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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, October 22, 1965
Pa*e Four
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
r'ubiiahed weekly toy Southern Newspaper Enterprises, ,190 (ourtlaud
M.. N.K., Atlanta Georgia, 30303, TK. 6-8249. TR. 6-8240. Second (lass
penlafe paid at Atlanta, Ga. Yearly subscription five dollars. Tbe Southern
Israelite invites literary contributions and correspondence but is not to be
considered as sharing the views expressed by writers. DEADLINE if
i P.M., FRIDAY, but material received earlier will have a much better
chance of publication.
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
Kathleen Nease, Jeanne Loeb, Joseph Redlich
Vida Goldgar, Harry Rose, Betty Meyer, Kathy Wood
Jewish
Telegraphic
Agency
World Press
7 Arts Features
Georgia Press Association
NATIONAL E 0 IT O it I A l
a&J | a # c 6 ,i 5 n
^ ItuiiiLui.miii
Text of Ecumenical Council
Declaration Relating to Jews
ROME (JTA)—The full text of
the declaration relating to Jews
which was approved in the Ec
umenical Council by an over
whelming majority of 1,763 to
250, and is now to be promul
gated by Pope Paul VI as a de
cree of the Roman Catholic
Church, reads as follows:
“The Council searches into the
mystery of the Church and re
members the bond that spiritually
ties the people of the New Test
ament to Abraham’s stock.
“The Church acknowledges that
according to God’s saving design,
the beginnings of her faith and
her election are already found
among the Patriarchs, Moses and
the Prophets. She professes that
all who believe in Christ—Abra
ham’s sons, according to the faith
—are included in Abraham’s call.
The Church cannot forget that
she received the Revelation of
the Old Testament through the
people with whom God in His
ineffable mercy concluded the
ancient Covenant.
“Indeed, the Church believes
that by His Cross, Christ recon
ciled Jews and Gentiles making
both one in Himself.
“Tbe Church recalls that Christ,
the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, as
well as most of the early Dis
ciples, sprang from the Jewish
people.
“Jerusalem did not recognize
the time of her visitation, nor did
the Jews, for the most part, ac
cept the Gospel: indeed, many op
posed its spreading.
•(Nevertheless God holds the
Jews most dear for the sake of
the Fathers. His gift and call
are irrevocable. In company
with the Prophets and Paul the
Apostle, the Church awaits that
day, known to God alone, on
which all peoples will address the
Lord in a single voice and ‘serve
Him shoulder to shoulder.’ Since
the spiritual patrimony common
to Christians and Jews is so
great, the council wants to foster
and recommend a mutual know
ledge and respect which is the
fruit, above all, of Biblical and
theological studies as well as of
Pope lo Promulgate
Continued from page 1
Council. Dr. Sterling W. Brown,
the president of the National Con
ference, said: “The statement is
sued by the Vatican Council for
bidding anti-Semitism or any
teaching that would hint of such
prejudice as unacceptable and im
moral is a definite gain. Jews,
Protestants and Eastern Orthodox
members should join together in
welcoming this lethal blow to the
centuries-long disease of anti-
Semitism.” j
The New' York Times, analyz
ing the Vatican declaration, said
that there was a widespread feel
ing that the declaration “had
been watered down” and that the
controversy over the test of the
statement in the Ecumenical Coun
cil “has already blunted its in
tended effect. It was meant to be
a word of love and friendship. It
has already been the source of
bitterness and disappointment —
a reason for shame and anguish
on the part of many Catholics
and of suspicion and rancor on
the part of many Jews."
fraternal dialogues.
“Although the Jewish author
ities and those who followed their
lead pressed for the death of
Christ, nevertheless what happen
ed to Christ in His Passion can
not be attributed to all Jews
without distinction, then alive^
not to the Jews of today.
“Although the Church is the
new people of God, the Jews
should not be presented as re
jected by God or accursed, as if
this follows from Holy Scrip
tures.
“May all see to it, then, that
in catechetical work or in preach
ing the Word of God, they do
not teach anything that is in
consistent with the truth of the
Gospel and with the spirit of
Christ.
“Moreover the Church, which
rejects every persecution against
any man, mindful of the com
mon patrimony with the Jews
and moved not by political rea
sons but by the Gospel’s spiritual
love, deplores hatred, persecu
tions, displays of anti-Semitism
directed against Jews at any time
and by anyone.
