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Letters
Threat to religious freedom seen
Editor:
As a former resident of Atlanta
I enjoy my subscription to The
Southern Israelite. But, I have
been very disappointed that there
has been no coverage of a serious
situation, of concern to all Jews,
in your close neighbor, the state
of Alabama.
There is a class action suit in
process now in the Federal Dis
trict Court against the state of
Alabama Board of Education
claiming that the religion of Sec
ular Humanism is being promoted
through textbooks in our public
schools. This conspiracy has been
fabricated by fundamentalist
Christians (the Eagle Forum
president, Phyllis Schafley) as a
ploy to get “equal time” for “other
religions” (of course the only
religion they want in the books is
Christianity).
It is rumored that it is highly
likely that they will win and set a
precedent for the whole country.
These people are extremely
well-organized, well-funded and
zealously devoted in their efforts.
They have been reviewing text
books in Texas, as well as attend
ing State Textbook Committee
meetings for 20 years, leading to
successfully pressuring major
textbook publishers to censor
school texts from the fundamen
talists point of view.
We all must take them seriously
now! They pose a real threat to
our Constitutional Right of Reli
gious Freedom. We must stand
up for our rights, or we will
surely lose them. Write letters to
the editors of your local papers,
write to President Reagan, find
out what they are doing in your
state and monitor them, and get
involved with your State Text
book Committee.
We cannot afford to hide our
heads in the sand anymore and
believe they will go away—They
won’t!
Sharon Bromberg (Mrs. Edward)
Birmingham, Ala.
Reaction to Chapovsky’s return
Editor:
It is foolhardy and risky to
arrive at definite conclusions
based on a brief newspaper item
(Atlanta Journal/Constitution-
Oct. 25). Relying only on that
news report, Yuri Chapovsky is
leaving Atlanta to return to his
native Russia. Upon being ques
tioned, Chapovsky, a young Jew
with parents and a brother in
Atlanta replied “they obviously
reacted badly.”
In no way do I wish to add to
their anguish. It is, however,
sickening and disgusting to wit
ness the spectacle of a Jew re
turning to a land that has impri
soned hundreds of thousands of
his people. Chapovsky states:
“Words like democracy and free
dom” which he envisioned before
coming to the United States “did
not match the deeds.”
I do not know Yuri Chapovsky,
but unless there are facts of which
I am not aware, I would hazard a
guess that he is a Jew in name
only. Surely, he knows the fate of
a Sakharov, the ordeal of a
Shcharansky, the torment and
frustration of multitudes of re-
fusniks who have been subjected
to exile, to degradation, to im
prisonment and to lives of virtual
meaninglessness.
Does he know that an action
such as his serves only to harden
the Soviet position, to encourage
the Politburo to turn a deaf ear
to the pleas of those tormented
Jews who cry out for freedom. At
a time when world Jewry is doing
all within its power to gain basic
human rights for fellow Jews, the
action of this young man dam
ages and undermines their efforts.
To his family I extend sincere
sympathy and understanding. As
for Yuri, he may become a hero
of short duration but as surely as
night follows day he will come to
regret his foolhardy and thought
less decision.
Max E. Robkin
Call to action for jailed Cubans
Editor:
If, instead of Cubans, 1,800
Jews were confined without trial
to the Atlanta penitentiary, many
driven to suicide, would we be as
apathetic as we are now? Would
we not be writing letters, phon
ing our political representatives,
badgering everyone who had an
ounce of influence to see that jus
tice and mercy were accorded
our brethren?
How can we, of all people,
allow human beings—or even
animals—to rot in cages for years
upon endless years because they
sought liberty?
No doubt some of the detain
ees deserve the punishment. And
maybe worse. This might also
have been true for some Jews
during the H itler era inasmuch as
they were part of a cross section
of civilization.
