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Fridfay, August te, i^ 7
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
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fWt. Hie Southern Israelite invites literary contributions and
correspondence bat is not to be considered as sharing the views
expressed by writers. DEADLINE is 8 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
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
7 Arts Features
Jewish
Telegraphic
Agency
World Union Press ^ASSOCA^
The Community Approach
To Jewish Education
June was the season of the year when graduation and com
mencement exercises were held in schools and colleges
throughout the land. An ever-increasing number of Jewish
students are enrolled in these colleges and consequently are
found among those who complete their undergraduate as well
as their graduate and professional studies.
We now find Jewish practitioners in every specialty of
the medical, dental, accounting, engineering and business pro
fessions. Technological advances and computerized program
ming have also produced specialists in the teaching profession.
Education has always been held in the highest esteem among
Jews.
But we are particularly concerned here with the status
and the future of the area of education which has special
significance to us as members of the Jewish community.
Ours as an open and free society allows for the strength
ening and development of the different religious faiths pro
fessed by our citizens. Each group is free to develop, to the
maximum of its resources, those institutions which will ex
press the highest ideals and goals of its own religious faith and
cultural values, without undermining the aims and purposes
of public education.
This makes possible the establishment of private schools,
under Jewish auspices, either as supplemental to public edu
cation, or on a full time basis, allowing for a more intensive
concentration on Hebraic and Jewish studies. This requires, of
course, that such institutions meet all the standards for ac
creditation by public education bodies.
In this frame of reference there has been a great develop
ment and expansion of the allday school movement. At the
same time it should be noted that the bulk of Jewish children
receive their Jewish education in afternoon Hebrew Schools
and Sunday Schools, under congregational auspices.
At the National Conference of Professional Jewish Educa
tors, held in May reports were received noting positive devel
opments “in the increase in the number of pupils in Jewish
schools, the expansion of the Day school movement, the growth
in the study of the Hebrew language, the emphasis on the im
portance of Jewish educational camping, and the increased
number of students enrolled in Hebrew High Schools.”
However, these reports also noted certain negative aspects.
These pertain to an emphasis on ideological differences rather
than to those aspects of Jewish education which tend to unite
all Jews on common purposes.
In our own community we have witnessed the growth of
a Day School such as the Hebrew Academy of Atlanta, which
has succeeded in enlisting the support of all segments of the
Jewish community.
We have noted the constant, though slow, development
of a Central Hebrew High School sponsored by the Bureau of
Jewish Education.
The afternoon Hebrew Schools, the religious schools which
meet on Sunday mornings, have shown progress in the organi
zation of their curricular programs of studies.
All of these institutions face a serious shortage in the
availability of competent Hebrew teachers. Communities
throughout the land face also a similar shortage in professional
personnel for communal agencies and services.
We need to concentrate on finding and encouraging, among
our Jewish college students, an interest and desire to make
Jewish communal service, in all its phases, their professional
life service.
To overcome the separateness and differences, without
in any way jeopardizing the autonomy of our denominational
groupings, we must unite on a community approach to Jewish
education. We must interest the leadership of all of our organi
zations in the problems of Jewish education that confront us
on all levels—elementary, secondary, college, and adult Jewish
education. <
We must find the common elements in Jewish education
which can unite us in accepting a common core curriculum in
our schools, on their respective levels of interest and under
standing.
To accomplish this we require the support of the total
Jewish community in making available scholarships for pro
fessional study, research and experimentation in curriculum
studies and create a climate of acceptance of the importance
of Jewish education.
We have made progress. But this should be regarded as
a mere beginning of greater things to come.
At stake is the identification of Jewish youth with Judaism
jmH Jewish communal life. We need our college graduates to
return to a continued, active participation in the leadership
fnri service of the Jewish community.
—E.M.K.
FAREWELL TO “SNICK”
Actor-fotksinger Theodore Bikel, long active in the civil rights
movement and a veteran supporter of SNCC (the Student Non
violent Coordinating Committee), has written the following open
letter to the leadership of SNCC explaining why he can no
longer be part of that organization. Mr. Bikel itr a national vice
president of the American Jewish Congress. Although his letter
is a personal one and does not speak for the Congress, we are
distributing it because we feel it to be an eloquent—indeed, a
passionate—statement by an American and a Jew deeply com
mitted to the unity of the Jewish people and the brotherhood
of all men. —THE EDITOR
By THEODORE BIKEL
You know me well—or ought
to. I am the fellow who, long be
fore it was fashionable or safe,
followed SNCC’s call for help and
advice. I am the man who help
ed organize money and “bodies”
at -the bidding of Jim Forman,
Robert Moses, Chuck McDew and
John Lewis; who went to Ala
bama and Mississippi because
SNCC needed his presence; who
slept in a different loft each
night because he would not sleep
or eat where his Negro brother
could not and because the sheriff
resented his presence. I am the
man who was called “kike nig
ger-lover” both to his face and
in print.
