Jewish Life Nov-Dec 1970

EXPLOITATION IN THE GHETTO * THE MOVE CLOSING THE YESHIVAH GAP * THE SASSOON COLLECTION “ ASHER YOTZAR” - A LESSON IN MEDICINE * K’FAR ETZION DACHAU - THE DEVIL’S DOMAIN * THE “SABA” FROM SLOBODKA

KISLEV-TEVETH 5731 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

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As a resident in a Bronx community undergoing a population shift and as a professional in real estate with experience in management of ghetto properties, SIMEON H. F. GOLDSTEIN found himself moved to express himself on pertaining sensitive issues because, as he states at the end, “one who can contradict this (belief) but does not do so is a silent and unintentional accessory. . . . to the rioter who shouts ‘Burn, baby burn’.’’ Acting Chairman of the Endowment Fund of the National Council of Young Israel, and active in a variety of political and civic groups, Mr. Goldstein holds an M.S. degree from the Columbia University School of Business___ JEWISH LIFE readers were first introduced to RIVKA G. SPIEGLER under another name, Rivka Marani, in mid-1954. Three times more her distinctive writing appeared in these pages, the last time in late 1957. Her reappearance now brings to old readers and new an evocative chapter of personal experience in the Israel of yesterday___ The move to Yerusholayim from Maplewood, New Jersey did not change DR. AARON ROTHKOFF’s interest in, or ability to portray, Torah luminaries of the previous generation in Europe. The entry in this issue marks the eleventh in the se rie s.... The feather in the cap of America’s orthodox Jewish community, as generally agreed, is the growth of the~yeshivah on all levels: primary, secondary, seminary, and kollel. Yet the deserved pride tends, in the opinion of some, to becloud some rising problems. RABBI ALFRED COHEN, Rav of the Young Israel of Canarsie in Brooklyn, New York, graduate of one yeshivah and faculty member in another, takes a hard-nosed look at certain elements in the picture, . .

Contemporary threats to Jewry make all the more pertinent the grim reminders of the calamity that befell Jewry three decades ago. Such a reminder is brought here by a Jewish military chaplain serving with the United States Army in Germany, MAJOR ALLAN M. BLUSTEIN. . . .

In 1943, NATHAN M. BERNSTEIN was spiritual leader of the Lincoln Park Jewish Center in Yonkers®New York. Then, moved by a long-cherished purpose, Rabbi Bernstein ^Left his pulpit, attended medical school in Switzerland, and became Dr. Nathan M. Bernstein, M.D. He is currently practicing medicine in Los Angeles, California----A name long familiar to JEWISH LIFE readers is that of RABBI H. RABINOWICZ of London, bibliophile extraordinary. Herein he records another of his researches among Jewish literary treasures-----When EDITH ROTHSCHILD took a two-week creative writers workshop in poetry at the Ryerson Institute of Technology in her home town of Toronto, Ontario, this past summer, she found herself looking for a topic of interest for a homework assignment. The many years of her and her family’s activities for and interest in Israel evoked the poem appearing herein. Her husband, Kurt, is the Orthodox Union s Vice President for the Central Canada Region.

Vol. X X X V III, No. 2/November-December 1970/Kislev-Teveth 5731

THE EDITOR'S VIEW MESSAGE FROM THE KREMLIN............................. 3 THE SYNAGOGUE AS COMMUNITY POLICY-MAKER......................................................5 Saul Bernstein, E d ito r Dr. H erbert G oldstein L ibby Klaperman Dr. Jacob W. L andynski Rabbi S o lo m o n J. Sharfm an E d ito ria l A sso cia tes Elkanah Schwartz A ssista n t E d ito r JEWISH LIFE is published b i-m onthly. Subscription tw o years $ 5 .0 0 , three years $ 6 .5 0 , f o u r years $ 8 .0 0 . Foreign: A d d 4 0 c e n t s p e r year.

Editorial and P ublication O ffice: 8 4 F ifth A venue N ew Y ork, N .Y . 1 0 0 1 1 (2 1 2 ) AL 5 -4 1 0 0 P ublish ed by UNIO N OF O RTHODOX JEWISH CO NGREGATIONS OF AM ERICA Joseph Karasick P resid en t Harold M. Jacobs Chairman o f the Board Sam uel C. Feuerstein, H on or­ ary Chairman o f th e Board; Benjam in K oenigsberg, S en ior V ic e P resid en t; N athan K. Gross, Harold H. Boxer, David P o liti, Dr. Bernard Lander, Lawrence A . K obrin, Julius B e r m a n , V ic e P r e s id e n ts ; Eugene H ollander, Treasurer; Morris L. Green, H onorary Treasurer; Joel Balsam , Secre­ tary; D aniel Greer, Financial S ecreta ry Dr. Sam son R. Weiss E x e cu tive Vice P resid en t Saul B ernstein, A d m in istra to r S econ d Class Postage paid at N ew Y ork, N .Y .

ARTICLES EXPLOITATION IN THE GHETTO/ Simeon H. F. Goldstein............................................. 8 DACHAU - THE DEVIL’S DOMAIN/ Allan M. Blustein.......................................................17 CLOSING THE YESHIVAH GAP/ Alfred Cohen.............................

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THE MOVE/ Rivka G. Spiegler.......................

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THE “SABA” FROM SLOBODKA/ Aaron R othkoff........................................................34 “ASHER YOTZAR” - A LESSON IN MEDICINE/ Nathan M. Bernstein................................................. 43 THE SASSOON COLLECTION/ H. Rabinowicz...........................................................48

POETRY K’FAR ETZION/ Edith Rothschild...................................................... 46

BOOK REVIEWS A CARTOGRAPHIC AND HISTORICAL MASTERPIECE/ Isaac L. Sw ift............................................................ 53 AS GOLDMANN SEES GOLDMANN/ Nathaniel Zelikow.................................................... 57

DEPARTMENTS FROM HERE AND THERE.................

63 AMONG OUR CONTRIBUTORS................................1 Cover and drawings on pages 2 7 , 4 2 , 5 2 , and 61 b y Naam a K itov Drawings on pages 1 6 , 3 3 , and 45 b y David Adler

© Copyright 1970 by UNION OF ORTHOOOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA

th e EDITOR'S VIEW

MESSAGE FROM THE KREMLIN HE death sentences imposed on two o f the eleven accused o f plotting an airplane-hijack escape from Soviet Russia and the harsh prison terms meted out to the rest, seem intended as an open defy to world opinion. Through this updated version o f the infamous Doctors’ Plot concoction, the Kremlin serves notice that far from relenting in its anti-Jewish course, further measures o f oppression are now to be applied. Resistance, the masters o f the Soviet Union declare, w ill be crushed; the extinction o f Jewish life is to proceed at full force.

The heightened pace o f Soviet anti-Jewish policy is presum­ ably designed to intim idate Israel as well as Russia’s Jews. With millions o f Jewish lives as hostage, the Kremlin proposes to force Israel to submit to its w ill, thereby eliminating once and fo r all the block on its road to Middle East empire. “ We can get away with murder, yes w ith mass murder,” the Kremlin im p licitly pro­ claims; “ the fate o f the Jews in our hands now w ill be the fate o f you in Israel B your only hope is to bow to our demands.”

Since the Kremlin has so regularly triumphed over world opinion in its continuing process o f subversion, terror, and conFor quest, it has good reason to anticipate similar Life success in this instance. Whether or not that proves and to be the case, however, Russia’s rulers are dealing Freedom w jth a set 0 f circumstances not at all identical w ith

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States such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Israel’s resolute readi­ ness to fight fo r life and freedom, and her capacity to do so, is something that Soviet Russia has heretofore encountered only in the case o f Finland; an encounter which Russia rues.to this day.

World Jewry, aroused to the fatal danger, too has a strength to be reckoned w ith. And Soviet Jewry, utterly helpless though it seemed, has shown that its moral force is not to be lightly re­ garded. Against all odds, the Jews o f the Soviet Union have refused to surrender the w ill to live, to endure as Jews. This w ill, now a tangible if desperately hard-pressed factor in Soviet affairs, is sure to be kindled to new heights rather than swept asunder by new terror. Too, it would seem that the non-Jewish populace o f the U.S.S.R. is not entirely c o m p ìia n t w ith 'th e government’s policies. Two o f the eleven condemned, be i t ’noted, are non-Jews; is this, perhaps, symptomatic o f a mounting degree o f popular dissent which the Soviet regime must seek to either conciliate or suppress?

HESE considerations notwithstanding, it would be the height o f fo lly to minimize the peril. The Jewish people, so small among the families o f mankind, scattered and w ith few resources, faces an antagonist o f stupendous power. The entire world quails before this power, whose tentacles reach to the inner recesses o f communities remote from the Soviet domain. What can we p it against such all-pervading, all-conquering might?

In the final te s té and it may well come to this I we stand armed by what many a mighty conqueror has failed to overcome: our Jewish faith.

The experience o f Soviet Jewry itself is instructive here.

When word o f the plight o f Russia’s Jews first reached the Free World after World War II, their situation seemed hopeless. But in an article in JEWISH LIFE twenty years ago, Aaron Pech’enik I struck a different note in telling o f the steadfastweapon ° of ness o f Jewish spirit encountered in his sixteen Faith months-long stay in Russia during the early 4 0 ’s.

O ut o f this first contact with Soviet Jewry after the decades o f isolation from world Jewry he brought the call: “ Let us not give up these tw o m illion Jews fo r lo s t.. . As I have indicated, the strength o f the Jewish faith w ill uphold them in hard times, w ill give them courage and staunchness o f spirit until the Iron Curtain w ill fall and the scattered tribes o f the Jewish

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people w ill be reunited once more.” The years have passed, the Iron Curtain still stands, but Russia's Jews, now known to be more than three m illion, have defied the death sentence. Today, voices around the world echo the call, once so solitary, that now reverberates* thro ugh a no-longer impregnable Iron Curtain. It tells us that when Jewish action springs from Jewish faith, the House o f Israel lives.

THE SYNAGOGUE AS COMMUNITY POLICY-MAKER HE extent to which the orthodox Synagogue has brought the fu ll gamut o f Jewish concerns w ithin its compass was markedly evident at the recent National Biennial Convention o f the Union o f Orthodox Jewish Congregations o f America.

Functional synagogue problems were well represented in the wide-ranging program o f the 72nd Anniversary convocation, but it was the issues o f broad Jewish policy that commanded greatest attention. Clearly, the delegates, representing -congregations across North America, viewed the determination o f position and action on these questions as a pivotal facet o f synagogal responsibility. While O rthodoxy in its nationally organized capacity has long made apparent its broad sweep, now we can see the individual synagogue bringing the to ta lity o f Jewish communal interest into its daily frame o f reference. This crystalizing fact is bound to have large effect on the shaping o f

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Jewish affairs on every level.

The strangest aspect o f this development is that it should seem strange — as it undoubtedly does to many. Yet rationally, could there be any other locus fo r communal direction than the institution from which communal life springs? Could there be any other valid base fo r Jewish policy than that in which Jewish life is rooted? Is there, in reality, any integrally Jewish constituency other than that o f the Synagogue? And who may properly speak for the Jewish constituency, fo r the Jewish comm unity, other than the institution which gives it being?

For several generations, American Jewish life has been marked by an absurdity: the preemption o f spokesmanship by self-constituted groups o f private individuals who Historical are nefther in principle nor in fact the chosen Anomaly repreSentatives o f American Jewry, The historical circumstances which permitted the rise and persistence o f this NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

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anomaly are well enough known. Many factors have hindered the development o f a coherent comm unity out o f the masses o f Jews who have settled on New World shores in the past century. The task o f bringing cohesion to their thousands o f congregations and other institutions has faced tortuous difficulties.

ERY much remains to be done before it can be said that these great problems have been conquered. But much, fortunately, has been done in this direction. The rise to strength o f the Union o f Orthodox Jewish Congregations o f America and the parallel maturing o f O rthodoxy’s synagogues as community forces present, at last, a viable basis fo r the American Torah comm unity. Together w ith these developments on the traditional Jewish scene goes a decisive change in the historical factors conditioning Jewish life. Convulsive social change has brought challenges to Jewish identity which can be met only by forces rising from the roots o f Jewish life. In this changed picture the anomalousness o f the self-constituted “ agencies” becomes daily more apparent, and more burdensome. And each passing day brings further demand that the orthodox Synagogue serve, as it alone properly can, the to ta lity o f Jewish need.

It was w ith a sense o f response to this turn o f history that the UOJCA Convention delegates re-envisioned the Torah Action Community and its responsibilities and addressed on themselves to questions o f our time. They Wide expressed themselves on the character o f Israel as a Fronts Jewish state and acted fo r Israel’s security; debated alternative approaches to relieving the plight o f Soviet Jewry; took position on government aid to education; weighed the pros and cons o f synagogue political action; took fresh stock o f tasks on the youth and campus fronts; shared views on the urban crisis and the neighborhood integration problem; explored ways to secure the future o f smaller communities; sized up the New Left problem; took stand on Dissent; formulated position on Jewish extremism; dealt with the synagogue personnel recruitment crisis; inaugurated the national Chevrah Mishnayoth and renewed the national Chevrah Shass; and adopted a program incorporating action in these and a variety o f other areas thatjjchanneled simultaneously through the national organization and each congregation, promises to make a deep mafk in the period to come.

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Im portant as are the particular actions taken at the 72nd Anniversary Convention, the ultimate significance o f this event lies in its marking a new milestone in the road to attainment o f a great goal: the American Torah Community. This was the goal sought by Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes, zecher livrochah, and those associated w ith him in the founding seventy-two years ago o f the Union o f O rthodox Jewish Congregations o f America. In the years that have elapsed, the vision has endured. Each o f Dr. Mendes’ successors in turn has held it a lo ft and gradually, always d iffic u lt to discern amidst the confusion o f events, the vision has been taking on form and substance. Now, under the leadership o f Rabbi Joseph Karasick, re-elected to a third term as UOJCA President, the forces o f orthodox Jewry can look to further achievement in the building o f the Torah Community.

-S.B.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

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Exploitation in the Ghetto:

Reality or Myth?

by SIMEON H. F. GOLDSTEIN HE term “ ghetto” today often designates not a Jewish locality, but sections o f many American cities in which are concentrated masses o f black, Puerto Rican, Mexican, or other ethnically distinct m inority groups, many o f whom are recent arrivals to urban society. These ghettoes are characterized by conditions o f mass p o v e rty and social disadvantages similar in many ways to those which were the lot o f white immigrants in former years. But in this case, the poverty and overall social handicaps exist in a society marked by accept­ ance o f the public obligations implied by the Welfare State, a much greater sensitivity to injustice both among the m ajority and the m inority, expecta­ tions o f rapidly rising living standards, different cultural patterns and values,

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and other changed factors.

Highly exposed to the resulting resentment is the white man who conducts a business, or owns rental housing in the ghetto. In many in­ stances, he has been engaged in this occupation throughout his life having started when the neighborhood was populated by whites, and he has no other vocational experience or train­ ing.

Radicals o f various types have capitalized on the exposed situation o f the white businessman in the ghetto, holding him forth as an exploiter and profiteer. This has been repeated so often that many well-meaning people accept it w itho ut any analysis o f the economic realities involved.

A considerable portion o f the ghetto “ capitalists” are Jews. This JEWISH LIFE

happens, in part, because many of these areas were once predominantly Jewish. An additional reason is implied elsewhere in this article. Whatever the cause, the resulting identification o f Jews with exploitation feeds the fires o f antisemitism.

The question then arises: do businessmen in the ghetto neighbor­ hoods in fact make higher profits than they would elsewhere? The answer is not simple.

T he econom ics o f different types o f businesses vary tremendously.

