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to Elijah, but lately I have learned
even more about him from Dr.
Julian Morgenstern who is the re
tired president of the Hebrew Un
ion College which is of our town.
Dr. Morgenstern had written about
Elijah in a chapter of several pages
in the Universal Jewish Encyclo
pedia . . . “Elijah” he says, “appears
at first as a social reformer champ
ioning, like Nathan before him and
the great prophets after him, the
cause of the socially disadvantaged,
those impoverished, enslaved and
oppressed by the growing, despotic-
power of the kind and the new so
cial and economic order . . . Elijah
had to flee for his life and to con
ceal himself in out-of-the way
places and endure bitter privations
and hair-breadth escape. Yet un
compromisingly and undeviatingly
... he persisted in his prophetic
mission.
He first showed the prophet’s
courage the time he pointed a fing
er at King Ahab (First Book of
Kings, Chap. 21) and denounced
him as the murderer and robber
of the respected peasant Naboth;
Ahab killed him and also took Na
both’s lands unto himself. Elijah
said to the king: “Wilt thou kill
and likewise take possession? Thus
saith Yaveh (Jehovah): On the
spot where the dogs lapped the
blood of Naboth, shall the dogs
lap thy blood, yea. even thine.”
Well, last time Elijah was with
us. I suggested to him that next
year he stay at our house overnight,
and go downtown with me next
morning, maybe to sit with me at
my desk for inspiration's sake . . .
“You see, sir” I said, “you and I
have ideas that are pretty much
alike, you might say. I sure do like
the way you spoke up to the king
that time."
Elijah accepted my invitation,
stayed with us through the night
. . . that is to say, after he had fin
ished visiting at all the other Se
ders of our town, he came back
to my house. Next morning we
drove downtown.
On the way we spoke of this and
that, and I said, “You know, sir,
1 am thinking of an experiment
. . . rather interesting I should say.
It's been a long, long time since
in your own voice you spoke to
the people as prophet . . . some
2800 years or so, I should say. What
do you say to my suggestion that
you try one more public speech,
before a multitude?”
But where?” Elijah asked me.
I told him we were on the way
downtown and shortly we would
be there . . . “Downtown we shall
come into a big crowd. I know the
spot for a great summoning to the
people by you . . . for peace, justice
and all righteousness. We call it
Fountain Square.”
“Yes,” he replied humbly, “I
shall try to speak there to the peo
ple again.”
So we came to Fountain Square
which, you might say, is the heart
of our city. Elijah raised himself
to a stone elevation at the square’s
edge and spoke from there . . .
“People, people, I am Elijah, but
do you know me? I have come out
of Scripture.”
His voice that once resounded in
ancient Israel now echoed loud off
the skyscrapers. Though the day
was bright, there was visible some
of the light that pulsed from him
when he visited in houses at Seder
and filled the rooms. He spoke of
the ways of the world even unto
these times . . . “They are like the
evil ways of the world in my ol,
dei times, but so much more scien
tific . . . Bigger and bigger bombs
. . . The world knows everything
but how to be good . Will even
the biggest of all the bombs make
the world good? . . Man, man,
isn’t it about time to learn some
thing after the thousands of years?
You’ve never grown up . . . Juve
nile delinquents that never grew
up. It is still the way it was when
Ahab the King killed Naboth and
took possession.”
The multitudes on the sidewalks
ran past on their errands. The voice
was loud, but few stopped to learn
what it meant, and many didn’t
hear it at all. And none saw the
light of the justice and the love
and the righteousness that issued
out of Elijah even on the bright
day. A couple of passersby did stop
and one said, “He looks like a Jew
to me and how do they get that
way.” The other one said, “Yeah,
I guess he is one of them Jews
that wants to run the world.”
I had been listening to these two
and then turned to Elijah to whis
per to him not to pay any attention
to them, it was old stuff . . . “Just
keep on speaking, Elijah, and the
world will hear you and listen in
time,” I was about to say. But Eli
jah had vanished into his tradition
al invisibility. I looked up: There
was a wreath of light in the sky,
even in the fullness of the sunlight.
Dance, Housewife,
Dance
—continued from page 40
of copying it in their own regions.
Ida, of course, is quite excited
about the Festival, but she is also
working hard on her part in the
Atlanta Civic Ballet’s own concerts
April 12 and 13. These, as well as
the Festival, will be held at the
Tower Theater. And somewhere
about the tenth row center one
will probably find four beaming
Borochoffs, thoroughly enjoying the
work of all the dancers but perhaps
favoring one in particular, one who
is, in her own words, “extremely
happy to be aboard.”
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