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Poge 4 — The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, November 9, 1962
THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY/BY CJN PUBLISHERS LIMITED
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VOL. Ill, No. 45 (ISO)
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CANADA'S LEADING JEWI-SH NEWSPAPER IfcLENGLISH ~
I .
MISSION TO ROME
ANTISEMITISM IN ARGENTINA
The vicious attacks on Jews in Argentina are moving towards a new climax. Men. women and children are again victims of the fanatics of the Tacuara. The Argentine Government and Ecclesiastical hierarchy bear a considerable measure of responsibility for this situation through their grievous sins of omission. The individuals responsible for these crimes are known, but the police and authorities have ob-durately refused to take action and have even released assailants captured by their intended victims. The hierarchy, apart from the courageous .stand of a few individual clerics, has so far refrained from condemning or discip-ling clerical and lay members who
have openly incited antisemitic hatred. At this moment the heads of the Catholic Church are gathered together In Rome under the leadership of a Pope whose hupianity and concern for justice extend far beyond the bounds of his own church. The opportunity should be taken for an imaginatiYe~and"-UT^ gent approach to the Catholic leaders to acquaint them with the situation in Argentina a,nd appeal for some positive action. It is a ta^k for a world Jewish leader of experience and stature. Such a mission would be essentially different from the watching, brief at the Ecumenical Council mooted and decided against by the leading Jewish organisations.
IN MEMORIAM
MIKOYAN MAKES PEACE IN CUBA
ISRAEL'S POSITION
CAN WE COHQUER EGYPT?
_By David Ben Gnrion_
TORONTONIAN SAM
Samuel Kronick is no more.
One is accustomed to say on the death of a prominent personality that his death marks "the end of an -era". With Sam (properly Zachar^'a) Kronick — the genial Litvak with the big heart, the man whose Jewish faith and confidence, whose generosity and liberality to all good causes was proverbial — this phrase, though certainly true, cannot begin to describe what his 82 years ( 60 of which were spent in Toronto) meant to Zionism, to Jewish communal and philanthropic institutions, to Yiddish and Hebrew culture and to the extension and fulfilment of ma'assim tovim.
Sam Kronick who came to Toronto from his native city of Kovno via a route which led through England and the U.S.A. had achieved the merit of having become a legend in his lifetime. There were so many anecdotes told by others and by himself of the little incidents and episodes of his career, episodes which mark the man's simplicity and essential greatness of spirit. There was the story of the first time this young wide-eyed Russian Jew of 20 came to England to attend the Fourth Zionist Congress and his experience with a London "bobby" which taught him the difference between Czarist bu-reaucracy and Western civil freedoms; there was the story of how he once in-vited the union to organize his millinery factory-^-not by way of cynical challenge or defiance but as a genuine, bona-fide invitation: he wanted to be assured on the eve of a trip abroad that his business would not be interrupted by needless quarrels (he also sought sincerely the welfare of his workers); there was the standing rule on Spadina Avenue that anyone in need — a widow without, means, a ge^ nuine case, could always find employment at Sam Kronick'sV
For Sam Kronick it must be known did not hold with the "process" of social welfare service on all occasions ;■ he guessed sometimes thait he was being
!
'exploited, that some non-deservers i would cynically profit from his openi hand. His guiding principle, however,) was that he was willing to overlook! these cases of deceit so long as not ai single deserving case was not turned! away empty-handed.
In Yiddish the homey, pithy idiom that Sam so frequently used, one says about a comment on a recently lost friend that it is made "beim fristm keyver" — at the graveside. At the grave of the departed Sam Kronick of blessed memory one recalls in reverence the builder of our community, a devoted son of Zion whose entire career was in the service of his fellow Jew. To Sam business and its distractions were only a means which would give him the wherewithal to serve his fellow.
The agencies which he created and served were legion. The Hebrew Free Loan, the Jewish Family and Child Service (formerly the "Federation") the Bnai Zion, the Toronto Zionist Council, the UJR Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Zionist movement in all its manifestations (including the Histadrut campaign of which Sam the "industrialist" was an ardent supporter), The Yiddish and Hebrew writers whom he assisted in the publication of their works — all these are a witness to his breadth, depth^and dedication. So much confidence did he radiate in his sense of fair play, in his essential sensi. tivity to the Jewish tradition of yosher (justice), or yaisher as he would pronounce it in his vernacular, that when the embattled needle trade sought an-impartial arbitrator to solve their com-plex capital-labour problems, they chose Sam Kronick — then retired — as the person most acceptable to both sides.