As the Church has always held
and holds now, Christ underwent
His Passion and death freely, be
cause of the sins of men and out
of infinite love, in order that all
may reach salvation. It is, there
fore, the burden of the Church’s
preaching to proclaim the Cross
of Christ as the sign of God’s
all-embracing love and as the
fountain from which every grace
flows.
“We cannot call on God, the
Father of all, if we refuse to
treat in a brotherly way any man,
created as he is in the image of
God. Man’s relation to God the
Father and his relation to men
his brothers are so linked to
gether that Scripture says: ‘He
who does nol love does not know
God.’
The foundation is therefore re
moved from any theory or prac
tice that leads to discrimination
between man and man or people
and people, insofar as their hu
man dignity and the rights flow
ing from it are concerned.
“The Church thus reproves, as
foreign to the mind of Christ,
any discrimination against men
or harassment of them because of
their race, color condition in life
or religion. On the contrary, the
council ardently implores the
Christtaan faithful to “maintain
good fellowship among the na
tions’ and. if possible, to live for
their part in peace with all men,
so that they may truly be sons
of the Father who is in heaven ”
Stamp to Honor
Prof. Einstein
WASHINGTON — (JTA) A
commemorative postage stamp
honoring the late Jewish physicist
Albert Einstein will go on sale
at first day ceremonies in Prince
ton, New’ Jersey next March 14.
according to an announcement
by the Postmaster General
The eight cent stamp honoring
Einstein is part of a series of 18
postage stamps honoring the
memory of prominent Americans
which are scheduled to be issued
during the next several years.
Comment and Opinion
Pearson: Paul VI Not
The Hamlet of the Church
Pope John undoubtedly did more to
broaden the church’s friends and policies than
any other Pope in history. Here in Rome, an
American Protestant remarked to me: “John
was our Pope as well as the Catholics.’ He
made Protestants and Jews feel that they
could be part of the Church and they can
never take that away from us.” As the
Vatican bustled to prepare for Pope Paul’s
historic pilgrimage to New York, however,
there was a quiet but vitally important debate
as to whether the above was entirely true and
whether John’s liberal policies were being
continued. To understand the significance ol
this debate you have to remember that Pope
John generated bitter enemies in high Catho
lic circles. . . The opposition to John was not
confined to Italian laymen. It extended to
some of the diehard Cardinals in the Vatican.
. But Pope John changed much of this. His
three great goals were: 1. to improve relations
with all Christian churches and, if possible,
bring them into a worldwide affiliated church;
2. to build a bridge between Catholics and
Jews and Moslems; and 3. to put church
doctrine across in modern terms and modern
language. To this end he abolished Pope Pius’s
ban that Catholics in the U.S. could not
belong to Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs. He
urged the Catholic bishops to open their doors
to Protestants and Jews, with the result that
in Washington Catholic nuns have held open
house and served tea to the leaders of the
Protestant and Jewish faiths.
Also in Washington, Archbishop Patrick
O’Boyle serves a kosher luncheon in deference
to Jewish rabbis when he invites members of
all faiths to the Inter Church Racial Council.
. . John was a man of great warmth, who had
ieen human suffering.
In Istanbul during the war, he had helped
to rescue 15,000 Rumanian Jews before they
became victims of Nazi prison camps. . . All
this was behind John’s ambitious plans for an
Ecumenical Council to build his bridges with
othei religions. . .
This was tehat Pope Paul inherited. Ever
since he inherited it, the man who arrives in
New York has been the subject of debate
by the curious of Rome as to whether he
would follow in John’s footsteps or veer over
to the conservative wing of the church. In
Rome he is sometimes called “the Hamlet of
the Church,” debating with himself “to be or
not to be?” But the die is now pretty well
cast. Paul is not the Hamlet of the Catholic
Church. He has now made his position quite
clear—that he will not follow the broad,
libera! policies of Pope John. . . His is a
cautious man. He is following the middle
of the road. . .
Drew Pearson, from Rome
Past Record of Religious Wars
Must Be Rectified First
On Monday (October 4) when the Pope
came to the United Nations, we witnessed an
event of which we shall be able to appreciate
the significance only as time goes by. His
journey and his address were a blinding il
lumination in which the immediate conse
quences will only gradually become visible.
