CHESHVAN, 5738 I OCTOBER 1977 VOLUME XII, NUMBER 8 fHE EWISH SEVENTY FIVE CENTS
"Holocaust" - a leading Rosh Yeshiva examines the term and the tragic epoch it is meant to denote, offering the penetrating insights of a Daas Torah perspective on an era usually clouded with emo tion and misconception.
"Holocaust Literature" - a noted Torah educator cuts a path through ever-mounting stacks of popular and scholarly works on "Churban Europe," highlighting the lessons to be learned and the pitfalls to be avoided. THE JEWISH BSERVER
in this issue
"Holocaust" - A Study of the Term, and the Epoch it is Meant to Describe, from a discourse by Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner K"t:l•7w. translated by Chaim Feuerman and Yaakov Feitman ...... 3 Dealing With "Ch urban Europa", THE JEWISH OB.SERVER is publi$ed a review article by Joseph Elias ...... 10 monthly, excePt July and August, by the Agudath Israel of America, 5 Beekman St., New York, N.Y. Thumb Prints, Simcha Bunem Unsdorfer r, .. , ...... 19 10038. Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y. Subscription: Torah Ambassadors at large $7.50 per year; Two years, $13.00; Three years, $18.00; outside of the I. Bringing Torah to the Valley, Moshe Turk ...... 22 United States $8.50 per year. II. The Mexico City Junket, Single copy seventy~five cents. Printed in the U.S.A. Suri Rosenberg and Rochel Zucker ...... 25 Letters to the Editor ...... 30 RABBI N1ssoN WotrJN Editor Subscribe ------Clip.andsave------Editorial Board The Jewish Observer l DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Chairman Renew 5 Beekman Street/ New York, N.Y. 10038 I RABBI NATHAN BULMAN 0 OneYear$750 0 TwoYears$13.00 I RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS or Give 0 Three Years only $18.00 I JOSEPH FR!EDENSON RABBI MOSHE SttERER Now Send Magazine to: I Name .•...... •...... •.•.•...... •..••...... •.•...•...... •.•...... •.•...... ,
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Answer: que in its proportions and dimensions. Yet, by singling out the quantitative differences of this particular In order to determine the appropriateness of any ch urban, those who sought a new terminology for these term, one must first thoroughly understand what one is events missed the essence of their uniqueness. It is not trying to define. Clarity of expression depends upon just the proportions and dimensions of the Holocaust clarity of perception. Therefore, before we attempt to which define its quintessence, but its establishment of a designate a name for the shattering events of 1939- new and significant pattern in Jewish history. Yet at the 1945, we must examine the significance of those events same time it must be stressed that this pattern, far from in their historical context. For our present purpose of coincidental, is intricately related to the basic pattern of identification only, we shall refer to the term Jewish history itself and profoundly affects our entire "Holocaust" when we discuss the Nazi destruction of vision of recent history and indeed current eveitts. European Jewry during World War II. As we shall see, By placing the Holocaust in its historical perspective, this in no way signifies the acceptability of this term. we shall uncover two new directions in recent Jewish It should be made clear at the outset that we shall not history with reference to the gentile persecution of merely discuss history this evening. Our orientation Jews. Whereas our entire history has been replete with toward Jewish history must reflect an attitude toward various instances of persecution by different civiliza kedusha - approaching that which is most holy and tion, empires and nation - varying only in intensity, sacred. This sanctity stems from the fact that 'nntu' means and ferocity - recent history has shifted l<1'11n 1
4 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 then British colonial secretary, was qualifying that the in history, yet resulting not from lawless hordes but declaration did not mean the "imposition of a Jewish flowing directly from legalized and formal governmen nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, tal edicts. The end-result of this period for the Jewish but the further development of the existing Jewish psyche was a significant - indeed, crucial - one. From community." Of course, a long and bitter period fol trust in the gentile world, the Jewish nation was cruelly lowed where a British hand held the gun of the age-old brought to a repudiation of that trust. In a relatively oppressor of IsraeL short historical period, disappointment in the non Thus it becomes clear that the trend of anti-Jewish Jewish world was deeply imprinted upon the Jewish phenomena of the first half of the twentieth century soul. was characterized, not so much by persecutions and Torah Source for the New Era pogroms as in the past, but by the legalized retraction of existing laws granting sundry privileges. Although As we delve more deeply into the Torah view of these these reversals are dramatic and telling enough of awesome events, we shall find that they certainly are themselves, they pale in the face of the retractions and not coincidental, but reflect the greater cosmic plan of total turnabouts made by the Germans in the 1920's the Creator of the universe. If we find in world history and 30's. an era where Jews move from the expectation of persecution by gentiles to a period of disappointment in On March 11, 1812, Prince Karl August von those very people, this change must be reflected in the Hardenberg had issued his famous edict emancipating Torah. As we said earlier, since the Jewish people and Prussian Jews, but by 1919, as a supplement to the the Torah are one, what happens in one must have a German translation of the so-called Protocols of the counterpart in the other. Therefore, let us study Elders of Zion, Gottfried Zur Beek (Ludwig Miller) together the passage where this monumental turn of used Hatdenberg's definition of a Jew in drafting even ts is reflected: proposals for anti-Jewish legislation. These proposals i1JT1 i1Ti1 0Yi1 opi linr::i.K OY :i:lllll 1Ji1 illlJY.l ?x 'i iY.lK,, culminated in 1935 in the so-called "Nuremberg Laws" ?1.::ix? i1'i11 oilr.i 'J.!J in-,noi11 '1.1.1 flKil 1.::iJ 'i1?x i1nx which legitimized antisemitism and legalized anti Jewish bigotry. These Rassengesetze, which forbade ip?x px i:i 7Y K1ilil 01i:i -,r.ix1 n11~1 ni:::i.1 n1:v1 1i1KYY.l1 marriage between Germans and Jews and dis .(r-n.:i :x? t:Pl::J.i) i1?Ki1 n1Yii1 1J1KYY.l i:i1p:i "And Hashem said to Moshe: Behold you will soon enfranchised non-Aryans, exactly parallelled earlier pass on and this nation will arise and fall prey to the rights and privileges legally granted to Jews. Thus the lure of strange nations and trust in them ... And I will cycle was diabolically complete. What had been given hide My face from them and they will become as food legally was equally as legally taken away, leaving the for their enemies and great evils and troubles will come Jewish people with a growing and ultimately inexorable upon them. Then shall they declare: it is because my disillusionment with the promises and even legal enact G-d has not been in my midst that these evils have ments of the gentile world. 1 befallen me" (Devarim 31 :1-17). Let us restate clearly the pattern we have discovered in recent Jewish history. Jews have always been beaten We must first establish what is meant by the phrase by gentiles; only the means and instruments of torment y;1<;i "l~l ';J?r<. It should be noted that we translated it have varied. The innovation of recent times has been as "the lure of strange nations and trust in them," and that for long periods, Jews were deluded into trust in not as the "worship of strange gods." This interpreta the gentiles by a series of laws and regulations in their tion follows Unkelos, who translates Kll"ll< '1'.Jl'.JJI nillto, behalf, only to have that trust shattered by the rescision literally "the temptation of the nations." This transla of those very laws. This historical period culminated in tion, rather than the more obvious one of "idol the Holocaust, the largest scale annihilation of a people worship" reflects the sense of the passage, for we know (Yuma 69b) that the yeitzer hara - the evil inclination I. Of course many works have been devoted solely to the German - for idolatry has long been eliminated by the Anshei anti-Jewish legislation which preceeded and legalized the murder Knesses Hagadola - the Men of the Great Assembly. which was to follow. An idea of the vastness of the literature may be We can only appreciate the gravity of the sin of stray gotten from the fact that Die Gesetzgebung Adolf Hitlers (Hitler's ing after "the lure of strange nations" when we realize Legislation) takes up 33 volumes (ed. Werner Hoche, 1933-39). As that only here does the Torah mention the terrifying early as May 27, 1924, the Nazis introduced a motion to "place all punishment of becoming consumed by our enemies. members of the Jewish race under special legislation (soriderrechf)." Even the two tochachos - the portions of the Torah And from then on, every bit of terror perpetrated against the Jews where G-d rebukes His nation for its sins and warns of was, with German thoroughness, preceeded by meticulously worded legislation. It is perhaps significant that where anti-Jewish violence the terrible consequences of evil - do not allude to such broke out in German streets before laws had been enacted to that ef a dire punishment. The "great evils and troubles" fect, Wilhelm Frick, Minister of the Interior and Reichsbank Presi which are the direct result of trusting and relying upon dent Hjalmar Schacht condemned and ordered a stop to the "illegal the gentile world signify the impetus for the next im actions" (see Lucy S. Dawidowicz's The War Against the Jews, New mediate stage in Jewish history, a unique point in the York: Bantam Books edition, 1976, p.83). teshuva-repentance process: Then shall they declare: it
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 5 "" ___ " ____ "------"""" ______------"------It has oft been noted that teshuva seems to "be in the air" . ... This climate is the result of the disappointment in gentiles which demolished the first stumbling-block to teshuva, and forced the recognition that "it is because my G-d has not been in my midst" that the awesome events of recent times have occurred. is because my G-d has not been in my midst that these Thus, there is revealed to us both the chronology and evils have befallen me. the impetus for the teshuva of Acharis HaYamim (the End of Days). The very first step will be reached by When we now carefully study the Torah passages Kial Yisroel through their repudiation of their earlier quoted, we will be struck by the Jews' response to the infatuations with gentile ways. In our terms, this is great "evils and troubles'' which befall them_ We know when the Jewish people moves toward repentance that the viduy - enumeration of sins - associated with because of disappointment in the gentiles. This can true repentance necessitates the declaration that "I have only come about through promises rescinded, rights sinned" in addition to the specifics of the transgression. revoked, and anticipations aborted. The pain and Here, there seems to be teshuva {repentance); yet, no anguish at the time of these shattered illusions is all too real admission of wrongdoing has been made. In effect, real and tragic; yet the events themselves serve to bring what we encounter in this passage, unique in the Tor ah, us to the recognition that "it is because my G-d has not is a kind of teshuva/non-teshuva, a leaning toward been in my midst that these evils have befallen me." teshuva, yet not guite reaching the point of teshuva This the Ramban sees as the necessary prerequisite to gemura - the complete penitence required by the the final step of teshuva when "they will add to their Torah. earlier regret the complete confession and total The Ramban, in his explication of this passage, penitence." grants us the key to this paradox. He explains that it reflects the very first stirrings of teshuva in its Our new understanding of the essence of our era al nascency. The lowest rung of evil is the disavowal of lows us some comprehension of the phenomenon of wrongdoing. Thus, as Ramban quotes, "Behold I do our" age of baalei-teshuva." It has oft been noted that judgment with you for saying 'I have not sinned'" teshuva seems to "be in the air," and indeed the many (Yirmiyah 2:35) because this is the total rejection of movements currently succeeding to an unprecedented guilt. We know that the essence of teshuva is viduy - degree in bringing Jews closer to Judaism are but a admission of wrongdoing and enumeration of sins. Yet, reflection of the fact that the very climate is permeated the prophet proclaims that punishment will not come with a kind of teshuva-readiness. This climate is the because one has not said "I have sinned," but because result of the disappointment in gentiles which - infinitely worse - one has declared "I have not demolished the first stumbling-block to teshuva, and sinned." Once the repudiation of innocence has been ac forced the recognition that "it is because my G-d has complished, the teshuva process has begun. Even if one not been in my midst" that the awesome events of re has not yet arrived at the positive point of viduy, the cent times have occurred. Of course, this is not to say implicit significance of no longer claiming innocence is that each individual baal teshuva has experienced a per that the road to repentance has been cleared and one is sonal disappointment in gentiles. There are ready for formal acceptance of guilt and positive com characteristics and trends common to an entire epoch mitment of the future. This, then, is a stage of teshuva, which eventually affect each individual in his own way. a kind of teshuva-readiness that Knesses Yisroel will I had occasion to elaborate on this point, when by a reach in future days before it achieves total repentance. combination of circumstances I found myself in Eretz This stage of teshuva will come about as a direct Yisroel, in the company of a group of extreme leftists result of the "great evils and troubles" which - as we on Ben Gurion's yahrzeit. I was asked to say a few interpreted according to Unkelos - come upon them words in honor of the day and felt it worthwhile to because of their trust in the nations. The effect of the relate the following to them: great calamities of those days, far from merely being a Ben Gurion often used to tell people that now was punishment for wrongdoing, will be to correct the not the proper time to resolve the controversy between previously misplaced trust and prepare the way for true the religious and the anti-religious. When opportunities teshuva. As we have seen, the "great evils and arose for resolving such issues, he made sure they were troubles'' did indeed come upon us from those very tabled until a future time. Undoubtedly, his reasoning gentile nations who had gained our confidence and - conscious or subconscious - was that time was on trust. the side of the secularists. The experience of Ben
6 The Jewish Observer/ October, 1977 Gurion's generation was that the n~mber of observant To cover its own contribution to the final Jews was steadily decreasing, and a Judaism empty of catastrophic events, those of the State in a position to Torah seemed on the ascent. influence public opinion circulated the notorious In so calculating, Ben Gurion made a grave error. In canard that Gedolei Yisroel were responsible for the that group of leftists, there were representatives of destruction of many communities because they did not many pre-war cities from various types of Jewish com urge immigration. This charge is, of course, a gross dis munities all over Europe. I asked each of the assembled tortion of the truth, and need not be granted more in turn, "Do you recall a mechalel Shabbos - a non dignity than it deserves by issuing a formal refutation. observant Jew - in your city who had a son who However, at the same time as the State made certain to became Shomer Shabbos?" Each of them answered include this charge as historical fact in every account of with the same emphatic "No." Yet, I pointed out to the war years, it successfully sought to omit any men them, today there are thousands of baalei teshuva tion of its own contribution to the impending tragedy. whose parents knew virtually nothing of their faith. What the State omitted in its own version of history is Ben Gurion in his time seemed to be correct, but he the second of the above-mentioned new directions in could only calculate chronological time and knew recent Jewish history. It is that phenomenon which we nothing of the eschatological movement of generations. must now examine. The era of disappointment tore a generation from the clutches of the 1<)1;1< 'lJlJ)I nl)lll (Targum for ;~J 'c~I< East and West Meet f1Ki1) and prepared the way for an era of true teshuva. So much for the first new direction in Jewish history For centuries, indeed millennia, gentile persecution in relation to gentile persecutions. of Jews took one of two forms, but the two never worked simultaneously. Either Jewry had to contend with the "Yishmael" nations of the East or was Public Opinion vs. Truth persecuted and expelled by the nations of the West. Before we explore the second of the new directions in Never in our history did the nations of the Occident detail, it is important to establish a clear distinction join forces with those of the East for the purpose of between any common approach to world events and destroying Jews. daas Torah - a Torah view of the world. "Public With World War II, this long epoch was brought to a opinion" and any but the Torah approach is by defini crude and malevolent close. In 1923 Hitler wrote Mein tion colored by outside forces, subjective considerations Kampf spelling out his belief that the Jewish people and the falsehood of secular perspective. should 7 .. , be wiped out. This was read by Haj Amin An example of how public opinion can be molded - el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who found indeed, warped - at the whim of powerful individuals can be taken from a study of Russian history textbooks published during the respective reigns of Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev. During each period, the textbooks hail the then-current leader to the exclusion of all his predecessors as the savior of Russia and hero of his people. Undoubtedly, "public opinion" during each period, once children's minds had been suitably molded, reflected the thinking and wishes of the state. While more subtle in form, this ability to direct public opinion exists in democratic countries as well. Thus, we already pointed out at the beginning that we must make every effort to free ourselves from the powerful grip of public opinion, and must be ever on our guard that our opinions of the true nature of world events be shaped only by Torah views seen through Torah eyes. Sadly, even in our own circles, the mold for shaping public opinion lies in the hands of the State of Israel. An appropriate example of this dangerous process of selectively "rewriting" history may be found in the ex traordinary purging from the public record of all evidence of the culpability of the forerunners of the State in the tragedy of European Jewry, and the sub stitution in its place of factors inconsequential to the calamity which ultimately occurred. The Grand l\1 ufti of Jerusalem reviewing Nazi troops.
