The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, May 2, 1975 - Page 5
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin appears to be in a pensive mood as he attends a memorial service for the soldiers who have fallen in IsraeFs four wars with the Arabs. Chief Chaplain, Aluf Mordechai Piron Qeft) and Chief of Staff Gur stand beside hnn. (IPPA photo)
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By J.B. SALSBERG
[Last, at last, of New Haggadah]
Let us, flnally, fill our fourth, the last, of the four cups consumed at the seder. But before we drink let us praise those of our pioneers who constituted the beautiful people of their day.
Among the most ^pathetic and unhappy of our fathers'and grandfathers who came from Eastern Europe before the First World War were those old-world Orthodox men who were determined to continue their "old countn," way of life within the new, strange, Canadian cultural setting.
The secularists, the radicals, and even the less rigid, religious practitioners, found it possible to build the framework for a new Jewish society in their new home. Most' of their newly formed organizations and institutions built bridges tdtbrin«t'them>^ bodies and groups that expressed ideas and outlooks similar to theirs.
But the undeviating orthodoxy of our forefathei^ could not do that. The non-Jewish world aroutid them remained largely outside of their concern and they also isolated themselves from the new. the "American Yiddishkeit" concepts. They were alienated from both. They accepted their isolation stoically, painful though it was. and strove to build their own small encampments, transplantations of their old world, within the larger Jewish settlements that grew in strength all around them.
The unhappiness of many of those pious men was made even more acute by their separation from their wives and children, who were left behind in the old country. A large percentage of those: uprooted men had yet to decide whether they would remain in America and bring
their families here, or whether they would "return home" because one cannot live a satisfactory Jewish life in "treife" atmosphere.
In the meantime, hundreds of them were roomers or borders. (Some set up simple, co-operative housekeepmg places in which two or three close Mends conducted their strictly religious way of life). But most of them sat at other people's tables, day-dreamed of their own families and drank their bitter cup of loneliness in silence. They sought solace andforgetfulness in their favorite shul or shteeble.
Let us praise the memory of those consistent and dedicated forerunners of our community.
Then there were the many high-minded and self-sacrificing men and women of the earlier generations, known as the Jewish secularists. Some of this influential sector had elevated labor the earning, of one's livelihood by coie's own hands or brain—toa principle, an article of faith. They, and others less concerned with the labor principle, aimed at the total restructuring of Jewish social and cultural life.
. Men and women of this dynamic camp dedicated themselves with an almost religious fervor, to the creation of ambitious networks of secular institutions. They biiilt new types of schools, founded a Yiddish press, theatre, music; literature and a multitude of organizations and popular movements, (unions, fraternal organizations, etc.) to advance their new goals.
Let us also recall and honor their pioneering efforts in the shaping of a distinctly Jewish mosaic in this country.
Last, but not least, let us pay our highest tributes to the memories of our mothers and grandmothers of earlier, pioneering years when we were all new
in this land. They were the unsung heroes of the rooting and blossoming periods of our community's growth throughout Canada.
Kfost of them fulfilled the roles of wives, mothers, housekeepers and active co-builders of our new life here at the same time. They worked, side by side with their menfolk in the fields of western Canada; they worked in the clothing shops until childbirth kept them at home; they helped their men. who were often forced to bring bundles of work home, so as to raise the family's income; they fiilly shared the duties of ^ teiiding to the tiny groceries, bakeshops. butther shops, restaurants which were often operated on the ground, floors of their residences.
It was our mothers and grandmothers who, in addition to all those duties, kept high the standards of education for their children. They also found time to form countless Societies to look after the needy and the sick of our communities and to raise funds for their favorite institutions and movements. Nor did they stay apart from the efforts to help the needy in the "old. country" and to religiously drop their coins into the various "pushkes" (collection boxes) for Eretz Yisroel.
Glory, to the memory of those triie "women of valor," our mothers and grandmothers, the most meritorious of our pioneering ancestors who contributed so much to what we now have in our communities across the land..
So, let us all rise, with the fourth and last of the four traditional cups of wine in our hands, and u-ith grateful hearts let us drink to the glorious memory of our Canadian Jewish founding fathers and mothers. Lechayim! And may we all live to gather at the seder table a year from now. Amen.
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Himself is doctor, miracle drug'
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By RABBI MEIR GOTTESMAN
Paishat Behar- Bechokoty
V*nos«tee shalom ba*aietz... And 1 will give peace in the land — and none shall make you afraid...
Not every medicine comes from the'drug store — the greatest miracle drug is when the Almighty Himself is the doctor...