Sam Kroiiick leaves behind him his widow Gertrude Willinsky, two sons Dr. Moses B., and Joseph, and two daughters, Miriam and Leah. With them we mourn his passing and in doing so we seek comfort in the fact that he left behind him the greatest treasure of all — a good name.
ONE of our great writers, Haim Hazzaz. had bitter and reproachful things to say, at the Writers' Conference last Passover, about the people of this country today. Even those who do not fully agree with Hazzaz will acknowledge the truth of many of the reproaches in his cry from the heart, althougii 1. tor one, do not agree with Hazzaz's comparing our generation unfavourably with those of the past, particularly Avith the days of the stedtl of the Diaspora. In the perspective of the past, it does not seem to me that the people in this country today are s.a_bad._Men are wont lo glorify their past in their remembrances: everyone longs for his youth, and valuable men and favourable events are more easily remembered than the rest.
As one of those who have lived in this land almost since the beginning of the Second Aliya, I want to state from personal experience that today's generation is no worse than any of its predecessors in, say, the four generations since the days of Petah Tikva. 1 should like to say more: insofar as 1 know Jewish his-toryT— and 1 doubt whether our knowledge of our ancient history can be thorough — I do not believe that we have ever had, even in the days of the First Temple or of the Second, a better people than we have in Israel today.
At the same time, any comparison with the past, be it for better of for worse, is liable to be misleading. We live in a world of dynamic change such as has never been experienced in the history of mankind, and we must direct our thoughts and our actions in keeping with this development, and prepare for the future. For the past, will not return, whether it was good or bad. There is only tomorrow, the day after, next year,' the coming years. The criterion
by which we must test ourselves is not the standard of those wlio have come before, but whether we can fulfil the tasks that await us tomorrow and the day after. I am among those who prefer action to thought, for nothini: is so easy and so comfortable as to go over pious thoughts. But, however commendable the thoughts, they are useless unless they lead to commendable action, unless they guide our actions in the future. If actions may be described as assets and thoughts as values, then assets ajce to he preferred over values, provided the actions are of value. '
LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE What is it we can anticipate? I cannot tell for certain what will happen: one can onlxjiazard an approximate guess. I shall begin with the harshest aspects of the probable future: we can anticipate a life-and-death military struggle. Security has of late become a subject, which the delicate and the oversensitive among us
hesitate to mention. 1 do not hold with those delicate Israelis who tr\' to'deter us by branding us with the term bit'honistn (from bitahoti, security) just as they have made up biiiu'ism (from bitzti'a, carrying out as a word of censure by distorting one of our finest concepts). If we are on the road to freedom, this is only because in the past four generations there have been men who did not contient themselves with high-sounding words-, but . carried' things out. I view the problem of security as the top problem of our life, and not because that is my job, but the other way around: I have come to thiis job because I hold this view and I have held this view ever since I saw two of my comrades, who had been working with nie in a small Galilee village, felled before my eyes 54 years ago.
l~ It is not my intention to review here the full scope of the security problem. I shall only dwell on what is unique about it: on how our security problem differs from that of every other nation in the world.
We are the only state in the world that is surrounded on every land border — south, east and north — by peoples plotting our destruction. But that is not all:
j every country confronting a war confronts the possibility of defeat, but a defeat in war does not necessarily mean obliteration. Germany defeated France in 1870, France retorted by defeating Germany in 1918, Germany rose again to defeat rose again lo defeat Germany in 1945. Then, just a short time ago, the two leaders of those two nations that had been fighting each other for a millennium —De Gaulle and Adenauer — went down on their knees side by side at the Cathedral of. Rheims as a token of reconciliation between those two peoples. And it was indeed a reconciliation, not just between leaders but between the two people, who are riovVcollaborating in the mi-litai7 field and in other domains.
Our situation is such that if, Heaven forbid, there should be war, we could beat the Egyptians once, twice, three, four, five times, but that would not be 'a final victory, for this could be followed by a sixth or seventh round. Egypt will remain even if. we should defeat her ten times, and her people will always be many times more numerous than ours. But should Egypt defeat the Israel Defence Army once, this may well be a final victory, for Egypt's rulers aspire — and they are capable of it — to do to the Jews of this country what Hitler did to six million Jews of Europe,
We can win a final victory only in two ways — through
the establishment ot a real and stable peace between us and the Arabs, as we desire, or the establishment in the world as a whole of a system that Wi'ill prevent all wars, converting the whole world into a federative state where nation shall not lift up sword against nation. I am certain that this day will come, and perhaps is not so far away, but until it does come Israel too must go on existing, and that cannot be taken for granted.
ANOTHER COLUMN ON THIS SUBJECT — NEXT WEEK.
