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Page Six
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, February 3, 1950
Thft Southern Israelite
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, Inc., 312
Ivy Street. N. E„ Atlanta 3, Georgia. WAlnut 0791-0792. M.
Stephen Schiffer, publisher; Adolph Rosenberg, editor; Willy Pels,
business manager. Entered as second class matter at the post of
fice, Atlanta, Georgia, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Yearly
subscription, three dollars. The Southern Israelite invites literary
contributions and correspondence but is not to be considered as
sharing the views expressed by writers. Deadline is 9:00 a. m.
Wednesday but material received earlier will have a much better
chance of publication.
From Our Bible
The end of the motter, all having been heard:
Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the
whole man;
For Cod shall bring every work into the judgment concerning
every hidden thing, whether it be good or
whether it be evil.^ Ecclesiastes 12: 13, 14.
A People That Sings, Lives!
Guest Editorial
Jewish Music Festival is a kind of nation-wide zmirot
session. All over the county, in Jewish Community Cen
ters and synagogues, in concert halls and homes, Jewish
voices are raised in song. The Festival (February 4 to
March 3) is an annual—and stirring—reminder of the
dynamic truth of an old and flavorsome expression' a
people that sings, lives!
This years celebration of the Festival, opening with
bright appropriateness on Shabbat Shirah—the Sabbath
of Song is the sixth annual nationwide observance and
promises to be the most widespread and enthusiastically
celebrated of all. 3
Jewish Music Council, founder and coordinator of
the month long event, points out that in its goals it seeks
to encourage more than the playing of and listening to
Jewish music, pleasant and rewarding as those pastimes
are l he Council’s programs and activities are designed,
m addition, to build a lasting, lively and intelligent inter
est in Jewish music and to stimulate creativity in that
field: composition and interpretation.
The American Jewish community’s billowing response
to Jewish Music Festival, as observance and institution
is a wonderfully heartening one. Its cheerful reaction, in
fact, makes it plain that the work and function of the
Music Council are deeply valued. The National Jewish
Welfare Board, sponsoror of the Jewish Music Council
merits the appreciation of the Jewish community for a
vital and creative contribution.
—THE JEWISH ADVOCATE—Boston.
Do We Need Conversion?
In Springfield, Ill., Rabbi Isaac Nadoff has warned
members of his congregation that he would discontinue
late f-riday evening services unless attendance improved
We have succeeded beautifully in making a mockery
of anything that is holy in Judaism,” Rabbi Nadoff wrote.
We have gone as far as reducing religion to a one-hour-
a-week worship. Now we are ignoring even this one-hour-
a-week service and substituting it with canasta and
bridge and all sorts of unacceptable excuses.
“Let us once and for all stop this nonsense of pretend
ing to be proud of our religion. Let us stop this mockery
of praising Judaism and yet taking no part in it”
*****
A cursory survey of Synagogue attendance in Atlanta
indicates an average Friday evening Synagogue attend
ance of five percent of the membership—a most dis
heartening representation. The clubs do better on bingo
night.
Is Atlanta’s rabbinate incapable? Are the Shule facili
ties inadequate, insufficient to hold the members? Quite
the contrary. Atlanta’s rabbinate is capable beyond any
question. The shules are confortable and spacious
enough for twenty times the usual attendance.
No, the simple fact is that Atlanta Jewry, along with
co-religionists in many another community has proceded
in astonishing fashion to rationalize out of existence the
very foundation of our religion—worship itself.
*****
Is it of consequence that the shules are empty on the
Sabbath? As long as the members pay dues, does it mat
ter whether or not they come to worship?
