Newspaper Page Text
Friday, July 16, 1965
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Pi|« Fl'l
Our Je wish Heritage
Extracts from “The Graphic History of the Jewish
Heritage. ’ Edited by I’. Wollman-Tsamir. Pub
lished by Shengold Publishers and Foundation
For A Graphic History of Jewish Literature.
A Seven Arts Feature.
MIKETZ fpD
Hil brothrn bow before
Joaeph who ii now the
ruler of Egypt.
"And Joit fill wail hi got-
trnor ootr iht land . . .
And Joitph’i brtthrin
tamt, and bowtd down
to him" (Cm. 42.6).
Miketz — Two years later, Pharaoh dreamt a
dream in two slightly different versions. The
dream terrified the king of Egypt; but none of his
sages could explain it satisfactorily. Pharaoh’s
butler remembered Joseph’s masterly interpreta
tions of dreams, and informed Pharaoh. Joseph
was brought before Pharaoh and explained the
dream as forecasting seven years of plenty that
were to come to the land of Egypt, only to be
succeeded by seven years of famine. He ad
vised Pharaoh to appoint a wise overseer to col
lect wheat during the years of plenty and dis
tribute it during the years of famine. Pharaoh
appointed Joseph himself to this post as his
viceroy.
As Joseph had forecast, the Egyptian stores of
wheat were in great demand during the seven years
of famine. Among those who came to buy wheat
in Egypt were Joseph’s older brothers. Joseph
recognized them, but they did not know him. Jo
seph so contrived that the brothers came to
Egypt a second time, bringing Benjamin, Joseph’s
full brother with them. Joseph received them
cordially; but then he made it seem as though
Benjamin had stolen a goblet, and insisted that
he stay behind as a servant. The brothers refused
to abandon Benjamin, and all decided to return
to Joseph’s home
lei’s be
by HARRY FLEISCHMAN
National Labor Service
Institute of Human Relations
a n
CONFORMITY
“In our country we have those
th re e unspeakably precious
things: freedom of speech, free
dom of conscience, and the prud
ence never to practice either.”
—Mark Twain.
No Man Is An Island
“If there had been a broader
understanding of the uses of
nonviolent direct action in Ger
many when Hitler was rising and
consolidating his power, the
brutal extermination of six
million Jews and millions of
other war dead might have been
averted and Germany might
never have become totalitarian.
If Protestants and Catholics had
engaged in nonviolent direct ac
tion and had made the oppression
of Jews their very own oppres
sion and had come into the
streets beside the Jew to scrub
the sidewalks, and had Gentiles
worn the stigmatizing yellow arm
bands by the millions, a unique
form of mass resistance to the
Nazis might have developed. I
am fully aware of the terror, the
intimidation, the brutality and
force the Fascists were so quick
to use but I am also aware that
in the South today some racists
of the same mentality have been
curbed in their resistance to non
violent action when practiced on
a mass scale.”
—Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
in a speech to the American
Jewish Committee.
Good News
At the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco
Co. in Winston-Salem, N. C , a
Negro woman is a foreman for
11 rhachines manned by white
and Negro workers. On the crew
she supervises, whites outnum
ber Negroes by more than two to
one.
Spiegel, Inc., a Chicago mail
order house, started hiring and
promoting Negroes in 1946. Last
Christmas time, as the company
hired 8,500 men and women for
the season, it had a unique com
plaint about the scarcity of help.
A Spiegel official opined. “With
more firms doing non-discrimi-
natory hiring this year, a com
pany like ours which has used
fair employment for 20 years has
a more difficult time hiring Ne
groes. We have a little more
competition.”
Metal Trades Councils, which
bargain for 20 affiliated craft
unions, have cooperated in open
ing up job promotion, transfer,
and apprenticeship opportunities
in the shipbuilding and petro
chemical industries in Louisiana
and Mississippi.
Mergers of segregated union
locals have occurred in many
cities, including the Bricklayers,
Masons and Plasterers in At
lanta, Ga.; the Chemical Workers
in Brunswick, Ga.; the Alumin
um Workers in Sheffield, Ala.;
the Machinists in Norfolk, Va.;
the Iron Workers and Painters
in Charleston, S. C.
