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Friday, March II, 1IW
Til lODTHIKN ISRAELITE
It all began there on a Shab-
bos evening, in Sept. 1944, among
the Jewish workers on the
bomb. In Europe there was still
the Battle of the Bulge to be
fought and our armies were still
quite far from Berlin. In the
Pacific we still had many is
lands to make toward Japan.
Lofe Alamos then was just a
military camp where the scient
ists and other workers were get
ting the bomb ready. (It wasn’t
to fall on Hiroshima until abqut
a year later.) Los Alamos then
was listed only as a post office
box number of Santa Fe, 36
miles south-east.
Chaplain; Army men Saul Brour-
man and Kenneth Goldman;
Capt. Jack Brooks, Medical of
ficer; and scientists and wives
. . . Mr. and Mrs. James M.
Taub and Mr. and Mrs. Herbert
On that Friday evening at Los
Alamos camp a group of Jews of
the Army organized the first
Shabbos service. They turned the
camp’s meeting hall into a temp
orary synagogue. (There were
four who started it all. Their
names: Lionel Shapiro of the
Army’s Special Engineer Detach
ment; Florence Pachter of the
Women’s Army Corps; Philip
Rothstein and Maurice Gold,
both of the Provisional Engineer
Detachment.)
A few weeks later Jewish civ
ilian scientists came in to make
tne Los Alamos congregation
complete with more than a min-
yon. Among them the scientists
Leon J. Brown, Sigmund Harris
and Morton Comae; also Major
Matthew Imrie who was the Post
N. Friedlander.
It was a Conservative congre
PLAIN TALK—ALFRED SEGAL
Judaism Amid A-Bombs
I was hearing about Judaism
at Los Alamos, New Mexico . . .
home of the A - bomb which
brought War II to a quick end
ing . . . but later to give lot of
worry to the whole world . . .
to cause us all at times to ask
whether a world so full of death
is worth our trying to make good
. . . and yet to hope that maybe
it will all come out right, after
all, in a time when atomic en
ergy will come to be used only
for the enlargement of life.
So I was happy to get this re
port about Judaism in Los Ala
mos . . . our Jewish life that
tries to serve with all others to
ward the good life for all man
kind, that has kept on honoring
the Commandments (one of them
‘Thou shalt not kill’).
Yes, Judaism has been serving
hopefully at Los Alamos since
the year 1944 which was the
year the bomb was being made
ready for Hiroshima. Jewish
scientist and technicians were of
the workers there; thgy were
looking upward toward their
ideals as Jews even while they
worked toward the bomb. (The
bomb then was thought of as
an instrument by which to bring
quick peace to the world . . .
maybe to make the world all
right for good that way.)
Judaism was established there
almost from the time of Los
Alamo’s beginning. I get the
news of Jewish life in Los Ala
mos from a book, “History of
Los Alamos Jewish Center’’ by
Rabbi Abraham A. Shinedling of
Albuquerque, New Mexico. He
has served at Los Alamos.
gation whose religious services
were followed by talk of some
guest speaker, or a group discus
sion that was all about being
Jews and the part Jews could
play in a world that was hopeful
of being more decent some day.
In the following spring there
was a Seder at Los Alamos and
110 sat around the Seder tables.
The first Hebrew Congregation
of Los Alamos disbanded in the
late midsummer of 1946: World
War II had come to an end; sold
iers had been discharged to re
turn to civilian life in the cities
from which they had come;
scientists were being transferred
to other laboratories. But the
Jewish workers who remained
there kept up Shabbos and holi
day services; in 1948 a B’nai
B’rith Lodge and a Hadassah
Chapter were organized.
After the war Los Alamos be
gan to grow up toward being a
civilian community. Rabbi Shin
edling says in his book: “On
Monday, Feb. 18, 1957. after 13
years of top secrecy and of ad
mission only through passes con
trolled by armed guards, the
city of Los Alamos was declar
ed by the U. S. Government and
by the Atomic Energy Commis
sion to be an ‘open city’ and
the guards and the gates lead
ing to the city proper, but not to
the special areas, were remov
ed.”
Jewsh life there also grew
. . . more Jews moving into Los
Alamos ... a Los Alamos Jew
ish Center ... a building fund
started for a permanent house
for worship and for social and
cultural gathering . . . and then:
A couple of Christian girls who
had married Jewish boys were
converted to Judaism by Rabbi
Shinedling at Los Alamos.
Well, that’s about the itory of
Judaism even amid the tint A-
bombs, and Sinai arising there to
early to admonish us all that
there’s much better that bombs
by which to make peace and
justice all over the world. It’s
all in the Book.
As Rabbi Shinedling tells it,
it’s not all kosher at Los Alamos.
Says he: “Very few Jewish fam
ilies in Los Alamos, perhaps two
or three at most, observe the
Jewish dietary laws strictly or
fully, or keep a strictly kosher
home. These several families
secure their kosher meat from
Denver by express parcel post
. . . The religious practice of
the great majority of the Jew
ish families of the community
leans more toward the firogreas-
ive and modem, and away from
the traditional.”
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