Friday, November 28, 1969
JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN
Page. Five
Ruhenstem sees new Jewish identitY emerging in Israel
By REUVEN GENN A MAN WHO CAME to Van-ouver only to "make waves", succeeded in creating a storm emotion among those who le to hear him speak about his rovocative and challenging book, fAfter Auschwitz". . As I was leaving the Centre on ov. 12, people were murmuring, jHe'9 gone too far" ... "Of course e has a right to have those ideas,
CARD OF THANKS
MR. LEON KAUFMAN
wisbes to express his deepest thanks to the many friends and relatives for the kind wishes received by him dnrin«r his recent illness In hospltaL
CARD OF THANKS
MRS. BENEE GRUNFELD
wishes to thank her relatives and friends for theit. kind wishes and flowers rec^ved daring her recent illness.
Special thanks to Cantor M. Nizon, members of Congref^timi Beth Istraei, Sciuura T^sededk Synagdsrne and B'kiai B'rith Vancouver Lodge No. 668.
but does he have to spread them around" ... "A doctor maybe, a rabbi—no!"
But the truth is, a rabbi—yes> yes! For it is pre-eminently as a rabbi that Richard Rubenstein spoke. He touched on ultimate problems and questioned com-mimity spiritual health in a unique way.
Auschwitz, Rubenstein contends, has served as focal point for questioning of the Jewish God, the God active in history and concerned about "his people", and in turn has lied to a consideration of the meaning of Jewish existence. The catastrophe of Auschwitz has its roots in the character of Jewish existence for the past 2,000 years and the religious life which reflected this anomaly.
Living in the Christian world, a persecuted and demonologized minority, Jews sought meaning in an existence and dignity which no one could take from them — in a concerned God and his choosing of the Jews^ Thi^ in turn, was supplemented by a normative religion which sublimated any meaningful Jewish response to the dilemma of Christian culture, and accentuated the wish for an eventual return to nor-malcy—**to go home'*.
THIS RESPONSE, Rubenstein feels, was possible when dealing with what he calls "civilized anti-Semite^'. These anti-Semites were civilized in the sense that their Christian culture demanded a rejection of th© Jews but did not extend itself to a seeking-out and exterminaton of a people it defmed as sub-human, as did the barbaric anti-Semitism of Hitler.
With this picture of Jewish his^ tory, what one might call the 'trauma" interpretation—an interpretation which forces us to see Auschwitz as the greatest
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holocaust since the fall of the Temple — Hubenstein demands *'new rules for the ball game! Oiu* re^x>nse to Auschwitz must be deep and personal
To find meaning, the Jew must learn to accept the existential reality of his identity: He is bom a Jew, bom into Jewish history, a culture, a people, a religon, etc., and not seek it trancendentally. This also means rejection of imitation of the WASP commimity.
In our times, the rebirth of Israel represents the Jew taking responsibility for the shaping of his own history, and has provided the Jew wth the possibility of seeking out his identity in a non-repressive, non-Christian, Jewish-majority culture. It is to Israel that we may look for an emergence of a significant new Jewish identity free of the trappings of a past existence.
FOR THOSE CHOOSING the Galut (Diaspora), they must realize that the reality of their more complex existence is one in a Christian culture which basically perceives the Jew as alien, one in which the possibility of barbaric anti-Semitism has been enhonced by one genocide and the technology capable of producing another. -
Whatever choice the Jew makes, he still must open his eyes, re-examine his symbolSt rituals and culture and take upon himself the meaning of the horror that was Auschwitz.
No doubt a critique of Rabbi Rubenstein is possible and profitable. One may ask how God can die if he never really existed in a naturalistic interpretation? Is there really a difference between civilized ianti-Semitism and barbaric anti-Semitism as Rubenstein proposes, or is it only a matter of technology as Trachtenberg ("The Devil and the Jews"), Hill-berg ("The Destruction of European Jews"), and Runes ("The Jews and the Cross") might contend? Were the myriads of com-numdments created to sublimate or sanctify an unholy existence outside of Israel? Is "choseness" not a function of choosing? And so on.
These questions do not even begin to touch on all those that may be asked. But they point to the fact that Richard Rubenstein has touched the soft underbelly of a comfortable but perhaps irrelevant North American Judaism.
