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T 11 E SOUTHERN
S R A E L I T E
THb SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, 390 Court-
land St., N. E„ Atlanta, Georgia 30303, TR. 6-8249, TR. 6-8240. Sec
ond class postage paid at Atlanta, Georgia. Yearly subscription
five dollars. The Southern Israelite invites literary contributions
and correspondence but Is not to be considered as sharing the views
expressed by writers. DEADLINE is 5 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
Georgia Press Association
7 Arts Features
Jewish
Telegraphic
Agency
World Press
I
Vice President Humphrey’s
Rash Hashunu Message
WASHINGTON, (JTA) — “Mrs. Humphrey joins with
me in expressing greetings to all of our fellow citizens of
the Jewish faith in celebration of Rosh Hashana.
We recall so many pleasant memories with dear friends
and their families, observing the Jewish New Year in times
past. We know their hearts are full with the approach of
the High Holy Days.
As throughout her ancient history, Judaism’s message
is universal—each and every individual is responsible before
a just and merciful God. In the sacred traditions of the Ten
Days of Penitence are lessons for all mankind and for all
religions. The blowing of the ram’s horn is symbol of God’s
summons to the people for self-judgment, self-improvement
and atonement.
Who among us, whatever his faith, can fail to be im
pressed by the inspiring prayers, the hallowed melodies
which will usher in the year 5727, as for so many centuries
past? Who among us can fail to learn, to benefit and to
aspire to do better? What a heritage is Zion’s. In every land
and under every condition, in times of joy or of sadness, of
good will or persecution, in Jerusalem or in exile by the
rivers of Babylon, in tiny villages or great metropolises, the
Jewish people have maintained an unbroken continuity of
spiritual and cultural devotion.
Father and mother have handed down to son and daugh
ter their love of God and of humanity, their respect for
Torah, their thirst for freedom, for social justice and peace.
So noble a legacy of the past deserves a noble and joyous
future. May this, then, be a year of years. May our beloved
America continue its progress, achieving ever closer
harmony among all religions and races, a good life for all
its people. May our sister democracy of Israel further pros
per and attain what she most seeks—lasting peace with all
her neighbors, fullest opportunity to be partner in works of
goodness with all.
In those unhappy lands where despotism restricts Jew
ish religion and culture, may the year 5727 witness progress
toward a better, freer day. May prayers which will be heard
from Temples everywhere be answered—for a world where
“nation shall not lift up sword against nation,” where men
will “choose the good and reject the evil and where all men
shall be brothers.”
May the Jewish people be inscribed in the Book of
Happiness.
A joyous New Year to all.”
—HUBERT H. HUMPHREY
A Litany For The New Year
GUEST EDITORIAL
By Dr. Samuel M. Silver
May the New Year be a sweet one for all mankind.
May the New Year be a year of recovery for those who ail.
May the New Year be a year of reconciliation for those
who are separated by quarrels and feuds.
May the New Year be a year of prosperity for those who
groan under the burden of financial anxiety.
May the New Year be of new-found delight in the use of
hitherto unused talents which God has planted within us.
May the New Year be one of increased understanding
among all groups within our lands.
May the New Year be one of the softening of hard hearts,
the transformation of harshness into tenderness and love.
May the New Year be one of the recapturing of the tingle
of romance among those who are wed but grown jaded.
May the New Year be one of relaxation of international
tensions, the conversion of strife into concord, of expansion of
the spirit to match the expansion of the frontiers of science.
