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THE SOUTHERN IS RAEIITG
Jonuary 22, 1954
Page Five
PANORAMA by David Schwartz
The World’s Greatest Sculptor
Jacob Epstein, the great sculp- |
tor, is now entitled to be called ;
Sir Jacob Epstein. He has been
Knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
I do not know that this will
make any particular difference to
the sculptor, who was born on
the East Side of New York and
is now generally rated as the
world’s greatest sculptor.
An English wit once gagged:
A wonderful family is Stein-
There’s Ger’t and there’s Ep
and there’s Ein.
Gert’s verses are bunk,
Ep’s statues are junk.
And nobody understands Ein!
Today, we know better of
course. The Steins are profound
end somewhat beyond the compre- j
hension of the average mortal,
but we know they cannot be junk.
How can one say for instance
that no one understands Ein,
when we know' that all of atomic
ecience is based on Einstein’s
equations. And Epstein's statues
too no longer face the challenge
they once encountered. As a mat
ter of fact, the entire trend of
modern sculpture seems to be
along the paths he pioneered.
Queen Elizabeth has really
honored the East Side. Out of
New York’s squall'd tenement sec
tion—where the pushcarts roam—
has come a great torch of art.
The Bible frowned upon sculp
ture It forbade the making of
graven images. The very prohibi
tion perhaps indicates some strong
Jewish drive towards that form
of art.
We know that while Moses was
mediating on Mt. Sinai, the chil
dren of Israel insisted on making
and worshipping a piece of sculp
ture—a golden calf.
The Yiddish writer, I. M. Dick,
once explained the reason why the
Jews made a golden calf. It was
all due, he explained, to a gold
•hortage. If the Jews had had
more gold, they wouldn’t have
made a golden calf, they could
have made a golden cow.
The Biblical prohibition on en
graven images was of course not
motivated by any hostility to the
art of sculpture. What Moses op
posed was not the art. but the fact
that they kneeled and prayed to
these images. How strong this
feeling of idolatry was, we can as
certain from the fact that idola
try was the subject of continued
denunciations by all the major
prophets. “As many as thy cities,
are thy gods, O Israel!’’
It seems strange to us today.
We cannot understand how people
really attributed deity to things
made by their own hands. You
can set up a whole stablefull of
golden calves today and no one
would bring a sacrifice to them.
We still like a pretty calf—yes,
but worshipping one—that’s in
conceivable!
All of a sudden, it passed away.
One bright morning in history,
people seemed to wake up from
their dream and realize that all
of this idolatry was nonsense. It
was a great morning in history,
for at that moment man, begin
ning to feel that he was superior
to the animals which he worship
ed, first realized his own man
hood.
The same awakening banished
other delusions. Take witchcraft.
In the 17th century, some 2,000,000
people were put to death on the
absurd charge of being witches.
Great minds like Blackstone be
lieved in witchcraft. And here,
too, all of a sudden—for reasons
which no historian can account—
I it suddenly disappeared as though
it were some physical plague
which had run its course.
Heine once said that in his
| younger years he had felt a re
sentment against the Bible for its
prohibition on sculpture, but later
had realized that Moses was in
deed the supreme artist. He was !
intent on moulding, not a slab of i
stone, but the mind of a nation, !
jo raise them from slave con- 1
sciousness to the consciousness of
the Divine.
Well, today, sculpture is purely 1
an art. The Biblical victory over
idolatry has been won. Not entire
ly, to be sure. The Egyptians no
longer worship cats. Calves are
not worshipped, although in some
parts of India, it is still better to
be a cow than a human being,
and even in America there ai'e
many people who go about with
a rabbit’s foot—but there has been
great progress.
Ancient Synagogue of Venice Ghetto
Restored; Was Built In 1415
Augusta News
The Augusta AZA Chapter No.
192 recently held election of of
ficers for the January-May 1954
term. The results were: Herbert
Silver ,Aleph Godol; Freddie
Simowitz, Aleph S’gan; Jay Coff-
sky, Aleph Mazkir; Marvin Pecht-
er, Aleph Gizbor; Jerry Bogo,
Aleph Sofar; Murray Rubens, A-
leph Shotare Godol; Simon
Estroff, Aleph Shotare K’ton; Lou
Saul, Aleph Kohen Godol; and
Daniel Levy, Aleph Morreh.
Rabbi Thurman in N. C.
ROCKY MOUNT, N. C.—Rabbi
Mordecai M. Thurman, who has
been serving the United Hebrew
Congregation at Havannah, has
returned to the United States to
accept the post of spiritual leader
of Congregation Beth El in this
community.
He succeeds Rabbi Melvyn C.
Helfgott who has become rabbi
of Temple Beth El, Charlotte.
Rabbi Thurman is remembered
by The Southern Israelite readers
for his frequent magazine articles.
l r . S. Surplus Food
Gift to Israel
Through Hadassah
NEW YORK, (JTA)—The
United States Government through
the Foreign Operations Admini
stration, has made available to the
Hadassah for distribution in Israel
1,169,000 pounds of surplus food,
Mrs. Herman Schulman, president
of the women’s Zionist organiza
tion, announced here this week.
Included in the shipment of food,
which is already en route, is 188,-
000 pounds of non-kosher beef
which will be distributed to Chris
tian and Arab institutions in Is
rael. In addition to this beef, the
shipment consists of: 100,000
pounds of dried prunes, 100,000
pounds of raisons, 100,000 pounds
of shortening, 200,000 pounds of
rice, 100,000 pounds of dry beans,
200,000 pounds of sugar, and 181,-
000 pounds of evaporated milk.
