Newspaper Page Text
Conservative Movement Issues Call
For More Support for Day Schools
NEW YORK (JTA) — A call
urging the rabbis, educators and
lay leaders of the Conservative
movement to fully support the
growth of Conservative day
schools was issued here at the
North American Conference on
Day School Education, sponsored
by the United Synagogue Com
mission on Jewish Education.
i.The religious and educational
leaders attending the two-day
conference, at the Waldorf Astor
ia Hotel, noted thai, in the past
decade, 23 Conservative day
schools have been established in m
the United States and Canada.
Dr. Louis Finkelstein, chancel
lor of the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America opened the
conference. The evening session
was addressed by Dr. Simon
Greenberg, vice-chancellor of the
seminary, who stressed the im
portance of providing the child
enrolled in a day school with a
“complete” sense of Jewish iden
tity. He said that the strength of
religious faith depends upon the
depth of religious knowledge.
Among the educators reading
papers at the conference were Dr
Shimon Frost, principal of the
Brandeis School, Lawrence, N. Y.;
Dr. Milton Gold, professor of ed
ucation, Hunter College, and Dr.
Nathan Winter, director of the
United Synagogue regional edu
cation commission for northern
New Jersey.
oi U 0
TOO
4
"ft
V
The Southern
Israelite
Vol. XLI
A Weekly
Newspaper for Southern Jewry -
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1966
Established 1925
NO. 1
Bourguiba Restates Position
On Arab-Israel Coexistence
Reform Temple Educators To
Intensify Interfaith Teaching
LONDON, (JTA) — Tunisia’s
President Habib Bourguiba. who
proposed last Spring that Israel
and the Arab states start negoti
ating about peace, made it clear
in an interview published here
this week that his plan envisaged
that “a portion of Israeli territory
must be returned to the Arabs.”
The interview appeared in the
quarterly, Views, together with
answers by Abba Eban, Deputy
Prime Minister of Israel.
Referring to Arab-Israeli rela
tions, Mr. Bourguiba said: “I
thought it would be better to
find a suitable platform which
would attract world sympathy
and international opinion and
which would be an improvement
as compared to the present situa
tion the Arabs are in. This could
lead to a reasonable and lasting
solution, the construction of peace
between the countries in the
area. I advocated a return to the
United Nations legality, respect
for U. N. decisions.
“There is a portion of Israeli
territory which must be returned
to the Arabs. I know that Israel
would not accept this easily, but
it was still worth suggesting,” he
declared. Asked whether he
thought it would be possible in
the future to negotiate with the
Israelis without preconditions, he
said: “I would rather not fight
with people who are obstinate.
My proposals had been made to
ensure at least a minimum of
peaceful coexistence between ex
isting elements. The policy of
hatred and bitterness has achiev
ed nothing in 17 years.”
Mr. Eban. in answer to ques-
Hillel Rabbis
See More
'Turbulence'
WASHINGTON (JTA)-A con
sensus of views expressed by 85
rabbis at the annual conference
of B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation
directors held here indicated that
social protest by college students
today is somewhat less than pub
licized demonstrations suggest,
but more volatile than anv other
Student generation since the de
pression years The rabbis felt
that, basically, it is a healthy re-
bcllion against the failures in
modern society
Rabbi Benjamin M Kahn, Hil
lel national director, said that
student protests express a stu
dent conviction that, if religion is
to mean anything in their lives,
it must relate itself concretely to
poverty, war. and other social
concerns that surround their gen
eration" Rabbi Jeuhdah M
Cohen, of Los Angeles, West
Coast Hillel regional director, said
political turbulence will continue
to emanate from the campus be
cause students are dissatisfied
with the glacial pace of social
progress "
lions on the Bourguiba proposals,
said: “Nothing could be more un
congenial to the success of the
Bourguiba initiative than expres
sions of public embrace from
Israel. Our reply was that we
were prepared to negotiate with
any Arab states on any question.
What we cannot accept is that we
must make prime concessions in
order to win their arrival at the.
conference table.” Regarding the
Arab refugee question-,- Mr. Eban
stated: “The moral consideration
must impel us only to adopt those
solutions which make for the
peace of the Middle East and the
welfare of the refugees, and for
bids us to compound the suffer
ings of the past by creating new
tensions for the future. I don’t
believe that any statement by
Israel about her willingness to
take back a fraction of the refu
gees would advance peace by a
single step, But, if the Arab
states were to say ‘we are pre
pared for an international solu
tion of the refugee problem in
which everybody must play his
part’—I am sure there would be
a definition of an Israeli contri
bution.”
PHILADELPHIA (JTA)— The
National Association of Temple
Educators called upon Jewish
teachers to intensify their studies
of Christianity and other faiths
to meet the growing demand for
knowledge of various religions
from religious school youngsters.
The educators from the 664 Re
form Jewish synagogues of the
Union of American Hebrew con
gregations in the United States
and Canada concluding their an
nual convention here, indicated
that this was necessary because
“in this ecumenical age the fre
quency of communication be
tween the church and the syn
agogue has increased.” They re
elected Max Frankel, of Temple
Emanuael. Denver, as president.
