Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE September 5, 1986
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newipoper For Southern Je^r*
Since 1925
Vida Goldgar Jeff Rubin
Editor General Manager
Luna Levy
Managing Editor
Published by Sun Publications, Inc.
also publishers of The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
Stan Rose Steve Rose
Chairman and President and
Publisher Co Publisher
Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta, Ga (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060)
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Southern Israelite, P O Box
77388, Atlanta, GA 30357
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 77388, Atlanta, Georgia 30357
Location: 188 15th St., N.W., Atl., Ga. 30318 Phone (404)876-8248
Advertising rates available upon request.
Subscriptions: $23.00, 1 year; $41.00, 2 years
Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Religious News Service;
American Jewish Press Assn.; Georgia Press Assn.; National Newspaper Assn.
Lend a hand
Despite this week’s sudden chill, summer isn’t over yet.
Still, the drop in temperature had many of us checking our
thermostats and pilot lights. When the cold weather sets in for
good, we’ll be ready.
But it is not too soon to start thinking about those less fortu
nate, who not only have no furnaces, but no homes...the street
people.
Both The Temple and Congregation Shearith Israel, with
assistance from other congregations and individuals, have oper
ated night shelters for several years, providing hot meals and beds
for those with nowhere to turn.
This is a good time to include the shelters in our plans. They
can use volunteers to help staff the shelters and donations to help
provide for the basic needs of those who have nothing.
Planning for the shelter operations doesn’t wait until the cold
weather comes. It’s going on now. Let them hear from you.
Vida Goldgar
A bit of history
The long Labor Day weekend gave me an oppor
tunity to tidy up my office at home. Besides the
appropriate desk, file cabinet, typewriter and book-
shelf, there’s a corner stacked high
with odds and ends of the sort of
material one collects at conven
tions and tours of out-of-town pla
ces of interest. I resisted the temp
tation of going through the half-
dozen or so plastic bags loaded
with material collected in Israel.
Those would take a couple of week
ends of sorting all by themselves.
collected this past June when I was in Massachusetts
for the American Jewish Press Association meeting.
In it was some fascinating data about the American
Jewish Historical Society. Periodically, we’ve run
material from our Southern Jewish Historical Society,
but I’m not sure we’ve had a lot about the AJHS.
Since so many of you expressed interest in a
column a couple of weeks ago about an exhibit on
early Jewish farming, I thought you might like to
know more about what you can find the next time you
are in the Boston area. It’s the foremost collection of
primary source material on the American Jewish
community. Or at least that is what a flier says and I
won’t argue with them. The library alone has over
75,000 books, six million manuscripts and thousands
of periodicals.
Since our AJPA convention was hosted by Bran-
deis University, and since the American Jewish His
torical Society headquarters has been on the Brandeis
campus since 1968 (before that it was the Jewish Theo
logical Seminary), we were invited to a reception at
the society. When we were there, the highlight was an
exhibit •'••Milled “1 iftinp the I amp for Freedom: The
Statue of Liberty, Emma Lazarus and Joseph Pulit
zer.” That was appropriate for this special “Liberty"
summer but there’s a lot more. After all, they’ve been
collecting for almost a hundred years.
The American Jewish Historical Society was
founded in 1892 by a group of German-American
Jews. It was a private society, with membership by
invitation only. Today membership is open to all, and
though the headquarters are at Brandeis, the AJ HS is
an independent institution.
The oldest items, dating back some 400 years, are
“procesos” or trial records from the Inquisition in
Mexico. Seventeenth century synagogue records are
there, along with historic records about Jewish indi
viduals and communal organizations in the Carib
bean. There are records of ships which brought immi
grants to Boston in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Included in the papers of Haym Salomon, financier ot
the Revolutionary government, is the 1777 ketubah
signed at his marriage to Rachel Franks. It is the
earliest surviving example of an American ketubah.
Portraits of American Jews include works by
Thomas Sully and Charles Peale and Ben Shahn’s
original water colors lor his Passover Haggadah are
there as well. A surveyor’s drawing, done in 1765, of
the first Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia is part of the
collection as are most recent American Yiddish theater
posters and playbills.
The AJHS is far more than a repository for
researchers. Three centuries of Jewish experience in
the New World come alive within its walls
It’s definitely worth a visit.
