Newspaper Page Text
***** 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE March 4,
The Southern Israelite GEiPBART
mt
Published weekly by The Southern lereeUle, lae., 1M FllWeath St.,
N,W„ P. O. Boa 77*88, Atlanta, Go. MK7. Phone f7M24$. Seeend
daae pottage paid at Atlanta. Georgia. Yearly enbecrtpUoa, I1I.50.
Deadline U 5 p.ro. Friday, but material reeeteed earlier will have a teach
better choaoo at publication.
Editor and Publisher: Jack Geldbart; Managing Editor:
Vida Goldgar. Office Manager: Cathy Wood; Advertising
Director: Mike Faass; Advertising Sales: Martin Geib,
Kathleen Nease, Alva Engelhard, and J. Allen Anderson; Cir
culation: Hazel Blackburn; Editorial Assistant: Debbie
Ellison.
Are we really the chosen?
MWA*
Jewieh Telegraphic Aptncy
Georgia Preee Amo.
World Union Prom
Society of Profeee lone]
Journaliata, Sigma Delta Chi
I
It seems whenever we need a Mordecai to bring a Haman to
justice, he has been then.
■ ri. v yi4 ■ . ■ ■.
So, -don’t worry Rebecca. There are Hamans everywhere
but we've got our eye on them; and, at the proper time,
-Mordecai will take care of them.
The Editor ;
Atabtotev,
Hswh
TUfe fast//
•mouth 4f»*
MflWTOlAUWR
A S6AZIWG
«UU...
l A£T,A 6tMT
Marx, for
Yet Rebecca,
there is a Hamanl
Dear Editor;
Is there really a Haman as they say in the story of Purim?
Rebecca
Dear Rebecca,
Yes, there is a Haman. As you know, the feast of Purim
was begun to celebrate the deliverance of the Jews from
Hainan's plot to kill them. -In fact, “purim” literally means
“lots” after the ballots cast by Haman to determine the month
in which the slaughter was to take place.
There are still Hamans among us. They are in Uganda,
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and places like that. But, luckily, we also
have Mordecais among us to counteract these crazed, de
mented Hamans.
- - ’
Our Mordecais have fought against the Hamans of the
world to preserve Israel for us; they have flown into Entebbe
to save us; they have tracked down Nazi Hamans and brought
them to justice.
There wee a recent poll among educators to de
termine the persons who have been most influen-
tial in affecting the thinking of
the Western world.
The winners were Moses, Jes
us, Paul, Karl Marx, Sigmund
Freud and Albert Einstein.
I’m sure you’re familiar with
these gentlemen. Moses accept
ed the ten commandments; Jesus
was the great-philosopher of the
New Testament; Paul spread the
influence and the words of Jesus;
better or worse, changed the course of history;
Sigmund Freud was the first to really understand
the human mind; and Albert Einstein gave man a
view of the cosmos, including the ability to de
stroy himself.
These men all have a common relationship. Not
only were they brilliant, not only did they change
the course of history, but they were also all
Jewish.
This does not necessarily mean that the Jew is
intrinsically superior, but somehow through the
ages the Jew has managed to excel.
Why is this, do you think?
Historian Arnold Toynbee's theory is that man
is constantly being challenged by his environment
and if he responds and reacts to the challenge, he
survives and achieves. We all know that the Jew
has faced constant challenge and has responded by
developing a stoic, disciplined culture that has
managed to survive no matter what history has
managed to impose on him.
The Roman Empire, onr the other hand, did not
respond or react to challenge but reveled in the
“good life” and finally disappeared.
The Jew was exiled over 2000 years ago and has
been wandering since. But unlike the Roman, the
Jew chose to react to persecution by searching for
spiritual meaning and values in what appeared to
be an insane world.
Ann Frank’s diary is a classic example of how
challenge and painful circumstance can transform
seemingly ordinary people into the extraordinary.
Actually, Jews have devised certain touchstones
that have served to perpetuate Judaism and ac
count, I think, for a startling individual achieve
ment record.
Foremost is the strong pull of Jewish tradition
which is set out in the Old Testament and the
Talmud* including a personal relationship with
God as personified by Tevye in Fiddler on the
Roof. Somehow, in our bones, we know that we are
the “chosen people.”
This feeling of “specialness” is also felt strongly
in the influence of our European past The
memory of the ghetto and the Holocaust is still
fresh and has a great influence on our sen
sibilities. After 2000 years of wandering we know
all about trial and tribulation and how to handle it.