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 7 most significant alliances of modern times. There is am "And Eisav went unto Yishmael and took Machias the ple documentation that not only did the Mufti visit daughter of Yishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Hitler and his top aides on a number of occasions, but Nevayos, in addition to his other wives, for a wife" indeed with Adolph Eichmann, he visited the (Bereishis 28:9). Auschwitz gas chamber incognito to check on its ef Since the actions of the Patriarchs are a sign of what ficiency.2 would happen later to the children and every action in The extent of the Mufti's influence upon the Nazi Chumash is eternally significant, we may learn from forces may be seen in a crucial decision made by Hitler this passage that it was inevitable for the forces of Eisav at the height of the war. Railroad trains were much in and Yishmael to combine. We are now living in the demand by the Axis, and Hitler's troops badly needed midst of that pivotal moment in Jewish history. reinforcements in Russia. Yet, soon after he landed in Berlin in November 1941, the Mufti demanded that all It should be manifest, however, that until the great available resources be used to annihilate Jews. The public pressures for the establishment of a Jewish State, choice: ]uden nach Auschwitz or Soldaten nach the Mufti had no interest in the Jews of Warsaw, Stalingrad was to be resolved his way ... Two months Budapest, or Vilna. Once the Jews of Europe became a later (January 20, 1942 ... ) at the Wannsee threat to the Mufti because of their imminent influx Conference, the formal decision was made to annihilate into the Holy Land, the Mufti in turn became for them all Jews who had survived the ghettos, forced labor, the nmn lK?n - the incarnation of the Angel of Death. starvation, and disease. Years ago, it was still easy to find old residents of Yerushalayim who remembered the cordial relations Of course, the Mufti was serving his own perverted they had maintained with the Mufti in the years before fears, which were the influx of millions of Jews into the i1npending creation of a Jewish State. Once the Palestine and the destruction of the Mufti's personal looming reality of the State of Israel was before him, the empire. Yet, there can be no doubt that through their Mufti spared no effort at influencing Hitler to murder symbiotic relationship, Hitler and the Mufti each as many Jews as possible in the shortest amount of helped the other accomplish his own evil goal. time. This shameful episode, where the founders and Eichmann simply wanted to kill Jews; the Mufti early leaders of the State were clearly a factor in the wanted to make sure they never reached Palestine. In destruction of many Jews, has been completely sup the end, the "final solution" was the same .... At one pressed and expunged from the record. Thus it is that point, Eichmann even seemed to blame the Mufti for our children who study the history of that turbulent era the entire extermination plan, when he declared, "I am are taught that Gedolei Yisroel share responsibility for a personal friend of the Grand Mufti. We have the destruction of European Jewry and learn nothing of promised that no European Jew would enter Palestine the guilt of others who are now enshrined as heroes. any more. " 3 The Mufti's trip to Berlin was the first ominous step Coming to Terms in the joining of the anti-Jews of the East with those of the West to accomplish their diabolic design. This se We may now return to the original questions. "Is the cond of the new directions in Jewish history reached a term Shoah acceptable?" The answer is CLEARLY NOT. climax of sorts last year (1975) when Yassir Arafat, The word Shoah in Hebrew, like "Holocaust" in avowed destroyer of the State of Israel, stood before the English, implies an isolated catastrophe, unrelated to United Nations, and received a standing ovation by na anything before or after it, such as an earthquake or tions of East and West alike. tidal wave. As we have seen, this approach is far from From the purely secular historical viewpoint, there is the Torah view of Jewish history. The churban of Euro no connection between the two directions we have dis pean Jewry is an integral part of our history and we cussed. The Moslem world never granted privileges dare not isolate and deprive it of the monumental which it later retracted, and thus never disappointed the significance it has for us. Jews in its midst. What, then, joins the two trends In truth, the isolation of one part of Jewish history which seem to have coincided so significantly in our from another, the separation of one part of the Torah generation? A passage from the Torah can give us the from another, has caused much of the inability to deal answer: with events such as Churban Europe. Much of our OiT1:lK p ?Kll!:llV' n:> n?nr.i nK np'1 ?K)l!:llV' ?K 11Vl1 l,,'1 education has been permeated with the "sunny side of (" .n"~ n'IVK"1:l) ;11VK? 1? 1'1Vl ?ll nr:>i mnK Judaism," resulting from a cowardice and failure of will 2. Detailed documentation of the Mufti's activities may be found in to deal with the misfortunes of Klal Yisroel. Yet, here is Simon Wiesenthal's Grand Mufti - Agent Extraordinary of the Axis one of the sources of our uniqueness. We are happy to (who relates that Haj Amin also visited Majdanek); Maurice teach our children of our "chosen-ness" in mitzvos and Pearlman's Mufti of Jerusalem and, most recently (1965), Joseph B. our closeness to G-d. Yet, at our peril, we ignore the Schechterman's The Mufti and the Fuehrer (translator's note, Y.f.) fact that there are three different portions of nmm - 3. Quoted by Pearlman, pp. 71-72 and Schechtman, p. 158. rebuke and promise of punishment in the Torah
8 The Jewish Observer/ October, 1977 The following news story (from Maariv, new term for the destruction of European Jewry August 12, 1977) strikingly illustrates how those because of its proportions and dimensions. Ironically, who originated the term Shoah view the the artificially contrived term they finally applied emp Holocaust as an event totally unrelated to Jewish ties the churban of its profound meaning and history and therefore requiring a memorial day significance. In appropriating a term which signifies for itself. In contrast, if the European Churban is isolation and detachment from history, they did not seen correctly in the light of Torah, Tisha B'Av is realize that the significance of the "Holocaust" is of course the day for remembering all Jewish suf precisely in its intricate relationship with what will fering. come after. The pattern of Jewish history throughout the ages is ;i':nr
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 9 Joseph Elias
Dealing With
status, and academic opportunities. There is an element of political expediency (as pointed out by Rabbi Hutner) in some of the harping on the events of 1939- 1945, and also an obvious effort on the part of some to exploit them ideologically. At the same time it is surely true that the terrible wounds of the Nazi era have not yet healed. (If any proof is needed, a recent story in the New York Times Magazine about the effect of the Holocaust survivors' trauma on their children amply provides it.) There is a last years have seen an ever-growing flood of need to come to grips with what happened - and some publications centering on the Nazi era and the destruc time had to pass after the event before efforts could tion of European Jewry: autobiographical accounts by really be made in this direction. Perhaps there applies sUrvivors,1 learned studies and surveys of the period,2 on our level, too, what our Sages told about Rabbi monographs dealing with particular localities and Yehudah Hanassi and Rabbi Yochanan: Rabbi episodes,3 or specific aspects of what has come to be Y ochanan explained a certain verse in Eichah in 60 known as the Holocaust. 4 If we also think of the ways, whilst Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi only had 24 in proliferation of courses and chairs in Holocaust studies, terpretations - not because he, who lived much closer research centers and archives, it becomes quite clear to the destruction of the Temple, had less to say, but that - thirty years after the event - there is a renewed because he remembered more and therefore was concern with the Holocaust. silenced by the intensity of his grief (Yerushalmi There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon, Ta'anis JV). some of them not very laudable. Holocaust studies However, if we have really reached the point where represent an academic" growth area," and opportunists the Churban Europa can be discussed meaningfully, and have quickly grasped what this implies in prestige, we must be grateful to those sincerely trying to do so, we must admit that a vast part of what ll.as been written RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS is menahel of the Yeshiva Rabbi Samson falls woefully short of this objective. Some years ago Raphael Hirsch High School for Girls and the Rika Breuer's Teachers Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg pointed out that the Holocaust Seminary. He served as editor of the Jewish Pocket Book Series and is was unique in that it was the first overwhelming a member of the Editorial Board of JO. catastrophe in Jewish history where Jews asked, "Why
10 The Jewish Observer/ October, 1977 did G-d do this to us?", rather than, "What did G-d when I founded the earth?" G-d asks of lyov, driving want us to learn from this experience?" (Jewish home to him the limitations of human insight (lyov Observer, June '76). Challenging G-d, and sitting in 38:4). In truth, the Jew - conscious of the infinite judgment on Divine Justice, comes naturally to modern wisdom of the Creator - always accepted His judg man who considers himself the measure of all things; ment. He was sure in his conviction of the ultimate but it is not only terribly wrong - it is an exercise in meaningfulness of all that happened - and therefore futility, and blinds man to the true meaning of what could concentrate on squeeziii.g out of it whatever happened. meaning he could discern in it. 5 In contrast, secular man, approaching the Holocaust with. an anthropo The Inadequacy of Human Interpretation centric perspective, is unable to cope with it. The It is obviously a futile effort, for man can never political, social, and psychological concepts, which are plumb the depths of Divine counsel. "Where were you the sum total of his intellectual equipment are insuf- ==-·=-----
J . Some examples: M. Dank, The French Against the French (Lippin J. Joffo, A Bag of Marbles (Houghton-Mifflin, cott, 1974) deals with the battle between the French 1974), the account of a French boy who saved underground and the French collaborators, only himself by hiding out in unoccupied France; touches incidentally on Jewish aspects; B. Bar Oni, The Vapor (Visual Impact Inc,, 1976), J. Garlinski, Fighting Auschwitz (Fawcett, 1975), recounts the struggle for survival of a Polish girl, the story of the resistance movement in Auschwitz; first in the ghetto and then among the partisans; E. Papanek, Out of the Fire (William Morrow, L. Richman, Why? Extermination Camp Lwow 1975), the rescue of refugee children from France to (Vantage Press, 1975), describes survival amidst the the USA. horrors of a doomed community; 4. Recent examples: G. Korman (ed.), Hunter and Hunted (Viking, Dr. H.J. Zimmels, The Echoes of the Nazi Holocaust 1973 ), is an anthology of autobiographical accounts in Rabbinic Literature (Ktav, 1975); of various phases of the Holocaust; M. Prager, Sparks of Glory (Shengold, 1974), and S.B. Unsdorfer, Stories of Simcha (S.Z. Hoff, 1975); M.D. Weinstock, Light in the Darkness (Horizon the first half of this book contains recollections and Pub!., 1972), stories of Kiddush Hashem during the stories of the Holocaust largely drawn from the Holocaust; author's own experiences (an earlier book of his was M.R.D. Foot, Resistance 1940-1945 (McGraw Hill, The Yellow Star). 1977), a survey of the resistance efforts against the Nazis; 2. Some works of this genre: A. D. Morse, While Six Million Died (Discovery L.S. Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews (Holt, Press, 1967), details the procrastination of the Rinehart Winston, 1975) represents a comprehen American government and its resistance to the sive survey of "The Final Solution" and how it was rescue of Jews; put into effect; M. Shonfeld, The Holocaust Victims Accuse (Bnei R. Hilberg, The Destruction of European Jewry Yeshivos Publications, New York City, 1977), (Quadrangle, 2nd ed., 1967), is a scientific study of deals with the guilt of the secular Jewish and Zionist the Nazi machinery for destroying the Jewish peo leadership in the destruction of European Jewry; ple; L.L. ·Synder, Encyclopedia of the Third Reich B. Klarsfeld, Wherever They May Be (Vanguard, 1975) - hunting Nazis in the postwar world; (McGraw Hill, 1976), useful reference work, though much of its material inconsequential. G. Sereny, Into that Darkness - From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder (McGraw Hill, 1974), the story of 3. Some recent examples: the creation of the Nazi murder machine; D. Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis, and Jews (Yeshiva I. Trunk, Judenrat (MacMillan, 1972), is the University Press, 1976) deals with the Jewish definitive study of the Jewish Councils established refugee community of Shanghai; - and exploited - by the Nazis; G. Thomas and M.M. Witts, Voyage of the Damned T. Des Pres, The Survivors, an anatomy of life in the (Fawcett, 1974) - the story of the refugee boat St. Death Camps (Pocket Books, 1977) seeks to deter Louis; mine how some survived the camps. R. Klueger - P. Mann, The Last Escape (Doubleday, 5. Cf. A Thought for the Week, vol. V, nos. 42-44 (the 1973), describes the efforts to rescue Roumanian Lubavitcher Rebbe's comments on questions about Jews through illegal emigration to Palestine; the Holocaust).