Accordingly, we w ill divide our discus­ sion as follows: (1) food and other frequently bought goods; (2) appli­ ances, furniture, “ big ticke t” items generally, and credit; (3) housing.

Finally, we w ill consider the effects o f e rro n e o u s a ssu m p tio n s regarding exploitation in the ghetto.

FOOD HE establishment o f countless new supermarkets has been a striking feature o f the U.S. landscape since World War 11. But, there is one significant exception to their om ni­ presence. In the areas occupied by ethnic minorities, the growth o f super­ markets has been small, especially in the last few years.

The large grocery chains have the skilled personnel, and the account­ ing equipment, to readily determine th e re la tive p ro fitab ility o f their stores. If higher prices in the ghettoes w ere n o t out-balanced by higher operating costs, why do the chains

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rarely open supermarkets there? Why do they sometimes even close existing u n its |l and why are they often unable to find customers to take these stores o ff their hands?

What about independent super­ market operators? Here, too, one finds few new units.

What little activity in the way o f opening new stores does exist, largely reflects the smallest merchants. Are they doing well? A report quoted in the press stated that 20% o f the members o f the Association o f Puerto Rican merchants went out o f business w ithin one year.

T he reader can verify these conditions by visiting ghetto neighbor­ hoods. Take, fo r example, Claremont Village, a group o f low-rent public housing projects in the Bronx* bisected

by Penn-Central and New Haven Rail­ road tracks, and bounded by Webster Avenue, 169th Street, Third Avenue, and 171st Street. It contains over 4,000 apartments, the overwhelming majority o f which are occupied by Puerto Ricans and blacks. It also adjoins long rows o f ancient tene­ ments. What a bonanza this should be for the so-called “ exploiters” o f the ghetto. Actually, it took several years until even one chain store located in this vicinity. There 'is, literally, only one national o u tfit with a unit there, the A&P. Even they did not move in until well after the project was built, when a medium-rental development was added nearby. The man who erected the structure in which the A&P is located b uilt a few additional 9

stores alongside them, and advertised demands fo r more police protection in heavily. But, despite the advantages to those neighborhoods. merchants selling other lines, o f doing In communities where even the business next door to a major super-1 modest household possessions o f the market, he could not obtain even one p o o r are fr e q u e n tly burglarized, other retail tenant, and fin ally leased obviously the cash, and the quasi-cash that space fo r use as classrooms. There (e.g. cigarettes), o f retailers do not is one small chain, whose, stores are escape a similar fate. > limited to the Bronx, in that vicinity.

A merchant can protect his store The rest o f the stores in the area are all against certain crimes by iron folding independents, and, w ith a few excep­ gates and wooden boards — at a heavy tions, are “ Mom & Pop” units. A large cost. But, even these are useless against majority operates seven days a week. holdups.

Most o f them are apparently run by People who exist at a subsistence Puerto Ricans. level would be displaying extraordi­ Similar conditions may be found nary self-restraint if they resisted the in other low-income ethnic m inority temptation to engage in shoplifting. neighborhoods. Contrast them w ith Yet, it is precisely the lowest cost type the proliferations o f supermarkets in o f store, the self-service units, where white, middle-class suburbs — and you the potential fo r that type o f activity see where those'in the food business is the greatest. really fin d their profits.

Various kinds o f insurance either Landlords are no more generous, cost more in the ghetto, or are not as a class, than are other people. For available there at any price. retail locations where profits are high, The above are among the reasons property owners insist on higher rents. why it is fallacious to assume that it Check the rentals demanded fo r stores costs no more to do business in a low“ to let” in ghetto neighborhoods, and income neighborhood than elsewhere. compare them w ith similar locations In addition, if managerial personnel elsewhere — and you w ill see more have a strong objection to working in evidence that, among those close to such locations, that is an additional the picture, the typical ghetto store is factor to be included in any realistic regarded as anything but a gold mine. calculation o f costs.

And guess where you w ill find the Besides rent levels and vacancy greatest percentage o f vacancies. ratios, there is a more subtle indicator o f the problems o f typical ghetto N any list o f undesirable condi­ stores.” tions which motivate individuals Looking at the ocean, one may to want to move away from the see a calm on the surface, while a ghetto, one o f the top items is crime. s tro n g u n d e rto w is taking place Again and again, newspapers report b en ea th i t . A similar process is

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occurring in some ghetto retail areas, where almost all stores are occupied, but where, when a retailer moves out, no one — but no one —I: moves in to replace him, and his space remains vacant fo r years.

The reason fo r the paradox is that, while those who have an invest­ ment in the area feel compelled to remain, other businessmen do not expect to earn enough p ro fit to make it worthwhile to open a store there.

BIG TIC KET ITEMS N the past, this situation has been markedly different fo r “ big tic k e t” items, such as appliances, f u r n itu r e , and other merchandise where credit sales are common. It has been different, also, fo r goods where “ repeat business” is not expected.

(However, conditions are beginning to change because o f riots.)

Those g h e tto areas where merchandise o f these types is sold, often have had relatively high store rents, few store vacancies, and expen­ sive store fronts.

This alone, o f course, does not prove exploitation. But, it does mean that the evidence against the possibil­ ity o f general exploitation cited above does not apply to these businesses.

W h ile ghetto inhabitants are generally disadvantaged, they are not stupid. A grocer who would sell rotten cheese, w orm y vegetables, or other food whose taste is abnormal, would fo rfe it the patronage o f the cheated

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customer, next week and fo r many weeks thereafter. But, a storekeeper who sells appliances or furniture which prove to be defective has made enough on one transaction so that he need not be concerned with repeat business from this particular customer. More­ over, the ability to judge quality in electrical equipment, or in furniture, requires a background which many ghetto residents lack. Because o f their limited education and business experi­ ence, superficial fe a tu re llH lite ra lly or figuratively, veneer H may appeal to them, in place o f long-term service­ ability. “ Big tic k e t” items are frequently sold on credit — and therein hangs, not “ a tale,” but many conflicting tales.

Those who extend credit to lo w -in c o m e consumers are often sinned against, but also often are guilty o f financial sins.

No matter how high one’s social and economic standing, if he buys an automobile “ on tim e” he w ill pay a high effective interest rate. This is because o f the cost handling m onthly payments. In the ghetto, appliances are often sold at “ so much per week,” making collection costs even higher. In addition, there is more risk o f loss in extending credit to people who do not have stable jobs than to those who do.

Credit lends itself to abuse when m inority people are the borrowers, because, in the past, they have had few alternative sources from which to obtain credit, and thus competition has been limited. Also, their meager

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education has handicapped efforts to make a realistic comparison o f interest costs or, in some cases, even to appre­ ciate the burden which they have assumed. (Recently enacted “ truth in lending” legislation may improve this condition.)

On the other hand, where the law makes it uneconomical to extend credit to low-income persons, it hurfs the very people whom it is designed to benefit. The person with a limited inco m e and modest resources is absolutely dependent on the avail­ ability o f credit, in order to enjoy a reasonable standard o f living before he has grown old.

A hidden evil in the credit field has been the abuse o f “ credit insur­ ance. ” U nd er this, an insurance co m p a n y, in return fo r premium payments, agrees to pay o ff the entire balance due if the debtor dies (or, in some policies, if he suffers loss o f income because o f disability) before he has c o m p le te d payments. If handled properly, it is a good thing fo r all concerned. But, this insurance is n o rm a lly contracted fo r by the creditor under a plan w hereby‘ the premiums are paid by the borrowers, but substantial dividend refunds are received by the creditor. Conse­ quently, a basically sound instrument has been subverted into a means for channeling money from the borrower w itho ut his knowledge.

I was once looking at the financial statement o f a retailer who sold furniture and appliances on credit in the Bedford-Stuyvesant part o f 12

Brooklyn. I pointed out that his huge accounts receivable were grossly dis­ proportionate to his other assets. He answered that a credit store which did not have a big amount o f accounts receivable would be one which had not sold much merchandise lately, and therefore not in a healthy c o n d itio n T o d a y , however, commercial banks arefeto an increasing extent, offering to buy the installment obliga­ tions o f ghetto residents. While their effective interest rates offend those who regard anything above 6% as morally wrong (just as would bank rates fo r installment loans made to middle-class white people), yet these rates are substantially lower than those charged by m erchants who sell “ credit” as much as they sell merchan­ dise. Accordingly this banking service represents a “ breakthrough,” in im­ proving the economic condition o f ghetto residents.

HOUSING OR a long time it was popularly believed that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree, and voluntarily told his father o f his mis­ deed. But, today, historians do not accept that story. Similarly, there is a widespread conviction that members o f ethnic minorities are compelled to pay more fo r housing than whites do, and it is high time that this be scrutinized.

I have seen no statistical data to support this belief, and my own obser­ vations contradict it. Moreover, a

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study which I made o f census data, for 1930, 1940, and 1950, indicated that, in New York C ity, median rents (i.e.,. the figure at which one half were above and one half below) paid by whites were 15% higher, in each o f these vastly dissimilar years, than those paid by non-whites.

The 1960 census figures fo r “ gross rents” (i.e., rent including fuel and utilities) for New York C ity were $75 for all households; $66 fo r non­ w h ite households in those census tracts where there were 100 or more such units; and $62 for Spanish-speak­ ing households in those census tracts with 400 or more o f them. For the nation as a whole, the overall median gross rent was $71. But, fo r non-white households the median gross rent was only $58.

O f course, these data do not allow fo r differences in quality. That would require a massive appraisal job.

In the absence o f facts, it has been argued that, since non-whites are limited as to the areas where they can rent, they have had to bid against one another for housing, thus driving up what they pay. However, this over­ looks tw o vital factors.

One is the belief that when non­ whites move into a neighborhood the normal thing fo r whites to do is to move elsewhere. While this conviction has meant the division o f cities into ghettoes, yet the reluctance o f whites to live alongside those w ith darker skins has also virtually guaranteed a continuous expansion in the amount o f housing available to blacks and NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

Puerto Ricans. As they move into a block, they become neighbors o f the whites in the adjoining block, and eventually the latter go away, non­ whites move in, and the process starts over again — in the next block.

The other factor is that very few whites seek to rent housing in ghetto areas. (Most o f the handful o f whites who live there usually either own their home or a nearby business or remain because they have been occupying a lo w re n ta l apartment.) Therefore, whites are, likewise, limited in the areas where they rent, so that there are two separate housing markets, in each o f which members o f one race bid against one another but not against members o f the other race.

In the typical large U.S. city, non-whites (plus Puerto Ricans or Mexican-Americans) constitute a large portion o f the population, so that both these housing markets are sub­ stantial in size, and the supply in the “ m in o rity” market is growing at a rapid pace as the whites move out to the suburbs.

OR New York C ity, the w riter has seen data which sheds addi­ tional light on whether ethnic m inori­ ties overpay fo r housing.

Professor Chester Rapkin, o f Columbia University, in his report to th e C ity Rent and Rehabilitation Administration entitled “ The Private Rental Housing Market in New York City, 1965: A Study o f Some Effects o f Two Decades o f Rent C ontrol,” found that “ rent control tends to

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protect the elderly, the low-income, and the racial and ethnic m inority fam ily.” 94% o f Puerto Rican house­ holds were in apartments subject to rent control and 77% o f the non­ whites were in such housing. But, for the white population the figure was only 69%r. The median rent fo r con-, trolled units, in 1965, was $78, while for those not subject to control it was $ 1 3 4 . I f tenants subject to rent control receive more, proportionately, for their rent dollar than do those who are not, then these figures indicate that, on the average, the ethnic m inori­ ties are not being exploited in the New York C ity housing market.

Prof. Rapkin found that 84.2% o f Puerto Rican renter households occupied standard housing, 9 2 .3 # o f non-white households did the same, and 97.7% o f white households were in such quarters. He also found that, in 1960, 65% o f Puerto Rican house­ holds, 78% o f the non-whites, and 90% o f the whites were not overcrowded.

Only five years later, in 1965, 72% o f the Puerto Rican households, 82% o f the non-white households, and 92% o f the white households were not over­ crowded.

A n o th e r significant type o f information is the Gross Rent paid, as a percentage o f income. Non-whites paid 23.0% o f income as gross rent, while Puerto Ricans paid 22.6%. For whites, the figure was 19.6?i. Thus, while there is a difference between the percentages paid by the Varying groups, it is not o f major proportions.

When one realizes that the average 14

white income is much higher and that people with bigger earnings normally pay a smaller percentage o f their incomes fo r rent because they buy many other goods and services, and th a t th e average white fam ily is. smaller, the theory that non-whites and Puerto Ricans overpay in rent becomes even more doubtful.

NOTHER source fo r the charge o f exploitation is the relatively high rates o f return quoted on invest­ ments in apartment buildings in ghetto areas. But even if we assume that these figures are accurate, and not sales­ men’s exaggerations, what do they indicate? Assume, fo r purposes o f illustration, that investments in ghetto housing yield 20% to 25%, while those in other neighborhoods yield 8% to 10%. This is 20% or 25% on what? The answer is that it is a percentage o f the cash that investors are w illing to pay!

In other words, in our illustration, investors find it so unpleasant or risky to place their funds in ghettoes, that one who wishes to dispose o f a pro­ perty w ith an income o f $2,000 a year cannot move it at a price o f more than $8,000 to $10,000 cash if it is located in the ghetto, while a similar income would bring a price o f $20,000 to $25,000 cash if it comes from a build­ ing in a white neighborhood. Is this exploitation o f tenants?

Moreover, if one uses the prin­ ciples o f accounting which are gen­ erally accepted in American industry, the 20% and 25% yield w ill largely evaporate. The rates o f return usually

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q uo te d on real estate are before depreciation (although after amortiza­ tion payments under the mortgages).

Also, like many small businessmen, the ty p ic a l tenement owner does not regard his time and labor as an ex­ pense, although the work in running such a house is much higher in propor­ tion to the rents or the cash invested, than is the case in most other types o f real estate. Accordingly, the “ p ro fit” which results from not making any deduction fo r their own labor con­ stitutes a very large portion o f the seemingly high yield.

In New York C ity, both the incom e from tenements (most o f which are now occupied by m inority families) and the desire o f real estate people to own such property have fallen drastically in recent years. (To a lesser extent this is also true in a number o f other cities.) The owners o f literally thousands o f such properties have “ w a lke d away” from their buildings.

T is true that the percentage o f buildings in a very bad physical condition is much greater in this type o f apartment than in others (although census figures indicate that a m ajority o f the rental housing units occupied by non-whites, or by Spanish-speaking peoples, meet basic standards). How­ ever, much light was shed on this problem by Citizens Housing and Planning Council, Inc., a prominent non-profit organization, which was given funds w ith which to buy and rehabilitate two tenements on the

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lower East Side o f New York C ity, both occupied prim arily by Puerto Rican families. Neither o f these re­ habilitation jobs was an economic success.

Indeed, in most types o f goods and services, it is expected, by all reasonably well-informed people, that those who pay the lowest prices w ill receive the lowest quality. The same is true in housing. To be sure, the con­ sequences o f poor housing are socially more severe. That is tragic — but is it exploitation?

Here are two more elements necessary fo r any realistic approach to ghetto housing problems. One is the almost unbelievable amount o f vandal­ ism that takes place, which means that money spent on repairs or on new equipment, on Friday, m aybe gone by Monday. The other is the lack o f coop­ eration by many tenants who are basically good people, but who have not adjusted to urban living — illus­ trated by poor housekeeping which makes the presence o f vermin inevit­ able, and by “ air m ail” disposition o f garbage, i.e., throwing it out the window into the yard.

CONSEQUENCES OF MISTAKEN CHARGES F the belief that ghetto residents are exploited by food merchants and other typical retailers gains wide acceptance so that their customers insist on the same prices as those paid in stores where costs o f doing business are lower, what w ill be the results?

