Page 4 — The Canadian JeWIth NewtiFriday, December 3rd, 1965
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VOL. VI. No. 49 (310)
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CANADA AND ISRAEL
THE POPULAR AMBASSADOR
Israelis like _Canada's new envoy, Robert Louis Rogers. They consider him unbiased, unprejudiced — eager to learn the ways of. the people. Newspapers have commented favourably about his activities.
The' influential "Jerusalem Post"-says of Mr. Rogers that he has the look of a sportsman and the education of an historian. An officer in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Europe in 1944, he took part in the assault which captured Caen, soon after D-Day.
He subsequently exchanged uniform for a diplomat's black suit and in the last 20 years has circled the Northern Hemisphere, representing the Red Maple Leaf in Tokyo, Washington and Paris.
"As far as Canada is concerned, Israel is a quiet post. There are no prob-
RUSSIAN PUZZLE
lems between the two countries," the newspaper adds.
. The question of international peace, however, deeply concerns Canada, and her policy is directed towards preventing any local war which might lead -to wider repercussions.
"The trouble is," Ambassador Louis Rogers muses, "that it is practically impossible to maintain peace when people involved do not want it." Vietnam comes to his mind — Canada is a member of the international team responsible for the supervision of the Indo-Chinese cease-fire.
His studies as a historian have taught him one basic lesson: that the only conclusion one can draw with certainty from history is that one cannot learn anything certain from history.
Mike: Yediot Ahronot. Tel Aviv
letters to the editor
FOR REMINISCING
Dear ;Editon
The notice in the last issue concerning the passing of Mo-reine R. Jacob Rosenheim, co-(uunder and leader of the Agu-dath Israel World Orgaulzation vl he Canadian Jewish Ne\vs, November 12th), reminds me of a story which the late Rabbi had told me;
• In the war years of 191418, ■when the head office of the Agu-aalh Israel World Organization, was in Frankfurt, this organization entered into discussion with ;he government of Turkey regarding several aspects of the Jewish situation in Palestine. In
the summer of 1918, a delegation consisting of Dr.; Isaak. Breuer, Rabbi Jonathan Horowitz, Dr. Moses Auerbach, and R. Jacob Rosenheim went to Constantinople where they stayed for more than three weeks. Dr. Hreu-cr drafted a len(atlve statue \vliich would have secured for the Jews a semi-autonomous community in Palestine within the framework of the Turkish Empire, Several meetings also were held with the Grand Vizir Talaat Pascha.
"When the delegation returned from Constantinople, the armies of Germany and Austria
Dateline: KiW YORK
By Trade Weiss-Rosmarin
INTERFAITH DIALOGUES OUT
i.-Ki.-::::;:::::::;::!
YEVTUSHENKO: WHAT'S NEW?
^ye all remember the gallant defense of Jewry by Russia's poet Yevgeni Yev-tushenko. Since Babi Yar, many conflicting rumours reached the West about the tribulations of this dapper, militant writer. Recently, however, we received more reliable information concerning the poet's position.
Here is a summary of the latest tidings:
The "Babi Yar" controversy in Russia which raged two and three years ago seems to be closed now that the Thirteenth Symphony by Shostakovich has been given official blessing at a public performance in Moscow. But the battle over Yevtushenko was bitter in Soviet literary circles, although it was fought mainly well away from the glare of publicity.
Yet Yevtushenko has been attacked in verse, while counter-attacks, also in verse, were passed from hand to hand in typewritten copies.
The first attack on Yevtushenko came from a Stalinist poet, N. Markov. "How can you claim to be a true Russian", Markov admonishes Yevtushenko, "when you have forgotten your own people !... The world was shaken by Babi Yar ... It would have been a global conflagration ... You should have named, one by one, the millions of fallen Russian boys ... Was it not Russia that blocked the breach in the walls with her body? ... As long as one single cosmopolitan remains to be removed from the dais, I,shall say: '1 am a Russian."
The retort came from no less a literary light than Konstantin Simonov, whose Russianism and patriotism is beyond doubt. "Leave the dead alone, they would not suffer false, high-sounding words. Not a few Jewish dead were among those who perished at the front. There is no monument over Babi Y^r, and people wonder: why? ... All
honest men would say, with Yevtushenko: Let the 'International' be played when the bones of the last anti-Semite on earth are buried deep in the ground."
Yevtushenko himself is credited with some verse mocking Markov:
"Yevtushenko intended to kill the anti-Semite, but wounded the heart of a member of the Soviet Writers Association instead."
The late S. Marshak, famous Jewish poet and translator, recalled the notorious anti-Semitic member of the Duma (House of Representatives in Czarist Russia) whose name was also Markov. There are also verses ascribed to I. Ehrenburg.