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 II ficient to deal with what happened - and if he is clear I. The Attitude of the Non-Jewish World sighted enough to perceive this, he must confess that While Six Million Died has become the standard text the Holocaust is totally and uniquely unintelligible to on the perfidy of the American government in profess him, since he cannot view it in the context of a Divinely ing sympathy and solidarity with the cause of saving guided history, and he will even assert that it has no Europe's Jews while at the same time doing everything meaning at all.6 possible to play down and cover up the tragedy and Thus, it is not surprising that in most of the books block any effective rescue work. The author notes that that have appeared in recent years data are ac over one million places on the U.S. immigration quotas cumulated, experiences are recorded, theories are put were left unfilled in the years 1933 to 1945, and the role forward - but there remains not only the unspeakable of Cordell Hull and his henchmen is fully aired. (Their pain but the inability to penetrate below the surface of attitude to rescue is also highlighted in The Voyage of what happened. We are left with a riddle which chal the Damned, the tragic account of the odyssey of the St. Louis whose passengers were refused admission to lenges man's very ability to function (this is particular Cuba and - refused a haven in the USA - finally ly noticeable in the studies of the survivors and the found refuge in European countries where most of books written by thern 7). Yet, there are some works, written from a Torah perspective, that throw a them were later seized by the Nazis.) Roosevelfs per penetrating light on the era of the Holocaust - and, sonal role is not adequately explored, however, and even more interesting, when we dig deeper into the Stephen Wise and the Jewish establishment are mass of the Holocaust literature, we find sparks of the portrayed as working loyally for the rescue of the Euro truth in almost every place, which help us toward an pean Jews - as we shall see, a picture far from the understanding of what this era may have been meant to truth. teach us. Into That Darkness is an extremely important book, both on account of its main theme, the creation of the To be sure, we are not able to say that the Churban extermination apparatus, and because of the various Europa happened for this or that reason; just as in the related topics explored by the author. Mrs. Sereny case of individual bereavement we must silently bend traces the life history of Franz Stangl and his rise from our head, so too when it is multiplied not a thousand participation in the early Nazi euthanasia program to fold but six million fold. All we can affirm is that death the command of the Treblinka extermination camp. She - or suffering - is not meaningless, but finds its fulfill shows how the euthanasia project of the thirties served ment in that world for which our life is only a prepara as a preparation for the later elaborate programs to tion. Yet, having made this clear, we can and must not destroy vast numbers of lives - and she shows how the only remember what happened, but seek to learn from Va ti can's tolerance of Nazi "mercy killing" opened the it what we can. door to the full horror of Nazi murder. Incidentally, she In searching for a clue to the meaning of events, confirms what has widely been suspected - that the Gedolei Torah have pointed to the coincidence between much ballyhooed official Vatican series of documents - on one hand - the rise of alien ideologies within the on the war, presently being published, deliberately Jewish people and - on the other hand - the omits documents incriminating the Pope and es murderous hostility of the Nazis and the indifference of tablishing his early knowledge of the "Final Solution"; the other nations. Some have pointed to the fact that the author herself saw these documents in Polish the Churban Europa began in Berlin, the birthplace of diplomatic archives. At the same time she throws light on the help given to fleeing Nazi war criminals in Rome Haskalah and assimilation, and have seen in the Nazi rejection of the Jew the answer to the dream of being after the war. like our Gentile neighbors. Others have stressed the A point frequently made by Sereny - that the non emergence of Jewish secular nationalism: when there Jewish population in Eastern Europe constantly arose the idea that Jews are a nation like all others, betrayed Jews to the Nazis - also emerges from many denying their Divine r<;:>le, the other nations could rise of the autobiographical accounts of survivors, such as against it with impunity. 8 These interpretations seek to Bryna Bar Oni's moving story of her effort to survive in provide some key to the disaster that befell us - when hiding, threatened not only by the Nazis but also her we now turn to the books that have appeared, we find Polish neighbors and even by many partisan units. (She evidence that the actual course of this disaster constant became one of 23 survivors, out of 370 who had fled ly manifested the factors we pointed to: the failure of the ghetto of her hometown.) But this was not only a secular Jewish leadership, whether assimilationist or problem in Eastern Europe. In France extraordinary ef nationalist, and the unrelenting hostility of the nations. forts were made by many Frenchmen, and particularly We will try to illustrate this pattern by reference to the the maquis, to aid the Jews, as shown for instance in attitude of the non-Jewish world ... the policies of the Joffo's account. Yet, at the same time - as shown in Jewish leadership in the free world ... and the situation Dank's The French Against the French - there were under the Nazis. sizeable elements that collaborated with the Nazis, es-
12 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 pecially the French police. This is particularly under ses." Since Elie Weisel recorded this interview in 1959, standable if we remember that Petain obtained the con so much material has come to light that it is almost un sent of the Pope to the anti-Jewish legislation which he believable that Stephen Wise's name is remembered adopted and which formed the basis for the persecution anywhere with anything but shame (Korman's in of the Jews in France. troduction to Hunter and Hunted, whose publication If the war years saw so ljluch gentile callousness was sponsored by the Bnei Brith Commission on Jewish toward the "Final Solution," we should not be sur Adult Education, still presents him as the champion of prised about the post-war tolerance for Nazi criminals rescue efforts - the sources gathered by Korman are of and neo-Nazis evident not only in Germany but also in vastly greater value than his introduction). the U.S.A. and other countries. Beate Klarsfeld's The failure of the Jewish establishment is well Whoever They May Be is the autobiography of a documented not only by Shonfeld but also by others. It German who turned Nazi-hunter; from its pages there was dve partly to the love of its leaders for publicity emerges a sense of futility which forces us to face the and pronouncements, while, at the same time, showing fact that neither the preaching of humanitarianism and incredible pettiness and lack of imagination or sen enlightenment nor the fight against Jew-haters will sitivity in dealing with the immensely urgent demands solve the problem of the Jew. The fact that the wave of of rescue. The handling of the St. Louis is one instance; revulsion over Nazi crimes, which rose at the end of the and another is the failure to help Papanek to rescue war, spent itself so quickly, underlines the deeper most of his orphans from Europe - the picture of the significance of the perennial tension between the Jew American organizations and their attitudes, drawn in and the nations: we are meant to recognize that we are Out of the Fire, is truly devastating. different, and must shoulder the burden of our sacred More fundamental, however, were two basic mission. We must see the attitude of the nations as premises tu which the secular establishment was firmly rooted in the depths of historical destiny - "/tis a law committed: (1) the only way to aid the Jews of Europe is that Esau hates Jacob" and serves as a scourging rod, to to help the Allies win the war, and (2) nothing may be recall Jacob to a sense of his unique and lonely task as done for rescue which might in any way interfere with G-d's messenger. Not only the Nazi crimes, which are the efforts for a Jewish State in Palestine (Shonfeld, beyond all human understanding, but the betrayal of from whom the passages quoted in the next few the Jews by most of the free nations can only be ex paragraphs are taken). plained in this way. The first premise quoted was based on guasi patriotic considerations - and (as explicit in the state 2. The Role of the Jewish Establishment ments of Sali Meyer, in Switzerland, and Chief Rabbi It is easier to be enraged by the failure of the nations Ehrenpreisz in Sweden) on the fears of assimilated and churches than it is to face the facts about the Jewish leaders that a wave of uncouth, backward Eastern Euro role in the Holocaust. Ben Hecht's Perfidy shook the pean immigrants would sweep into the Western World Jewish world when it appeared; yet it was a toned and endanger the status of the accultured modern Jews. down version of the original. "If this had been These leaders resolutely closed their eyes to the fact that published, the world would have learned that the by the time of an Allied victory practically no Jews leaders of the Jewish people - the best known, most would be left to be saved. Stephen Wise in 1943 effec respected leaders of Zionism - were actually criminals, tively blocked a promising chance to save 70,000 said Ben Hecht. ... One who fought with all his might Roumanian Jews. In 1944, when_public pressure built up against our rescue and publicity campaigns was Rabbi for the creation of a special War Refugee Board, he Stephen Wise, president of the various Jewish congres- testified before Congress against this proposal - and
6. Wiesel's words (in Legends of Our Time) give ex sion emerges from G. Sereny's Into That Darkness, pression to this: "What Auschwitz embodied has and from the above mentioned article in the New [no meaning]. The executioner killed for nothing, York Times Magazine of June 19, 1977, Heirs of the the victim died for nothing. No G-d ordered the one Holocaust by Helen Epstein). to prepare the stake, nor the other to mount it .... At In contrast, anybody familiar with the Orthodox Auschwitz the sacrifices were without point, communities created by Holocaust survivors in this without faith, without divine inspiration." country will readily agree that, however traumatic 7. D. Rabinowitz, New Lives (Knopf, 1976), a study of their war experiences were, they do not suffer from survivors of the Holocaust living in America, the same lack of purpose or uncertainty about the reflects the multiplicity of feelings and the uncer meaningfulness of their life. tainty and confusion of goals which characterize so many who have managed to survive and who have 8. See Rabbi A. Wolf, Hatekufah Ubayosayha, pp. 68- had no roots in Jewish tradition (the same impres- 77, for a summary of different interpretations.
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 13 when 400 Rabbis, led by Rabbi Eliezer Silver and Rabbi the actual rejection of rescue possibilities which might Avrohom Kalmanowitz marched on Washington in have lessened the pressure for the opening of the gates support of the idea, it was Stephen Wise and his as of Palestine. Rescue work suffered further from con sociates who persuaded Roosevelt against receiving the flicts over how to react to the closing of the doors of Rabbis. Palestine by the British (Ruth Klueger describes the Jn his fine study of the Jewish community in conflicts within the Zionist movement on whether il Shanghai, D. Kranzler points out that the only place on legal rescue work should be undertaken), and the earth where German Jews could go without visa in the American prohibition on transfers of funds to enemy nineteen thirties was Shanghai - until the Amerian territory (Kranzler and Trunk record the hesitation of the Joint to circumvent this law, in contrast to the Vaad Hatzalah which found ways of transferring needed The secular Establishment feared a funds even before the U.S. government officially ap wave of uncouth Eastern European proved). The sabotage of Joel Brand's rescue mission, in deference to British wishes 1 is of course the most ex Jews, closing their eyes to the fact that treme instance of sacrificing Jewish lives to political after an Allied victory, no Jews would considerations. It is extremely painful to peruse a book like Moshe be left to save. Shonfeld's The Holocaust Victims Accuse, which chronicles these and other instances of the failure of the government, with the active support of the Jewish Jewish establishment.' Yet it is most important that the organizations, asked the Nazi government in 1939 to true picture of what happened be faced up to - not stop emigration to Shanghai! Sali Meyer, representative only to keep the historical record straight but, much of the Joint and the Zionist Organization in more importantly, because there are profound ixnplica Switzerland, blocked efforts for admission of more tions for present and future. With the exception of a Jews to Switzerland, and Ehrenpreisz did the same in few very rare individuals - such as Dr. Griffel in Sweden. Turkey, Elemelech Tress and Julius Steinfeld in the U.S.A., and the organizations that they succeeded in in The second premise governing the policies of Jewish spiring - nobody did enough for and therein leaders was eloquently defined in 1943 by Yitzchak Hatzaiah, lies a terrible lesson for us. At the same time, it is Greenbaum, member of the Jewish Agency and - frightening to look back upon the failure of the big curiously enough - chairman of its Rescue Committee Jewish organizations, in their flawed approach to in Jerusalem: "When they asked me, couldn't you give rescue work which so clearly emerges from our sources. money out of the United Jewish Appeal funds for the If, as we said at the beginning, the Holocaust was to rescue of Jews in Europe, I said, No!, and I say again, serve as a warning against our loss of Torah values in No! ... one must resist this wave which pushes the the process of assimilation, the failure to do adequate Zionist activities to secondary importance." But it was rescue work doubly and triply underlines this warning. not only a question of finances; in the words of Chayim Weizmann, in 1937, "The hopes of Europe's six mil lion Jews are centered on emigration. I was asked, can If the Holocaust was to serve as a you bring six million Jews to Palestine? I replied, No.... From the depths of the tragedy I want to save two mil warning against our loss of Torah lion young people ... The old ones will pass ... They values in the process of assimilation, were dust, economic and moral dust in a cruel world ... the failure to do adequate rescue work Only the young shall survive." There was enunciated the fateful policy of selective doubly and triply underlines this warn rescue which, for instance, led Henry Montor, ex ing. ecutive director of the UJA, to refuse to support Revisionist efforts to bring any and all escapees to Eretz We must do our utmost not to permit alien ideologies to Yisrael: "Palestine cannot be flooded with ... old people dominate Jewish life - whether we think of American or with undesirables." (We shall touch further on upon issues, the needs of Russian Jewry, or Eretz Yisrae l. some of the consequences of this policy in Nazi occupied Europe; here it only remains to point out that 3. Under Nazi Rule this policy, which also governed the partisan distribu Lastly, we must also face up to the fact that the in tion of certificates before the war, was the major factor roads of such ideologies - whether assimilationist or in limiting orthodox aliyah, rather than rabbinic op nationalist - may not only have prepared the ground position.) for the Churban Europa, but were also manifested in The abandonment of the diaspora, and the writing the way in which European Jewry faced its hour of off of those considered useless to the future state, led to tragedy.
14 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 D. Rabinowitz tells the story of the survivor who days, we are made to realize by all the writers that there looked at the pictures of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising was a possibility of resistance of a different nature than displayed in the office of a Jewish organization to il is usually envisioned. The Nazis did not want only to lustrate death with honor - and mused, "I thought that destroy the Jew; they aimed to destroy his spirit and everyone who died, died with honor." Most of the everything he stood for. In this they glaringly failed - books concerned with the Holocaust at one point or and, while there were many, from the most diverse another come to grips with the question of resistance: did the six million go like sheep to slaughter? The point is made by Hilberg and Dawidowicz, among others, The survivor looked at the pictures that Jews historically have become conditioned not to use violence. Be that as it may - in Nazi Europe mass of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising dis resistance was out of question. 1° Foot quotes de Gaulle played to illustrate death with honor - as calling resistance "a bluff that worked" - and that and mused, "I thought that everyone only under the very special conditions that existed in France. A limited amount of sabotage and underground who died, died with honor." work was possible in Eastern Europe, and was indeed done; but on a mass scale, resistance - except just prior to liberation - could at most be a heroic but suicidal backgrounds, who gave strength to others by their own gesture of defiance and revenge. fortitude, there is one note that is struck again and Moreover, Garlinski, in his meticulous account of again in the accounts of the time, by secular writers as underground work in Auschwitz, stresses that it took well as religious ones: months to set up any organization - and therefore Suddenly we saw a group of men. At their head Jews, unlike other prisoners, were unable to do so: they was an old rav, wrapped in his tallis and holding were destined for the crematoria and had an average life in his hand an open siddur. He passed before us as expectancy of three months. They did not even have a figure from out of this world, and called aloud: the time to make those basic adjustments to the sur "Be comforted, be comforted, my people." realistic and horror-laden underworld of Auschwitz (Chayim Lazar, quoted by Schonfeld). ("another planet") which alone held out a hope of sur vival (DesPres). 5ereny points out that the Nazis fien Pain and ... fear ... kept us awake .... The moon dishly provided entirely different receptions in shone through the window ... and gave the pale, Auschwitz for Jews from Eastern and Western Europe, wasted faces of the prisoners a ghostly ap playing on their different world outlook in order to pearance. It was as if all the life had ebbed out of totally disorganize and overwhelm them. In the same them. I shuddered with dread, for it suddenly oc way, the Nazis turned the treatment of the Jews in the curred to me that I was the only living man among ghettoes into a devilish art, alternating murder with corpses. promises of a respite, deliberately creating confusion All at once the oppressive silence was broken and uncertainty, and after every "Aktion" fanning by a mournful tune. It was the plaintive tones of hopes of survival for those that remained. the ancient "Kol Nidre" prayer. I raised myself up And yet, as we read the accounts of those terrible to see whence it came, There, close to the wall, the
9. In Blaming the Jews: The Charge of Perfidy (in The belittling the work of the lrgunists, to write that "its Jewish Presence, a collection of essays on identity one accomplishment ... was that it ... brought about and history, 1977), L. Dawidowicz tries to clear the the creation of the War Refugee Board," as if this Jewish leadership of such charges. She argues that had been a small thing. She stresses that "Sali Meyer Kastner, the Zionist leader in Hungary, was not a was authorized to keep negotiating" with the traitor but "a self-deluded egotist, obsessed with the Germans after Brand had been sidetracked; yet she sense of his historic mission to save some Jews" must know that Sali Meyer actually opposed remov (emphasis mine); and she claims that "timidity, mis ing Jews from Nazi-held territories. She mentions calculation, and misjudgment" as the part of the that in 1944, Weizman proposed the bombing of leadership is not the same as betrayal- people mere Auschwitz - ignoring the fact that this was urged ly realized too late what was happening. Faint as her much earlier by Rabbi M.B. Weissmandl, whom - defense is, it is still too kind to these leaders. Stephen unbelievably! - she totally ignores in all her Wise and others knew relatively early what was go writings - and that England, possibly on Russian ing on and acceeded to a cover-up; they failed to put instigation, refused; yet there is on record an English public pressure on the governments, tried to silence denial that such a proposal was ever made. those who did, and at crucial moments actually op posed rescue projects. It is strange for a historian, in 10. Cf. Dawidowicz, in The Jewish Presence;