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Eventually, the consequence must be which many minority-group families to drive out o f business those who live is a major social and economic operate in these areas, thus compelling problem. But, “ solutions” based on ghetto residents to go to the great folklore rather than on objective facts inconvenience o f having to travel to w ill not solve the problem. They are other neighborhoods to do their daily more likely to aggravate it, by en­ or convenience shopping and to then c o u r a g in g o w n e rs to a ba nd on carry home what they bought. While minority-occupied housing, and by few informed businessmen are inter­ accelerating the deterioration o f hous­ ested in opening new stores in such ing which is still in a satisfactory areas, there are blacks and Puerto condition.

Ricans w ith little background in busi­ Finally, the belief that most ness who are likely to believe these “ w hitey” merchants exploit ghetto tales o f exploitation. The departure o f residents is an important element in experienced merchants would appear racial polarization, and in the b itter­ to them to be a long-awaited oppor­ ness which causes group violence to tu nity. But, they are likely to be erupt upon mild provocation. Accordquickly crushed, if they have to supply ingly; one who can contradict this but goods and services at prices which, in does not do so is a silent and uninten­ relation to the cost o f doing business tional accessory, but nevertheless an where they operate, are not realistic. accessory, to the rioter who shouts What about housing? The atro­ “ Burn, baby burn.’f cious condition o f the dwellings in

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16

JEWISH LIFE

DACHAUZke 'Devil’s Domain

by ALLAN M. BLUSTEIN UNICH, the capital o f Bavaria, is a vivacious city, alive with the hustle and bustle o f people anxiously anticipating the benefits to come along with the Olympic Games o f 1972. The stadium rises slowly as the inevitable traffic jams engulf both native and visitor alike. Yet, nobody seems to let these vicissitudes impede his daily pursuit o f good old Bavarian Gemüt­ lichkeit. The hot August sun beats down on the thousands o f tourists who have come from far and wide to partake o f that Gemütlichkeit, to visit the famous beer halls and to tour the museums that have made Munich one o f the musts on any traveler’s itiner­ ary. For many o f the visitors, however, the Gemütlichkeit jolts to an abrupt stop, the smiles depart their faces, and the steins o f beer turn into cups o f sorrow when they continue on just a few scant kilometers more northwest o f the city, where stands a hideous

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vestige o f mankind’s nadir o f darkness Dachau Concentration Cam p^- the Devil’s Domain!

It was on this gruesome ground that unknown hundreds o f thousands o f innocent victims o f Nazi barbarity suffered and died during the hellish years o f 1933-1945. This oldest and best known o f the German concentra­ tion camps shared the basic character­ istics o f the others such as Belsen, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Auschwitz, etc. ad nauseum, but it also specialized in diabolical means o f human torture -- “ medical experiments” as the Nazis called them. SS Doctors and other sadists on the prison staffs were inter­ ested in all sorts o f human reactions to various stimuli and the p itifu l captives in Dachau comprised an ideal resource for the two-fold mission o f the camp g i so called medical research and liquidation o f all “ enemies o f the state.” in-

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HE experiments that went on almost hourly at Dachau defy human belief. And were it not fo r the fact that liberating Allied soldiers had seen the results o f these atrocities with their own eyes, the world probably would have rejected all accounts o f the hell at the Devil's Domain as being too horrible, too terrifying to be true. O f a certainty, a nation that had given the w o rld a Goethe, a Beethoven, a Schiller, could not possibly have sunk to the depths o f depravity which were being reported o ut o f German-occu­ pied Europe. It took the American, British, and Russian eye-witness-liberators to confirm these reports and to behold sights and sorrows which were inconceivable to the rational mind o f man. They just could not have hap­ pened — but they did.

Allied soldiers found prisoners who had been injected w ith viruses o f malaria and typhoid so as to observe their reactions. Sizeable evidence was found o f blood coagulation experi­ ments performed on inmates where the veins and arteries o f hapless men and women had been slashed open, w itho ut benefit o f anesthetic. Count­ less numbers bled to death from these barbarities. American GIs saw the saltfilled cisterns which had been used for the prisoner endurance tests. In these, the captive's head was held immobile by an iron collar filled w ith a freezing a p p a ra tu s , while his hands were chained. First, the water was gradually chilled to see how long the victim could remain conscious; then revival te ch n iq u e s would be tested. The

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victim would be lifted out o f the cis­ te rn ,!|tu n c o n s c io u s , stripped and plunged at once into a tub o f hot water. An alternative device would be to put him into a room o f normal temperature to await revival or death, depending on his constitution. A t times, the victim was left naked out­ doors on a cold Bavarian night to see how well he stood the ordeal. The “ scientists" o f Dachau also performed air-pressure experiments, designed to produce the condition known as the “ bends." In these, the victim was kept in an iron box in which the air pres­ sure was controlled, sometimes being increased to such a degree that the victim would try to tear the hair out o f his or her head in an e ffo rt to re­ lieve the pressure.

Also, Dachau was not to be o u t­ do ne b y Buchenwald. Here, too, hum an skin was a prized trophy among the SS men and their wives and many a staff member and his family would sport gloves and shoes made o f manskin. Castration o f prisoners was also a commonplace o f this hell. It was here that the infamous quack, Dr. Sigmund Rascher (no doubt trying to o u td o Auschw itz' fiend, Mengele) conducted experiments on naked men and w om en, perpetrating barbaric tortures on the prisoners in the name o f medical science. Rascher's end came when Himmler ordered him executed, not because o f any crimes against the prisoners, but because he and his wife p ra c tic e d ‘ ‘ d e c e it ," h a vin g led Himmler to believe that Frau Rascher had given birth to three children after JEWISH LIFE

the age o f 48 when in reality the three had been kidnapped by the good doctor and his wife.

This then is the site o f the camp to which the gay tourists o f 1970 come when it is suggested to them that inasm uch as they are already in Munich, why not go to see Dachau too?

HE traveller drives the several k ilo m e te rs o ver the sunny Bavarian countryside d u tifu lly fo llo w ­ ing the signs which read KZ. By some strange, almost eerie happenstance, the sun disappears suddenly, the sky turns grey, and the air cools as the pilgrim arrives. It's as if nature wants to show the visitor what it is like in this hell when sunlight is shut out, when the light o f human compassion is snuffed out between men.

In utter disbelief, the traveler agonizes at what he sees in the museum. The pictures, the piles o f p ris o n uniforms, evidence o f the massive atrocities committed here at Dachau are too much -lith e beholder is overcome. He moves on to a barracks where the captives “ lived.”

He stands mute before the symbols o f man’s inhumanity to his fellows, the four crematoriums o f the camp in which thousands upon thousands o f innocents perished. Lastly the pilgrim comes to the memorial monuments erected to the dead martyrs o f Nazi barbarism. He approaches the stately

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yet austere Jewish monument, erected by the Bavarian Jewish community, w h ic h is crowned with a simple Menorah at the pinnacle o f the edifice.

Inside he sees the memorial candles and sacred inscriptions which bear witness to the ageless eternity o f the Jewish People. Jmmediately above the entrance, he notes the Hebrew inscrip­ tion taken from S cripture.. . . “ Set terror over them, O Lord; Let the nations know they are b u t m en.”

Selah —Psalms 9,21 It is time to depart. Gone is the feeling o f Gemütlichkeit. In its place looms a sense o f sober realization that evil still remains on the earth despite the countless efforts o f good men to eradicate it with their blood, sweat, and tears. The traveller wipes away the tears that have welled up w ithin him from this hell, firm ly resolving that he will strive to do all he can to preserve the memory o f this stain on the sullied conscience o f man and that, G-d willing, it shall never happen again. Indeed, he turns his visage heavenward and cries again unto the Alm ighty: “Set terror over them, O Lord; Let the nations know they are b ut m en.”

Amen Seiah!

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CLOSING THE YESHIVAH GAP

by ALFRED COHEN IT H mounting concern, edu­ cators and parents have come to realize that not all the young people graduating from yeshivah high schools are what we had hoped they might be.

Evidence has accumulated that num­ bers o f these graduates are not only deficient in knowledge but also delin­ quent in religious observance.

Entering the university world, they are quickly overwhelmed and overaw ed. The erudition o f their professors, the scope and sweep o f the courses greatly impress the young m in d . Ideas co n tra ry to Jewish thought are glibly mouthed; at best, the youth is confused, if not readily convinced that the lessons taught in yeshivah were infantile and outmoded.

Parents and educators alike in­ creasingly feel the pressing need for

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our schools to be more relevant to the current scene, to instill a deeper and truer conviction in our youth, and to prepare them to cope w ith the m ulti­ tude o f philosophical and practical problems o f religion which they w ill be bound to face. It is our purpose here to explore modifications o f the present yeshivah high school program which might improve the situation.

A story is told about the late John Foster Dulles: upon arriving in a fo re ig n capital one day, he was whisked from his plane and hustled into a waiting limousine. As the chauf­ feur whipped the automobile through dense traffic and raced down the roads, the Secretary o f State turned to the driver and murmured: “ Where are we going?“ To which the driver re­ sponded: f I don’t know but we’re

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making marvelous.time! ” One wonders if we are not guilty o f the same error: we rush ahead, not having a clear picture o f where we are going. Before it can hope to be suc­ cessful, each yeshivah must define its goals in terms o f what it hopes to accomplish and also in terms o f the type o f student it attracts. The various yeshivoth w ill differ in their aims — and should differ in their approaches f f fo r each has its individual reputation and services a different element o f the community. What may be a valid objective for one yeshivah may be totally absurd fo r another.

U nfortunately, most yeshivah high schools, despite their differences, are depressingly similar in their orien­ tation towards scholastic excellence and an emphasis on college and a pro­ fessional career. This is an understand­ able and admirable goal, but it scarcely allows for the individual who does not conform to this ideal. Those yeshivoth which stress Torah learning also make no allowance for youngsters who are not interested in books. Why not yeshivah vocational schools? Doesn’t a carpenter, a mechanic, or a tailor also have to know about Torah? How exciting it might be if yeshivoth taught a n im a l husbandry and agricultural technique, or any o f the m ultitude o f trades and handicrafts which can be gratifying to many. Although this has been tried in Israel, it would be an innovation o f almost revolutionary proportions in this country. But it might help the yeshivoth gain appeal fo r a greater number o f young people.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

JACOB AND ESAU T would be simplistic to rest on the assumption that Torah is Torah, and any institution teaching Torah w ill be doing some good. What was suitable fo r Vilna may not be best for America. And a misdirected educa­ tion may be as harmful as no educa­ tion at all. We may observe this from th e Biblical account o f the twin brothers Jacob and Esau. It is a source o f great wonder that a saintly man such as Isaac could have produced as evil a son as Esau. Our Rabbis tell us that both boys were treated in the same manner, given the selfsame edu­ cation. For the first few years, no one was aware o f any difference between them and all seemed to go well.

However, when they reached m aturity, Jacob turned to the House o f Study, and Esau went to the House o f Idol­ atry. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch offers a profound insight here into child psychology: both boys were treated alike, given the same upbring­ ing. And what was wonderful fo r one turned out to be a catastrophe fo r the other. A ll children cannot be treated alike. The identical course o f study may cause one child to flower, and another to turn against his upbringing altogether. Education must be tailored to f it the individual, and what may have been ideal in one generation or in one set o f environmental circum­ stances may be sheer fo lly in a d iffe r­ ent age.

American yeshivoth have much o f which they can be proud. Even a

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c u rs o ry appraisal o f most Jewish c o m m u n itie s and institutions w ill attest to the fact that our schools have produced leaders in a m ultitude o f fields. Our day schools graduate articu­ late and knowledgeable young men and women who assume roles o f leadership on all levels.

Nevertheless; there are many who fall by the wayside. We have never been content with achieving success fifty or sixty per cent o f the time. Each child is a precious indi­ vidual and his needs must not be neglected; we strive fo r success with one hundred per cent o f our youth, and try constantly fo r this ideal. With this understanding, let us address our­ selves to the possible improvements in our educational system.

SCHOOL GOALS HAT is it we want from our youth? Are we interested in producing the future “ Godol Hador,” the one towering individual out o f a thousand who w ill lead the Jewish community in Halachic and Torah matters,3or are we more concerned with inculcating in our students a sincere and lifelong comm itment to practical Judaism? When a girl studies in a yeshivah * high school fo r four years, should the curriculum stress p ra c tic a l Jewish homemaking, or should she delve rather into the in tri­ cacies o f Chumosh and Neviim? To offer an intelligent and Relevant curric­ ulum o f Jewish studies for our youth, we are first obliged to decide which o f

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these alternatives we indeed prefer.

Before a house is built, the architect must present a blueprint to show what he has in mind. Each yeshivah, too, must know what it hopes to accom­ plish in order to set up a pertinent course o f study toward that end.

Years ago, when the yeshivoth flourished in Europe, the situation was a very different one from that which exists here. The youngster on his way to “ cheder” with his friends, with their yarmulkas on and tzitzith flying, might have passed the stores o f the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, all similarly dressed. The m ilk­ man might question him about the mishnah he was learning, or the tailor might engage him in a Talmudic ques­ tion. Jewish values and observance were an integral part o f the small, tig h tly - k n it comm unity, and were taken as a matter o f course.

N ot so the modern day school student. It is quite likely that he is one o f few, perhaps even the only one, amongst his neighborhood pals who a tte n d s a non-public school. His tzitzith are cautiously tucked in, fo r otherwise the ride or walk to school might be filled w ith taunts or stares.

He attends a religious school in a secular society. Little wonder that he sometimes feels the yeshivah lacks relevance to modern life.

In the homogenous shtetl, with little co nflict between theory and reality o f Judaism, the function o f the school was clear — to supplement the observance o f m itz v o th with a s c h o la rly u n d e rs ta n d in g o f the JEWISH LIFE

complexity o f Halochah and the pro­ fu nd ity o f the Talmud. A girl who was fu lly familiar with the art o f being a “ Baalebusta,” who knew all about Shabboth and Yom Tov and prayed daily, could perhaps go to the Hebrew school to gain a keener appreciation o f Chumosh through the study o f Rashi and other commentaries.

Dare we assume that the chil­ dren attending yeshivoth today come equipped w ith the same knowledge­ able background o f Jewish observance or even w ith a firm commitment to such observance? Are they coming fo r the erudition and the pHpul' or are they not sorely in need o f understand­ ing the most simple tenets o f Torah Judaism?

I remember a conversation I had with the Menahel o f a well-known Brooklyn yeshivah. He told me o f the trouble they had had w ith one particu­ la r ly rambunctious youngster who somehow could just not concentrate on the shiurim. A fter deciding that the boy would have to be expelled, the principal did make one concession the boy might finish out the school term in the yeshivah, but only on the condition that he spend three out o f four Sabbaths a month at the home o f his Rebbe. The boy agreed. And it was only then that the school came to understand why he had been so trouble­ some: after the first Shabboth at his Rebbe’s home, the boy admitted that it was the very first tim e in his life that he had seen what a “ Shabbos” really was. No wonder he had fe lt alienated from the subject matter being dis­ NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

cussed in the Gemorah B - he had po meaningful personal experience with Yiddishkeit at all!

Let us come to grips w ith this reality: a yeshivah high school can not be all things to all men. In some cases it must supplement the home; in others, it must serve as the substitute for a Jewish home education. Yet at the present tim e ^ th e re is precious Nttle difference among most o f the major yeshivoth in the New York area and elsewhere. Why should this be?

Scarcely any change in approach has occurred in yeshivoth in the past th irty years, yet how different the world is now! Some yeshivoth ’ still teach in Yiddish, although it is no longer the most comfortable medium o f expression fo r either students or teachers (and despite the bitter com­ plaints o f many parents that their c h ild re n are floundering in their Hebrew studies prim arily because they cannot understand the language o f their lessons S Y iddish).

