The Canadian Jewish News, i^riday, May 26th, 1972 - Page 5
'It's bad
By J. B. SALSBERG
It is a sign of our tragic heritage to be ever asking whether any given action or utterance by a single Jew or a group-of Jews is l>eneficial or harm-M to the Jewish collective. It would be untrue to deny that most thoughtful Jews are not, consciously or uncon-^ sciousiy^asking themselves this question throughout their lives. J know that I do.
When the shocking news of the attempted assassination of Governor Wallace reached us my first reaction wa:s the hope that the assassin not prove to be Jewish and, second, that he not be Negro. If the emotionally disturt}ed person who fired at the governor bad been a Negro it would, unquestionably, have triggered a chain of hysterical out-burts against black people in the U.S. and in the south particularly. If, on the other hand, he had been Jewish, the
Jewish communities in the southern states would have experienced a collective guilt for the irrational act and U.S. Jewry would have felt called upon to demonstratively condemn the guilty one. As ir happened the mentally ill young man was-neither Jewish nor Negro and white. Christian America didn't feel the need to react to the out-rage with any special guilt feeling.
I happen to believe that we are what the: world around us contributed to the totality of our experiences through the ages, in addition to the collective ideals, values and aspirations that we acquired when we matured as a nation inancient times. We have the same right as all other peoples to have saints as well as sinners in our ranks and the world around us has no right to expect anything else from us. But is that so? lam very much afraid that it isn't so, not even in this enlightened (?) age and every Jew feels tiiis in his l)ones and hence the over-sensitivity to what an individual
' or group in our midst may door say.
Why it should be so is easy enough to understand. Our history, not only in \bB dark ages or during the middle ages but right through modem times, is replete with indescribable experiences vliicb formed our collective consciousness and developed our eidremelysen-~sitive national antenna. We "were the /scapegoat and the lightning rod altogether too often not to have been profoundly affected by it all. We were made the scapegoat for the black plague the Crusaders as we were for the corrupt Czarist regimes. The Holocaust left bleeding wounds to this day and ih this year 1972 sections of the Greek church are distributing the notorious Elders of Zitm fabrications to the Greek army and people.
But why did I embark on this course today? The Governor Wallace affair only triggered this line of thought about matters closer to home.
Since the end oftheSecoad World War
s
we have been witnessing an ascending, breathtaking explosion of Jewish involvement and prominence in every significant area of Canadian life. We have blossomed forth with dazzling: color in Canadian literature, the arts, the theatre, in journalism, in research and science, in medicine, in politics and government, in teaching and, of course, in commerce and industry as well as in many new branches of wage and salary -occupation^. This should make us all satisfied, if not happy. But that is not the universal feeling one encounters. We, or at least I^ find many people who are worried Sy the transformation and wbo wonder aloud whether it is good for Jews. ...
A few young Jewish intellectuals embitter my life with their worries about the future. As for uncle Eliezer he frequently relates our present prominence with the past. "All this," he empha-
sizes, has already happened la Spain, ithappened in Germany, it happened in tte early years of the Russian revolution and we all Imow how those experiences ended; they ended badly for the Jews." I can'ti of course, argue against liistorical tacts but I try to allay his fears by reminding him that tlie world is different now. Bid he shows~no inclination to buy this ai^umeht. He only says: "Different, eh?" and falls into silence.
As for the young intellectuals, they are worried about the special fields they are studying and the conclusions they arrive at if ... I agree with them that their forebcklings have a basis if.. Can I assure them that the "if" will never happen? No, I can't. "So, what are you going to do about it?" So I plead with them not to be so pessimistic. But they, too, refuse to retreat.
How typically Jewish this dilemma is! It's bad when it is bad and it's bad when it's good. ...