In Pascagoula, Miss., the In
galls Shipbuilding Corp. added
18 Negroes as work leadermen
and supervisors.
In Atlanta, Negro sales clerks
are employed at Rich’s and
Davison’s, two of the largest de
partment stores in the South.
These are only a small sample
of the hundreds of examples of
tair practices by employers and
unions reported in a valuable
new pamphlet.
BY NATHAN ZIPRTN
OFF THE RECORD
(A Seven Arts Feature)
Martin Buber
Rashi observes in one of his
most famed passages that when
a tzaddik comes to a city he
brings radiance and that when
lie departs there is a void, empti
ness, darkness.
Martin Buber was no tzaddik
in the conventional or orthodox
sense of the word. Yet his de
parture has created an intelec-
tual void in Jewish life that will
take long to fill
The world generally regarded
Buber as a philosopher, but it is
in the field of Jewish preoccupa
tion that he will survive in the
annals of history. His greatest
virtue perhaps was his capacity
to marvel as apart from thinking
He was no mere theologian
this man with imposing beard
and personality. His was a re
ligious sensitivity that challenged
framing within accepted pat
terns. Religion to him was an
experience, not a dogma, and it
was for that reason that this
truly twentieth - century man
could intellectually and emotion-
oily associate himself with the
hassidic movement, whose sense
of communion with God is of a
humane, almost personal, re
lationship.
It has been said of Buber that
he opened the mystic world of
hassidism to modern man. In
truth, however, hassidism to
Buber, as it has been to the
founder and greats of the move
ments, has been an instrument
for self-revelation.
Buber has taught that man can
achieve an intimate relationship
with God through intimate re
lationships with his fellow men.
In this he was preceded by
Israel Baal Shem Tov, founder of
the hassidic idea, and his retinue
of devotees who expounded on
his teachings long after the
master were gone.
In hassidism, man is at the
center of the universe, a concept
which had enabled such tzadik-
kim as Levi Itzhak of Berdichev
and others to engage the Most
High in dialogue whenever a man
and his dignity were unexplain-
ably hurt or humiliated. God’s
judgement is final, but in the
eyes of the hassid not always
necessarily just.
In hassidism a divine decree
may be diverted not alone
through prayer but through di
rect personal confrontation with
the Maker of the Universe. Has-
sidie lore is replete with tales of
the worthy—both learned and
unlearned — engaging God in
dialogue and being heard. One of
the most famous stories is of Reb
Levi Itzhak of Berdichev, who
refused to lead his congregation
in Kol Nidre prayer until he was
satisfied that a divine injustice
against a humble member of his
flock would be corrected.
It has been said by some that
Buber in his hassidism intended to
subject the hassidic experience
to scrutiny. That, in the opinion
of this writer, was furthest from
his intention.
Buber was no critic of hassid
ism, nor was he its master. Like
all of us, he sought a path and in
his seeking he touched the hand
of hassidism and found it
radiant.
Political Infighting
Who is right and who is
wrong in the bitter Eshkol-Ben
Gurion feud in Israel”
From this side of the Atlantic
the issues seem obscure and the
motivation even more so.
In Israel proper the battle of
the political giants is of course
drawing nation-wide attention,
particularly since the national
election is, around the corner.
From this corner the political in
fighting in Israel is not unlike
the political feuds we often have
in our own country on the eve
of important elections. While the
feud is on both factions would
have the electorate believe that
the world will come to an end if
the opposition wins out. Well, we
have had political fights in this
country ever since the emergence
of political parties and we seem
ingly managed to survive. Israel
too will survive the Eshkol-Ben
Gurion battle even if it does
leave some scars. The fear that
the Israel electorate may take the
stance of a plague on both your
houses and vote into power one
of the minor parties seems re
mote. Voters are rarely, if ever,
influenced by political fireworks.
As Americans we relish a good
political fight and the one in
Israel is a classic.
