Newspaper Page Text
Friday, July 28, 1972
Paga Four
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, 39® Court-
land St., N. E„ Atlanta, Georgia 30303, 878-8249, 876-8240. Second
class postage paid at Atlanta, Georgia. Yearly subscription, $10.00.
The Southern Israelite invites literary contributions and corres
pondence but is not 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, Vida Goldgar, Edward M. Kahn, Kathy Wood
Gertrude Burnham, Alva Englehard
MEMBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Georgia Press Assn.
Seven Arts Features
epjiprfo-' 1 n<' r
World Union Press
Responsibility and Identity
GUEST EDITORIAL
One of the interesting phenomena of our times is the
great concern which is expressed for children and adoles
cents. The impression is prevalent that all is well with our
adult society and that our attention needs to be concentrated
on our young people.
Of course, there is some basis for this. The “drug cul
ture” is largely a youth problem, although the suppliers of
these drugs who prey on our youth are, in thg greatest
measure, adults. Many young people, for reasons which
are bewildering to adults, drop out of college in what has
come to be called an “identity crisis,” with the result that
their parents are beside themselves in exasperation and frus
tration.
The adult society spends a great deal of time discussing
the problem of their young people. All kinds of programs
are devised to bring the children back to the “right” path
and to lead them away from the evils which might tempt
them. These programs range from athletics to religious serv
ices, from social organizations to social work. There is no
doubt that many parents are not content to sit back and let
happen whatever may happen. They are taking their role
as parents most seriously. The trouble is that they do not
recognize the fact that they do little insofar as their own
responsibility in their crisis is concerned. For the most part,
they never stop to ask themselves how they appear to their
children and to what extent their children regard them as
worthwhile models to imitate.
These thoughts are sparked by what I saw at the rally
for Soviet Jewry which was widely advertised and an
nounced repeatedly from every pulpit in the state. What
I saw w’as a large representation of our young people and
a small representation of our adult community. I couldn’t
help but feel that perhaps, contrary to our present practice,
we should have meetings of our youth to deal with the
problems of the adult society. These young people could dis
cuss what measures might be taken to help adults arrive
at a better understanding of the world we live in, what
responsibility they have for others, and kindred subjects
I believe that we adults should be concerned with our own
failings and derelictions to the same extent that we are with
those of our children.
—RABBI ELI A. BOHNEN, Temple Emanu-el, Providence, R.I.
BETWEEN YOU AND ME
By BORIS SMOLAR
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA
JEWISH CAMPING
Jewish summer camping today involves the
expending of tens of millions of dollars. It also
involves thousands of professionals in communal
services.
The number of children of all ages spending
their summer vacations in Jewish camps runs in
the hundreds of thousands. Many of the resident
camps are no longer purely recreational in cha
racter. They maintain programs which are edu
cationally productive.
Among the camps which contribute satisfac
torily to the cause of Jewish education and iden
tity are those maintained by Jewish religious,
educational and ideological groups.
There are also the day camps conducted by
Jewish centers, Jewish philanthropic organiza
tions, and local communities for the purpose of
providing Jewish youngsters with the possibil
ity of breathing fresh air, of exposing themselves
to sunshine and of having a delightful summer
experience. However, it is realized more and more
that the Jewish camp, in addition to being a
recreational institution, must also be an instru
ment to educate youngsters to understand them-
themselves as Jews.
CAMP ATMOSPHERE
Jewish resident camps have been in existence
more than 50 years. An increasing amount of at
tention to education has been given in Jewish
resident camps during the last 15 years. Jewish
educators have succeeded in impressing parents
with the idea that several weeks spent by their
children in a Jewish atmosphere instills a deeper
sense of Jewish awareness among the youngsters
than all the the time they spend in Jewish
weekend schools, or even afternoon schools in the
city.
During the last 10 years the Jewish resident
camp has become an avenue for strengthening
Jewish identity among children of all ages, in
cluding adolescent youths. Another avenue is the
summer courses for American youths in Israel.
Most of them are built around kibbutz life and
the studying of Hebrew. However, there are also
specialized programs for youth interested in arch-
ology, theater, and the arts. ^
CAMP PROBLEMS
One of the major problems in the field of
Jewish camping is the finding of proper camp
counselors. There is a disparity between the col
lege environment from which most of the coun
selors come and the camp setting. Not all the
counselors who agree or accept the philosophy
of the' Jewish camps can implement the policies
and functions of the camp.
The sense of Jewish commitment on the part
of a counselor is naturally very important. Some
camps find it therefore necessary to help the
counselor understand the specific Jewish nature
and objectives of the camp by conducting a reg
ular in-service training program.
Camp directors exercise special care in seek
ing supervisory staff whose qualications in
clude strong Jewish experience and education.
If these qualities are absent, then it is unlikely
that the counselor who comes to the camp with
out a strong sense of awareness of his own
Jewishness will understand the Jewish purposes
and goals of the camp.
The thinking and attitudes of the camp coun
selor is all-the-more important because young
adolescents in the camps—those between 13 and
14-years-old—generally begin to verbalize their
hostility toward Jewish life and Jewish values at
this age, as they do toward many other values.
It is the counselor, who is the staff member
closest to them, that can influence their way
of thinking.
Although many camps have made great
strides in helping their counselors assume a
greater role in Jewish community life, there is
still a lot to be done to improve the techniques
and methods of recruitment, training and super
vision of counselors. This is being frankly ad
mitted by all experts interested in Jewish camp
ing.