You owe me nothing.
I did what I did as a commit
ment of conscience, a commit
ment that is as real to me now
as it was then and one which
will continue as long as I breathe.
But you do owe yourselves a
reappraisal of recent actions and
reoent pronouncements. You
who spoke of a “philosophical
concept” behind your position on
“Jewish oppressors” owe both
friend and foe a clearer defini
tion of such “philosophy.” It ap
pears from your statement that
you have arrived at your posi
tion after exhaustive research
which took you as far afield as
the Arab embassies and the At
lanta Public Library; the latter
presumably because no Jewish,
Israeli or Zionist position was
available to be explored. Since
you speak of the establishment
of the “illegal” State of Israel in
1948, of population figures and
movements, of conquest and of
oppression, one must presume
you are guided by historical, po
litical, socio-economic and demo
graphic considerations. One must
also hope that as a matter of
principle you are engaged in an
earnest search for truth — and
justice.
Unfortunately, such hope comes
to grief when confronted with
your stated position.
Let us briefly consider the “il
legal” State of Israel. Palestine
was, from 1922 until 1948, a Brit
ish Mandate. The Mandate gave
the Jewish people the political
right to re-establish Palestine as
a Jewish State. It was neither a
gift of land to the Jews nor did
it take land from the Arabs.
Lands were purchased—often at
excessive prices — from their
holders. Never in all history had
Palestine been an Arab state.
Turkish yes, British yes, and cer
tainly from time immemorial
Jewish. When in 1948 the UN
voted to accept Israel as a sov
ereign state, was that an “illegal”
act? Surely the Rothschild who
seems to be the villain of your
memorandum did not buy both
the U. S. and the Soviet vote on
that occasion. And is the mantle
of UN recognition any less legal
when applied to a white state
than it is for Mali, Chad, Ghana
or Zambia?
And, speaking of the emerging
black African nations, I wonder
if your researchers ever bother
ed to inquire from whence came
the help and support for these
countries in the days of their
struggle? Was it Arabs or Israelis
who trained their engineers,
craftsmen, builders, seamen and
teachers? Ask who almost single-
handedly built Ghana’s merchant
marine; ask whether emerging
black Africa looked to Cairo or
Jerusalem for their “bond of
friendship and brotherhood.”
You seriously assert that the
destinies of Arabs and Negroes
are intertwined; you are, of
course, perfectly correct in that
assertion. History itself will bear
out the constant relationship of
Arab and Negro. Your own an
cestors would hardly have ar
rived <xi these shores had it not
been for the beneficence and dil
igence of Arab slave traders. And
speaking of slavery, did it escape
you — or was it conveniently
glossed over—that at least one of
the countries whose cause you
have just espoused, Saudi Arabia,
THEODORE BIKEL
practices slavery today, in 1967?
And that many of its slaves are
Africans brought to Arabia and
■sold there by Moslems engaged
in the Holy Pilgrimage to Mecca?
Indeed, what manner of gov
ernments ere these, your new
proteges? What political struc
tures do they represent? King
doms and sheikdoms, on the one
hand; dictatorships and military
juntas on the other, whose masses
live in poverty, squalor, serfdom
or slavery, with a total absence
of even the pretense of demo
cracy. How do you think a cry
of “black power” would be met
in Riyadh or Mecca? How would
“poor power” sound in Baghdad?
To top it all, you found your
selves actually capable of repeat
ing the obscene comparison be
tween Israelis and German Nazis
advanced at the UN by the Soviet
delegate, replete with hideous
caricatures worthy of the finest
anti-Semitic pamphlet. I feel
nothing but the deepest contempt
for such irresponsible behavior.
