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The Canadian English Jewish Weekly
VOL. XLn
GARDENVALE, QUEBEC, MAY 20, 1960
Conservative Rabbis Hear Expert Deplore Abuse Of Rabbi As "Jack Of All Trades"
An authority on human resources warned at Liberty, N.Y., that Judaism in America was confronted with "a serious threat to its vitality and growth" because of the misuse of its rabbinical manpower.
Dr. Eli Ginzberg, director of the Conservation of Human Resources Project at Columbia University, declared that the "increasingly urbanized character of our society demands a rethinking of the use of trained ministers and challenges the American community to find new ways of recruiting high level manpower for spiritual leadership."
His address marked the opening of the five-day sixtieth anniversary convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, says the New York Times. The Assembly embraces 700 Conservative rabbis serving 1,600,000 congregants in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America.
Addressing 500 rabbis, Dr. Ginzberg who is also Professor of Economics at Columbia, deplored the abuse of the rabbi as a "jack of all trades," saying that in the course of the day the rabbi has to meet a wide variety of demands upon him, such as being a psychiatric counsellor, a lecturer to civic groups, and a speaker at meetings of women's auxiliaries.
With 600 rabbis in his audience, Dr. Ginzberg continued:
"The rabbi who permits himself to. become entangled in such a schedule does a disservice to his congregation, since he has not time' for the quiet contemplation which alone can produce the insight and understanding necessary for spiritual leadership."
The address was based on reports Dr. Ginzberff had prepared for Conservative Judaism's three principal institutions, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, which trains students for the Conservative rabbinate, the Rabbinical Assembly, and the United Synagogue of America, the congregational arm of Conservative Judaism.
Dr. Ginzberg declared that the American Jewish community was the "largest and most affluent in the history of the Jewish people" and that it had achieved the highest level of general education, says the New York Times. He suggest ed that highly trained congregational members "could readily re-
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lieve the rabbi from misusing his time" and that, in particular, they could deliver the invocations and benedictions at civic functions.
Two leaders of Conservative Judaism declared that the rabbinate was in a key position to guide the American Jewish community in resolving vexing Jewish religious, cultural, and communal problems. Rabbi Israel Goldstein, of Bnai Jeshurun Congregation in New York, urged the establishment of an organization to speak in behalf of all elements of the American Jewish community. He called on the various rabbinical groups of the three branches of Judaism, Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative, to take the lead in such a project.
His proposal was supported by Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, representing 700 Conservative rabbis. The addresses were at the Assembly's sixtieth anniversary convention.
Rabbi Goldstein, who is prominently identified with the Zionist movement, cited failures in efforts to create an organization of the type he advocated and declared it "imperative to make another attempt at this time."
He pointed to the problems in connection with Jewish religious life and culture, stressing those involving civil rights and liberties and church-state relationships "in which Jews have a stake both as citizens and Jews." He listed also the problems of anti-Semitism, Jewish philanthropic needs here and overseas, "the well-being of Israel and its meaning for American Jews and the sense of concern of the American Jewish community for Jewish communities everywhere ti iie world."
An organised Jewish community, guided by a representative body, he held, "means a pattern which would on the national level as well as on the local level, provide for common counsel and common action on matters of Jewish concern here and abroad."
Rabbi Kelman appealed in his address, to leaders of all faiths to join "their Negro colleagues" in the fight against racial segregation, says the New York Times.
Referring to Negro clergymen in the South, he said that "our fellow clergymen are sitting at the lunch counters and asserting their rights at the polling places."
"The inspiration of these men, who have dedicated themselves to the achievement of dignified equality, by means of non-violent resistance," he asserted, "has brought new courage to our Negro minority fighting against humiliation and persecution to gain their legal and moral rights."
Swede Denies He Heads Malmo World Neo-Nazi Center
Dr. Per EngdamV 51-year-old poet and specialist in political science, denied accusations that he headed an international anti: Semitic organization of a neo-Nazi stamp. These charges have appeared in newspaper articles quoting Swiss sources and some Jewish leaders.
"I'm nearly blind," the tall, thin Swede said in an interview in a . shabby office. "How can anyone regard me as dangerous?"
Dr. Engdahl vigorously denied that he was anything but anti-Communist or that his group had any connection with the recent epidemic of synagogue desecrations in West Germany and other countries, says the New York Times. Swedish authorities appear to agree with this. The state police report that those persons whom they have caught as daubers of swastikas on synagogues in Sweden have turned out to be young pranksters or persons not fully responsible for their actions.
Swedish authorities also say that they have been unable to turn up any evidence that would implicate Swedish fringe groups having Nazi or Fascist leanings with anti-Semitic outrages In Sweden or abroad. Nevertheless, embarrassed by reports picturing Malmo as a command center for anti-Semitism, the Swedish Government ordered close surveillance of the activities of all such groups.
One example of this is the watch being kept in Malmo on twenty-seven young men who, the police say, form the Riksparti (Reichs party) with twenty-three others in other parts of Sweden. The self-styled Fuehrer or leader, 27-year-old Goeran Assar Oreduoiv aays Jews in Sweden have too much economic power and something non-violent should be done about it. He can often be found in a smoke-filled beer parlor discussing his ideas to the blare of music from a jukebox.
Most of the members of his movement, he says, are between 23 and 30 years old. Dr. Engdahl, he adds, can have the older people. The Engdahl organization is called the New Swedish Movement. Its founder said it listed about 4,000 members but conceded that only a fraction of these were anything more than sympathizers.