The ]nvish Observer I October, 1977 15 moonlight caught the uplifted face of an old man the Orthodox children were always the most con who, in self-forgetful, pious absorption, was fident of their ultimate triumph and the least scar singing softly to himself. ... This prayer brought red by their persecution. They knew who they the ghostly group of seemingly insensible human were, and what they were persecuted for. They beings back to life .... did feel different, they did feel special, they did We sat up very quietly, so as not to disturb the feel that they had been chosen by G-d to fulfill old man, and he did not notice that we were some Almighty purpose. In one sense they didn't listening .... When at last he was silent, there was have to win over anybody or anything. They wort exaltation among us, an exaltation which men can by being. experience when they have fallen as low as we had The enormous strength of Torah, both in assuring fallen and then, through the mystic power of a the loyalty of its faithful followers and in giving them deathless prayer, have awakened once more to the endurance and vitality, is shown in the rabbinic world of the spirit. (Szalet, quoted by DesPres) responsa of the time, many of which are collected by DesPres, to be sure, at bottom, does not know how to Dr. H.J. Zimmels. 11 Despite some ineptitude on the evaluate such phenomena. He recognizes that survival part of those who edited the volume (compare for in in the camps was tied up with a man's essential stance the statement about Rabbi Abramsky's beard, p. humanity, the ability for caring and sharing; yet he sees 39), it is a remarkable and deeply upsetting work, this as merely an expression of innate and instinctive reflecting the greatness of the Jew whose longing - biological forms of basic behavior. Dawidowicz, too, even in the valley of death - was to do the will of his stresses the role of the spirit. She writes: · Father in heaven. The Torah Jew put himself in mortal danger by the peyos he wore, or by his attendance at a Morale was sustained by rabbis and pious Jews minyan; yet he acquired an inner strength that who, by their own resolute and exalted stance, protected him from a fate worse than death - becoming provided a model of how Jews should encounter a lackey or imitator of his oppressors. death. In contrast, among those estranged from Torah, She points out that, while many gave up their loyalty there was the possibility of some men emerging who to tradition, there was a mass sacrificial endeavor on the chose such a life of shame. Shonfeld quotes Efroiken, a part of religious Jewry to cling to Torah observance, standard-bearer of secularism, whom the Holocaust even though it was in effect made illegal by the Nazis. brought to the gates of repentance: The faith and pride in one's Jewishness, despite From where did the thousands of Jewish police everything, is reflected in the story of the child in the (kapos), who served the Germans in the con ghetto school who heard the story of Jacob and Esau centration camps and the ghettos, come? The sur and exclaimed: "Teacher, we are Jacob's descendants, vivors of the Holocaust all concur that they and they are Esau's, right? It's good that way. I want to originated from the underworld and from the belong to Jacob and not to Esau." Yet Dawidowicz adds maskilim - the very people who denounced their that "for believing Jews the conviction that their "unenlightened" brethren for their more sacrifice was required as a testimony to Almighty G-d traditional garb. Did not these maskilim harbor was more comforting than the supposition that He had the same feelings of scorn and even hatred as their abandoned them altogether" - this statement hardly masters, the Nazis? ... Here one must record the does justice to the genuine faith in G-d's closeness of blatant fact ... that Torah true Jewry - Jews the true believer, and rather makes it appear to be a wearing traditional rabbinical or hassidic garb - convenient psychological device. never held positions in the Jewish police force, In contrast, Prager, Weinstock, Unsdorfer - and which administered ghetto Jewry, and never Shonfeld, in some of his vignettes - heart-rendingly served as kapos. capture on paper the true spiritual greatness and all Actually, there were some isolated cases of Kapos pervading humanity of so many men whom the emerging from among the religious ranks, but they awesome challenge turned into heroes. However, the were a rarity indeed. light of Torah does not only shine through such people It is important to note that Trunk indeed points out - compare the following lines by Ernst Papanek, that the Judenrats and ghetto administrations were Austrian socialist educator and self-confessed total ig largely dominated by assimilationists (the Jewish police noramus in Jewish matters: in Warsaw was commanded by a Meshummad, and the It was pure arrogance in our part to think that Vilna Ghetto by Jacob Gens whose wife was a Lithua we could decide whether the Orthodox orphans nian Christian) or Zionists (Merin, the "ruler" of would get kosher food or not. [These forty Sosnowitz, for instance was a Revisionist, and children, between 11 and 13 years of age) were Rumkowsky, "the king of Lodz," a General Zionist). tied together by the most powerful common From the various studies there emerge many reasons background we ever saw .... Despite everything, why they played such a dominant role in the ghettoes
16 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 (and later as kapos in the camps). They had a better - and Rabbi Meisels who took his life into his hands to secular education, often were professionals, and knew fulfill the last request of a few hundred boys marked German; not only those who only realized their Jewish for extermination, and blew shofar for them on Rosh identity when the Nazis took over, but a good many Hashana! secularized Jews who had played a role in Jewish life, in Of course, the Merins, Kovners, Greenbaums, at al a way felt closer to their new masters than to the poor, were a relatively small number - and it has been argued ragged, old-fashioned Jewish masses; their ambition that they, too, were victims of a situation too immense and power-seeking was not restrained by Torah con for them - but the fact that such figures could appear is siderations; and they felt confidence in their own a tragic demonstration of how low it is possible to fall ability to decide what was right and wrong. when Torah is forsaken. Just as the drift away from In the beginning, most Judenrat members meant Torah deeply affected the rescue efforts of Jewry in the well; but as the Jewish councils emerged more and more free world, so it cruelly affected the Jews under the as impotent tools of Nazi persecution, their more Nazi heel. Again, assimilation to a non-Jewish world idealistic members sought to get out or resisted the and its values not only helped prepare for the disaster, Nazis and were killed. With some notable exceptions, but accompanied and worsened it. those who remained deluded themselves that they were Therein lies the particular importance of remember doing a good thing. By preparing the lists of Jews who ing the Churban Europa in all its aspects. We must not were sent to their deaths, they thought that they were only seek to feel some echo of the pain and horror of saving other Jews. But in reality they merely stoked the those days; we must also learn from the mesiras nefesh crematoria. of the ordinary Jew who, going to his death, would not It is noteworthy that in connection with their work have changed places with his murderers, and of his as for instance in the case of Abba Kovner, head of the leaders who inspired him; also, however hurtful this is, Hashomer Hatzair in Vilna - there appears again the we must be aware of the danger to Kial Yisroel which infamous policy of "selective rescue." Dessler, the results from the forgetting of Torah and the emergence Vilna Jewish police head, wrote in his diary (quoted by of leaders estranged from it; and, finally, we must Schonfeld): remember that we must go our way without expecting anything from the world around us. Those who were deported were chosen by my Jewish police for I wanted to save the young and Jewish Historiography the intelligentsia. Measured by these objectives of our study of the But when the time came for a breakout to the forest, period, most of the books here touched upon must be judged superficial in their interpretation and under Kovner promised exit to fifty of his friends standing of the events - and in some cases outright from the organization exclusively.... Tens of misleading - even though a good many of the data they young, healthy, strong people gather in the court offer have proven most revealing to us. u The efforts by yard and plead before Kovner that he permit Schonfeld to set the record straight, are of course of them to join those leaving, but he threatens them great value; so are the accounts given by Prager, Un with his revolver and chases them away. (Lazar, sdorfer, or Weinstock, among others, and such quoted by Schonfeld) specialized works as Zimmel's. I would, however, like What a contrast to the role played by the Rabbis, as to single out Kranzler's work on Shanghai as an exam outlined by Trunk and others! ple of what a Jewish historical monograph should be like. In Sosnowitz, Moshe Merin, mentioned above, wanted the Jewish Council to make up a list of a thou Japanese, Nazis and Jews is a thoroughly researched sand Jews to be handed over for deportation. When the volume, complete with documentation, source Rav of the community, Rabbi Yeshaya Englard, references and bibliography. Unlike Trunk's volume, blocked him in this, Merin made up the list himself and, in revenge, put Rabbi Englard and his family on it. At 11. Trunk and Dawidowicz have stressed what they the last moment, he apparently reconsidered and of saw as a conflict between Rabbis over the permis fered to take Rabbi Englard off the train. But the Rav sibility of preparing lists for departation. The asked whether he would substitute others in his place Kovner Rav, when asked by the Judenrat to rule on and, upon receiving a positive reply, insisted on going this question, collapsed; when he had recovered, he to his death. Or take the contrast, in Auschwitz, replied, after careful consideration, that a list could between Eliezer Greenbaum, son of Yitzchak Green be prepared. This ruling seems in conflict with that baum, whom we mentioned before, an all-powerful of all other Rabbis and the view of the Rambam; Kapa who, according to K. Tzetnik's testimony, Zimmels, however, explains that the question in delighted in murdering religious Jews (he was later Kovno was different from the case in other killed by Jews in Eretz Yisroel, according to Schonfeld) localities.
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 17 for instance, it deals thoroughly also with all aspects of prepared a haven of refuge a generation later. The the themes that relate to Torah Jewry. Above all, Japanese not only remained grateful; they became so however, it seeks to lead the reader to look deeper, convinced of the world power of Jewish financiers (an behind the facts. idea usually conducive to Jew-hatred) that they decided Only neviim (prophets) can uncover the hidden to treat their Jewish refugees well, thereby hoping to pathways of historic cause-and-effect relationships. gain sympathy from the Jewish-dominated world. But we can - and should - try to perceive history as an It is interesting in this connection that the Japanese expression of Divine Providence. Thus, Dr. Kranzler repeatedly tried to enlist "their" Jews in establishing a points out how Jacob Schiff, the American financier, in better understanding of Japanese problems in America. 1905 helped the Japanese against Russia because of It was crucial for the well-being of the Jews in China Russia's persecution of the Jews - and thereby he and Japan that they should not be rudely rebuffed -
;i'?,'?1DD1'1J )1';'11 yet Stephen Wise once again played the patriotic ------statesman at the expense of the local Jews, providing a 1 maximum of irritating words and a minimum of help. Th!?. ?re '!~~s~I~!?o~' !~~:\tt!9b~~;.:ne He expressed his hostility to the Japanese and reason v.:h~' it's impossible_ gratuitously wrote that "Japan is bound to take an anti 11 -let us help you (free of chorgp) v.:Hh: Semitic attitude, and indeed has already done so" (Nov. O o stud~· group in YOUR home 0r neighborhood 22, 1938). Fortunately for the Jews of Shanghai, this o'learn\n,fv.'hot YOtJ w21nt 10 lenrn statement never reached the Japanese. In contrast, the 0 and ~1hen it's conv1:~nie'nt for YOU role of the Vaad Hatzalah and, in particular, of Rabbi Or arrange: O A pcrsono1 "c~h?.\il'USa ,. for you Kalmanowitz, the Mirrer Rosh HaYeshiva, shines 0 A tt~lephone '·chavtusa" brightly-yet another illustration of the thesis we have All levels of study' tried to develop in this review article. !..7- Coll U!' o! (2121 96.:l 1620. oY wnte TORAH EDUCATION NEJWORK 12. Attention should also be drawn to the fact that a A division of Agudoih Israel of America great deal of material is presently published for 5 Beekman Street/ New York. N.Y. 10038 school children and their teachers; here the absence Absolutely no charge or fee. of a Torah orientation is particularly dangerous. In Torontocall 781-1081 The Board of Jewish Education of New York has -----, published Program Materials for the Holocaust, a "Man e;i'ts the {tuirs _of the: following dt>eds in Thi$ World, , kit stressing the observance of the "Day of the while -the- Principle -remains unril the -World-to-Come: \ Holocaust" and defining the educational objective charitable'acrs. •-·hospitality~ •• vis_iting the sick ••• coming to I as "identification with the six million, and the im the aid ol a needy: bride -and groom •• •n mortality of Israel (':>K1lll' n:
18 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 ______Simcha Bunem Unsdorfer tire family, a complete community, Thumb Prints and a nation. The scope of the tragedy of the This article, written by the late loss of six million lives - of the SIMCHA BUNEM UNSDORFER ?"!, brutality of snuffing out so many had been found in the files of The lives - is more than the mind can Jewish Tribune, the Orthodox deal with. - Is one million wanton weekly newspaper published by murders less traumatic, less of a Agudath Israel of Great Britain. It loss than six million? One man's was written in 1959 and describes experiences, such as recorded in the the writer's personal encounter account that follows, can serve as a with Dr. Joseph Mengel, who starting point from which the pain, several weeks ago was reported to the sorrow, and the anger can be living a life of luxury in radiate to include the loss of an en- Paraguay.
-·------·------·------.. ------
Three Times for that thumb to move towards the right - life, or "Nazi Horror Man Seized!" "Aushwitz Doctor Cap towards the left - and Auschwitz Gas Chambers. tured!" Once again headlines like these have appeared No Selection at Auschwitz in various newspapers this week - and, once again, within hours of their publication, these reports were At 11 a.m., on Thurday 19th October 1944, a twelve promptly denied. They were either a "complete truck cattle train came to a halt at Auschwitz Exter fabrication," or a man was indeed arrested but it was mination Camp. In it yet another load of a thousand not the hunted Dr. Joseph Mengele, "the fingerprints Jewish victims to face judgment before that self did not match .... " appointed master of life and death, Dr. Joseph Having had the displeasure of facing Dr. Mengele at Mengele. Amongst the victims were my parents and a time when he was the hunter and I the hunted, I fol myself - my sister and her family having gone through low these reports with great interest. the same ordeal a week earlier which ended in Mengele's thumb pointing towards the left. ... "It was thought he was Mengele," one Agency reported, but "the fingerprints didn't match!" One hour after our arrival, we found ourselves inside a huge wooden barrack, convinced that every single one What kind of fingerprints, I wonder, would the of us was doomed for the gas chambers. Our conviction thumb of Dr. Mengele produce? The thumb that was based on two facts: motioned countless thousands, maybe millions, in cluding my own parents, my sister and her five a) We were not subjected to the usual "selection" children, to their deaths? Would these prints, if looked that normally took place on the platform; and at through a fine microscope, bear witness to the mass b) of the thousand people in our transport, nearly murder committed by the soulless Doctor of An half were inmates of the only remaining Jewish Old nihilation? Age Home in my native Slovakia. These old people, I stood three times before that infamous left-hand none of whom was below the age of 75, were assured by thumb that swung like a pendulum between life and the Germans that they would never be deported. That death. Three times my heart missed a beat as it waited assurance held good until Eichmann's Aide - S.S. Obersturmfuehrer A. Brunner, who is also still at large, allegedly in Egypt - had decided to rob them of this, MR. UNSDORFER had been a dynamic leader of Agudath Israel in their one and only desire on this earth, that is to be al Great Britain following World War ff, until his untimely death ten years ago. Stories of Simcha, a collection of his stories and essays, was lowed to die in their own beds. He hauled them out and recently published. This article was featured in a recent edition of The pushed them into our transport. Jewish Tribune and is reprinted here with permission. And just as we expected to be led into the gas
The Jewish Observer/ October, 1977 cha1nbers, the huge barrack doors were flung open and apologize or to console us but to collect a fresh group of in marched a troop of S.S., headed by a high ranking victims, more food for the ever-burning four huge officer. cre1natoria of Auschwitz. He stopped for a moment, as if to take a general view "Strip to the waist and form into a single column!" of the mass of panic-stricken white-faced newcomers. the barrack leader - himself an inmate - ordered. Then he gave a slight nod with his head, a signal which Within minutes we were filing past the slow-moving only his fellow S.S. men could interpret. ... thumb of Dr. Mengele again. Now and again he picked That officer, I learned later, was Mengele. Dr. Joseph his new victims from the line - no reasons, no protests Mengele, trained to cure the sick but practicing - just a flick of the thumb and a life was at an end. wholesale murder. He rested his right arm between the Ironically, this "selection" had the appearance of a shining buttons of his smartly fitting S.S. tunic, in true crowd of mourners filing past the coffin of a departed Napoleonic style, and began to march forward to make friend. So solemn and so silent was the atmosphere. his "selection." Yet, here you had the tragic difference of seeing the Mengele was certainly a "specialist" in his job. He dead filing past the living .... was looking for young, able-bodied men and women to Then it was my turn to face Mengele again; for a mo be sent to Germany's labor camps; he was looking for ment it seemed as if he was hesitating. I was always on the retarded, spastics, dwarfs, and even twins on whom the skinny side and his thumb remained still, as if to perform his "medical" experiments; and he was paralyzed. And just as I thought that my end was in looking for the aged, the weak, and the ailing to feed sight, a sudden push from the.impatient column behind them into his gas chambers. caused me to stumble forward and I was" through" for What was a few minutes earlier a crowd of tired and thf' second time. silent people, suddenly turned into a mass of crying, The "selection" over, Mengele counted his catch, an screatning, pulling, and pushing men, women and unknown number of doomed men standing silently in a children - a human stampede fighting for life. Women comer behind a line of S.S. He counted them slowly trying to pull back their "selected" daughters; sons were and then, in a flash, turned round again screaming and screa1ning to their fathers to follow them; hysterical raving that one man had escaped! Escaped? Who could mothers clutching their babies, old couples tightly have got away from this column of fully armed six-foot holding on to each other - and all the time the S. 5. tall S.S. men? - But nobody dared question him, not lashing out mercilessly against them all. even his own men. Dr. Mengele who gave the signal for "action" went on with his "selection" quite undisturbed. To him this "Line Them up Again!" had become a normal, perhaps a boring, day-to-day "Line them up again!" he yelled at the barrack leader. routine. He swung his thumb from left to right - from ''I'll recognize that dark-haired skinny youngster. The life to death - leaving it to the S.S. guards behind him tall boy with the glasses - I'll recognize him im to do the rest. mediately." Then the moment came. f-le gave one glance at me My blood froze as I heard this description. It fitted and his thumb motioned right. It was to be expected. I me perfectly as, indeed, a good many others in the bar was then only nineteen and fit for work. I tried to turn rack. As the line began to move again, I took a deep round for a quick goodbye to my parents, one last word breath to fill out my chest and lungs and in desperation to father, one last kiss for my mother. But no. An S.S. I removed my glasses. Slowly I cam nearer and nearer to hand grabbed me by the collar and pulled me away. In a him. Then, suddenly, the column stopped. For there, flash my father's hand reached forward in a desperate just about ten men ahead of me, he pulled out an 18- effort to protect me from the murderous grip of that year-old youngster shouting jubilantly: "You! You are S.S. man. Mengele mistook it and thought that my the one I picked out before." father was trying to follow me. "Dort bleiben!" he yel "No! No!" the boy, a former classmate of mine, led. "Stay there." My last moment with my parents - cried: "It was not me, Sir. Look, my hair is red! I am and my first encouter with Mengele was over. ... short, and I never wear glasses .... " But Mengele was not interested. The "selection" was The Dead Filing Past the Living over, and so was my last and final encounter with him. Three mornings later as we stood assembled in Now Mengele is a hunted man. Hunted by the living another barrack waiting for transportation to one of and haunted by the dead. And when the day of his cap Germany's many slave labor factories, the doors were ture will arive, there should be no difficulty in identify pulled open again. In came Mengele and his escort. The ing him. Those who, like myself, have stood in fear and sight of the man who had murdered my parents just 48 terror before him will require no fingerprints.... I hours earlier made my blood boil but, within seconds, it would recognize him by the mere sight of his thumb. froze again at the thought that he was here not to !..T.