Why should this continue to be so? Was not Yiddish the traditional language o f study precisely because that was the language spoken by both teachers and pupils and therefore the most logical tool fo r explaining the Gemorah? And is the Gemorah itself not w ritten in Aramaic, the lingua fyanca o f the Greats Academies, and not in the Holy Language, Hebrew?

Some schools have tried giving the identical test to two equal groups, one test being in English, the other in Yiddish or Hebrew. The students read­ ing and answering the questions in 23

their native tongue consistently scored higher than those in the “ foreignlanguage” group. It is not my wish to quarrel with those who would wish to preserve Yiddish as a spoken language, but I question whether it should be at the expense o f a high-quality Jewish education.

DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES HERE are a number o f innova­ tions which yeshivoth should seriously consider, fo r their introduc­ tion might make the learning experi­ ence in our yeshivoth the positive and enlightening factor in a child’s de­ velopment that it was meant to be.

It seems rather elemental, fo r example, that i f a boy is to mature into an adult whose ways are “ pleasant in the eyes o f G-d and man,” he should learn at least the basics o f Torah observance and the practical laws which pertain to daily life and inter-personal relationships. We want him to keep Shabboth, yet there is v irtu a lly no school in which the tractate Shabboth is taught!

A Rebbe in a yeshivah high school once told me o f his dismay upon asking his students if they knew what was inside their T efillin. Not one out o f thirty-five had seen the interior; as far as they were concerned, they might as well be empty black boxes!

In the face o f such ignorance, how can we expect these boys to don T efillin daily fo r the rest o f their lives?

Our primary aim, after all, is to turn out, at the very minimum, boys

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who w ill be observant Jews. Yet we give them little enlightenment and scarce practical information about the Mitzvoth.

Those o f us who have witnessed the excitement and joy o f children visiting a matzoh factory can attest to the .efficacy o f such a class trip in inculcating a love fo r and an apprecia­ tion o f Mitzvoth in our children. Why not use this most successful device in secondary schools as well? Seeing a sofer painstakingly w riting a Sefer Torah or Mezuzah w ill leave a lifelong impression on the student and w ill forever influence his attitude toward the fu lfillm e n t o f commandments w ith these objects. There are countless opportunities fo r showing students ‘liv in g Judaism” on every level.

T IS almost universal practice in high school-level yeshivoth to spend an entire year learning and dis­ secting some twenty pages o f Gemorah and commentaries. How much more beneficial fo r the youth (and for his appreciation o f Judaism) if he would spend some o f this time in learning Mishnah. In just forty-five minutes a day, the student could cover the m ajority o f Shas (Talmud) in four years, and thereby get a broad over­ view o f what Jewish thought is all about. Through the Mishnah, we can demonstrate the vast scope o f the T a lm u d and a c q u a in t him with concepts o f which he may not even be aware. And although his knowledge would admittedly be superficial, it might nevertheless arouse him to delve

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deeper and enrich his understanding.

Under the present system, a boy might spend an entire school year studying the second chapter o f Bova Metziah, dealing with the return o f lost pro­ perty, and never be aware that the fifth chapter, on the other hand, deals with the ethics and laws pertaining to interest. Nor would he ever know that the same volume contains a fine expo­ sition o f the laws o f employer-worker relationships and even discusses so modern a concept as severance pay.

A ll this passes him by, fo r the study o f Gemorah is slow and intensive; yet it is more than likely that in his profes­ sional life, the young Jew should realize that his religion has legal rulings in these areas.

It is not my wish to detract from the traditional supremacy o f Gemorah study. Yet we cannot deny that fo r the m ajority o f our students, the exclusive study o f Gemorah lacks relevance. Spending the few years in secondary school in intensive study o f a comparatively tin y portion o f Jewish thought is a luxury we cannot allow ourselves.

F U R T H E R area w here we should reach out to our young­ sters is in their dedication to Jewish causes and the world Jewish commu­ nity. As they m atu re||the y should team about our problems and concern themselves w ith their solution. It is not only unfair, it is unwise to let children grow up in a vacuum, un­ aware o f all the imperfections existing in the world. (A Yale University study

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o f alcoholism commented on the amazing virtual absence o f this a fflic­ tion among Jews, particularly ortho­ d o x Jews. This phenomenon was attributed in great part to the positive attitude toward drinking which ortho­ dox Jews have always had. The child is taught from the day o f his B’rith on that wine is good, it is important, it is sanctified. The Jew is accustomed to wine and can keep it in good perspec­ tive.) A gradual introduction to the problems which beset the Jew in the modern world might preclude the dis­ illusionment and bewilderment experi­ enced by mfony students after they leave the yeshivah walls. We ought to draw them in, get them actively in­ volved in these issues, fo r involvement is commitment. I have spoken with teenagers who are members o f the JDL, for example, and I cannot cease to being amazed at their fam iliarity with every aspect o f the problems facing th is organization, at their minute k n o w le d g e o f a ll its goals and methods, and at their aggressive verbal defense o f their group against all de­ tra c to r s . O r take the youngsters involved in a political campaign H they, can explain every nuance o f the candi­ date’s platform .

Yeshivoth might capitalize on this tendency in human character — involvement leads,, to commitment.

T he yeshivah should require and encourage each student to participate actively in some aspect Jewish communal work, whether it be for Israel, fo r Soviet Jewry, or something more personal, as fo r the Yeshivah or 25

the Synagogue. Active participation w ill strengthen emotional ties to the cause, and intellectual ones as well, for the youth w ill be called upon to de­ fend his group against detractors and w ill th u s search about fo r valid answers. What better tim e to habituate the individual to dedication to his community than during the formative years o f adolescence, when his doubts may be answered by his teachers, and he can be set on the proper path. And early involvement w ill lead to lifelong commitment. The young Chossid go­ ing from place to place urging men to don T efillin is unlikely ever to stop putting on his own. If the yeshivah is to succeed in producing young men and women who w ill be f it and willing to shoulder the burdens o f Jewish communal responsibility, what better time or place than in their high school years?

PREPARATION FOR LIFE M P L E M E N T A T IO N o f the modifications we have discussed, o r similar ones, would, I believe, g re a tly enhance the programs o f yeshivah high schools. But that is only one side o f the coin.

Four years o f high school should lay the foundation fo r a fine under­ standing o f Judaism; but it is only the foundation, not the structure itself. It is precisely at this point in their development that most young people leave the yeshivah world to flounder in secularism. Just at the point when they need guidance most, they are left

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w ithout a religious mentor to help them.

While most parents realize that a secondary school education is n o t sufficient preparation fo r the eco­ nomic and intellectual world, they have yet to appreciate that it is not sufficient preparation fo r a religious life either.

The wisdom and love o f Judaism that used to take a lifetim e to acquire, we are now trying to cram into four years o f high school. And it cannot be done* successfully. How many o f us would allow a biology major to take out someone’s appendix? And who would cross the bridge designed by a p re -e n g in e e rin g student? Yet we expect a novice to be able to cope with all the confusing and antagonistic influences o f modern society.

A major aim the yeshivah should set fo r itself is the development o f close ties between teacher and student.

This closeness could then become the basis o f a continuing learning experi­ ence which would carry the young person through the d iffic u lt years into m a tu rity. In ancient times, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, the outstanding leader o f Israel, sent his five most gifted students out into the world. “ Go and seek a righteous path,’’ he told them, “and then come back and discuss i t with m e.” Even his wisest pupils, who were scholars in their own right, maintained a close tie w ith their mentor.

In o u r o w n time, there is scarcely need to elaborate on the cry­ ing need fo r our college youth to have JEWISH LIFE

some religious intellectual guidance in the face o f all they encounter on campus. Let us assume parents and educators both assume the responsi­ b ility to stop stressing merely the a c c u m u la tio n o f cold facts and diplomas, and start emphasizing to our

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youth that learning and character development are a continuous process in which we are w illing and eager to be associated with them. Perhaps then we will be blessed to hear it said o f our children, “ Fortunate are his parents, fortunate are those who taught him .”

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Ml HU*

by RIVKA G. SPIEGLER N 1943, over a quarter o f a century ago, ..everybody travel­ ling between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem went by bus. I was going to make that big move -S fro m plain to mountaintop, from secular Tel Aviv to beautiful “ Ir Ha-Kodesh,” to the dismay o f my parents. Who has ever heard that one leaves home and takes a room in an­ other town if one was o f the female gender and under age? But I prevailed over Vienna- and Budapest-bred inhi­ bitions and bought my bus ticket. The Palestinian “ Otobuss” o f those days was a rickety old greenish-blue thing, creeping and sighing and pushing with an ardor definitely beyond Oriental nature or disposition. In September the leaves turned a brownish yellow.

The cypresses, the poplars, and the cedars o f the Judean Hills are the same

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that one finds in the Tuscan moun­ tains o f central Italy around Florence and Fiesole and the good autumn sun on the thick rinds and cones gives out a smell o f Biblical intensity. Slim,Tall, evergreen, and timeless, they rise above tin y, eyeless Arab dwellings that seem forever to climb over the hills, past the clouds into the azure o f the Land o f Israel sky. Halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem the winding serpentine road grows steeper. In the clefts below, a narrow wadi runs its circling path. In winter, the wadi w ill be filled w ith w ild, impatient waters o f the rainy season. Now it is dry. L ittle forests have been planted to cover once-bare mountain feet.

As you rise w ith the rising road among the Harey Yehudah, you al­ ready see her, the C ity o f David,

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throning on her seven hill tops. You turn around, one hundred and eighty degrees, and find the Mediterranean sleeping in her sandy orange bed in the plain, sunning herself — lazy, oily, remote. The midday traffic gets busier about you. You have reached the o u t­ skirts o f Machaneh Yehudah and the guttural noise o f marketing women and children is loud and shrill and lively. This is a th rill to you and you forget the noise and the stench and the “ free” disorderly traffic. You have arrived and that is good. Here you have to pitch your tent if you ever want to study at the beautiful school on Har Hatzofim.

IRST things first and you go and look for a room. You have heard o f a real estate office on Rav Kook Street, right next to Zion Square, the center o f town. The bus is in its shed and you march along Jaffa Road with a spring in your step because your luggage has remained in the depot and you feel free and light and a little drunk. The office cannot be missed because it is right on the street level and the owner suns herself under a palm tree. The owner, I have to add, is a lady. I did not expect this but there can be no mistaking it. She has eyed you from afar and accosts you because already you are her prey.

The realtor’s hair is long and laid out in black braids, her skin is cocoa brown, she smells o f garlic, her skirts are heavy, and she has a sucking infant at her breast, the kind o f tired, emacia­ ted, African breast that no one would

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suspect o f being a fountain o f the fluid o f life. Yet underneath the wrinkled Moroccan skin there is a well o f strength fo r a dozen infants. . . . “ A room or an apartment?” says she. “ A room, please,” I say. “ And you say you cannot pay more than one pound a month?” “ A pound-fifty maybe,” I say conversationally, suffering deeply. I am eighteen and poor as a church mouse though rich in impossible dreams. “ A pound-seventy-five,” says my lady realtor from the African steppe. “ B ’seder,” I say, putting my pain aside like a businessman who has made a more or less satisfactory deal, •“ but could I walk to the University from there?” “ The what?” “ Mount Scopus -9 can I walk there?” “ Your husband could carry you.

To the Hadassah hospital, no? You don’t look pregnant, though,” she s n iffs th ro u g h enormous nostrils. “ B’emeth,” she adds||to please me.

Her eyes have pierced my measure­ ments and, selfconsciously, I hold an imaginary belt. “ You don’t understand,” I say, in distress at being so mistaken by a lady with obvious childbearing experi­ ence, “ I don’t mean the hospital, I mean the school. You think I could walk there, from Kerem Avraham where you have my room?” “ B’otobuss,” she states and nods and the infant is nodding w ith her, “ ken, ken givereth.”

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“ But the bus is five m il,” I say and sigh in knowing defeat, having heard that a student meal in the Mensa, the student restaurant on Ben Yehudah Road, is eight mil w itho ut a fru it soup and nine mil on Shabboth.

You buy your ticket Friday. If you can afford an advance purchase o f four Shabboth meals, then the Shabboth fru it soup is thrown in free fo r the thirty-six mil. “ The bus is three m il,” she says in good, reasonable Hebrew. She has gained strength and stature. She has made a transaction and is at peace.

The infant has fallen asleep on the fo o t o f the Atlas Mountains deep .in Morocco land and, dreaming o f the Casbah, has clutched at the mother’s dress with thick, cocoa-brown, very delectable baby fingers. You know they have the strength o f a young ox and that is as it should be considering the future o f the land. “ Can I have the room fo r a pound-sixty?” “ Lirah shishim v’chamishah.”

And that is final. I can tell. “ The owner o f the apartment,” continues she — “ I thought you give me a room ,” exclaim I, thinking o f the possibility o f a reduction. “ It is not polite to interrupt. . . ” “ S’lichah,” I stammer. I must have forgotten that every Moroccan is brought up under the French school system which produces salon manners on Ha-Rav Kook Street. “ The owner o f the apartment, a 30

Mrs. Fortuna Marios, a fine Spanish lady (do you know Ladino? No. But you have an inkling o f school Latin and a basic French from pre-Hitler Austrian school days) told me to explain to the prospective tenant that two rooms have been rented by a doctor from Bulgaria but that he uses only one. There is a door between.” “ A doctor,” I say “ From Sofia, perhaps?” “ Sofia,” says the realtor, and you know in your big left toe that she agrees to please and has never eyed a Balkan map. “ So you pay the rent for the doctor.” “ Do you get a percentage?” ; “ A fe e. S ix te e n -a n d -a -h a lf piasters, cash, on the table.” (“ Al hashulchan” is a word Africans love.

Apparently they are brought up on dealings on the flo or and don’t trust them.)

I put the money down. I am impatient. I have a room now, fo r a price I can almost afford.

Kerem Avraham may not be Rechaviah and it is definitely not comparable to Beth Ha-Kerem o f the hills and valleys under the perfume o f old fig-trees but it is free o f rats and quite clean. I might need just a primus stove, a sturdy table on which to cook on kerosene.. . .1 scratch my head.

There was a bed there and a chair which could enthrone any prospective private pupil (teaching is the surest income in times o f disorderly hours and a tig ht budget).

Now I would settle down.

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UT I must explain that I am a sentimental Viennese and my luggage is as colorful as a Viennese coloratura. Also I have not travelled alone before, so I do not know that one must travel light if the pocket book is light. But being so sentimental a “ Yekkeh,” I cannot help.but lug my romantic past w ith me. And no one may doubt that my Budapest-born father is an artist o f ladies' shoes. I therefore have fifteen pairs in my luggage taken from his miniature trans­ plant factory in Tel Aviv. I have sample shoes that I cannot wear but in times o f stress I might sell a pair to any dainty Moroccan neighbor o f Kerem Avraham. I not only have un­ necessary amounts o f shoes but I have V ie nn ese opera programs o f the twenties saved from the garbage pail, discarded by my Viennese mother who fails to estimate the value o f ageing paper. I have fam ily photographs o f those that failed to run away from Europe and were baked in German ovens to plague my young dreams. I have ribbons o f every hue and material that go back to childhood summers spent on a Hungarian lake. I have my father's Austrian passport w ith the word “ Jew" in black ink because I occasionally remind myself o f worse days when things are bad in the new homeland So you can see I travelled w ith a past, quite unsure o f a future in a rented room that had to be sublet from another rootless creature from the Black Sea. So what I now needed were tw o docile, w illing donkeys and a small

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camel w ith a belly full o f water to transport my belongings from the central bus station on Jaffa Road to Yehudah Ha-Maccabi Street o f Kerem Avraham.

