one of the main purposes of his life.

It is these theological considerations that raise social service to a stature unsurpassed by any other endeavor in the Jewish heritage.

I

Acteùi ¿newt t&e 'JApetyboftta (¿tenatune

By DAVID S. SH APIRO

The Gambler's Loss (From the Responsa of Rabbi Solomon Ibn Adret, Vol. II, 35) H TH E city of Gerona in northern Spain was noted in the medieval period i for its large Jewish community, as well as its great sages. Alongside the majority of pious and G-d-fearing citizens of Gerona there were also in­ dividuals in the community who did not lead exemplary lives. Jewish com­ munities, unfortunately, have not been devoid of profligates and sinners, although it can be said with certainty that such persons generally constituted a very small minority of a people devoted to G-d and His commandments.

It happened during the thirteenth century that one of the citizens of the community, whom we shall call Reuben (the John Doe of Jewish law), whose daughter had reached a marriageable age, arranged a match for her with a certain Simeon (likewise a fictitious name), who apparently was a young man of dubious reputation. He was kknown to gamble occasionally, though not to excess. A time was set for the wedding, and, as was customary at the time, it was agreed that penalties would be imposed upon the party that would violate the agreement. The documents were placed with a trustee (shalish) who agreed to turn them over to the party that was willing to carry out the terms of the contract, so that the latter would be entitled to receive compensation if his demands were not met.

In the meanwhile, Simeon began to consort with people of unsavory reputation, openly flouted the accepted Jewish pattern of behavior, and be­ came so unruly that he was actually placed under a religious ban (niddui).

March-April 1968

63

He devoted all his time to gambling which, in the course of time, became his sole occupation. When the time had arrived for the wedding, Simeon insisted on going through with it. Reuben, however, refused to permit his daughter to marry the rascal. Although Reuben was aware that Simeon gambled, he could not have known beforehand that he would turn out such a scapegrace.

The would-be groom went to the trustee to obtain the document which entitled him to damages in case the contract was not fulfilled. Were he in possession of this document he felt that his case would be foolproof. The father, however, maintained that he owed Simeon nothing because his be­ havior ¿ad become so intolerable that he had to be placed under the ban.

Simeon apparently was not altogether ignorant of Jewish law and claimed that as long as he was not physically unbearable and thus subject to the Jewish law which compels him to grant a divorce (see Kethuboth 77a) he was entitled to marry his fiancee, because a woman is satisfied to marry any­ one as long as he will be a husband to her (see Kiddushin 7a: a woman is satisfied with any man*). Besides, he maintained, the father already knew beforehand that he was a gambler. The father, however, insisted that morally corrupt people are more dangerous than people suffering from foul diseases.

The fact that Simeon was under the ban, he claimed, denied him the right of marrying (see Moed Katan 15b).

This case was brought before the greatest Talmudical authority in Spain at the time, the Rabbi of Barcelona, Rabbi Shmuel Ibn Adret (1235-1310), known in Rabbinic literature as the “Rashba.” In his responsum, the great rabbi decided in favor of the father. He declared that the trustee was not obligated to give the documents to Simeon, since there was no clause in­ cluded that the document be placed retroactively in the possession of the wronged party. Where this clause is missing, he explained, the law of asmachta (a non-binding consent to forfeiture on the part of the defendant if he does not carry out his agreement) is put in operation. Moreover, since the fiancee is unwilling to marry the young man, the agreement of forfeiture is not binding: the father is in no position to make his daughter marry the man. It is, in addition, a reasonable assumption that were the father to have known that the fiance would behave so notoriously, he would never have agreed to give him his daughter in marriage, any more than she would have consented to marry him. This reasonable assumption is grounded in the Halochah (Bova Bathra 132a). Likewise, the argument that being under ban he may not marry is supported by the great Rabbi. In conclusion, even if the trustee had handed over the documents to Simeon, they would not have empowered him to collect compensation.

In this manner Jewish law protected a family from an unhappy marriage, and prevented a rascal from collecting compensation for his obnoxious be­ havior and for making himself unacceptable as a husband. * This Talmudic statement reflects the sociological conditions of the period when, because of constant wars and unsettled conditions, there was a preponderance of women over men to such an extent that a woman would be satisfied to marry a man just to have a roof over her head. See, for example, Isa. 4:1.

64

JE W IS H LIFE

Rook Reviews U ptow n L. ISAACS

OUR CROWD, By Stephen Birmingham; New York: Harper & Row, 1967, 388 pp., $8.95. f f l ^ k U R CROWD” is the story of a v / group of Jews who came to America for the most part from Ger­ many in the early or middle eighteen hundreds, and became fabulously rich.