It insults the memory of the
martyrs who perished in the mass
slaughter; it insults the dreams
and hopes of their sons and heirs
who built a home and a refuge
in Israel, and who resisted being
“pushed into the sea.’!- Their
crime seems to have been that
they were resisting their own an
nihilation successfully. Had the
“Holy War” celled for by Nasser
and accomplices succeeded, you
might have joined the list of
those offering condolences for
yet another case of genocide; for
the annihilation would have been
total, make no mistake.
War is cruel and inhuman, as
is all violence. Only the open
blade of a murderer can ever
justifiably be met by force. Such
was the case in the Middle East
last June.
I am an American. I am a Jew.
Thus I have a commitment, dou
bly reinforced by historical and
moral commandment. I am de
termined to make equality and
freedom a reality in this country,
no matter what the setbacks. I
am equally determined to honor
JEWISH
CALENDAR
♦ROSII HA SHAN A
Oct. 5-6, Thurs-Fri.
•YOM KIPPUR
Oct. 14, Saturday
♦SUKKOT
Oct. 19-20, Thurs.-Fri.
‘HOSHANA RARBA
Oct. 25, Wednesday
♦SHEMINI ATZERET
Oct. 26, Thursday
•SIMHAT TORAH
Oct. 27, Friday
•HANIIKA
Dec. 27—Jan. 3
Wednesday—Wednesday
♦HOLIDAY BEGINS
SUNDOWN PREVIOUS DAY
the bonds to my ethnic and re
ligious background. “For out of
Zion shall go forth the law and
the word of the Lord from Jer
usalem.” You have this day at
tempted to violate both my com
mitments. The violation of one
alone would have been enough.
That you have for some time
past made a mockery of the word
“non-violent" in your name, both
in word and in deed, was in
adequately defended by the fa
cile explanation of violence be
getting violence, chaos begetting
chaos. That the innocent should
have suffered — Negroes more
often than whites, that in the
wake of “Burn Baby Bum” real
babies got burned and most of
them Negro, is a responsibility
which partly lies on your shoul
ders. I hope it lies heavily. Yet
while I more and more disap
proved of your methods I still be
lieved that your ultimate aims
deserved support. I am no longer
certain of that either. I support
ed Black Power as a political
concept; as a tool of anarchy I
find it reprehensible. Not that the
concept of revolution is in itself
frightening; our modem world
and America itself have been
built on the foundations forged
by one revolution or another.
What is frightening is a revolu
tion without a blue-print. If it’s
a case of “get Whitey” first and
worry about planning later, then
the tactic seems both stupid and
dangerous. The assumption that,
by definition, all whites are
enemies and all blacks are friends
is as simplistic as it is untrue.
It is not my intention to pres
cribe what direction SNCC
should take, either in theory or
in practice. It is, as you will
quite rightly argue, none of my
affair. What is my affair, how
ever, is whether or not I wish
to associate myself, my name, my
energy or my resources with an
organization with which I have
fundamental disagreements. Thus
it has become quite clear to me
that, for the various reasons
outlined in this letter, such loose
ties as I may still have with
SNCC will have to be severed
forthwith. I cannot in conscience
be part of .any organization which
condones injustice, let alone com
mits it. I shall continue to be part
of the civil rights movement and
to be active in it. But I shall
choose to fight on the side of
those who, like Dr. Martin Luther
King, speak with the voice of
sane and deliberative determina
tion; who believe that this Is a
movement to unite men as bro
thers, not divide them by the
litmus test of color; who seek
not to establish one kind of su
premacy doctrine in place of
another but who concentrate in
stead on the fight against the real
enemies—poverty, ignorance end
hatred of fellow-man.
What you have wrought in this
latest of a long line of missteps
will be with us for a long time
to come. It will not deter those
among us who are secure in the
knowledge that the Movement is
bigger than your pronouncements
and that it speaks responsibly
and with reason. But many thou
sands not so secure will in be
wilderment withdraw support
from all civil rights causes be
cause of your incontinence and
folly. Thus once again you will
have harmed no one but the
Negro himself.
Not being able to turn my mind
from your monstrous comparison
of my brothers with the arch foe
of my people—nay, of all people
—I shall leave you this thought:
you may want to spit in my face
for being Whitey and a Fat Cat.
But do not look to me for silence
while you insult the memory of
my people so recently martyred;
you have no right to tamper with
their graves. And think of Mickey
Schwemer and Andy Goodman.
You have no right to spit on their
tomb; they died for a concept of
brotherhood which you now
cover With shame.
Is
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