May the New Year of 5727, which adds up to 21, be a year
of maturity for the nations of the world. May they realize
that this world, now a neighborhood, can be turned into a
brotherhood. 1 I
JEWISH
CALENDAR
•ROSH HASHANA
•SIMHAS TORAH
September 15-16,
October 7, Friday
Thursday and Friday
•IIANUKA
•YOM KIPPUR
September 24, Saturday
•SUCCOT
Thursday - Thursday
September 29-30
•HOLIDAY BEGINS
Thursday and Friday
•SHEMINI ATZERET
October 6, Thursday
SUNDOWN PREVIOUS DAY
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
Friday, September 16, 1966
COMMENT and OPINION
Chinese Jews
Many attempts have been made to ac
count for the migration of Jews to the distant
Chinese Empire. A popular but probably un
tenable theory is that one or another of the
Lost Tribes of Israel finally settled in the
“Land of Han”. . . While adventurous Jewish
traders may have travelled to China 1,500 and
2,000 years ago, presumably they did not tarry
long. . . Written evidence of the presence of
Jews in the Chinese Empire dates only from
the years of the magnificent Tang Dynasty
(619-907). During these centuries, when the
Byzantine and Arab Empires vied bitterly for
supremacy in the Near Eastern world, Chinese
power, wealth and culture were justly re-
knowned from the Japanese islands to the Holy
Land. . . The first and most famous Jewish
community in China seems to have come into
being early in the 12th century. Though its
origins are somewhat obscure, there is evi
dence that a modest number of Jewish fami
lies from India or Persia were invited by the
Sung government to settle in the capital city
of K’aifeng, on the banks of the Yellow River
in North China. . . Almost nothing is known
of the first few centuries of life among the
K’aifeng Jews. But historical documents do
show that they were not the only Far East
followers of Judaism during this era. From
about 1200 to 1350 a vast part of the land mass
stretching from the waters of the Pacific to
Eastern Europe was under the hegemony of
Genghis Khan and his descendants. This led
to a resurgence of the overland trade between
East and West; Jewish merchants from Persia
and environs ventured into the cities of north
China. . . Marco Polo, the famous Venetian
merchant who served under Kublai Khan in
the late 13th century, is witness to the fact
that Jews resided in the Mongol capital at
Cambaluc, in the vicinity of present-day
Peking. . . The Jewish group of K’aifeng prov
ed to be the most durable. For the greater
part of the Ming period it maintained its co
hesiveness and actually thrived. Numbers,
however, do not adequately explain why the
K’aifeng Jews managed to survive so long as
Jews. Of paramount importance was the suc
cessful transplantation and preservation of
the fundamental institutions of Jewish life.
The very heart of the community was the
synagogue, maintained in impressive dignity
for many centuries. . . For at least 500 years,
possibly longer, the spiritual needs and re
ligious life of the K’faifeng Jews were super
vised by a long line of rabbis conversant with
the Hebrew language and the Law. The syna
gogue boasted more than a half dozen copies
of the Torah, and kashrut and the traditional
holidays and festivals were observed. . . From
time to time during the past century Jews
($ur Jfjiiifilr
i$ t r i ta$ *
Erfroct* Irom "Th. Graphic Hl*»<wy of J.wi.h
Horitag*.’’ Ed.t.d by P. Wollmon-Tiomir. Pubh.bod by
Shonaold Publi*h«r» ond Foundation (or A Graphic
Hi story of Jowish Literature. 27 Williom Stroot,
Now Yock, N. Y., 10005.
A Seven Arts Feature.
The Prophets
25. ELIEZER, *lTy s ?K
SON OF DODAVAHU Wm p
OF MARESHAH fltmDD
Eliexer proplieiici the
linking of the fleet at
Exion-geber in the Gulf
of Elath because the king
had joined with Ahaxiah.
"Etitttr . . . prophesied
against Jehoshaphat . . .
And I hi ships were
broken” (II. Ckron. 20.
37).
A Judean prophet, F.liczer told Jchoshaphat:
"Because thou hast joined thyself with Aha/iah,
the Lord hath made a breach in Ihy works.” Je-
hoshaphat, refusing to heed the prophet’s words,
made an agreement with the king of Israel to have
ships built in Ezion-gcber. However, before the
vessels were able to sail for Tarshish, their desti
nation, they were destroyed (2 Chronicles 20.35-
37).
from the Western world sought out the rem
nants of the K’aifeng community. Efforts
were made to lead the remaining handful
back to the faith of their forefathers, but to
no avail. The vital spark had been exting
uished. . .