Once Rabbi Nachum of Tchemobel wais called to the Torah when the frightening "tochacho" warnings ( Which are read this week) were read. The sickly and pain-ridden rabbi was nervotis at receiving such an "honor". But a strange thing happened.... the reader was the Baal Shem Tov, and as the tzadik read the "curses". Rabbi Nachum felt his pains leaving him, one by one... When the sectjon was done, he was a well man again...(Mee'ginzay Tzadikim)
Why should Our loving Father ever curse us — chas v.'slialom? But every threat has a blessing in it.Vpor example...G—d warned that things would get so, bad that "v'achaltem b'sar b'naychem...you will eat the flesh of your children..." A curse? No! G—d promised when our children grow up and w^ visit them, their meat will come from a kosher butcher store so that we eat it^ and not have to settle for cottage cheese or tuna fish...(Ituray Torah)
The way to make every tzaros disappear and earn G—d's blessing is by showing consideration for other people's feelings. Consider...the Torah said — "es kaspecho lo seetayn b'neshech — you shall not give money on neshecfa— interest..." Literally, though, "neshech" means "to bite." But it teaches an important thing. When we lend or give someone money, we have to see there's no "bite". We have to inake sure the person we're helping doesn't feel like two cents because we have a sour face... It's not only how much we give, but how we give..."(Rabbi Moshe of Kuvrin)
You can't be a "good" Jew and a bad person — if a Jew does not set an example of what a fine human being should be like, then he has a long way to go... That's why we And an interesting thing... When G—d blessed the Jews, He said — "v'olaych es'chem komemeeyut — 1 made you walk with your _heads up..." How is-that possibIe?_After all. our rabbis taught that when a person walks with his head up like a big shot. he's driving away the holy spirit — what kind of blessing is this? But the Ribono she] Olam told the Jews, "listen, you have [ to shape up. 'When you run after-yqur passions, more food, nlore drink, more pretty girls...you resemble animals who always have their head down, scrounging the earth for new treats to satisfy themselves with. A Jew should be a mentcfa, with his head lip — looking towards heaven trying to find Me — and setting an example for others..."(Mezrit-cher Maggid)
How can a Jew always keep his eyes upward? When he remembers that someday all of us will be in that great Bathurst Street in the sky — no one stays here forever. When the Almighty spoke to the ' Jews, He told them — "kce gerim v'toshaiyim atem eemadi...you are strangers and settlers with Me..." What did He niean? But G—d said, "listen, if you
consider yourselves strangers and visitors, that you're just passing through this world...then I will be a toshav — 1 will settle my holy spirit on you. But if you get in your mind that your running the store — then 1 will be a ger, I will be like a stranger to you..."(Ohel Yaakov)
They say that Rabbi Meir Premishlaner could walk down the steepest, iciest mountains to get to a mikveh, without ever slipping. His chassidim asked him how he managed not to fall. The saint laughed — "when you're tied to above, you don't fall below.. "(Sipuray Chassidim)
May our enemies turn to friends, 'and peace reign the land. Shabbat Shalom.
Pleas* not* our Sparta from tiM Torah TV sdiadula: Metro Cable, Mondays at 7:30. Wednesdays at 5; York Cable, Tuesdays at 8; Willow Downs Cable, Tuesdays at 8:30: KeeNe Cable. Thursdays at 8.
THERE IT WAS. MY BIS P/IY... WITH FLOWERS FOR SYLVIA
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By SHELDON KDtSHNER Staff Reporter
TORONTO —
North American Jewry has made admirable strides in the last 40 years, but today Jews have more difficulty maintaining open and intimate individual relationships with non-Jews than in the past.
This is the contention of Dr. Martin A.Cohen, professor of Jewish history at the New York School of the College-Institute. Cohen, an ordained rabbi, was here recently to deliver two lectures on the future of North American Jewry at Holy Blossom Temple.
In an interview at the Inn on the Park. Cohen said that despite their success and acculturation info North American society, Jews generally and not infrequendy "experience difficulty in participating fully and openly" in non-Jewish society. He ackowledged that there is less occupational discrimination today than before Worid War 11. Yet he also stressed that among upper and lower middle class Jews, the feeling persists that integration with their Gentile peers is becoming increasingly harder to achieve.
Asked to explain the appairent contradiction between this phenomenon and. the prominence of Jews in all aspects of Canadian and American life, Cohen said North American society is now more highly structured along "lines carrying a religious tag." He remarked that upper class Jews, unlike in the past, will not so easily assimilate into Gentile society because the social system is far more formalized and restrictive than in the earlier days of North American history.
