'EW Is H SIVANVOLUME 5728 5, INUMBER MAY 1968 3 rHE FIFTY CENTS BS ERV ER

Human Responsibility Where Does it Begin? Where Does it End?

THE FLAMES OF THE WARSAW GHETTO

The Challenge of The Cheder

Daven ... Mein Kindl THE JEWISH QBSERVER

In this issue ...

PIKUACH NEFESH CALL FOR NORTH AFRICAN JEWS 3

PAGES FROM AN ISRAEL DIARY, Emanuel Feldman 4

HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY-WHERE DOES IT BEGIN? WHERE l'HE JEWISH OBSERVER is published DoEs IT END?, Yaakov Jacobs ...... 7 monthly, except July and August, by the Agudath Israel of America, S Beekman Street, New York, IN THE FLAMES OF THE WARSAW GHETTO, Abraham Ziemba 9 N. Y. 10038 Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y. Subscription: $5.00 per rear; DAVEN ... MEIN KINDT, Nisson Wolpin ...... 13 Canada and overseas: $6.00; single copy: 50¢. Printed in the U.S.A. THE CHALLENGE OF THE CHEDER, Reuben Gelman ····················· 15

Editorial Board THE SEARCH, Ruth Finkelstein ...... 19 DR. ERNST L. BonENHEH.-fER Chairman RABBI NATHAN BULMAN BooK REVIEW: THE CHOSEN, Reviewed by H. D. Wolpin ...... 21 RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS JOSEPH FRIEDENSON SECOND LOOKS AT THE JEWISH SCENE RABBI MOSHE SHERER

~-dvertising Manager WE'RE GLAD THEY SAID IT RABBI SYSHE HESCHEL RELEVANCE IN THE SYNAGOGUE

"1' anaging Editor VEY TO THE SURVEY RABBI Y AAKOV JACOBS No SEMINARS-ONLY YESHIVOS

THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product or service advertised in its pages. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ...... 28

MAY, 1968 VOL. V, No. 3 @!~· PIKUACH NEFESH CALL FOR NORTH AFRICAN JEWS

History repeats itself-but sometimes it stops. There are things that happened in the past that just won't happen again. One of the most vexing problems arising out of the founding of the State of Israel and the subsequent kibutz goliyos, has been the adjustment of religious Jews from Arab lands to the conditions of a modern, Westernized society. In many instances Jews coming from ancient communities skipped over several centuries in the few hours of an air flight to Israel. In tragically too many cases, Jews who had tenaciously clung to their faith, were quickly weaned from their old beliefs-especially the children. Having lived in a society so far behind the times, they came to Israel with a lack of sophistication, unschooled in the ways of the modern world. They were easy prey to the tempta­ tions of twentieth-century society-ever more so when it was forced upon them under the guise of acculturation. A side effect of the Six Day War was to jar loose from their moorings what was the last remaining Jewish community of major proportions in North Africa. On the heels of a growing renaissance of Torah life, generated among others by the Ozar Hatorah school network, these Jews found themselves no longer welcome in their adopted land and they have now come to Israel to rebuild their lives. Again Orthodoxy faces the challenge of doing everything possible to assist these Jews to adjust to their new lives, and to maintain the Messorah among them and their children. This is the last such challenge-the last opportunity-to salvage for Orthodoxy a major aliyah from the East. In response to a call from the Gedolim in Eretz Yisroel, the Agudas Harrabonim, the Igud Harrabonim, Agudath Israel, Young Israel, and Peylim, have joined together for a major fund-raising effort to give our brothers in Israel the resources to assure the spiritual survival of the precious neshomos who now face a threat which they are not equipped to meet themselves. (It is hoped that other Orthodox groups will join this effort.) The actual needs may sound prosaic, but our Gedolim have told us that meeting them is for us the sacred obligation and trust of Pikuach Nefesh. Two things must be done-quickly and effectively: • Provide the funds for competent madrichim who will give counseling and guidance to our North African brothers from the time they leave their homes until they are settled in Israel, and make certain that their rights are upheld to continue in Israel the high standards of Torah chinuch for their children which they enjoyed in their old homes. • Provide funds for existing Torah institutions in Israel to expand their chinuch and dormitory facilities to absorb an increase in their student bodies. History has repeated itself, but it will not again. Two things are at stake: the neshomos of our Eastern brothers, and the testing of American Orthodoxy's own commitment to Torah. To fail our brothers is to fail ourselves. This we dare not do-L'maan Hashem. D

Ille Jewish Observer I May, 1968 3, Emanuel Feldman Pages From an Israel Diary

Iyar 16, 5727 do. But I don't think G-d will Jet us get hurt-so don't you worry." Friday, May 26 1967 "Well, if G-d won't let us get hurt, why do we need When the children come home from school at noon to get the shelter ready?" they are conscripted into service around our building. I mumble something about eating lunch. They are to help with the sandbagging, and in cleaning out the shelter under the building and putting it in LATER THAT AFTERNOON, I come across a remarkable order. din in the Orach Chayim, in section 574, paragraph 5: People have been storing junk and old furniture "He who separates himself from the community will down there for years. Out it goes. Our twelve year old, not witness their comfort and will not witness their Ilan, helps sweep it out, and stocks it with some water consolation; but he who joins with the con11nunity in and food. The younger ones, Amram and Jonathan, their sorrow and trouble will be deemed worthy to shovel up all the loose dirt and scurry about looking see their consolation." for bags to fill. They run in and out of the apartment and get on our nerves in their excitement. They want One of the commentators, the Magen A vraham, adds water, and string, and hammers, and screwdrivers, and this interesting gloss: Joining in the sorrow of the brooms. They have enough equipment to defeat an community means that one must actively do something Arab army. They haven't had so much fun since they to help the community's problems. Evidently, just being saw the Braves in a double-header last spring in At­ around and doing nothing is not considered joining in lanta. The Braves: how far away all that is. a com1nunity's sorrow, and in such a case it is better Chava, aJmost seven, comes in and wants to know, to leave. This seems to be written just for me. I'd "Abba, what is a bomb?" better go out and do something to help out. Certainly just writing this diary is doing no one any real good. "A bomb is something that can hurt you." "I know, I know-do you think l'm a baby? But I heard today about a Yeshiva boy who is spending what is a bomb?" all his time this week studying the Shulchan Aruch on Kiddush Hashem, which deals with how one should "It falls from an airplane and it makes a big noise act prior to his death to sanctify the name of G-d. "In when it hits the ground ... and you'd better not be case an Arab wants to kill me I'll know exactly what around if one falls. That's what the shelter is for. That's to do," he says quite simply. what a bomb is."

"Is a bomb like a bullet?" WHEN I ARRIVE at the huge Ponevez Yeshiva on Friday "Yes, something like a bullet, only bigger.'· night for Kabbolas Shabbos, I find the entire building "Will the Arabs drop a bomb on us?" completely sandbagged. How incongruous: a place of ('I don't know. I hope not." Torah and of peace and of study and of learning­ "Will they drop a bomb on Israel?" deeked out for war. And the motto inscribed at the top "Maybe ... maybe not." of the building, in large black Hebrew letters, "Ulhar "Will G-d Jet the Arabs drop a bomb on Israel?" habayis yihye pleitah"-"And the Temple mount sha]] I'm on the spot. be for a refuge" hits me with new force. It is said that "Well, I hope He won't Jet them.'' the Ponevezer Rav chose this inscription because the "Israel is a holy country. You said so. Will G-d let saintly Chofetz Chaim had said in 1936, that there the Arabs hurt a holy country?" would be a second world war but that Eretz Yisroel Why do the righteous suffer' Job, Rabbi Akiva: I'm would be spared. He had based his statement on this caught. passage from Isaiah inscribed on the building. "I don't know, Chav. I don't know what G-d will The bachurim had worked all day on the sandbag­ ging. The bearded ones, their tzitzis flapping, the ascetic RABBI FELDMAN'S. "It Is Too Soon ...," lvritten after his return students, the Sabras, the Americans-all had joined fro1n Israel following the Six Day War, appeared in our issue of Noven1ber 1967. This selection is frAtlanta, Georgia. D of the black-out-only a few kerosene lamps hanging

4 The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 I heard today about a Yeshiva boy who is spending all his time this week studying the Shulchan Aruch on Kiddush Hashem . ... "Jn case an Arab wants to kill me . ..."

from the walls. They cast an eerie mixture of light and wide open in wonder; still others swaying intently to shadow throughout the hall. and fro. As on every Friday night, Rav Chatzkel Levenstein What we face is serious. extremely serious. But its gives his mussar shmuess to the students. The benches gravity stems not only from the physical danger that are all clustered around the front of the Aron Kodesh. confronts us, but from the spiritual opportunity as and if you come less than two hours before he begins, well. All this-the mobilization, the emergency, the every p1ace is taken. So you stand. But unless you are danger~has not occurred haphazardly. It is an oppor­ very close to the front, it is hard to hear him. He is tunity for us to cleave to G-d, to achieve hiskarvus. eighty-five, his voice no longer carries more than a few He who is aware of the ways of G-d will leap at the yards, and he speaks in a kind of hoarse whisper. At opportunity; he who is blind will stumble. G-d wants Ponevez he is spiritual mentor and guide to the six to bring the Jewish people closer to Him, and so He hundred students, and his Friday night talks center has placed before us the situation with which this around issues of Man, and G-d, and Torah. Abstract can be achieved. He who will wake up and look-he subjects? Yes. But his shmuessen attract not only every w;// come close to G-d. He lvho lvill rernain asleep ivill student, but several hundred local rabbis and scholars not only not come close; he will be farther away than as well. In America people fight for seats to a football ever before. game; in Bnei Brak they fight to get a seat to hear We hear a great deal about faith in G-d: "Have Reb Chatzkel. His words are deeply moving. faith-all will be well." THIS IS NOT FAITH. Faith is .The ongoing crisis is very serious. Nothing that happens achieved through hard work, through prayer, through to us is accidental. All is from above-directed from on study of Torah, through doing G-d's Mitzvos. To walk high. through the streets unconcerned, to have full confidence that G-d will make everything come out all right­ "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and this is not faith. This is child's play. Our 111err are in the curse. Therefore choose life ..." G-d gives 1nan the deserts suffering in the heat of day and the cold the freedom to choose his own path. But he places of night. They are away from home, from wife and before man the opportunity of coming closer to G-d: children. They face death at any 1non1ent. Are 1ve hiskarvus. We n7ust not regard anything as purely acci­ to lVhistle a pretty tune and say quite cabnly, "Don't dental, or coincidental. G-d presents us daily with worry, all will be 1vell?" An en1ergency like this is opportunities lvhich ive can utilize to achieve attach­ supposed to bend us a little, 1nake us a little less proud, ment to Him. We can, if we choose, ignore these a little less self-assured, a little more aware of G-d's opportunities and go along on our own 1nerry way. role in the world. But he who has eyes to see and ears to hear knows that nothing is by chance. Everything is part of a grand Perhaps G-d has set before us this crisis in order to design. give us the chance for hiskarvus. Perhaps G-d wants Reb ChatzkeJ's figure sways gently to and fro. The us to pray to Him, because lie has seen that 1ve have evening sky grows dark outside. The kerosene lamps drifted far from Him. Let's not walk around with cast a bronze glow over the students. Even Reb foolish and e1npty rationalizations and theories. Let's Chatzkel's face, usually white, is now glowing. His react to crisis as Jews react: not with false bravado, black hat, his black suit, have all disappeared in the not 1vith foolish optin1isn1, but 1vith the knowledge that darkness. On1y his face, narrow and gaunt, is visible, nothing is by chance, and that nothing simply "hap­ and his white beard. His bent shadow darts up and pens." down the Ark behind him. His audience is still, some It is easy to say, Have faith. But faith is saying that eyes tightly closed in an effort to concentrate; other WHATEVER G-d does I WILL ACCEPT as His will. We

"Are we ready to give our lives for Kiddush Hashem if we are called upon to do so . .. to su.ffer for His Name. "

The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 5 "We hear a great deal about faith in G-d: 'Have faith - all will be well'. This is not faith. Faith is achieved through hard work, through prayer, through study of Torah, through doing G-d's mitzvohs. ... Faith is saying that whatever G-d does I will accept as His will." "Let's react to crisis as Jews react: not with false bravado, not with foolish optimism, but with the knowledge that nothing is by chance ... nothing simply 'happens' ..."

must ask ourselves if we are ready to give our lives them. No one can observe such a scene objectively for Kiddush Hashem if we are called upon to do so. -aloof. We must be ready to suffer for His Name. "You shalt There is a long preparatory pause before the Sh'ma, love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, with all then a sudden explosion: six hundred voices chant your soul. with all your might." "With all your soul" "Sh'ma Yisroel" -"Hear 0 Israel, The Lord Is Our means that even in the face of torture worse than death G-d, The Lord Is One" ... six hundred voices crying we must be ready to love G-d and to serve Him. This out, nhishamru lachem"-"Beware lest you turn aside is the faith which this hour calls for. and serve other gods and worship them, and the Lord's anger will be kindled against you . . . and you will THE MAARIV that follows in the darkened study hall is perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord passionate. Six hundred strong, davening with the kind gives you." You tremble as you say it; you shudder of fervor that we expect but only rarely see on a Y om as you hear the others. Kippur evening. The intensity, the devotion. the fervor If prayer is to be said with fear, with awe and are so deep, and the cries so loud, and the swaying to trembling, then tonight it has been done. Tonight, fear, and fro so violent-and these are young men, not old and awe, and trembling, are real and palpable and ladies-that you are willy-nilly caught up in it with tangible. D

The Central Building of the Ponovezer Yeshiva in Bnei~Brak.