If we let X equal the immigrant, we find him leaving Germany as a very young man, coming from orthodox surround­ ings, but giving up all religion almost immediately. Once in America, he started to work desperately hard, some­ times as a peddler with backbreaking loads, gradually accumulating money enough to bring over large families of brothers and sisters. Once established, the road led finally through banking to riches. X became the head of the fami­ ly, stationing brothers and brothers-inlaw in strategic positions in various parts of the country, to establish, much as the Rothschilds did in Europe, banking of­ fices ready to take quick advantage of D r . I saacs, former Dean of Yeshiva College

and Professor of Chemistry at Stern College for Women, is a member of a family distinguished in American orthodox Jewish life for several generations.

March-April 1968

financial opportunities. Now substitute for X the names of Seligman, Lehman, Guggenheim, or Loeb, and you have es­ sentially the complete story. As these families grew, they intermarried with each other (hence “Our Crowd”) so that the combined family trees, as depicted on the inside covers of the book, give the appearance of a road map.

The biography of August Belmont, whom the writer repeatedly refers to as “Schoenberg,” (a statement not in accord with other writers) is atypical. While originating in Germany, he was never part of “Our Crowd,” or perhaps he was far ahead of the crowd. He started out with Rothschild backing, married the daughter of Commodore Perry and cut himself off completely from the Jewish community. Jacob Schiff and the War­ burgs were atypical also; although de­ finitely part of “Our Crowd,” they came late in the century and were bankers from the start.

From the standpoint of religion, all except Jacob Schiff were religious drop­ outs. In affluence, they became members of Temple Emanuel or the Ethical Cul­ ture movement, both of which made very light demands on observance. Some had 65

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66

JE W IS H LIFE

agonizing internal conflicts of trying to escape being a Jew, but were rebuffed by the Christian environment. Two suicides are mentioned in this connection. In later generations intermarriage became commonplace. Our Crowd looked down upon the Russian and Polish Jews, much as they were looked down upon by the Spanish and Portuguese. They were dis­ turbed and embarrassed all the more by the term “Jew”, which bracketed them with the newcomers from Eastern Eu­ rope.

Jacob Schiff was, in a way, an excep­ tion. Although a member of Emanuel, he observed the Sabbath after a fashion and among his gifts was a building and funds to the Jewish Theological Semina­ ry—which up till then had been an or­ thodox institution. The author does not mention it, but it has been reported in other accounts that Schiff’s gift was prompted by a desire to provide the “ghetto” with American-trained ministers who would lead the inhabitants of the Lower East Side into an Americanized religion. As to intermarriage, Schiff’s descendants fared no better, perhaps worse than the rest of Our Crowd.

The book differs from the usual group biography in that it does not attempt to probe or analyse deeply the subjects with which it deals. Rather, the picture is painted by anecdotes, often seemingly in­ consequential and trivial. The daily pur­ suit of money for money’s sake evidently has such a deadly sameness that the heroes must be portrayed not by dash­ ing deeds, but by a lot of chit-chat about home life interspersed among the details of some big business deals. Money-mak­ ing, from the author’s account, seems to leave little time for the spiritual or cul­ tural development of the individual. The book adds no luster to the names of the people who pass through its pages. “Our Crowd” is not our crowd—I hope.

March-April 1968

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Unusual bleeding or discharge A lump or thickening in the breast or elsewhere

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A sore

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Change in bowel or habits 4 bladder Hoarseness or cough or difficulty swallowing B inIndigestion ^

Change in a wart or mole

These signals do not usually mean cancer, but they are warnings; if one lasts more than two weeks, it is important to go to your doctor.

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A n H onorable Relationship

by SEYM OUR GL1CK

The Jews and Medicine, by Harry Friedenwald; New York: Ktav Publish­ ing Inc., 1967, 3 vol., $25.00. eca u se

Je w is h involvement in

B medicine has been so intense for so many centuries, any history of this

relationship cannot help but provide simultaneously a wealth of information about Jewish communal life throughout the ages. When such a history is written by a gifted historian with an abiding in­ terest in Judaism, like the late Professor Harry Friedenwald, the yield is so much the richer. Ktav Publishing has performed a signal service to Jewish historical lite­ rature by the reissue of these volumes originally published in 1944 by the Johns Hopkins Press, and long out of print.