But in spite of this record of being "chosen,” and
in spite of the searching which has made us
“special,” there are times when we ask, “Why me?
Why do I always have to be chosen?”
I think it is because of this questioning nature,
and because of our final acceptance of our
Jewishness, that even after a prolonged inner
struggle of faith — we are still around.
With all this working for us, is there any wonder
we excel?
Look-out!
% . . ; s ' f *
Rev. Moon wants your children!
■ •/. By Robert E. Segal..., .... . . ; ,
Unification is a word much
used in Korea. The Rev. Sun
Myung Moon comes from Korea.
He apparently decided long ago
that by using the magic word
and applying it to his many-
faceted religious activities here
in the United States, he could
make a big American thing out
of the Unification Church.
Many in the Jewish communi
ty, painfully aware that a dis
proportionate number of young
Jews have joined the Moon cult,
have been properly alarmed
about the Moon Unification
movement. So it is that the
American Jewish Committee
made public in December a
study accusing the Korean
evangelist of unrelieved hostility
to Jews and Judaism. Moon’s
book, Divine Principle, a Com
mittee statement said, is replete
with hostile and vicious anti-
Jewish stereotypes. Example:
Moon uses the most objec
tionable elements in the Chris
tian tradition to describe the
crucifixion.
Badly stung by this
documented criticism, the
Korean crusader took full-page
advertising space, appealing to
his “Jewish Brethren” to realize
that his movement “categorical
ly condemns anti-Semitism, the
most hideous, abject and cruel
form of hatred.” Judaism,
Christianity, and Moonism are
brothers, said Moon, just u
Israel, the U.S. and Korea are.
Fortunately, representatives
of Protestantism, Catholicism,
and the Jewish community have
now joined in a stern effort to
debunk the -Moon eampaii
Ms—'■ anti Bamitiaas is i
X
but not the major target,,of their
endeavor. They know that to
overlook any part of Moon’s
propagandist activities,
schemes, adventures, and his
amazing successes would be a
grave error.
For this energetic and per
suasive religious entrepreneur
has erected such a sugar-coated
facade over his amazing
program that thousands at first
apprehensive, may be lulled into
a deceptive sense of security
regarding his program.
The overarching' danger is
that Moon may succeed in bring-
ing a pseudo-spiritual
authoritarian movement into an
actual threat to well-established
and long-cherished religious in
stitutions and to democracy.
Consider, for example, this
statement from Alan Tate
Wood, 29, a Rutgers University
student' who, in as interview
with Parade Magazine said be
left the Moon movement
“because it’s not a church, but a
fascist political movement. His
group is the most powerful
analogue to the Hitler youth
that we have at this time.”
Consider Mood’s own
testimony: “Individualistic
thinking must be annihilated.”
Ask yourself why Moon con
stantly hits the trail against
Communism but leaves the
searcher of his record with the
suspicion that his concept of
Unification could easily embrace
many df the worst features of
fascism.
Or note the glib inconsisten
cies in his preachments: One
day, he informs the world that
his
“chosen
favorite; then, wiieu it comes
time for him to make a great to-
do about the American Bicenten
nial, he declares it was these
United States that were “chosen
by God.” At this juncture, might
one ask where that leaves God’s
P romise to the followers of
loses?
Condemning materialism,
Moon has piled acquisition upon
acquisition. Two years ago, his
spokesman said he had $10
million worth of property and
probably would add $10 million
more. One goal is to buy the Em
pire State building.
Some 300 American parents
have appealed to Washington for
a probe of this showman, whose
spellbound young .votaries are
urged to go into the streets to
collect for the movement. Some
return with between $100 and
$400 daily.
The , government of Taiwan
has been probing Moon’s
Unification movement; the Ver
mont Senate by overwhelming
vote has launched a similar in
vestigation, the New York Coun
cil of Churches has turned down
his request for membership,
Korean religious leaders have
been highly critical of this man
who has drawn thousands into
his cult after he asserted that
Jesus ampeared to him on a
Korean hillside 40 yean age and
urged him to finish the work em
bodied by the Christian church.
Philo-eemitic, anti-semitic, or
neutral, Mr. Moon pierces our
awareness because we have
heard the same tune played in
Germany, Italy, Russia, and a
host of the dictator-plagued
CUlrjtOoA hi rmuifttO
•store)