6 The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 Yaakov Jacobs Human Responsibility - Where does it Where does it begin? end?

,FROM DAY TO DAY, the scope of human responsibility For the vast majority of Jews who are exposed to shrinks in our society. The delinquent youth is a pro­ the influence of changing attitudes in the general soci­ duct of his environment. The anti-social citizen evolved ety, and are therefore susceptible to adopting them from the ineptness of his parents. The disturbed indi­ consciously or sub-consciously, it is imperative that vidual can trace his anxiety to his infancy or pre-natal we fortify ourselves against them by examining Torah state, when he was certainly not responsible. It has sources on the subject. recently been suggested that the chronic criminal may be suffering from malformation of his genes, and, What follows is not intended to be in any way a therefore, his criminal acts are not acts of his own definitive statement of the Torah's attitude toward will, but functions of his body chemistry. As the phys­ human responsibility. Rather, it is an attempt to broach ical and social sciences broaden the area of their the subject and to stimulate further thought. studies (they have left few areas unstudied) it would The Sages tell us in B'rochos (33b): appear that man's responsibility to society, and to him­ self, becomes smaller ... and smaller ... and smaller. Hakol bi'dai Shomayim, chutz mi'yiras Shomayim. ("All is determined by G-d, except fear of G-d.") LET IT BE CLEAR: we are not proposing the outright IN ESSENCE: while we are not the masters of our fate, rejection of all or any of this new information concern­ we are the masters of our will: external forces will ing man; we are not suggesting that there are no factors impose themselves upon us, but they cannot impose external to man, imposed upon him by his environment, upon us our reaction to these forces as they relate to by society, and by his family that influence his develop­ the exercise of our own moral judgement and behavior. ment, and that may at times "compromise" his objec­ tivity. But we are suggesting that there is a growing Man's attempt to free himself of some or all respon­ willingness to accept the inevitability of these influences sibility for his behavior has today adopted a scientific and external factors in others-perhaps in a desperate veneer, but it is not a new attempt. A classic example attempt to free ourselves from responsibility for our is recorded in a most dramatic way in A vodah Zoroh own attitudes and behavior. ( 17a):

It was said of Elazar hen Durdai that there was not a single harlot he had not searched out and visited. He once heard of a harlot who lived near the sea, and he traveled over seven rivers to find her. When he told her the distance he had traveled, she mocked him and said, "Elazar ben Durdai-even should he repent-his teshuva would be unaccepted."

When he heard these words he left her and sat down among the hills and valleys. "Hills and valleys" he cried out, "ask 1nercy for 1ne." "Ask 1nercy for you?-we must ask 1nercy for ourseves."

The Jevdsh Observer / May, 1968 7 "Heaven and earth-ask mercy for me." "Ask mercy for you?-we 1nust ask niercy for ourselves." "Sun and moon-ask mercy for me." 'Ask mercy for you?-we must ask 1nercy for ourselves." "Stars and planets--ask mercy for me." "Ask mercy for you?-we must ask 1nercy for ourselves." "There is no one who can help me but myself," he said. He placed his head between his knees and cried until his soul left his body. and a voice from above was heard to say: "Elazar ben Durdai is worthy of Eternal Life."

Obviously, there is more to this episode recounted by was I who created the illusion that so filled my life that our Sages than appears on the surface. The famed it could contain nothing else. He placed his head be­ Raisher Rav, R' Abron Levin, 1::i"lT, in his Ha'Drush tween his legs. In a final act of contrition he acknowl­ v'Ha'lyun explains: edged that he had allowed his senses to guide his "head"-his intellect. So great was his anguish, so Elazar ben Durdai had lived a life of illusion; nothing unbearable the wrestling of his body and soul, that ever managed to penetrate his illusion and destroy it. he could no longer maintain the balance between the When he was mocked by one who apparently shared two which man normally achieves. Mortally wounded, his view of life, his illusion was shattered and he was he gave up his body and died. But his soul survived him cast into the depths of despair. The absurdity of his and entered Eternal Life. life had with one blow swept over him, and with it came the realization that there was no undoing his life-no The parallels to our time are so evident as only to going back. Yet, out of the depths of his depression. need listing: his will to live emerged; he sought to save himself by explaining away his vacuous life by placing responsi­ • the attempt of the biologists to reduce all of bility outside himself. He appealed to the "hills and man's behavior to a function of his body chem­ the valleys"-symbol of his parents-"you tell them, istry; it wasn't my fault. I wasn't brought up right; I lvas spoiled." But his plea was rejected. • the teachings of the sociologists that man is the He called to the "heavens and the earth,'' symbol product of his environment; of the society in which he lived and the people he lived with. "I couldn't have been anything else; I couldn't • the Marxist orientation that has permeated our overcome my environment. Why am I to blan1e? But society (while we vigorously reject nconunu­ even this plea was rejected. nism") and sees all of man's ills as a function "Sun and moon, help me." He cited the affluence of economic factors; and, of the society in which he had lived. "All I knew was material things; I was brought up in the 'good life.' • the Freudian-induced belief that man can never I wanted pleasure; I was taught no other values. Was fully escape the influence of his infant and I to blame?" And this plea, too, was rejected. adolescent years. Who can say what influences upon our behavior AND FINALLY, his despair reaching an unbearable exist that we are yet totally unaware of. Who can guess climax, he cried out to the "stars and planets "-syn1- what influences scientists will uncover. But from our bols of a "predestined" evil within him. "You tell the1n faith in our Creator there must flow the belief, the , .. I couldn't help living the way I did ... tell them conviction, that the Almighty has granted us the power it rvasn't my fault." to overcome these influences, and to maintain mastery When his final plea was rejected, Elazar ben Durdai over our will. N,:giii ""):S' 'hM1:l,, ("I have created in suffered a fatal blow. "! 'J N7N '17n i:n;i l'N,,-there man an inclination to evil") the Ribono Shel Olom is no one, no external factor I can shift responsibility tells us-but, "·i'7:ln ii"1ll1 i~ 'Tl~"J:lH-"I have created to. It was I who was the master of my will, and it Torah as an antidote." []

8 The Jewish Observer I May, 1968 Abraham Ziemba In The Flames of the Warsaw Ghetto Some Personal Reminiscences n's SHABBOS NIGHT-about 2:00 A.M.-the sixth day to her and tell her we have enough money, and besides of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. We've just come back there's nothing we could do with it. from burying the Gaon, R' Menaehem Ziemba ""~!­ "Maybe it will help you to save yourself," we com­ we buried him on the hill at Kupietzka 4. We feel even fort her. more miserable, defenseless: the great man we rallied to, who so often managed to give us strength, even "Save me? , , , I'm already 'saved.' Look!-the next comfort, in the most difficult hours , , , he is no more. house is already on fire." Carrying away her many brochos, we leave the unknown, "fortunate" woman. What do we do now? Where do we go? Just ahout every building, near and far. is in flames. All of the bunkers-we labored for 1nonths to build then1-havc lT's THREE o'cLOCK. Soon the friend1y, protective cover been destroyed. Some have just been hlown up and of night will go away, and the "blackness" of day will are still in flames. The command post of the fighters­ come with its accursed light which serves the Nazis the old Bershten plant on Shvienta Yerska 34-is on so well. Every day is another bit of churban-if only fire. Zamenhof 34 which the Nazis turned into a stor­ it was always night! Job cursed one day-the day he , age-house for the plunder taken from us, is also burning was born-, we curse every day. · -set on fire by the resistance fighters. From a distance we see people running-we run We run from house to house, from street to street, after them. and a sort of vacuum has engulfed our consciousness. "Where are you going?" Our minds are filled with confusion, with abandon, "They say that on the other side, Nalevki 28, near with deathly fear-a mixture of a strong will to live, Breuer's shop there's an opening to a canal that leads and the desire to get it all over with. into a tunnel over to the ,Aryan side." We run along. We rush by a house; under a window an old woman But as we get closer. people are already running back lies, calling for help. She had jumped out of a window scared. What happened? on the third story, but all she managed to achieve was a "A large group, holding each other's hands, went broken leg. She's in terrible pain and can't move. But into the tunnel, up to their necks in filth. As they came her hysteria is not from the pain but from the dread close to an opening on the other side, the murderers fear that when morning comes and she is found on the tossed in hand-grenades and gas bombs-only a few street, she will be shot-the timid murderers have got back." never ventured into the ghetto at night. All she wants is that we carry her into a burning house where she can die "peacefully" and be saved from the murderous n's ALREADV DAYLIGHT, We hear the noise of a tank look which she fears more than the bullet. convoy and heavy firing. There's no choice-we run Together with my cousin Aharon Naftali Ziemba down into a cellar-an abandoned metal-work shop. we move her into a building that was not yet on fire. There are about fifty of us including some children. Jn gratitude she takes out a packet of money and some There are some barrels of sour-salt. We have no jewelry and says: "Take it, kinder, maybe it will help weapons. We fill up whatever vessels we can find with you save yourse1ves." This may be our 1ast chance to the sour-salt, our only weapon, and we plan our tactics do an act of chesed-shall we sell it? We givn it back to resist the murderers. At the same time, we wonder what to do at night-if the day ever passes. An explosion cuts our planning short-then another RABBI ZIEMBA is a nephew of R' Menache1n Zien1ha, and was with the Gaon in his last days in the Warsaw ghe1to. Followinf{ and another. Soon we sense they arc coming closer to the events he describes in this 1nemoir, he was transported. to us, on top of us. We know we :an't stay alive much Treblinka; fro111 there to Maidanek, and finally lo Dachau longer. When the explosions ~

The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 " ... under a window an old lvon1an lies, calling for help .

hear what sounds like Yiddish conversation. One man way out; they try to break through to an alley that sticks his head out, and a Nazi killer bellows: "Hands leads to the next house. Some of the younger people up!" He can't put his head back-he doesn't want to look frantically to find something to hold in their betray the rest of us. But our fate is already sealed­ hands to fight with to the end-if we could at least we've been discovered. fall with something in our hands. What we would have A soft, but tense, murmur rises from our midst. given then for a rifle, a revolver-not to save our lives, Parents press their children closer, as if to shield and but to die better. protect them with their bodies. Some look for a back We can already see the killers crawling along the

10 The /elvish Observe!· / May, 1968 Later, on the train-transport . . . their seven--year old daughter looks up at her mother and asks out loud: "Mameshi, when Moshiach comes and there'll be T'chias Ha-meisim -- will I see Tateshi and Mameshi again?

