NEBRASKA STATS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Lincoln, Nebraska
MC 3 0 1965
Vol. XIJV—NIL 15
PuliMi'iitlnn f'f/li'C, JHI !\'<i. Ultli S t . Oiimliii, Noti., I.HHI'J, P h o n e ;n-J-i:iii(;
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at Omaha, Nul
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West Germany reaffirmed this week—in a public statement and in a private meeting with a B'nai B'ritli delegation — Hint there was a "special German position" with regard to the Jewish people and Israel that would remain as long a.s he continued to be Chancellor, Dr. Erhard met the American press at the National Press Club in Washington. One: of the questions recalled his statement Lift May to Prime Minister Le'vi Eshkol about the special German position and asked how this position had been reflected in German-Israel relations. The Chancellor replied that one could now state that relations had" been consolidated and tlie problem of Israel settled on an inter-governmental level. He said he had undertaken "great efforts" to establish diplomatic relatioas and he was happy to have been able to take tin? appropriate steps at the decisive hour. He expressed hope ihnt the remaining questions—"modest and insignificant" when compared with past questions-could be solved on a mutually agreeable ba^is. Nazi Victims Compensation I s s u e : The
B'nai B'ritli delegation was also concerned with the failure of West Germany to conclude promised economic agreements with Israel but its major concern was ovur l.lif decision of the West German Government to defer the payments of $50 million a year to the victims of Nazism who filed compensation claims after the cutoff date of Oct. 105:) at least through lf)flG and ]'M7, About 150,000 Jews are included in tlii.', group of Nazi victims, The delegation told Dr. Erlinrd that "your Government's failure to recognize the compelling nature of indemnification payments has rocked the c o n f i d e n c e of the entire J e w i s li world. It has created new uncertainty about German intentions." Dr. Brliard, it was learned, assured the delegation that as long as he remained Chancellor, a "special" German position toward the Jews and Israel would continue. He told the delegation that hardship cases, including elderly persons, would receive special consideration and he promised a detailed, public statement at a later date in response to Uie specific points raised by the delegation. * .
No Great Rabbis Today
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sistence- by the National Religious Party that Israel's newly built port at ARIRIOJ, south of Tel Aviv, shut down all operations oh Saturdavs. Mr, Eshko! insists that permits to'operate the Ashdod facilities on the Sabbath ho ruled on by the Ministerial Committee, .as is the .case with Israel's other port:;. Without the Nntional Religious Party and the I'oalei Agudat Israel, which were part of the outgoing coalition, Mr. . E s h k o 1 could form only a very narrow coalition comprising, in addition to the aiigiunent, the Independent Liberals, Mapam and the Mapai-affiliated Arab lists. This coalition would have only a slim majority m the current Knesset. The Mapai Secretariat authorized Mr. Eshkol to go ahead with a new coalition without the religious parties if the latter continue to insist on conditions unacceptable', to the Premier. The Secretariat also urged the Premier to present a new Government next week.
A leadiiifj American rabbi, Dr. Arthur Hertzberg, of T e m p l e Emanu-El, of Englewood, New Jersey, bciicves that the American rabbi, as we know him today, is on the way out, that his religious function is "becoming ever more vestigial." Ho says that like the priests in ancient Israel, who were succeeded by the rabbinate, today's rabbis will be replaced as were the earlier priesthood. The well known a u t h o r, a mnniher of the fcciilty si Colurr. bia University, believes that the rabbi, ilke his Christian Brethren, is steadily losing influence and becoming loss and less of a factor in the life of the American community. Habbi He-rtzbcrcjs views are expressed in the January Issue of "Midstream," a Jewish journni of opinion which, with its January issue, has become a monthly. Heretofore, it was published quarterly by an editorial board of the Herzl Foundation
Mrs. Charles Fierer, who recently returned to her home in Chicago after spending 5 years in I s r a e l , wiii be the guest speaker at the Child Rescue Fund Dinner of the Pioneer Women on Sunday, January D at 6:30 p.m, at the Jewish Community Center, While in Israel, Mrs. Fierer was associated with Moetzeth Hapoalot tour department. Mrs. Fierer was President of the Chicago Pioneer Woman prior to her trip to Israel," The Child Rescue Fund Dinner is an annual event of the Pioneer Women — tlio Women's Labor Zionist Organization ol America. Through i|s sister organization in Israel, The Working Women's Council (Moetzet Hapoalot) Pioneer Women have pstablinhpd and maintain a vast network of 817 social service in-
stallations including children's homes, day nurseries, rehabilitation c e n t e r s for immigrant women and girls, vocational and trade schools, agricultural youth villages and training schools, special clubs for Arab Women and more than 200 guidance centers in frontier villages. Mmes. Ben Klaiman, Isadore Forbes and Milton Noarenberg are in charge of arrangements for the dinner. They are being a s s 1 s t e d by Mmes. Harry Shrago, Dave Epstein, H. I. Fried and Rose Schwartz. Mrs. Sam Richman is in charge ol decorations and table setting. Mrs. C h a r l e s Guss will be Toastmistress for the evening. A musical program featuring local children will bo presented. Reservations are being taken by Mrs. I. Forbes, 551-0361; Mrs. H. I. Tried- 55G-91!)fi and Mrs. H. Shrago 531-3BO0.
