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Page 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE May 2, 1975
tH« Southern Israelite
FiUliM wmU; by Soothera Newspaper Eaterprieea, MO Court-
Uuai 8t., N.E., AUaaU, Georgia 303*3, Phone* *73-824*, 374-8240. Sec-
•M class postaga paid at Atlanta, Georgia. Yearly subscription, $10.50.
TVs Southern Israalita invite* lharary contributions and corraspand-
anas bat Is not cons ids rod as sharing tha viaws expressed by writers.
Deadline is 5 p.n. Friday, bat material received earlier will have a much
batter ebanoa ol publication.
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
Vida Goldgar, Assistant Editor
Kathleen Nease, Edward M. Kahn, Kathy Wood
Gertrude Burnham, Alva Englchard, Vivian Kaplan, Hazel Blackburn
That New Gourmet Thing-Bagels
N
f a -w m si am I Jewish Telegraphic Agency
r\ mkW Georgia Press Assn.
Emu PfmPER Seven Arts Features
Attocltllon - Founded 1885
World Union Press
m
Needs to be Said
Right away after hearing of the Johannesburg Israeli consulate
trouble, we were gearing up an editorial for a sweeping condem
nation of terrorism by Arabs and the lunatic fridge, wondering
just how the Japs got in the picture, and offering condolence and a
yeshar koahach to the beleagured folk of the Jewish State.
What an ironic twist that the perpetuator turns out to be a dis
gruntled security employee, who cleverly used voice disguises to
fool the police and others about who was doing what to whom.
Well, we do not alter our condemnation of terrorism or the
lunatic fringe, nor the infinite agonizing over the loss of innocent
lives — no matter if the victims are Jewish or not. It is a senseless,
cruel fate.
Nor do we lessen the regret that so many good people had to in
terrupt events which really matter to attend to the details of what
was almost a hoax.
What the situation does prove is that our people also include
men who have lost their way, and with such pressures, how indeed
do so many manage to hold on and do the right thing.
The Johannesburg perpetuator could not hold on and came up
with a revolting vermishkeit to sicken the body of people of good
will. In one fell swoop, he managed to tear down and damage
by DAVID SCHWARTZ
The present recession has made
a mess of restaurants. The cafes
where one could sit down and have
a meal have for the most part dis
appeared. Instead we have the fast
food shops.
There is one cheery side — the
emergency of the bagel. The last
few months have seen an outcrop
ping of bagel eating places. Every
day in New York there seems to be
a new one,. There are Bagel
“Delis,” also a Bagel Narsh and in
a very swanky section of the Upper
East Side a fancy Bagel Chateau.
The bagel has become stylish-
We can recall the time when the
so-called smart set would not be
caught in the neighborhood of a
bagel. The bagel was maligned,
laughed at. Jokes were made es
pecially about its hardness.
Not a word was heard in its
defense. Actually, the hardness of
the bagel is one of its virtues. The
bagel is very healthy. What makes
the bagel so hard, is its lack of fat.
Millions of people are worried
about cholesterol. The Jews of
Eastern Europe who ate bagels
wefe not bothered much by the
cholesterol problem. If they were
good Jews, they ate bagels and also
r-
if they were good Jews, they didn’t
mix “milchig’ with “fleishig” and
that also tends to a diminution of
cholesterol — and on Shabbes they
ate fish, which also has less
cholesterol. So they didn’t need
Medicare so much. I remember
my father went to a doctor once.
He wanted to sell the doctor a suit.
Also the hardness of the bagel is
good for the teeth. Ask your den
tist and he will tell you that the jaw
also needs exercise. About the only
exercise our jaws get today is when
we talk and nowadays with
everybody watching television,
who talks?
The other day, in a press inter
view, Ellin Mackay Berlin was tell
ing about her married life with the
song writer, Irving Berlin. Their
marriage was a sensation in its
day. Irving Berlin was a famous
song writer when he married, but
the Mackays were strongly op
posed to it. They were of the
wealthy aristocracy and did not
condescend to have their daughter
wed a product of New York's East
Side. Mrs. Berlin told the reporter
that her father later changed his
mind completely about it and the
marriage has been a very happy
one. Mrs. Berlin went on to tell
Recession Impact
by BEN GALLOB
The phasing out of Judaica
, , ... .. , .. . , , , . Chairs in American universities is
much goodwill which his compatriots labored so hard to con- one of the steps being taken by the
struct. Pitiful. Unfortunate. He likely will be punished, as he B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation to
should be, for murder in one way or another. But this offers no
consolidation.
Setting a Good Example
Four years ago, the State Department sent a black Foreign Ser
vice officer to the United States Embassy in the Union of South
Africa. South Africa is a society, of course, in which blacks are
very severely discriminated against. The State Department made
its decision to show that the United States would not bend over
adjust to the impact of the current
slump, according to Rabbi Nor
man Frimer, the newly-named in
ternational director of Hillel.