T four in the afternoon I hired a Y e m en ite porter after much se archin g among different ethnic groups w ith talents fo r carrying out­ landish luggage. My Yemenite was a tin y person, with a needle voice and shrivelled lemon skin, a mephisto beard, and a very active donkey as a working companion. His name was Yichyeh and he recited Tehillim while walking and carrying. Behind Yichyeh I tried to be useful too, carrying a hand-knitted woollen blanket, part o f M o th e r's dowry in which I was wrapped some eighteen years earlier to brave Viennese snows. In the middle o f Jaffa Road my donkey chose to sit down in a pool o f mud mostly made o f vegetables, wilted flowers, potato peels, and remnants o f plucked geese.

The suitcase on the chamor's back opens up and out comes my one and only w inter coat. It lands on bona fide Jerusalem tile and my Yemenite accelerates his psalms in embarassment. I begin to count. In due course the donkey gets up and the caravan moves on.

Now it is six o'clock and the expedition is over.

The donkey has crept up the fifteen stairs.

Five times, because the suitcase has opened up again and lost its Austrian bottom . The porter, there-

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upon, has climbed up and down eleven times. I, Rivkah, have made the trip seven times and lost one slipper in transit plus one Tel Aviv concert pro­ gram. I paid the porter three-quarters o f my weekly rent and fe lt redeemed and cleansed. (It is only the amount o f three lunches.) I unpacked tw o saucers and a raw tomato purchased at the Central Tel Aviv Bus Station before departure and one o f Hagar’s olives.

(Hagar is my mother’s maid, another African compendium w ith the shrewd­ ness o f a Rumanian gypsy.)

A t nine the room looks like a room.

I have seen a mousetail but no mouse. I smelled kerosene but saw no bed bugs.

I had beaten the mattress with an old broom loaned by Fortuna the landlady.

T ten my neighbor comes in. He is an orangutang w ith a degree in medicine from Bologna and a former practice in Sofia and widowed and childless through the German baking process.

We speak German and I give him a m onth’s rent in advance.

His name is Yehoshuah.

He is forty-six and just what does me good in my new uprooted existence: a fatherly adviser. “ Erev tov,” I say to open up the relationship. “ Speak deutsch, child.” “ Guten Abend “ Komm herein.”

I follow .

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“ In polite societies people intro ­ duce each other. Palestine is a jungle but I, my child, have not yet un­ learned my breeding. Who are you?’’

I tell him. “ Very pleased. I am Yehoshuah with a few aliases.” “ A doctor, I understand,” I say, to bring out his best nature. “ 1 have been. Now I am a night pot-cleaner at the hospital that they call T h e Gates o f Justice.’ As soon as I know the lingua sancta I shall operate in their basement. It stinks like a brewery but I shall show them it is a hospital.” “ H ow lo n g have you been here?” “ In no-man’s-land, misnamed Palestine? Three months. I am an exile who has gathered himself in, and you stare at me because you belong to the kind o f aristocracy that has already, w e a th e re d one o r tw o tropical summers.” “ Three,” I say, and then I add hastily, “ we came in 1939, two days before the war.” “ Are you a socialist?,” he asks me, and I am frightened by the Czarist figure and the strong Russian accent. “ O f course,” I say lamely. “ Then I shall share your Hebrew with you. I also have Fortuna* The landlady. She too is a socialist. I trust her because she sweeps under my bed.

Remember, I shall use you fo r Hebrew instruction. But now get o u t.”

Later, with the door closed, falling gently into a relieving slumber, I could hear him translate a few JEWISH LIFE

human limbs from Hungarian into Hebrew. “ Must have been wrong about his Czarist looks. Why, he looks like a Hussar in th e Austro-H ungarian B rigade o f th e . e a rly nin etee n hundreds.. .”

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

I was asleep in Jerusalem in regal poverty and refugee snobbishness.

I had a roof and a future on Mount Scopus among many Hebrew books and scrolls.

I was not homeless.

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The "Sabo" from Slobodka

by AARON ROTHKOFF LTH O U G H more than fo rty years have passed since Rabbi Nathan Zvi Finkel was placed at eternal rest on the Mountain o f Olives in Jerusalem, his influence continues to be fe lt in every Mussar Yeshivah. “ Der A lte ,” or “ Saba” as he was a ffe c tio n a te ly c a lle d , was th e mashgiach ruchni par excellence o f the Torah world and the founder o f the K ’ nesseth Y is ro e l Y eshiva h in Slobodka.

Born in 1849 in the Lithuanian town o f Russein, he was orphaned at an early age. His uncle raised him in Vilna,' where his prodigious abilities rapidly developed. By the age o f f i f ­ teen, the young Nathan Finkel was recognized as a scholar and his fame spread to surrounding communities.

The rabbi o f the Kelm community,

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Eliezer Goodman, chose him as a husband fo r his granddaughter. Rabbi Finkel moved to Kelm where he dwelled w ith his father-in-law, Meir Bashig, and continued his studies in accordance with the custom o f his times.

Possessing oratorical ability, Rav Nathan Zvi began to occasionally preach in the synagogues o f nearby co m m u n itie s . When Rabbi Finkel spoke in the city o f his birth, its rabbi, Alexander Mosheh Lapides, a disciple o f Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, was im­ pressed w ith his abilities. Rabbi Lapides sent the young man to visit w ith Rabbi Simchah Zissel Z iff, a pre­ eminent leader o f the Mussar move­ ment o f intensive ethical and moral concentration inaugurated by Rabbi Salanter. Rav Nathan Zvi was com-

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pletely captivated by the ideals and personality o f Rav Simchah Zissel, and decided to dedicate his life to the dissemination o f the principles o f the Mussar doctrine. He was soon ap­ pointed to join Rabbi Z iff in the administration o f the school headed by the latter in Kelm. Here Rav N atha n Z v i’s pedagogical abilities m a tu re d and many new students entered the school due to his influ ­ ence. Rabbi Finkel later moved w ith the school when it was transferred to Garubin in Latvia, not far from the Baltic Sea. OWEVER, Rav Nathan. Zvi was not satisfied to remain asso­ ciated w ith a thriving school when there was a desperate need fo r more such institutions. It grieved him to see the yeshivah students suffer the de­ gradation o f having to daily eat “ teyg” at d iffe re n t homes. He was also troubled by the lack o f orderly guided study by the youngsters who fre­ quented the local houses of- study.

There they probed the Talmud and codes w itho ut the benefit o f teachers and disciplined learning. Whereas this system had succeeded during previous generations, Rabbi Nathan Zvi fe lt it. would no longer be effective at a time when the spread o f the Haskalah m o ve m e n t w ith its free-thinking “ e n lig h te n m e n t” b ro u g h t daily challenges to historic Judaism. He also held that these students were not benefiting from the Mussar movement and its attempts to nurture a genera­ tion which would be capable o f stop­

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ping the inroads o f the Haskalah. In 1 8 7 7 , Rabbi Finkel established a K o lle l in Slobodka, a suburb o f Kovno, where married scholars could continue to devote themselves to the study o f Talmud and Mussar texts.

Leading disciples o f Rabbi Salanter, such as Rabbi Naphtali Amsterdam and Abraham Shender, also joined the group that studied here. Two years later, when Rabbi Salanter opened a similar “ Kollel Perushim” in Kovno w ith the aid o f a substantial endow­ m en t fro m Obadiah Lachman o f B e rlin , Rav Nathan Zvi was also a p p o i n t e d t o a s s is t in i t s administration.

The new Kollel was headed by K o v n o ’ s illu s tr io u s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor, and its admini­ strator was Rabbi Isaac Blazer. Rabbi Finkel became Rabbi Blazer’s main assistant and together they infused the new school with the Mussar traditions.

To gain support fo r this new school, Rav Nathan Zvi anonymously pub­ lished the volume Etz P 'ri, consisting o f a rtic le s by R abbis Salanter, Spektor, Lapides, and the Chofetz Chayyim regarding the primacy o f Torah study and Mussar commitments.

Included in this volume as an introduction was the only article Rav Nathan Zvi published during his life­ tim e , although his students post­ h u m o u s ly published many o f his lectures. In the article he described the need to strengthen Torah study during his generation when widely dispersed anti-Torah thought was dimming the youth’s dedication to Judaism. He also 35

attributed the lessening o f religious commitment to new standards o f life which made longer hours o f work necessary in order to afford the new luxuries. This resulted in the lessening, o f the time that could be devoted to Torah study and religious introspec­ tion.

H IL E associated w ith the K o lle lim in S lo b o d k a and Kovno, Rabbi Finkel aided Torah education at every level in his com­ m u n ity . He also served as the Mashgiach o f the elementary yeshivah in Slobodka which had previously been organized by Rav Zvi Levitan and was p o p u la r ly called “ Rav Hershel’s Yeshivah.” On one occasion, during a Mussar discourse, he asked the youngsters who was the w orld ’s best mashgiach. A ll the youngsters pointed to Rabbi Finkel, but he then explained that he rather meant the Alm ighty. With the youngsters now spellbound, he continued to detail the concept o f Divine Providence.

In 1882, Rav Nathan Zvi estab­ lished an advanced school for the g r a d u a t e s o f “ Rav H e rs h e l’s Yeshivah:” This new institution was later to become his most im portant undertaking and to achieve fame as the p re -e m in e n t Slobodka Yeshivah.

Among the early Slobodka Roshey Yeshivah were future Torah luminaries such as Rabbi Chayyim Rabinovitz, later o f Telshe Yeshivah, and Rabbi Yitzchak Rabinowitz, later the Rabbi o f Ponevez.

With the permanent closing o f

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the Volozhin Yeshivah on January 22, 1892, the spirit at the new school was intensified by the enrollment o f many^ former Volozhiner students. In 1893, Rabbi Finkel appointed two brothersin -la w , b o th b rillia n t Volozhiner graduates, Rabbis Isser Zalman Meltzer and Mosheh Mordechai Epstein, to be the Slobodka Roshey Yeshivah. While Rabbi Meltzer left in 1896 to organize the Slutsker Yeshivah, Rabbi Epstein remained associated w ith the school until his death in 1933.

It was Rabbi Finkel who re­ m ained th e Yeshivah’s dominant personality and fashioned its unique environment. He instituted a daily half-hour period which was designated solely fo r the study o f Mussar texts.

Between the hours o f nine to half-past nine at night, the Talmudic texts were closed and only Mussar tomes were opened. Slobodka thus became the first yeshivah in which intensive and advanced Talmudic instruction was combined w ith formal Mussar study.

On Saturday nights, while the Sabbath was departing, the “ Saba” delivered Mussar lectures to the assembled students. In his talks he stressed the greatness o f man and his innate ability to achieve spiritual eminence. Rabbi Finkel often spoke about the pleasur­ ableness o f the Creation and G-d’s graciousness. If man would but sense the greatness o f G-d’s creation, he would properly discharge his religious obligations in joy and spiritual con­ tentment. Man would then strive to achieve s p ir itu a l perfection. “ A soldier,” Rav Nathan Zvi remarked, JEWISH LIFE

“ who does not aspire to the rank o f general is not even a soldier.”

spiritual strivings and ethical training.

The Slobodka environment was shattered by the public outbreak o f a HE “ Saba” was a master tac­ long-simmering controversy in 1896. tician and pedagogue in instilling Some prom inent rabbis had long w ithin his students the desire to strive opposed the innovations o f the Mussar fo r spiritual perfection. He never tired movement. They feared that the study o f relating a sight he had observed in o f Mussar was pre-empting the study the Vilna market place in his youth. A o f Talmud, and that the exaggerated woman peddler was hysterically shout­ emphasis on Mussar study was an ing and cursing at her com petitor at affront to the leading Torah scholars the next stall. In the midst o f her who never had followed this new tirade a customer purchased a penny’s doctrine. They also feared that the worth o f beans from her. She im ­ Mussar teaching was creating a new mediately became joyful, smiled, and aristocratic sect o f the few who were profusely thanked and blessed the capable o f carrying out its rigorous purchaser as she gave him his merchan­ d e m a n d s o f s e lf-in tro s p e c tio n , dise. Even as he walked away she analysis, and improvement. This in­ continued to bless him with prayers creasing opposition also gained adher­ fo r his welfare and happiness. Rabbi ents among Slobodka students who Finkel declared that by discovering the began to disturb the Mussar activities proper inspirational ‘"penny” a person in the yeshivah. As the controversy could be inspired to develop himself intensified, Rabbi Nathan Zvi decided into a spiritually complete individual. to leave the “ Old Beth Medrosh” with In his public lectures and private con­ those students who were loyal to his ferences with his pupils, the “ Saba” ideals. Together w ith Rabbi Mosheh constantly sought to ignite this spark M ordechai, they established them­ w ithin his followers. He related d iffe r­ selves in th e ' ‘ B u tc h e rs ’ Beth e n tly to each student. Some he M e d r o s h ,” n am ing th e school approached w ith a smile, a com pli­ “ Y eshivah K ’ nesseth Yisroel” in ment, and praise in the hopes that this memory o f Rabbi Yisroel Salanter. was their proper “ penny.” Others were Those who remained in the old loca­ rebuked and criticized for not making tion also organized a yeshivah which sufficient use o f their abilities in the th e y n a m e d “ K ’ nesseth Beth expectations that this was their proper Yitzchok” in memory o f Rabbi Isaac penny.” Small groups o f students Elchanan Spektor o f Kovno. Rabbi held frequent meetings in which they Baruch Ber Leibowitz was later to jo in tly attempted to spiritually im ­ serve as the Rosh Yeshivah o f this new prove themselves. Under the guidance s ch o o l. U nd er his tutelage, this o f Rabbi Finkel, the atmosphere at yeshivah also became world-famous, S lo b o d k a became saturated with and it later relocated in Kamenitz,

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Poland, during the interbellum period.

N its new location, the original Slobodka Yeshivah, K'nesseth Yisroel, continued to expand. Rabbi Finkei was responsible fo r internal and spiritual affairs, while Rabbi Epstein supervised all the external and mone­ tary matters. By 1899, the Yeshivah returned to its previous enrollment high o f three hundred students. The -Saba” was instrumental in introduc­ ing a new system o f financial support fo r the students. Previously, the students were subject to the good-will and benevolence o f the local laity.

They daily ate “ teyg” at different homes, and eagerly accepted whatever lodging was offered to them. It pained Rav Nathan Zvi to see his students dependent upon the whims o f others and to be popularly called “ poor youngsters.” He instituted weekly monetary grants to the pupils so they could rent their lodgings and purchase their meals. The laity was now subject to the decisions o f the students. They had to make their homes attractive and the meals tasteful to gain .their patronage. The “ Saba” rejoiced when his pypils were now referred to as “ Yeshivah men.” He also insisted that they dress in dignity and the exemp­ la ry deportment o f the Slobodka Yeshivah men became a byword in the Torah world.

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HE “ Butchers’ Beth Medrosh” was now overcrowded due to the c o n s ta n t influ x o f new students.

Together w ith Rabbi Epstein, the

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“ Saba” succeeded in raising the neces­ sary funds and a new building was constructed fo r the school. Faculty apartments were erected in one wing o f the new structure. Rabbi Finkei and his fam ily were later to reside here and their windows faced the Beth Medrosh where they could observe the students at study. Soon after the new building was occupied, the Mussar controversy once again flared into the open during 1903. Some o f the Yeshivah’s leading students opposed what they con­ sidered the excessive time devoted to M ussar study. Proclamations were issued against the “ Saba,” study sessions w ere in te r r u p te d , and vehement debates ensued. This dissen­ sion was further intensified by the general revolutionary spirit which was sweeping through Russia during the period. This controversy continued through the ensuing years, and many inauspicious confrontations resulted.