Dr. Engdahl asserted that his movement was necessary because of what he described as the inevitable drift of democracies toward bureaucratic dictatorship, says the New York Times. The world's leading bureaucratic dictatorship, he said, is the Soviet Union. He said his group sought through propaganda to achieve a state of
(Continued on Page Four)
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Battle Over Aramco Bias Is Ten Years Old
No. 34
The Arabian-American Oil Company was accused of using questionnaires "that would make the Nuremberg Laws look like the Doy Scout Manual" to weed out Jews from among employment applicants. This charge was made in the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court by Shad Polier� representing the American Jewish Congress.
The five-man court, headed by Presiding Justice Bernard Botein, was hearing an appeal by Aramco from a ruling last July 15 by Supreme Court Justice Henry Epstein that the company's employment practices violated the state's law against discrimination, says the New York Times. The court heard arguments and accepted briefs from- both sides.
Chester Bordeau, counsel for Aramco, argued that being Jewish or having Jewish connections was "a bona fide disqualification" for employment. The Saudi Arabian Government will not admit such persons to its territory, in which Aramco carries on its field operations.
Mr. Polier, a national vice president of the A. J. C., said: "We are not complaining that they do not hire Jews and send them to Saudi Arabia since even the United States Government cannot send Jews there in the armed services."
lie said the A. J. C. objection was to the questioning of applicants on whether they were Jews or married to Jews. Comparing this process to the Nazis' inittmous anti-Jewish Nuremburg code, he charged that the company asked questions even about "remote relatives" who might be
Maurice Schwartz tvus reading Figure Of Yiddish Theatre, Toured World With Repertoire Of 150 Plays
.questions, be ssid* should be Heft for the Saudi Arabian Government to ask if the occasion arose, says the New York Times. The battle over Aramco employment policies has gone on for ten years. Justice Epstein's ruling contradicted the findings of November 10, 1958, by Elmer A. Carter, now chairman of the State Commission Against Discrimination, who was then the investigating commissioner.
(Continued on Page Six)
Maurice Schwartz, the leading figure of the Yiddish Theatre, died of a heart attack in Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv, Israel. He was 69 years old. Mr. Schwartz suffered a heart attack a month ago in Tel Aviv while preparing a production of "Kiddush Hashem" by Sholem Asch. He had suffered eleven attacks since.
Until his New York Yiddish Art Theatre was closed down several years ago it had gained stature by producing such actors as Paul Muni, Stella Adler, Kurt Katch, and Joseph Buloff, says the New York Times. After touring with part of his company arid then making guest appearances in many parts of the world, Mr. Schwartz arrived in Israel last January,, bent on establishing a center for Yiddish art.
Within a week of his arrival he had drawn together a company of thirty Israeli actors and plunged into rehearsals for his first show, I. J. Singer's "Yoshe Kalb." It opened early in March, with Mr. Schwartz playing the lead role of Reb Melech.
Mr. Schwartz often was called the John Barrymore of the Yiddish theatre. An actor in the broad fashion, he was not parsimonious in use of voice or gesture.
Although identified mainly with the Yiddish Art Theatre, which he founded in 1918 and which was a Mecca for Jewish theatregoers on New York's Lower East Side until it was disbanded in 1950, Mr. Schwartz w�� a frequent performer in Yiddiah theatres throwgttout the world. , , . - . �",
Writing in 1947 about Mr. Schwartz and his theatre, Brooks Atkinson, drama critic of The New York Times, said:
"The Yiddish Art Theatre has continued to stand for something worth respecting. Something of the traditional theatre survives under his auspices. He gives his audiences story, colorful costumes, beards, lots of scenery, music and acting. For he is not afraid of the theatre."
"If the acting in Second Avenue is not precisely in the grand manner," Mr. Atkinson continued, "it has animation and latitude, with wide gestures, and you always know that you are not in a library. Without being intolerably .flamboyant, Mr. Schwartz acts with boldness, using his hands continuously, waggling an eloquent forefinger and rising shaggy eyebrows to project astonishment."
Mr. Schwartz' Yiddish Art Theatre was sometimes likened in its field to Dublin's Abbey Theatre ^and the Moscow Art Theatre, ^ says the New York Times. Rising costs and dwindling audiences led to its disbandment* although it was briefly activated in 1955 as a subsidized venture.
Mr. Schwartz and his company toured the United States and also Canada, South America, Europe. Israel, and South Africa. It had a repertoire of 150 plays ranging from Shakespeare, Lope De Vega, and George Bernard Shaw- (all given in Yiddish) to Sholem Alei-chem and Sholem Asch.
In addition to Reb Malech, his best-known acting roles were Luka in Gorki's "The Lower Depths," Oswald in Ibsen's "Ghosts," Max Ashkenazi in "The Brothers Ash-kenazi," Gaev in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard," Shylpck in "The Merchant of Venice" and as King Lear.
Mr. Schwartz was born in Sedi-kov in the"Russian Ukraine on June IS, 1890, the son of Isaac and Rose Bernholtz Schwartz. He wa* brought by his parents to New York in 1901 and grew up on the streets of the Lower East side, where he developed an early interest in the theatre.
He made his first appearance on the stage in 1905 in Baltimore with a Yiddish stock company. He subsequently played in stock in Cincinnati, Chicago, and Philadelphia. In 1912, he was engaged .by David Kessler for the opening of the Second Avenue Theatre and
(Continued on Page Twelve}
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