Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
Vol. XLIV
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established
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Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, December 12, 1969
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Syria F:rees 2 Israelis Along
With Fixed TWA Planes
NEW YORK (JTA) ’ — The
two Israelis held in Damascus
on a hijacked TWA airliner since
Aug. 29 were released last week
along with the repaired airliner
and flown to Athens, leaving
there for Tel Aviv on a regular
Athens to Israel TWA flight,
officials of the airline report
ed here.
TWA said here that it had
worked with many governments
and organizations in efforts to
effect the release of Prof. Shlo-
mo Samueloff and Salah Mual-
lem who had been passengers on
the TWA plane when it was hi
jacked by two Arab commandoes
and forced to land in Damascus.
All of the other 111 passengers
and crew were released but
Syrian authorities refused to
allow the two Israelis to leave.
In announcing the successful
conclusion of the effort to free
the two men, TWA president
F. C. Weiser said TWA was
“particularly grateful to the In
ternational Red Cross whose un-
AEPi National Boards
To Meet In Atlanta
The national Alpha Epsilon Pi
Fraternity Supreme Board of
Governors and Fiscal Control
Board will meet Saturday and
Sunday, December 13 and 14,
at the Executive Park Motel in
Atlanta, according to Atlantan
Paul Aronin, national president.
The meetings will be held
from 9:00 a. m. to 5:00 p. m.
each day and all alumni are in
vited to attend. Board members
who will be in attendance in
clude Vice President Robert
Ausman, Tampa; National Sec
retary Nat Krumbein, Rich
mond; National Treasurer Har
vey Jacobs, Washington; Na
tional Sentinel Philip Cohen,
New York City; National Gover
nors Sherwin Pomerantz of Chi
cago, Eddie Gold of Detroit and
Jacob Karno of New Orleans.
George Toll, St. Louis, exec
utive vice president of the fra
ternity, will attend as will Past
National Presidents Harold Ber
man of Dallas, Louis Sherr of
Philadelphia, Harry Smith of
Miami Beach, Arthur Teich of
Trenton, Sigmund Steinberg of
Philadelphia, David Kaplan of
Dallas, Irving Levin of New
York City and Daniel Lewis of
Washington.
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J01 9 H
^ \j»t IV_lI
No. 50
tiring efforts have been instru
mental in securing the release
of the two passengers. We have
also worked continuously with
many international organiza
tions and governments to whom
we express our deepest grati
tude. They include the United
States Department, the Govern
ment of Syria, the Government
of Italy and its Embassy in Da
mascus, the Government of
Israel, the many Jewish organi
zations within the United States,
the Secretary General of the Uni
ted Nations and the Interna
tional Air Transport Association
and its director, Knut Hammar-
skjold.”
The TWA statement also said
that “of necessity,” its efforts
for the two Israelis “had to be
conducted in secrecy. Our deal
ings were further complicated
by the fact that we do not serve
Syria, have never been author
ized to serve Syria and the Uni
ted States does not maintain a
Continued on page 4
Israel Rejects Sec
Demands On Jerusalem's Status
UNITED NATIONS, N. Y.
(JTA) — Israel has flatly re
jected demands by the United
Nations Security Council that it
rescind all measures taken since
June, 1967 to change the status
of Jerusalem and to refrain from
similar actions in the future. At
the same time, Israel denounced
the Security Council position,
taken in a resolution on July
3, 1969 and condemned its fail
ure to prevent “destruction and
sacrilege” in the Old City of
Jerusalem during the 19 years
it was in Jordanian control.
The Israeli stand was dis
closed by Secretary General U
Thant in a report to the Secur-
. ity Council. The reply, trans-
Athens Terrorists
Plead “Not Guilty”;
2-Year-Old Dies
ATHENS (JTA)— Two Arab
terrorists who attacked the El
A1 ticket office with a hand gre
nade pleaded not guilty to a
series of charges that included
premeditated murder. A two-
year-old child was killed and
14 other persons were injured
in the blast.
The accused, Eli Karanetian
and Mansur Seifeddin, both Jor
danians, underwent a pre-trial
examination before a magistrate.
The hearing was held in private
under a heavy security guard.