QUIZ BOX by Rabbi Samuel J. Fox
Whence Apikoros?
QUESTION: What is the deriva
tion of the term “apikoros?”
ANSWER: “Apikoros” is the
t*rm generally applied to a here
tic. The term is usually considered
to have originated in the name of
the Greek Fnilosopher Epicurus.
Epicurus, who founded the so-
called Epicurean School of philo
sophy in the year 306 B.C., gen
erally believed in a life of pleas
ure uninhibited by religious fears.
Those who followed him were
later considered as interested only
tn the pleasures of this world and
denying such thoughts as a future
life, responsibility to a deity, etc.
Maimonodies, in a famous in
troduction to one of the chapters
t» Tractate Sanhedrin, seems to
trace the term to an Aramaic term
“hefker” which means “freedom”
In the sense of “lawlessness” or
the lack of ownership or authority.
An object is considered “Hefker”
In the Talmudic law when it has
no one who exerts authority over
It Thus, an individual who doesn’t
Recognize the authority of G-d or
His ownership of the universe,
•oulc} thus be termed an “api-
korus one who “casts providence
type of “lawlessness” or “anar
chy.”
The first who defined this term
in relationship to the belief in G-d,
is Josephus who considers an api-
korus one who “casts providence
out of human life,” and “does not
believe that G-d takes care of the
affairs of the world" but says that
“the world is carried along of its
own accord without a ruler and
provider.” The Shulkan Aruch de
fines an apikorus as one who does
not believe in the divine origin
| of the Law and prophecy.
* * *
QUESTION: How many prophets
were there in Israel?
ANSWER: According to the Tal-
! mud (Tractate Megillah, 14a)
there were 48 prophets in Israel.
The same source mentions the fact
that there were seven women who
were each considered a prophetess.
* * *
QUESTION: What is the deriva
tion of the term “prophet?”
ANSWER: The term prophet as
we use it today is considered as
having its origin in a combination
of two Greek terms—“pro” mean
ing before and “phets’ a speaker
—which comes from the verb
“phanai,” to speak. The combina
tion thus implies one who speaks
“before” or “ahead” of his tune.
A. Z. A. 518 Elects
Larry Classman has been re
elected Aleph Godol by the Alephs
of Morris Lichtenstein, A. Z. A.
Chapter No. 518.
He was chosen to serve from
January 1 to June 1 at a meeting
held at his home.
Julian Yudelson was elected
Aleph Segan.
Serving with them are Charles
Rosenberg, Aleph Mazkir; Arthur
Stein, Aleph Gisbor; Eddie Erbes-
field and Joel Weissman, Aleph
Shotare Godol and Kotone; Barry
Karp, Aleph Moreh; Bobby Spec-
tor, Sopher; Joel Butler, corresp.
secretary; Richard Franco, Kohen
Godol,
Recent activities of the chapter
include a clothing drive staged by
the Community Service Commit
tee for needy children in the At
lanta area and a convention send-
off dance at the Mayfair Club.
BOBBY SPECTOR
Chapter Reporter
Storv Hour for
Young Children
CHATTANOOGA — Parents
who have to baby-sit need not re
main away from Saturday morn
ing services at Mizpah Congrega
tion.
The very young children attend
services for 20 minutes then ad
journ to the Harry Wise Sr. Tem
ple Center for a program of story
telling, games and the Oneg Shab-
bat later.
Stop Service^
1 Hour Cleaning
A Specialty
Hazan’s Tailors
& Cleaners
1008 Peachtree, N.E.
At Tenth EL. 0618
LADIES AND MEN’S
HATS
ROME, (JTA)—A 538-year-old
synagogue, the oldest in the ghetto
of Venice, was rededicated re
cently after extensive restoration
carried out with funds made avail
able by the Joint Distribution
Committee.
The synagogue, known as “La
Scuola Grande Tedesca” (The
Great German School), was built
in 1415 in the ghetto of Venice in
habited then by Jewish bankers,
most of whom had come from
Germany, hence its name. Four
other historic synagogues in the
ghetto have been restored this
year. All five structures were
found in 1949 to be in danger of
imminent collapse and the small
Jewish community of Venice, num
bering 1,100 persons, was unable
to pay for their repairs.
At the ceremony last night, Vit
torio Fano, president of the Jewish
community of Venice, expressed
his gratitude to the Jews of the
United States and especially to
the JDC. “For many years,” he
said, “the JDC was instrumental
in preserving the health and phy
sical well-being of our children,
our aged and our needy. Restora
tion of the centers of our spiritual
and religious life is an equally
great contribution to the welfare
of our community.” The JDC was
represented at the ceremonies by
Harold Trobe, its director for Italy.
The other rebuilt synagogues in
clude Scuola Canton, probably
named after the family that found
ed it in 1532; Scuola Italiania,
built in 1575 on a portico sup
ported by pillars; Scuola Spagno-
la, founded by Spanish Jews in
1580 and enlarged by the famous
Baroque architect Baldassare
Longhena in 1635; and Scuola-
Levantina, founded by Levantine
Jews at least 300 years ago and
endowed with an important col
lection of ceremonial objects.
Mansell Honored
Ben J. Massell, president of
Massed Companies, has been re
elected national vice chairman of
the Joint Appeal National Council,
it has been announced by Council
Chairman Philip M. Meyers of
Cincinnati.
Anytime
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