passively accepting the domination of others."
Secularism and
On Hanuka
Our Heritage By MAX ROSENFELD NE often hears it said that the onlY of historical documentationfor this in V reason for Hanuka's important an unpublished dissertation by Dr. place in American Jewish--Iife is. its Israel M. Bider*an on Mayer Balaban, (IYew York proximity to Christmas. -Unquestion' Polish Jewish historian 1963) : Unia., this view, ablv. there is some truth in "The Zionist movement in Galicia, buf it overlooks a bit of historY, by the y-ounger intellec' spearheaded the l8ry, namely, that since about stimulated a general in' group, tual them of a section themselves-or Jews l-having a need lor the- political terestln Jewish history, and especially aspectsof th" holiday, have deliberate' in its more heroic periods. It became customary for the speakers-at the an' lv- revitalized its role. " The Yiddish poet Morris Rosenfeld, nual Hanuka and Bar Kochba festivals around the turn of the centurY, as' to delve into the history of the Jews serted: "For the thinking Jew, Hanuka and to point out the general ,back' is a memorial for the heroes of the ground of the historical period and public Hanuka cele' Jewish Self-Defense."He was referring its problems. The an important vehicle became brations (sometimes armed) to the groups which organized themselvesin a num- for the propagation of the idea of peoplehood. ber of towns and cities to de{endJews Jewish ooln1882, the first public celebration againstpogroms."The Maccabeesr"he lirote. 'ewerethe first cause-conscious of the Festival of the Maccabeeswas Po' Jews to take up arms against a chosen held in Lwow. The spokesmenof at' bitterly assimilaiion lish bit of Jewish foe. . . . The poetry of the little oil in the Temple which miraculously tacked this innovation, sensing its im' burned for eight days is very beauti' plications for an a_walenilg of Jewish ful, but the miracle haPPened onlY national spirit, and the official leader' after the 'organization' of the Macca' ship of thi Jewish community was also to the celebrations. bees had driven out the enemy, liber- opposed a'Objections notwithjitan4ing, the ated Jerusalem, rededicated the Tem' custom of observing Hanuka publicple and thrown out the idols." 'Maccabean Festival' sPread It is because of this militant aspect ly as a of the tradition that, at various times, a*ong all classesof the Jewish popu' leaders of the Jewish community have lation; with it, an ar'Yarenessgrâ‚Źw played down the secular significance that they were the descendantsof he' of Hanuka and tried to discourage its roes, that they too could become mas' celebration. There is an interesting bit ters of their own destinies, instead of
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Jnwrsn Cunnrurs
Vhat is there about the origins o! Hanuka that makes it so "polftical',? You can find the answer in'the Books of the Maccabees,I and II. It all started when Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C.E. and his empire was divided among his -began geneials. These worthies immediately to squabble over the division, w-ith the result that Palestine,which was part of the empire, soon fell prey to aitacks from Syri_ain the north and Egypt in the south. Palestine was finally conquered by Syria, whose King was Antiochus IV. Shortly thereafterl Antiochus decided launch a preventive war against lo {gypt,_ and to do that, h_ehad io go through Palestine. Th; Jews in th"at country, or a good many of them, however, were not too happy with this idea, so Antiochus, *hl"'he became aware of this lack of consensus,decided he would have to do someihi.rg about it. First he tried to win them over by peacefulmeans,_bypersuasionand poIitical deals. He slarted among it. priests_and the upper cla_sses, sh6wing !h"T. "the ;upgioiity of the ireek-Syrl ian lifestyle.He had a gymnasiumUditt in Jerusalem which *""r not only a health club for overweight businessmen but also a Hellenistic cultural center.He persuadedthe Jewish gentry to _ sport the latest-style togas" froAthens.And some of the juni-or priests kft Ih" holy temple to iake pirt in Greek games,some of which cannot be describedto little children. There were many Jews who were arnenable to this trend. A sradual l)rocessof adaptationto Greek'culture (Hellenization) had been goins on for sometime. Theseinnovationshlad split the Jews into opposing factions, one part going along enthusiastically'with DBcrnrnnn, L974
FOR HANUKA Dec. g_Dec. 16 may all our readers Maccabea.n courage their ideals of peaIe, social iusiice and Jewish life!