An Athens magistrate has order
ed the exhumation of the body
of George Nastos, the child fa
tally injured in the grenade at
tack. The order was issued after
defense counsel for the terror
ists contended that the child’s
death did not result from the
explosion but was due to other
causes.
mittted to Mr. Thant on Nov.
27, came after Mr. Thant had
made three separate requests of
Israel for information on what
steps it was taking to comply
with the Security Council res
olution. The first request was
made on Aug. 27.
In his reply, Foreign Minister
Abba Eban reminded Mr. Thant
that the division of Jerusalem
arose out of Jordan’s “illicit
armed action” in 1948 in de
fiance of the Security Council’s
cease-fire appeals. The division
was terminated, he said, “by
hostilities initiated by Jordan in
1967.”
The Foreign Minister pointed
out that “Jerusalem has been
the focus of Israel’s faith and
nationhood for 3,000 years and
has been Israel’s center of Gov
ernment for two decades.” He
declared that “it is inconceiva
ble that Jerusalem should be
torn apart again or that any in
ternational interests can be
served by pressing for the city
to be dismembered.”
These interests, he said, ‘“are
based on the Holy places of three
monotheistic religions. For the
first time since 1948 the shrines
of all faithg have been open to
access by those who hold them
sacred.” Israel has ensured that
■ the Holy Places will “be ad-
1 ministered under the responsi
bility of the regions concerned,”
Mr. Eban declared. He pointed
out that places of worship and
or damaged in the assaults of
religious institutions destroyed
1948 and 1967 have been or are
being restored. He repeated the
Israel Government’s willingness
“to work out agreements with
the representative bodies of the
three religions to ensure that
the universal and sacred cha
racter of the Holy Places is ap
propriately expressed and free
access to them guarateed.”
In Brief
LONDON (JTA) — President
Tito of Yugoslavia stated that
his country fully backs the ef
forts of the Arab countries to
regain their territory occupied
by Israel by whatever means
they can. He accused Israel of
“obstinate refusal” to accept a
just and peaceful solution and
blamed United States arms and
financial aid to Israel for per
petuating what he called Israel’s
aggressive policies.
LONDON (JTA) — Albania,
the pro-Peking Communist state
in the Balkans, has sharply crit
icized Soviet authorities for per
mitting Moscow Jews to cele
brate Simchat Torah in the
street outside of the main syn
agogue there last October. Al
banian news agency “Bashkimi”
called the celebration an exam
ple of “leniency toward the
clergy” by the Soviet “revion-
ists.” The news agency said 12,-
000 young Jews danced and
Sang “Hava Nagilah” in a religi
ous ceremony of a pronounced
Zionist character and disrupted
traffic while Moscow police
stood by.
BUENOS AIRES (JTA)—Re
ports of a rising incidence of
anti-Jewish attacks in some pro-
Continued on page 4
Nostalgic Yiddish Program Turns Controversial Over‘En Kelohenu ’Melody
By ADOLPH ROSENBERG
Should Jewry abandon the traditional
melody for the traditional congregation
worship service song “En Kelohenu”?
“Yes!” thinks Sholom Secunda, noted
Jewish music authority, composing
great, perhaps among the world’s top
five Jewish musicians.
His view emerged at a recent program
at Ahavath Achim Synagogue which
started out innocently enough as a rou
tine excursion into the nostalgic world
of the “Yiddish Theatre.”
Mr. Secunda commentated and played
(he piano accompaniment for a senti
mental journey through the theatrical
and liturgical gems of Jewish music for
the past three-quarter century.
Articulating the folk gems were two
competent artists—Bianca Sauler, a stu
dent at Julliard who also teaches voice
at Long Island College, and Cantor Isaac
Goodfriend, the competent hazan at
Ahavath Achim.
Perhaps the operatic quality of both
voices did not quite fit the customary
“heymishe” quality usually associated
with Yiddish in the quiet rivers of
memory. There’s something classically
artificial about operatic techniques and
many are not entirely ready to relegate
the warm “neshoma” of Yiddish to any
artificiality of stage and operatic con-
certizing. Yet both Sauler and Good-
friend possess marvelous tonal qualities
and virtuosity which set off the pieces
with unexpected range entirely pleas'-
urable and high level in cultural satis
faction.