The present edition includes another es­ say by the author, a short biography of the author, and a 170-page catalogue of the Friedenwald collection of Judaica, now in the library of the Hebrew Uni­ versity in Jerusalem.

The books contain a collection of es­ says written for various journals some twenty to forty years ago on different aspects of the relationship between Jews and medicine. Because the individual es­ says were written for differing audiences, they will be of varying degrees of in­ terest to the general Jewish reading pub­ lic. A large portion of the books is de­ voted to biographical material about reDR. G lick, Chief of Medicine o f Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, is past pres­ ident of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and currently Chairman of its Board of Governors.

March-April 1968

latively obscure Jewish physicians of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Seventeenth Century. But even these es­ says often provide, in passing, vignettes not readily obtainable from other sources of Jewish life of those periods. A sixtytwo-page chapter on Jewish physicians in Italy over a 1500-year stretch of time mirrors vividly the fortunes and vicis­ situdes of Jewish life under a succession of oppressive and liberal papal regimes.

The chapter on Italy, where the Jews have had perhaps the longest continuous history in the Diaspora of the western world, is followed by similar chapters on Jewish physicians in Spain, Portugal, and Southwestern France, affording the reader an unparalleled overview of Jewish his­ tory of Southern Europe from an un­ usual vantage point.

Perhaps of greatest interest to the general reader is the section on the prac­ tice of medicine among the Jews. This broad heading encompasses essays on Jewish attitudes towards medicine and on Jewish medical ethics, and includes several delightful bits of Jewish wit and satire with physicians as the victims. The same section includes a tragic and fas­ cinating chapter describing apologetic literature written by Jewish physicians against charges that they regularly killed Christian patients and prevented them from carrying out their religious rites.

These volumes can be highly recom­ mended to the Jewish physician and to the Jewish historian, and can offer many interesting moments to any seriousminded Jewish reader.

69

T he P oetry of N elly Sachs

By SHARON DEYKIN BARIS

O THE CHIMNEYS, Selected Poems, including “Eli,” a Verse Play, by Nelly Sachs, New York: Farrar, Straus and Gi­ roux, 1967; Translated from the German

by Michael Hamburger, Christopher Holme, Ruth and Matthew Mead, and Michael Roloff; 387 pp.; $7.50.

NE approaches Nelly Sachs’ poems with a feeling of expectation, a strong desire to comprehend and ap­ preciate this modem Jewish poet, and perhaps a slight amount of dread, for one knows that that of which she sings is the “poetry of spilled blood.” When the 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature was announced as being given jointly to S.Y. Agnon and to Nelly Sachs, many of us American Jews felt at once pride in our familiarity with the generally described “unknown” Agnon, and chagrin at some­ how having missed the other recipient’s greatness beforehand. Our failure of recognition of course was due in large part to the language barrier, for only few more than a dozen of her poems had at that time been translated into English for publication in the pages of The New Yorker, Harper’s, and two other magazines. Her major literary rec­ ognition came from European, primarily German and Swedish literary circles.

Therefore when months after the an­ nouncement of the prize this English translation of the body of her poetry ap­ peared, the expectation and eagerness of comprehending her work was all the more heightened.

0

M rs . B aris, residing in New York, a mother

of three boys and a graduate from Radcliffe College, also did advanced work at Columbia University.

70

For all the anticipation felt by the reader, however, one finds great difficulty in her poetry. There are brilliant flashes in imagery, excmciating evocations, lyric passages that leap from the pages. “O time whose only measurement is dying,/ How easy death will be after this long rehearsal,” an unforgettable image, is followed close-upon by another moment, unbearably painful and beautiful: “We, the rescued, / From whose hollow bones death had begun to whittle his flutes, / And on whose sinews he had already stroked his bow—/ Our bodies continue to lament / With their mutilated music.”

Who can fail to respond to her question, Ear of mankind Would you hear?

If the voice of the prophets blew on flutes made of murdered children’s bones and exhaled airs burnt with martyrs’ cries— if they built a bridge of old men’s dying groans— Ear of mankind occupied with small sounds, would you hear?

The poetry of “spilled blood,” the direct use of holocaustal experience to confront and question mankind—this is what the reader might have expected and to which his reaction cannot help being immediate and strong. Yet the larger part of her poetry seems veiled in mys­ terious word-combinations and shocking juxtapositions; the images tend to eva­ porate upon analytical examination. ButJEWISH LIFE

terflies, music, dance, blood, agony, fin­ gers, feet, stars—all pile fast one upon the other, join in effect, disappear, swirl together, and are transformed in a thoroughly elusive manner. Fingers which at first connote otherness, deadly and divisive, later become “blessed pointing of fingers” that discover “love’s word of creation,” and later “Fingers point our formations, / body parts are deployed / in dying delineations . . .” and they are but “limbs on the road to dust.”

