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Friday, Aayajrt 16, 1663
FWr
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Comments . . .
RABBI ON A TIGHTROPE
Yehudah Leib Levin must be a man with a
heavy heart. He treads daily on ground where
lesser men fear to tread. But Yehudah Leib Le
vin walks with God. Yehudah Leib Levin is a
rabbi—Chief Rabbi of Moscow. At least, he offi
ciates at services at the one synagogue the So
viets permit to remain open. His struggle is be
tween God and the godless. It is a battle in an
everyman’s land in which the State bitterly op
poses rendering that which is God’s unto God
and at the same time fears the reaction of a basi
cally religious world if it acts with finality in
closing down this last Jewish house of worship
in the Mecca of communism. It Ls a sort of twilight
zone for Rabbi Yehudah Leib Levine. On the one
hand, Soviet bureaucrats ban the baking of mat-
2oh in state bakeries. On the other hand, they
tell the Rebbe that his congregants may bake their
own. When they do they’re arrested. On one hand,,
the Soviets permit a small Yeshiva to exist. On
the other hand, when the students go home for
vacation, they are refused travel permits to re
turn. On one hand, the State permits Israeli diplo
mats to worship at the Moscow synagogue. On the
other hand, it warns the congregants to have no
contact with them. In between is Yehudah Leib
Levin, a rabbi on a tightrope. He appears as a
witness for the State in the matzoh trials. But
he reminds the court that the eating of matzoh on
Passover is of vital importance to Jews . . . We in
America art accustomed to seeing our rabbis
play politics in their dealings with their board of
directors . . . Rabbi Levin has the Government as
his “board of directors’’—and it is an unfriendly
board. He must be a man of rare strength to carry
such a burden.
—B'nal B’rith Messenger
Talmudic Treasures
COLLECTED AND TRANSLATED BY
JACOB L. FRIEND
In Tanna D'bei Eliayahu Rabbah 1:
The Almighty created everything in pairs
and opposites, without which nature could
not exist. Without death there could be no
life, without life no death. Without peace
there could be no evil, toithout evil no peace.
If .oil men toere fools they would not realize
they were fools; if all were wise they would
not realize they were wise. If all were poor,
they would not recognize wealth, if all were
wealthy, they would not recognize poverty.
He created loveliness and repulsiveness, male
and female, fire and water, iron and wood,
light and darkness, heat and cold, food and
famine, drink and thirst, water and land,
deeds and inaction, anxiety and satisfaction,
laughter and weeping, cure and sickness. If
there is no cleanliness, there is no unclean
ness; if no uncleanness—no cleanliness. If
there is no pious man, there is no evil man;
if no evil, no piety. >111 to make known the
greatness of tne Holy One, blessed be He,
for He created everything in pairs and part
nership, and everything has its opposite, ex
cept the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself—
for He is One, and there is no other.
Because the priests continuously walked
barefoot on the stone pavement of the Tem
ple, they were subject to intestinal troubles.
Letting one’s hair and nails grow unkept
is both a symptom of and a prelude of melan
cholia.
There is a story of Rabbi Akiba in the
time of Bar Kochba who was imprisoned by
the Romans, and Rabbi Joshua used to bring
water to him daily. The jailer cut the water
ration, as he believed the prisoner was using
it to soften the ground in order to dig a hole
for escape. When Rabbi Akiba received the
negligible remaining amount of water, al
though it teas not even sufficient to quench
his thirst, he would not let a drop pass his
lips until he had washed his hands, as he
considered cleanliness of paramount import
ance
JEWISH CALENDAR
•ROSH HASHONAH
Thursday, Sept. It, 1963
(First Day)
•YOM KIPPUR
Saturday, September M
•SUCCOT
Thursday, October 3
(First Day)
Friday, October 4
(Second Day)
•HANNUKAH
Wednesday, December 11
•Holiday begins
preceding evening*
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
and THE SUNCOAST JEWISH NEWS
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprise*, 396 Court
land St, N.E., Atlanta 3, Georgia, TR. 4-6249, TR. 6 8240. Second
class postage paid at Atlanta, Ga. Yearly subscription five dollar*
The Southern Israelite Invites literary contributions and correspond
ence bnt is not to be considered as sharing the views expressed by
writers. DEADLINE ls 5 P.M., FRIDAY ) bnt material received earlier
will have a much better chance of pnblicatlon.