The convention adopted a res
olution calling on Reform con
gregations “to expand our par
ticipation in cooperative insti
tutes. seminars, and workshops
for religious school teachers in
volving religious institutions 'of
all faiths and denominations in
the community, and to share in
understanding to make more ef
fective the teaching of compara
tive religion.”
At the same time the NATE
members adopted a statement en
couraging greater contact and
communications between young
sters of Reform, Conservative and
Orthodox Judaism through social,
religious and organizational pro
grams. The educators felt the
need not to neglect a broader
understanding by the young men
and women in the religious
schools of the various branches
of Judaism while, at the same
time, gaining a greater insight
into Christianity and other re
ligions.
Abraham Segal, Philadelphia,
the newly appointed director of
teacher education of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations
in New York City, announced
that his department would pre
pare educational materials on
comparative religions in a curri
culum for teacher certification.
The UAHC department would
also encourage and provide ma
terial for regional teacher train
ing education institutes in this
same area. He said that this in
creased interfaith understanding
is necessary “to meet the growing
menace of secularism and mater
ialism, especially in our urban
centers. We must cooperate with
other religious faiths in improving
our communications and impact
on all age levels, he declared.
Dr. Louis Lister, chairman of
the NATE resolutions committee
and professor of Education at the
Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion in New’ York,
said that there had been an in
creased popularity in courses on
comparative religion in the re
ligious schools of Reform con
gregations. He indicated that such
courses were being supplemented
by visits to churches and insti
tutions representing other faiths,
so that youngsters could observe
ritual and other practices.
Rabbi Alexander M Schindler,
UAHC national director of edu
cation, called for a radical re
vision of the approach to Jewish
education to conform with the
pervasive changes in the Amer-
Jcwish Youths
Held in NYC
l or Burglaries
NEW YORK (JTA) — Seven
Jewish youths were held on
charges of burglaries in some 10
synagogues anil private homes in
Brooklyn. The police, in announc
ing the arrests, said they had re
covered $5,000 worth of type
writers, tape recorders, public ad
dress systems and other items
The suspects were arrested aft
er a 20-year-old student tried to
sell a stolen typewriter. The
prospective purchaser notified
Police who determined that the
typewriter was one previously re
ported stolen by a Brooklyn syn
agogue. The youth was question
ed and implicated the other six
young men. The alleged accom
plices ranged in age from 14 to
20 All will be charged with burg
lary police said
ican Jewish community. He said
the present program of religious
education, promulgated decades
ago, has become largely irrel
evant, and "fails to cut into the
current of our children’s deeper
needs.” He called for a change
of emphasis in Jewish education
from an "ethnic to a religiously
centered curriculum,” explain
ing that “the younger generation
views Judaism in strictly religious
terms, and finds unintelligible the
stress placed by their parents on
a cultural, national and defense-
oriented Judaism.”
Rabbi Schindler spoke of the
"loosening of the ethnic strains”
which once bound the American
Jewish community and of the
“compensating reinforcement of
the religious bonds expected to
serve as a unifying force in the
stead." He stated that the “sec
ular culture or nationhood env
isaged by many Jews of a previ
ous generation has proved illus
ory, incapable of fulfillment on
the American scene. The com
munity has become a com
munion. bound by belief, turning
primarily to religion to define its
nature and to justify its contin
uity.”
As a first step Rabbi Schindler
announced that the Commission
on Jewish Education of Reform
Judaism — a joint body of the
UAHC and the Central Confer
ence of American Rabbis.— has
directed its curriculum commit
tee. under the chairmanship of
Rabbi Samuel Glasner. of Balti
more, to “summon a conference
of Jewish theologians of diverse
convictions not necessarily to
forge a unified Reform Jewish
theology, but to agree on what we
should teach our children in thi
'•'•■'•n of hopof ” H” also indicated
that the UAHC’s department of
education must begin producing
new texts, new teachers guides
redirect the orientation of exist
ing texts, and change the orienta
tion of oitfr religious school teach
ers
Tuition, Health
Insurance Costs
Raised in Israel
TEL AVTV, (JTA) — Two cost
increases that will affect many
families in Israel were announced
here. High school tuition fees,
one announcement stated, will be
increased by 20 percent. At the
same time, the Association of
Health Insurance Companies an
nounced a 20 percent increase in
the cost of its policies
The tuition rise will affect the
children of Israelis attending the
secondary schools, although many
Israeli youngsters receive scho
larships based Ixith on their
scholastic ability and on the
financial situation of their par
ents. In spite of such scholar
ships, however, the majority of
high school students pay at least
part of their total tuition
Problems confronting the Joint Distribution Committee in caring
for some 413,000 needy Jems throughout the world were discussed
at the recent 51st annual meeting in New York City.
Above photographs show: (top) a little deaf girl recently ar
rived in Israel from North Africa 1 earns to speak at a JDC-sup
ported school for pre-school-age deaf children; (lower left) a re
cent newcomer from Eastern Europe learns a trade at a J DC-sup
ported ORT school in France) and (lower right) an elderly Moroc
can Jew, alone and destitute, recites his prayers in a JDC-support-
ed shelter in Casablanca.