20 The Jewish Observer/ October, 1977 . .. . •.·.·:::::: ....• :. · : ... -.·.T· >: ..::.« · .. .. ,· .·>·.h... .::: .> .. .: . .. . ·I . ••·B •rin.gmg>< ora.. · ·
·, ... ·', . ··11·' ',' · ··.· · ·.· ··. ··11· .. _-.'· '' · -.·"·.·.·... · ··' · · · ...... ' v·- ...... ' . . . ' . . . . ' ' . ey·, - ...... , . ' . ·. · . to" ' t'. .. ':.,e.· ''. .. ' ·.a·'. ' ' '... - '' '' '.' --: >'.' '.
. 'Th·.·.· ..M·.· ...... ·c·'···ty"...... ·.. ·.·.· ... ·,·. ' .·..• ·.· ...'.' ' .• ., . .•.·• ....-- ' •• > •• ' •• :· .I I'.. ··.. ·... ·e ·.•. · ...... · ex1co· ·.··. '.·.: .·::···1 : .....· <••: · ··· .·· . ' . . . ---· . . ----.-- .-.- .- ·---· .- Junket It has been said that, in terms of hedonism and serman opened the Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in the the trend toward cultural assimilation which so Melrose section of Los Angeles. More recently, the mark American life, Los Angeles is the "America" Kole! founded by Beis Midrash Gevoha two years of America. More than that, suburban San Fer ago in the Beverly-Fairfax section of Los Angeles nando Valley has been called the "Los Angeles" of has been improving the religious complexion of Los Angeles. This should be·quite alarming to the the city in a most dramatic way. But out in the Val Jewish reader, considering that Los Angeles is the ley, change has been minimal, Aside from the U.S.'s second citv in Jewish population, with over Emek Day School and High School, which serve half a million Jews - close to 200,000 of them living the area, there had been little evidence of a full in the Valley. Thus, an attempt to establish a bodied Torah presence in the Valley. Torah beachhead in North Hollywood (in the Val Then, in summer 1976, Torah Umesorah's Pro ley) can be better understood for both the ject SEED (an acronym for Summer Educational significance of the endeavor and the risks in Environmental Development) brought a group of volved. ten young men from the Beis Midrash of Yeshiva Note should also be taken, however, of the Chafetz Chaim of Forest Hills, N. Y., to North positive changes that have been taking place in the Hollywood for a six-week period ... after which ugly stereotype of Los Angeles these past thirty four stayed on to form the nucleus of a beis years. First, an influx of she' aris hap lei ta hamidrash - a full-time Torah-study program. (refugees) from Europe in the 40's and 50's gave The following is excerpted from a report on the the Los Angeles community a much-needed infec North Hollywood experience by one of the beis tion of religious vitality. Moreover, it is now close midrash boys, MOSHE TURK. Moshe is currently to twenty-five years since Rabbi Simcha Was- with the Yeshiva Chafetz Chaim in Jerusalem. Bringing Torah to the Valley by Moshe Turk
SEED Summer knowledge. They came, they learned, and it had a I was part of the group of ten who came to the Valley profound impact upon many of their lives. in summer '76. Although we were aware that Torah in Children changed plans to attend public school, col roads had been made into the community, we were sur legiates signed up for yeshivas gedolos, and parents prised by their extent. The people welcomed us with became more exacting in their observance of the open arms, doing all that they could to help. More mitzvos. I was particularly inspired by one child who impressive, however, was their participation in our decided, under his own volition, to forego the oppor programs. They came with an enthusiasm which by no tunity to attend a movie with his friends so he could means indicated a complacently assimilated com save his allowance to buy seforim. munity. People who had spent most of their lives run ning from Torah were now embracing it. Children were Stranger at the Melave Malke coming home from Yeshiva with new ideas and they In the midst of one Me lave Malke, a stranger walked found their parents surprisingly receptive. For the first in. Nobody seemed to know him. We introduced time in their lives people were consciously searching for ourselves to him, but got little out of him except his more meaning. first name - Michael. After the Melave Malke, he dis From the start, we had as many people as we could appeared only to return the next morning with a suit handle. We were teaching Gemora, halachos and case. He asked if he could stay with us, and we, of mitzvos ... morning, afternoon and night. There were course, consented, still not prying into his life. He chavrusos, shiurim, lectures, Shabbatonim and Melave stayed for an entire week, living and learning with us. Malke's. A cross-section of people was always in atten Slowly, as the week slipped by, we found out more dance. Some "knew how to learn"; others once did, but about him. Michael is a professional newscaster who had since forgotten what a Gemora looked like. But interviews prominent entertainers and important per they all had one thing in common - a thirst for Torah sonalities. His personal portfolio was a Who's Who in
22 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 show business. For one week, however, he was just While a youngster obviously needs a Rebbe to guide another Jew sitting and learning Torah. and teach him, many areas of influence are inaccessible Before he left, he told us that the two most inspiring to a Rebbe. These avenues were open to us. We were experiences of his life were his first reading of the single, young (21-22), and "one of them." They opened Chofetz Chaim's sefer "Ahavas Chessed" (dealing with themselves up to us, but expected that we do the same. the laws of charity) and his contact with us. They carefully observed how we lived, how we behaved, how we thought, and even how we learned. Too Early For "Goodbye" And with the degree of flexibility and open-mindedness found only among youth, they strived to attain the We had all heard many shmuessen from our rebbeim standards which we attempted to set. on the importance and present-day potential of chinuch We demanded only that they listen - and they, in (Torah education) but after one actually experiences turn, responded. Jn fact, as we followed their progress, chinuch in practice, he is never the same. With this we had to constantly remind ourselves of the pressures new-found perspective we prepared to return to New they were going through. We could not honestly draw York. l soon found out, however, that for me the ex from our own pasts to relate to their present situation. perience was not yet over. Most of their families do not even observe Shabbos, yet Rabbi Shaya Cohen - who together with Rabbi almost all of them are Shomrei Shabbos. They are old Yochanan Stepen heads the Emek schools - decided enough to be caught in the throes of society, yet not old that the time was ripe to start a Beis Midrash in the Val enough to easily detach themselves from these in ley. The community was ready, and the high school fluences. In spite of everything, however, they over needed it. We were asked to stay an additional six came. There is hardly a student who did not develop months to form the nucleus of a yeshiva gedola. With significantly during our stay there. Unfortunately, in the encouragement of our Rosh Ha Yeshiva (Rabbi New York one sees so many youths who have been Henach Liebowitz l<"t:l'7tv), three of us remained. A "turned-off' to religious Judaism. In Los Angeles, fourth came from New York to join us and thus Beis however, we were the first exposure these students Midrash Zichron Aryeh was born. have had to bnei Torah. They are not familiar with the many stigmas with which we in the East must unfor Non-Growth Pains tunately contend. Thus, in many ways, they proved Rosh Chodesh Elul marked the beginning of the Beis even more receptive than members of more religious Midrash, four of us learning full sedorim (three ses circles. sions per day). A few collegiates from the area joined us part-time, but for months there was no sign of growth. "Within Every Jew , , ." We tried to attract more talmidim but for a while it We discovered how within every Jew there dwells the looked as if it just was not meant to be. For months, desire and ability to accept Torah. "Council in the heart Rabbi Cohen would comfort us, saying, "Ver vais voss of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding tut zich in Himmel?" Then, slowly, the unexpected will draw it out" (Mishlei 20,3). Those clear waters of began to happen - to this day I cannot understand Torah, writes Shlomo HaMelech, are innately part of how. As if from nowhere, people came. Soon we under every Jewish heart. Regardless of how deeply they lie stood. We had done·our best, Hakadosh Baruch Hu did submerged, it only requires a man to apply his under the rest. standing nature to bring them to the surface.... How By Pesach, we had an established Beis Midrash with true this was! over twenty young men engrossed in the study of Torah, and the number continues to grow. The com After graduating yeshiva day school, "Daniel" munity has begun to appreciate that, ultimately, the decide that he was finished with the study of success of Torah in the Valley can only be properly Torah, and registered in a local public high guaranteed through a strong, vibrant Beis Midrash. school. Throughout the summer months he con tinually resisted the arguments of the Rebbeim. A The Schedule week before the start of the school year, he finally One or two periods every morning, and fifteen consented, albeit reluctantly, to try yeshiva high minutes after Mincha were set aside to work with high school. ft took less than five weeks for the essence school students. Teaching them Gemora and Mussar of his neshama to break through. I watched in (studies in Torah ethics), we presented Torah not mere total amazement on Yorn Kippur while this thir ly as a subject, but as a way of life. We organized Shab teen year old boy davened, shuckling intensely, batonim and occasional overnight expeditions. As the without a single 'break the entire day. Davening year progressed, the bonds of our friendship deepened. with the all-encompassing involvement of a true The closer we became, the more they learned from us ben Torah, the resisting child of the previous and we from them. month was nowhere to be seen.
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 23 an argument. With obvious effort, however, he restrained himself and walked away. Later we found out that the previous night, before going to bed, he had thought over what his Beis Midrash bachur had told him during Mussar class. Whereas we thought he did not pay attention, the message had gotten through to him with such force that he was able to transform our thoughts into action. Still another case in point of how hid den responses to Torah can be brought to. light. As I observed all of this, my personal Mussar ses sions grew more introspective: If they could achieve so much, how much greater were my own obligations? The older students were already establishing themselves as true bnei Torah. They were making plans to enter yeshivas gedolos, here and in Israel. The younger talmidim were also advancing: "Larry" who but last year was mechallel Shabbos, made sure that during this year's vacation he was awakened to say "Krias Shema" in its proper time .... "Stewy" came to us this year with almost no knowledge of Yiddishkeit. We initiated a voluntary Mishmar on Thursday He recently prevailed upon his parents to make their nights. We asked the boys to give up almost two hours home Kosher .... These incidents are not the exception; of their free time to come and join us in study. We did but rather the norm. Week after week, shmuessen I had not expect much of a turnout. After all, attendance was heard in Yeshiva in New York continued came to life. optional, it involved a trip of considerable distance for Chazal (words of the Rabbis, of sainted memory) that I most of them, and it also competed with prime-time had read were reenacted in the lives of my students. television. We were proved wrong. The vast majority of the student body showed up each week, ready and The Community Rises to the Occasion eager to study Torah. Talmidim who hardly davened or learned in the morning were going out of their way to While we were basically involved in Torah study, come at night. Even boys who were still experiencing and our format of activity was mostly of a one-to-one inner conflict over Kashrus and Shmiras Shabbos were interaction, the community as a whole was not unaf committing themselves to come every Thursday night. fected. Permit me to share with you some of the changes which occurred in one single year: While the As the Gemora says, G-d told Klal Yisroel, "Better enrollment of the Day School continued to increase, in forsake Me and keep the learning of Torah, for its light both the boys' and girls' high schools it virtually will bring you back to Me" (Yerushalmi, Chagiga 1,7). doubled, attracting many students from Los Angeles First came their dedication to learning, then invariably, proper. The Emek Board of Directors (a lay-body) reaf at their own pace, adherence to mitzvos followed: firmed its commitment to Torah, submitting all aspects "Shelly" resisted for several months before of policy and curriculum to Daas Torah. In addition, a finally consenting to attend a Mishmar. He had full-time Beis Mid rash as well as a half-day program for enough difficulty trying to pay attention during college students was established and an advanced class, and had no interest in extending himself seminary for girls was begun. Two Talmud Torah's further. As a favor to us, he agreed at last to try it (afternoon schools) for public high school students one time. I don't believe he paid attention the en were set up in different parts of the Valley, meeting tire evening, but on the way home he made an in three times a week. An active Adult Education Program teresting declaration: "I don't know why, but was initiated. And of course, the Torah Umesorah once I've seen what it is, I feel that I must attend Project SEED was again in operation throughout the from now on." To our surprise, he kept his word, following summer. coming almost every subsequent week. A far cry What brought about this miraculous change? Why from your average "yeshivisha masmid," he still did members of a community, so removed from Torah makes it his business to affirm his commitment values, suddenly re-evaluate their position? How could every Thursday night. so much be accomplished so quickly? Just a few weeks later, Shelly showed another When we "young Rabbis" (as we were affectionately aspect of his development. Hyper-active and called) first came to teach, and the Beis Midrash volatile by nature, we expected to see fireworks bachurim joined us to learn, the community took im when another student began to provoke him into mediate notice. They saw young men with bright
24 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 futures in any of dozens of potentially lucrative fields At This Writing ... dedicate themselves instead to a singular ideal - the At this writing, I am back in New York, trying to put study and spreading of Torah. The sight of bnei Torah my thoughts and experiences into proper perspective. bending over a Gemora for hours on end ... the sound Although the prospect of staying on the West Coast of Torah study far into the night ... all these were con was very tempting, the necessity to leave was also ob tributing factors that helped in creating an indelible vious. Foremost among alt that I have learned from my imprint upon the hearts and minds of the townspeople experiences is that the amount one is able to transmit to - perhaps a common sight in many areas, but a potent others is directly proportionate to the amount one has force, nonetheless, when viewed afresh from a new absorbed within himself. I have now returned to my perspective. Yeshiva with renewed vigor. There is great potential, Another contributing factor that surely bears more parallelled by great need, throughout the land. The suc than passing mention is the unique leadership the Emek cess of Torah, the miracle of Torah in the San Fernando schools enjoy in the person of rabbis who were un Valley can - with the help of G-d will- be repeated in bending, yet reasonable; presenting and representing communities alt over this nation. I pray that l will have Torah - straight, unadulterated, without compromise. the zechus of sharing in this most worthy task. "';'.