Through it all the “ Saba” re­ tained his peaceful demeanor, relating to the rebellious students w ith gentle­ ness and tolerance. Due to his patience and influence, many o f the defiant students returned to the Mussar camp, and some were later to occupy im ­ portant positions in yeshivoth com m it­ ted to the Mussar traditions. Internal opposition to Rabbi Finkel’s policies ended w ith the selection o f Rabbi Epstein in 1910 as the Chief Rabbi o f Slobodka, to succeed the deceased Rabbi Mosheh Danishefsky. The pres­ tige and influence o f his new position enabled Rabbi Epstein to gain wider acceptance fo r Mussar doctrines. Total JEWISH LIFE

peace returned to the Yeshivah, and its student body once again began to increase. Additional Roshey Yeshivah w ere a p p o in te d ,^ ) in c lu d in g th e “ Saba's” son-in-law Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Sher, and his son, Rabbi Mosheh Finkel.

A V NATHAN ZVI was not only the guiding spirit o f his own school but he also served as the patron and counselor for other leading yeshi­ voth. In 1896, he was instrumental in organizing the Slutsk Yeshivah, send­ ing fourteen o f his disciples to form the nucleus o f its student body. This school was later to achieve an inter­ national reputation under the guidance o f Rabbi Aaron Kotier, a devoted stu d e n t o f Rav Nathan Zvi. The MSaba” also aided Rabbi Shimon Shkop when he established yeshivoth in the cities where he served as the Chief Rabbi. Rabbi Finkel sent his disciples to serve as the mashgichim in the yeshivoth that Rav Shimon organ­ ized in Maltsh and Bryensk. Before the outbreak o f World War I, Rabbi Finkel sent his son, Rav Sh’muel, to organize a yeshivah in Grodno. This school was later to thrive during the interbellum period under the tutelage o f Rabbi Shkop. The “ Saba’s” influence was also fe lt in the Telshe Yeshivah. His fo llo w e r s w ere among the new Y e s h iv a h ’ s first students, and his disciples served as its mashgichim. The M ir r e r Yeshivah gradually became committed to the Mussar traditions after Rabbi Finkel’s son, Rav Eliezer Judah, married the daughter o f its

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Rosh Yeshivah, Rabbi Elya Baruch Kamai. The “ Saba” later sent his student Rabbi Yeruchum Levovitz to serve as the Mirrer mashgiach. Rav Yeruchum Was to become a focal figure in the Yeshivah and Mussar world until his death in 1936. The Lomza Yeshivah was also guided by R abbi F in k e l through his three students who became the sons-in-law o f its founder, Rabbi Eliezer Shulwitz.

E v e n th ose w ho i n i t i a ll y opposed the Mussar movement later turned to the “ Saba” when they needed help in organizing schools.

When a kollel was established in Ponevez, its rabbi, Rav Yitzchak Rabinowitz, turned to Rabbi Finkel fo r students although during the public controversy he had sided with the opponents o f Mussar. Likewise> the heirs o f the Volozhin tradition were also aided by the “ Saba” al­ though this yeshivah was often cited as a prime example o f a school that succeeded w ithout Mussar studies.

This occurred when Rav Chayyim S o lo v e itc h ik helped his son, Rav Mosheh, the newly elected rabbi o f R ussein, o rg a n iz e an advanced yeshivah in his new community. Once again i t was Rabbi Finkel who answered their request by sending some o f the leading Slobodka students to the new school.

ITH the outbreak o f World War I, the Slobodka Yeshivah fled from its exposed Slobodka location to Minsk. When the fighting approached M in s k ,p th e Yeshivah relocated in

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Kremenchug where it remained fo r the duration o f the war. Rabbis Finkel and E p ste in continued to guide their yeshivah and talmidim during this m ost trying period. A t first, the* Yeshivah was indifferently received by the local population, which consisted mainly o f Chabad Chassidim. How­ ever, as they came to appreciate the learning and piety possessed by many o f th e stu de nts, they graciously accepted them. Many townspeople came to hear the Mussar discourses delivered by the “ Saba.” While in Kremenchug the Yeshivah attained almost its entire support from the local population. Despite the hardships o f the times, the voice o f Torah re­ mained vibrant while the Yeshivah was in exile.

In the meantime, Slobodka was conquered by the Germans. Through the good offices o f Rabbi Dr. Leopold R osenak and R abbi Dr. Joseph Carlebach, the German educational advisors for the area, a new yeshivah was opened in the school building.

Once the war ended, the original Slobodka Yeshivah returned to its own location and merged with the school w h ic h had been organized in its absence. The rejuvenated Slobodka Yeshivah now entered into its golden period, expanding rapidly during the 1920’s. Despite his advanced age, Rav Nathan Zvi experienced a rebirth o f his strength and eagerly continued to guide the school. The student body soon rose to over five hundred includ­ ing scores o f foreign students from Germ any and the English-speaking 40

countries. The “ Saba” organized new schools in Slobodka which compli­ mented the Yeshivah’s educationaL p ro g ra m . These included an ele­ mentary school named “ Even Yisroel” and a secondary school called “ Ohr Yisroel.” The apex o f these schools was the new Kollel which was estab­ lished by Rabbi Finkel in 1921.

Among those who studied w ith him in th e K o lle l w ere R ab bi D avid Leibow itr,' later the founder o f the Yeshivath Rabbi Israel Meir Ha-Kohen in New York, and Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky, later the Rosh Yeshivah o f Mesifta Torah Vodaath.

URING this period, a historic and courageous move was under­ taken by the “ Saba.” For years he had nurtured the dream o f settling in Eretz Israel. Every Erev Yom Kippur, he included this goal among his resolu­ tions fo r the year. He entertained se riou s th o u g h ts o f joining the Ridbaz’s Yeshivah in Safed, but World War I broke out before this could be accomplished. This idea o f emigrating to Israel was spurred into reality by a Lithuanian Government decision in 1924 to discontinue its previous prac­ tice o f exempting all yeshivah students from m ilitary service. Instead, only those yeshivoth which included the Lithuanian language and a four-year secondary secular education in its curriculum would be granted this exemption. While the Telshe Yeshivah in tro d u c e d th e necessary secular studies in its preparatory division, the "‘ S aba” refu sed to permit such

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JEWISH LIFE

innovations in Slobodka. He feared that such a program would profane the Yeshivah’s environment and destroy its uniqueness. To enable the students to avoid conscription, it was decided to open a branch o f the school in Eretz Israel. Rabbis Yecheskel Sarna and Abraham Grodzenski, two o f Rabbi FinkePs leading students, were sent to the Holy Land to select a site fo r the schooj and to receive the necessary visas from the British Mandatory Government. They chose the location o f Chevron, the sanctified home o f the Patriarchs. There the new branch o f Slobodka was opened in 1924.

During the summer o f 1925, Rav Nathan Zvi arrived in the Holy Land, joining his school in Chevron. The new school soon had over 150 students fro m a ll over the Jewish world, including an American contingent.

Although over seventy-five years o f age at this time, the “ Saba” neverthe­ less intensified his activities in the Yeshivah. He delivered many Mussar discourses to the students, constantly stressing their good fortune at being in E re tz Israel. The new generation reverently listened to every word uttered by the patriarch o f the Mussar m o ve m e n t on the sacred soil o f Chevron. He compared the land to an Aron Kodesh; in this holy site, it was incumbent upon the inhabitants to improve their deportment. While walk­ ing along the road that connected Chevron w ith Jerusalem, he removed the stones that he found on the path so that people would praise the Holy IMOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

Land’s highways (Cf. Ket. 112A).

The “ Saba” also became in­ volved in all the spiritual problems o f the rapidly developing Yishuv. He travelled to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, constantly encouraging and guiding his many former students who had pre­ viously settled throughout the land.

He foresaw the great need for yeshivoth and Torah institutions in the modern Yishuv. Due to his initiative, Rabbi Dov Meir Rubman opened the “ Tifereth Yisroel” Yeshivah in Haifa.

He also had plans .for an advanced yeshivah in Tel Aviv which he hoped would be headed by his former stu­ dent, Rabbi Shmuel Fondiller, then thé rabbi o f Ritova, Lithuania. How­ ever, this plan did not materialize until after Rabbi FinkePs death when the “ Heichal Hatalmud” was established in Tel Aviv by his disciples, although it was not headed by Rabbi Fondiller.

H E ‘ ‘ S aba’ s” re ju v e n a te d Chevron activity continued fo r slightly over a year. During 1926 his health weakened and his doctors ad­ vised him to spend more time in places possessing a warmer climate such as Tel Aviv. During the month o f Ellul and the High Holy Days o f 1926 he still lectured in the Yeshivah. On Erev Yom Kippur, the school celebrated the d e d ic a tio n o f a Torah scroll in memory o f the “ Saba’s” son Rabbi Moses Finkel, who died in 1925 while serving as a Rosh Yeshivah in Chevron.

On this occasion, the “ Saba” delivered a memorable discourse, the final one o f his life. A fter Sukkoth, he suffered

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a hemorrhage. He was moved to Jerusalem along with ten o f his closest students who attended him in his final illness.

Even while gravely ill, his pupils sensed his intense spirituality and his continuing efforts to instruct them.

His c o n d itio n worsened, and on February 1st (Shevat 29th), 1927, he passed on. Present were his students

42

and his son Rav Eliezer Yehudah; who had come from Mir to visit with him.

Although the noble Chevron venture was interrupted for close to fo rty years by the Arab massacres o f 1929, the voice o f Torah is once again heard in Chevron today where new genera­ tions are being nurtured in loyalty to the teachings o f the “ Saba” from Slobodka.

JEWISH LIFE

"ASHER YOTZAR” A

L esson

in

M e d ic in e

by NATHAN M. BERNSTEIN Y Chief, Dr. Dagradi, was there to see if something could yet be done. Father Sullivan was there to administer the last rites. I was then a resident physician at the Veterans A d m in is tr a tio n Hospital in Long Beach, California, assigned to the G .l. (g a stro -in te stin a l) ward. We were standing at the bedside o f a man in his early thirties. The alcohol he had con­ sumed fo r years was finally taking its to ll. It was killing him now. He was bleeding to death. He had bleeding esophageal varices. (Those are veins in the gullet that become enlarged and then engorged w ith blood that has by-passed the diseased cirrhotic liver.)

In an attempt to stop the bleed­ ing a Sengstaken tube had been passed into the esophagus and the stomach to compress the veins. In hospital fo r one

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week, the patient had already received a goodly number o f units o f whole blood, but it was coming out the rectum faster than it was flowing into the veins. He was receiving trans­ fusions via both arms simultaneously, but his blood pressure had dropped to 60 systolic. In medical terms he was in shock, in addition to being in hepatic coma. Prognosis: very poor.

The nurse, a “ special” assigned to him, was going efficiently and silently about her work, moving with q u ie t dignity. The stench o f the partially digested blood was unbear­ able. A t least it was fo r me. A col­ league had once told me it was the worst smell in the world. He was right.

It looks like black jelly (my apologies to all black jelly eaters) and the sulfides make it smell like a thousand

43

stink bombs rolled into one.

She changed the bed linen. All too often, it seemed to me. Because every time she uncovered the stuff, an even more powerful wave o f sheer stench invaded my nostrils. I looked at the nurse, at Father Sullivan, and at Dr. Dagradi at the other side o f the bed. Their noses were not wrinkled, there were no frow nsnM no grimaces.

Judging by the expression on their faces, you would have thought they were standing in a field o f blooming lilacs. Jealously, I tried to unscrew the muscles in my face to present a picture o f serene nonchalance — and com­ manded my nose to stop sending me messages.

But more consuming than this terrible odor, was the sudden air o f defeat in the room. You fig ht and fight to save a man’s life, and then as abruptly as the end of a summer storm, the battle is over. And more peculiar yet, this feeling o f defeat was sensed by all o f us at the same time.

As if a bugle had suddenly sounded retreat. And what was the bugle call but the quiet, calm verbal exchange between doctor and nurse, superfluous really, but necessary only as a signal to “ cease and desist.”

Dr. Dagradi: “ He’s still bleeding, isn’t he?”

Nurse (looking him straight in the eye): “ Yes, he is, D octor.”

Dr. Dagradi (gently): “ We can’t keep up, can we?”

Nurse (glancing at the patient with an expression o f sympathy and compassion — it was a silent good-bye) 44

Aloud and simply: “ No, we caTi’t, D octor.”

Finis. That did it. It was over.

Finished the life we tried so desparately to save. lf|h u rt. And it is now that defeat turns to sorrow.

Judging by appearances, nothing has changed. The patient is still alive, the Sengstaken tube is still in place, he is still being transfused. But in those few seconds o f conversation between Doctor and Nurse, all has changed. We are already mourning the patient’s death. His fam ily is in the hallway, totally unaware o f the drama that has just transpired.

As if to prove that the patient is still as alive as a miracle might make him, the nurse changes the linen as carefully as before, wipes away the beads o f perspiration as she applies a slightly moist cool towel to his brow.

HAT does one think o f at a time like this? Heaven and Hell? The Lord and His Universe? Reward and Punishment? Sinners and their sins versus saints and their moments o f salvation? I looked at the man on the bed. Why was he dying? And all I could think o f was that small vein, open, and spilling out that precious red life fluid.

A t that instant, o f all things, I th o u g h t o f the Hebrew blessing, “ Asher Yotzar.” ‘ ‘You know ,” I said to Dr. Dagradi and Father Sullivan, “ we Jews have blessings for almost everything.

We are always thanking G-d fo r some­ th in g . When we eat bread, drink

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schnapps, see lightning or a rainbow, hear thunder, fo r each o f these there is a special blessing. There is even a bless­ ing recited after performing a physio­ logical function in the bathroom.”

■■You’re kidding,” laughed Dr. Dagradi. “ No, I ’m not kidding. I ’m re­ minded o f it now because it is applic­ able now. It is a blessing called in Hebrew ‘Asher Yotzar,’ which means ‘Who created.’ A good many Jewish people don’t even know it exists. The scholars appreciate it. Stated simply, what is closed must stay closed — and what is open must stay open. If what is open becomes closed, or what is closed becomes open, you are in trouble.” “ I see what you mean, the vein that should have stayed closed was open.”

The follow ing day I brought a siddur to the hospital and showed them the English translation: “ Blessed

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art Thou, O Lord, our G-d, King o f the universe, Who created man with wis­ dom, and fashioned in him organs with orifices and cylinders. It is apparent and known before T hy glorious throne that if one o f the closed cylinders becomes open, or if one o f the orifices becomes closed, it would be impos­ sible to exist and stand in Thy presence. Blessed art Thou O Lord, Who heals all flesh and does wonderful things.”

When my chief read this, he said: “ T h a t is beautiful. That’s p rin c ip le ! So much anatomy and p h y s io lo g y contained in so few words. ’Mi Father Sullivan also had just one word fo r it: “ Beautiful.”

As I walked away, the words o f Devorim 4:6 rang in my ears: “ And you shall keep them, and perform them, fo r it (The Torah) As your knowledge and your wisdom in the eyes o f the nations.”

45

k'far etzion

by EDITH ROTHSCHILD

My flappy tourist hat between me and the Hot hot sun Standing on this isolated hill the vast stillness around Bearing witness to your sad sad tale A tale not known by many I am overcome With unspeakable emotions N ot alone Ashamed to cry I must suppress the flow o f tears inside I must make my rational mind grab a neutral image Curly haired sheep grazing with lazy indifference Oblivious to your bloodsoaked history.

The Judean Hills whisper To m y overheated brain From a hazy distance With the quiet respect accorded the dead How you defended this settlement and this road below The only one from Hebron to Jerusalem A nd after a daily three-months struggle One day A ll your men were massacred 1948

Your wives and babes flee this nightmarish piece o f land.

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JEWISH LIFE

1968

Twenty summers have passed Summers made relevant by Lightfooted but determined Arab bullets Nipping young promising life in its bud Whimsically destroying solid family structures Letting surprise packages o f Hate-filled mines do their cowardly work.