If we were baffled by the
world’s indifference to the plight
of Jews in Germany we could
rationalize that much of it was
due to ignorance. Are we ignor
ant, too? Or simply just as cal
lous as our non-Jewish counter
parts to cries of agony when the sounds
don’t emanate from our own
denomination?
What would it take to sensitize
us? Wasn’t the loss of six million
of our people enough? What else
must God do to get us aroused?
Joseph Greenberger
We’ve Moved
Just a reminder that The Southern Israelite is now in its
new offices at 300 Atlanta Technology Center, Suite 365,
1575 Northside Drive, N.W., Atlanta, GA 30318.
The newspaper’s mailing address is P.O. Box 250287,
Atlanta, GA 30325.
The telephone number is (404) 355-6139.
Light unto the nations
by Stanley M. Lefco
It was the article by Shimon
Peres in The New York Times
Magazine section of Oct. 5, that
brought to my attention that this
year marked the 100th anniver
sary of David Ben-Gurion’s birth.
Peres recalled that when he
first met Ben-Gurion, he discov
ered that he was a man of few
words. I recalled reading several
years ago a book of his memoirs
and was also fascinated to learn
that Ben-Gurion did not enjoy
small talk and only spoke if he
had something important to say.
Clearly, he was totally devoted
to the Jewish people. Peres wrote
that Ben-Gurion “believed with
all the fervor of his personality
that the greatest contribution of
the Jewish people to the world
lay in the priority they accorded
to morality above all else in the
life of the individual and the
nation.”
The first chapter of his memoirs,
which was based on a series of
interviews, deals with his opin
ions of the Jewish people. He
viewed the question of man’s
mission on earth as paramount
among Jews individually and as
a people. He believed that the
metaphysical nature of the Bibli
cal ethic developed a universal
conscience in the Jew. Such a
conscience, he asserted, was not
a “comfortable thing to have.”
On the one hand it could not be
satisfied and on the other it
created resentment among those
with lesser consciences.
Interestingly, Ben-Gurion used
the example of Jesus, whom he
felt had a universal conscience,
which in part led to his death at
an early age. Jews, he noted,
have since their exile “suffered
perpetual martyrdom.”
He believed that the Jews of
the Diaspora could never be ex
clusively Jewish. He went so far
as to claim that they are Jewish
very little. Jews of the Diaspora
live in a permanent “condition of
exile.” They are in a never-ending
struggle to preserve their Jewish
identity in the face of the pres
sures of assimilation.
He described the American
Jew as being a split person. On
the High Holy Days and when
involved in Jewish communal
life, he is a Jew. The rest of the
time he is living the life of any
other American. He even con
tended that the observant Jew is
living as a non-Jew most of the
time. “At worst, his Jewishness is
held against him, minimal though
it be at best, it counts for little in
his daily life.”
Obviously, Ben-Gurion’s solu
tion to the problem is aliyah.
Jews should come to Israel. Only
in Israel can the Jew avoid the
ghetto or assimilation. Being
Jewish in Israel is as natural as
being Greek in Greece, he ex
plained.
Assimilation appeared of great
concern to him. He stressed that
where Jews are not persecuted
“an increasingly high number
vanish, dramatically but passively,
passing into an anonymity born
of lack of conviction.”
He concluded that there can be
“no higher Jewish ideal than
creating from this bare, besieged
little land a rich and enduring
way of life that in its plentitude
will never stop searching for new
areas of endeavor but that will
serve as a model to inspire hu
manity everywhere.”
A young girl once asked Ben-
Gurion what was the day in his
life that caused him the most
satisfaction. He replied, “What is
satisfaction? We cannot be satis
fied. If you are satisfied, you
begin to be pampered, to be lazy;
you cease to create, to struggle, to
believe.”
A single candle
by Ben Rabinowitz
It was “Ne’ilah”...The Con
cluding Service, after a beautiful
Yom Kippur Day of prayer and
fasting. Dusk was quickly falling
on the several hundred worship
ers in Congregation Beth Jacob.