The Mexico City Junket
by Suri Rosenberg and Rochel Zucker
The concept behind Torah Umesorah's Project A principal's convention and a chance introduction SEED - that of harnessing the fire, vitality, to a colleague from Mexico City with the fire of mesiras and purity of motive of Torah students to in nefesh for the Torah in his eye answered my question. My years of studying Spanish facilitated our com spire others to come closer to Torah - has munication. We began sharing thoughts on chinuch been emulated by others with appreciable suc habanos (girls' education), which was our common cess. RABBI YOEL KRAMER, who is President of field of endeavor. We had been introduced by the National Conference of Yeshiva Principals, Spanish-language teacher in our school who was a drew on the SEED concept to lead a group of native of Mexico, and was also searching for a deeper purpose in her teaching Spanish. And as we sat, the students from the Prospect Park Yeshiva High answer emerged; If girls in New York saturated with a School for Girls (where is is principal) on a ruach ha Torah could learn a foreign language, it was - surprisingly fruitful visit to Mexico City. In it had to be - for the purpose of imparting some of this Rabbi Kramer's words: ruach (spirit) to those with whom they could now com municate.... Everything fit into place. Only the The value of limudei kodesh (sacred studies) is self geographical barrier remained, and this was certainly evident. The purpose of acquiring certain basic secular surmountable. skills for productive adult living is also obvious. But As we planned, manifold advantages emerged. First, why should some of the more optional disciplines be in our students would gain an invaluable exposure to a cluded in school curricula? And after the subjects have world of Jews outside of New York City. Also, the ex been there, can they be justified? Understandably, the perience of planning something on their own, without answer often varies, depending upon the orientation of parents or head counselors doing it for them, would be the analyst. But there should be Torah reasons upon maturing. They would be learning to give and to which decisions are based. selflessly approach a project for the purpose of My quest revolved around the rationale for the study spreading Torah. Obviously, their knowledge of of foreign languages. The classic arguments of Spanish would be greatly enhanced, the purpose of academia, stressing the need for comprehension of the which was now vividly clear. construct of language, were perhaps reasonable. Yet The months ahead were filled with planning and wouldn't it be infinitely more meaningful if there were self-preparation. The standard Spanish-language text a Torah rationale for this activity? book was replaced with exercises in translating our
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 25 popular nigunim (Hebrew songs) into Spanish - un Aishel Home in Cuernavaca, 60 kilometers south of derstandably, with the proper use of the preterite and Mexico City, subjunctive. One day a week was reserved for the presentation of a dvar Torah in Spanish. Each student The rest of the story is now history. The seed was was required to prepare a Chumash lesson to be taught planted, and although l watched it as it emerged from in the Bais Yaakov or some other school in Mexico City. the ground in my few days in Mexico, it can best be told The songs sung on Shabbos afternoon to the residents of by those who really sowed and nurtured it, SURI nursing homes in Bora Park and Flatbush were now be ROSENBERG and ROCHEL ZUCKER, two of the sixteen ing rendered in Spanish - as they would be in the participants.
"What Are We Going to Do?" sisted on following Mincha with us as we davened. We were excited about the trip from the moment we That evening, many more girls joined us, together heard about il Our teacher, *Miss Holtz, our principal, with their parents - the entire Sephardi community Rabbi Kramer, and Rabbi David Masri of the Bais seemed to be there. They brought food and drinks, and Y aakov of Mexico City, spent hours making arrange a hearty welcome .... It was hard to believe that our stay ments for our stay. had just begun. Along with our excitement, however, we felt a degree The girls seemed more knowledgeable about of apprehension. Our songs and shiurim would not frumkeit than we expected, yet we were still unsure of hold their attention for long. "What are we going to what exactly we were going to do with them. Miss do?" we kept asking Miss Holtz. "What do we talk Holtz set us straight quite quickly. about? How do we approach them?" The girls who we would have most contact with were " Just be yourselves," she answered. girls of 8, 12, 13, and 14 years old. They were very lax in performance of mitzvos, which they were taught, but "But how will be get any message across to them?" in which they received little reinforcement at home. At And she told us as she was to tell us often, "Girls, all opportunities we'd have to daven, wash, make what is the point you're trying to bring across? You're brae hos and bench with them .. " Many harbored rather not there to preach to them. You just have to show coarse attitudes towards authority. We'd have to them what a frum girl is like - not only how you are demonstrate a proper one. As girls here married at 15 or different, but how you are the same, A bas Yisroel is 16, even these younger girls were preoccupied and in normal, just like they are, not from the moon. That's volved with boys. We'd have to be influential in this how you'll get through to them. Be their friends, and area as well. soon they'll trust you, and begin to imitate you. It's Of course, we noticed that all the girls wore pants. really very simple. You just have to have your heart in Although Rabbi Masri wanted the girls to wear skirts, it. " especially to school, parental pressure was great, and he International Songs and Laughter had received a hetter (lenient ruling) to allow pants, even in school, lest the girls not come at all. We would Finally, the day we had been waiting for arrived. We have to show them that it was possible to have the same landed in Mexico, collected our luggage, and there were amount of fun dressed modestly. If we could change the girls from the Bais Yaakov, with bouquets of roses and warm smiles. The first few moments were this outward aspect in these girls it would surely in dicate that we had touched their p'nim (interior), as awkward, as we nervously stumbled over our Spanish. well. As our bus started towards the house where we were to stay, we relaxed, and suddenly, talking to the girls was New Life For Rina much easier. There was one girl there who needed no convincing. Within an hour of our arrival, girls from the We noticed immediately that Rina was very different neighborhood began to drop into the house. Between from the others. She had gone to a Shabbaton in our Spanish, Hebrew, and English, we soon had each Denver the previous year, and had been so impressed other rolling on the floor in laughter. We talked about that she immediately began to be more strict about clothes and school. We discovered that some of them Kashrus and Shabbos, Perhaps even more difficult for had been to Camp Bnos, so we discussed mutual her, she stopped wearing pants. For an entire year she friends. We danced and sang with them. It amazed us had persisted, feeling isolated from her friends at times. how easily we responded to each other, as if we had She had been awaiting our arrival more eagerly than always been friends, and we were pleased when they in- any of the girls, and throughout the visit stuck close to * Since this writing: Mrs. Yosie Fischer, in Jerusalem with her hus us, finding comfort in those who could appreciate the band, of the Kole\ Chofetz Chaim. enormity of her efforts.
26 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 Not all the girls were so easily impressed as was Rina. our neighborhood, and we ate all three seudos together. Yet over the two weeks, as we talked, made friends, ex The community, whose money had housed us, fed us, changed addresses, we saw that the girls did begin to and entertained us for two weeks, came out full force react positively. for one last time - making chickens, kugels, cakes, The day we visited the Pyramids was hot and dusty, salads and innumerable challos for our three meals. and we had 300 steps to climb. We were all in skirts, It's hard to forget the image of that Friday night - but all of the Mexican girls wore pants, except for two laden tables spread from one end of the house to the or three. Many had worn skirts when with us before, other, all of us - fifty or sixty girls, sitting together but could not understand not wearing pants for such a with the Masri's, having a real Shabbos. long climb. But we did it our way, holding down our Rabbi Masri spoke about how, by leaping into the blowing skirts until we reached the flat top of the Yarn Suf, Nachshon ben Aminadav had caused the Sea Pyramids. There all sixty of us sat and sang - several to split, and thus all Israel could follow. He further ex hundred feet up in the air. It was an exhilirating ex plained that from this action the trait of Nachshonus perience for us. was named: that of sacrificing one's comfortable, safe That day seemed to make an impression on them, position and forging new pathways, advancing and too. After that, they began not only to watch us but to leading others with you. really imitate us. While the girls all had davened when This, he said, was what we of Prospect Park had we were with them, now they were davening done. We had left our comfortable, safe position and enthusiastically even if we were not with them. They had come there to Mexico City, to help forge a new began bringing things to Rabbi Masri to check if th~y path of Yiddishkeit for the girls there. We had shown were Kosher before they ate them. One by one, the girls tremendous love of Torah and of Am Yisroel by coming stopped wearing pants. One girl came to us and asked to share with them all that we had to give, by sharing us to help her make a skirt out of her jeans. Twin ourselves. sisters, Gila and Nilly, each with only one skirt, forced We looked around the table. Whereas they once their mother to buy them more, threatening to borrow would have been talking, they were listening attentively from their aunt if she did not. to their principal. For the first time, all were wearing We talked about Shabbos, tzniyus, honoring parents skirts .... There was Rina, tears in her eyes ... Gila and - and they listened, asked questions, really wanting to Nilly in their new skirts ... Rochelle, her Siddur open to know. the Bi re has Hamazon (Grace) we would soon be saying. Our Little Miracle We were shocked to realize how much of an effect we had had, and how these girls, by accepting what we had We even had our own little "miracle." All of us had to give, had really given us so much. We were really go secretly dreamed that i.ve would encounter one girl so ing to miss them. completely turned off to Yiddishkeit to whom our presence would be such a great influence that she'd change completely. We were not disappointed. Sweet Sorrow Before our arrival, and during our first few days, The entire Shabbos had a dream-like quality, until Rochelle dressed and acted very wildly. A big, almost after havdalla. Then the hard reality of our departure intimidating girl, she was at first very cynical, making hit us, and we began to cry to each other, not wanting fun of us, sometimes even cursing at us. We learned to leave or be left. that she was an only child of older parents, and though Many of the girls accompanied us to the airport, and she was a basically nice girl she was quite mixed up. as the bus left to take them home, the crying began Even Rabbi Masri found it difficult to control her at anew. "Thank you, thank you so much," they were all times. saying - "you taught us so many things[" Yet after our trip to the Pyramids, where she had We stood and realized the seeming incongruity of been as loud as ever, Rochelle began to change. Though them thanking us. l t was we who should be thanking we did not see all the changes, Rabbi Masri related them them. They took us in and became our friends, and to us. She had begun quieting down in school. She showed us many things about ourselves. "Thank you," stopped wearing pants. She showed more attention we kept answering. during davening and benching. By the time we had No one was crying harder than Rochelle. She had another trip with the Bais Yaakov, one week after the come off the bus and was hugging each one of us, tears Pyramids, we realized that we were dealing with a dif streaming, begging us not to leave. At first, she resisted ferent girl. all of Rabbi Masri's efforts to lead her to the bus. Com The Culminating Experience ing toward a group of us, he asked, "Do you know what Rashi says in regard to the words: 'And the souls All our efforts culminated in the last Shabbos, our that he made in Charan'?" We nodded, understanding last day there. All the Mexican girls arranged to sleep in what he meant.
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 27 "If this girl retains anything of what she has now, if Producers of Films and Slide Shows she becomes anything, it's because of you. You gave her new life. I hope you'll write to her, so she'll stay that way. You are responsible. You did it." He then proceeded to lead Rochelle onto the bus. He seemed more upset at our leaving than any of his girls. As the bus pulled away, we ran after it, waving wild U.S.A /Israel 623 Cortelyou Road (off Ocean Parkway) Brooklyn, N.Y 11218 • (212) 941-5500 ly, crying, screaming - "Escriban! Write! Write!" "No nos olviden! - Don't forget us!" They yelled SCHECHTER'S back. As if we ever would ... " ... Yesterday we had a meeting with Rav Masri and ·:~:·lla7/i88£46H@L we voted to wear skirts every day to school.... We sing lNTlll KlWH•T JLoca - "" 1< "'' st MIAMI IEACH your songs all the time and miss you very much. But ... I• • GREAT Ko•her Hotel - you'll loye Ill most of all I miss you, and I thank you for the days you • DIAL Write for FREE brochure • P,ivatll Pool en gave us in Mexico. Thank you, thank you, thank MIAMI and bo<>klet or call Sandy Beach you ... "* !..T. llACH 800-327-8165 •Oceanfront FLORIDA AREA CODE Synagogue * Translated from a letter recently received from a Mexican girl. FREE! (309) 1531-0081 FREE Parking The Convention offers an· Unrivalled opportunity to experience • The inspiring presence of Gedolei Ylsroel • The exhilirat!ng company of thousands of delegates from 'round the world • Provocative participation in stimulating sessions, debates, and special events We especially want to call your attention to: Cl Thursday evening's Engllsh·language symposium on "Society's newest pressures on American Orthodoxy: - are they being met?" - the perversion of lifestyle, values and goals. - the changing role of women. featuring as guest speakers: Rabbi Simon Schwab K'hal Adath Yeshurun, Washington Heights, New York Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller Rosh Yeshiva, Te1she-Chicago Rabbi Zev l.eff/Young Israel of North Miami, Fla. chairman Cl Friday 10:30 a.m.:
If you cannot spend the "ls. Torah in Israel facing a new era? entire three-day period with the - hopes and realities.. Convention, it will be worth your while to featuring Agudat/) Israel's Knesset representaHve: come_ for just one of these major sessions. Rabbi.Menachem. Porush World-renowned membens of the Moetzes Gedolel Ha Torah, as well as other dignitaries and Torah leadern, will address the theme Cl The Convention keynote session (Saturday night, throughout the three·day period. Motzaei Shabbos, beginning 8:30 p.m. will feature Only a limited number of openings remain. an address by: For information or reservations, please phone or write: Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter Agudath Israel of America Rosh Yeshioo/Yeshiva Sfas Emes/Jerusafem 5 Beekman St, N.Y.C. 10038/(212) 964-1620 For three days the entire hotel is taken over by Agudath Israel and 811 'meats catered by a New York caterer appointed by and superv!Sed by Agudath Israel of Amertc:8·
28 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 Vizhnitz inhabitants, plus tens of thou s ands of Chassidim, followers, and talmidim. The masdat range from yeshivas and kalelim to a commodious hotel and a well-appointed Mashav Zekeinim (old-age home). Special focus on Chaim-Mei rim (founded in memory of the late Rebbe, bearing his name) encompassing fourteen afternoon yeshivas in urban and rural areas, providing after school (1 p.m. - 7 p.m.) enrichment activities for elementary school children, sheltering them from harmful in fluences of the street. The Glory of Vizhnitz For the Future: a new housing development in Rechovot ... another Kiryat Viznitz, in - Rebuilt Safed ... a new shikun in Jerusalem. In the Past: Thousands of students enrolled Desperate Needs: to support the ever in numerous Vizhnitzer institutions of growing Vizhnitzer institutions ... to con Torah study in pre-War Romania ... a tinue to rebuild a glory - once almost total glorious Chassidic tradition ... memories of ly in ashes ... to finance visionary plans for joyful nigunim, ecstatic davening ... All but further expansion ... all at the cost of mil destroyed in World War II, ... followed by a lions of dollars. glorious renaissance in Bnei Brak, Israel. Emissary from Israel: Admur Horav Moshe Present: From a tiny shikun, founded by Yehoshua Hager, Vizhnitzer Rebbe l<"t:l'?lll, the late Rebbe ?"YT on the sand dunes of is currently on a month-long visit to the Zichron Meir at the behest of the Chazon United States and Canada to gain support !sh ?"YT, Mosdot Vizhnitz now embraces 24 and raise funds for the Vizhnitz network of major institutions, serving 5,000 shikun institutions.
