Passover 1958
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 4, 1958, Page 3
Passover, history’s first revolt against human bondage, never seemed more vivid to us than it does today.
It was four thousand years ago that Moses, intrepid spokesman of God, made it clear to the ruler of Egypt that to oppress human beings is to blaspheme against God. That lesson led to the First Passover.
Looking upon the world scene in perspective, it would seem that that one nation has been cast in the role of a potential Moses. That is our own United States of America. In assuming his role of liberator, Moses risked much but found the greatest gratification possible to a human being. So the United States can bring untold benefit to its own spiritual status if it will seek to bring aid and assistance to the millions of underprivileged people in the world.
To do so will be more than playing the part of a good will ambassador. To do so will insure us the friendship of many nations and assure the advent of global peace.
This our great nation can achieve if it will once and for all recognize the fact that gifts to nations should be made without calling for any political commitments whatsoever. The noble values of democracy will then easily outshine the evils of communism.
Let us always remember that redemption from Egyptian slavery required courage, sacrifice and the outlay of energy on the part of Moses and his followers. It did not come automatically. Similarly today, freedom will come only if men and women everywhere put the highest use the impulse for liberty implanted within them by Almighty God.
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Bona Fide Jews
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 4, 1958, Page 3
Reports from Japan indicate a mounting interest in the Jewish religion and a surprising number of conversions to Judaism have occurred. According to news reports, about 8,000 Japanese are organized into a group called the Union of Jewish Japanese. The new converts speak Hebrew among themselves, circumsize their children and attend services in their own synagogue. They also besiege the Israel legation in Tokyo with fervent requests for immigration visas.
Since there is no tradition of a Japanese Diaspora – the “official” Jewish community consists of only one hundred families in Tokyo and twenty in Kobe—and since Jewish-Japanese contact has been very limited, one looks about for an explanation of this extraordinary phenomenon. The puzzle is further deepened by the fact that there has been no Jewish missionary activity among the Japanese. The answer to this lies in contemporary history and in what be a source of pride to Jews.
Post-war Japan is a land in search of new values. Shattered by the defeat of World War II, rejecting the religious traditions of Shintoism with its belligerent overtones and Emperor worship, many Japanese have ardently been seeking a new ethical and spiritual orientation. The theology and ethos of Judaism with its emphasis on the oneness of God and the unity of mankind, has won allegiance of these Japanese.
It is particularly significant and, of course, gratifying that most of the Japanese who have embraced Judaism are of intellectual stamp. (The group, mainly scientists and technicians, is led by two university professors, an atomic scientist and a prominent naval designer).
Unquestionably, like the royal house of the Tatar Kingdom of the Chazars, which in the eighth century adopted Judaism after an examination of the three great faiths, the Japanese converts have likewise submitted the major creeds to close study and have discovered in Judaism a vital source of guidance and faith.
Judaism’s attitude toward proselytism has often been ambivalent; indeed, rabbinic literature reveals positions both favorable and antagonistic. However, once the convert has accepted Judaism of his own free will, he is without question regarded as an authentic Jew and instructed to address God in worship as “Our God and God of our ancestors, God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob.”
This tradition is sustained to the full today. Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has decided that the Japanese converts to Judaism are to be regarded as bona fide Jews, “like an Israelite in every respect.” They will be permitted to enter Israel under the “Law of Return,” which guarantees every Jew automatic Israeli citizenship. Jewish Agency officials confirm that large-scale immigration of Japanese Jews is scheduled to begin early in 1959, and it predicted that by 1968 Israel may have a population of 100,000 Japanese Jews.
We have no doubt that the Japanese converts will be warmly received in Israel. Apart from the fact that their scientific and technical skills will add substantially to the nation’s economy, they will contribute a new and exotic strain to the richly orchestrated culture and variegated society of the nation – From the Congress Weekly.
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As The Psychologist Sees You
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 4, 1958, Page 3
By Irving R. Stone, Psychological Consultant
Adolescence
When children are very young, parents wish that they were just a little older so that some of the chores would be eliminated. Fathers want boy babies to be grown so that they could take them to the baseball games and mothers want girl babies to be older in order to dress them in frilly dresses. But neither mother nor father think ahead in their wishes to the teen stage because of the anticipation of difficulty which this age is supposed to engender.
The adolescent period is thought of as being a time of storm and stress. Often it is, but need not be. In fact, it can and should be one of fun. It is a period of great change in physical size and shape, thus causing some degree of awkwardness although not interfering with the development of physical skills. Because of glandular changes, skin blemishes may be noted and the sex characteristics show greater development.