But the most moving poem entitled, "We, Jews" appears to be written by Margarita Aligher.
"I shall ask Marx and Einstein ... to explain, if they know, the secret of our eternal guilt. Have we not given away everything we had, without murmuring a word? We lived nobly, squandering talents, giving the best of our souls. Let me ask doctors, musicians, labourers big and small; let me ask the descendants of the brave Maccabeans, our sons, the fighting Jews, the Russian officers and warriors—tell me, on your honour, about the clan that suffered for centuries, about the boys missing or killed in action; about the age-old'smell of degradation, and the wailing of mothers and wives. Our people were shot and burned in the death camps ... Few of us have been left. Nothing will revive us. We are Jews. How much grief and restless years are bound up in this word. I do not know whether blood has a voice. But I do know that blood has colour."
This confirms the most recent variation of the Russian puzzle: young Soviet Jews speak up; they are losing their fear.
The choice of Mr. Phillip Although M. Klutznik, a layman, to' extend the greetings of American Jewry to Pope Paul VI when he visited New York at the beginning of last month was not a fortuitous one. Like Protestant clergy here, who also chose a layniari to extend greetings to the Pope, rabbis now adopted a reserved attitude towards what are termed "inter-faith" activities of a religious nature.
To be sure, there are still a few enthusiasts for religious inter-faith dialogues of the mould of Rabbi Maurice N. . Eisendralh, who would make a niche for Jesus in Judaism. But Rabbi Eisendrath's proposal has been vigorously rejected by the overwhelming majority of his colleagues in the Liberal rabbinate, as well as by the lay leaders of the Reform (Liberal) Union of American Jewish Congregations, of which he is the president.
The very term "inter-faith" has gone out of fashion, together with "interdenominational" activities designed to stress similarities between Jewish and Christian beliefs and rituals. This is no longer the age of the melting pot. The "orchestration" of religious differences, together with the "orchestration" of ethnic dissimilarities, is now the order of the day.
Characteristic of the new orientation is that the Institute of inter-denominational studies of the (Conservative) Jewish Theological Seminar^' of America has now been named "The Institute for Religious, and Social Studies", and its courses and lectures are described as "inter-group activities".
Catholics and Protestants serve on the fagulty of the Institute, the emphasis is not on inler-faith activities but, to quote from the preamble, "to increase the understanding ot Judaism arnong adherents of other traditions, as well as the Jew's comprehension of his own tradition".
It is emphasised that the Institute is "rooted in the Seminary's deep scholarship", although participH' tion is open to all. The hundreds of clergymen belonging to 20 different denominations who attend the courses and lectures, and the participation of the faculties of eight Christian theological seminaries are proof that this type of dialogue comniands more status than yesterj'ear's efforts to prove that the "Judeo-Christian" legacy is replete with points of identity between Judaism and Christianity.
Among the courses offered by the Institute this year are: "Pluralism: Its Costs and Benefits to Religion", and "Humanising Life in the Megalopolis", as well as a "theological student seminar" on "Concepts and Institutions Basic to Christianity and Judaism", based on Solomon Schechter's "As^ pects of Rabbinic Theolo-
gy".
At the local level the "prominent Gentile" has virtually disappeared from Jewish lecture platforrris. True the fund-raising drives are still resorting to Christian glamour personalities for bait, but with diminishing results.
American Jews under fifty, especially the younger echelons of this, the largest and most vociferous group.
are .secure, and not merely "proud", as Jews. They do not require Gentile approval and plaudits to the extent their immigrant parents needed it. As a result, adult education programmes and lecture series in some two thousand American congregations are solidly based on Jewish fundamentals, and areas and themes of Jewish concern are in the limelight.
Although the natioiial Jewish organisations maintain adult education departments for supplying their local constituents with programmes, the hub of adult Jewish studies is now in the synagogues. It would be hard to find a synagogue of any trend which does not provide adult courses in Hebrew. Jewish history, the Bible and Jewish thought and literature.
Evaluating a far from representative and yet typical batch of replies from rabbis reporting on their a-dult Jewish studies, Rabbi Samuel I. Cohen, in the "American Jewish Year Book" for 1965, just published, reports that "thirty-six (92 per cent) of the respondents were concerned with intellectual objectives; they wished to instil in their members a literaite awareness of the Jewish past and heritage".
There is, according to Rab6i Cohen's study, "a departure from the traditional role and character of the synagogue, with a surprising lack of emphasis on belief and practice or on fostering religiosity".
Indeed, the programmes of the congregat i o n a 1 schools of adult Jewish education are geared to "intellectual objectives". As a re-
AN ACUTi OBSERVATION
ARAB RAIDS REGARDED SERIOUS
By FRANCIS OFNER
: Wheii a handful of El Fatah terrorists sneak over the border from a neighbouring Arab country on a moonless night with their ten pounds of dynarhite and blow up a house on the" outskirts of a village, the press reports the occurrence of another "minor incident".
