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***** Four
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, December 31, 1965
THfc SOUTHERN ISRAELITE OPINION and COMMENT
Patitiahed weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, 390 Courtlauo
■L. N.E., Atlanta Georgia. 30303, TK. 0*249, TK. 6*240. Second class
postage paid at Atlanta, Ga. Yearly subscription five dollars. The Southern
Israelite invites literary contributions and correspondence but Is not to be
esMiderrd as sharing the views expressed by writers. DEADLINE is
6 P.M., FRIDAY, but material received earlier will have a much better
chance of publication.
NATIONAL EDITORIAL
l A! § >c 6"5 N
■ammaEnaan
Georgia Press Association
7 Arts Features
Jewish
Telegraphic
Agency
World Pres#
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
Kathleen Nease, Jeanne Loeb. Joseph Redlieh
Vida Goldgar, Harry Rose, Betty Meyer, Kathy Wood
The New Year
GUEST EDITORIAL''
What will 1966 bring?
The auspices from some aspects seem favorable.
,, Various items in the program of the Great Society have
already begun to take effect. There is tremendous progress in
civil rights, and 1966 will see medicare going into effect.
Science in 1966 no doubt will score some real break
throughs here and there.
Possibly, even ahead of schedule, man will be able to reach
the moon.
There is much on the positive side. But what about the
negative? Alas, there is much to be said about that too. Every
one knows of course what the problem is. It is nothing less
than }he survival of humanity.
The issue of peace then overwhelms all others.
The United States is at war in Viet Nam and li^te fire,
for war is the worst species of fire, there is no telling' how it
may spread.
The entire situation between East and West is a tinder
box which may be triggered off into global catastrophe by
any one of a score of different critical situations in Europe,
Asia or America.
In the Middle East, the enemies of Israel still are unrelent
ing in their hopes of destroying Israel. They would broaden
that to out and out war as soon as they perceive any chance for
success.
The prospect is not a cheerful one. Science can tell us
things but seems impotent in dealing with man and his hostili
ties. Sometimes it is said that basic in the conflict are the
different social, political and economic ideologies, but the fault
actually seems to go deeper, to what Freud described as the
inner aggression of people.
Meanwhile the nations go on building ever larger instru
ments of destruction—ever bigger missiles, ever more lethal
weapons. Given this inner aggression, and with the death
weapons at its ready disposal, how long can mankind safeguard
itself against self-destruction?
Perhaps the one hope is that war has become dangerous,
so dangerous that even aggressive man may rise up against
it and put it down.
New Years always open up new avenues of hope. Let us
hope the one that is upon us now will be a year of peace.
An Unfinished Term of Office;
But an Inspiring and Full Life
For the second time within recent years ,an Atlanta con
gregation has been deprived by death of a vital president.
This time the deprivation comes to Ahavath Achim
Congregation whose president Michael Kraft became seriously
ill a few months after taking office. Mr. Kraft, who had
previously been president of Rodolph Sholem Synagogue in
Rome, came to Atlanta a scant dozen years ago. He immedi
ately plunged into his favorite personal occupation—the de
velopment and continuity of Judaism, this time as an ardent
member of Ahavath Achim Synagogue.
It did not take long for his devotion and involvement in
every phase of Judais mto win recognition. He rapidly won
a place on the board and soon headed the congregation’s
important committees.
He had great plans for Ahavath Aehims’ future, many of
which will undoubtedly be perpetuated by his sussors, but
it is unlikely they can achieve all that he himself might have
had he been spared in good health. So tenuous is it with
inspired leadership.
But he was a leading light long enough for his deep
personal conviction and loyalty to be felt by all who knew
him—and this encompassed hundreds in the congregations
he had served.
Many other communal activities, such as Bonds for Israel,
the Bureau of Jewish Education and other movements, also
felt the strength of his devotion and dedication, but none like
the Synagogue which was the center of his life.
He believed this devontly. He lived his life this way.
Truly his ways were ways of inspiration and immulation.