At this stage, children are becoming sexually mature although still very emotionally and socially immature. They find it difficult to adjust to their uncertain position, exercising many demands that are beyond their ability to assimilate, and at the same time are quite dependent upon their parents. They will have periods of excessive activity followed by and interspersed with just as many periods of complete inactivity and indifference to anything constructive. All this only gives them a sense of insecurity.
This insecurity provides a basis for a need for conformity – but not the conformity with adult concepts and desires. They must behave like the others of their age group.. This accounts for the desire to conform to an individual, such as a star athlete or film star, or to a style of dress or a way of talking. The adolescents want to be like that particular individual.
One of the major difficulties confronting adolescents is rebellion against adult authority. Essentially, this is because they are trying to wean themselves from their parents by the self-direction of their activities. Unfortunately, their methods are far from desirable. They seem to want their own way with everything and when their demands are challenged, they flaunt rules and regulations. They do not want to be bad, but do want a feeling of independence and understanding. Frequently they become bored, either with school or home. An opportunity to work or to be useful with some reward helps greatly at this time. They have many fears at this stage –mainly concerned with social factors such as fear of ridicule, of being embarrassed, or failure at school or at work.
This, then, is the adolescent. His big need is to be able to reach a stage of development when he can give, as well as accept, friendship and love, and to postpone immediate gratification of needs until more satisfying situations are available.
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Japanese Jewry Today
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 4, 1958, Page 5, 8
By Harold Soref
Japanese Jewry thrives in spite of exiguous numbers and lax religious observances. Ever since Japan opened her doors to foreigners toward the end of nineteenth century there have been Jews living in that country, suffering from less discrimination than in almost any other country in the world.
The first minyan was established in 1889, and shortly after the Russian-Jewish immigrants established a synagogue in Nagasaki, which, incidentally, was sold by auction in 1924 for secular purposes. Subsequently synagogues were established in Yokohama, where there exists the only Jewish burial ground, and Kobe, which for many years was the main Jewish settlement. The Yokohama community at one time boasted a kosher restaurant, a Yiddish paper, and a Jewish immigrant hotel.
Since World War II, Yokohama has been replaced by Tokyo as the commercial as well as the political and administrative center. Toda about 80% of Japanese Jewry live in the capital. They comprise about one hundred families, of whom 60 are Ashkenazim. Most of them are Russian Jews who arrived via Harbin and Shanghai. Others were refugees from Hitler’s Europe.
They tend to be big businessmen engaged in international trade of the senior executives of large import-export houses. There are two doctors and one lawyer. The majority hold American passports, and a number of British and Israeli passports. Not a single member of the Tokyo community is a Japanese citizen.
Japan has a constant record of support for the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine and was one of the first countries to support the Balfour Declaration and to recognize the State of Israel.
Although there is neither an ecclesiastical official nor shechita, the community meets nightly and over almost the entire week-end. The Jewish Community Center is probably the finest clubhouse in Tokyo. Costing more than $280,000 and employing a staff of 30 servants, all social amenities, including a bathing-pool, are provided. In the Japanese mansion, which is the kernel of the Center, there is a beautiful synagogue where services are conducted every Friday night and Sabbath morning.
The potential of worshippers is not confined to residents. The majority of Jews in Japan are American servicemen, many of whom, with their wives, form an integral part of the community. Of the four American Jewish chaplains in Japan, apart from Okinawa, one is stationed in Tokyo. Chaplain Herman Dicker has devoted all his free time to the Tokyo Jewish community. He teaches the children and acts unofficially as a rabbi. It is hoped to perpetuate his pioneering work by the appointment of a full-time teacher and youth organizer from England.
The senior Jewish chaplain in the American Army, Colonel Henry Taval, is stationed in Yokohama. His religious services are regularly announced in the Japanese national press. The Deputy Director of the U.S.O. club in Tokyo is Leon Laitman, of the American National Jewish Welfare Board, who is working on a history of Japanese Jewry in collaboration with Chaplain Dicker.
Some of the more Orthodox Tokyo Jews import their meat from America, and one family has a mikva in their home. Charitable endeavor is almost exclusively concerned with Israel, with which there are the closest personal links. The per capita contributions to Israeli financial institutions are believed to be the highest of any Jewish community in the world. It is normal practice for children to be sent to Israel to further their education if they do not go to one of the American universities.