In “Ely” fingers crook themselves to plant, and later still, they mutilate. Fur­ thermore the piling on of images often seems impossible to disentangle. In “Salty Ocean Tongues,” the reader con­ fronts tongues that lick, a pearl, a rose, the horizon, dust, night, birth, sand, hair that grows after death—all in eleven very brief lines! Each image is heavy with connotations, and such a thick spread in the brief poem all but smothers the reader. Approaching Nelly Sachs’ poems analytically, one faces not difficult words and lines, but a pervading sense of mystery^; for the “legibile must be suffered to its end,” but the illegible, “This chain of enigmas” hangs like a king’s word written far away, “on the neck of the night.”

F hers is not the poetry of the finely wrought image, or of carefully lay­ ered meanings within a jewel-like poem, how, then, shall Nelly Sachs be read?

In a post-script to “Ely,” the verse play, the earliest of the works included in this book (unreasonably appended by the editors to the very end of the volume), the poet describes her verse as “Written in a rhythm which must make the Hassidic mystical fervor visible.” Perhaps herein lies a clue. As in the Chassidic dance, when the building up of fervor comes through accumulated tempo, re­ peated refrains, and piled-on fervor, so,

I

March-April 1968

too, might these poems be read, or “danced-out” by the reader.

Butterflies flit through the poems, feet tread, skip, stumble, and finally like the “footprints of Israel” they gather them­ selves together. There is the music of agony and despair, and we “know the secret rhythm” of the universe. Notes, flutes, footsteps, sound, motion—all gath­ er momentum in these pages, partaking of the universal “ebb and flow,” a kind of transcendental mystical dance: Dancer like a bride you conceive from blind space the sprouting longing of distant days of creation— With the streets of your body’s music you feed upon the air there where the globe of earth seeks new access to birth. . . .

In the branches of your limbs the premonitions build their twittering nests.

ERSELF once a dancer, Nelly Sachs evokes the rhythm and movement of life in her words; she finds significance in the image of the dance. “Dancer / woman in childbirth / you alone / . . . carry . . . the identical god-given jewels/ of death and birth.” “Only to sway in the light music of ebb and flood, only to sway in the rhythm of the unwounded sign of eternity.” It is a cosmic vision of all-moving, pulsating significance, with the very ashes becoming a resurrection of music, asgJThe earth with beating heart, ignites the music of her stars.”

One must, then, sense the motion, submit to it, accept and join it in Chassidic fer­ vor, for it is the framework within which the universe is measured. The absence

H

71

of motion, too, is hoted. Only “sleep and dying are neutral.” For “When sleep enters the body like smoke . . . man journeys into the abyss like an extingu­ ished star . . . the tear oversleeps its longing to flow, . . .” but “When sleep leaves the body like smoke . . . then the fire-breathing union begins again anew.”

The ultimate image of horror is the void felt in motionlessness, the quintessence of anguish is felt in a poem near the end of the book when the body, alive, is trapped, hidden for four days and nights in a coffin!

It is the glory and salvation of us all that the ebb and flow continues. One can thus bear intense agony as :‘The insane mother stands with the tatters of her tom mind with the charred tinders of her burnt mind burying her dead child . . For the spirit moves onward, leaving bitterness, revenge, immobility behind: Lay the weapons of revenge in the field That they grow gentle— For even iron and grain are akin In the womb of earth.

72

Even the stone which might have been a memorial tablet, becomes “the metamor­ phoses of the world.” Nelly Sachs says of herself, “I have always endeavored to raise the unutterable onto the trans­ cendental level so as to make it bearable in this night of nights to give a hint of fife holy darkness.” Her great faith lies in the “secret equilibrium’’ that reigns the universe. a S she “gives away to what’s higher,”

and as “dance . . . invented a wing for your anguish” her surrender is to a deeply religious kind of dance. As Hans Magnus Enzensberger observes in his excellent introduction to this volume, “The idea of the book that is the basis of her work is of religious origin.” There are numerous specifically Jewish religious references in the poems. In “Eli” the shofar blows, there is a passing aside about the man “who praises the virtu­ ous wife praises her attire as well,” the Esheth Chayil. A prayer shawl is drama­ tically sent up in smoke from the depths of which is later heard the Shema.