But Israel's, defence chiefs see in the emergence of El Fatah a new guierilla force which theatens to ttirn the prodding oh the Arab-Israel border into a major warlike situation.
Unlike the fedayeen and other riiarauding gangs, El Fatah is an Independent organizationrof Palestinian Arabs, inspired and supported by the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin El Hussei-ni, and outside the control of any Arab Government. ;
is motivated by the be-lief^thiat the Arab' States cannot be relied upon to fight the battle of Palestine and. that "we must do something ourselves—-before it is top late. What we can. do now is create insecurity in Israel "and attract international attention. "We should try to provokt\
Israel into retaliatory raids against the Arab States. This could lead to an-Arab-Israel war, and only such a war will solve the Palestine Arab problem."
In the course of this year, El Fatah terrorists have succeeded in provoking Israel into three reprisal raids: two against Jordari arid one against Lebanon. After suffering the shock of Israeli retaliation, the Lebanese Government has tightened its control over border areas adjacent to Israel.
Jordan's King Hussein has spoken openly against El Fatah activities, but, so far, he has been hesitant to take unpopular -restrictive measures against people who, in Arab eyes, are Palestinian patriots. The King's attitude has also beeii conditioned by the general policy of liberalisation which has characterised his regime during the last 20 months
Another eoniplicating factor—-more for the Arab States than for Israel—is Ahmed Shukairy's Palestine Liberation Orgaiiisation. Iq that it is a political instrument of the Egyptian Government, the P.L.O.'s acti-
vities are resented by most other Arab States.
Shukairy's demands for the establishment of a separate Palestinian army, which would threaten Jordan's internal unity, have been rejected. Nevertheless, he did siicceed in obtaining from the recent conference of Arab.leaders in Casablanca, some funds for his prganiza-tipn which, by its mere ex^ istence, has raised the political ternperature among Palestinian refugees, and fertilised the ground for El Fatah raids against Israel,
Since the expertise of armies rhiich larger and more experienced than that of Israel hais riot yet found an effective method of dealing with guerilla raiders whose base is outside their legal reach, Israel's military leaders take an extremely grim view of El Fatah activities.
They place the responsibility for these'faldswr^th^ Governments from \yhOse territory the terrorists\ operate, and are determined to take forcible measures to demonstrate tliisviewi
Another disturbing development, in the view of Is-'
rael's defence chiefs, lies in the built-up of the. United Arab Command.
Although the Egyptian Gommahder of this body. General Ali Ali Amer, failied to obtain permission from member States for the free movement of army contingents from one Arab country to another, the United Arab Command has made substantial progress in securing its target figure of £150 million — mostly derived from the royalties of the oil-producing States — for speeding up the arms buildup of the wijaker Arab States.
This is particularly noticeable in Jordan,' Where the strength Of the armed forces has been nearly doubled dur> ing the last twelve months. Some progress has also been made in the planning, co-ordination and standardisation of equipment and forces.
More encouraging developments for Israel are seen in connection With the Arab plan for the diversion of the River Jordan head waters, ijollowing Israel's hard-bitting artillery fire against the Syrian diversion works and
after Great Power representations, the Lebanese stopped their diversion works earlier this year.
They now are trying to mobilise funds for an alter-native water development scheme which coiild be implemented independently of Israel if the laitter continues to oppose the diverisipn of the Jordan's sources, or, should Israel abandon its opposition, could be hiciud-ed in the general Arab diversion scheme.
The Israelis have shown 'benevolent ; understanding for Jordan's efforts to build her Mukheiba Dam. They stress that as long as this project does not use water diverted from the sources of the River Jordan in Syria and Lebanon, Jordan is within her right in carrying it through.
Only in the case of Syria is the diversion threat still rega:rded as very serious. The Syrians have now moved their works from within H miles of the Israeli border lo more than five miles from it, so as to be outside the range of Israeli guns. For the moment, the Syrians are engaged only in prepara-
tory work. However, this is being closely—and somewhat nervously—watched by the Israelis.
Probably the most hopeful conclusion to be drawn from this regional analysis lies in the changes seen in the general picture. President Nasser's leadership in the Arab world and in the • Afro-Asian block; has weakened. In Egypt - itself he is faced with serious unrest, involving a struggle with the Moslem Brotherhood and against a virtiially hopeless economic crisis.,
The "summit" meetings of Arab kings and presidents —the last in Casablanca in October—have shown that the narrow, local interests of the individual Arab States have the upper band over dreams of pan-Arab unity. The once - prevailing trend towards an Egyptian hegemony over the Arab States has given way to policentric tendencies.