Dr. Martin A. Cohen,
Cohen said the Jong-range implications of this trend toward greater solidification is that Jews will find "social fulfilment" within their own communities. He emphasized, however, that this does not mean Jews and non-Jews will no longer socialize.
In fact, he continued, the intermarriage rate will probably continue to climb. But intermarriage hardly spells the demise of the Jewish community, he added, because it is often acconipanied by conversion and creation of Jewish homes. .
Cohen observed that anti-Semitism in North America "is certainly a threat to take seriously."
Postulating that anti-Semitism is a function of disorder and unrest, which the U.S. is currently experiencing, Cohen asserted he has great faith in the ability of his country and indeed in the West to emerge from tlie revolutionary changes it is undergoing with a healthy and essentually unimpaired democratic society. ; He scoffed at the notion that present-day America is comparable to Weimar Germany. "We have the material and political -resources to bring about change and have established democratic political traditions." he said.
And he added with alaugh, "No pogroms are coming."
He said it is unlikely that a Jew can become president of the United States because prejudice "is deeply rooted against Jews and Catholics."
And he dismissed the idea that the ' electoral power of American Jews can influence U.S. policy in the Middle East to any important degree. "By themselves Jews don't have the strength to overturn policy, though they can be influential in areas where there are alternatives."
Cohen was asked to assess the state of the relationship between American Blacks and
Jews.
"Within another 15 years there will be a return to a fine symbiotic relationship," he said. By that time, the process of displacement of Jews by Blacks Will have been accomplished, and serious competition between the groups will no longer be based on purely racial lines.
These Bundists get together in a forest near Pinsk in 1905. The Bund was led by Arkady Kremer, an engineer, but in I90I, Vladimir Medem took control of the organization. He severed relations with the Russian Social Democratic party. (Bund Archives, New Yoik)
Relatively short life span of the Bund in Russia not prevent labor movement from effecting strong and beneficial impact around the world
Landmark Events
In Our History
By ROCHELLE CARR
TORONTO —
May Day — Russia — 1905. Strikes that were paralyzing the country spread like wildfire. Among those organizations whipping up enthusiasm to draw attention to the plight of the Russian woricer was the Jewish Socialist Bund-In 1897. the same year Theodore Herzl stood before the first Zionist Congress in Basle, a meeting took place in a blacksmith's house in Vilna. While some of the 15 men present peered out the window for any sign of the police, the reist
hammered out the structure and philosophy of the Bund.
An alternative to Marxism (an ideology unpalatable to the shtetls' Orthodox) and. for the most part, an opponent to Zionism (Bundists tended to argue that dreams of a homeland elsewhere weake;ned one's desire to improve one's existing conditions). Bundism offered a palliative for the working poor.
While trudging daily to the factories springing up within the Czar's vast domain, the Jewish proletariat could look forward only to long hours and low wages. Then, one of the results of the meeting in the blacksmith's house gave them an all-powerful weapon — the strike.
The stealth with which the Bundists moved about the industrial areas, the coolness and open contempt they displayed for authorities, all added exitement to streetcomer gossip and strength to the Bundist movement. Even as members were being carted off to Siberia, more and more Jews flocked to the Bundist banner as strike after strike brought improvements to the habitual kasha diet of the poor Jewish worker.
Under the leadership of an engineer, Arkady Kremer, the movement took root. In
1901, colorful and audacious 24-year-old Vladimir Medem took control and quickly severed all ties with the Russian Social Democratic party, giving the Bund a distinct Jewish character.
Fired by Medem's "chutzpah" (by then the Bund was playing douii its anti-reli-igious bent and giving Yiddish a standing of importance by demanding the state recognize it as an official language), many villages put themselves under total control by the Bund.
But then, in I9l4. *'the war to end all wars" erupted and signalled the beginning of the end of the Bund. A few years later, the Russian Revolution provided the final blow.
Despite its relatively short life span, the Bund had its effect on history. Many of the thousands of Jews that poured out of Russia ait the beginning of the century carried with them Bundist ideas that were to affect trade union movements in many countries. As well. Bundist philosophy, shared by socialists elsewhere, put chinks in the ghetto wall by enabling the Russian Jewish worker to feel less isolated and more a part of the brotherhood of the world's laboring force.
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The Yiddish Maven cartoon is the creation of John de PUIis, chairman of the mathematics department at the University of California. Comic strips are usually humosous, often
philosophical and sometimes educationaL dc Pillis seems to hive accomplidied aD three in his work. He hopes to acquaint readers with Yiddi^. (Reltgioiu News photo)
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