walls on all fours. 1n the darkness their forms aren't mother presses them to her as if she wants to put c]ear, but their machine guns pointed at us stand out them back inside her. Their seven-year old daughter sharply. There are shouts: Hands up ... you'll all be looks up at her mother and asks out loud: "Mameshi, shot immediately ... you fired at us, you bandits ... when Moshiach comes and there'll be T'chias Ha­ everyone out one at a tf!ne. meisim-will I see Tateshi and Mameshi again?') Some hold up their hands and walk out. Others try While we are standing, four Nazis walk by carrying to barricade themselves in the rear of the basement. a seriously-wounded s.s. officer, his body covered over, I look at my two sisters-youngstcrs--clutching at me; just his face showing, saliva dripping from his mouth. and I look around for my brother. I see him standing He is ranting: "Ach die Juden, die Juden."-What a near the door holding his daughter-he's too close to good feeling; it's been so long since I felt such joy, I the door and can't go back, and I'm stunned. feel I want to say a b'rocho. But what b'rocho do you After being searched for hidden weapons, we are say for a dead Nazi? each led out by two young s.s. troopers with machine guns pointed at us. An order is barked: Hands up, BUT THERE'S NO TIME TO THINK-events move faster don't move your heads right or left-eyes down-any than thoughts. With doubled anger and vengeance the infraction and you'll be shot immediately. killers continue to blow up Jewish houses. Not daring to approach the houses, they break the windows and We are led into the middle of the street where about throw in materials that burn easily, followed by in­ a hundred Jews are already standing-men, women, cendiary bombs. They systematically follow this pro­ and children-all with their hands high and surrounded cedure-window after window, until the whole house by s.s. troops in full battle-dress. It was quickly appar­ is in flames. Then they are sure of their victims who ent that these people had been standing there for hours either stay in the Muse ... forever, or come out into with their hands up-you could see it in the faces of the children especially. To this day I can't imagine their fiendish hands. how the children were able to stand up to the ordeal. Then I am shattered, even more-I see them work­ But as they say, "Tzores machen alt." ing over my house, Kupietzka 7, on the second floor. I see them throw in the flammable material and quickly the whole building is crackling in fire and flame. I had IT'S SUNDAY AFTERNOON, the seventh day of the up­ no real attachement to this dwelling-it was my sixth rising-the fourth day of Chol Hamoed Pesach. It's apartment in the last year. There was no shortage of the first time since the siege of the ghetto began, erev apartments then ... just a shortage of Jewish tenants. Pesach, that we can stand under the open sky and see It meant little to move from one apartment to another. what's going on. In spite of many warnings by the What shook me up was the feeling that the great Gaon, guard standing near me, I instinctively turn my head. R' Menachem Ziemba, ':>"!!, who only last night was I can't help noticing the bodies of fighters scattered brutally murdered . . . was being killed again. For about the street. somewhere in Kupietzka 7 was a good part of the My eye catches a glimpse at the roof of Kupietzka 3 unpublished manuscripts of the Gaon. -a horrible sight: young fighters sprawled dead in varied battle positions: one on his knees leaning against FOLLOWING THE MASS-Kil.LINGS during the Yomim the chimney, one with his arm extended-hit while Nora'im, R' Menachem had moved to Nalevki 37, a he was getting ready to fire. few doors from our house. After Jews were taken from We all know where we will be sent. Six months ago their homes and transported to the death camps, bands ghetto deportees could think about work-camps. We, of marauders would systematically plunder their apart­ the last remnants, know the bitter truth-all the gory ments. One day of Chanukah, we learned that they details. (Later, on the train-transport, a father, a rav were coming to Nalevki the next morning. My brother from Warsaw, sits with his wife and children. The and I managed to make our way to the Gaon's house

The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 11 Captured Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto

to warn him and to bring him and his two children to him about his manusrcipt. It was after a meeting in our apartment. We all lived together in one room until our home where, among other things, plans for saving the very last minute. the manuscripts had been discussed. R' Menachem spoke tearfully about each of his manuscripts. R' Menachem Ziemba was perhaps the most prolific Gaon of his time: in his lifetime he produced over forty I asked him, naively, "Why is the Rav so worried significant works in all areas of Torah ]earning. Na­ about the manuscripts; shouldn't we better worry about turally, during those days of wandering from house to how to save ourselves? With G-d's help, when we are house, he wasn't able to carry with him the boxes full saved, we can write more manuscripts." The Gaon of manuscripts. They had been hidden-encased in a lifted his tear-filled eyes, and with a bitter smile on double ceiling in his old apartment. He took with him his face said to me, "Write others? ... forty years of just one manuscript, ready for the press, on the entire "moach" ... young years ... thousands of sleepless Mishne Torah, called Machze Hamelech. It was a nights ... you don't get all that back." colossal work of close to a thousand pages, which the And now, after they destroyed the Gaon's brain by Kehilla of Warsaw had agreed to publish as a tribute firing a bullet into his ear, they are burning forty years to the Gaon-this manuscript he always carried with of "moach," and thousands of sleepless nights. The him, together with his Rambams which, during constant Gen1orah says in Y'vomos that when someone repeats use he had covered with hand-written notes leaving the thought of a deceased ta/mid chochom, he senses hardly an empty space on the pages. joy in his grave. But when they burn, they destroy So ... when I see the room on fire, knowing that almost everything a ta/mid chochom has produced in on a shelf stood the master work of the Gaon, I am his lifetime-what does he then feel in his grave? completely shattered. I recall a chat I had had with Doesn't he die ... again? D

12 The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 Nisron Wolpin Daven ... Mein Kindl Heshie's a good kid. He usually listens. But in shul­ The kid's shockeling like crazy, but so what? It's -that's a different story ... Maybe I'm too overhear­ better than davening like a zambie! ing. Too demanding. I ought to stop breathing down "Melech mehulal batishbachos." his neck: "Heshie, look inside!" ... "Heshie, stop Kiss the tzitzis. Tenderly. My lips are still chapped. whistling; you're in shul!" Still, how can you overlook Middle of June, and my lips are sore. I'll probably this kind of thing? catch a sunburn from the first clear day in December! I've got to get it across to him that I believe in him. "Heshshsh! MMM! MMM!' Can't talk, but I can Give him confidence. Treat him like an adult. Then motion to the dumb kid. Scratching the scab off his I won't have to nudieh hini so 1nuch. knee right smack in the middle of davening! I wave I put my arm ar~und his shoulder as we're walking one hand over the other ... He makes like dumb. to shul. Again, and I point to the washroom. "Ye know, Heshie? Rabbi Goldfarb says you're "Oh!" learning well lately. You'll be a real talmid chochom Now he digs me. I nod ... Touch your knee, got if you keep it up." to wash your hands ... He goes with his freshly pressed Heshie looks up at me in surprise and just a trace of pant leg still rolled up above his knee. I blush for him. distrust. What gives? But then he smiles in appreciation Rubinstein, across the shul, smiles at me. I smile back of my compliment. . . . of course he understands. Better ten like my "I guess it's the way he makes the Mishnayus inter­ Heshie than one like his Arele! esting," he explains with a rare touch of modesty. "Ashrey yoshvcy veiseeha." "Don't you think ... I mean ... I feel you're really Fortunate who dwell in Your house! Nothing like a growing up and you're ready to start being an all-around shul. In1agine: me-a plain Joe. Mr. Albert Stein, CPA mensch. You know, davening Jike a 1nensch, and ... ~' -sitting in G-d's house! Who let me in? But who's My voice trails off because I can't think of anything going to keep me out? Me! Son of Abraham, who to add to my list of one. Heshie listens and really means started this Shacharis business ... So here I am, sing­ well. What else can a father ask for? ing praises to the Creator, together with Little Heshie, Heshie sort of shrinks under the weight of my arm. davening full force. He looks straight ahead and heaves a dreadful krechts "Bechol yom avorcheko." that belies his ten years. "O.K." he says mournfully, Every day I'm here. Always on time. Dues up-Io­ and that is that. date. And a good thing, too. Keeps me down in the How long does it take a kid to forget? Three minutes 20% bracket for April 15th ... heh, heh. Enough later we walk into shul. I wrap myself in my ta!lis. left over for four weeks at the Little Paradise Hotel The attarah is tarnishing. Just like everything my . .. Maybe a new Olds ... shver gave me ... The stem broke off the Kiddush Smack! Where did Heshie get baseball cards in becher before the first year was over. The dining-room middle of Ashrei? He slips them back-into my tallis set-1ny naden-was as Italian Provincial as a Califor­ zeckel! Probably the Shamas's kid gave 'em to him nia olive. Even Gertie was- twenty-one, not nineteen, last Sunday. So he hides 'em in my zeckel. but on that I wont complain. And now this tallis ... Heshie brushes a tear away. I shouldn't be so harsh Next one I get J-Vill have an Israeli attarah, lVith Ye1nen­ . . But baseball cards! What next? ite filigree. "Shochain ad morom ..." "Heshie! Get over here; Now's no tiine to show off Mr. Moskowitz again, Gottinyu! So he sang in your blazer to that Greenstein kid. For that I took you Rosenblatt's choir at six. That was seventy years ago! to Barney's? Shul's for davening. For fashions, go to It's time he came to grips with reality and stopped Fifth Avenue!" n1aking us suffer for his reminiscences of glories past! Kids! No sooner said than forgotten! Every other week a yahrzeit. His family tree must look "Boruch she-omar ..." like the Black Forest! Blessed who spoke and created this great big, wide, That kid! At least a dirty look stopped him this beautiful world. Just a couple'a words, ten tilnes, and time. Everytime Mr. Moskowitz grabs the brettel, he -Bingo! gets turned on in the worst way. Last time he thumbed 'V'e-haya ha-olam." his nose at Moskowitz's third wife, up in the gallery. ----··------·--·-- Today he only crossed his eyes and feigned a vomit. RABRI WOLPIN's ''Has Your Son Been Bar¥Mitzvahed Lately?" appeared in our issue of May, 1965. We are happy to hear He's improving, my Heshele. Subtlety with maturity, front hint again. I guess.

The Jewish Observer/ May,-1968 13 "Kail a don . . ." Our G-d, He's Truthful. Source of all Truth. And Hymn of glory to Master of all celestial works, and little Heshie, still busy saying ... kissing his tzitzis so this guy Moskowitz lets loose with a billy-goat's mating reverently. A good kid, really, just farshpielt. Real call ... Oriental this time. Sounds like the background kavanah. More'n his old man. Not faking it up like music from last night's Special on the famous Casbahs Rabbi Rabinovsky up there-eyeing the other guys of the Magreb ... The old goat. at the Mizrach vant. Gotta be five seconds after the Why's Krimsky laughing behind me? Heshie! Stand­ last one to finish or he'll suffer a loss in his erlichkeit ing and swaying his hips to Moskowitz's solo-writhing, rating. and waving his wrists. The humiliation! Schlep him Here he goes: "Hashewewem Elokeichem Em­ down by the collar into his seat ... Wait till after ewewess." Shmone Esrei, and he'll hear from me about maturity Heshie: "Hashwewem Elokeichem Emewewess." and trust! All eyes of the congregation turn to look at my little Heshie, mimicking the Rabbi at his closing phrase "Shma Yisroe] ..." of Krias Sh'ma! What a brat! But then who does the Listen, 0 Israel, because this is what makes you poor kid have to learn from in this sham of a shul? unique and one ... "Hashem Echo-o-o-od!" One G-d, For next Shabbas I'll find another shul, where he'll one people ... "Veohavto ..." Love, with all you've have better examples to follow. Maybe some place got ... Yourself, your wife, your kids. little Heshie­ else he'll have who to copy in the right way! davening away like a tzaddik'l. Elbow in his ribs. "Ezros avoseinu," Help for the "Ani Hashem Elokeichem Emes." fathers ... C'mon, kid, let's daven. D

JUST RELEASED The 3rd Pirchei Record PIRC,HEI SINCS l>JJNJJ >lN

by the CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA

of PIRCHEI AGUDATH ISRAEL

PIRCHEI AGUDATH ISRAEL is the National Youth Organization Available Through of the Your Neighborhood Branch Agudath Israel of America of PIRCHEI AGUDATH ISRAEL

14 The Jewish Observer I May, 1968 Reuben Gelman The Challenge of the Cheder A Report on an Old-New Approach to Teaching

The eight year old boy raises his hand, vigoronsly shakes it; he has a question: "Do you have to have 'yiroh' for your older sister? In the posuk which tells us to honor our parents there is an extra word, 'es' to include older brothers or sisters -but in the posuk that talks about having awe for parents, there is no such extra word!" For a mere moment the class ponders the question quietly; then another boy raises his hand: "Yes, you must have yiroh for an older sister! We know that from a Midrash we learned-Rochel was punished for speaking up first before Leah. Letting the other speak first falls under the heading of awe, not of honoring."