Your sons return A nd I gaze upon their faces & |1 They look suntanned but not sunny Serious but not sad Cautious but not afraid They look like they have faith in your eternity Or they would not have returned To rebuild on your graves* The sheep have gone The Stillness broken only by the music o f Young arms hammering nails to wood Alone Unashamed I cry.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

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THE

SASSOON

COLLECTION

by H. RABINOWICZ N Tuesday, June 30, 1970 the sale at Sotheby’s famed auction rooms in London o f the first part o f the Sassoon collection o f rare Hebrew printed books realized £121,400. The highest price was £11,000*each fo r a 1482 first edition o f the Chumosh printed on vellum and another 15th c e n tu ry v e llu m Pentateuch w ith Megilloth. Bidding was confined to about half a dozen dealers and private collectors. The most prominent o f these was Mr. Manfred Lehmann o f New York who came to London especially fo r the sale. Mr. Lehmann successfully bid fo r thirty-five o f the 185 lots; he is believed to have the largest private collection o f Hebrew books and manuscripts in the United States.

The twentieth century has seen

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m ag nifice nt collections o f Judaica b uilt up in the United States. Yet, inevitably, as the New World acquired treasures, the Old World was depleted.

From Great Britain went the famous Israel Solomon (1860-1923) library o f 1,800 books and 1,100 prints. There is no other collection apart from the British Museum holdings that throws so much light on Anglo-Jewry from the resettlement to the mid-19th century. Other British losses include the Elkan Nathan Adler (1861-1946) collection o f 3,500 books and 4,000 manuscripts, the David Mowshowitch (1887-1957) archives o f 28,433 pages, dealing w ith the work o f the Board o f Deputies o f British Jewry (now at Y iv o , New York) and the 7,000 responsa library o f Rabbi Pinhas Jacob Kohn. Yeshiva University, New York, JEWISH LIFE

rece nt-a cqu ire d the 6,753 books and th ir ty - tw o incunabula o f the late Berthold Baruch Strauss (d. 1962) o f London. The library o f the Talmudical s c h o la r and tr a n s la to r Lazarus Goldschmidt (1871-1950) was shipped to the Royal Library o f Copenhagen.

Dispersed too were the libraries o f Charles Duschinsky, A d o lf Buchler, Principal o f Jews College, and Chief R ab bi J.H. Hertz. The invaluable Jewish art collection o f the late Dr. C ecil Roth is going to Toronto, Canada. It is unfortunate that the priceless Sassoon collection should in turn be dispersed. For the manuscripts to suffer this fate would be a literary catastrophe. Heichal Shlomoh, the Jewish National University Library, and Bar Man University would surely welcome this heritage.

HE Biblical verse “ Put o ff your shoes from your feet, fo r the place whereupon you stand is holy ground,” comes to mind on visiting the book-laden scholar’s haven that is the house o f Rabbi Solomon David Sassoon. Here in the Garden C ity o f Letch w orth, forty-seven miles from London, reposes the greatest private c o lle c tio n o f Hebrew documents, priceless Torah Scrolls, over fo rty incunabula, and over 1,300 Hebrew m anuscripts, including unpublished writings, that cover a period o f over a thousand years. There is hardly one facet o f Jewish thought that is not w e ll represented in the Sassoon library. The student o f art can feast his eyes on exquisitely illuminated manu­

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scripts, Siddurim, Machzorim, Haggodoth, and marriage contracts! O ut­ standing among them is the Farhi Bible with 359 illustrations. On this Biblical masterpiece -Bj one thousand and fifty-e ig ht fu lly vocalised and punctuated pages — illustrator Elisha Crescas worked fo r some seventeen years. It is an eloquent testimony to the attainments o f Spanish Jewry in the 14th century. “ Oh East is East and West is West and never shall the twain meet,” sang Rudyard Kipling. But this truism was falsified by the fortunes o f the Sassoon d yn a sty. Founder David Sassoon (1792-1884) moved from Baghdad to Bombay, but his descend­ ants left their manifold marks upon Western World. Within a generation “ the Indian Rothschilds” had pro­ duced a colorful cavalcade o f mer­ chants, industrialists, politicians, art collectors, sportsmen, scholars, and courtiers.

The bibliophile among these was David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942).

His mother Flora (1859-1946) was in the words o f the late Chief Rabbi Herzog “ a living well o f Torah and piety,” and her fashionable Mayfair home in London was a meeting place fo r the intellectual elite. She herself was a scholar o f repute. She was the only woman to preside at the annual Speech Day o f Jews’ College. David Solomon started collecting books at a very early age. His first acquisition was an Arabic translation o f the Book o f Ruth printed in Bombay in 1859 which he obtained from a Jewish 49

playmate in Bombay. “ One may in a single hour earn a share in the world to come, whilst another may take many years to become w orthy o f it.” This Talmudic adage comes to mind when visiting the home o f David Solomon Sassoon.

Though the library was begun only six decades ago, it contains one o f the w orld’s greatest private collections.

Sassoon travelled extensively to Egypt and Yemen, as well as the Holy Land, and by 1919 had amassed nearly five hundred manuscripts. During the next fifteen years he added another seven hundred manuscripts to his collection.

A number were acquired at public auction in London from the collec­ tions o f Lord Amhurst, George A. Crawley, Lord Vernon, and the Duke o f Sussex. Bibliophile rather than businessman, and a scholar o f note, David Solomon Sassoon devoted his entire life to the accumulation o f a library and was always m indful o f the advice o f Yehudah Ibn Tibbon o f Lunel (1121-1190).-“ make your books your companions and let your books and shelves be your pleasure ground and gardens.” In 1932 he published a two-volume catalogue o f his collection entitled Ohel David. In these 1,112 pages (plus 276 pages o f indices) he graphically describes 1,153 o f his manuscripts. The catalogue, w ith its seventy-three illustrations, is a monu­ mental piece o f scholarship.

T he Sassoon collection is a treasure house o f Biblical codices. It has the Shem Tov Bible. This 768 p ag e-cod ex, written in the 14th 50

century by Rabbi Shem Tov Avrohom Gaon, also has a genealogy o f the Exilarchs. The collection is particu­ larly rich in liturgical manuscripts.

Twenty-four different rites, ranging from Avignon to Yemen and from Persia to Corfu, illustrate differences in Synagogue services.

The historical writings throw light on a number o f dark periods in Jewish history. Diaries, correspond­ ence, marriage contracts, and memoirs provide insight into the customs and attitudes o f former days. Other impor­ tant manuscripts include Maimonides’ Arabic commentary to the second Order o f the Mishnah which contain the first version o f the work w ith the author’s own corrections and addi­ tions. The Machzor o f V itry is o f great human interest. This tw elfth century, 596-page codex had changed hands at least twenty-one times; that at any rate is the number o f persons who in turn signed their names on the fly leaf.

The Sassoon collection is par­ ticularly rich in books printed in the East. It contains 298 Hebrew and A ra b ic p u b lic a tio n s p rin te d in Baghdad, 260 volumes dealing with the life and literature o f the Jews in Cochin and valuable material relating to the Jewish comm unity in China.

FTER the Austrian Anschluss in 1938, David Solomon Sassoon began to disperse his library to d iffe r­ ent locations. In his diary on A pril 11, 1938 he noted: “ I was afraid lest the Nazis bombard London. I fe lt it my duty to preserve my manuscripts. I

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to o k a number o f them to the Winchester Safe Deposit, Broad Street, London. I placed them in the strong­ room. I embraced them. I kissed them and I reflected whether I should ever set my eyes on them again.” Un­ happily Sassoon’s premonitions were well warranted. He never saw his manuscripts again. Bombed out o f his L o n d o n h o m e , he s e ttle d in Letchworth, where he threw himself heart and soul into the task o f helping refugees and other victims. He'died in 1942 and it was his son Rabbi S o lo m o n David Sassoon who re­ assembled the famous Sassoon collec­ tion. “ I hope that after finishing w ith th e p rin tin g o f my catalogue o f Hebrew and Samaritan manuscripts,” the bibliophile father had w ritte n ,'” ! w ill find leisure in cataloguing or at least indexing my printed books.”

David Solomon Sassoon never found the ‘ -leisure” fo r publishing a catalogue o f his printed books but today after twenty-eight years these books are listed in the sumptuously illustrated Sotheby catalogue.

O our knowledge there are in the world today some 150 titles o f Hebrew incunabula, books o f the Bible printed before 1500. Seventy o f them are in the British Museum, while the Sassoon collection is selling fo rty incunabula and twenty-eight printed in vellum. O f great value is the commen­ tary on the Chumosh by the scholar a n d p o e t A v ro h o m Ib n Ezra (1089-1164) which was printed in

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Naples in 1488, and Chovoth HaLevovoth (‘‘Duties o f the Heart” ) by B achya ben Yoseph Ibn Pakuda (1050-1120), w ritten in Arabic and translated into Hebrew by Yehudah Ibn Tibbon and printed in Naples in 1489.

F irs t editions abound. They in c lu d e the firs t medical treatise printed in Hebrew (1481), the Canon o f Avicenna, the first medical book printed in Hebrew in 1491, Pardes Shoshanim by Yoseph ben Yitzchok Penco, the firs t dramatic poem w ritten in Hebrew and printed in Amsterdam in 1673, and Shelomo ben Avrohom ben Adereth’s Teshuvoth, the only work o f Rabbinic Responsa printed in the 15th century, probably at Rome.

Im po rtan t, too, is the Travelogue (Masaoth) o f Rabbi Binyomin o f Tudela, the 12th century Spanish rabbi, who visited close to 300 places in a travel sequer*ce covering in turn France, Italy, Greece, Syria, the Holy Land, Iraq, and the Persian G u lf area.

Only one other copy o f this edition printed by Abraham Usque in Ferrara in 1556 is extant. N ot even the British Museum possesses such unique works as a copy o f the Neviim Rishonim with the commentaries o f Dovid Kimchi and Levi Ben Gerson and the Targum o f Yonathan, which was printed in January 1494 by Shemuel Dortas at Leiria. Extremely rare is Machzor Nusach Barcelona Minhag Catalonia, p rin te d b y M osheh Soncino at Salónica in 1527. Even Steinschneider had never seen a copy o f this work.

T h e re is no copy in the British 51

Museum and the copy at the Bodleian Library, Oxford,is very imperfect.

THER interesting items sold at the Sotheby sale were: the first H eb re w book printed in Lisbon; Mosheh ben Nachman’s Commentary on th e Torah printed by Eliezer Toledano on July 15, 1489; Yosiah ben Yoseph Pinto’s Keseph Nivchar (Homilies on Bereshith and Shemoth), the first book printed in Damascus by M a tith y a h u B athsheva 1 6 0 5 -7 ; S h a 'a re y K e du sh ah (K a b b a listic treatise) by Chayyim V ital, the first Hebrew work printed in Aleppo in 1866; and M itzvoth Godol (Book o f Precepts) by Mosheh De Coucy, the firs t book printed by Gershon Soncino in 1488.

O f special note is Nopheth Tzufim (“ The Honeycomb” ) which was printed, by Avrohom Conat in Mantua c. 1474-80. This treatise on rhetoric by the 15th century rabbi and physician Yehudah Messer Leon was the first book to be printed while the author was still alive. Also noteworthy is the Agur (a code o f ritual Law) written by the German-ltalian codifier Ya’akov ben Yehudah in the latter half o f th e . 15th century. This was the second published book by a living author to be printed in Hebrew and the first Jewish book to contain a rabbinical endorsement.

Sotheby offered also a number o f tractates o f the first complete edition o f the Babylonian Talmud printed by Daniel Bomberg in Venice 1520-48. O f tremendous interest to

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Biblical scholars was the Chumosh w ith the Targum o f Onkelos and the com m entary o f Rashi printed by Avrohom ben Chayyim fo r Yoseph Caravida in Bologna 1482. It was probably the firs t Hebrew edition of the Pentateuch to be printed.

Among the nineteen Haggodoth offered at the sale was the firs t edition o f a commentary by the statesman, p h ilo s o p h e r, and B ib le exegete Yitzchok Abravanel (1437-1508) and the first Chassidic Haggodah printed in Lemberg in 1794. Altogether there were on sale 186 items, the firs t part o f a collection which represents every sphere o f classical Jewish thought and th e fin e s t e x a m p le s o f Hebrew typography.

JEWISH LIFE

B o o k B eview s A

CARTOGRAPHIC

AND

HISTORICAL

MASTERPIECE

by ISAAC L. SWIFT

ATLAS OF ISRAEL, by Government of Israel Department o f Surveys; Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Co., 1970, $130

and o f her natural and human resources, with painstaking thoroughness, with scholar­ ship o f the highest order, and with a lucidity of text and clarity of map that make it a N few countries is one as aware as in veritable masterpiece and a mine o f informa­ Israel o f the sense of history in the tion alike ^or the specialist and the layman. making existing side by side with history of It is possible to describe this magnifi­ events long past. For resident and tourist cent work only in superlatives. The arrange­ alike, monuments o f great antiquity, and all ment of the material leaves nothing to be the evidence o f a people taking its bold desired. The accuracy o f the various tables strides towards its destiny against incredible testifies to intensive research. And the odds, together bear witness to this extra­ scope and range of the subjects dealt with ordinary characteristic o f the Holy Land in bear eloquent testimony to an editorial skill which history is not static but unfolds which is matched only by the splendid before their very eyes. craftsmanship o f the cartographers.

The present volume conveys this rare feature o f Israel’s past and present superbly.

A COMPREHENSIVE WORK History and geography merge in it to give us a publication as splendid as any o f its kind HERE have, o f course, been earlier produced in any country. Here are pre­ atlases of the Holy Land, but the sented ¿very aspect of Israel’s life and story, present volume excels them all, and even

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RABBI DR. SWIFT, Rav of Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, New Jersey, is a widely known orator and writer. His reviews have appeared in previous issues o f JEWISH LIFE.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

outshines the masterly Hebrew Atlas o f Israel published some years ago by the Department o f Surveys and the Bialik Insti­ tute.

Some o f the earlier atlases were de­ voted to an understanding o f the Bible, notable among them George Adam Smith’s

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“ Historical Atlas o f the Holy Land,” and Herbert Mays’ more recent “ Oxford Bible A t la s . ” O th e rs , especially the British Government’s Survey, were designed to effect and facilitate land registry. Our pre­ sent “ Atlas” achieves both aims, and goes far beyond both, covering every conceivable aspect o f the country’s history and of its physical, human, and economic geography.

Each map is illumined by an explana­ tory essay, each essay the work o f an expert in the particular field dealt with, and each a model o f brevity and conciseness.

For the lay reader the sections on such subjects as geology and geomorphol­ ogy, hydrology, botany, and zoology, will be of little compelling interest. These, and other scientific and technical matters, are topics which he may well feel are best left to the specialist, though he cannot fail to note the comprehensiveness of the work.

the series o f maps headed “ The Powers that Ruled over the Holy Land,” showing thef areas of the world ruled by the great empires from the Egypt o f 1500 B.C.E. to the British Empire o f 1920, and showing, in th a t setting, the vital central position occupied by the Holy Land as the link be­ tw een the far-flung territories of the dominant powers of each era.