Bernard Baruch
Now that Bernard Baruch has
been brought to rest after funeral
services at a Reform temple,
stories are abounding about the
Jewish moments in his life.
Here is a story that never be
fore appeared in print.
Some'years ago a delegation
of the Jewish War Veterans
came to Baruch’s home to pre
sent him with the organization's
annual award. In the course of
the conversation, Baruch made
the interesting disclosue that he
owed his deafness to anti-Semit
ism'. It had often been said that
he posed as deaf in order to
ward off bores. But he told the
JWV group that he was really
deaf and that the deafness had
been brought about by reason of
his Jewishness. He had been in
volved in argument with a man
who called him a dirty Jew and
m the heat of the excitement he
tried to settle the matter with
fists since he was rather proud
of his athletic prowess as a boxer
in his youth. However, his op
ponent managed to land a heavy
blow which impaired his hearing
for the rest of his life. He often
quipped that there was compen
sation in deafness—not hearing
the barking of anti-Semitic dogs.
Impossible Things?
If you think children’s books
are for children, I suggest you
take another look at Lewis Car-
roll’s “Through The Looking
Glass.” In that book, Alice re
sponds to one of the White
Queen’s improbable remarks
with, “I can’t believe that”—only
to find herself an object of pity
and concern.
“Can’t you?” says the Queen.
“Try again: draw a long breath
and shut your eyes.”
This made no sense to Alice.
Not This . . .
Never touch a person who is
In contact with electricity. This
will electrocute you, too, the Red
(Voss warns.
Not This . . .
When someone has been
burned, the object of first aid
treatment is to reduce pain and
prevent infection. Do not use oil*
or ungnents, the Red Cron* ad-
“There’s no use trying,” she says.
“One can’t believe impossible
things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had
much practice,” the the Queen
responds. “Why sometimes I’ve
believed in as many as six im
possible things before breakfast.”
Children’s book? Both the John
Birch Society and the Commun
ists have been acting like the
white Queen for years.
Stranger Than Fiction
In 1833, a white man, Richard
Harper, was charged with va
grancy in Chicago, put in jail
and ordered to be sold at auction
to pay for his jail board and
keep. When he was placed on the
block in front of the log jail, no
body would bid for him. Finally
the town crier, George White,
bid 25 cents and received posses
sion of the prisoner, whom he
immediately freed. George White
was a Negro.
Nine years later, reports
Marion Neville in the Butcher
Workman, a Negro freeman, Ed
win Heathcock, offended his em
ployer, who had Heathcock ar
rested on the grounds that he
had no “free papers.” Heathcock
was put up for auction by
Sheriff Lowe who told the
crowd:
‘Gentlemen, this is not a pleas
ant job. Don't blame me, but the
law I am required by the law to
do it. If I cannot get any bids
for this man I must return him
to jail and continue the sale at
another time.”
Finally a voice in the crowd
spoke up. “I bid 25 cents.” It
was the voice of Mahlon D
Ogden, one of Chicago’s promi
nent citizens. No other bid was
heard. Mr. Ogden handed a
quarter to the sheriff and called
the Negro to him “Edwin Heath-
cock,” he said, “I have bought
you; you are my man—my slave'
Now, then, go where you please!
You are free!”
Those were the first and last
times a man was offered for sale
in Chicago.
Quote Of Month
“Extreme Rightists and ex
treme Leftists ought not to be
taken out by us and shot against
the wall, for they sharpen the
argument, and make us realize
the value of the democratic mid
dle course—especially if that
middle course, in order to keep
up with the times, is, and I quote
what I said before, ‘just a little
bit left of center.’ ”
—from Memorable Quotations of
Franklin D. Roosevelt, compiled
by E. Taylor Parks and Lois F.
Parks (Crowell, $6.95)
But This . . .
The fastest, best way to release
a person from a live wire is to
pull the plug—or throw off the
master switch. You can avoid a
doable tragedy.
But This . . .
Whea burn occurs, apply thick,
dry, sterile dressings to shot out
air, prevent contamination ant
relieve shock. Seek the service of
a physician for all seven burns.