I
at
at T-
0-
T*
X
ed
F
>
r
riON
jmrmttee ts activi-jmmittee develop-al situa-ittee are 1 Kirsch, [. Levin-uis Solo-!.. Cohen, /ineberg,
fld Row
Christmas
Sunday,
place in
e won by
Sregman,
lye Love
itchener.
Among
Coppcl,
and D.
Love, H.
logus, of
md Pearl
Preston;
naa, Dr.
elder, S.
uley R.
~-^J, y>'v
f;:
�/�Y
.f-': ''/
v^>.
-�' j
1*~ \l
' Vol. IX.
TORONTO, ONT., JANUARY 13, 1928
No. 11
Editorials
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
BY RABBI FERDINAND M. ISSERMAN
We hope that one of the achievements of the Board of Education in the ensuing year will be the abolition of corporal punishment in the public schools. After centuries of experience, we have learned that children cannot be whipped into goodness, and that the teacher or parent who desires to fashion or mould character must do so without the aid of the strap. Physical punishment instils fear into ^he child. It may compel him to do the right temporarily because he dreads a beating, but it does not thereby inculcate into him moral values. We are attempting to build a society which shall do the right hot because of fear but because of its inherent beauty. A morality 'bililt on fear is sham. It is built on quicksands. It will collapse as soon as fear is removed. A teacher whose .influence on children is bulwarked by fear is a failure. Neither men nof children can be made morai by the brandishing of a club.
. Corporal punishment tends to degrade the teacher in the eyes of the pupil. The teacher by resorting to physical force appears as a bully to the child. He is taking advaqtage of his superior strength or position. He becomes for the child not the guide to the world's unfotding beauty and knowledge, but the representative of evil and pain. Corporal pimishment stresses the revenge motive�which modern men and women have rejected. A child is strapped because it has done evil. The school takes revenge on the child for the evil done. It repays evil with evil. We are trying to eliminate revenge as a motive for moral action. We have cast off the gods of vengeance and replaced them with gods of love, To a child being whipped for wrongdoing, we are preaching the unholy doctrine of revenge.
^ Qorporal punishment is an undue exaltation of might. We are living in a society where might rules. We believe that right and not might should'rule. We deplore the existence of armies and navies ar^d their unspoken assertion of the rule of might. We desire to teach our children that justice cannot be attained by mere might. We want to build a society buttressed on love and righteousness. JWe srZpald .in" our relations with children stress these and ignore might. .We are firmly convinced that whipping children does not make 'hem moral and that it brings with it many implications which are ;jad pedagogically and harmful .morally. A child that persists in anti-social conduct is either a psychopathic or a pathologic case. Pimishment cannot cure these conditions. Kindness and a scientific ^tudy of the child may. For the sake of teacher and children, corporal punishment, a relic of medieval stupidity and cruelty, should be banished from our public schools.
A GRAND JURY'S VISION
The grand jury in Toronto in its report last week has recom-liiencled that the advisability of appointing a board of psychiatrists and crimiijologista who would pass sentence on all criminals found guilty by the country, be inquired into. We cannot laud too highly the vision of that grand jury. It recognizes that the criminal is frequently the victim of a faulty environment, and that his criminal
CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
THE NUMERUS CLAUSUS IN HUNGARY
Some time ago we commented on the announced intention of the Hungarian government to modify the numerus clausus law. Under the new dispensation, the restrictions against Jewish attendance at the universities were to operate only in the faculties of Arts. This concession was of little significance owing to the fact that the faculty of arts, embracing the courses in the humanities and jurisprudence was the one which the majority of the Jewish students were moat eager and likely to attend.
It is now reported, however, that the Hungarian government has recanted from1 its enlightened policy-, and will allow the bid law to remain in force indefinitely. This reaction is due to the influence of the anti-semitic parties which Vere violently opposed to the granting of any relief to the Jewish student element.
THE OVER-RIPE CUZA
m
' (
Relief for the Jewish students in Roumania is now in sight. The evil genius of the Jassy University which was responsible for the outbreaks against the Jewish students, has been adjudged senile arid placed on the shelf. It is expected that from its position on the shelF it will not be able to exert its baleful influence on the Roumanian-student body as it has been doing hitherto.
We are, of course, referring to Professor Cuza, professor of economics at the University of Jassy, who has been the^chief instigator of the student riots in Roumania. He has now passed the ripe age of seventy, and the senate of the university has decided that he was over ripe, and pensioned him off.
It is a .pity that Cuza could not have reached his ripe old age sooner. A great deal of Jewish blood would have been spared.
THE YIDDISH CHAIR
The staff of the Hebrew University at Palestine has resolved to refuse the offer of funds for the establishment of a chair in Yiddish at the University and has voiced its protest against the actkm of Dean Magnes in countenancing the project. The majority of the members threaten to resign if any steps are taken to effectuate the plan.
The bitterest opponent of the introduction of Yiddish teaching into Palestine is, of course, our old friend Menachem Ussishkin. He has ever been a relentless enemy of the Yiddish. His, Hatred of Yiddish has been a byword at Zionist Congresses. Ranged with him in the present battle against Yiddish are Dr. Klausner, the Hebrew philosopher, and David Yellin, president of the Va'ad Leumi. N
On the other hand, it is interesting that Chaim Nachman BiaUk, the greatest Hebrew poet of the generation, has come out very strongly against the stand of Ussishkin and his associates. He is strongly in favour of the establishment of proper facilities for the study of the Jewish culture as expressed in Yiddish.
The general opinion among Jewish observers is that the Hebrew
CONTINUED ON PAGE 23
ntreal
x S
A Jewish Weekly Newspaper for the Home
Toronto
. �" � .A"