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
Gustav Oppenheimer, Kathleen Nease, Jeanne Loeb
Jewish
Telegraphic
Agency
7 Arts Features
World Press
Random Thoughts
On the Racial Crisis
It is scant comfort to a Southerner to have so forcibly
brought out that the racial crisis is not confined to the area
generally known as south of the Mason and Dixon line. The
social ills which demonstrations sought to dramatize do in
deed exist in other areas. This in no way mitigates the demo
cratic imperative to bring injustices to a halt or to alleviate
them as rapidly as new ways can be devised and absorbed.
We have publicly expressed disapproval to the actions of
the nineteen rabbis in Birmingham on the grounds that their
precipitousness did not take into consideration the rights of
the Jewish community there. This in no way modified our
belief in the rightness of the negro cause there nor our
horror of the police action against them. It is interesting, if
true, that despite the initial set-backs the cause of civil rights
seemed to incur in Birmingham reports now seem to point
to the possibility of greater gains in that Alabama city than
in many other comparable communities.
We want now to express our disapproval to the so-called
effort by two young Jewish adults together with a negro
juvenile to desegregate the Albany Temple. It seems to us to
be a total disregard of the purpose of demonstrations, namely
to dramatize within the frame-work of the law that certain
inequities exist and that these should be corrected. That no
adult member of the Albany negro community would ac
company the two out-of-state Jewish youth who sought to
lead this unfortunate event indicates that they certainly know
better than Miss Cohen and her companion what issues are
really involved. Desegregation means to give rights to per
sons who are entitled to receive them under our Constitution.
If there were colored Jews who felt they could not worship
at the Albany Temple because of their color, it would have
been a totally different manner, and we would have joined
in criticizing the congregants, but the facts are to the con
trary. We feel any Jewish house of worship should be open
to Jewish persons regardless of color, but no one in his right
mind would suggest that a synagogue has to be open to others
of different creeds. What if a body of 100 non-Jews were to
descend upon a synagogue, anywhere, during the High Holy
Days and demand entrance?
Demonstrations indeed are not an end in themselves, but
a means and unless judiciously maintained they can whiplash
and react in reverse. With the Cohen girl’s actions at the
Albany Temple, we now have serious doubts raised over the
sincerity of her other actions—certainly her wisdom. If she
finds it convenient or necessary to baby-sit with a colored
child because of the so-called activities in connection with
her avowed vote registration efforts, this is her right. But
the Temple too has the right to bar baby-sitters, of whatever
creed or color.
The matter of demonstrations of course brings us smack-
dab to the forthcoming civil rights event scheduled in a few
days in Washington. We feel it is well that Jewish clergy
and Jewish persons will join Christian clergy of all denomi
nations and all colors in dramatizing the need for full civil
rights. There is no indication in our minds as of this moment
that this can be achieved by the proposed bill now before
Congress.
We are reminded of a remark about the situation of
demonstrations made to us by a friend. “These involve social
change and social change like a good soup takes time to sim
mer and develop that good, good flavor. Throw in a stick
of dynamite and the soup does not cook quicker; it simply
separates the contents in a hundred different directions and
hurls them mostly out of the pot.”
Demonstrations are but a small ingredient in the chang
ing social order of things and we’ll take our place patiently
for the long haul. Wars are not waged nor arguments won
by the flag-waving parade-ground jingoists; nor are social
changes effected meaningfully overnight by the explosive
demonstrators.
The cause of the colored people was decided a few years
ago by the courts. It takes time for public opinion to take up
the lag.
Georgia Press Association
NATIONAL EDITORIAL
Vkf ||A!
tUIIURIAL
‘# c 6"3 n
Opinion . . .