Differing visions of Judaism s future discussed by rabbis
This interesting account of an interview Rabbi Gunther Plaut had with Rabbi Menacham Porush, vice-^nayor of Jerusalem, was carried in a recent issue of Holy Blossom Temple Bulletin:
By W. GUNTHER PLAUT
Some weeks ago I reported to you about a talk I had with ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Mena-chem Porush. He,is a member of the Knesset, Vice-Mayor of Jerusalem, and came first to
public attention when he delivered himself of a highly intemperate attack on Reform Judaism on the floor of the Israeli parliament. He was made to apologize, but to many of us he seemed to express precisely the kind of immovable, obstinate, and doctrinaire Orthodoxy, tirhich in addition to its convictions also was possessed of political power: I wrote of the conversations we had in the Knesset, that they were surprisingly open, and
Laughing at themselves is science breakthrough
By NECHEMIA MEYERS CJN Israel Correspondent
REHOVOT, Israel -
The august and ordinarily rather humorless American Association for the Advancement 0^ Science broke precedent at its recent annual meeting in Philadelphia by devoting an oitire day to "Humor and Science.'A This was., something of a personal triumph for one of the featured speakers. Prof. Alexander Kohn, a Polish-born Israeli virologist whose Journal of Irreproducible Results has for 17 years taught scientists how to laugh at themselves.
While the quarterly is now published in Chicago, because most of its 20,000 subscribers are Americans, it is still edited by Prof. Kohn, who in his spare time runs the Israel Institute of Biological Research in Nes Ziona, south of Tel Aviv.
Obscurantism in sciience, the subject of Prof. Kohn's Philadelphia discourse, has often been the target of JIR barbs. As Kohn defines it, scientific obscurantism is the art of publishing without revealing the significant results (if any) one has obtained. It, in turn, is divided into verbal and mathematical ob-scurantism j the latter being based on the misuse of mathematical symbols, or the substitution of these symbols forwords when words are perfectly clear and sufficient for under-^ standing. Mathematical obscurantism haisthe advantage of impressing all but mathematicians and, Prof, kohn promises, they won't squeal because they don't understand the few words of basic English that precede the avalanche of signs.
> One of the JIR's funniest sections contains extracts, taken verbatim, from research lapers in more conventional journals. For example, it reprinted from the The New York Journal of Medicine the following advice for dealing with circumcision in adults: "The patient is admonished to confine the function of the operated appendage to micturition only
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for two weeks after the operaticHis. After that period, if he is so, disposed, he may without pain expand its field of usefulness."
Other extraordinary examples of sciratific insight, reproduced in the JIR, include:
"Development of hydro power in the desiert of North Africa awaits the introduction of water ..." (from Nuclear News) and ^ "The troul)le with the poor is .that they dfxi't have enough money." (from a publication of the Harvard-MIT Joint Centre for Urban Studies).
Then there is the JIR's selection of real titles of scientific papers, titles which strain the imagination as to the contents of the papers themselves. Among recent examples are: "Bacteriological Studies on the Uncivilness of Underwear"; "The Adaption of Monkeys to the Conditions of Moscow Suburbs"; "Freezing and Storage of Human Semen in 50 Healthy Medical Students"; and "Hazards to Go-Go Dancers from Exposure to 'Black Light'from Fluorescent Bulbs".
The JIR also carries original papers. One, on th& history of scholarly pubUsldng, went back to the Stone Age, when editors demanded that "aU manuscripts be double-spaced and hacked on one side of the stone only." *
While the Journal is now published in the U.S., it stiU pays due heed to ispecificlsraeli problems, For instance, a contributor recently explained bow Israel coidd easily solve her chronic shortage of fresh waster. All that was required was the construction of a pipeline from the Arctic to the Holy Land. Ice would be melted at the Pole and pumped to the desert through polystyrene foam pipes. In order to reduce construction costs, as well as to avoid enemy attacks^; the lightweight conduit would have air spaces filled with helium so as to keep it permanently airborne.
This idea clearly puts its author. Dr. R. Diuiovick, in the running for substantial research gi^ts and, no less important, the JIR's annual ig-noble Prize. '
scientist exi)tains
invention of measuring device
LONDON (JCNS) - — _
Newsmen at the recent press conference at the Halfk Technion about a new instrument foTThe identification and jneasuriement of nuclear fuels were more' intrigued by ttie Technion scientist behind the inventicm than liy the neutron sfSectrometer itself which, many freely confessed, they couldbarelydescribe let alone explain. The instrument is being ciShmercially produced and sold by the Haifa Technion for $10,000.
