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.16
TRIBUTE
to a
TULSAN
b y
BEATRICE
LEVIN
Tulsa, Oklahoma might be the
last place in the world where
you’d expect to find a pious Jew
whose chief pride of possession are
two personal silver-breasted Tor
ahs. Yet Alfred Aaronson can
hardly wait to draw the lovely
tapestry drape over his fireplace
to reveal two beautiful Torahs
with their intricately carved
pointers and their gorgeous crowns.
The Torahs are housed in a niche
that was specially built into his
home there.
Alfred Aaronson's daugh ter,
Grace Goldin, writes of her early
memories on Simchas Torah, when,
once a year, the children were per-
mitted on the btmah to watch the
Torahs being dressed! “Open, they
were nothing!” she recalls, “But
to watch their fat sides tied to
gether with a white ribbon, their
red velvet dresses slipped on,
fringed in gold, and with lions . . .
And then over the lions clanged
their silver breastplates! . . . They
had little crowns, with green beads
bouncing from the tips. And they
had two tiny doors that opened
and locked on a little all-silver
Torah; they had a slot where you
could change the name of the
holiday, each name engraved in
Hebrew on a silver calling-card.
And with my finger,” she remem
bers ecstatically, “I rang the bells
— I could almost see the bells
clearly, standing on tiptoe: I
thought the crown like that of any
Russian czar (and I was quite
right). The other Torahs had
double crowns that you might take
up—on Simchas Torah—and shake
like silver gourds.”*
Observing the dietary laws and
the daily ritual of Judaism, is—
tc Alfred Aaronson, “discipline —
not in expectation of punishment
or reward, but because human
beings require discipline.”
"You know,” he continues, “that
Passover is an incomplete holiday.
It is not considered over until
seven weeks later with Shavuot,
the festival which commemorates
the giving of the Law at Sinai.
Shavuot is a harvest holiday
which, in ancient days, marked the
gathering of the wheat and the
first fruits of spring. The syna
gogue is decorated with greens and
flours. But most important,”
Aaronson notes, “is the giving of
the law, for Shavuot concludes
what Passover began. The exodus
gave opportunity for freedom, yet
man might still be slave to his
own desire and instincts. The ac
ceptance of the Law imposes dis
cipline,” according to Aaronson,
bestowing true freedom.”
Of course, it is not so terribly
unusual to find a deeply religious
Jew in a small American city.
What is exceptional is to find a
man who devotes his time and tal
ent to civic problems with the
same zeal he devotes to his re
ligion.
“What distinguishes the Jew on
the American scene,” he says, “is
that he has a good heart, a more
compassionate heart than others;
his willingness to concern himself
with other people’s problems, a
sympathy for his fellowman, the
hope that his fellow American cit
izens, the Negroes, will better
themselves. The crime of the
American Jew is that he doesn’t
keep abreast of understanding his
own culture.”
Alfred Aaronson was one of the
first members officially named for
Mayor James Maxwell’s Commit
tee on Human Relations. “In the
growth of a community,” Aaron
son explains, “satisfactory human
relations between various groups
of its citizens becomes of prime
importance. The National Confer
ence of Christians and Jews real
ized this many years ago, and I
have enjoyed taking part in their
programs. They were among the
first to recognize the wisdom of
the familiar precept that: ‘People
pray in different languages as
birds sing different songs. All are
music to Gods ears as long as each
sings his own song.’
"As with the cultural develop
ment of Tulsa, this is a matter
very close to my heart.”
Aaronson has a quiet way of
‘Grace Goldin, “I Remember
Tulsa”; Commentary,
March, 1948
The Southern Israelite