Newspaper Page Text
P**e Tour
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, Nov. 2, 1962
OPINION
A Digest of Contemporary Opinion
Kennedy’s Power Diplomacy
The new Kennedy style of diplomacy is
now operating in the Cuban crisis. It is high
ly personal and national. It is power diplom
acy in the old classic European sense that
prevailed before the great men worried much
about consulting with allies or parliaments or
international organizations. The President
did not assembly the National Security Coun
cil or the Cabinet into formal session to de
bate the selective blockade of Cuba. He dis
cussed it personally with some members of
his Cabinet and staff, made up his mind, and
then called them into formal session to tell
them what he had decided to do. He did not
follow the normal diplomatic practice of giv
ing his antagonists a quiet escape from fight
ing or withdrawing, but let the Soviet For
eign Minister leave the White House with
out a hint of what was coming and then an
nounced the blockade on television. Similar
ly, he called in the Congressional leaders two
hours before the announcement and told them
what he was going to announce . . . There is
a great deal to be said for this procedure. The
President was confronted with a power play;
he was being tested by Khrushchev in the
most direct and challenging way; and he re
sponded with a power play; he answered the
test in a way that would not have been poss
ible had he consulted with the allies and the
UN . . . This brisk and sudden diplomacy,
however, cannot be pursued without cost . . .
James Reston, The New York Times
Man and Self-Destruction
The presence of this item—“Manifestations
of Racial Prejudice and National and Religi
ous Intolerance”—on our agenda sharply re
minds us that we are living in an age of
strange parodox. Man can leap into space
from the planet he inhabits but cannot guar
antee himself against self-destruction on that
planet. We can smash the invisible atom and
release its vast energy, but we cannot exor
cise from the human heart the demons of
hatred, envy and greed, the lust of power
and privilege, which lead one group to ex
ploit, ill-treat or even wipe out another group.
The tide of colonialism has receded, but our
Assembly discussions are taken up with areas
of stubborn resistence to change, of unwill
ingness to surrender domination. And it is
sad that, in addition to these specific multi
racial problems, it should still be necessary
in the year 1962 to inscribe a general item
on “Manifestations of Racial Prejudice and
Religious Intolerance.” For my delegation
(Israel), this subject has tragic and disturb
ing overtones. We are members of an an
cient people, which has been classic victims
of bigotry throughout the ages. In the 20th
century, after the Jews had been liberated
from the ghetto and entered the mainstream
of contemporary life, there was inflicted upon
us the culminating horror of Hitler Germany.
That evil regime, drunk with its dreams of
racial glory, set as one of its major policy
aims what it called the “final solution of the
Jewish question”—that is, the cold-blooded,
planned extermination of the entire Jewish
people. By the time the war ended, six mil
lion Jews, including over a million babies and
children, had been rounded up and wiped out
in Nazi-occupied Europe, mostly in the gas-
chambers of the death camps. The detailed
account of this “final solution” was put on
record in the recent trial of Adolph Eich-
mann in Jerusalem, through the stories of
survivors and documentary evidence . . .
Ambassador Michael Comay, from his
Address before the UN 3rd Committee
World Need: “Score” and “Conductor”
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
and THE SUNCOAST JEWISH NEWS
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, 390 Coort-
Land St., NE, Atlanta 3, Georgia, TR. 6-8249, TR. 6-8240. Second
class postage paid at Atlanta, Ga. Yearly subscription five dollars.
The Southern Israelite invites literary contributions and correspond
ence but is not to be considered as sharing the views expressed by
writers. DEADLINE is 5 P.M., FRIDAY j but material received earlier
will have a much better chance of publication.
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
Gustav Oppenheimer, Kathleen Nease, Jeanne Loeb
JOURNALISTIC AFFILIATIONS
AMERICAN JEWISH PRESS ASSN
JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY
SEVEN ARTS fEATURES
GEORGIA PRESS ASSOCIATION
Jewry at the Ready ...
For a while it appeared last week that the world had
reached a point of no return in the matter of the long dread
ed atomic war. The years of brinkmanship seemed about to
turn from a cold war into the devastation which the next
world conflict will surely mean.
Statesmanship in the United Nations, courageous leader
ship by the American President and his advisors, vast sup
port of the American citizenry and the court of world opinion
have brought a respite and an easing of the tensions in the
Cuban crisis.