Most sat in stunned silence as Professor Shlomo Slialev reeled off at cracking pace the ineciianics and fields of application envisioned for his device, clicking tluirpensto attention only when, grudgingly, he disclosed ttiat behind the name Shalev lay his pre-Israel name, Scott.
Stewart Scott, toe 36-year-old British-born son of .a ftirrier,has!beeninlsrael since Joining the Technioh's scientific, staff shortly after taking bis doctorate at Birmii^-bam University;
'^He confesses to having had no' Zionist' background whatever, belonged to no Zionist clubs\ or youth organizations and worshipped in a manner which he describes as "relig-
iously conservative" (the West London Reform Synagogue).
, What-brought him to Israel? He~thinks a T^e before talking vaguely about the "lessons oTiistory" a long-held belief that "this is the only country where one could feel at home."
His roofs in Israel are sturdy ones - four children aged nine to three, all except the youngest bilingual. The three year old, after last year spent with father and mother in England on a Simon Marks Fellowship, is doggedly tied to English.
The professor's own linjcs with England ; remain close - both his mother and sister (Barbara once the "JCwOman'spageeditor) live in Stratford-upon-Avon where bis brother-in-law, Alin Joseph, ru^ a well-lmown company for the manufacture of coffee pots and similar ware.
He is also in constant touch with his old,^ university, Birmingham, which he hopes will be involved in the furthor development of his q;iectrometer. Will the inventicm make him. rich. He laughs. "What sci«itist ever got rich on the proceeds of his own inventim?''
And when he's finlshM for the day with nuclear science, how does he rolax? He smiles. With four young children?
that we parted with the understanding that diey would be continued. -
That opportunity came earlier than I had anticipated. The rabbi came to Toronto to help raise money for the local Camp Agu-dah, and while here he performed the mitzvah of visiting the sick and came to see me in my home.
We spoke for an hour and a half about the things that mattered most to us: our vision of Judaism as it might be and of our differing approaches to its future. In the short space of this column I cannot report the details of oar interchange, but one concluding aspect can be briefly stated.
Rabbi Porush repeated the argument (which we had heard t)efore from other sources, including David Ben Gurion) that any religious development in Israel should not be imported from without, but should grow indigenously from its own people.
"We do not want you to import a galut version of Judaism into our country," he said, "let your young peoplecome here and let them practise what they want. If there are enough of themi changes are bound to come. Meanwhile," he said, "you have to respect the fact that many of |i$ hay,e.^yed|n^|(;^fael for ntany generations (%tA>i'Porush himself be-mg a seventh geheiraiion Jerusalemite), and we are not about to abandon our traditions because you say so in New York or Toronto.
I admitted that there was some worth to the argument. Reform Judaism was and is in its
Rabbi Menadiem Ponuii
present form a response to Diaspora conditions. We have not as yet fully develq)ed a Liberal re£>ponse to Israeli conditions, though that will comein tiine.|lut,at.|the^ time,., I argued. Orthodox Judaism was and is also a response to Diaspora conditions. "Your own traditional way of life," I said to Rabbi Porush, "even though you, yourself, have iived in Jerusalem for so long, is essentially a Diaspora religion.
"The traditional Jew of Poland or Spain could practice his religion only by virtue of the fact that the State was run by others. Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Anikh, , wlK) lived in Safed, could write his opening sentence -, that one should rise early in the morning to greet his Creator with the vigor of a lion - only because the Turkish Pasha in Acco was taking care of police and other security measures so that Caro could sleep in peace and rise securely in the morning.
"Similarly," I said, "Orthodoxy in Israel today can pursue its Orthodoxy only because secular Jews take care of the business of the State. In that respect Orthodoxy, in a mannej; of speaking, still lives ingalut.Some day," 1 ventured to say, "you too will have to be bold and tackle this problem. Judaism will not come alive for our time until you do, and when that day arrives we may have need neither for Orthodox nor Reform Judaism, but just for a Jewish way of life."