You Can Help: By par- -~ ticipating in a Gala Melave I~ ' Malke, at the Continental Ill Ball room in Brooklyn, on !~ ;~ November 26, 1977. For more " information regarding' Mosdot Vizhnitz I contribu tion opportunities I or Melave Malke reservations I '"'' '"" contact: Vizhnitzer Institutions I 179 Taylor St., I Brooklyn, N. Y. 11211 I EV4-5609
The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 29 twa,.;m;.r.nsr1 Letters to the Editor 15 n.,1n •:i:i1n7 n:i1u n.,1w:i Ml.,,., , ., lll'llll/ .,"" ll'l>l" "Ml"'llOMM llll!)" wr.nnl"I OJI n•wx,:i ,!lo 7J1 ,iDO 7:Jt.J C1\V1i1D iM:JY.l 1"tlli1 lead to emotional disturbance; but 1 DY.l C1iYp C1it.JKt.31 ni,ionn Re: Review of rather that emotional illness, like 'Rational Irrational Man' ;n1nn •p1o!l7 C"',1Y.l"T1< •71;; physical illness, has causes which ·'"W'i1 are complex, numerous, and not •po7:i1p :i; c1?tv :i,n :"'ll l,lll directly translated into spiritual C11:lll1 !:1 li1:1i1 pnY1 :lii11 To the Editor, terms. l"ll1ll "1JI 111r.mi "" x?tv m ,!lo I feel compelled to respond to the Furthermore, the assertion that, .111y 111w1:i1 c17:i ,Y11< l"l1l"ll:l book review of Avrohom Amsel's "anxiety can lead to emotional dis Rational Irrational Man, which ap turbance," is incorrect. Excessive 7:i7 m1tv xm ,Yp1 J171p 1mo:i peared in the April '77 issue of The bleeding, 7,,n,, does not lead to iil'r.1 1 ,MK ?::i '::l pDO pK .'llJDl Jewish Observer. hemorrhaging, for example; it is the 111111 nx 1n•:i 7x n:i,:i x•:il"l7 The reviewer felt that" a few very consequence of a hemorrhage. ,,,,t.l7ni l7"'! ti"tvl7::i.il 1J':li minor errors," such as a spelling er Similarly, "excessive anxiety," "1)1 C'",1Y.J"1l 30 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 shot? At a time when so much of widespread unwillingness to accept Our reviewer replies: psychological counselling misreads the fact of mental illness or to seek Mr. Wikler did not read my the role of the spiritual in general, treatment for it. Rather, the refusal review very cuefully, it would or of Torah, in particular, it seems to face up to mental illness is due to seem. True enough, the last to me very important to restate it. the tragic social stigma and paragraph refers to minor errors This is not just a theoretical matter; profound fear that have so long (including spelling errors) that re perusal of Rabbi Nachman been attached to the disturbed - not quire correction - but the preceding Brazlover' s Meshivas Nefesh, for as a sinner but as a mystifying and paragraphs stressed that Rabbi instance, can be a profound vaguely threatening element in Amsel' s treatment of many topics therapeutic experience. society. And the refusal of so many left the reader with questions - or Now all this obviously does not within the Torah community to vague formulations - requiring mean that anybody without access seek help has been nourished by the clarification (one of the examples to Torah must end up in a psy disastrous impact which has been given bears on Mr. Wikler's main chiatric ward. Nor does it mean that had by so many psychiatrists point). anybody committed to Torah is im Much more importantly, mune to mental sickness. There are however, Mr. Wikler read a vastly a large number of factors - en oversimplified meaning into the vironmental and personal - that in remarks that he quotes. A "causal teract in affecting a person's ability relationship" does not mean simple to function as a healthy human be straight-line or exclusive causation. ing and to make full and proper use But it does mean a very definite and of the guidance provided by the significant relationship. Long Torah. In our Golus existence our before Rabbi Amsel ever put pen to ability to cope is significantly im paper, it was understood as a matter paired - the inability to shake one's of course by every Jew that a addiction to smoking, obesity as a person's "faith and trust in G-d," or direct result of overeating (com his ability to be satisfied with his lot pulsive 1), Lashon Horah as a form in life, had a crucial bearing on his of venting psychological pressures, ability to cope with the strains and and intense communal discord due stresses of life, or - in other words to personal ambitions, are all - on his mental health. When recognized by us as manifestations David Hamelech proclaims that of our human weakness which "G-d is my shepherd - I will not ought to be - but are not - checked want"; when Rabbeinu Bachyah, in by our adherence to Torah the Chovos Halevovos, speaks of guidance. Mental illness represents, the peace of mind that bitachon of course, a much more advanced grants in the midst of a troubled stage of our inability to cope - not world; when we daily say in our necessarily the result of greater prayers, "G-d is with me, I shall not weakness on the patient's part but be afraid," this is surely not just of greater stresses, for instance. pious talk, irrelevant to our actual situation in life. In any case, however, I do not believe that it is a patient's sense of Some years ago, when the inner inadequacy (or "sinfulness," as cities of the U.S.A. were burning, a long as we do not take this term in black psychiatrist ex;ilained the un its usual sense, as emphasized in the derlying pattern of black mass ac review) which causes the deplorable tion as understandably paranoid - the result of three hundred years of enslavement and suffering. How Lapidus Bros. Gemilath Chesed have Jews preserved their sanity Ass'n of the Crown Hts. through almost two thousand years A9udath Israel, Inc. of pariah existence? How do you ac For Applications: count for people making the kind of Call RABBI JosHUA S1LBERMINTZ halachic enquiries recorded by Rab at: WO 4-1620 or write: bi Oshry from the Vilna Ghetto - r:/o AcunATH lsRAEL such as whether to recite a blessing 5 Beekman St., New York 10038 for Kiddush Hashem before being The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 31 Another Aspect of Reb Elya Meir enthusiastic about the K'hal Adath Yeshurun in Washington Heights, and had the highest respect and To the Editor: LETTERS CONTINUED reverence for its venerable Rav and In his fine article on Reb Eliyahu leader, Rabbi Joseph Breuer l<''t:>'71V (sometimes even mitzvah-observant Meir Bloch, 7"YT, Rabbi Chaim Dov whose great historic accomplish - but not understanding of Torah Keller omitted one aspect of his ments and achievements he con teachings). Rebbe's personality which provides sidered unparallelled in the annals of Kehilla life in the United States. If Mr. Wikler's comments will an important lesson for our time. focus more public attention on this We are suffering today from a When invited to participate in the problem, I am glad to have failure to understand eachtother's journal of the K'hal Adath provoked them. If he stresses that significance. Many a group thinks Yeshurun, he concluded his warm the causes of mental illness are com that it alone will bring the redemp greetings with the words: 1~7,, plex and numerous, I am all with tion for Kial Yisroel. 7-K,lV' nK cnl/1V1m m c~n~:i - Go him. But when he argues that they Aware of his own obligation and forth with this, your strength, and cannot be directly translated into task, Reb Eliyahu Meir 7"YT also you will help Israel." spiritual terms, I would like to warn recognized in every individual his A great person recognizes against the danger of overlooking latent talent and abilities to further greatness in others. the central role of the spiritual in our mutual goal: In a letter to Rabbi TOVIY A LASDUN mental health. Schochet of Basel, Switzerland, just New York City before World War II, he stressed the significance of each segment in the Torah camp to develop con Regarding "Reh Elya Meir" Enjoy ••• stantly and continuously its unique characteristics and ways. To the Editor: While still in Lithuania he was The article by Rabbi Chaim Dov very appreciative of Western Euro pean students. Although they were Keller about the Rosh Hayeshiva, Reb Elya Meir Bloch 7"YT, is a often limited in Jewish knowledge, he valued their general education masterpiece. For those who do not know the Telshe Yeshiva and its and utilized it for the Yavne educational institutions (under rich history, it is quite an eye opener. The Most Trusted Name Tels he auspices). He was convinced in Kosher Poultry that German Orthodoxy had made I found, however, three mistakes an important contribution to Torah in this article. I am sure that they Jewry. are not on the part of Reb Chaim PREFERRED WORLD-WIDE Dov, but rather of a typographical Here in America, he was very or copy nature.... I am confident that if Reh Chaim Dov had seen the proofs, he would have corrected RABBI JOZEF KATZ MARK LOV!NGER them. Brook.lyu, N. y, 11211 83 Division Avenue Please keep publishing bio OF graphical articles and do consider printing them in a book form. DANIELY. CARLEBACH Brooklyn, New York (Mr. Carlebach's corrections are printed ALL LEADl:"IG lloTELS BA:"iQUET HALLS elsewhere on the page. Many other readers AND JEWISH CENTERS AVAILABLE also called our attenHon to the errors, which were, indeed, not of Rabbi Keller's doing. - Editor) 388-4204 388-3590 863-8892 il'5lil ~!l1~ EV 7-1750 • Caterer for Agudath Israel Conventions and Dinners • ll""l!:I "\~£) WWT"l'Cli'~ 'Ci'l1Wl"1"1'1l:ll 32 The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 even dizzying in their complexity. but quintessential approach to delv Correction Sometimes he would take us along ing into our studies to the point in the intricate tracing of various where we knew the topic on hand in The article on Reb Elya Meir approaches to understanding the all its aspects. It was a stimulating, Bloch ?"YT, by Rabbi Chaim Dov concepts at hand; other times he heady pursuit, and it was ours. But Keller, featured in last month's is would lose me on the way. But when it was over - the part under su;o, had several typographical er never - never! - did I lose my awe discussion, the Gemora page at rors that resulted in misinforma over his scholarship and his ob hand, the year, our stay in yeshiva tion. Please make note of the fol vious joy in Torah. If there was ever - what were we left with? A finely lowing: a gap between the yeshiva's striv honed approach to thinking but no 1) Rabbi Bloch's first marriage took ings, as epitomized by the Rosh where to go, and not too much to place in 5679 (1919). Yeshiva's shiurim, and my attain fall back on. 2) His Yahrzeit is on Teves 28. ments, I knew well where the fault Our Roshei Yeshiva had helped 3) Reb Avrohom Yitzchok ,,,,,. lay. I had tried to be the "one" who us analyze - yes. But they also had justified the effort to educate "a was the second oldest son of Reb prodded us on in other directions, thousand", but if I failed, at least I Yosef Leib. Reb Zalmen, the I eldest son, in his hesped for his suppose that should find solace in father said that he was giving the that I was part of the thousand. "GRUNWALD" SHAS "right of the firstborn" to his Now, in retrospect, I have some younger brother who had been misgivings. One - personal regret Attention All Chasanim! A Shas You Buy Once in a lifetime the assistant to the father both in for settling for an "also ran" posi the rabbonus and the leadership tion. - But that's not your burden. This is your- opportunity to ac:quaint of the yeshiva of Telshe. More significant are my misgivings yourself with the most beautiful edition of with the way in which I had struc a full size shas. The paper and binding are tured my entire educational career the finest and strongest in the perfect Pre "Confrontation" Misgivings as well as some of its day-to-day dimensions 161A x 111A. aspects. And, after musing about AT THE MOST REASONABLE PRICE EVER To the Editor: my own omissions and how they af OFFERED fect me in later life, it brought me to ASK YOUR DEALER FOR THE"CRUNWALD" SHAS Aaron Twerski' s discussion of wonder about my more eminent col the failure of yeshiva graduates to leagues and how they shared my Also just arrived the 15 volume maintain their student-day stan encyclopedia Talmudic price $8.25 per lapses. First allow me to point to volume. dards in later life ("In Flight From where our shortcomings initially Confrontation," April '77) gave this appeared. M. S. SPIECEL reader much pause. Yes, the 90 Eldridge Street, N. Y.C, 226-4331 maelstrom of professional growth Our primary concern was to cap and business development sucks ture "the derech" - that elusive, down the best of us, but I don't think that it alone accounts for the total picture. Come To I often think back to my own yeshiva years, remembering them with a strange mixture of feelings - based on my yeshiva's maximal ~her £~~.~tty goals and my own performance. I had found our Rosh Yeshiva's Formerly Kosher King weekly shiurim highly stimulating, 1501 Surf Ave. Coney Island Whitehead Hall Brooklyn College MOVING? Be sure to notify us in ad vance so that your copies TRADITION PERSONNEL - HCUC will continue to reach you. "At Your Service With All Your Employment Need•" Need A Shomer Shabbos Job., The U.S. Postal Service will c1p Lool..1ng For A Shomer Shabbos Person" not forward magazines to For Fast, Efficient and Courteau• Service your new address. 18 W. 45th St., New York, N. Y. 10036 · 563·399~ The Jewish Observer/ October, 1977 33 outside of yeshiva conventions I hate T.V. and I detest beer, but 77 drive him into the closet? Why were at least I understand my former col we so uneasy with dikduk experts, leagues who opt to look at the LETTERS CONTINUED the historian, the compulsive novel former, guzzling the latter. At least la writer, the 'Nach nut? Who had they're not beset with the full pan too: "There are other mesechtos in ever defined Torah in such con oply of their own inadequacies. 5has .... There are more bletter in stricting terms? Would we have developed a taste this mesechta .... Stay where you So here we are today. With fond for seriously gathering knowledge are and you'll be ignorant - memories of pursuit of a derech and with a sense of purpose (bekiyus) amhoratzim - the rest of your not too much to show for it. How during my schooling years, we lives." Why didn't we listen? Why can I respond to Aaron Twerski's would be better equipped to do the did we think we knew better? Why exhortations that I wake up with same today - both in terms of skills didn't we develop a taste for explor thoughts of how I'm going to better and requisite knowledge. ing more, in a structured fashion? serve my Creator today, when my Now, I still remember my role as Why did we look askance at those tools are rusting, and I don't have just one of "the thousand" or who did follow the Rosh Yeshiva's the endless hours to ponder a svora perhaps one of "the hundred," and directions? Why were all of us (but to test it for the ring of truth? If it I know full well that yeshiva cur for certain rare exceptions) so had taken me all of a twenty-two ricula are designed for best produc oblivious to our teachers' pleadings week zman (semester) to cover all tion of the one, not all thousand. that we review and review and sides of twenty-three blatt Gemora But I suspect that even the stars of review - so, besides knowing (folios) in yeshiva, you can be sure my era would not have suffered any "how." we'd also know "what"? that it took me the same Succos-to loss in their luster if they, too, had Once I'm on the topic of excep Pesach in later life to deal with no explored the further shores of Bab tions to the rule, did every class more than six blatt. A palette-full of ba Kama, or tested themselves in the have a halacha expert who was grays and blues cannot adequately unknown hazards of Taharos. Our ashamed of his specialty? Did his paint the shades of frustration and Torah is vast, and the greatest of peculiar bent of personality drive se!f-worth-lessness I suffered. - our leaders - then and today - are him into lonely pursuits, or did his Six blatt! covering less, with less at home in all its nooks and cran interest in an area of Torah study comprehension than ever! nies. HEBREW INSTITUTE FOR THE DEAF AND EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN wearing Diagnosis Cl'W'Tf:AED BV THE BOARD Of' AIQIMTS n '/--- 2025 17 STAf.£T • BAOOKLYM, N.Y 11204 a1 ,d Evaluation Center lELE.ptt()trf£ (2121 2St-212'1 • TTY 215S-21H~ 011m11rChs11man '~~ PAIS&! MOSt'l ""'· £11S1£1N \ \"' ' l.EON BRICKMAN ~ .....,-.. , JoumalComm•ttee ~ (} LAURA NADOOt.MAN, M.A. HARRY 0 FRANCO 0 • WILLIAM MICHAELSON IRV1NG ORATZ 1J K.J4111''?' J•wi .. Cenlu 1'<0~11.1111 We enter our .teeond decade eervin1 the Jewish Deaf Child as well aa the Exceptional Child. We recognize the achievements and devotion of our beloved founders. Rabbi & Mra. Moshe Ebstein, whose dedication has inspired the school's myriad accomplishments. Rabbi and Mrs. Ebstein have given their lives, to uplift these handicapped children " .... llllil //te MTS 11/ l/te du/ by giving them ears, lltllU I .. You can make Isaiah's words come .. true be"'''""· " ,.,,, by giving your generous hand. NAME -0 Full l'altf' IM.00 . ADDRESS ...... 