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THE RODTHIIN I8EAILITI
Friday, September SO, 1966
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, 1*0 Court-
land St, N. E.. Atlanta, Georgia SOSOS, TR. 6-8249, TR. 6-8240. Sec
ond class postage paid at Atlanta, Georgia. Yearly subscription five
dollars. The Southern hnuOh 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, Joseph Redlich
Vida Goldgar, Harry Rose, Betty Meyer, Kathy Wood
Georgia Press Assn.
7 Arts Features
Jewish
Telegraphic
Agency
World Press
HOLIDAY OF JOY
GUEST EDITORIAL
Sukkot brings the holiday season to an end on a happy
note. It is one of the happiest of the holidays, and there is a
whole week of it after the more pensive days of Rosh Hashana
and Yom Kippur.
So the rhythm of life goes on—a time for reflection and a
time for penitence, then a time for joy and happiness. And it
is good and proper that the period of joy exceed that of the
more austere days. This system seems better able to sustain
the happier note.
One of the days of Sukkot in olden times in Israel was ob
served to celebrate God’s gift of water. In fact we have it from
a sage of those days that whoever did not see Jerusalem on
that day missed one of the most radiant experiences. Jerusalem
then really struck its high note.
Sukkot is the one holiday that has also become a general
American holiday.
According to the common story, the Pilgrims at Plymouth,
gathering in their first crop, turned to the Old Testament and
reading of the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, decided to
have their own Sukkot—or Thanksgiving Day.
And so it is that we American Jews celebrate as it were a
double Sukkot. Some may find this excessive, but of good cheer
can there be too much?
So have a gut yom tov and be of good cheer.
Poll Shows Jews Have
Typical Views on Vietnam
NEW YORK (JTA) — The
views of American Jews on
United States involvement in the
Viet Nam war — subject of a
heated controversy in the Jewish
community involving President
Johnson—are split pretty much
like the attitudes of Americans
generally according to results of
a Gallup Poll reported recently.
The polls asked a typical sam
pling: “Do you approve or disap
prove of the way President John
son is handling the situation in
Viet Nam?”
Forty-three percent approved,
40 percent disapproved and 17
percent had no opinion. A sam
pling of Jewish respondents
showed that 41 percent approved,
41 percent disapproved and 18
percent had no opinion. The vote
of a sampling of Protestant
Americans was similar but a ma
jority of Catholics—54 percent—
approved the President’s role.
Three weeks ago, the Jewish
War Veterans met with President
Johnson and subsequently told
the press that the President had
expressed “surprise" at the lack
of Jewish support for his Viet
Nam policy and that the Presi
dent had linked American Jew
ish backing of that policy with
United States aid to Israel. As a
result of growing concern over
the President’s purported views,
40 Jewish leaders held a meeting
last week with Arthur J. Gold
berg, United States Ambassador
to the United Nations, who re
portedly clarified the President’s
position and assured the Jewish
leaders the President did not
seek to link Jewish views with
aid to Israel. The position of the
Jewish leaders that American
Jews did not have an uniform
view, as Jews, on' the Viet Nam
struggle was thus confirmed by
the Gallup Poll.
JEWISH
CALENDAR
•SHEMINl ATZERET
October 6, Thursday
•S1MHAS TORAH
October 7, Friday
•HANUKA
December 8-15
Thursday - Thursday
•PURIM
March 26, Sunday
♦PASSOVER
April 25, Tuesday
(First Day)
May 2, Tuesday
(Eighth Day)
LAG B’OMER
May 28, Sunday
•SHAVUOT
June 14, Wednesday
*ROSH HASHANA
Oct. 5-6, Thurs.-Fri.
•YOM KIPPUR
October 14, Sat.
•HOLIDAY BEGINS
SUNDOWN PREVIOUS DAY
* YL il)Mi| ^ Ilnltt. "
INSURANCE
PHONE 6M-6000 ATLANTA, GA.
COMMENT and OPINION
“OLIVER WASN’T HARDY”
One of the founders of the John Birch
Society is a teacher of Greek and Latin at the
University of Illinois by the name of Prof.