Additional information can be obtained by writ
ing American Jewish Historical Society, 2 Thornton
Road, Waltham, Mass. 02154.
Staff
Take a bow
Wednesday evening’s superb concert by the Israel Philhar
monic Orchestra was a rare treat for Atlanta.
The committee and sponsors who worked so hard to make it
possible—and in the process will be able to make a generous
contribution to the orchestra’s endowment fund—deserve our
thanks.
by Stanley M. Lefco
The volunteer’s creed: 1 shall
ascertain the problem. I shall deter
mine the objective. 1 shall perform
the task, for 1 can do the job. I’ll
just need a little help from the staff.
Let’s take the bicycle as a sym
bolic example. The volunteer decides
he wants to traverse the rock-
strewn and treacherous uphill
course, and the bicycle seems the
best way to do it. He, which hereaf
ter includes by implication “she,”
hops on and pedals madly. His des
tination is just ahead. Suddenly,
the front tire explodes, unmistak
ably signaling a flat.
Flustered, the volunteer looks
gloomily in all directions for help.
Let’s add a burning sun to make
our volunteer particularly dis
traught. Like the Lone Ranger, the
staff comes to the rescue. They
repair the flat, brush off cheerfully
the volunteer’s bruised ego, pro
vide a tuna sandwich and a cold
drink, and gently encourage him to
continue on his trip. Parentheti
cally, it was probably the staff who
obtained the bike in the first place,
had it readied for the trip, and
encouraged the volunteer that it
was the best way to meet the objec
tive. Knowing what was ahead,
they also likely made sure it was a
10-speed and had a spare available
just in case.
So who is staff? They are the
professionals who keep the agen
cies and organizations afloat. They
likely have degrees in social work.
Some have even come from the
ranks of the volunteers. They per-
■ r :* tR* i <* <
volunteers loathe and can some
times be spotted cringing when
mentioned. Included in the infam
ous list is sending out announce
ments of meetings and events, ar
ranging the meetings, securing the
location, ordering the meals or
other refreshments, typing up agen
das and minutes, making innumer
able phone calls, and on and on ad
infinitum.
Dolly Parton's 9-to-5 doldrums
do not apply to staff.
Meetings and events are primar
ily planned to accommodate volun
teers. Since many work, evening
programs and events are common
place. l.unches for staff frequently
mean sitting down with volunteers.
The room is reserved. The seats are
set up. The food is waiting. The
volunteers arrive, generally obliv
ious to the fact that someone, i.e.
staff, w as responsible for putting it
all together. The fact that the volun
teer may take it all for granted is a
compliment to staff. He just expects
that it will all be handled.
On the other front staff imple
ments. The volunteers call for pro
grams to help the family in eco
nomic crisis, the unemployed, the
aged, the handicapped, and those
with what seem to be insurmoun
table problems. The list is endless.
The volunteers meet, discuss, re
view, argue—with an underlying
spirit of cooperation and conge
niality, and in the end set goals and
objectives. And the staff responds
and sets the wheels in motion.
They must be dedicated. Volun
teers are by no means the easiest lot
with whom to work. They can be
difficult, obstinate and downright
impossible on occasions. Yet, the
staff pamper, accept any criticism,
suggest, and then work to get the
job done.
Dedication also is exemplified
by a commitment to a higher goal:
to improving the quality of life by
helping those in need and provid
ing programs and events for the
education and enjoyment of the
community.
Like the volunteer, society does
not honor or appreciate the staff
enough. Misplaced priorities result
in recognition and economic re
wards for those lucky enough to be
born with certain talents such as
singing, dancing and athletic skills
Undaunted, the volunteer and stall
trudge and press on, for theirs is a
nobler cause. In the end it is their
achievements that will truly make
the world a better place.
Let’s hope there will always be
those who will accept the chal
lenge, dream that impossible dream,
right that unrightable wrong, and
help those desperate and sometimes
confused volunteers.
sDemjanjuk treated well by Israeli,
NEW YORK (JTA)—The family of John Demjanjuk, the
Ukrainian-born auto worker accused of sending thousands of Jews
to their deaths at the Nazis’ Treblinka death camp, has praised the
treatment he is receiving from Israeli authorities.