Although there are only about 25 Jewish families and 10 bachelors in the international seaport of Kobe, they maintain an excellent Jewish Center, which houses the attractive synagogue.
The majority of Kobe Jews are Sephardim from Baghdad, Syria, or the Chinese seaports. The Ashkenazim are mainly Russian Jews from Harbin or Shanghai. The President of the Kobe community is Mr. Sam Evans, who went there from Russia 44 years ago. He is the only Jew in Japan to be a Japanese citizen. A ship’s chandler, his partner, a Mr. Oliver, was the son of a Japanese woman and an Italian Jew. The oldest Jewish resident is a French Jew, who also married a Japanese woman and whose family are Buddhists. Kobe Jews are mostly engaged in the textile, export, bamboo and pearl industries.
Those members of the community who lived in Japan during the last war years pay tribute to the Japanese for the generous treatment they received. There was no discrimination against the victims of Nazism, even though Japan and Germany were allies.
The German ambassador requested the Japanese government to intern all the Jews and to confiscate their property. The government refused. There was some agitation fomented by the non-Jewish Russian refugees and the German diplomats. Under influence of the latter a magazine was published in Tokyo in 1938 of an anti-Semitic nature, whose contributors included Goebbels and Rosenberg.
But basically the Japanese are fascinated by Jews and the Bible. The Imperial House has a long history of friendship. Prince Mikasa, the brother of the Emperor, is immersed in rabbinic studies and occasionally he attends the Tokyo Synagogue. His two unfulfilled ambitions are to visit Israel and to study the Talmud. His collection of Hebraic at the Imperial Palace is most impressive. His late elder brother, Prince Chichibu, had similar interests.
At the universities there is a similar interest in Old Testament studies. Several Japanese regularly attend the service at the Tokyo synagogue. There is one university student who is anxious to embrace Judaism. If ecclesiastic facilities permitted there might be others. But the story which has spread to America and beyond that there is a mass movement toward Judaism, is in my opinion, without foundation. A number of Jews, including leaders of the Tokyo and Kobe communities, have intermarried, both with Japanese and Europeans. The absence of a Jewish ecclesiastical authority made this practically inevitable. In most cases, of course, the children are lost to Judaism.
However, it is likely that the Jewish community of Japan will survive. Economic ties between Israel and China are being strengthened. As Japan develops its international trade and further enhances its mercantile power Jews are likely to be attracted to this friendly, enterprising and vital land. It would be impossible to find a more contented community, and nowhere is there greater harmony based upon mutual respect and understanding. © The London Jewish Chronicle Feature and News Service.
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Women Raise Funds Through Television
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 4, 1958, Page 6
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Foundation Makes Gift To Center
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 4, 1958, Page 6
First Charitable Foundation gift to the Jewish Community Center Building was announced yesterday by Seymour Rabin, Campaign Chairman.
Mr. William Jeffrey, Chairman of the Samuel I. and John H. Fox Charitable Foundation, presented a check for $2,500 to Irving Friedman, Foundation Gift Chairman.
In making the presentation Mr. Jeffrey said, “It is with pleasure that we enclose our check in the amount of $2,500 payable to the order of the Jewish Community Center of San Diego for its 1958 building Completion Fund.”
Friedman stated that other corporation gifts will be forthcoming in the near future.
“Needs of the Center for the completion of the building are $40,000,”Rabin said. This includes furniture and equipment. However, the Center Campaign is now being held in abeyance until the completion of the United Jewish Fund Drive.
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‘The Desk Set’ To Open at Globe Theatre April 8
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 4, 1958, Page 6
“The Desk Set,” a witty and entertaining comedy about office workers who rebel at being replaced by a mechanical brain, will open a four-week run Tuesday, April 8, at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park. The San Diego Community Theatre production, which will play nightly, except Mondays, at 8:30, is being directed by Mrs. James Holloway.
Written by William Marchant, “The Desk Set” enjoyed a run of 37 weeks in New York during the 1955-56 season with Shirley Booth in the starring role. The film version of the play, made in 1957, featured Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.
Concerned with the possibility that machines may replace people in offices, the comedy takes place in the research library of a large radio and television network. The plot centers around the efforts of the clever chief librarian, with solid assistance from her three co-workers, to prove that the human factor is just as important as a collection of keyboards, dials, light bulbs and electric impulses.
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Adventures in San Diego Jewish History” is sponsored by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg. Our “Adventures in San Diego Jewish History” series will be a regular feature until we run out of history. To find stories on specific individuals or organizations, type their names in our search box, located just above the masthead on the right hand side of the screen.