This exchange took place recently in Yeshiva Beth Dovid in Monsey, New York-a school that symbol­ l~:J:J~ izes a major challenge to our educational establishment, a challenge that merits our earnest attention. :r" Recent years witnessed a good deal of heart-search­ ing in general education about some of its "sacred cows." Specifically: the idea that children are not ready for formal learning till about the age of six, and that they must not be overburdened by too intensive de­ mands has come to be seriously questioned. There has been widespread experimentation in this area. The "'•~~ ... resu]t-a new respect has emerged for children's learn­ ·1 ,·~v ing ability-recognition that even the youngest can be ~;;.e ·.• taught highly complex matters if only they are taught to,;r-)i: in an appropriate manner; and a certain sense of guilt for all the potential that has been wasted until now.

STRANGELY ENOUGH, very little of this new thinking has penetrated into our day schools. Considering our high objectives, and the limited time available to attain them, we should be even more economical than others with our children's time and resources. Instead, we all too often pay homage to outmoded standards of modernity, and hesitate to challenge our children ade­ quately instead of coddling them.

IMMERSION IN TORAH A Cheder in Pre·W ar Europe It is, therefore, of great interest to study one insti­ dank, dark room, with rough wooden furniture, ruled tution which may be considered a pilot project-it has over by an ill--tempered, stick-wielding despot, teach­ broken with the dominant day school pattern, and ing ill-understood material through mechanical drill instead hearkens back to the old-time Cheder. The and parroting. The outward appearance of the Cheder term "Cheder" conjures up to many an image of a did indeed all too inevitably reflect the depressed con-

The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 15 ACHED ditions of East European Jewish life; but it is a dan­ The daily schedule of the first grade is not limited gerous distortion to see the Cheder teacher and his to Chumash study. Ample time is given to Siddur and, methods only in this light. The Cheder at its best was for instance, a detailed recounting of the week's Sedrah built upon the twin pillars of the teacher's deep affection -again helped by visual aids such as charts and pic­ and concern for his charges, and the spiritual and in­ tures. It is quite surprising for a visitor to find four­ tellectual challenge of an intense and demanding im­ year-olds who are intimate with the details of the mersion in Torah. This tradition Yeshivah Beth David Mishkan or the priestly garments, or a dozen mitzvos seeks to revive. from Sidrah Kedoshim-but this merely demonstrates the learning capacity of young children, that we so PUPILS ENTER at the age of four and progress, in the rarely fully exploit. The most remarkable impression course of the first school year, from the Aleph-beis of the visitor is, however, the evident joy the children to the end of Sidrah Bereshis. Far from being based find in their studies; the school schedule provides for on rote, the method used emphasizes clear understand­ playtime, but it is the learning periods which generate ing. Vocabulary lists given to the pupils draw attention the exuberant school spirit. As one recent visitor, a to word-roots and the function of prefix and suffix. To prominent rabbi and educator, wrote: aid in the understanding of the subject-matter, the children make use of pictures and coloring sheets. The I am at a loss to describe the impression made questions asked in class show the quick intelligence upon me by these young children. Their knowl­ of the youngsters at work. Told that a "vov" at the edge and understanding of the subject matter was beginning of a word means "and," linking two words, phenomenal. . . . like "heaven and earth," a little first grader shot hack The benefits of this accelerated and intensive pro­ immediately: "Why does the next possuk start with gram show up immediately in two respects. Firstly, ~vov' then?" there is a striking widening of the children's mental

16 The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 PHOTO-CURTESY LlFE WORLD LIBRARY perspective and intellectual horizon (interestingly consists of individuals with a vital and informed in­ enough, when they begin their general studies at the terest in their chi1dren's Jewish education; a situation age of six, they do excellently, even though somewhat which is not easily duplicated in other places. Certainly less time is given to these studies than in other yeshi­ it is local conditions which readily allow the use of vas). Secondly, the curriculum allows for adequate Yiidish as language of instruction--elsewhere this attention to Mishnayos: after completing the entire would undoubtedly be a major handicap. However, Chumash with Rashi, the pupils spend a whole year the key to the school's success is not the parent body, on Mishnayos and continue with it intensively even certainly not, the language; it is the teachers. in the year after, when they start Gcmmoroh. As a An article in The New York Times (August 13, result, they acquire that broad knowledge which is so 1967), reports on research studies showing that the essential to true success in Talmud study but which is level of achievement of students depends in great unfortunately so very rare among our day school pupils. measure on what the teachers expected of the pupils. (It should be added that the rapid progress of the Where teachers were misled into believing that their pupils is aided by the exacting school calendar which pupils were above average, "the teacher's subtly trans­ provides for a school year of eleven months, with mitted faith in the students ability to succeed,'' and classes meeting on every weekday of the school year.) his greater demands upon them, produced abovc­ avcrage results. Where teachers expected little from TEACHERS: THE LIVING EXAMPLES their students, sharply lowered achievement was noted. Does all this contain a lesson of general significance The success of Y cshiva Beth Dovid undoubtedly derives or is it the result of a unique local situation? There from the fact that the teachers have freed themselves is no question that the success of the institution is from the popular preconceptions about how much­ significantly aided by the fact that its parent body or, perhaps better, how little-a child can absorb, and

The Jewish Observer / lt1ay, 1968 17 AHAVATH C:HESED Kindness as Required by G-d

An authoritative work of Mussar and Halachah, dealing with Loans, Wages, Pledges, Chesed, Tzedakah, and similar laws. by the Saint and Sage CHOFETZ CHA YIM English translation by LEONARD OsCHRY

231 pa9es, clothbound - $4.50 PHILIPP FELDHEIM, Inc. A Ye1nenite Cheder 96 East Broadway New York, N. Y. 10002 therefore develop his absorptive capacity to the max­ imum. Write for our new Catalogue It should be emphasized that the teachers are chosen with great care, not only for their knowledge and "Leave the Caring to Us" professional skill but also as Torah personalities who A Superior Hotel present a living example to their pupils of the talmid for Senior Citizens chochom and yereh shomayim at his best. They are given classes limited to about twenty pupils, and they Newly Renovated - are not permitted to hold any other teaching jobs, to assure that they can devote their full strength and MIAMI HOJEL attention to their work at Beth Dovid. Needless to say, this imposes, in turn, exceedingly heavy financial bur­ 375 WEST BROADWAY, LONG BEACH dens upon an institution that receives no financial help Tel. 516 GE 1-5500 from any outside organizations-but the school ad­ Under the personal Management of MR. and Mrs. I. WALDMAN ministration considers this a sacrifice that must be who have many years of experience. brought. If the work of Beth David will evoke the Striet Kashrus observed • Friendly, homey atmosphere attention and imitation in the day school field which Delicious balanced meals • Special diets upon request it deserves, the sacrifices brought for it will indeed Telephone in every room • Shu! with Chazan • Entertainment have borne ample fruit. D • Elevator service • Very reasonable rates.

KARMEL'S We also specialize in: O Salt-Free, Fat-and Sugar-Free TAKE-HOME FOODS, Inc. Dinners especially prepared for weight watchers. 1416 CORNAGA AVENUE D Freezer Orders accepted. We package to your Far Rockaway, N. Y. specications. D We also supply Institutional Catering. FA 7-7317-8

18 The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 Ruth Finkelstein THE SEARCH

The old woman's soul hovered above the open grave. "Yeh, the young ones don't seem to have no use In it rested the fancy coffin-"she was a grand old lady for prayin', do they now? I always say that's one sure -she deserved it" the mortician had told the family­ sign that they need it all the more, but they gotta be which contained her ~'remains": the body of a woman taught when they're young." in her late nineties, ostentatiously groomed and dressed When she heard this, she winced and fled. New in fashionable clothes. In the distance, the last black­ thoughts of self-incrimination came over her and she clad backs of her children were vanishing from sight. decided to visit the home of her oldest daughter where Her soul shook to the vibrations of suppressed laughter the whole family was likely to be gathered. Maybe wafting back. there she would find the one z'chus for her children The last spadeful of damp earth was now being which she was so anxious to find. On the way, a long flung carelessly upon the fresh grave by the alcohol­ forgotten memory forced itself upon her. She recalled weakened hand of a stranger. "Better there in the the time this very daughter, then about six or seven, grave," she sighed "than laid out in the chapel." Her approached her tearfully. body-the part which disintegrates-had been decked "Mama, why do we have to be kosher? Nobody else out and put on exhibition, but her soul was still shame­ is. J'm the only one who don't eat lunch in school. I fully naked. sit by myself and everybody looks at me." But this was nothing new. For years it had been the She remembered how her child's anguish had pen­ pattern. Her physical needs had been well provided etrated her. After a few more crying sessions she for by the children but her soul had been left to yearn yielded and permitted the child to eat the school's and finally allowed to shrivel in its loveless and lonely world. lunches. But she ha4 made sure to impress upon the child that she was never to bring any trefa food into "How can I come before the throne of the Eternal the house. without one z'chus for my poor children?"

She made her way to the nursing home where she YES, THAT'S HOW IT HAD STARTED. She had weakened­ and her human form had lived for some time before permitted her children to do what everybody else was their final separation. Her old room seemed strange doing and they had followed through by "laying out" and she looked around as if she were seeing it for the their mother's body the way everybody else did. first time. Arriving at her daughter's split-level ranch, she Two cleaning ladies were working in the stark, brightened hopefully. Here she would find something cheerless room. The bed had been stripped down-her -or would she? closet, dresser, and night table stood open-mouthed and .- empty. The only thing in view, besides the furniture, She entered the smoke-filled living room and looked was a large, well-worn Korban Mincha siddur looking around. The spacious room was crowded with people, forlorn on the bare night table. most of them middle-aged: her two sons and their "What'a we suppos'ta do with this?" one of the wives; her two daughters and their husbands; their cleaning women asked. pointing to the siddur. married children and spouses; their many friends and acquaintances; and four or five of grandma's own "Dunno. The daughter said to get rid of it, but friends and some neighbors. There was a lavish spread seeing like it's a prayer book, I don't have the heart on the dining room table; her oldest daughter was to throw it away," replied the other. "presiding" making sure that everyone was properly "Just ]eave it there for the next one," she ventured served. The bar was open-a white-jacketed bartender after a while. "Looks to me that nowadays Jewish was serving drinks. People were sitting in clusters, people have to get old and sick before they go back eating and chatting in studied restraint. Now and then, to prayin'. And that's the kind-old and sick, I mean a spurt of suppressed laughter hung unfinished in the -we get here, so just leave it be." air. "Look, she had a full life. All right, so there were MRS. FINKELSTEIN'S "Respectfully Subn1itted ..." appeared in our April issue of this year. (See: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.) bad years too, as well as good ones, but that's to be