The history section does not by any means end there, fo r we are given in remark­ able procession the history o f the country itself, from the earliest Patriarchal times, through the period o f the monarchy, and on through every ebb and flow o f fortune and adversity which the Land of Israel under­ went. It is a picture o f processes rather than

o f static conditions. The division of the kingdom, the fall of Samaria, exile and re­ turn, the Hasmonean revolt,; the Roman occupation, the risings against Rome, the Byzantine period, Arab rule, the wars o f the UNFOLDING HISTORY Crusaders, the Mamluks and the Ottomans, on to our own century and the period of the British Mandate B all are set out in vivid UT some sections do claim the study o f the layman, and will assuredly maps and lucid texts, so that history and geography become one in extraordinary command his interest alike with that o f the specialist. Thus, the section on history will fashion. And all combine to show the certainly hold his rapt attention as it un­ Jewish people’s , continuous and unbroken folds before him the fu ll story o f the Holy connection with the land from the days of Joshua to our own time, through every Land from the days of remote antiquity to our own day; the key position which it vicissitude of exile and homecoming.

Full use is made o f all the classic occupies at the cross-roads of three contin­ ents, making it the coveted target of sources of information, scriptural, archaeol­ empires, ancient and modern. Through the ogical, and historical. Worthy o f special country that was to become the Land of mention in this regard to readers o f JEWISH LIFE is the cartography of the period of Israel passed the caravans of trade and the chariots o f war; and the power that con­ Mishnah and Talmud, fo r these monuments trolled this strip o f territory in the eastern of our literary heritage abound in geographi­ Mediterranean had access to immeasurable cal data that have been collected and gain and conquest. So the Holy Land be­ collated in Klein’s “ Sepher Ha-Yishuv” o f came ift'to mix my metaphor — the rope, as which fu ll advantage has been taken by the it were, in a series of historic tugs-o’-war; editors. and so it is to this day, as contemporary The crowning element of this superb events but too painfully make clear. historical section o f the “ Atlas” is that deal­ Nothing could present this aspect o f ing with Israel’s rebirth — the War o f Inde­ the land’s history with greater clarity than pendence, the Sinai Campaign, and the

B

54

JEWISH LIFE

imperishable glories o f the Six-Day War. standard o f health o f Israel’s population, Each o f these historic events is made clear and would have given grounds for sober by maps that should be familiar to every rejoicing: the Life Expectancy o f males rose lover o f Zion, and that present the clash o f in Israel from 64.1 years in 1949 to 70.4 opposing armies and air-forces in unforget­ years in 1968; and of females from 65.9 table manner. years in 1949 to 73.6 years in 1968 — more The interest o f the layman need not favourable even than the figures fo r the be confined to the historical section o f the United States! work. That dealing with Population and Demographic Parameters must surely lay A REGRETTABLE OMISSION claim to the fascinated and grateful atten­ tion o f every Jew. The vital statistics, for HE section o f the ‘‘Atlas” on Educa­ instance, tell a story in map and tabulation tion likewise deserves the close atten­ that should evoke the highest degree o f tion o f JEWISfLTJFE readers. The tabula­ pride — and thanksgiving — in every Jewish tion o f the numbers and categories of breast. To learn that the Infant M ortality primary schools w State schools, State Reli­ Rate in Israel dropped in seven years by gious schools, and Independent schools >over 22%, and was lower in 1965 than that tells its own tale o f the struggle that has o f all but eight other countries in the world, characterised the Israeli ¡educational scene is to learn that'Israel’s standard o f health, since the rebirth o f the State. and, therefore, by inference, her standard o f The story o f secondary and higher living, have risen remarkably. I wonder that education also unfolds in the maps and the author o f that particular essay did not accompanying essays. But on this important include a table showing Life Expectancy in section i may not fail to make an adverse Israel. Such a table would have given equally comment. The ‘‘Atlas” as a whole is o f so dramatic evidence o f a sharp rise in the high a standard and is so comprehensive

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NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

55

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throughout that an omission assumes the proportions o f a major defect. Such a defect stares the reader in the face: there is no reference whatsoever in this section to the great yeshivoth which adorn the Holy Land and which are not the least o f its glories.

That the universities and scientific and technical institutes are listed with their numbers o f students is altogether proper.

They comprise an integral and essential part o f a land in which the propagation o f learn­ ing, and research in the humanities and sciences, are fittin g ly reverenced. But why no mention o f the great seats o f Talmudic learning? Surely, if Israel is to be true to herself and to the unparalleled story o f our people, the study and propagation o f Torah must occupy a sovereign place in her con­ cerns, and therefore in any portrait o f the land and its people compiled in this Atlas form . Subtract from Israel - Heaven forbid!

M her Yeshivoth, the great centers fo r the advancement o f Torah, and you have but another Levantine state, to which we would indeed be bound by ties o f history, and of

kinship with her citizens, but by no bonds of identity with her ultimate destiny.

AN ENDURING MASTERPIECE HERE is little else to criticise in this masterly work; there is much else to praise. Not the least praiseworthy feature o f the “ Atlas” is that not a syllable in its entire extent is propagandist in manner or in m oti­ vation. Every essay has been written and every map drawn with complete scholarly objectivity. That the reader - if he be himself objective -f' cannot but infer from the work that Israel has wrought marvels, is a tribute to her achievements, not a result of tendentious writing by the contributors.

Although some o f the statistics .in the later sections of the work will become out­ dated by later — and, G-d willing, greater— statistical records, it is safe to predict that the 1970 “ Atlas o f Israel” will have a permanent place in the chronicles o f an eternal people. We may well apply to it Ben Jonson’s words and say that it is “ not for an age but fo r all time.’ ’* \

T

A S CO LO M AN N SEES GO LDM ANN

by NATHANIEL ZELIKOW T H E AU TO BIO G R APH Y OF NAHUM GOLDMANN; New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969, 343 p., $7.95.

B

Y its very nature, every autobiography tivity. Nevertheless, the reader must be on is subjective. Nahum Goldmann warns constant guard for the all too frequent the read-er that he makes no claim to objecevaluations o f ideas and events, which some­

MR. ZELIKOW is an Executive Board m em ber o f the American-lsrael Public Affairs Committee fo r over fifteen years. A former Vice President o f Hapoel Hamizrachi and Delegate to World Zionist Congresses, he resides and practices law in Manhattan.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

how gives one the feeling that Goldmann has attempted to detach himself from the facts and has endeavored to interpret as an objective history the currents which have shaped the last fifty years o f Jewish life. He is not certain whether “ fate or his own character” involved him in the crucial ques57

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lions o f Jewish life in the past few decades* But, unlike contemporaries like Weizmann and Ben Gurion, who limited themselves to Zionist problems, Goldmann believes*j he con tribu te d to the solution of Jewish problems on a world scale.

This book must prove to be controver­ sial since Nahum Goldmann, as a person, his ideas, methods, and place in Jewish history, have been highly controversial. Yet, he is likewise high ly provocative. In this lies the value o f this work. In the recounting o f the decisions which shaped the course o f a generation, exposed to the hectic experi­ ences o f war and holocaust, the re-creation of a Jewish State, and the recurrent need for defense against the Arab confrontation, Dr. Goldmann files his brief on behalf of the validity o f his own ideas, and either the correctness o f the decisions taken by Jewish leadership or the serious error o f their ways, depending on whether or not they adopted Goldmann’s views. He carries the reader back to the agonizing decisions which shaped recent Jewish history. In the process we can reevaluate from hindsight those solu­ tions taken to problems which in their magnitude and significance never before confronted Jewish leadership. We are given the opportunity o f weighing again the present course of Israel’s critical problems which still hunger fo r solution.

The ca ta lo g u e o f world Jewish problems encountered by the author in a crowded career as President o f the World Jewish Congress, President o f the World Zionist Organization, and Chairman o f the Jewish Agency, as well as leader o f informal groups and formal „committees,; is almost totally synonymous with the most vexing problems o f world Jewry in the last half century. It includes the fight fo r Jewish m inority rights in the League o f Nations and world capitals; the problems o f World War I I , the Holocaust, and the peripheral problem o f whether to ransom Jewish lives by payments to the bloody Nazis who might use the ransom to further fuel the German war machine; the issue o f the Partition Plan for Palestine; whether to declare or delay Jewish State Independence, after the United IMOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

Nations approval; acceptance o f war repara­ tion payments by Germany for the Jewish people and the State o f Israel; and the con­ tinuing problem of Arab-Jewish relations and the role o f the Jewish State.

HIS book has already enflamed the emotions of critics, who have rushed into print with bitter attacks not only on the author’s ideas and tactics, but also his motives. Many deny that he has played the central role that he blithely depicts. What is more certain, however, is that in many areas and in many decisions history has ap­ parently proved Goldmann wrong. N otw ith­ standing, the author vigorously defends his own analysis of events.

Goldmann emerges as one who did not hesitate to rush in where angels feared to tread and yet one who hesitated to move in situations which could only have been architected by the angels themselves. Thus, he can boast o f his decision to depose Chaim Weizmann as President o f the World Zionist Organization by forming a coalition with the Revisionists toward that end. He could then coolly repudiate the alliance at the conclusion o f the elections, by helping defeat the Revisionists’ motion on Zionist objectives, which was at the core of the alli­ ance. When Jabotinsky led his party out of the Congress at this double cross, Goldmann relaxed by “ going to the park to swim and play tennis,” This brashness is only matched by his utter hesitancy in having Jews declare the independence o f the Jewish State after partition. He cautioned delay. Delay might appease the emotions o f the Arabs, he thought. Few would doubt today that such delay would have been fatal to Jewish independence. The UN Resolution had hardly been recorded when Arab armies marched on all o f Israel’s borders in order to prevent by force the birth of the State, which was enabled to withstand and defeat the onslaught o f its neighbors by the use of the sovereign power of an independent state.

T

Dr. Goldmann considers his success in n e g o tia tin g reparations from post-war Germany as one of his most exciting and 59

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successful achievements. He blunts the moral argument in favor of its pragmatic advantages. He seems intrigued by the in­ genuity o f the novel principle established for the first time in history, whereby war reparations were paid to individual ethnic groups ra th e r than to nations. That Germany could be persuaded to redress a predominantly moral claim, he considers a triumph o f momentous significance. Despite vociferous opponents, Goldmann believes that the positive results o f this policy are accepted and obvious today.

argues. The validity o f the argument — Jews th ro u g h o u t the Diaspora have been a uniquely structured “ people” - does not necessarily lead to the “ neutral state" idea that Goldmann advocates. “ Unique" does not necessarily mean “ neutral." His critics ascribe some part o f this plan also to what they consider Goldmann’s inherent tim id ity and hesitancy in the face o f d iffic u lt obstacles.

This is a highly readable book, which should keep the reader absorbed, except perhaps fo r the first few chapters, where the author has mixed the facts o f his early years RAB-ISRAEL relations is another area with too much evaluation o f his own where the author's views have not yet achievements, as if laying the foundation for found acceptance. Peaceful relations with the authority o f his views. Expressed or the Arab states is a touchstone to the sur­ implied in these early chapters is his own vival o f the Jewish State, he reasons. This testimony as to his talents fo r scholarship, leads him to a bitter denunciation o f the erudition, writing, speaking, statesmanship, A ra b policy o f the Israel government, and diplomacy. If accepted as true, they are particularly after the Six-Day War. He urges at least immodest. a dramatic reversal o f this policy, not Many passages have real charm. In g e n e ra lly shared by those in power. others, Dr. Goldmann portrays a keen Goldmann offers two alternatives. The first analytical grasp o f the organization o f the is the creation o f a Mid-East Confederation, American and world Jewish communities. with Israel as an equal member. Recognizing Whether the reader agrees with his views or that the Arabs spurn any such relationship, not, few will question that his novel and he offers a second alternative, currently in analytical approach to crucial problems favor with h i m H | the neutralization o f were, in themselves, positive contributions Israel. A people unique in history must be to vital decisions which shaped recent prepared to be unique in structure, he Jewish history.

A

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

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^*EV /KTo TURNED OFF STUDENTS The typical school’s emphasis on abstract reasoning and the assimilation of information may be contributing to the indifference of growing numbers o f young people to learning. Missing from the traditional curriculum, many edu­ cators feel, is an emotional or affective dimension in which students’ feelings are positively engaged in the learning process. The growing recognition o f the influ­ ence o f emotional factors on intellectual growth has led to the attempt to fuse the two in a new approach to learning called humanistic or confluent education.

Still in the experimental stage, the approach now requires more research and systematic training of teachers. This is the purpose of Foundation grants of $315,079 to the University o f California (Santa Barbara) for the Laboratory for Confluent Education, and $182,700 to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for the Center o f Humanistic Education. Both centers will try to dis­ cover which subjects lend themselves to a humanistic approach, at what level it is most appropriate, and whether certain ethnic, socio-economic, or age groups need it more than others. Teacher-training programs at the master’s and doctoral levels will be offered. from Ford F oun d ation Letter

T H E G U IL T O F G E N E R A T IO N S I t may appear paradoxical that the Sephardi Jews, who came to this country about tw o centuries before the Ashkenazim, remain more intact Jewishly than other Jews. The Sephardi Jews withstood longer and stronger environmental pressures, b u t held on more steadfastly to their Jewish traditions and loyalties than the non-Sephardim. The explanation is apparently to be found in the fact that the Sephardim migrated to these shores to fin d security fo r their Jewish ness,freedom to live as Jews in a Jewish way. Those who laid the founda­ tion® o f the Sephardi com m unity here did n o t see any contradiction between their Americanism and their Judaism. The first ones p u t their stamp on the future generations. There are no Sephardi deviations from the old Jewish mode.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1970

63

I t was different with the later Jewish immigration to these shores. . . .

The Jewish immigration from Central Europe was largely more German in character than Jewish. Most o f the immigrants had few roots in Jewish life and traditions, and they sought to submerge even these meager connections under a veil o f Americanism, in the manner o f their Protestant compatriots. I t was a flig h t from the Jewishness they knew in the old world. There was little e ffo rt to preserve their Jewish identity. On the other hand, the liberal outlook adopted on the other side o f the ocean remained w ith them also on these shores. They continued steadfastly in their previous p olitical beliefs, joining here too the protagonists o f social and political reform. These immigrants laid their stamp on the development o f the American Jewish com m unity both in shaping its Jewish­ ness as well as its general social trend. The German Jews who dominated the American-Jewish scene fo r about three-quarters o f a century tolerated their Jewish past but did n o t as a rule display any particular pride in it. N or did they seriously endeavor to educate their youth Jewishly except fo r the maintenance o f some superficial customs and historical connection. The communal institu­ tions they erected were exclusively religious and philanthropic. There was no concentration on preserving Jewish character, conscience, intellectual awarkness, or attachment to the people’s destiny and loya lty to its cultural and historical uniqueness. From a Jewish standpoint, the institutions that were established were born w ithout sp irit and creativeness; they lacked luster, and were provincial and boring. O f course, there were individual exceptions. B ut the leadership and the comm unity as a whole had very little with which to inspire a greater Jewish involvement by its members and their offspring. As i t happens, these traits le ft their mark on American Jewry fo r decades to come and some o f these effects are finding their echoes in the tone o f present-day Jewish youth.

-—from an article b y Beinesh E pstein in The A m erican Z ionist

So the Polish Jewish problem is solved. The last Jews who can be moved out of that country have gone. What an end to a thousand years o f history, with its wealth o f Jewish learning and Yiddish literature! It is the fact that these last to leave clung so tenaciously that is so saddening. It reminds me o f two families from Poland whom I met going on aliya.

One o f them was still in Vienna when I saw them and the head of the family was worried whether he would get a job in Israel. Why, I asked him, had he not gone just after the war, when he was younger. He was a Russian repatri­ ate, he told me, and had been afraid o f living in a capitalist State, but finally anti-semitism had decided him.

The other family had already arrived in Israel and the father said that after the war and the holocaust he had decided to settle down in Poland, forget he was ever a Jew, never let his children even know they were Jew sl- not for them the risk o f suffering the fate o f other Jews. But one day his twelve year old son arrived home from school and said with great glee, “ We had such fun at school today: we beat up a Jewish boy.“ Then, said the father, I knew it was time to leave.

— from the Jewish Review (London) 64

JEWISH LIFE

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