Revilo P. Oliver. It was Prof. Oliver who so
bitterly castigated Jewry at the recent Birch-
dominated God, Family and Country rally in
Boston: Now we learn that Prof. Oliver, who
blames most of the world’s ills on a “Jewish
conspiracy,” has resigned from the John Birch
Society. In doing so, he follows an established
pattern we have seen so often—the Bircher
who gets caught in public with his anti-Semi
tism showing must go. It is like the man with
the perpetual cold continually blowing his
nose. It never gets cleared up. The virus of
anti-Semitism seems to be deep within the
Birch body. And the men (or man) who de
termine Birch policy know it. But they also
know that overt anti-Semitism is an unpopu
lar doctrine in American life today, so they
practice only the subtleties. For instance, they
form a Jewish Society of Americanists—a
Jewish Birch Society. Look, they say, “some
of our best friends are Jewish.” In the face of
bitter criticism when the overt practitioner is
caught, he becomes a “former Bircher.” Or if
a chapter is exposed, it is dissafilliated. Anti-
Semitism, a way of life for the John Birch
Society, is not the sin for the Bircher. Getting
caught at it is. Thus, Dr. Oliver is now a
“former Bircher” and the Birch public rela
tions specialist can say again, “We aren’t anti-
Semitic. It’s just poppycock.”
B’NAI B’RITH MESSENGER
’PSYCHOTIC’ SYRIA
“Syria will no longer go to international
forums to submit her complaints, but will re
ply to each Israeli aggression mercilessly with
in the occupied area.” Thus declared the
Syrian leaders following the recent clashes.
For them war is peace, hate is love, lie is
truth. The real truth, unfortunately for Syria,
is that it stands trebly exposed as reckless,
dangerous, and bankrupt. In the score of years
during which Syria has had its independence
it has steadily deteriorated socially, economic
ally, and governmentally, until it has become
known as the “sick man of the Arab world.”
Not even the other bullet-happy Arab govern
ments can go along with Syria’s mad argu
ments for immediate “popular warfare”
against Israel—imagine Egypt, Jordan, and
Lebanon showing up as “responsible” ele
ments! Nothing is left to the Syrians but to
go it alone—with the consequences already
painfully noted. And if the situation were not
already complicated and ominous enough, the
benign presence of the Kremlin makes itself
felt; unlike the recently replaced Syrian ad
ministration, the current regime has found
ardent favor in Soviet eyes. Driven by its own
hag-ridden anxieties and recklessness, and
dangerously encouraged by the trouble-fish-,
ing Soviets, Syria could bring on the conflag
ration the world has been at such pains to
prevent.
The Cleveland Jewish News
Israel Goldstein — Man of Vision
JERUSALEM—In July of 1966
the Harry S. Truman Peace
Center was dedicated at the He
brew University. In August of
1960, at a Hiroshima Day Mem
orial program at the United Na
tions Plaza in New York, Rabbi
Israel Goldstein proposed the es
tablishment of a World Academy
of Peace with a membership of
great moral and ethical leaders,
divorced from government, who
Would meet regularly in a col
lective, continuous effort to stem
the world’s race towards destruc
tion.
The Truman Peace Center was
not the outgrowth of Rabbi
Goldstein’s proposal, but is indi
cative of the practical vision that
has motivated this towering fig
ure among the world’s religious
leaders.
Since Dr. Goldstein has just
reached that undeniable age of
wisdom that is seventy, an assess
ment of his past is in order. If
one phrase could characterize the
totality of his accomplishment, it
might be that within him the
idea and the reality formed the
perfect union. But for him it is
the present and the future that
are significant. Retirement from
his rabbinical duties as spiritual
leader of the 141-year-old Con
gregation B’nai Jeshurun in
New York, which occured almost
six years ago, meant only the
end of one career and the be
ginning of another.
His moving to Israel was the
fulfillment of fifty years of Zion
ist leadership during which he
was involved in all the agonizing
pangs attendant upon the birth
of the Jewish State. But the sat
isfaction of a life well spent in
a successful cause is never
enough for the restless of mind
and spirit. The question, “What
can I do for my people note?”
found an immediate answer.
Early in 1961, he became world
chairman of the Keren Hayesod,
the fund-raising instrument of
the Jewish Agency in forty-eight
countries for the absorption and
settlement of Jews in Israel.