Defection of Intellectuals
A nation, a faith, an ethnic group is in
jeopardy when its intellectuals start defecting.
The American Jewish community is in that
condition. The Storm warnings are up, for
many of its creative spirits are alienated, or at
best indifferent concerning the fate of Judaism
and its rich heritage in this country. What is
an intellectual? He is one endowed with un
usual mental capacity; he is the scholar, the
scientist, the poet, the artist. He is devoted to
ideas and the human values they represent.
He may possess a creative capacity which may
underwrite their vigorous survival. . . Small
numbers of intellectuals, by the example of
their own lives and through their amiable and
symbiotic affiliation with Judaism, do enhance
the quality of Jewish life and help make
Judaism a living force in the lives of other
Jews. This applies especially to deeply com
mitted and well informed university faculty
members, who demonstrate to Jewish students
that rootlessness and alienation are unwar
ranted and lead to self-destruction. But the
vast majority stand on the sidelines. They re
main aloof because they believe that “Jewish
life is devoid of intellectual and cultural sub
stance” and that Jews are “an anachronistic
survival.” And among this majority there are
those who are hostile, complaining of sterility,
mediocrity, vulgarity and triviality as the hall
mark of the official contemporary Jewish cul
ture. They charge that Jewish life in America
has become, for reasons of security, rigidly and
suffocatingly middle-class, that we have be
come staid and commonplace and that Jewish
social groups on the middle and wealthy level
engage in an amazing amount of self-indul
gence and self-admiration. . . The Jewish in
tellectual is potentially so valuable to us, he
can enhance the quality of Jewish life to such
an extent that the total organized Jewish com
munity should concern itself with the problem
of how he may be won over to closer and
mutually rewarding relationships. Therefore,
despite the mutual suspicion and standoffish
ness between the intellectual and the “Jewish
Establishment,” we must find a path that will
lead the alienated Jew into Jewish involve
ment.
The Jewish Spectator
The U. S, and Nasser
At the risk of exposing our colossal
naiveite, we confess we can’t understand our
State Department’s unquenchable devotion to
Nasser. We have at our fingertips a complete
catalogue of alleged reasons for Administra
tion policy in the Mddle East, but the resinous
and reiterated failure of that policy should
long ago have opened our policy-makers’ eyes
to the difference between reason and rational
ization. This nation’s surplus food agreement
with Egypt requires a bit of interpretation for
popular understanding. What, for example,
could be more confusing than to hear talk of
“resuming” food shipments to Egypt after the
“lapse” of our pact with that country almost
five months ago—when the startling fact is
that the program never actually stopped
operating? American food to this moment has
been arriving in Egypt in a steady stream;
only the agreement ended. One must give
Nasser credit for sorcery of a sort, since he
appears to be able to eat his cake and have
it too. Both houses of Congress having made
their objection to food supplies for Nasser
emphatically plain, it becomes a matter of
Administration intrasigence. To cite only the
most recent expression on the subject, Sen
ator Javits said in New York recently that
American food aid to the Nasser Government
was, in effect, “backing up international ad
venturing at the expense of world peace.”
From other sources we learn that if the Ad
ministration does go through with its prodigal,
giveaway, there will be a tough-minded show
down in Washington, with Congress at long
last taking tight action to halt further Ameri-
7an subsidy to the Egyptian vandal. It sounds
reassuring, but we have lived too intimately
with Administration practice in the matter to
believe it. . . The “best” we may permit our
selves to hope for is the setting of conditions—
such, for example, as guaranteeing that
American food will not be used for a further
arms build-up in Egypt—and Nasser has
amply and repeatedly demonstrated that eva
sion of conditions is child’s-play for him. The
only condition we would find acceptable in
this volatile matter is one we would impose on
Washington: that it conduct its policy in the
Middle East in the light of clear-sighted reality
and experiential intelligence. . .
Arthur Weyne, Cleveland Jewish News
The Weizmann Dinners
Within a relatively brief period, the Weiz
mann Institute of Science in Rehovoth, Israel,
has become one of the world’s most important
centers of pure and applied scientific research.