The Jewish Observer I May, 1968 19 expected when you live as long as she did"-her oldest AWARDED TO IRVING M. SOFER son was speaking. IN RECOGNITION OF MANY YEARS OF OUT STANDING AND SELFLESS DEVOTION "Yes, I'm sure she's better off now, but she suffered TO THE ZIONIST CAUSE so at the end," replied his wife. AND THE STATE OF ISRAEL. "What I always admired in her, though, was the One of the little girls suddenly pointed to the citation. way she never interfered in her children's lives ... She giggled. "My grandfather calls it 'his religion'." and I mean never. Even when she thought they were wrong, she bit her lips and said nothing ... Remember Feeling utterly desolate, she made ready to leave, the time . . . I don't know how many years ago . . . but as an afterthought, she went into the kitchen. In we were at her house on a Saturday and you lit a the corner of the counter, surrounded by the clutter cigarette? She looked at you . . . but she never said of food serving, she noticed an eight-day yahrzeit candle a word. She just walked into the other room and came flickering mournfully. Snatches of conversation came back with an ashtray." drifting in from the dining room. " ... Three days. And about kaddish ... if you "You know, Mom"-a young woman in her ]ate insist on it that way, I'll give you the name of an twenties spoke up-"maybc it's not nice to say, but Orthodox rabbi whose shul has services three times I think another word for 'non-interference' is ·non­ a day. For about a hundred dollars they'll take care guidance.' I know if I'd see my Stevie do something of it. Or if you prefer to have me make the arrange­ I'd taught him was wrong-and I don't think a parent ments ..." loses that responsibility ever-I'd make sure to correct him. I'd even go a step further; if I'd only suspect he "Thank's, Rabbi, I'll send you a check for the was doing something wrong. I'd try to find out if he hundred." needs straightening out. That's part of being a parent. Not even time for the kaddish. But then her sons And why shouldn't it apply to smoking on Saturday had never been used to disrupting their schedules on as wen as stealing, for instance?" her account, and who knows if they remember bow to "But how can you compare smoking on Saturday head Hebrew. Saddened and contrite, she turned to to stealing'?" asked another young woman who had leave ... but she heard a voice-the voice of a child: overheard the conversation from several feet away. ii11N '1N 'ii? ni~N .,:J '!1'cn ,~ ?-N: 'l17Jtv ,,,, ot1~7JN SUDDENL y THF. ROOM WENT QUIET. Everybody turned ·"1'''Y "" 'n"10 to Stevie's mother-she'd been born a Gentile and bad A psalm dear to King David: Guard me, oh Lord, converted to Judaism. because l am dependent on You. [King David said to his soul] You have said to Hashem, 'You are Hashem; Stevie's mother remained undaunted. the goodness you have bestowed upon me, You did not "Smoking on Saturday isn't a violation against soci­ have to bestow, because I am not worthy of it. ety ... it's not punishable iu a court of law, that's true. Swiftly and lightly, she reached the second-floor But it is a violation of G-d's law and an affront to our bedroom from which the voice of the child was coming. elders. I've been taught ..." Stevie's mother stood in the doorway. A hubbub of voices cut off the speaker: "Oh, there you are, Stevie. I missed you downstairs "Listen to her . . . since when did she become a and I couldn't imagine where you were. Why didn't rebbetzin?'' you tell me you were going upstairs?" Without waiting for an answer-"But what in the world are you doing?" "Hey, Joe, when did you become a rabbi? After all, you have to be a rabbi before your wife can be a "I ..., I'm ... I'm praying for great-grandn1a's rebbetzin . ..." sou1, Mom," answered the Jittle boy, "my teacher in yeshiva showed me what to say." Grandma couldn't stand it any more. She fled from the room to the adjoining den. Here she found her Turning back to his tehillim, the child continued: grand- and great-grandchildren sprawled over the fur­ ."c:l-':l~n 'i~ ~,,,N:, il7Jil f1N::l itvN t:l'wiip'i,, niture and the rug, their eyes fixed on the television For the sake of the holy ones who died and were set-quiet, and out of the way. interred in the earth and had been pious, in their z' ch us do Yau help me; and they are the strong ones through Searching the room, she noticed a document in a whose z' chus all my desires are satisfied. fancy frame displayed between two sconces on the wall above the television. Not having visited the house for And on the wings of those precious words the soul many years, she read the citation for the first time: was borne heavenward. []

20 The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 HD Wolpin THE CHOSEN

him in an intellectually stimulating manner, is well THE CHOSEN adjusted, continuously inspired by his father's gentle Simon & Schuster altruism. Danny, whose father's learning style con­ New York, 1967 centrate on dreary, endless gematriyos, feels that a life of Torah is an intellectual cage from which he must burst forth. How do two Yeshiva boys from the pickle-washed aura "I pity my father," says Danny. "Intellectually he's of Williamsburg scale the heights of the best-seller list? trapped. I want to be able to breathe, think what I want The protagonists of this novel, though solidly supported to think, say what I want to say." by a ladder of graceful prose, have nonetheless per­ Are we to infer that the depths of Torah are too formed an astonishing feat. Through them, millions of shallow to stimulate the mind,-that Torah commit­ readers in small towns all over the u.s.A. have become ment is incompatible with intellectual integrity? newly aware of the existence of another Williamsburg besides the Virginia site of restored Colonial mansions. Such wide popular interest in a high-minded novel about the inner struggles of Orthodox Jewish youth is As a young man Potok did not have to wear the unprecedented. traditional Hasidic earlocks or beard but the fam­ ily's ultra-orthodoxy created conflicts that led him Well, they are called the People of the Book ... all to explore the wider world of a more liberal Juda­ monotheistic religions did stem from them . . . they ism: "/ had tremendous intellectual problems. The have so1ne curious custo1ns they's clung to even though break can1e in my last year at Yeshiva when I they've mingled ivith others for many centuries . . . began to encounter questions no one had answers their lVinning the Six Day War did seem more than for, and then discovered a world within Judaism ordinary ... there's a kind of mystery ... What have that was asking these same questions"-the Jewish these people got going for them? Theological Seminary. "/ didn't even know this This somewhat impressionistic novel attempts to world existed. That's how isolated I was." When appeal to the interest generated by the current "in-ness" he left Yeshiva for the Seminary: ''There was a of Judaism, but the beautifully brushed-in images dis­ tremendous feeling that I had somehow betrayed solve under a realistic examination. my friends." -From a biography released by FAWCETT WORLD REUVEN MALTER is the teen-age son of a dedicated LIBRARY, New York, publishers of The Chosen teacher of the Talmud. The elder Malter, who espouses in paperback. Zionism and Bible Criticism, guides his son with warmth and affection. Danny Saunders is the son of a Chassidic Rebbe. His father, a darkly brooding fam­ The unrelieved drabness of Chassidic life as depicted i1iar literary type, is "raising him in silence." The reader is informed that this is a traditional Chassidic by Chaim Potok would lead the reader to agree whole­ solution when a brilliant child "with more mind than heartedly with Danny's decision to chuck it all for soul" is born to a Chassidic dynasty. Reb Saunders has the academic life. The author never makes the mistake a weekly gemorrah shiur with his son-beyond this of caricaturing individuals: his people are appealing there is no co1nmunication; problems are si1np1y not and likeable. It is rather the strict, Torah-observant discussed. The pained feeling the boy gets as a result life that is caricatured, with many departures from fact. is supposed to instill in him empathy for the sufferings The description of a Chassidic service, while redolent of his future Chassidim. with de rigueur herring and schnapps, reeks of minor The two boys become friends after meeting as rivals errors in detail. The fundamental error, however) is at a rather contrived Yeshiva-lot baseball game. Reuven the assumption that Chassidism is a joyless concentra­ discovers that Danny has been reading "forbidden tion on suffering. It is widely known that Chassidism books" at the library, and is avidly interested in the teaches that even one's misfortunes should be accepted works of Freud. Reuven, whose father studies with with rejoicing.

The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 21 "RAISING A CHILD IN SILENCE," for whatever noble Danny's background were to turn en masse to the purpose, is unknown among Chassidism. Parents realize secular establishment, who would become the manhigim that a child needs guidance. The entire plot leans on we so desperately need in the future? Chaim Potok, a this crutch of silence, which propels the reader toward graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, provides disenchantment with the rigidly Orthodox way of life. his answer at the novel's close. Reuven Malter, a boy This device, with its implications of parental obtuseness, of clean-cut, almost Superman-like mien, will become is a totally fictitious morsel stirred in among the semi­ the Rabbi, and his views on Bible malleability give authentic tidbits. The reader who is no gourmet swal­ clear indication that he will be a Conservative Rabbi. lows the entire ragout. The author is Jess subtle about blending in the concept of Bible criticism: these pas­ Reuven's decision evolves effortlessly; Danny's is sages are a palpable declaration of Potok's position. made with heroic difficulty. It would have been more Danny's ultimate resolve is to attend Columbia Uni­ difficult and even more heroic had Danny opted to versity and become a psychologist. His rather colorless maintain his father's values. In later life he might have younger brother will succeed their father as the next had cause to better appreciate their validity. But then Rebbe. Though Danny doffs his Chassidic garb, he has would this book have become a best-seller? no intentions of abandoning Torah observance. Certainly refreshing to read about such fine, sensitive We sec nothing wrongful in Danny's decision per se. people . . . good to learn they sometimes suc_ceed in A livelihood must be sought and the sciences provide breaking the bonds of their more antiquated customs honorable professions. But if the brilliant boys of ... a satisfying glimpse into ultra-Orthodox life!

'UJe are happ'J' lo announce fhaf conJfruclion o/ fhe OHEI~ Bt:SIDENCE at 1523 58th Street/ between 15th & 16th of family living and to avoid any trace of Avenues, Brooklyn, N. Y., is proceeding institutionalization. The boys will use the on schedule and will be completed for oc­ Yeshivas and other facilities of the com­ cupancy before September l, 1968. munity. It is our goal to help raise normal, OHEL RESIDENCE will be an Orthodox, well-adjusted children. modern, boarding home for boys, 6 to 12 OHEL RESIDENCE is being built and will be years of age, who cannot live at home. It maintained by Ohel Children's Fund, Inc., is under Orthodox Jewish auspices, char­ as a free service to the Jewish community, tered and approved by the State of N. Y. and to Jewish boys who for various rea­ OHEL RESIDENCE will consist of apartments sons cannot live at home. similar to private homes. Each apartment will have housing facilities for ten boys WE ARE accepting applications and inter­ and two house-parents. We are making viewing boys for residency. For informa­ every effort to incorporate all the benefits tion and applications write to: OHEL RESIDENCE 1481 58th Street Brooklyn, N. Y. 11219

BOARD OF GOVERNERS: Rabbi Moshe Feinstein Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld (Matesdorfer Rav)