For long, this shell of irreligiosity, reflected best in the
Sabbath boycott of worship, has been an accepted cir
cumstances within the Jewish family circle. On the whole,
this fact alone represented a terrific lag in our spiritural
and moral life. But quite fallaciously, apparently, Jewry
did not consider these factors of consequence. Was there
not security enough in the fact that in the mind of the
public we were established as a religious people? With
this result conceded, we could use this respect as a boost
to our public relations and problems. Why be concerned
with substantiation? A cozy situation! This quick-sand
empire is beginning to crumble. In a Minnesota city, the
dignified request of Jewish leaders to have symphony
orchestra performances shifted to other nights was liter
ally laughed at. The battle to change the date was turned
down cold. One of the Jewish representatives was point
edly told it is commonly known that Jews are not Tem
ple-minded and that therefore only an abstract principle
was involved.
Is this the first wedge into the fallacy of the religious
The Pope Has Appealed....
By Rabbi Dr. Julius S. Fisher, Beaufort, S. C.
In the course of his Procla
mation of the Holy Year, the
Roman Pope made an appeal
to us and other religious de
nominations to join him in his
Battle of Religion against ma
terialism, atheism, commun
ism.
What should be our reaction?
1.
I wish to preface with an
axiom coined by our religious
philosophers. It seems rather
involved, yet it is very simple
in essence. It reads: D’vorlm
shehavijatan ayno maalo, hee-
doration hasoron. There are
things whose existence is not
regarded as an advantage, yet
their absence constitutes a ser
ious defect.
They enlighten this with an
example. If I inquire about
someone whom I have never
seen, I, as a rule, will not ques
tion whether he has eyes, hands
or feet. Most men have them,
so I take it for granted that he
possesses them, too. But if I
learn that he does not have one
of these organs, I will regard
it as a serious defect. The ex
istence of the limbs (and of
many other things) is not con-^"
sidered as a special advantage,
but their absence constitutes a
bad defect.
This axiom accounts for cer
tain differences between the
way of thinking of American
Jews and that of European
Jews, of those who lived in the
Nazi occupied countries and
survived that inferno. Ameri
can Jews take certain things
for granted, while these Euro
pean Jews were taught horrible
lessons on what their absence
mean.
American Jews take it for
granted that no innocent man
can be killed, that no one can
be caused to die of starvation,
to perish by hunger—not even
a criminal in jail, let alone
multitudes of innocent men.
believe that the government
and the authorities must pro
tect every citizen and mete out
justice equally to everyone. In
fact that was exactly what
European Jews thought before
the advent of Nazism . . .
Nazism came like a hurri
cane with all the sweep and
rage of the elements. It was
of course introduced by a wild
propaganda of slander and in-
citment. Jews were stigmatized
as an inferior race,“half-breed"
and parasites, men who hate
to work, suck the blood of the
population and eat up the fat
of the land. And when the
Nazis got into power, the Jews
found themselves in a changed
world. It was a nightmare. It
was like an earthquake when
the very ground is shaking and
running from under one’s feet.
Government and authorities
are your open enemies. It hurt
or harmed, there is none to of
fer remedy. You feel defense
less and forsaken. Unwillingly
and unknowingly your attitude
changes. You steal and stalk
along the streetside with fur
tive looks, eyeing every passer
by as to his intentions ... You
are worse than a slave, deliver
ed at the mercy of every fiend
or brute.
Anti-Jewish decrees deliver
one blow after another. First
the government employees
were discharged, without pen
sion or compensation. Then the
professionals were forbidden
to work. Then the crushing
blow came: business man had
to surrender their stores and
establishments to the author
ities for the promise of some
undefined compensation at
some future date.
The excitement among the
victims grew day by day. They
looked at one another, a hap
less, helpless mass. Husbands
had no answer to the wife’s
question: Where will all this
lead? How shall we make a liv
ing? Are we, then, to die of
hunger?
It took weeks, months, before
they realized it, before they
believed the unbelievable,
imagined the unimaginable,
that: Yes, this was exactly
what the government wanted.
To leave them to their fate,
until they would perish in
their misery. Later this method
seemed to be too slow for the
henchmen — deportation and
crematorium followed.
Of course, the question pre
sents itself, why did the Jews
not try to do something about
it? Why did they not protest,
why did they not attempt to
impress upon their persecutors
t'he inhumaneness of their
course and actions?