Responsible in large measure for this achieve
ment is Meyer W. Weisgal, formerly special
aide to Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first
President who originated the Institute which
bears his name. Weisgal, now chief executive
of WIS, is endowed with the kind of personal
magnetism combined with a capacity for in
defatigable-herculean is probably the better
word—effort which makes well healed mem
bers of the community grateful to him for
asking them to shell out—for a good cause
naturally—in figures that must be the envy
of other organizations. Weisgal has never been
satisfied with anything but perfection,
whether as an editor, theatrical producer or
promotor of pro-Israel endeavors. It is under
standable, therefore, that his influence should
reflect itself unmistakably in the character of
the annual Weizmann dinner in New York.
This yearly affair has from the very beginning
achieved standards of incredible perfection.
Its dais is always graced with at least a dozen
Nobel Laureates and some of America’s most
distinguished public figures. The Anniversary
Dinner of December 6—in tribute to the late
Senator Lehman and addressed by Vice Presi
dent Humphrey—was no exception. However,
even so brief a comment as this editorial
would be incomplete without a bow to Joseph
Brainin, Executive Vice President of the
American Committee for the Weizmann Insti
tute of Science. Only those who have seen him
at work—displaying remarkable energy, zeal
and unsurpassed devotion to the cause—can
fully appreciate his great role in assuring the
unfailing success of the Weizmann dinners.
American Examiner
JEWISH CALENDAR
IIAMISIIAII LAG B’OMER
ASSAR BISHEVAT Mav 8. Sunday
(Jewish Arbor Day) ‘SHAVUOT
February 5, Saturday May 25-26, Wednesday
FAST OF ESTHER and Thursday
March 3, Thursday FAST OF TIIMMUZ
•pitrim July 5, Tuesday
* c , TISHAIl B’AV
March 6, Sunday T , rr.
1 July 26, Tuesday
PASSOVER 'ROSII HASHONAH
First Day, September 15-16,
April 5, Tuesday Thursday and Friday
Eighth Day, *YOM KIPPUR
April 12, Tuesday September 24, Saturday
•HOLIDAY BEGINS
SUNDOWN PREVIOUS DAY
TALMUDIC TREASURES
(Continued From Last Week)
• Israel is a wick; Torah is the oil and the
Shekhinah is the Light.
• Many candles can be kindled from one
candle without diminishing it. (The wisdom
(light) and knowledge of the teacher and
scholar remains and does not diminish.)
• We are told in Numbers XI, 17 that God
said to Moses: “And I will take of the spirit
which is upon thee, and will put it upon them”
(the Seventy Elders). Does this infer that
Moses lost a part of his wisdom? No. It is like
a candle which kindles others and loses no
thing. R. Akiba compares it to the Ethrog
which loses nothing of its fragrance because
one has smelled it.
• Fire was not created during the six days
of creation, but at the conclusion of the Sab
bath God gave Adam the good sense to rub
two flints together to make the first fire,
(According to tradition, the name of one stone
was “Darkness,” and the name of the other
stone “Shadow of Death”), thereupon Adam
exclaimed with grateful joy: “Blessed be the
Creator of Light.” Man had no need to steal
it as in the Greek mythology where Pro
metheus is chained to a rock and tortured for
endless ages for stealing fire from the jealous
gods and secretly giving it to man. Man is
created in the image of God, he has wisdom
and intellect and can overcome darkness and
evil, and turn suffering, and even death itself,
into light and lasting spiritual good and happi
ness. The above narrative is also the explana
tion why the benediction over “light” is made
during the “Havdalah” service at the con
clusion of the Sabbath, when ice mark the
celebration of the creation of the first arti
ficial light produced by man.
• “Command that they bring unto thee pure
olive oil beaten for the light (Leviticus
XXIV, 2).
Ciod said to Moses: “I give you this com
mand, not because I have need of your bight,
but in order to endow you with merit.”