The refreshing air of the Jeru
salem hills is a “pep pill” for the
undiminishing vigor that Dr.
Goldstein displays. His solicitous
and gracious wife, Bert, keeps his
life reasonably free from petty
problems. Their lovely house,
built of pink Jerusalem stone, in
the Talbich section of the city,
reflects simple taste and wide-
ranging artistic interests. It is
crowded with paintings, cera
mics, sculpture and art objects
collected during the Goldsteins'
travels to every part of the world.
Their home, Bert Goldstein says
proudly, has become a hospitality
center for Zionists and former
congregants when visiting Israel.
We sat on the rear terrace
which faces Mount Zion and the
old city on the left, which is east,
and the hills of Jordan only
about two miles away directly
ahead. It was in that setting on
a tranquil day that I asked Dr.
Goldstein what he considered his
legacy to the Jewish people. He
brushed the word “legacy” aside
as presumptuous, remarking in
stead that he would be happy to
suggest the values by which he
set the greatest store and which
he believed were of prime value
to the future of his people. “The
first,” he said, “is Jewish unity”
and “another is an inalienable
commitment to Israel as the heart
and pulsebeat of the Jewish peo
ple.”
Continuing, he said he consid
ered it important for people to
recognize the value of organiza
tions as instruments to translate
ideas and ideals. “Too many are
prone to rest content with af
firmations and sentiments," he
thought, adding that “unless the
passive mood is translated into
an active operating program,
worthwhile aims will not get off
dead center.”
Among the major satisfactions
in his uncommonly fruitful life
are in his own estimate, “the
rare opportunity to initiate and
found the first Jewish sponsored
secular university in America-
Brandeis University; the privi
lege of living to see the fulfill
ment of nineteen centuries of
Jewish hopes and prayer in the
establishment of the State of Is
rael and of having had a part,
however small, in the word of
my generation toward that end
and the experience of living the
years of my retirement from the
active ministry in the land of Is
rael where I find my American
birthright and my Jewish birth
right congenially wedded.”
Though largely away from the
American scene now, Dr. Gold
stein retains profound concern for
the American Jewish community
and its future. He has no Cas
sandra-like view of that future.
When he was shown a recent
published opinion to the effect
that American Jewry may face
a dangerous wave of anti-Semi
tism, Dr. Goldstein was of the
view that the contemplation of
such dire possibilities may not
be beyond the realm of possibil
ity” but that “it strains the im
agination.” “Less fantastic, though
still not realistic,” he remarked,
“is the contemplation of the pos
sibility that American Jewry may
be assimilated out of existence as
a large and vital group” as a
result of a declining Jewish
birthrate and a decline in dis
tinctively Jewish spiritual and
cultural activities. He said
“existing trends in both direc
tions justify a measure of anxi
ety” and that if predictions about
the decline of the Jewish popula
tion are correct "it is conceivable
that in another one hundred years
the Jewish community may no
longer be a significant factor in
American life.”
Changing rapidly to a mood of
optimism, Dr. Goldstein observed
that “as against this pessimistic
prognosis, there is the considera
tion that birthrates, generally
speaking, are subject to fluctua
tions” and that there were some
signs that American Jewish
leaders, both lay and religious,
were becoming more aware of
the problem of spiritual and cul
tural decline and that they were
giving it a good deal of thought
“with a view of halting the tide
of Jewish ignorance and indiffer
ence, especially on the part of
the college trained youth.”
Dwelling on the meagemess,
the superficiality and the inade
quacy of the education Jewish
children were receiving, Dr.
Goldstein remarked that “in the
effort to stimulate Jewish con
sciousness and keep it alive, Is
rael has an important role to
play, both as a source of Jewish
inspiration and as a fountainhead
of Jewish culture.”
On leaving him one felt that,
if the past and present can be
taken as a barometer, Israel Gold
stein still has an important role
to play in the future destiny of
the Jewish people.
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun
in New York is to honor him
later in the month and festive
moments are waiting for him
when he returns to Israel in Oc
tober. In the meantime, however,
this remarkably vigorous man of
seventy is looking forward to new
horizons.
By JANET WHITE
(A Seven Arts Feature)