To whom could they have
appealed and on what ground?
To whom? To the Nazis and on
what ground ... - At this point
let us, please, try to grasp the
situation. It would have been
in vain to refer to the Law.
There was no law. The Fueh
rer's will was the law. So the
only argument to proffer was
that the murder of innocent
men is a crime. But why is
murder a crime? The only pos
sible answer to it is: because
one of the Ten Commandments
is: Thou shalt not kill and, in
the final analysis, the Decalog
is still the basis of our moral
world and legal system.
To which the only reaction
on the part of the Nazis would
have been nothing, but scorn
and sneer. They no longer be
lieved in such religion.. They
despised Judaism, and, in an
equal measure, Christianity.
They were determined to wipe
out both, first Judaism, then
Christianity. They had another
God and another religion.
The reading of the 1933-34
issues of the DER ISRAELIT,
the German Jewish paper of
Frankfurt—a/M. will amply
prove that this was the situa
tion. To the few, faint attempts
of Germans Jews at defending
tjjiemselves and challenging the
Nazi ideology, the answer of
learned Nazi philosophers was:
The trouble with the Jews is
that they view only the moral
aspects of the subject, forget
ful of the new social—political
—ideological realities, what in
normal, human language means
that the Jews still believed in
ancient moral principles which
had been discarded by the
Nazis.
They had another God and
another religion!
By their religion the “Mas-
ter Race” was entitled to wipe
out any inferior race; murder
was no longer a crime. In fact
they set up a new, gigantic Mo
loch, called Race, upon whose
altars millions of human beings
were sacrificed for burnt of
ferings . . .
Yes, the Nazis remained un
moved by the death-cries of
men, by the nerve-shattering
screams of women and by the
pitiful whimpering of little
children—they had another
God and another religion. .
So Jews came to see that as
long as the peoples and their
governments recognize Juda
ism and her daughter—relig
ions as bases of Law and Mora
lity, we have at least a voice to
speak, arguments to advance,
theories to defend ourselves
and a ray of hope for under
standing and rescue. But woe
to the Jews and all defenseless
minorities, if new religions,
under the name of some-ism,
are adopted! Their implications
may be, nay, must be, horrible.
This is why I think that we
must not flatly and bluntly re
ject the Pope’s offer, without
ascertaining as to what his
- plans and intentions are. If he
means to set up a common
front, on the term of equality,
of all monotheistic denomina
tions in order to defend our re
ligion and its principles and
together therewith the security
of our lives and future, then I
don’t see how we can refuse to
do so.
It might be a question of life
and death!
Jewish Calendar
I’l'RIM
Friday, March 3
PESACH
Saturday, April 1
(First Seder)
Sunday, April 9
(Last Day)
SHAVL’OS
Monday, May 22
Tuesday, May 23
sincerely of us Jews? How long before schools refuse to
release children from classes on Jewish tolidays? How
long before the other values in which we have a part as
Jews become negated?
Has Judaism indeed been reduced to an abstraction?
And who have shorn it of substance if not we ourselves?
Have we indeed compromised the real values of our re
ligion until they are now so tenuous as to be pushed aside
without serious consideration?
How long before the unrealities of such irreligiosity in
vade the other facets of Jewish life through most serious
reflections in public relations?
This state of near-religious bankruptcy prompts our
backing to an intriguing movement which was launched
January 30-31 in Boston. There the Rabbinical Council of
America charted steps “to convert Jews to Judaism.”
Though the entire program of the Rabbinical Council
is not geared for wholesale acceptance among all Jewish
groups, it does strike home at the most vital need—the
urgency of a return to worship—of a return to the very
wellsprings of Judaism. The militancy which such a
movement could possess is vitally needed by. every con
gregation.
There is every evidence in some circles of a wholesome
revival of interest in Judaism but it cannot stop with the
few, with the five percent of the flock who faithfully at
tend services. It cannot be stridently successful until the
masses of our people, anomalously, are converted to
Judaism.