riday, June 13, 1969
JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN
Page Three
By DAVID EPFEL
IN ISRAEL buses don't operate n the Sabbath. In Haifa they do. his paradoxical situation, of hich there are more examples, termed the "status quo" by oliticians. The principle is one f letting sleeping dogs lie; it is compromise reached by governing political parties, none of rhom are too keen to upset the eligious section of the population and its political representa-ives, whose continued participation in the coalition cabinet hinges on this delicate issue.
The "status quo" is a sacred institution and woe to him who suggests breaking the rules of the game. But it has happened. In the Knesset, Agudat Israel, the opposition minority religious faction, has moved a rare motion of no confidence in the Government over its decision to extend television in Israel from three to
seven days a week, including Friday eyening, the eve of the Sabbath.
During the stormy cabinet debate on TV, the religious Minister of the Interior, Moshe Haim Shapira, was quoted as telling the Prime Minister: "If the situation wasn't as serious as it is, we wouldn't sit in this government". And so the press and public debate opened on the issues of the "status quo" and "desecration of the Sabbath."
The religious newspapers' lineup went like this—
"Hatzofeh", National Religious Party: — "A disgrace!"; "She'-ar-im", Poalei Agudat Israel:—"Offensive!"; "Hamodia", Agudat Israel:—"The Government has declared war on the Sabbath". * * *
ONE STUMBLING BLOCK to
the religious argument was the
fact that, apart from on the Day of Atonement, Israel Radio broadcasts every day of the year.
Not long after television began in Israel it was housed under the same administrative roof as the radio station and many argued that TV on Friday evening was nothing more than an extension of existing services, not a violation of the "status quo".
A cartoonist in "Hatzofeh" depicted the minister responsible for information services emerging from a TV set arid blowing out the Sabbath candles. "Davar" of the Histadrut, countered with a cartoon entitled "compromise", showing a religious Jew on the TV screen protesting, on the Sabbath, against post mortem operations, Israel's other big burning religious issue. "Davar" also suggested that there was really nothing new in TV on Friday evening. The radio broadcast on the Sabbath but television could ; not until now, because there had j been none. If there would be ; colored or three dimensional television in the future, the precedent of broadcasts seven days a week would apply to them, too. It was unjustified to dramatize the decision since it was really only an endorsement of an ex-
isting situation.
Wrote Al Hamishmar, the left-wing Mapam paper, now Israel could win the contest with television transmissions from the Arab countries. Now there was a possibility of keeping large sectors of the people to the Israeli screen where in the past they had watched Arab television with all its anti-Israel incitement.
INDEPENDENT DAILY, "Ha-Aretz", noted that the same religious ministers who were now opposing Sabbath TV had supported the legislation linking radio and television. In "Ha-
Aretz's" opinion it was not logical to limit one arm of the broadcasting service while the other was free. Religious Jews did not switch on their radios on Saturday. They would also stand up to the temptation of switching on their TV sets.
"Lamerhav", of the Labor Party, said that without television on Saturday, local TV enthusiasts would feed their eyes on other stations — Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus. But in the end, no one would interfere with anyone who did not want to operate his set on Saturday.
Perusing the Press -Genes may cease to help us
B*nai B'rith National Jewish Monthly
THE BRITISH AUTHOR AND ^SCIENTIST, C. P. Snow, caused -a minor furore in the English-Jewish weekly press when he de-f clared that Jewish achievements in so many fields over the cen--turies might be explained by " genetic inheritance. Some Jewish ^* weeklies were afraid such a statement from so distinguished a scientist might have "racial superiority'*' imJJlications, and tend to make Jews complacent or possibly even arrogant. They carried editorials declining Lord Snow's compliment.
Philip Slomovitz, veteran editor of the Detroit "Jewish News", disagreed. He saw truth in Lord Snow's statement, and declared that the Jewish gene "produced so well" because of the Jew's need to meet myriad challenges to survive during his long history.
Well, the whole subject is a moot one, since other scientists, as might be expected, do not agree with C. P. Snow. We are
far from scientists, but it has always been our understanding that acquired characteristics cannot be inherited. We agree with Mr. Slomovitz when he says "the Jew rose above his environment ... as the result of a challenge, of the need to overcome difficulties, of rising above the degradations to which our people have been subjected through the ages."' But that does not necessarily mean' the geries of Jews were changed.
INSTEAD, IT SEEMS TO US a case of necessity being the mother of survival. During the ancient centuries of persecution by Christians, during the exiles, the pogroms, the walled ghettos, the cruel laws restricting Jewish residence and occupation and human rights of all kinds — during nearly 2,000 years of this kind of persecution and struggle, each generation of Jews was forced to cope with the dangerous situation it faced, and find ways to sur-
vive. As recently as a generation ago, in most schools and occupations, the Jew had to be twice as qualified as the non-Jew to get by. Such experience sharpens brains and character.
But that is not the case today, generally. If Jews, especially in the free world, continue to enjoy prosperity, and at the same time forsake the roots of their own heritage for what our young people clearly see as a mass of pottage, we could become exactly like everybody else, neither better nor worse, and we doubt if our vaunted genes would help us then.
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SILENCE ON FORTAS CASE
Jewish Post and Opinion
THE WEEKLY JEWISH press (including us) has laid off the Fortas case like a plague. Only The Jewish Week, of Washington, D.C., commented editorially on the plight of the Jewish Justice.
What has amazed us is the response of those of the Jewish community whom we've been in contact with. They have sought to find an anti-Semitic motivation, and their emotions have made them victims of false logic. Whether or not there was any anti-Semitism involved, it would most certainly have to have been a very peripheral amount, and certainly not the main issue.
We don't care to try to probe into Mr. Fortas' mind; but it is being kind to him to describe his action as indiscreet. That being
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so, and without any more knowledge than he has permitted us to know, his resignation from the court is welcome, as far as we are concerned.
THERE IS ANOTHER aspect, and that has to do with his successor. As you know, Mr. Fortas follows the tradition from Bran-deis, to Cardozo to Frankfurter to Goldberg as a Jewish justice on the Supreme Court. We don't know whether President Nixon feels himself bound by such a tradition, but it is a bad tradition, and sets a precedent that means a ,Negro and a Catholic Justice. This is politics, and not the kind of democracy that would call for the best man even if it meant half a Negro court, or half a Catholic court or half a Jewish court.
We are not that prudish that we can't accept that life must be lived with all its contradictions and compromises, nor that much of an idealist that we become unrealistic.
Yet we could very well accept a successor to Mr. Fortas who is a good man, who tempers his justice with mercy, and who also has the understanding that laws are made for people, not people for laws. If that man happened not to be Jewish we wouldn't offer the tiniest protest. If that man happened to be a hidebound reactionary, which we doubt seriously, we assure you we will raise our voice.
BETH ISRAEL RELIGIOUS SCHOOL
will hold
REGISTRATION
for School Year 1969-70
SUNDAY JUNE 15th
9:30 a.m. to 12 noon in the Maccabee Lounge of the Synagogue
A Synagogue Centred Curriculum tor children ages 5 to 15 (grades kindergarten to grade 9)
PRrNCIPAL - HARRY SHERMAN