JEWISH LIFE

Echoes of Jewish mysticism and Kabbolah are frequently repeated. “To think that this dust may have touched the prayer book of Luria . . .” one character in the play muses,r^and in the clever exchange between the Old Man and the knife grinder, one hears the very accents of the Zohar: “Who are you, Grandpa?”

“I am not nor am I Grandpa,” is the reply, a use of oxymoron which Gershom Scholem describes in his book on Jewish Mysticism. “ ‘It is and is not’ sig­ nifies,” he tells us, “that its existence is of an exquisitely spiritual nature and cannot therefore be properly described.”

Furthermore one learns that the very use of an Old Man is a purely stylistic de­ vice employed in many of the tales of the Kabbolah (cf. Major Trends in Jew­ ish Mysticism, pp. 160 if.). The Old Man continues, “are you a knife grinder? . . .

n *1 i K

So you know the truth . . . For there’s fire in the stone and therefore life.” It is the very “Hammer on the Rock!”

So one further understands the univer­ sal ebb and flow, the dancing and swirl­ ing of the very letters of the alphabet, the rising of the numbers (“once branded into your arms”) . . . until “there rose meteors of numbers, beckoned into the spaces • . . and part already / of the heavenly cycle’s / path of blue veins.”

In the smallest number as in the deepest horror of the holocaust the poet sees the meaning of creation, accepting both with the same transcendental faith.

Not to be dissected, this book of poetry is to be sung, danced, and sur­ rendered to. Its music is spiritual, its accents mystical. It sings of “How to go on.” We must, she declares, “respond to the Sarabande of the Stars.”

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March-April 1968

73

Reprints Now Available Our readers will appreciate knowing that reprints are now available ot the following articles and editorials from previous issues of JEWISH LIFE. THE JEW ISH ATTITUDE TOW ARD FAM ILY PLAN NING

By Dr. Moses Tendler THE STATE O F THE JEW ISH S C H O O L IN A M ER ICA

By William Brickman THE D IVO R CE PROBLEM

By Rabbi Melech Schachter THE JEW ISH -CH RISTIA N D IA LO G U E: A N O TH ER LO O K

By Rabbi Norman Lamm CA N W E N EG LEC T THE TALMUD TO R A H ?

By Rabbi Zalman Diskind JUDAISM AND FREE EN Q U IRY

By Rabbi Nachum L. Rabinovitch THE PROBLEM O F CO N V ERSIO N TODAY

By Rabbi Melech Schachter NATURE— CREA TIO N O R EVO LUTIO N ?

By Robert Perlman JE W AND JEW , JE W AND N ON-JEW

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Our readers will appreciate knowing that reprints are now available of the following articles and editorials from previous issues of JEWISH LIFE. W HAT DOES JEW ISH YO UTH REALLY W AN T?

by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper JEW S AND THE W AR ON POVERTY

by Rabbi Bernard Weinberger THE NEW DISPENSATION ON H OM O SEXU ALITY

by Rabbi Norman Lamm VISIT TO RUSSIA

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ON CH U RCH -STA TE AND S C H O O L PRAYER TO DW ELL IN THE SUKKAH

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JEWISH LIFE

Letters to the Editor ‘THE CHOSEN’ New York, New York I would like to make a few comments about Rabbi Merling’s review of “The Chosen” in the January-February issue of JEWISH LIFE. 1. The easiest kind of criticism to write and the kind that is least worth­ while is the one that says, “The author did a marvelous job of writing his book but a terrible job of writing mine” If I judge correctly, Mr. Potok did not con­ sult with Rabbi Merling about the kind of book he should write. Mr. Potok wrote his book and it should be judged only in those terms.

2. Herman Wouk? Has Rabbi Merling read “Marjorie Morningstar?” If so, he must have read a different version than I did. Surely this was an exercise in self-hatred equal to anything turned out

by Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, etc.

By the time of “Marjorie Morningstar” (1955), Mr. Wouk had let it be known far and wide that he was an orthodox Jew, having long since sowed his wild oats, but where in that book is his “po­ sitive attitude?” As for “gratuitous vul­ garity,” ^“Marjorie Morningstar” reeks with it while “The Chosen” avoids it, to the credit of the author and the enhance­ ment of the story. And I might add that Mr. Wouk hardly impoverished himself by writing this book. Certainly he wrote it with “a broad general audience in mind” and certainly “he found a major publisher to accept it and promote it” and even sell it to the movies. Why in­ dict Mr. Potok on these grounds?