The Editoricl
musier the io pursue civil riqhts, progressive
Board
Greek fads and philosophy, another part organizing a movementfor traditional Judaism and passive resistance. And presu_mablythire were a great many peoplewho were "uncommitted." Things came to a head when Antiochus ordered the establishment of a kind of state church to supplant all the. religions of _his_subjeci-peoples. This was a sharp break *ith thi poli"y of Alexander tlie Greatowho hai foilowed a systemwhich we today would call cultural pluralism. But Antiochus in his wisdom changedthat. When his soldierJ came to the little town of Modiin (between Jerusalem and Joffa) to enforce this decree.thev met resistance,led by an old Jewisir p_riestnamed Matisyohu, or Mattathias. You will find a stirring accountof this resistancein the Firsf Book of Maccabees.But note that in order for the resistance to get started, Mattathias and his sons had to do away not onlv with the Greek-syrian soldiers who had come to lay-down the law. but with a Jew who declaredhimself ready to obey it. So here the picture losessome of its romantic black-and-whiteness and becomes a realistic grey, because the official spokesmenof the Jews in pal. estine. were opposed to the militant lVlaccabean resistance movement which at firsr was a minority. The bulk of the population was either so far gone in its assimilation to the conqueror's y. y o{ life, or so indifferent, that the Maccabeancause of ,,Jewish
did not concern them. Thus, identity" -with their fight again-s! the along Gree-k-Syrian oppressor, the Maccabees and their fbllowets also had to wage a persistent political struggle to their o*n people of the ne"ott"rrittt" for resistance. cessity question arises: Sras AntiTh; ochus noihittg but a bloodthirsty des' pot, or was he motivatqd - bY the expediencies of power politics? It has been pointed out that the same meas' ute. Iie directed against the Jews were also directed against the other peoples in his empire.- The Jews resisted, so the ensuing barbarity was partly their own fault, God help us. What were the Maccabees fighting for, then ? "Give your lives fgt the Covenant of our forefathers," Mattathias enjoined his sons on his deathbed. What did he mean? Don't give uP your hardwon beliefs and traditions. fighting Maccabees were "The against the arbitrary imposition b-y the .tat" of a single Pattern on all the elements of sociity," says Dr. Theodore Caster. In other words, it was a struggle to protect the principle o{ cultuial diversity in a single nation. The Maccabean resistance was a revolt for "national liberationr" says another historian. But national liberation is a modern concePt, isn't it? Perhaps he means that if the Maccabean iesistance had not been success' ful, the Jewish people would have gone out of existence. We should not confuse the Maccabean struggle, says a third vie-w, with our modJrn struggles for individual civil rights. It was rather a fight for the freedom of a whole people to maintain its identity. I believe that fits the situation best. In fact, it is that idea which is contained in the very name ol the holiday. The Hebrew lohanuka originally means "de'dication"-which referred to the dedication of the Tem' ple after it was retaken from the in'
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RABBT IACOB I. VETNSTEIN (19o2-liou. 2,7974) IDABBI Weinsteinwas a distin' IL nui.hedleaderboth of the La' bor Zionist movement and of Re' form Judaism, serving in f965 as president of the Central Conference bf American Rabbis. His death is mourned in many circles, including our own; we express our deePest condolence to the widow, Janet Harris Weinstein, to the chil'dren and grandchildren. A subscriber to our magazine for the past 15 years, Rabbi Weinstein was'always a friendly critic but ac' tive supporter. At the K. A. M. Temple-in Chicago, which he served from 1939 on. li"'ott"" took a Fri' duy evening collection for Jpwlsn CunnrNrs, ind personally made regular contributions. He made a maior address, "From Amos to Sholem Aleichem," at our 20th Anniversary Dinner, Muy L4, 1966 (text available in our J,.ly, 1966 issue60 cents). He was outstanding on two great U. S. social issues, the struggle for Negro civil rights, and tbg oPPo' sition to the U. S. war in Vietnam. We honor his memory. vader. It does not commemorate the militarv victorv so much as it does the culturai act of iededicating the Temple. Yet even this is too Pat. For the truth is that the Jerusalem Temple in those days was the political center and symbol of Jewish peoplehood. The pathere by Antiochus was gan idol put 'much more than a desecra' ih"r"fore tion of the Jewish religion. It was an affront that went to the heart of Jewish existence. Those who saw this danger in time, and acted on it, are the ones who should be honored in our observance of the holiday.
Jnwrsn CuRnuNrs
Israel
Centrality
,ilfiw
Dr. Jacob Neusner, professor of religious studies at Brown Universitr,. Sept. 6 told a conferenc" .po.,ro."d !y th" Sy_nagogueCouncil of hmerica, the coordinating body of the three main Jewish religious branches, that he did not think that Israel was central in the cultural life of Jews. He contended that Israel, as the center of Jewish scholarship, o'is curiously unproductive" as he contrasted the ,,actual achievements" of American and modern Israeli scholars. flr. Neusner doubted whether Israel was the "national spiritual center of Judaism." He pointe.d to the appointment of young American Jewish scholars to Israeli universities in the field of Jewish studies. "One must wonder.', he asked, "who serves as the ,spiritual center' for whom?" "I do not think a great many American Jews would Concede that the Israeli rabbinate constitutes the .senuine Jewish type."' Dr. Neusner also said that Israel "is the last best thing we have from our cornmon heritage in Europe', but that o'so far as Jews are human and live within the human condition. Zionism and Israel cannot a.,d dc, r,oi form the center of their lives.,, He also said that Zionism and Israel "have. virtually nothing to say to the -ir.u", enduring and eternal 6t life,', to rvhich answers must be found in another place entirely, "and the State of Israel can hardly-claim to be central to the formulation of answers to those questions." DeceMenn, I974
On
Questioned
Shechitah
The Sy.nagogueCouncil of America and the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council recently urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rJject- without hearing argument an appeal seeking to overturn a distriit court_ ruling upholding the constitutionality of-the\osJr_eislaughter provision of the l95B Humane Slaue-hter Act. Leo Pfeffer, special counsel oj the American Jewish Consress and attorney for the Jewish giorrpr, filed the motion in the Supreme Court. The motion argued that if kosher slaushter on \ud been -prohibited by Congresi the ground that it coincided "with the requirernents of Jewish religious faith, such a law woul.d be uncoirstitutionai because it would prohibit the free exercise of religion. Oct. 14 the Supreme Ccurt sustained the lower court. Discriminotion
Against
Wornen
Speaking at the Central Synasosue in New York in mid-Sept., Eliio, Guggenheimer, commissioner' of the NYC Dept. of Consumer Affairs and a former president of the Council of Jewish Wornen,_charged Jewish organ-the izations r,r'ith discrimination and downgrading of women by not taking " their work seriously. She ,aij. "Women have not been put in top positions n'hen they deservid to be-and I want you to knorv I consi.der the American Jewish Committee particularly guilty." The comrrrissioner described a long uphill battle in her own efforts to plai (Continued, on page SB)
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