IIYMAN KUBLIN, Jewish Heritage,
as condensed In The Jewish Digest
Dr. Goldmann’s Hold Challenge
Dr. Nahum Goldmann’s has shown cour
age in drawing public attention to the parlous
condition of religious Judaism. In an age of
uncertainty and cynicism it is common form
for Jewish leaders to pay lip service to re
ligious certainties which they do not share
and to adopt a public stance of pretence that
nothing has changed since the days of simple
faith and unquestioning obedience to “Shul-
chan Aruch Judaism.” This, in fact, survives
only in small—though important—pockets of
undiluted Orthodoxy, while the vital task of
relating the permanence of Jewish tradition
to the realities of the day goes by default.
Those to whom the essentials of Judaism are
too precious to be killed by pretence and dip
lomatic silence will, it is to be hoped, take up
with enthusiasm his challenge to arouse Jew
ish religious thought from its present stagna
tion. Dr. Goldmann’s call for fresh thinking
enables this great question to be transferred
to the proper forum, where leaders of all
shades of Jewish religious thought can meet
in open dialogue imbued with one common
thought: to perpetuate the eternal truth of
Torah in this day of violent change. The essen
tial conditions for success in such a grand in
quiry are that no one claims a monopoly of
the truth and that each respects the honesty
of purpose and the essential “Jewishness” of
the other. Even if the only agreed conclusion
which emerges is—as happened on similar
occasions in Talmudic times—that “both these
and these are the words of the living God,”
Jewish values will have gained renewed
strength and life. . .”
LONDON JEWISH CHRONICLE
German Reparations—
A Drop in the Bucket
Could Israel have succeeded in her spec
tacular development without the $833 million
paid by Western Germany as reparations for
nazi crimes against the Jews? And could post-
Hitler Germany’s rehabilitation in the eyes
of the civilized world have proceeded as rapid
ly if Israel had refused them? The answer to
the first question can be found in the Bank
of Israel’s report on the occasion of the termi
nation of the Israel-West German Reparations
Agreement: Israel could not only have sur
vived but she could also have grown to a
considerable extent without reparations.
There can be no answer to the second ques
tion in statistical terms, of course, only a feel
ing that the agreement contributed greatly to
Germany’s moral image. The Bank of Israel’s
250-page report shows that Israel’s gross
national product (GNP)—the total of all in
come, from industry, agriculture, services and
investments—increased three-and-a-half times
between 1952 and 1964, and that 15 per cent of
this growth could be attributed to the German
reparations. The role of the German payments
was greater in the first years of the agree
ment, reaching its peak in 1955, when they
.formed 19 per cent of the GNP. Although, as
figures go, the share of reparations in the
Israeli economic picture may appear less im
pressive than one would have expected, the
timing was important. They could not have
started at a better time; for they began at a
juncture when, owing to the expenditure dur
ing the 1948 Arab war against Israel, and as
a result of the mass arrival of penniless immi
grants from the European refugee camps and
from Yemen and Iraq, Israel was on the brink
of financial collapse. The Bank of Israel now
discloses that in 1953, the first year of the
German payments, the State had only $27 mil
lion in foreign currency reserves. By 1964, this
had increased to $518 million. . . But according
to the Bank of Israel, the absence of German
reparations would not have prevented a sub
stantial development of the economy, although
it would have slowed it down and possibly
changed some of its prevailing aspects. . .
Characteristic of feelings here is a comment
in “Davar,” which writes: “While Israel can
not and should not deny the great contribution
that German reparations have made to her
development, Western Germany cannot and
should not deny the considerable political
benefit she has derived from the agreement,
in the eyes of the world. . .”
JEWISH CHRONICLE, PITTSBURGH