Copyright 1972, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.
Rabbi Against Rabbi
Dr. Gordis Takes ‘Anti-God’
Richard Rnbenstein To Task
By David Benarone
NEW YORK (WUP)—Dr. Rob
ert Gordis, one of America’s out
standing rabbis, has taken another
rabbi, Richard Rubenstein, a
strong admirer of one he joyously
terms “My Brother Paul” (Har
per & Row publishers), to task
because of “his zeal to propagate
his version of ‘nontheistic relig
ion.”
In the summer issue of Judaism,
published by the American Jew
ish Congress, Dr. Gordis, its edi
tor, examines Rabbi Rubenstein’s
apparent “heresy” which overtook
him “After Auschwitz.” “How can
the Holocaust be justified? Only
one response, Rubenstein declares,
is possible for the conventional
‘establishment’ thinkers—the Hol
ocaust was a Divine visitation on
a sinful generation. Where there
is sin, there must be suffering;
hence the massive suffering of
our age implies massive sin. This
‘justification’,” Dr. Gordis notes,
“Rubenstein rightly regards as
monstrous. He therefore rejects
the traditional Biblical faith in
Jewish Calendar
•ROSII IIASHANA
Sept 9, 10
Saturday, Sunday
*YOM KIPPITR
Sept. 18. Monday
•SUKKOT
Sept. 23, 24
Saturday, Sunday
•IIOSHANA RABBA
Sept. 29
Friday
•SHEMINI ATZERET
Sept 30
Saturday
♦SIMHAT TORAH
Oct. 1,
Sunday
♦MANUKA
Dec. 1 - 8
Friday - Friday
♦HOLIDAY BEGINS
SUNDOWN
PREVIOUS DAY
Cud as no longer possible in the
post-Hitler era.”
Noting that the Bible, in Its
original understanding, is “vir
tually unknown to modem men”
and if “approached with an un
jaded gaze,” the true seekers
‘ may then discover that a viable
faith in the Biblical God operat
ing in history is still possible—
that it is, in fact, far superior
to the newly packaged religions
that “celebrate’ the ‘absurdity’ of
human existence.”
In his penetrating exposition,
entitled “A Cruel God Or None'
—Is There No Other Choice?” Dr.
Gordis goes on to say that “it may
prove helpful to restate in modern
terms some of the Biblical in
sights on which our generation
can build a modem faith that
will sustain the spirit without
demanding the abdication of the
mind.
“Before doing so,” the great
Biblical scholar emphasizes, “it is
important to point out that a
peculiar form of moral blindness
inheres in positions such as Ru
benstein’s. At which point does
a sin become monstrous?: at six
million victims, or at five mil
lion, or three or one? Is it not
true” he adds, “that the
suffering and death of a
single child is an infinite calam
ity before the throne of God? Are
the conventional theologi a n s ,
therefore, wrong in regarding the
Nazi Holocaust as morally on a
par with the mass deaths per
petrated by the builders of the
Egyptian pyramids, or the palaces
of Babylon, or the roads and
bridges of the Roman Empire?
“Do Dachau and Auschwitz
and Bergen-Belsen differ in qual-
AUGUSTA NEWS
Avra Rochelle Steinberg,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. K.
Steinberg, was named to the
Dean’s list at the University of
Georgia for the spring quarter.
She will enter the Medical Col
lege of Georgia in Augusta in
September, working toward a
BS degree in radiology.
Ronald Allen Loft, son of Dr.
and Mrs. Gerald Loft, was
named to the spring quarter
Dean’s list.
ity from the massacres of the
Crusades and of Chmielnicki, the
tortures of the Inquisition, the
pogroms of Soviet Russia? What
about the conscious and systema
tic starvation of millions in the
early years of Soviet Russia and
Communist China, or the thous
ands of deaths in Biafra or in
Bangladesh? Is the statistical
yardstick to be employed in de
termining the dimensions of hu
man suffering and the challenge it
poses to faith in God”
Dr. Gordis thus concludes that
“if, on the other hand, the prob
lem does not arise for the first
time with twentieth century
Nazism, we have a moral and
intellectual duty to examine the
insights at which men arrived
in earlier periods of agony and
wrath. Perhaps, after all, the
Bible deserves its reputation! It
deserves better than the simplis
tic approach of “revolutionary 1
theologians who offer little more
than a caricature of Biblical
prophecy, wisdom and faith.”
The editor of Judaism suggests
“that there are five Biblical ideas
upon which modem men . . . may
draw in constructing a view of
human life and destiny capable
of sustaining them in the face of
the evils of existence. These fun
damentals,” which the famous
rabbi elaborates upon, go under
the following headings:
1. “The glory of life and the
goodness to God”; 2. “Man's right
and duty to confront evil in the
world”; 3. “The core of mystery
in evil”; 4. “Man’s freedom,” and
5. The interdependence of man
kind is no pleasant Sunday School
platitude, but a hard reality of
the human condition.”
This writer, with single passage
from the Bible, hardly ever lit
erally translated correctly and
linked to “the core of mystery In
evil,” may briefly sum up what
Dr. Gordis is telling us in his
article. That passage, from Exo
dus chapter 17, verse 15, reads:
“Because there is a Hand on
the Throne of Yah, war unto
YHVH with Amalek since a gen
eration of a generation ..."
This brief passage holds the key
to why there is evil in the world.