“We are the bearer,” said the Pope, “of a
message for all mankind,” and he went on to
say, “like a messenger who, after a long
journey, finally succeeds in delivering the
letter which has been entrusted to him, so we
appreciate the good fortune of this moment,
however brief which fulfills a desire nourish
ed in the heart for nearly 20 centures.” The
letter which the Pope was at last able to de
liver said that the Church, now at peace with
all mankind, was able to ratify the purposes
of the United Nations, which is a human insti
tution aspiring to be universal. That has never
been possible before. Never before has there
existed'an institution in which there is a place
for all the nations of the world. The moral
ratification of the United Nations, which the
Pope declared on Monday, could be given by
him only after the Roman Church had reached
a religious peace—only after the religious
wars and persecutions of the past had been
brought to an end. The historic act of ratifi
cation marks the progress made under the
inspiration of Pope John XXIII in the rejuvi-
nation of the church.
WALTER LIPPMANN,
New Y ork Herald Tribune
TALMUDIC TREASURES
Collected and Translated By Jacob L. Friend
PERKEI AVOTH, Contd.
• R. Meir, was the most famous disciple of
R. Akiba. the martyr. Through his dialectical
skill he attained eminence in juristic discus
sion. and high place in Sanhedrin, great fame
as an exegete and renown as a fabulist (he
wrote three hundred fables, The Jewish
Aesop of the Talmud). His teachings are
many. The following are a few examples of
his maxims: “Love thy friend who admonishes
thee, and hate the one who flatters thee.”
“Man comes into the world with closed fists,
as if to grasp at the world and its possessions.
He departs with his hands limp and open—he
rakes nothing with him. . .” R. Meir was the
husband of the wise and brilliant Beruria, to
whom belongs the glory of having given ex-
uression to a great doctrine of religion and
humanity, viz.: Hate sin, and not the sinners;
exterminate crime, i. e. the conditions that
make and cause crime, and there will be no
criminals. (This country and the world at
large could use her doctrine to great advant
age to stop the ever increasing crime wave).
• The following incident, as related in
Midrash Mishlei, will further illustrate the
greatness of Beruria. R. Meir was holding his
weekly discourse on Sabbath afternoon, when
his two beloved sons died suddenly at his
home. Their mother covered them with a
sheet, and forbore to mourn on the sacred
fay. When R. Meir returned after the evening
service, he asked for his sons, whom he had
not seen in the synagogue. She asked him to
recite the Havdalah and gave him his evening
meal. Then she said: “I have a question to ask
thee A friend once gave me jewels to keep
for him; now he wishes them again. Shall I
return them?”
' Beyond doubt thou must” said R. Meir.
His wife then took him by the hand, led
him to the bed and drew back the sheet. R.
Meir burst into bitter weeping, and his wife
said ‘ They icere entrusted to us for a time;
now their Master has taken back His very
own.” The Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord ”
(Job. 1, 21).
• R. Joshua, the son of Levi, said, “He who
learns from his fellow a single chapter, a
single rule, a single verse, a single expres
sion, or even a single letter, ought to pay him
honor; for so we find with David, King of
Israel, who learned only two things from
Ahitophel, and yet regarded him as his master,
his guide and his familiar friend. Present-day
students: please take note!
• This is the way that is becoming and to
be endured for the study of the Torah and
learning: .4 morsel of bread with salt thou
must eat, and water by measure thou must
drink; thou must sleep upon the ground, and
live a life of trouble the while thou tallest in
learning and study. If thou doest this, Happy
slialt thou he—in this world and it shall be
well with thee—in the world to come.
(Judaism does not preach asceticism, but
teaches self-control, and not refusal to make
moderate use of the good things in life. There
is ere?! a vassage in Talmud Jerushalmi as
follows: "They said in the name of Rav: Every
man will yet have to render an account and
explain why he did not enjoy of everything
eatable his eyes saw and he did not eat).
1 Jewish Calendar
* Ilanukah
First day Dec. 19
Last day Dec. 26
* Hamishah Assar Bishevat,
February 5
* Fast of Esther, March 3
* Purim, March 6
* Passover, April 5-12
* Lag B’Omer, May 8
* Shavuot, May 25-26
* Tishah B’Av, July 26
* Fast of Tummuz, July 5
'Holiday Begins Sundow n
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