22 The ]elvish Observer / May, 1968 ANSWER THE CALL ti;"l''Y ,, ;ip"i!:lN 1i!:l11:::i iwN '":lMN tl':lfi;J' CininN;i tl'!Oin:i iivN t:l"::l.,, Y11' i:i' 1~7;i11::i nN;i:~1 i,1~;; n117ir1:i '1N!:l;i n:ii ;ii;; ;iniNtv i;; ,o;r11~:i:i. c;i,,,,,_~ nir.ip~ i'n' OF THE G'DOLIM ! .'i10'M1 li1111!J?iil 'itv ni111!:ln;i 7w ;i~i~;; ;u'o cii::i;; n-cpnw~ ,tl1l1'7 n1~1;;;i tl''11 n1:;,0'7 rin~ ;u;ii . In recent months the remnants tii11:i;i tl'11ni~ 11M':J. .7N1W' r1N::i V11 YiN7 rin::i' 1·1 ,t:r~ion nn~7 0)''li1:! ,1"1'JM1i of our Sfardic communities in Arab i1:i'n;i n1101r.i::i1 cii1'0 itiN::;. '17n 'ln11;i 01'T'lY ?:i iwN ,c;i,,,.., ii:iin? ;;l11:i lands have begun to leave their homes and these ancient and glorious commu­ .oriiN tl'b71p;i nities are being liquidated. ~l1'11'l iirn i'i::ipw ,ipiiN~ ,,7., 1WN jliN Yi!i''r-:7 il'tMNri 1'11'?1;'Ci :11)'1 N?;ii ... Apart from the dangers of travel, 1il'l:I ,7N11V' Y1N:l tl''li7'n tl''.j;i:J.'p7i 11i101r.i7 C'1:J.)'ir.J ,C:1'N'.j;i~ 111r.iipr.i:i. p:i:iir.: these comnn1nities on the march face a 1'li1i)ir.Ji tl"li'OY iiOn~~ lll1::lN171 ,''t:i:ii ;ino;i::i ,'Hit:J ,yn?::i ,Ci1'1ii1 11~17 ,,~l grave peril to their. spiritual survival. We .Ci1:l)' tl'b'Nnr.i stand aghast and astounded at the knowl­ 1i;'l;'; 11:?1 ji1:JT 1'1N :?7 7;; ;i7yl ! C'1i:J.l:l ';'l 1111)'7 i:J;'l : i1N'1i':t 1lN C'l1!:l 1'1N17 edge that their children, who were tl'ltv l'J7N:i ;;11;;1171 ;iiin7 i;i:-:i~ Wb'l.Vtv ;;p'i!:lN ji!:lX:l 7N11V'b e::iw H"liN ?w i1lt'i1p;i1 brought up in Yeshivos and religious n11·,1~ 7:i1 1r.i1i1 ''7l 7:i 1l1 ;;n,?;; :V!:ll ni,or.i:i w11p;i ili':l~i 111n" ?y 1i'!W' 1wN1 institutions, are being weaned away from their Torah heritage, in the course of tl'J';'l ;i:i i\V'N i11)' :11'11N ?tv 11·1nN 111\V il)'1'::l 1'ii'Wl 1'Ni nin 1'N .tl1'l17l 'Ji)'i their relocation, by deliberate misdeeds c;·pn11::i1 tlil'l:?i 'ln11 11'7:i 7w 1'7:in:::i Nxr.i1 ,c'71;; n11117 ;i1in 7lL' n7i;; 7"1 '1"'1;i or because of the lack of suitable madri­ .1nN cy? ;i?,?n tl'l1lil chim and Torah institutions. tl~"-:i~c tl'li'C!JO'i c:·rNS:i~ y;Nr.i C'::1n~ :i.in cp - ''li!? irl'liV' 01.:i nN 7'lil7 ,,:; ... Fortunately, a group of their C'17';i 111'\ N'~i;i? c;i,?;; i?::ipi tl''1i:l~ tl'!:lil 1i;li 1'1!:l1~:21 '"N::l tl'li'OY 0'7'Y!:l c;; 1M' teachers and leaders, together with ac­ )'l1r.i tl'17'i1 7y iir.iw' i1iin 'l:::. tl'::'11~ 1'1X'l:li'IV 11071 O"Wtn;i C'~1:l'i'i11 ni101r.i;i~ tivists in Israel and France, have joined :r::i,, n1101r.i:i.1 ni:i''i!l':J. 0111''07 liN1'71 p 11 ;iiN7 tli'7tv7 CY'lil 1)' on1?1r.i !iN tl:?TY hands with leading American Rabbinic .i1r.i11:i1 "::lPY' and lay organizations. and at our sug­ gestion have launched a United Emer­ ,"D'JJ.li1 11rt<,, ,"D'lJ.li1 n11JN,, oy in' i77;i oi1po;;;i unX)'::! iNir NP'1r.JN:i 1N::1 t:ency Rescue Fund to guide. supervise n1n1N~ tlii'n l"l':ll~:i "D''z'D9,,;"li "1'1J21il 'zNlUJ',, ,''illlnil 12\lN,, ,''/NlUJ' n1UN,, and place these children in suitable niw~n n'221i1J 1p1UJ 'TID9·1n1 1nrn 7D9U ,Nii1 j:: i:o:itu::i .;ip,ioN ji!:l'S '17' n7~jl; Torah institutions. .;i~i1::1 :Ji'>'' 'n:i:i. ,t11:!'W'::l tl'17' 111,0?1 n?x;i? rnnn ... We call upon all those whose 1'11~,i'~ r::;i7 i17N:i tl'fll1Ni1 '"YW "i17~ilil llif,,:l 11~1'l7 jN:i il7i:: 7;: i•11p :i.ini hearts are moved by the fear of G-d! ,,:i c7i:il :l'ni;i? i:i::l.'.l tl'l.'.l''P;i ;i1in;i rn1011.'.l1 rii:J.'V'' i''lY0'71 i7Nil tl'17'7 ;ie,;p Let us recall the noble past of these .77::;i j~ NX1' '7::! i117'i 17~ 7:i 01'7p'i i7::1'W glorious communities which served a<; n1TI9 N7 7Ul OlJD 1'1.'.l ciin7i lV''1Pi17 71'1:!-'' 1'l'::l 7::7 :io1n1 ;1N'1i'::l ilN::l i1l 7Y1 fortresses of Torah for a millennium and 1'l1Mi'~ ;1N'1i'::l 1JN 0'li!:l1 .17 0'!:'01~ i-poir.i;i 7:;,i ,i1TI9llJTil i1TI9UJD 7Jn 1711 2s·n safeguarded their spiritual identity against all ravages of time and exile with match­ ;11;i:i ''Y'Ci17i 7i;;o7 iir.nl;ii 111;;7 Oi1'7N tl'17~:i 7::i7i rii:i'tu' 'l:i; •'.l1il"li1 c7iy? .it:i :i7~;i;i !'l':J.l~ iY~7 ilJ;i:ii less heroism. Dare we stand idle as their children are threatened with religious 1ni'~:J ::"l ilN t:l'l1!:l ,i1?tr: l'ii~ipr.ii 1'l1''0l::l 'l"l:I ,ni?;ip;i 'N::lli N''1''7W tl'l:J.1il71 'extinction, G-d forbid! N1:'1 l11'~:i\V' ei!:l:i.1 ••• 7NiW'~ nnN teOl ciip~:i 7:;,i ,11 i11t'l~? 011'n Tli':J.ll.'.l 1107 ... We ask each and every Jew to .7N1'V'l.'.l ;"11.'.l7W ;i1y:i. contribute a minimum of $25.00 to this iN~7:!' 7N1W' '17' 7::1 1'11lVY7 il7Mi1 1WN 1'lN 7;;it7 N''Si;r7 ~l1lY::i. ''i1' !'i"'Wi11 one-time emergency campaign which has .i1N1';1i ;"1111'1i1 111101~:? '1N1i1 c~ip~ liN the priority of true pikuach nefesh and we turn with a special plea to the esteemed Rabbis and synagogue officers

to arrange for an emergency appeal in 11 every Synagogue, Beth Medrash and Y "t '"vi~T ::i."tviii1t1 l"0it1NN'::i ,N,~iV Shtibe1. tllt;?1DlDDl3D i2"1JN lJ'J9'tD

Sen

The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 23 second looks at the jewish scene

We're Glad They Said It

Orthodoxy often sounds like a voice very dangerous period for the Jew­ amounts to is that they ask the syn­ in the wilderness, so often saying ish conimunity. If we go to ecumen­ agogue to behave as if most A1ner­ "no" when the rest of the Jewish ism naked, bare, and undressed to icans lvere Jews. Asking synagogues community says "yes." In a sense it meet with our equals in Christianity, to pretend they are the majority must be so: our outlook is based Catholics, and other faiths, ecumen­ church doesn't mean asking then1 on the axiom of a G-d given Law; is1n can he the destrutcion of Jewish to be n1ore relevant. It means asking the secular and non-Orthodox com­ life instead of affording it the oppor­ them to be 1nore irrelevant . ... munities reject this belief. What is tunities of growth. If ever there was At the time of the revolution of surprising is not that we so often a thne when we needed Jews who 1648, the leading Jewish educator disagree, but that we still find com­ understood why they are Jews and in Germany was Samuel Ehrenberg mon ground with all Jews-better, had the capacity to meet at the table (the great-grandfather of Franz Ro­ that they continue to find common with our equals of other faiths and senzweig and of his Lutheran cous­ ground with us. carry their end of the discussion ins). Exulting in the emancipations the time is noa•." Given this inevitable disagree­ decreed by the revolution, Ehren­ ment, we cannot but be pleased -The Jewish Press, Omaha, berg lVanted to remove from the when non-Orthodox leaders and Nebraska, quoted in: The Na­ Haggadah the passage which reads, spokesmen voice sentiments coming tional Jewish Post and Opinion "Now we are slaves, next year may closer to Orthodox positions on we be free men." He was trying to make the synagogue relevant. Could issues of the day, albeit for different Relevance in the Synagogue reasons. Under the heading: WE'RE anyone have been 111ore irrelevant? GLAD THEY SAID IT we will from time to time report such examples Everyone, especially the young, -MILTON JTIMMELF ARB: in seems to agree that the synagogue with little or no comment. Commentary I May 1968 is irrelevant . ... With his tongue in cheek, [Philip Actually, are the critics saying Klutznick] the forn1er international that they're perplexed, that they HELP president of B'nai Brith, put his don't know what to think or do feelings on the ecumenical move­ about peace, race, poverty, and that yourself ... ment this way, according to The they want the synagogue to advise Jewish Press, local weekly: "There and lead them? Not usually. They to the products and services are saying that the synagogue should are a lot of people who love the advertised in our pages ... ecu1nenical spirit that prevails in tell them lVhat they want to hear, this country. I do. It is getting so that it should support and strength­ we don't have enough rabbis to en them in lVhat they are already take care of the Catholics. We cer­ doing. And they lvant the synagogue HELP US ... to trans1nit the truths understood by tainly don't have enough to take by telling our advertisers care of the Jews. And the situation the enlightened to its n1e1nbers, so with respect to Jewish education, deficient in enlighten111ent . ... you saw their message in well I recall when we couldn't get On the whole, the critics ignore children, now 1ve can't get teachers. the simple, big fact that America The Jewish Observer The ecumenical period may be a is a Christian country. What it

24 The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 kahah, over 40% of the Conserva­ VEY lo fhe Surue'i tive rabbis who answered this ques­ Surveys at best are tricky-it is all ered "a heated, excited, controver­ tion treat children of non-Jewish too easy to draw inaccurate con­ sy." Opponents argued that Recon­ mothers the same as those of Jewish clusions. Even more so if they are structionism could not "act inde­ mothers. And of the 42 who do not, not carefully done. Some years ago pendently of the general Jewish the point of difference to 19 rabbis a survey showed that an excessive community," and a compromise re­ is that such children are prospects amount of women suffered from solution called upon "leaders of and trainees for conversion. claustrophobia, as opposed to men. all segments of American Jewry to 6 of the 42 merely stated "Hala­ When the poll-takers were ques­ come together to re-examine the khah" as the difference, 4 said that tioned as to whether they had made problem of how a child becomes a such children are not Jewish. 2 re­ it clear to the women interviewed Jew." quire then1 to be raised as Jews. just what "claustrophobia" means, There lVere single answers such as: most of them said. "Yes, we told In order to have a basis for such them 'it's fear of confinement.'" re-examination, a questionnaire was mother must be converted; different sent to over 400 Conservative and privileges (?); inzmersion; treat ivith Early this year, the Reconstruc­ Reform clergy to poll their attitudes respect to social or psychological tionist, organ of the movement of situation. the same name, published a report and practices. of a survey of rabbis to determine Given our caveat on surveys,­ One flatly refuses to accept them. their attitudes and procedures in the report on the survey itself ad­ Q. Should the present ritual of determining who is a Jew. The mits "some of the questions 1nay conversion tu Judaism by adults and survey was conducted as a mandate have been confusing ... but they children be changed to a ritual of from the 1965 convention of the were not sociologically scientific in­ commitment to and affiliation with Federation of Reconstructionist quiries" -the answers to this survey the Jewish people? Congregations and Fellowships. The are nevertheless revealing. They will Yes 21; No 45. problem as they saw it was this: be shocking to some-less shocking • Halacha recognizes as Jewish to others. Here are some of the Thus I /3 of the Conservative only the offspring of a Jewish moth­ questions and some of the answers. rabbis who answered believe in the er or a convert. suggested change. (We have omitted the Reform re­ • Sociologists estimate that in sponses since they make no pretense Disregarding percentages, and 70% of mixed-marriages the female of following halachic procedures making all allowances for the obvi­ partner is non-Jewish. Consequent­ and requirements.) ous weakness of the survey, it is ly, their offspring are non-Jewish. blatantly clear that Conservative Q. Of non-Jewish mothers, what clergy are admitting to Kial Yisroel • Many of these children are are the estbnated percentages of offspring of non-Jewish mothers given a ''Jewish education" and it those who ... have not converted? is only "before a Bar or Bat Mitz­ without any pretense of proper con­ zvah ceremony, or before marriage 24 answered. 8 reported percent­ version, and a number of them are [that] questioning by a rabbi or a ages varying from 50% . . . to in favor of legitimatizing this pro­ traditional1y observant relative re­ 100%. . . . 16 gave percentages cedure by "a ritual of commitment." veals that a child is not 'legally' from 20% ... to l %. The report is correct in concluding Jewish. Q. Do the children of mixed mar­ that "already a significant percent­ • Many rabbis .choose to ignore ria{{es receive a ]elvish education age of Conservative . . . rabbis do such questions because "they :fear in your school or elselvhere? not adhere to the traditional law the answers"-the result is "'sub­ and to traditional practices." terfuge and hypocrisy." No 3; Yes 56.... At their convention this year, the Q. Should such children whose A committee appointed to in­ Rcconstructionists decided to offi­ n1others are 11011-lelvish be treated vestigate this problem reported to cially do away with halachic re­ differently from those whose moth­ the 1966 Convention their opinion quirements for conversion, and to ers are J eHJish? that the Halacha be changed and enact de jure a principle which that there be "a change in the pro­ Yes 42; No 30. apparently has been in operation cedure of conversion to Judaisn1 to de facto. 1ibera1ize the requiren1ents of niilah Despite their other ansivers and (circumcision) and tevilah (ritual staten1ents to the contrary lvhich Reconstructionism has always immersion)." This proposal engend- indicate strictness in applying Hala- proclaimed that they are not a