Though it is often said—and with some justification that
the American Jewish community is over-organized because of
duplication—this very genius and forsightedness for organ
ization has given this periodical vast reassurance over the
ability and capacity of our groups to move in the necessary
directions—and not to equivocate when the occasion arises.
Specifically what the crisis could develop, or where it
would turn, none could say precisely last week but Jewry
did not wait for catastrophy to go into action.
Through the Jewish Welfare Board which has for dec
ades attended the needs of men and women in uniform, the
Jewish community swiftly set into motion plans for doing
what could be done under the circumstances.
That the situation would involve the armed forces went
without saying. How many, where, to what degree—this was
the unknowable quality. Regardless, the JWB did not wait.
This organization which has had decades of services during
times of war and peace began to alert chaplains, volunteer
committees and to set its professionals into the southeastern
areas which could be most affected.
Thank God, the worst did not develop and the situation
has cleared somewhat. It was, so to speak, a dry run and one
which should intensify the demonstrated need for continued
alertness. We pray we will never need to go beyond the state
of preparedness.
LETTER
to the EDITOR
Dear Editor,
I enjoy reading your excellent
paper and appreciate the fine job
you do. However, I feel called
upon to express myself with re
gard to the cartoon “Dayenu”
which you carry. On the whole
I do not think it befits the high
standards of your otherwise ex
cellent paper.
I felt the one with the explana
tion regarding Orthodox service
for our delegates to a convention
from 9-12, Conservative services
10-12 and Reform services 10:30-
II was in particularly bad taste.
So far as I know the 10:30-11
would not even apply to a Re
form service. Besides, since when
does any thoughtful person mea
sure the aspect of reverence and
worth of a service by the amount
of time it lasts. I am a Reform
Rabbi as you know, but I think
if I were a Conservative or Orth
odox Rabbi I would resent this
readers like the feature and it
may be the most popular one in
our newspaper. Perhaps because
the other contents tend on the side
of gravity and intense seriousness
so that readers search for some
thing on the whimsical or lighter
side and latch onto anything which
is a change of pace. It would be
too much to expect a cartoonist,
comedian, columnist or creative
person to score on the highest
plane every time.
“Dayenu” cartoons are, regret
tably, one of the few things in
our columns which find favor
among younger members of our
readers’ families. We wish there
were more material available for
them or that we had the financial
resources to create such material.
Drop us a line, gentle readers,
about "Dayenu” if you feel deeply
about it—one way or another.
—THE EDITOR
I think it is fitting and proper that a tra
dition has been established that we have a
concert phogram on United Nations Day. 1 say
this because in the words of the Charter, the
UN is a center of harmonizing the actions of
nations. Even the greatest orchestra in the
world cannot produce harmony if it does not
have a score and a conductor. The same is
true of the UN; for us the score is the Charter,
and we have more than one conductor, name
ly, the various principal organs. We have the
abiding principles of international law and
equity to guide our actions, just as music has
its own grammar and its guidelines. Music
is the international language—it can move the
minds of men and touch their souls. The UN
is a universal organization and its task is also
to move the minds of men, away from the
thoughts of communal, national or religional
interest to considerations of global peace,
progress and security . . .
U Thant, from his Address before the As
sembly on UN Day which heard the Lenin
grad. Symphony Orchestra play Tchaikow-
sky s Fifth Symphony . . .and D. Oistrakh
play Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata.
kind of odious comparison just
as much. I have no objection to
GOOD humor. I even attempt to
use a bit in my sermons. How
ever, this cartoon of Dayenu can
not be considered in that cate
gory.
Please be assured that I write
this note not in anger but with
desire to share what 1 feel is con
structive criticism
With cordial personal greetings
and every good wish I am,
Faithfully yours,
RABBI MEYER IT. MARX
Temple Beth El
Knoxville
• • »
Even humor can be controver
sial. We must confess personally
that sometimes, "Dayenu” sends
us into guffaws. And sometimes
the piercing satire evokes a
“hmmm,” what is the cartoonist
trying to get across?