0 Half P1111:e 100.0() C Quarter Pa~ "'00 lJ E11?hlh 'P1111:it :16.00 0 C' 34 The Jewish Observer/ October, 1977 Dr. Twerski has pricked my con reach the understanding of Reb closer reading of the other articles in science and opened my heart in Chaim Volozhiner seems a bit in the June JO will reveal that Reb yearning. And he has stirred a congruous to me. Noach Weinberg, like all who have hornet's nest of regrets in the I am wondering - would you true Ahavos Yisroel, engages in process. I would like to be the hen show your magazine to a Reform both. Torah-baa! habayis he idealizes. I Jew as part of your efforts which N.W. hope I'm not too late. were inspired by Reb Noach I'm sure you understand why I Weinberg? insist on signing: A.M.KOHN NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST Los Angeles, California ~ ~ K"lllnl Klll'lP ;n::in Why Criticize Reform Jews? Editorial Response: Chevra Kadisha The criticism was not aimed at Har Hamenuchot • Har Hazeisim the Reform Jew who has "stepped To the Editor: Eretz Hachaim up" to personal prayer through the I find it difficult to understand new Reform "siddur." For him we Burial in JerusaJem how your June issue could begin by have compassion, love, and pity. And All Cemeteries In Israel creating a strong feeling for our fel Our criticism - indeed, our anger - low Jews who unfortunately are is directed against the leaders of the maal1n Bakot>€sh• weak in their Jewishness, and then Reform movement who are SOCl€ty proceed to write three full pages perpetrating a fraud against our strongly condemning the new 26 CANAL ST. searching brethren by presenting NEW YORK CITY 10002 Reform siddur; as you yourself in ersatz Judaism in the guise of the dicated, the new siddur is at least a genuine article. D.,y & N;ie Phont positive move towards personal Concern for one's fellow involves 233-7878 prayer, and to criticize Jews who do In Can4da: not observe Shabbos or Kashrus or exposing hazards as much as Moatreal Tel.: 273-3211 much else because they failed to pointing to worthwhile goals. A ISRAEL Pincus Mandel Burials and American Disinterments li1J",,~1••1.P" 11i~ -~·"'jll.f,l;;j Renowned Expert - over 25 years experience in Kvura on all cemeteries in Eretz Yisrael Transfer to Israel within the same day With all Hidurim - as done only by Shomrei Yar Harr- The Jewish Observer/ October, 1977 JS One of save an Am Rav - getting a place WORLD'S LARGEST like Baro Park" s priorities in order CAMERA STORES might well give all of Kial Yisroel a nJ.C' iO'C.' LETTERS CONTINUED big push towards Biyas Further Correction on "Novardok" Hamoshiach. CHASKELL GOLDBERG Brooklyn, New York To the Editor: In re-reading my letter to the Agudath Israel Expands ~ Editor in the past issue of the Jewish Programs for Russian Jews Wall Street Observer I was much dismayed to An intensified effort was launched this find that I inadvertently attributed month, to coordinate and expand different Camera Exchange the death of the Alter of Navaradok programs for Russian Jewish immigrants, Complete Line of Cameras to an outbreak of cholera when it sponsored by the various divisions of and Photo Supplies was in fact an outbreak of typhus. Agudath Israel of America, it was announced by the organization's administrative cabinet. 82 WALL STREET Kindly print this correction. The program will be administered by a new NEW YORK, N.Y. Rabbi }ECHIEL J. PERR division within Agudath Israel, Project RISE Telephone: (212)344-0011 Far Rockaway, New York (Russian Immigrants Services and Educa tion), which will tie together the broad range -Wholesale - Mail Order of services currently being provided by the - Retail A "Reb Noach" For Boro Park? American Agudah. Special Reductions tu all Agudath Israel's various ongoing activities Readers of To the Editor: for Russian Jews include: extensive career THE JEWISH OBSERVER Your recent article by Rabbi guidance and job training, the publication of Noach Weinberg was inspiring. No a Russian language monthly newsletter, the less than total praise is due him for dissemination of information in the Russian The only Orthodox English-Yiddish his selfless work for Yiddishkeit - language on Jewish culture, and educational weekly in the world even more so for having developed programs for Russian Jewish youth: presenting the authentic a professional, workable system to • Agudath Israel's career guidance and job trailling agency, Project COPE, has since Torah viewpoint. achieve his lofty goals. There is, however, another (albeit 1975 trained, found jobs, or provided other Stimulating! Informative! services to 1600 Russian Jews. To facilitate World-wide coverage of news. less romantic) side of the coin. this program, Project COPE's staff includes a What would be were a Reb Noach Russian speaking counselor. JEWISH TRIBUNE to apply his professionalism to the • Agudath Israel publishes a monthly 97, Stamford Hill "have's" instead of the "have newsletter in the Russian language which London, N. 16. England not's"? contains Jewish community information, Who needs a Reb Noach the brief essays, commentaries and anecdotes Annual Subscnption: Airmail $35. most? His system would be much about Jewish laws and customs. A recent Surface Mail $18.50. more fruitful in, let's say, Baro supplement of the newsletter in advance of Park. How many of the thousands the Yomim Noraim contained a calendar listing the holidays, times for candle lighting of Orthodox in this "frum" com and the end of the Yorn Tov- all in Russian. New Lower Manhattan munity have taken the trouble to see if they believe in G-d? Could we • In yet another program during the past few Mincha Minyan Guide years, Russian Jews have received special find more than ten or twenty who packages in advance of Jewish holidays and • If you know of minyanim know even two or three of the seven are given the opportunity to participate in proofs to G-d' s existence? Forty the traditional seder on Pesach, arranged • If you wish to start a eight prerequisites for acquiring the through the community senior citizen's minyan in your neigh· Torah? Is one of them holding centers sponsored by the Commission on down two or three jobs to be able to Senior Citizens of Agudath Israel of borhood keep up with the neighbor's style of America. write: affluence? • In its latest effort, Agudath Israel has recently launched a special after-school pro MINCHA MINYAN MAP Let's face it! A Reb Noach would show a gratifying percentage of ject for Russian Jewish youngsters living in Agudath Israel of America the Brighton-Coney Island area. The return for his effort, were he saving 5 Beekman Street/ NYC 10038 program, which was made possible by a former yeshiva students and their or call: special grant from New York City, is families. We in Bora Park are operated by the Jewish Education Program of DR. BERNARD FRYSHMAN: 339-0289 almost there. We have just become a Agudath Israel and is under the supervision bit misdirected. A Reb Noach could of Yosef Chaim Golding. 36 The Jewish Observer/ October, 1977 Religious Gains Result From Begin-Agudah Coalition N.Y. State Mezuza Fraud Law Now in Effect The initial steps taken by Prime Minister stage, and in the interim every case brought Menachem Begin and his administration to by Agudath Israel representatives to the Vendors Warned implement the coalition agreement between Ministry of Health since the agreement was The law in New York State to protect the Likud and Agudath Israel on a broad signed has been satisfactorily settled. Jewish consumers from being victimized by range of religious issues indicate a serious in .;,. "Baalei Tshuva" can now study in unscrupulous vendors who sell-non kosher tention to fulfill its demands during the com yeshivas without being inducted into the mezuzos and tefillin took effect as of Oc ing months, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, executive Army, whereas in the past they were drafted tober 6, it was announced by the Commis president of Agudath Israel of America, because they had not studied in an elemen sion on Legislation of Agudath Israel of reported to a meeting of the organization's tary Torah institution. Also, the machinery is America, which had initiated the measure. A Executive Board upon his return from a three being established to cut down on the abused prominent attorney, Moshe (Marc) week mission in Israel. special governmental work permits for Shab Newman, has been named chairman of the The American Agudath Israel leader based bos; in a number of instances where Agudath Religious Articles Consumer Protection Task h{s findings upon extensive discussions with Israel intervened, such as for the workers at Force which will monitor the observance of the heads of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah the Lud Airport, the Ministry of Transporta this law. (Council of Torah Sages of Agudath Israel), tion put a halt to the discrimination which According to the new law, every mezuza the Agudah leaders, and Prime Minister Sabbath observers suffered. Prime Minister or pair of tefillin sold in New York State Begin and his aides. He emphasized, Begin, during his conference with Rabbi must have a packaging upon which the name however, that despite the evident religious Sherer, expressed confidence that he would and address of the manufacturer, fabricator gains and good will, the situation requires in the coming months be able to work out the or importer of that religious article is dearly Orthodox Jewry to be constantly vigilant and points of the agreement, and declared that he set forth. In the event that the mezuza or on the alert to thwart the efforts of extremist will work zealously to win a majority of the tefillin fails to conform with "Orthodox anti-religious elements in Israel to abort this K-nesset members for the passage of a revised Jewish religious law," the wrapping must be agreement. "Who is a Jew" law to conform with clearly labeled "non-kosher." The bill was He cited a formal letter which Begin Halacha. signed into law by Governor Hugh L Carey presented to the Agudath Israel leadership in The Agudath Israel executive president on July 6, taking effect ninety days later. Israel recently, dearly stating that despite his emphasized that his cautious optimism is Mr. Newman, who heads the Consumer new coalition partners (The Democratic based on the new mood within government Protection Task Force on these religious arti Movement for Change), "there will be no circles, which are now displaying greater cles, sent a memorandum several weeks ago change in the relationship between the sensitivity than before to the needs of to all vendors of Jewish religious articles in government and Agudath Israel, and all the religious Jewry. He also placed great hopes New York with a copy of the new law ex obligations which we (the government) as on the monitoring by the Moetzes Cedolei plaining the importance of conforming with sumed are in full force and will be HaTorah in Israel of the coalition agreement, its details. Mr. Newman also issued a call to implemented". A special inter-agency com and the dedication of the Agudist Knesset the Jewish public for anyone with informa mission has been appointed by Begin to work deputies who are working with determina tion about the sale of non-kosher mezuzos or with the Knesset members of Agudath Israel tion for the implementation of the points tefillin to write to his attention to: Commis to implement the provisions of the agree guaranteed by the Begin government. sion Legislation and Civic Action, Agudath ments, some of which can be solved through He concluded: "The Likud-Agudah coali Israel of America, 5 Beekman St., New York, governmental regulations while others re N.Y. 10038. quire the passage of new laws. tion agreement, even after all its clauses will have become operati\le, will not change in the Meanwhile, a number of agencies have slightest the deep chasm which separates begun to honor the spirit of the agreement, in Agudath Israel from secular Zionism. An advance of the legal steps which have to be IS AVENUE ideology which seeks to build a Jewish state taken, in order to help ameliorate a few of 'like all other nations' devoid of Torah is on a SEFORIM & GIFT CENTER these religious problems. The following are direct collision course with the several examples: weltanschaung of Agudath Israel, which has .5001 -13 Avenue A new regulation is currently being inscribed on its banner that we are not a na Brooklyn, N. Y. 11204 drafted, which would permit the exemption tion without Torah. Nevertheless, once the (212) 633·!1225 of a religious girl from Army service purely coalition agreement with Agudath Israel goes on the strength of her declaration, without into effect, it will help write a new page in • Large selection of ti•'llll:I the necessity of appearing before any in the history of Israel, because at long last and English Books vestigate cominittees. While the legalities are numerous discriminatory acts against being worked out, the Ministry of Defense Orthodox Jewry will have been altered. The • We sell eicclusively all has already exempted hundreds of religious entire Orthodox community in Israel is deep lectllre tapes of girls for whom Agudath Israel intervened, ly grateful to the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah Rabbi A vigdot Miller .IC"U•'>lll postponed the induction of other girls who for its inspiring leadership during these had complicated situations, and set aside the highly sensitive months, as well as to the • Wonderful story tapes for legal processes which had begun against representatives of Agudath Israel in the children (in Yiddish} others - all in anticipation of the promulga Knesset, who chose religious principles as by Rabbi L•. Weinstock .11"1"'1111 tion of the new regulations. the reward for entering Prime Minister {from Monsey) New legislation banning autopsies without Begin's Knesset coalition, instead of the the family's permission is also in the drafting political spoils of ministerial posts". The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 37 You are cordially invited to apply for acceptance to a new intensive training program for computer programming at the Cope Vocational Institute 5 Beekman Street New York, N. Y. 10038 Call 964-1300 today R.S.V.P. or any Project C.O.P.E. office 38 The Jewish Ob server I October, 1977 Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak in America The Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak, Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, spiritual leader to tens of thousands of followers, is scheduled to arrive in New York City Tuesday, November 1, for a month-long visit. He will spend successive Sabbaths with the Jewish communities in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, Montreal, Los Angeles and Baro Park. Rabbi Hager is the scion of a noble Chas sidic lineage, notably his late father, Rabbi Chaim Meir Hager7".YT who, as the previous Vizhnitzer Rebbe, led the rehabilitation of Honoring MR. and MRS. ANDY YUROWITZ hundreds of his followers after the destruc tion of his Roumanian community in World DECEMBER 11, 1977 - 1 TEVES, 5738 War II. Under his direction, Shikun Vizhnitz, a settlement in Israel of 5,000 souls, STATLER HILTON HOTEL, N.Y.C. was founded, as well as a network of Dear Friend, charitable and educational institutions in the Holy Land - over which his son, the current As we approach our first decade of dedicated Rebbe, presides. Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua efforts for the Jewish community we look back Hager, like his father before him, is a proudly at the important, innovative programs member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages) of the Agudath we have developed: Israel of Israel. •Foster Care Division •Boys Residence .•Adoption Service •Group Home for Boys Agudath Israel at • Home for Retarded Youths •Group Home for Girls State Dept. Mid East Dialogue • Extensive Supportive Services Agudath Israel of America was repre sented by its executive president, Rabbi BUT MUCH MORE REMAINS TO BE DONE! Moshe Sherer, at a dialogue convened at the AND-WITH YOUR HELP, IT WILL! State Department on October 26 by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance with key Please send in your generous ad for our Dinner American Jewish leaders in the wake of re cent criticisms of the Administration for its Journal and your reservation. Your assistance is policies in the Middle East. The heads of the urgently needed to maintain and expand these Jewish organizations were invited directly by vital services. the Secretary of State who asked for a candid discussion about the policy of the American May the New Year bring you and yours good government in its efforts for peace in that area. health, happiness and success in all your endeavors. Rabbi Sherer stressed that the security of Sincerely, Israel unifies the American Jewish com Rev. Joseph Fischman munity as no other issue. He appealed to Sec. Vance to convey to President Carter the deep Ari Verschleisser sensitivity of the Jewish people, which had journal Co-Chairmen Dinner Co-Chairmen suffered so much from the nations of the world, to any steps that reintroduce Soviet All contributions to Ohel Children's Home are tax-deductible Russia as a major power factor in tne Middle East, and that would give the PLO the ability to endanger Israel's survival. The Agudath Israel leader pointed out that while concessions and compromises must be [CH:~ made by all sides, the Jewish community is profoundly troubled when the American government - despite the unquestioned 4907-16th Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 11204 good will and friendship of Pres. Carter - is apparently seeking to impose through subtle Phone: (212) 851-6300 pressure peace terms that are rejected by the overwhelming majority of the Jewish people. The Jewish Observer I October, 1977 39 Yalkut ME'AMLO'F2 One of the most popular Torah Commentaries ever published "An encyclopedia of Jewish knowledge." 1730· Me'am Lo'ez, first • published in Ladino by Rabbi Yaakov Cull, one of the greatest Sephardic Torah scholars of his time. Book galvanizes Mediterranean Jewish Community, brings major renaissance in Jewish Life. Set Is so popular that it is given as part of dowry - like a set of Talmud today. Studied evenings In many synagogues. 1967. 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A must for every Jewish home. ------, I Volume 1: Beginnings (Bereshith·Noah) Maznalm Publishing Corporation I 540 pp.; introduction, notes, illustrations, index: $12.95 4804 - 16th Avenue I Brooklyn, New York 11204 I Just Released Please send me the following volumes of the Torah Anthology: I Volume 2: The Patriarchs (Lekh Lekha - Toledoth) D Volume 1 ...... copies @ $12.95 I 600 pp.; notes, maps, tables, index: $13.45 D Volume 2 ...... copies @ $13.45 I D Volume 3 ...... copies@ $10.95 (before Dec. 15) Volume 3: The Twelve Tribes (VaYeme-VaYechi) D Please send further information I 620 pp.; notes, maps, Illustrations, tables, index: $13.45 0 Please send information about Hebrew edition J (Scheduled for Winter, 1977) Enclosed Is my check for $...... (add approprtate tax). I Pre-publication price, before December 15, 1977: $10.95 Name ...... \ Just Released Address ...... I Yalkut Me'am Lo'ez In Hebrew, Vol. 18, \ City, State, Zip ...... I 2 Samuel, $4.75 L------'------4