The Je1rish Observer / May, 1968 25 fourth "wing" of Judaism: their Jewish world, their children would purpose is to bring about unity in not be recognized as Jews," in the Jewish community. (Many of spite of Reconstructionist recogni­ the 200-odd sects in Protestantism tion. Given the tragic split in the came into existence to unify their ranks of Jewry, Conservatism (and split ranks, only to become one Reform) should at least follow suit more sect.) Recently, they created and advise their followers that mar­ their own rabbinical seminary-at riage and divorce procedures may KOSHER Temple University-and thereby place them outside the pale of Jew­ raised their colors as a new "wing." ish life. D -but strictly! At their convention this year they decided to consider as Jews the offspring of non-Jewish mothers in mixed marriages, without "formal conversion, making official a prac­ tice which evidently is already wide­ spread in all of Conservatism. In spite of this break with tra­ dition, Conservatism still harbors Reconstructionism under its roof­ one of their founder Dr. Mordecai Kaplan AMERICA'S LEADINC is still a member of the faculty of CAMERA STORES the Jewish Theological Seminary. But beyond that-in the words of Wall Street Cleaned, Fresh·Eviscerated the survey report itself-"Despite Soaked & Salted . . . statements to the contrary Camera Exchange which indicate strictness in applying 120 Wall Street READY-TO-COOK Halakah ..." Conservative clergy New York, N. Y. Fresh and Fresh-Frozen are destroying the sanctity of Kial Telephone: WH 4-0001 Supervised and endorsed by The Yisroel by feeding into the main­ Complete Line of @ Union of Orthodox Jewish Congre· stream of Jewish 1ife "converts" Cameras, Projectors gations of America. Inspected for who are actually non-Jews in every wholesomeness by the U.S. Dept. respect. and Photo Supplies Agriculture. It is to the credit-if that's the Closed Saturday SOLD COAST-TO-COAST right word-of the Reconstruction­ Open Sunday - 9-3 The Most Trusted Name ists, that they recommended that Wholesale - Retail parents of children who have not Mail Order in Kosher Poultry undergone conversion, "should be Empire Kosher Poultry, Inc., Mifflintown, Pa. 17059 informed that in many parts of the

,.,Cf'""t,_~~.:;'- f !J.rnaginalive monogram,:J & !J.nvilalion:J ~,:;. ":::i "i"l'i".l-"''~ designed and printed by

~W.,,. t5.)\ij.~,,, ' ~'.flT,80'.flOLL ,8TQDI0,6 f 156 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK, N. Y. 10010, Tel. (212) 989-4114 ~;c:s,q ~ C-u- ;::;~;·: ";.;::;;~;;:;~,.,,"' 1-· ~~,;c·'j~'::='~':eJ3 SCROLLS • Letterheads • nmn~ • !11~'~0 • Diplomas • Brochures

26 The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 Halevi, the Poet. They managed to No Seminaries - "confront the culture of their times" Only Yeshivas 'O 0 ' without university credentials. We might also remind Mr. Singer that In commemoration of Israel's twen­ were it not for these men, for better tieth anniversary, the Cowles Edu­ or for worse, he wouldn't have a cation Corporation, publishers of UNITED job today, Look magazine, published a maga­ zine-type book called Israel. In This statement with its twisted Chevra Kadisha a slick 66-page publication, religion logic and outright falsity has been D'chasidim • Har Hamnuchot is disposed of in a single page spread far and wide on the Amer­ Founded 1856 headed: ISRAEL THE STATE vs. JU­ can continent. It is a slander against DAISM THE RELIGION. The caption the yeshivas in Israel, it is a libel BURIAL IN JERUSALEM bespeaks-unwittingly, of eourse­ of Jewish sanctity. Every Jew de­ serves an apology from Singer, and AND ALL CEMETERIES IN ISRAEL the tragedy of a secular state in the Holy Land. the Jewish Agency should, out of 1maat1n sako0€sh The article itself is fairly objec­ simple decency, disown their press tive, though it leaves so much un­ director's ugly words. D SOCl€ty said, even considering it is only 44 CANAL ST. one-page long. But we have no NEW YORK CITY 10002 quarrel with the editor's judgement HOSPITALS, HOTELS Nr. E. Broadway Sta. "F" Train in assigning one page for religion, nor with tbe reporter's statement of and AIRLINES Day & Nite Phone the problem. But we were shocked ARE NOW SERVING WA 5-2277 beyond belief to read a statement attributed to Zvi Singer, press di­ ,..e,,~... ,,~n- rector of the Jewish Agency in Je­ INSURANCE BONDED rusalem. Because they are '"pre-oc­ KOSHER MEALS ,& cupied with trying to enforce public When you travel ... where you j'~ \,_ ,r.v:, observance of rituals, he [Singer] stay ... on land, Sea or in the ~ uzzm ;:J says, the Orthodox establishment 'is Air be sure to ask for Schreiber $.i: - 'Fr almost completely silent on matters Frozen Foods ... of belief and thought'." And to what does Singer attribute this "si- MONUMENTS 1ence"?- ' BUY DIRECT He notes that "only a handful • FROM FACTORY SAVE of Israel's 500 Orthodox rabbis Largest Granite Factory In N. Y. State are university graduates, and No Salesmen! that "Israel is the only free No Commissions! country in the world with a Available in a fine variety, ready Monuments Erected in large Jewish population that for heating and serving. All Cemeteries. has no theological seminary." For many years, we sold to Home-recipes prepared by a dealers only. Now ... we are Singer's charge that Orthodoxy is famous name in catering his· selling directly to the public, "silent on matters of belief and tory. Distributed in more than offering the finest quality at the lowest prices possible. thought" is too vague to be taken 50 areas in the U.S. and also seriously. But his dismissal of the in international service ... vast complex of yeshivas in Israel GLATT KOSHER can only be attributed to a self­ Under strict Rabbinical ~ infticted blindness-possibly abetted Supervision of the Union of W by a bad case of self-hate. ,Orthodox congregations of America ••• Perhaps Singer may want to dig Covemment Inspected. into the past. He may find that the for information call or write Jos. WEISS &SONS, INC. problem is as old as the Jewish MI 7-7600 people. He may want to seek out ,.e,~t"li~n- 930 JAMAICA AVENUE the academic standing of Moses the CATERERS, INC. BROOKLYN, N. Y. 9024 Foster Ave., Br0oklyn, N.Y. 11236 Lawgiver, Isaiah tbe Prophet, Rashi, Phone: 212 272-9184 1 Mile W. of Woodhaven Bli•d. the Bible Exegete, and Yehudah

The Jewish Obseri•er I l\.fay, 1968 27 stitutions that educate children to deny the Principles of Faith, for Letters to the Editor they are like a mesis and mediach and one would be helping them. It would seem that this stands on a lower degree than giving money to build a pagan temple ...")

REUBEN E. GROSS j Staten Island, N. Y.

SHOMER SHABBOS the federations are "moving closer'' HELP WANTED Tuition Squeeze stems from his lack of understand­ ing of their principles. Satmar Jews FEMALE To the Editor: constitute no challenge to the fed­ Bookkeepers: eration mentality. It is therefore Judah Dick has diagnosed a chronic Assistant, with lite typing disease-Yeshiva financing, and has good public relations to help them. $75-$100. come up with a panacea-the fcd­ It is a form of paternalistic broad­ Full Charge, some up to and mindedness. But day schools, espe­ others including the erations------a1though it is a provcn­ General Ledger worthless nostrum. All that is new cially in the suburbs-that's another $I 00· 160.00 is the packaging: a formula for matter. Biller-Typists: $85.00 and up disbursing the aid we haven't ob­ I do not know what magic in­ Receptionists, Must know plug or monitorboard - $85 and up tained on a Medicaid type of pro­ g1edient Mr. Dick proposes for his Steno Typists: $75.00-125.00 gram. He recognizes with a master­ "well planned and well organized Secretaries: $100 and up ful touch of understatement that effort" that has been overlooked by Typists: $75.00 and up "Federations are for the n1ost part the leadership of To;ah Umesorah. Some of the above are FEE PAID by directed by people who arc not I do not know where re expects to the companies. A few Part-Time iobs sympathetic, and often hostile to the find a leader for this 1nission more are still left. aims and goals of yeshiva educa­ >:stnte than Moses I. Feuerstein, or MALE tion." To a sincere Torah Jew like an ambassador more knowledgeable Salesmen Office Manager Drivers Production Manager Mr. Dick. those antipathies and hos­ and tactful than Dr. Jcseph Kam­ tilities are mere "discredited no­ inetsky who after years of wasted tions" and "prejudices" which he effort has made no secret of his Tradition Personnel expects to overcome by the magic disenchantment with the federa­ e I p 147 WEST 42nd ST .. N. Y., N. Y. of "a well planned and well organ­ tions. Why does Mr. Dick urge ..,_.,. Room 1111 Tel. 563-3994 ized effort to educate the leaders more effort on an apparent dead-end of business and the professionals which he recognizes as fraught with Open Monday nights - who control the allocations of funds the danger of controls that come by the federations." What Mr. Dick with the acceptance of support? by appointment only. fails to realize is that yeshiva educa­ If Mr. Dick had troubled himself tion and Torah Yiddishkcit are re­ to read Responsa No. 149 of lgge­ garded by these people as "dis­ res Moshe, Yoreh Deah, which is credited notions" and "prejudices" Fo' Service and Savings and that they want all the money certainly on his book shelf, he would not have written that article on your they can get to wean the Dicks et General Insurance als. to an enlightened form of .Juda­ at all. Mutual Funds aod ism and away from the yeshiva type (A few extracts from the teshuva L I F E of "prejudices." Mr. Dick's proposal referred to : call makes as much sense as a progran1 [Pg. 298 col. 2] "It is forbidden to obtain C~om1nunist support for to give in any way to federations in the Birchcrs by preaching a sermon which the trustees give to 'koferim' to them on the brotherhood of man. institutions such as, Conservative Mr. Dick's interpretation of help and Reforn1 . . . because it results 189 Montague Street B'ooklyn, N. Y. UL 2-8200 to Chassidic Jews as evidence that in support by one's money of in- • 28 The Je·wish Observer I May, 1968 To the Editor: Mr. Dick Replies: munity where they reside and busi­ ness colleagues. The plan for yeshivah financing In reply to the letters of Reuben 2) Federations have been seeking as proposed by Mr. Judah Dick is Gross and Irving Herman, it must more Judaism for their money since unique and Jncrits praise for its be noted that Orthodoxy has thus they have been relieved of many originality. However where its suc­ far failed to find a feasible fund of their traditional functions by gov­ raising method which would provide cess depends entirely on the coop­ ernment funding and the change in eration of a willing American Jewry adequate funds to pay the teachers neighborhoods has reduced the enough so that they feel economical­ to contribute funds in response to Jewishness of many of their pro­ ly secure to make teaching a full an annual appeal by Federation grams. with a set percentage earmarked for time and lifetime career, and at the yeshivas-the plan begins to crum­ same time not reject any children 3) The funds will go to aid needy ble. Constant appeals have the tone because their parents are not able parents to give them freedom of of constant panhandling, financial to afford the high cost of tuition. choice in education rather than to the Yeshiva directly. sustenance for Torah study should Mr. Herman suggests such alter­ be accessible on a higher plane­ natives as bond issues, and various As to the Responsa of HaGaon the Torah deserves such treatn1ent forms of excise taxes on kosher R' Moshe Feinstein cited, it speaks -nothing Jess. A successful plan is food. Bond issues must be repaid of contributing to federation where one that is constant and certain­ and are hardly the answer for a the money would go for traife pur­ such as the daily appetite and food non-revenue producing operation. poses; it would not seem to prohibit consumption by American Jews. Taxes arc not practical without an the taking of money from federa­ organized kehilla which can enforce tion, nor even the contributing of The Federation should provide them by appropriate sanctions. money to federation where it is the initial substantial a1nount to Moreover, such taxes may have the assured that, in return, a larger amount is given by federation to fund a chain of tax exempt food undersirable consequences of driv­ Torah causes. At ]east, this seems supermarkets in densely populated ing the marginally-observant away to be the basis upon which, for Jewish areas. Funds can aJso be from the kosher market and causing raised through bond issues, a nomi­ example, the Hebrew Academy of much resentment among consumers Cleveland was permitted by Gedo­ nal weight-tax on kosher-slaught­ (such as happened in many Euro­ ered animals at the shechita source, lim to enter into such a relationship pean communities which imposed with its local federation. The pro­ a tax on all Kashruth certifications a tax upon kosher meat). on Passover wines and food prod­ posal would assure this kind of financial relationship, as wcH as ucts, a nominal sales tax on all Mr. Gross' assertion that such forestalling the danger of ideological religious publications and items. effort is doomed to failure in view of the wasted effort of prior years interference, because it would pri­ The great inducement for the fails to take into consideration the marily aid parents and provide no overall success of this program is three new factors suggested in my direct aid to school, Orthodox or that every Jewish child should be article: non-Orthodox. By the nature of the sociological structure of Amer­ entitled to a free religious education l ) The direct approach to trus­ ican Jewry, it is doubtful whether by the best of teachers and equip­ tees and substantial contributors to any substantial funds would find ment. federations who are not necessariJy their way to one of the handful of hostile to Yeshiva education and For a resounding success to this Conservative day schools, even in­ may in fact already give some sup­ program, the rabbis have the key directly, since the great majority of port to Yeshivas when solicited by to its success-the Jewish populace, parents of such schools will prob­ their friends and colleagues. Of thank G-d, have the appetite to put ably not be eligible for Yeshiva-aid course, such approach inust be the clincher on it. by virtue of their income and net made on an individual basis and worth. preferably, by those persons in a IRVING HERMAN position of influence with such in­ As far as the recognition of sec­ New York City dividuals such as rabbis in the com- ular agencies is concerned, it must be noted that all of the Yeshivas in Be sure to notify us in I srae] have Jong been accepting funds from u.J.A. which also funds advance so that your copies MOVING? all types of secular (including His­ will continue to reach you. tadrut) programs.