Award Glaeck's book
NEW YORK — Dr. Nelson Glueck's "The River Jordan*', published by McGraw-Hill Book Company, has been chosen as the best book published in 1968 by an Ohioan in the field of general non-fiction. The Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioane Library Association which made the selection will present to Dr. Glueck an Ohioana Award in the form of a medal.
In his book, profusely illustrated with many of the latest archaeological findings, Dr. Glueck, president of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion and one of the world's leading Biblical scholars and archaeologists, takes the reader from Motmt Hermon on an intriguing joumey down the Jordan River, on exciursions up the tributary streams, and through the Aravah rift extension of the Jordan Valley to the Red Sea.
Dr. Glueck has always considered the Bible in some wajrs as a "guidebook of antiquity" and as an essential source of valid historical information, and it is with the Bible in hand that he leads this tour. Using the Bible and other ancient sources, plus he techniques and skills of the modem scientific investigator, Dr. Glueck reconstructs the ancient civilizations of the area.
SEXY-ACID--ORGY-HERE
There, now that I've got yoiu* attention . . . there's something about four letter words that arouses interest isn't there? Anyway this is what this column is all about. Not so much four letter words but the people behind them. The HERB generation on the Campus and in the schools. An attempt at the generation gap . . . maybe, but only as a by-product. In*-formation is what will be sold here. Information and opinion of the generation that is rioting on the Campus, protesting in the streets, and living in Vancouver's Jewish Community. The B'nai B'rith, Hadassah, and Zionist organization of tomorrow. This column is what the "kids" think and do. If you have any ^questions send them in. We'll answer them. If you don't, just read. It's important.
what is this thing called
rabbi mcrvin hler
There is a battle being waged on the Campuses in North America today that has not made one newspaper headline: It involves 300,000 Jewish students and not one state trooper or policeman. It is the battle for Judaism in North America and it will be won or lost on the Campus. There is a confrontation between Judaisni and the "new" Jew. 300,000 minds are trying to relate their ancestors to personal freedom, honesty, and love. They must not be allowed to miss the correlation. They are the elec-trocardiagram of the Jewish heart. The reading they get on the meaning of Jewish life today, will determine the pulse of the Jewish commitment tomorrow.
Personally I know them to be full of wit, zest, and isarcasm, who, despite their seemingly hard posture, are really quite eager to be confronted by their heritage. We cannot leave this challenge unanswered.
• • • fke sffiiifaiit as 0 jew
To love ft RabbL Sounds like the end' product of the 'Rabbi' series of novels doesn't it? In fact, though, it has happened right here in Vancouver. Of course it isn't physical love (the Rebitsen will be glad to know) but a feeding, a respect, a concern, an involvement and the sum total of many things. On the Campus there exists the widest possible divergence of opinion, and so the tangible aspects of this feeling are hard to group but the record speaks for itself. The total enrollment of Jewish students has di'op-ped by 16 percent from '68 to '69 while enrollment in Hillel has risen by 93 percent.
The new HUleL Partly, except that most of the new members enrolled before they saw it. If you're going to attach the
blame to anyone, then Rabbi
Hier will bear the gmlt. If
there were only more guilty
people what a lovely world
this could be.
more:
In weeks to come we'll try and look at all aspects of life Jewish and otherwise as seen through the eyes of the Jewish student. This is not the culmination of one man's opinion. This column is written by any and all interested students. We will try to give you the tmth as the majority sees it but there are always three sides to every story ... (in the case of Jews it usually doubles not by misinformation but in the interests of better story telling). If what we write offends you, angers you, alienates you or thrills you please write and tell us. In the vernacular, we'll tell it like it is and you tell us how it feels.
We'lttry and set up a dialogue that both sides understand. To close, I'd like to quote the words of a famous poet who said "Let he who is without sin. Jail the first stone."
O this column Is w7Sff»R by tha Jewi8:» sMfdsnts of Vancouvor eontpllcd and •dited by J«ffray GoTdbors. Any quesrions* opinions or eritlcisms shevM bo adretsod to Tho Now Braod e/o tho Jowlsh Wostorn BullafHn . . . soo you next waek.