Jerusalem UTA) — President Zalman Shazar has granted to •Prime Minister I,ovi Eshlcol n two-week extension, to January 0, of his original innndntr> to form a new Government. Israel must have a new Cabinet as a result of the elections last month in which the M a p a i-Achdut Avoila alignment won a plurality of 45 of .the 120 s e a t s in the Knesset (Parliament). Th3 original mandate has expired. Under Israeli law, the mandate Cannot be cXleiiueii beyond ihe new deadline. The present Cabinet forms a caretaker Government. " • The mair. obstacle to Mr. Eshfcol's efforts to'form a b r o a d coalition continues to be the in-
H of Needleworit Mrs, Joe J. Greenberg, Chairman of the- Jewish Federation Agencies Section of the Needlework Guild Drive reports that additional contributions h a v e been received. Mrs. Greenberg urged those who have not yet made their contributions to send them now to the Jewish Community Center. The.following have mailed in contributions since the last list appeared in the Jewish Press. Mmes: Henry Appel, J. Bramcon, Edwin K Brodkey, Reuben H, Brown, Jack B. Cohen, Sam H. Cohen, Sam S. Cohen, Abo Feldman, Evelyn Fellman, Harold Fox, Yale Guisburg, Bruce Greenberg, Leon Gross, Joe Guss, Dave Hahn, Irving Hoberman, Kieva Hornstein, Dave Katz, Leo Kraft, Joe Kurz. Mmes: Abe Marcus, Jack Matcher, Jacob Mendelson, Jerome J. Milder, Ben Novak, Sidney Novak, Samuel Richman, Ben h. Rosen, Milla'rd Rosenberg. Meyer L. Ruback, Bernard Schimmel, Mas Shapiro, Sam Shyken, David Silverman, Isadora Sokolof, Nathan Turner, Samuel N. Wolf and Wins Elizabeth Hart.
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West German Chancellor Ludwig [(hard ecaffirmed his country's continuing moral obligations to Jewish .people during Yfchinglon meeting with Dr. William A. Wexler, president of B'nai B'tith (cental and other B'nai B'tith leaders. Ihe delegation protested recent cutback
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in indemnification program and reluctance ot Bom to begin meaningful. talks with Israel on an economic agreement. At left are Maurice Weinstein, chairman of NIB BWi B'riMi International Council, and Rabbi Jay Kaulman, executive vice president of B'nai B'rith.
under the chairmanship of Or. Emanuel Neumann. toss Powerful Rabbi Hertzberg described the rabbi of today as higher salaried and Ies3 powerful than his predecessor of a generation ago. He is "no longer the only learned man in his congregation" and is less scholarly than his predecessor. He is less a religious leader and more an administrator and a pastoral psychiatrist. As the "institutional executive" of s largo organization, the rabbi of today, says Rabbi Hertzberg, is less a personality and more a bureaucrat. He is less a crusader and is much mm-B "Rate." Because "Jews will not come to synagogues in great numbers to pray," the rabbi has become a book reviewer, an entertainer, a commentator on cultural and political life. Less Leadership "All of these," said R a b b i Hertzberg, "are now much of the business oi Jewish life, not because the rabbis really care about any of them, and not, as some of their critics have been maintaining, because the American rabbis have become vulgar. The rabbinate today is, essentially, neither judge nor leader. It is the agent of a remaining powerful and pervasive emotion about Jewish togetherness. The purely religious function of the rabbi has been becoming evermore vestigal for decades. Indeed, it is as far now from the center of J e w i s h , mass consciousness . as were the ritual . function of the priesthood of old. The rabbi's more contemporary role as leader of the Jews in a hostile world, or as moral guide to their political action, is constantly diminishing. He has become peripheral to the major social struggles of this age, No Trailblazers "The rabbinate thrived for many centuries by offering Jews a vision of themselves as the servants of God. It then carried on, for a relatively short time, by holding up the dream of the Jew as servants of their own quest for freedom and, there-
fore, as trailblazers for all the oppressed. The Jewish community within which the rabbis aiu working today sees itself, for the most part, as the servant of its own survival. There are no great, individual rabbinic careers, b e c a u s e there are no shared Jewish purposes on the American scene grand enough to evoke them. "And I see no sign of such, purposes on the horizon." Bigness Ihe present c r i s i s in the hearts and souls of American rabbis, Rabbi Hertzberg contends, is caused by the bigness and the success of the synagogue, the depersonalization of the individual r a b b i , and tho strengthening of the central tabfinical bodies of the v a r i o u s Jewish religious denominations. Rabbi Hertzberg believes that there are no1 truly great national rabbis today, "men like Solomon Goldman in Chicago, Abba Hillel Silver in Cleveland, and Israel Goldstein and Stephen Wise in New York." These men, he said, were bigger than their individual synagogues; they exercised "what was essentially political leadership in the Jewish community and on its b e h a l f in American politics and in international Jewish affairs. They played a major role, in UIP development of Zionist sentiment in the United States, and in paving the way for the establishment of the State of Israel, and its recognition by the U. S." "The American rabbi of today is quite clearly a different phenomenon. There exist t o d a y many individual congregations as large as or larger than the congregations headed by Wise and Silver. Nonetheless, no comparably renowned r a b b i n i c names have emerged. There is hardly one rabbinic figure today who commands the attention of the entire Jewish community. Purpose ^ "The essence of the problem that confronts the American rabbi today, much more sharply than it was ever faced by his (Continued on Page 8)