The Jewish Observer / May, 1968 29 To the Editor: This principle was expressed by The Editors Reply: Ruth Finkelstein's article [Re­ Moreinu Yaakov Rosenti,eim, him­ We do not believe that the writer spectfully Submitted . . . ] in the self a strong Torah-im-Derech­ of this letter quite understood what Eretz man, and is reprinted in the April issue of THE JEWISH OBSERV­ wa' involved in the exchange be­ Yaakov Rosenheim Memorial An­ ER, touches on one of the corner­ tween Rabbi Eiseman and Rabbi thology. In one of his famous found­ stones of building Yiddishkeit in Spero. The objections raised by America. ing speeches Moreinu Rosenheim said that the central organization of Rabbi Eiseman-and prompting us This is one of the three areas the Agudah should not interfere to print an immediate reply to Rabbi upon which the Torah Perpetuation with the responses developed by Spero-were not so much against Foundation was originally organ­ the local branches in relation to "Torah Im Derech Eretz" but ized: to offer financial aid to per­ their environment (i.e., Torah im against Rabbi Spero's interpretation petuate Yiddishkeit. Derech Eretz in Germany, Chassi­ of it which, we felt, would neither We are in a position to participate dus in Poland and Mussar in Lith­ have gained the approval of Rabbi with any suburban community to uania). Otherwise, he correctly S. R. Hirsch nor any other Godol. establish Orthodox synagogues. stated. a central movement uniting Few slogans have been as much You can assist us greatly by pub­ all of Torah loyal Judaism would misused, and abused, as "Torah Im licizing the fact that the Torah be impossible. This principle was Derech Bretz," and the misinter­ Perpetuation Foundation is ready, correctly followed by THE JEWISH pretations cannot and should not be willing, and able to participate in OBSERVER when they printed Rabbi permitted to sail nnder a false flag, a Gemilas Chesed loan to any sub­ Weinberg's article originally. In a protected by supposed "regional urban community that is ready to magazine Jike THE OBSERVER, free autonomy." open an Orthodox synagogue. discussion of different halachic They may address their requests views which each have their pro­ The way to Gadlus Ba'Torah to the undersigned at our New York pronents in Orthodoxy is quite in order. This is why Rabbi Eiseman's City office, 5 East 62nd Street, or The fact is that Rabbi Weinberg, to 80 Broad Street, Elizabeth, N. J. article published in a different issue would also have been quite in order. as evidenced by the last sentences What was disturbing was THE OB­ of his article, does not believe that MILTON LEVY SERVER'S feeling the necessity of it is possible for us to withdraw Elizabeth, N. J. printing an immediate rejoinder pre­ from our world-it therefore fol­ ceded by implied agreement from lows that we must learn how to live Assimilation the editorial board. If Rabbi Wein­ in it al pi Torah. But Rabbi Wein­ berg's article was in order Rabbi berg warns of the dangers and pit­ To the Editor: Spero's was just as much in order. falls that beset this course-and I was quite disturbed by your If Rabbi Weinberg and Rabbi Eise­ this warning is particularly neces­ publication last March. In that issue man have halachic backing so does sary because de facto the bulk of you state that due to the gravity of Rabbi Spero. If Rabbi Weinberg our youth receives an education the issue raised by Rabbi Spero in and Rabbi Eiseman's articles rep­ combining Torah study with secular his letter on isolation and assimi1a­ resent a viewpoint accepted within academic learning. To realize that tionism you had asked Rabbi Eise­ the Agudah so does Rabbi Spero's. the latter very easily can weaken man of Philadelphia to write a Torah im Derech Eretz is, if not our religious fiber, and to under­ rejoinder. What disturbed me was the founding philosophy of the Agu­ stand, moreover, that the way to not Rabbi Eiseman's article or opin­ dah, at least one of the major found­ Gadlus Ba'Torah and Torah leader­ ions but that your magazine felt ship requires an extraordinary con­ ing philosophies. It is well known the need to print such a rejoinder. that Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch centration on Torah study, is simple This seemed to indicate to me that was the spiritual father of the Agu­ common sense; Rabbi Spero's chal­ THE JEWISH OBSERVER . . . is op­ dah in his "Free Union for the lenge, therefore, had to be disputed. posed to the opinions expressed in Interests of Orthodox Judaism." It It may be of interest in this content Rabbi Spero's article. It seems that is equally true that the founders of to recall that, in his introduction to at least the editorial board of THE the Agudah as well as it's leaders Divrey Shlomo, Rabbi Dr. Joseph OBSERVER has' gone over to the contained and still do contain a Breuer stresses that his father, Rab. Torah-Only camp. disproportionate amount of Torah bi Dr. Solomon Breuer, son-in-law Historically Agudah has followed im Derech Eretz followers .... of Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, from the a policy of no central control over day of his college graduation on Jocal branches in !'Cgard to Torah SHMUEL SINGER never opened another secular book Only or Torah im Derech Eretz. Bronx, N. Y. -for over fifty years!

30 The Je1;:ish Observer I May, 1968 The Upper Dais at Agudath Israel 46th Anniversary Dinner

Rabbi Feinstein Exhorts Jews In a message to the dinner, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared that Agu~ "To Live Jewishness With Joy, Not As a Yoke" Mitzvah, the Moetzes Gedolei Ha'Torah, spoke address on the historic challenge facing either with or without Krias with deep anguish about the "serious Torah-loyal Judaism in this country. inroads that modernists are making in Rav Moshe Sherer, executive president Hatorah, can be an inspir· watering down the true meaning of of Agudath Israel of America, presented ing experience and will Jewish living," and declared that "the the awards to Irving I. Stone of Cleve. world movement of Agudath Israel has land (the Rav Aharon Kotler Mem­ avoid Chilul Shabbos. stemmed the tide of those who would orial Award for Distinguished Service to subvert the traditional concepts of K'lal Torah); Julius Klugmann (the Yaakov Yisroel, and in the process Agudath Rosenheim Me1norial Award for Distin· Israel has saved tens of thousands of guished Service to Agudath Israel); and Jews and their families from being swept to Moshe Braustein (the Elin1elech Auto Service away by the trend of the times." Tress Me1norial Award, as a member of the Shearis H apletah who performed 16th AVENUE GARAGE CO. 0 E•pert Rav Feinstein declared in the name exemplary service for Torah). The re· of the ten Roshei Yeshivos who were at Repairs, Free Road Service D Big Discount sponse of the awardees was warmly the dais, that 'the entire yeshiva move· on Tires 0 Plaid Stamps with Every Sale received by the audience. ment in this country owes a historic debt I b02 - b2nd Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 11204 Rav Yehuda Meyer Abramowitz, dep­ of gratitude to Agudath Israel of Amer· 0 DE 1-0229. BE 2-9513 0 GULF GAS ica for iL<; pioneering and indefatigable uty mayor of Tel Aviv, was cheered efforts in representing yeshiva interests when he declared that "the Divine pro· before federal and state government tecting hand that manifested itself during agencies and legislative bodies.'' He em· the Six·Day War will retain for Israel Real Estate phasized the value of Agudath Israel's all the regained holy places and will youth programs, which he described as thwart the plans of its overt and covert "a major instrumentality in educating enemies." LOFTS. FACTORIES To Reol o• B"y 0 Jewish youngsters to live by the tenets The evening was opened by David H. All A•m 0 EARL H. SPERO 0 55 West of authentic Judaism." Turkel, vice president of Agudath Israel, 42nd Street, New York, N. Y. 10036 O and Joseph Friedenson, editor of Dos BR 9-1539 Seated at the two dais tables were Yiddishe Vort. leading rabbis from many communities, including the four Roshei Yeshivas who are members of the Moetzes Gedolei Invited to a Ha'Torah: Rav Feinstein, Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky (Mesivta Torah Vodaas), SIMCHA? MOVINC? Rav Yaakov Ruderman (Yeshiva Ner I'-'raeJ), and Rav Yitzchok H utner (Me­ Send a Be sure to notify us in sivta Chaim Berlin). The Roshei Yeshi­ THREE-YEAR advance so that your copies vos of Beth Medrash Govoha (Lake· SUBSCRIPTION TO wood), Telshe (Cleveland), Beth Med­ THE JEWISH OBSERVER will continue to reach you. rash Eliyon (Monsey), Rabbi Jacob Jo~

The Jewish Observer I May, 1968 31 This plaque should be, every Jewish home

we will rush it to you free when you send a gift subscription

THIS OFFER IS LIMITED: for NEW gift subscriptions only. If you are a regular subscriber, due +o renew your subscription, please don't ask us for a free plaque. If you've got your heart set on having one, send $8.50 for a two-year renewal I or $12.00 far a three-year renewal! - that saves us billing expenses - and we'll send you a plaque free and postage-paid.

~~GIFT CERTIFICATE ::=~<~:s~::i<:~s~~~~ GIFT CERTIFICATE~ @~=:ea g;frsub~cnpt;on for: . . ~\J ~;;,:ea g'/tsubscr;ptwn fm ...... ~

! :::;,:~~;,.free 8'/t to· __· - • . :::::~ ~@ :;;;~;;;;::;,;,;: .. .._=:· ~ Name . . . . ~@ Name ...... ®Addre\'S . Add1ess. , ...... k~®~~~~,~~~~~~