No, sir, Mr. Wouk couldn’t write my book and I wonder if even he could March-April 1968

really write Rabbi Merling’s book. Per­ haps Rabbi Merling should write his own book?

Mrs. Hadassah Gold Oneonta, New York Bernard Merling’s well intentioned review of Chaim Potok’s “The Chosen” will not exactly encourage the young, orthodox Jew to create works of art concerned with the central features and problems of “orthodox Yiddishkeit.” In­ deed, Rabbi Merling suggests that the religion of the orthodox Jew is “too holy . . . for him to play with.”

I am not writing to protest Rabbi Merling’s judgment, whether as Rabbi, Jew, or literary critic of “The Chosen.”

Nor am I writing to point out the inac­ curacies within his review. (For exam­ ple, if it is true that “true Yiddishkeit [is] portrayed authentically . . .” in Agnon’s works, how does Rabbi Merling account for the fact that Agnon has sold well in English in this country? And if, upon investigation, Rabbi Merling agrees that Agnon’s writings, in various translations as well as in the original [which is ignored by the reviewer] have become “popular,” how will Rabbi Mer­ ling reconcile that with his notion that such a combination is a “paradox?”)

What concerns me is not the spec­ tacle of one more rabbi wanting to make it clear that he is not just a “mere Rab­ bi” (would that we had ten times the number of “mere Rabbis” that we do have!) but a literary critic as well (in­ deed—one who is educated enough to think Coleridge “pretty dull”!). No, the really unfortunate aspect of this review is the notion that the orthodox Jew 77

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JEW ISH LIFE

should look upon the artistic efforts of his children, and other young orthodox Jews, with suspicion. Yes, I know that Rabbi Merling does not state that in so many ways, nor—if he is the “spiritual leader of a Jewish community” is he likely to do so. But by using such terms as “certain detachment,” “manipulate,” “exaggerate,” and “play with,” he en­ courages a distaste for the orthodox Jew as artist. He provokes, at the very least, a suspicion within the minds of parents that if their children were to choose a form of artistic creation as vocation or avocation—ah!—that way lies goyishkeit.

With Rabbi Merling’s sigh of longing for contemporary works of art that are works of art, and that are also popular and permeated with understanding of the way of the Torah, I am in complete harmony. But as it was a long time “from Moses to Moses,” so too we have no choice but to be thankful there is at least one Agnon.

Howard Harrison RABBI MERLING REPLIES: I am most pleasantly surprised to find that people not only read book reviews but also, to some extent, take them seri­ ously.

In response to Mrs. Gold’s comments: 1. I repeat the last two sentences of my review: “Chaim Potok has written a very good novel. I only wish that, from an orthodox point of view, it had been a better one.” I was very careful not to confuse judgment with expecta­ tion.

2. I plead guilty with an explanation: Guilty, perhaps, that I did not include Herman Wouk among those whose works were intended to cash in on “prurient March-April 1968

interest”—but not guilty in the sense that all I claimed for Wouk was that he could have written a popular novel with a favorable view of orthodox Jewish life, since he does now have the positive at­ titude and literary skill to be able to bring it off. Furthermore, I don’t think I “indicted” Potok—my observations were written more in sorrow than in anger.

Finally, I am flattered by your sugges­ tion that I should write my own book.

Although I never thought I had it in me, perhaps—when the pressures of my busi­ ness ease up a bit—I might just take a crack at it. If and when I do, I should very much like to read your review of my humble attempt.

As for Mr. Harrison’s letter, I’m not quite sure I fully understand what he’s driving at. And the one thing I do un­ derstand, I vehemently deny. I do not subscribe to the notion that the orthodox Jew should look upon the artistic efforts of his children, and other young ortho­ dox Jews, with suspicion. My own life* (and that of my children) bears witness to my attitude that it is entirely in keep­ ing with Torah Yiddishkeit for every Jew to develop his talents and abilities to their fullest potential. It’s what he does with them that counts! Nevertheless, I still maintain that to write a powerful popular novel does require “manipula­ tion” and “exaggeration” of one’s mate­ rial, and for an orthodox Jew to do this with his traditional way of life is ex­ tremely difficult.

As for the rather minor point of Agnon’s sales figures, a check with his publishers will prove that they’re no­ where near those of Bellows, Malamud, Roth, et al. * editor’s note : Although Bernard Merling does have s'micha, he does not practice in the rabbinate. As writer and artist, he is creative director and a principal of an advertising agency.

79

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