Here and there in the sophisticated
audience of close to 600, a few listeners
gathered for the musical trip into the
romantic past seemed lost in closed-eyed
reverie. Others were enchanted and
challenged into alertness by the constant
need of searching the backroads of their
minds for translation of the ‘“mama
loschen” used in the songs, each in
accordance with recent or distant origins
and associations.
It was altogether at this point a ful
some and splendidly beautiful program,
cemented together by the masterly
straight-forward words the Genius Se
cunda was weaving around the old,
tying each song and development he
wanted to emphasize into the story . . .
Then the startling bombshell.
The narrator was lauding the Ahavath
Achim service he had attended the week
end before.
“Beautiful cantorial music.” Wonder
ful choir. Fine sermon. I
Suddenly, he related, the congrega
tion began singing En Kelohenu . . .
“To the tune of a Nazi marching
song!"
Sholom Secunda’s tone was angry, in-
indignant.
“Do you have to set this sacred song
to the same music used by the people
responsible for the tragedy of the Six
Million Martyrs?
At least forty or fifty Americ&n con
gregations for this reason have aban
doned the old melody . . . All I ask is
that you think about it.”
The audience was indeed already
thinking about it. Some were shocked
from the sweetness of musical recol
lection. The criticism of their congre
gation singing was unexpected and to
some rude and controversial. Was he
correct? And if he were correct, was
this the right forum for such condemna
tion?
By now even the seemingly somnolent
were wide-eyed and on chair’s edge.
Secunda has eariy bemoaned the prac
tice of Jewish acceptance of “our own
music only after such numbers had won
a stamp of approval by non-Jews.”
His experience, his success in the pop
ular music world with his “Bei Mir Bist
Du Shein” was a case in point.
Why did three non-Jewish girls (the
Andrews Sisters) have to give it a
“Kosher hechsire” before it won Jew
ish approval? Secunda had asked.
Can we not recognize and embrace our
own music, which goes back so far into
our faith’s antiquity?
• .* •
Commentator Secunda was winding up
the now-controversial program with a
suggestion that the audience join the
two vocalists’ duet of “Bei Mir Bist Du
Schein” if they knew the words.
A few dissidents began singing “En
Kelohenu” using the familiar melody.
They were shushed by austere persons
nearby.
* • *
This is the third appearance of Se
cunda on the annual Ahavath Achim
Jewish Music Emphasis Festival. He
authored and directed cantatas and lit
urgical pieces on previous programs,
highlighted by appearances of Atlanta
choruses and symphony musicians.
The music in question for “En Kel
ohenu” was brought to this country by
the waves of German immigrants driven
from their country by pogroms and
persecution.
It rapidly won popularity, no doubt
because of the ease with which the con
gregation could sing the song. The range
of notes in the familiar melody do not
require octaval skill by men and wom
en with ungifted voices and no vocal
dexterity.
The words of course predate this par
ticular melody by centuries.
At least one congregation in Atlanta,
Beth Jacob, alternates the familiar mel
ody with a Hassadic tune that steps up
the tempo through a special kind of
interesting beat and rhythm.
“We have introduced a number of
new tunes into our services,” Cantor
Pincus Aloof said. In the case of “En
Kelohenu,” the change has been solely
because the tune is Hassadic and has
nothing to do with any Germanic coin
cidence.”
He disagrees with the Secunda idea of
abandonment.
“We use the familiar tune at Shear-
ith Israel,” noted Cantor Robert Ungar.
He doubts there is need to abandon it.
“I concur however with Secunda’s idea
to use our own historical music rather
than other tunes,” Cantor Ungar added.
Whether by now the song does not
have a historical basis in American Ju
daism without regard to outside con
notations may perhaps be debated, j
The familiar melody of “En Kelohenu”
is pretty standard at Or VeShalom, the
Temple and at Temple Sinai.
Atlantans present at a recent concert
by Israeli artists were surprised and
taken aback by their presentation of
“En Kelohenu.” It was presented to
“rock and roll” rhythm, complete with
the pelvic gyrations. One rabbi called
the “rock” version delightful.