COPYRIGHT "DAVAR" -
GUESr OF TORONTO
lEHDEll Of BBHY
Sir Barnett Janner, B.Ai, LL.D., M.P., will be the guest speaker at the Julius Wiener Negev Eiinner Monday evening, November 26th, at the Royal York Hotel. Sir Barnett was born in Wales and obtained his education there, graduating from the University of of Wales and later qualified as a Solicitor. "After service in the First World War, wherein he was .^'ounded while on acti\c' service, he began practicing law in Cardiff, Wales. He became activelv engaged in communal work, both Jewish and non-sectarian. He was a liberal member of the House of Commons 1921 to 1935, arid has been a Labour M.P. from 1945 to the present time.
Janner is in the unique position of being the President simultaneously of both the Board of Deputies of British Jews (the British equivalent of the Canadian Jewish Congress) as well as the Zionist Federation ot Great Britain and Ireland. In addition he serves the British Jewish community
(continued on page 9)
SIR BARNETT JANNER
school probBeiilii
• The American Jewish school year has eight months and the Jewish school week tor most of its 600,000 pupils averages three hours in all. In contrast, the Jewish day school movement is expanding—there are now close to 300 all-day Jewish schools with an enrolment of approximately 53,000—about 12 percent of the boys, and girls attending Jewish scItooIs'. Although the afternoon schools, tog, report progress,; Dr. Solomon Grayzel, editor of the__ Jewish Publication Society or Arherica, writes that while there has been undoubted improvement in the educational .^process, "we have not been succcssfuf in transmitting pur heritage."
According to Dr. Milton R, Konvitz, "Jewish education is ineifcciive because it i.s dull, antiquarian, uninspired." He complains that "we lack adequtitely t r a i n ed teachers and spend too. little money on research in education to find newways to briiigjix-^life Je\vish ideals.
/l-iir the past two years the Kationrtl Curriclum Research Instil 11 (e of the Arnerican Ass(^;itipnTt'or Jewish' Fdn-cation "has been engaged in
.NEW YORK
By Trude Weiss-Rosmarin
1
tills type of research. Under the direction Of Dr. Judah Pilch, its object is to formulate a basic curriculum for the Jewish school which will proyide the needed, elixir of "motivation."
. The_ "Institute's sub-committee on Aims and Objectives in Jewish Education has been authorised to formulate the: rationale and the philosophy for a "motivating" Jewish curriculum! The real problem of Jewish education, according;. to an interim report of the subcommittee, is lack of motivation. There is too much empha.sis on tlrp past aind not enough on the) present. Ati effective ^Jewish ciirriculum should be past-oriented but ,n()l antiquarian. "It should i render the Jewish past fully; relevant to the vital needs of the modern Jew." The in-Iterini report, therelore re-
commends that "Jewish schools-should provide learning experiences that will give our youth perspei^tiye and insight inttrthe cpiitempor-ary Jewish world."
bariniizvah heiiieiiis
Most rabbis and Jewish educators. are agreed that Barmitzyah is the nemesis of Jewish ediucation. Although practically all congregations i;equire-^everal years of Jewish scliool attendance as a qualification for ; Barmitz-vah, preparing, the pupil for the parrot-like reading of the Haftara and the re^t^ital of the Blessings takes ^o mvich time that actual learning is neglected. MoreoV.er, ; t h e Barmitzvah is generally regarded as the termination of Jewish educa,tioh. As a result, it ma/'ivo the graduation "from" the Jewish school
and the synagogue instead of the entry "into" Ithe adutt-Jewish community.
Various remedies have been suggested, such as postponing Barmitzyah to . the age of 16 or implementing'if with a Ben Torah ceremony at 16 or 18. Although there are no HaFachic impedirrients to postponirig Barmitzvah, espiscially whiein the aims of Jevvish education are furthered, American Jewish parents prefer and insist on Barmitzvah at 13. Soniie rabbis require the parents of the Barmitzvah boy , to pledge that . they will exert their authority and. not permit their sons to leave Hebrew school the d a y a Iter their Barmitzvah party. But parental authority over teenagers is oh the wane, and thus there is general agreement that "motivation" must come trt the rescue. In a voU uiitary scSiobl system, it is
imperative, the experts say, to involve the-pupiT To^^the" extent where he becomes eager to be involved.
periodicals lor the young
"Motivation" first arid "information" second is the editorial policy of America's excellent Jewish periodicals for the young, How exciting and aesthetically pleasing Jewish iriforrnalion can be presented-, is demonstrated by "World Over," the fortnightly of the New York Ediication Committee. Edited by Ezekiel Schloss an^ Morris Epstein, the three-colour magazine, with exquisite illustrations, is adored by the children.