Most of these, cei*tainly, are united in their anti-Israel stand—although with ah increasing realisation that not much can be done about it, at least for the time being.
suit, they attract the so-called "cream ot the communities", usually about fifteen per cent of congregational membership.
Altho.ugh inter-congregational rivalry is strong, in many communities all con; gregations and some local chapters of national Jewish organisations pool their resources to sponsor a "joint Forum series" of higher quality and costs than any single congregation or organisation could undertake.
Some of the popular lecture series this season are
had suffered severe defeats arid setbacks. In the same year the Turkish Empire disintegrated and Turkey ceased to play any rcle m Palestine."
It is interesting to speculate what [ the outcome might have been had this plan of the Agu-daJh Israel succeeded. Toronto.
Herman Landau
OFFENDED
Dear Editor:
As a member of the B'nai B'rilh Hillci Foundation at the liniversity of Toronto, I was extremely shocked and appalled to learn that at the conclusion of the B'nai B'rith's ninth annual covenant Breakfast on Sunday, November 21st, the Lord's Prayer (Matthew, 6:9-13) was sung.
Do we not have enough of our own prayers and hymns to conclude occasions such as these, or do we have to search through ■ bibles" and documents foreign to Judaism to find something appropriate? True, no mention of allegiance is found in the prayer, but did not Jesus adopt this prayer for specific use in his religion?
University of Toronto
Nachum Woolf
on "Jewish Identity and Identification", "Great Jewish Trials", with special emphasis on the "Trial of Jesus", and "The Meaning of Jewishness".
Strange though it may seem, there is virtually no demand for topics related to the reality of Israel. According to some analysts, this is due to the surfeit of publicity and sentimentality of the "Israel speakers" the fund-raising drives "inflict" upon the communities.
SERMON FOR THE WEEK
A BOUNDLESS RANGE
The late Rabbi Kook once made this observation. Benjamin is spoken of in Scripture as "the friend of the Lord" and, because the Temple was built in the territory allotted to his tribe, God was said to "cover him all the day".
Of human friends, said Rabbi Kook, it is generally true that if they are too much in one another's houses their friendship palls and they become bored with one another. But of "friendship" with God, Scripture can say that it is a relationship for all the day and for every day, since in this relationship there is neither tedium nor fatigue. .
Is this true? Judging by our experience, religion can be a very exciting thing but there are times when we become weary of $he religious life. We tend to speak of a religious mood and to imply that we do not always feel in,tune with the mfinite. For much of the time, even if we persevere in the religious round, we cannot in all honesty say that we find it anything but humdrum. The moments of religious exaltation are beyond price. When they do come thiey make it all seem worthwhile. Yet surely we delude ourselves if we imagine that they are frequent. We fend either to question the sincerity of thinkers like Rabbi Kook, or we shrug it all off as irrelevant to our lives, by declaring that religious geniuses are a law unto themselves, whose experiences are quite beyond the range of ordinary mortals.
A good deal depends on how we conceive of God. If our God Is big enough we can never tire of His worship because interest in the Infinite is itself infinite. But if our God is too small, if He caters to a portion of our lives only, it He only has meaning in the context of certain religious rites and ceremonies, then rebellion against C3od is almost bound to result, since man do^s become bored of a restrictive vision of human existence. The all-too-human picture of some pop-songs m which God is the friend "upstairs" is nauseating and offensive, and is rightly scorned by anyone with a degree of religious sensitivity.
The richer in variety a thing, idea or institution, the greater its capacity to hold us m its thrall. Because Dr. Johnson believed that London was large enough and varied enough to satisfy many different human needs, he said a man who is tired of London is tired of life. If this is true of particular ideas and things, how much more is it true of the Source of all being! There is no basic qualitative difference between ourselves and the great religious geniuses of mankind. It is only that their Insights led them to afar deeper understanding of the divine as completely life-erabracinjg.
God is to be foimd in every one of life's situations. There Is the Jewish liturgy with its tremendous historical associations llnkmg our generations with those who have gone before. There is the Sabbath on which the Jew becomes a philosopher, celebrating the creation of the world with wine, song and delight. There are all the opportunities life offers for the service of others, for the expression of those countless acts of sympathy and generosity which make man truly human and redeem him from banality. There is the purstiit of truth and wisdom and beauty, the call of ideals which never cloy because they are never ending.
The most famous teachers have been at one in affirming that limited auns and objectives do not satisfy. The easier they are to achieve the sooner satiety sets in. The only satisfactory life is one dedicated to the pursuit of aims which never cease from making demands on us. These are the aims of Judaism. In the words of the Psalmist: "I see a limit to all things, but Thy law has a boundless range". (