Rabbi Frimer outlined Founda
tion plans in an interview in the
Women’s World, the publication
of B’nai B’rith Women. He
resisted use of the term
. , . . . _ . “retrenchment,” declaring he
backwards to accommodate itself to South Africa s policies, ac- preferred to speak in terms of
cording to a spokesman. The black diplomat served a perfectly “freezing expansion.” Agreeing
normal tour of duty and returned at the end of his standard two- that Hillel “dreams of
year tour in 1973. i enlargement” were not realistic
What the State Department did was just what it should have currently, Rabbi Frimer declared
done. It showed South Africa and the world that the United , * lat ' t * le priorities within the
States will not lend itself to the practice of racism. It was a Foundation will be applied
recognition that how the United States responds to racism abroad w ere " urts east
tells a lot about what kind of a society we are. Reporting that the Judaic* Chair
The United States now must deal with a group of countries that " ,he C'niversity of Missouri had
not only in varying degrees practice ethnic discrimination at * ,re * dy ***? eliminated and that
home, but have joined in an organized policy that tends to export n, ? re are er . . or „ , ^, r ’
anti-Semitism into nations such as our own. We refer, of course, werf pjoneers ,
to the Arab nations and their boycott of certain banks and chair of Judaic studies but now the
business concerns, professedly for “Zionist” leanings but in- universities are doing it, and we can
evitably lapping over into anti-Semitism. go on to other things,” using funds
There are reports that the wealthiest of these states, Saudi saved by the phase-outs.
Arabia, has been off-limits to American Jewish Foreign Service He said the priorities program
personnel. The State Department says that Saudi Arabia has not W0lJ ld not affect campuses in small
specifically asked that no Jewish diplomats be sent to Saudi c ' l ' es w here Hillel buildings have
Arabia, but that there are no Jews in the U.S. mission there, and a bc ^ om ® literally Jewish centers
spokesman doubts that there have been any in the past. It seems y " un ° j" s m'theVrea^n jz^theV^
to us time for the State Department to make the same point it s f id (hc focus of study ® f that
made in South Africa. . element of Hillel was on
The department says it does not know which of its diplomats metropolitan areas where some
are Jewish, a statement that calls for a very considerable suspen- Hillel houses are presently “fairly
sion of disbelief. But perhaps it could find a qualified Jewish inactive.”
diplomat to serve in Riyadh. This is what the United States did Rabbi Frimer said reconsidera-
with South Africa. It spoke highly for American society then and tion t * ie use ,p^ Hillel facilities
it would now. Saudi Arabia can be a racist country if it likes, but was a . P r ' orit y- He said a serious
the United States should make it plain that it will now follow the q l! e ,V 10, I Wa * , dev f ^°~
lead. - WALL STREET JOURNAL ,'T he,her t0 ma ' n,ai ? l * u,ld, "®‘ off
the campus or to sell those houses
and use the funds to support
others. He said consideration was
being given to buying space in stu
dent centers for Hillel activities.
He declared that the original in
vestment would be very substantial
but that ultimately such purchased
facilities might cost less in
maintenance and attract larger
numbers of students.
,v Rabbi Frimer also said that the
Hillel program was in “desperate
need of middle-management” per
sonnel, meaning area directors,
associates, program guidance ex
perts and supervisors. He noted
that Hillel professional directors
are usually rabbis but that the
burden was “almost too much for
one man ”
He reported a plan was under
consideration to find young Jews
with masters degrees in social
work, or with knowledge of public
relations, or with skills “which
relate to young people and com
munity action.” He said that under
the plan, such Jews would be given
crash courses in Judaism at their
schools for which they would
receive course credits. He said the
goal of the plan was to “teach
enough Judaism to prepare these
people to deal intelligently with the
problems of Jewish youth — not to
produce Jewish scholars.
corvmoHT f - jta
(with apologias io all ^
MobH Prize Wooer*) [bvkxmA/L
***"*«>
about her husband, and how hit
family had arrived from Russia
with only their “bedd gevand."
She used the Yiddish term.
Somehow it all reminded me of
bagels. Bagel, "bedd gevand” and
Russian Jews — all belong to the
same category.
Russian Jews were maligned like
bagels, too. They came with
nothing but “bedd gevand.” Tt)ey
peddled, they worked in sweat
shops. They built up the garment
industry. They helped develop the
moving pictures. They became
doctors. A Salk and a Sabin dis
covered the cure for infantile
paralysis. They helped organize
labor. A Sidney Hillman was an
advisor to Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. They produced com
edians to make the people laugh
and song writers like Irving Berlin
and Gershwin and so on.
Irving Berlin sang God Bless
A meric
The Russian Jews who brought
the bagel saM “gebensht soil sein der
vas hat aosgetracht bagel essen.”
God bless the man who invented
the bagel.
We do not know who was the
genius who invented the bagel.
The inventors of many great
things are unknown to us. Who in
vented the wheel?
The bagel itself is a kind of
wheel. It is round. The inventor of
the bagel must have been an artist.
The circle, Emerson said, is the
primary art form. The shape of the
bagel is no doubt part of its attrac
tion.
Being a philosophical people,
the people of Spinoza and Eins
tein, another thing about the bagel
especially engaged the thought of
the Jew — the whole of the bagel.
A hole is the kind of a thing that
especially interests philosophers.
Holes are very mysterious things.
You can’t take a hole and wrap it
up. Try to put a hole in your hand.
It is impossible. Jews wondered es
pecially — what became of the
hole of the bagel after the bagel is
eaten?
They concluded that after the
bagel is eaten, the hole moved to
the “Kesheneh" (the pocket).
There is no question that, with
the high cost of bagels today, they
do make something of a hole in the
pocket.
COPVMOHT rn - JTA
1 .
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