"Our World," published by Torah Umesbrah, the national organisa.tion of Jewish day s.c h o 01 Si and edited by Yankev Frushter, is designed to interest the; young yeshiva student, and thus is meatier than "World Oyer." For the early^ teens,' there are tWo fortnightlies. "Keeping Posted," - ■ wing Broc
Published by the Reform and ' edited fey^ Edith ^ky (Mr.s, yM a u r i c e
Samuefh arid^''Our Age,'' with Judith-il^schlag as the editor and the (Conservative) United Synagogue as spon-
sor.
"-T'he" Lubavitch Chassidim do their share with two monthlieis, the Yiddish "Shmussen Mit Kinder' and the English "Talks and Tales." Both are edited by Nissan Mindel, who does not believe in wasting space on pictiires and fancy type,, in keeping with the admonition: "Don't regard the vessel but its contents." the Yiddish secular schools add another two children's magEizines to the Jewish juvenile rack--the bi-nion th1y"Kinder Jbiir-nsilX^ published by the Sholerh Aleichem Folks Institute and edited by Lipa Lehere, and the bi-mdnthly "Kinder Zeitung," edited by Z. - Yefroikin. For the Hebrew-reading yotith there is the Hebrew inonthly "Olam Chadash,": edited by Asher Wolk and subsidised by a new organisation, "Hebrew .: Publications for Children."
: Finally, there are the "offidal" magazines of the yoiith divisions of American Jewish political organisations. They range f r o m "Growing Up,'! published by the anti-Zionist American Council foi>Judaism, to the "Young Jddcan.", under the aegis of the Zionist Organisation of America, .
SERMON FOR THE WEEK
ABRAHAM'S FAITH
"And he believed in the Lord; end He counted it to him for --. -~ righteousness (Genesis XV 6).
This is indeed a strange and eliptic phrase. Who counted it for righteousness to whom? Did God regard it as righteous on Abraham's part to believe, or did Araham regard it as an integral part of God's righteousness to make him promises of future greatness? Jewish commentators differ. Most of them interpret the words to mean that Abraham's simple faith was itself an act of righteousness; the faith and trust which he displayed were indicative of his personal virtue. Others hold the viev/ that his faith was founded on the conviction that only a righteous God could make such a prpmise and therefore he ■ would not question it.
The difference may only be one of interpretation, but the basic essentials common to both viewpoints reflect the greatness of Abraham's character. This was a man who could express conviction no matter whether it was based on his own personal virtue or whether it was founded upon faith in the God whom he trusted. A promise had been made which affected the future and he was prepared to have faith in that future even though from his present standpoint there seemed little reason to expect fulfilment. What confidence! Whqt trust! What inv measurable faith!
Indeed such an attitude to life seems vastly different from those assertions so often heard In our generation. Rather than evince faith in the future we hear it said that the future holds no hope; the world is tottering to self-destruction; the spirit of idealism is dying; the advancement of human genius is only hastening the end. This abject pessimism takes its toll of ethical values. There is no point in striving for higher moral values; society is only a jungle. Despair and hopelessness find no place for the higher virtues.
How much has the Abrahamic pattern or life to teach this bewildered generation. There is no more grievous mistake than to cease to tmst in God and in his righteousness, for equally by such absence of trust we display our own lack of righteousness. Without faith our sight becomes myopic. We shut out the light of trust arid confidence. We grope Jh the darkness, and of necessity lose our way for lack of direction.,If we cease to beleivein'the righteousness of God and in His dominion in the world we substitute ourselves as arbiters of the future. Such rell--^ once on ourselves alone and Mpon no highei" being than ourselves must create confusion Irijthe world, for ours is limited power and we possfess limited ,vl. sion, VVe con only influence the snrwill -Confined sphere of otir activity, but that is insignificant conv pored with the vast oteas which remain unqffected.-Faith, however; gives confidence. It inspires trust; it permits man tb step into uncharted zones b£l they in tirne or in space. Faith creates a sense of stobiliify; it negates everythlrvg which breathes uncertainty. It is synonymous with steodfostness, hence he who possesses it in full meosure never.fears what the future has in store. He can step fonvord witlyossUrOnce and with hope.
/ This was Abraham's genius. He could accept thelpromise for thd future even though the present offered no materior reason for such cohfidence. By ^ relidnce oh the righteousness of God, which reflected the. measure of his own righteoLisness, he cc^uld look forward to the unfolding pattern of future,'history. His spiritual legacy is desperately .neediBd in our generation. We require, his steadfastness so
that we may pass through the uncertainties day in the confident hope of a .better and tomorrow. :
of to-
ligher
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