All were standing...attentive to
the chanting of the chazzan,
Open Thou the gates, O Lord,
Yea, even as it swingeth closed,
For lo, the day dec line th fast...
And the day did decline fast
...all the lights went out! The
sanctuary was almost black, with
just a little light from the quickly
darkening outside sneaking in
from the dome. The cantor con
tinued as if it were normal to
chant these words in the dark...
...As the day doth wane, O
Lord,
Yea, even as the sun doth set,
O let us enter in Thy gate.
He and his choir continued
their singing and leading the ser
vice—as if from memory. Amaz
ingly, not a sound was heard
from the worshipers...no one
moved...no one left...those stand
ing around or near the windows
continued their participation.
Forgive us, O our Father, for
we have sinned...
When the light was just at the
stage of utter darkness, the jani
tor strolled calmly down the aisle,
a single candle in his hand. He
placed it on the cantor’s table as
if it were something he does every
night, and calmly walked away.
Again, not a sound was heard,
not a beat was missed. The can
tor and choir continued with the
congregation repeating after
them:
...Our Father, our King, seal in
the Book of Happy Life.
Our Father, our King, seal us
for a meritorious life...
The scene was hypnotic...bo
dies swaying in the light of a sin
gle candle...people pressing
around the cantor and choir to
use what little light they could
find from the flickering beams.
The Ner Tamid, The Eternal
Flame, threw a golden glow above
the Ark, outlining the figures of
the rabbi and president with the
person who had opened the Ark
at the start.
The cantor and choir, the glow
of the single candle reflecting on
their faces, reached that last,
emotional page of the Ne’ilah
service, the Affirmation of Faith.
The cantor sang: Sh'ma Yis-
rael...
The congregation responded
loudly.
The cantor sang three times:
Baruch Shem Kovod...
The congregation responded
so strongly, so emotionally the
walls seemed to shake.
The cantor sang seven times:
HaShem Ho Eloikim...
The Eternal, He is G-d
The congregation responded,
with such strength, such fervor as
if they knew they were truly wit
nessing the handiwork of G-d.
Then the rabbi, now standing
Continued from page 4
The American Jewish Com
mittee protested the message, with
Theodore Ellenoff, national
president, saying that the cam
paign committee “had a good
cause in mind—that is, to get
more voters to come out on elec
tion day, but was marred by a
narrow and religiously sectarian
message designed to appeal spe
cifically to born again Christians
and others.”
The AJC called on the GOP to
withdraw the ad and remove any
sectarian references.
According to the Constitution
beside the cantor, lifted the long,
twisting shofar to his lips and
blew a long joyful blast... its
sound seemed to penetrate through
the darkened sanctuary, bounc
ing off the walls, around the
dome and into the hearts of the
silent worshipers....
And then the cantor...L’Shana
Habaah Beyerushalayim
Next Year in Jerusalem
Joyfully singing the words...
over and over...and the bodies
swayed...singing the words...and
soon the bodies moved in a circle
around the cantor’s table, joy
fully dancing in the beautiful
candlelight. The congregation
sang, tears streaming down their
faces, tears reflected in the can
dlelight... a scene that could never
be planned...a surrealistic scene
that no one who participated
would ever forget.
A Yom Kippur service to keep
in their hearts and minds for a
lifetime...an experience they
would tell and retell to their chil
dren and grandchildren. “I was
there at Beth Jacob on Yom
Kippur in 1986, when G-d reached
down and touched us.
report, the GOP’s Morgan, in
addition to calling the criticism
an overreaction, claimed “they
are doing so for partisan political
reasons.”
That view is as narrow as the
commerical itself. The commer
cial perpetuates the view that
only “good Christians” and Re
publicans are opposed to porno
graphy, drugs, criminality.
Overreaction? No.
The
Southern Israelite
A Prize-Winning
Newspaper
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