Rabbi Marx’s sincere criticism
is not the first received on the
adverse side. Mostly however, our
JEWISH CALENDAR
♦IIAN UK AH
Saturday, December 21, 1962
(First Day)
Sunday, December 22, 1962
(Second Day)
Saturday, December 29, 1962
(Eighth Day)
•PASSOVER
Tuesday, April 9, 1963
(First Day
Wednesday, April 10, 1963
(Second Day)
Tuesday, April 16, 1963
(Eighth Day)
SHAVOUT
Wednesday, May 28, 1963
(First Day)
Thursday, May 29, 1963
(Second Day)
•PURIM
Sunday, March 10. 1963
ROSH HASHONAII
Thursday, September 19, 1963
(First Day)
•Holiday begins
preceding evenings
Topic of the Day
-WUP-
IJy DAVID BENARONE
Christian Responsibilty
Whether or not we wish to accept it,
there’s a basic link between the anti-Semit
ism in the Soviet Union and the anti-Jewish
outbursts here in the United States, the
Latin-Americas and elsewhere.
It is within a fundamental Christian ‘ civil
ization” that all this is happening as govern
ments remain practically mute while ecclesi
astical leaders hardly protest.
While we have no power—though morally
something might be done—over what is oc
curring in the USSR, a heritage of former
Czaristic religious fanaticism still deeply im
bedded in Russo blood, we could by the U.S.
Constitutional system put a stop, govern-
mentally, to the anti-American acts of the
Rockwells in our midst who have sworn to
do in free America what Hitler did in Nazi
Germany—gas Jews.
The murder of Rabbi Bernard Eisdorfer
in Brooklyn last week, the desecration of
some 200 tombstones in the Mt. Zion Jewish
cemetery in Queens by a 15-year-old youth
in September, the bombing of synagogues,
etc., all these can be linked to one source:
“Christian religious fanaticism” such as in
a previous age had sparked the horrendous
Russian and Polish pogroms.
As Hitler thought he was doing the right
thing, so Rockwell and his Nazis here be
lieve they are doing a “Christian” mitzvah”
in seeking the annihilation of Jewry. For,
Rockwell ruminates, did not Jesus himself
say, in John VIII 44-45, that the Jews are
“of their father the devil?”
In the August 17th “Topic of the Day”
this writer concluded:
“Rockwell is—as Hitler was—a product of
a Christian dispensation which has taught
babes in Sunday schools that the Jews killed
their savior.
“Anti-Semitism and persecution, there
fore, will persist, so long as the responsible
Christian leadership does not heed Bishop
Pike and others who have called for a re
vision of the Testament which contains such
passages of hate against the Jews.
“The murder of six million Jews was com
mitted in Christian Europe. Latin-America is
Christian, and some term America a Chris-
ian country.
“If religious Christian fanaticism, such as
Rockwell represents, calls for the murder of
Jews, then it might be high time for Con
gress to pass a law against such a threat to
the peaceful pursuits of U.S. citizens.”
The root cause of evil and hatred, there
fore, must be attacked, And that “root” can
be traced from the Palestine of Jesus, Paul
and Peter to the Rome of Constantine.
Talmudic Maxims
Collected and translated by J. FRIEND
The destruction of schools by the Roman
Emperor Titus Vespasian is bemoaned as
follows in “Pesikta Eicha”: There were 480
Synagogues in Jerusalem, each having its
elementary and its own advanced schools of
at least 400 or more students each, students
and books were burned alive by order of
Vespasian.
An ignorant person cannot be pious; one
who is bashful cannot learn; (he is ashamed
or afraid to ask questions); he who is irrit
able or impatient cannot teach.
A father is required to have his son taught
to swim.
One should not train his son to be a mule
teer, camel-driver, barber, sailor, herdsman
or tavern-keeper.
One who does not teach his child an oc
cupation is as if he is instructing him in
burglary.
Intensive education should begin at the
age of six.
Joshua ben Gamla established a Public
School system, instituting primary schools
in all the provinces and small towns to be
attended by children starting at the age of
six or seven.
Short exits in teaching are advantageous.
Instruction is best when the teacher has
a good text to which to refer.
The advantage of reviewing is unlimited:
to review 101 times is better that to review
100 times Our present day maxim: “Repeti
tion is the mother learning.”
School sessions should be curtailed dur
ing the summer, because of the heat.
A primary school teacher should not have
a class of more than twenty-five pupils.
Idleness leads to dullness, idiocy and
lewdness.
One should not differentiate among chil
dren.