Surprisingly he agreed. "But," he said, "you have to understand that traditions are slow to change and memories are too strong." He said that he would like other Rabbis of the Agudah to share in such conversations and I , jPromised..^^ my next journey we would aiTMge for a meeting of Reformers and Agudists. "We will not change each others minds," he said, "but at least we ought to listen to each other." ^
I hope to take the rabbi up on his proposals, and I hope it will be during the coming year.
It IS time to realize that
to our
a
Dear Editor:
I find it surprising that such open missionary activity as descrit>ed ih your recent article should go practically unnoticed by a majority of the Jewish community. Yet on the other hand, perhaps this is one of those uiq)leasant realities that we would rather ignore thai) have to face. It wiU be much more difficult to ignore the facts, however, now that they have been so flagrantly exposed.
I wonder what our community is going to do about these disturbing facts. It is time to realize that the missionaries represent a real threat to our youth, as many parents have been made aware when the problem hit their own homes, not to mention the anti-semitic attitude underlying any attempt to substitute Judaism as a reUgion by a better,"true" form Of religion. Are we going to react constructively to these activities, or are we going to forgetthe whole matter until the next time an article is published to remind us of the problem? Can we afford tlie attitude of "It can't hj^n here?"
(Mrs.) Sonia Kaiser
Dear Editor:
I was interested to read Ben Kayfetz's criticism of what people are saying about the Koisington Market.
Believe it or not, Kensingtcm Avenue was, at one time, a nice residential stroet for lower inlddle class people. Our family liyed-at No. 64, at the beginning of this century, Glaring a house witb the Solomon Naiman family. He was a custom tailor. Mrs. Naimon was the oldest sister of Mannie Lipman, who js now one of the leaders in the Israeli Bond Campaign.
There were many Anglo-Saxons living on ttiat street and the Jewish people were just coming in. Across the road from us lived the Bregmans, the lather of Dr. BenBregman, the dentist. Next door to us lived the Shul-nuns, the grandfother of NDP's Dr. Morton Shulman. At the corner of Kensington Ave. and,Kensington Place, Shlomo Friedman opuied a little ice cream parlor. He was the grandfother of Toby Robbins, the actress and the)grandfother of Mrs. Ronald Bronsten.
In 1905, about a dozen Jewish immigrants,; htduding my father) gathered at the home of Mrl Bregman to decide on the founding of the Mozirer Benefit Society, which is in existence today. My parents are buried oh the
Mozirer Cemetery on Roselawn Ave. which was purchased by that group of immigrants at the time.
There have beerimany waves of immigrants to Kensington Ave. since the beginning of the century/The original families moved away as new waves came in and theirhersare nOw Uving in Forest HiU Village, in Willowdale, and in the Bayview area. In our day Yiddish was.the language most frequently heard on the street and in the houises, and the newspapers were usually Yiddish papers from -New York.
Henry Rosenberg
Dear Editor:
lam referring to an article in The Canadian Jewish News, May 12 issu6, dealing with the
summer camps operated by the Toronto Jewish Camp Council.
The article claims that these camps "are considered kosher by most Conservative authorities."
I do not know which authorities the' author had in mind, but speaking for the only local Conservative authority in matters of kash-ruth, I would like to state niost emphatically that we have no knowledge of kashruth observance in these camps. While 1 sincerely h(q>e that kashruth would be observed by such camps, 1 must make it clear on behalf of the Conservative rabbinate that we do not maintain any kind of supervision over these camps and we therefore cannot consider them as kosher.
Rabbi Erwin Schild, President, The Rabbinical Assembly, Ontario Region
students at hnel'k nntrndtles went on strfte last wedc fai protest sgalnst the iMoposed hike hi tuition fees. A Mndent examinea strike notlcea on the buUetfai board of Tei Aviv University. The nationsl strike ended when Education Minister Yigal AOon promised to recehre s student deputstioii ^^discuss the grievance. (Photo: Newiq[>hot)
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