JEWS IN APAKTHEID-LANI)
It is hard to draw a collective portrait of South
African Jewry as it is to draw one of the Ameri
can or any other Jewish community. The portrait
must be done in outline. There are 105,000 Jews
in South Africa. Politically, they are members of
all the major parties with a handful (indifferent
to their Judaism) in extreme leftist organizations
and in constant trouble with the security police
. The overwhelming majority of Jews have
withheld support from the National Party . . . .
South African Jews form a closely-knit com
munity, despite the far-flung distances between
cities. This probably due to the smallness of the
community and the common litvak descent. Organ
izationally, the community is envied. It has two
roof organizations, both centralized in Johannes
burg and operating through provincial commit
tees. The two live on terms of cordiality. One is
the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the
other the South African Zionist Federation. The
first concerns itself with local and domestic mat
ters and the second with Israeli matters. They are
careful not to tread on each other’s toes and never
clash—that is, openly. It is not only that the
leaders have a distaste for public controversy and
cherish the prized communal unity—there is the
less flattering truth that there are few who hold
convictions strong enough to make a worthwile
controversy. What differences there are, are set
tled around a common table. Both organizations
are conservative, frozen forms of communal ex
pressions . . The South African Zionist Federa
tion faces a crisis at the present time. The Gov
ernment (which National Party, winning on a
slender margin in 1948 had openly flirted with
Hitlerism) has rescinded the special concessions
which allowed S. African Jewish organizations to
transfer money and goods to Israel. This is in re
taliation for Israel’s voting against South Africa
on the apartheid issue at the United Nations. The
S. African Zionist Federation is a casualty of the
policy of apartheid . . . Henry Katiew, Midstream
Topic of the Day
By DAVID BENARONE
ARAB AWAKENING
The Inter-Arab feud has led to some rather
strange developments which may in due time give
Israel what she is seeking in the Middle eastern
area.
Despite the bitter verbal Arab attacks on
Israel and Nasser’s constant harping upon the
issue of the “liberation of Palestine from the Zion
ist aggressors,’’ there appears to be a sort of “ton
ing down,” a change in Arab aggressiveness ver
sus the Jewish State.
The fact that the State Department should
have taken the pains recently to announce that
Saudi Arabia is now allowing Jewish army per
sonnel on its soil, despite Saudi statements to the
contrary, is one indication of this apparent change.
Also, and this came as a surprose to this writer,
a leading Jewish correspondent representing an
important Israeli daily and who also edits an
American national magazine, a Zionist publica
tion, recently showed this correspondent a pass
port containing visas to both Egypt and Jordan.
By now this colleague has already visited both
Arab countries without any objection.
There can be no doubt that the bitter feud
between Nasser and the Saudi-Arabian-Jordanian
combine, on the one hand, and between himself
and the Iraqi-Syrian-Baathist union, on the other
hand, has led to this new state of affairs which
is witnessing this changed and sobering attitude
towards the reality of Israel.
But more han all this, deep in their hearts,
Nasser and all the other Arab leaders cannot help
but admire the industrious Israelis who have man
aged all these years to stay clear of the cold war
and at the same time exhibit a unity almost un
paralleled in the history of national states.
Add to this the lesson Nasser and the other
Arab leaders have learned from the newly-inde-
pendent African States whose leaders are all
praise for Israel’s accomplishments and whose
all-out support for the Jewish State, despite Arab
propaganda, has made Nasser and his friends
think twice.
And now, with the test-ban treaty signed,
neither Moscow nor the U S. would like to see a
flareup in the Middle East.
Thus there appears to be an Arab awakening,
finally, to the reality of Israel in their midst.
One thing is certain: in all their attempts to
outdo and vanquish Israel, the Arabs have met
nothing but deadends at every turn and step.
The time has come for them to break the dead
lock and come to an understanding issues to the
mutual satisfaction of both sides.
Why should not the cousins live at peace with
one another?
There will be a day when this will happen.
Why not now?