Jewish Post,Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 October 1967
Page 13
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Friday, October 27, 1967
ELIEZER ASSAULTED AT CHICAGO'S ANSHE EMET
Editor, POST and OPINION: On Rosh Hashonah, a stranger appeared in front of Temple Emanuel in Oak Park, Michigan with a sign: TO MY PEOPLE "A fire is consuming America. A new president will arise*; he will not remember Joseph. If you worship the comforts, $ and fleshpots of America, tragedy will pursue you. Forsake not the Holy covenant. You dare call your monstrous pagan temples a house of God? Not in a cold stone and steel edifice. Do not follow false prophets who diminish the holy Torah. As I silently walked near the front entrance, there were the usual surprise and puzzlement. This later was turned into anger. A temple official ordered me to leave. When I refused, he called for a private security guard to remove me. Hiey tried to push me away, but failed. Then they called the Oak Park police. Meanwhile, a temple official came out with the news, that Rabbi Rosenbaum requested, that Eliezer not be molested. This alert temple official has sized up the situation correctly by going to the rabbi for instructions. At most temples where I appeared since 1954, the temple officials take the law into their own hands, without even trying to get instructions from their rabbi. When the police arrived, they were courteous to the stranger. Later, I walked across the street to Bnai Moshe, also on 10 Mile Road. The re, the ushers and members were more beligerent, with many threats and curses flying through the air. Many teenagers followed the stranger and plied me with many questions. Two 11-year-old boys, Pesach and Joseph, marched on either side of me like bodyguards shielding me from the taunts of the elders.
coin’s birthday, and the summer riots in nearby Detroit surely must have awakened my people. The next day, Sabbath Shuvah, took again the long walk to Shaarey Zedek; this time I entered the synagogue to pray to show my people, that a servant of the Lord does not seperate himself from his people. The crowd had shrunk to about 5 per cent of what it was the day before, when 2000 cars came to worship. Yom Kipur I was back in Chicago in front of temples along the lake-shore. First visited Temple Emanuel, where I first started in 1954, when they held services at the People’s Church. From there took the long walk along Lake Michigan to Temple Sholom. The reception was the usual. Then, somebody called the police. The director of the temple told the police not to arrest me, as the sergeant threatened to do.
The second day of Rosh Hashonah took the long walk along Northwestern Highway to 11 Mile Road in Southfield, where the monstrous structure of Shaarey Zedek is located. It was four years since the stranger last appeared with a warning in front of the most expensive synagogue in America, when Rabbi Adler was there. Much has transpired since. TTie tragic drama inside the synagogue of \Vi years ago, on Lin-
After services were finished at Temple Sholom, walked to nearby Anshe Emets Solomon Goldman auditorium. Arrived there about 6 p.m. When services ended and hundreds of my people streamed out, they were puzzled to find a stranger with a sing. They stopped to read it. One man tried to tear the sign away; he failed. Another man from the back tried the same; he too failed. Then they pushed me towards the street against a car, where a third man let go his fists against my face. I was thrown to the ground. As I lay there motionless, a large crowd of my people assembled to watch tills sad spectable. The police arrived. They were puzzled what to do with me. The attackers had left. I was not talking. One man informed the police, that I was not hit hard. I was too weak to stand from the blows I received. The police were friendly. Finally, a friend, a member of Anshe Emet, came forward and informed the police that he would take me home.
The last time I was in front of Anshe Emets Goldman auditorium and Temple Sholom on Yom Kipur was in 1958, when the police were also called. In addition to the sign, I also carried the enclosed papers (see below) in my pocket, and gave it only to those who asked for it Many came up and helped them-
Freedom of the Press
AU letters to the editor thould be addressed to The Jewish Post and Opinion, 611 North Park Ave., Indianapolis, Ind., 46204. The letters should be typed and should be concise. Anonymous letters will not be printed. No letters wUl be returned. Short letters get preference.
Reader Inquires About Policy Of Center Activities On Sabbath
Editor, POST and OPINION: Several of the Jewish community centers hereabouts are in the practice of sponsoring fund-raising and other secular activities on the sabbath. Fashion shows and the keeping open of the pool on the sabbath are a routine phenomenon. There has been some protest, naturally, but many of the board members as well as the executive directors consider such objections as reflecting a ghetto mentality not worthy of the twentieth century. Is there an official position on this matter by three wings
of Judaism? Is there an official position on this matter by the Jewish centers themselves? Are there any centers in the country which keep open for non-religious purposes on the sabbath? The reason why I think the matter a vital one is that there are many Jewish youngsters attempting to fight their way back into Judaism. We must be consistent in presenting a Judaism which makes sense to these youngsters. EUGENE E. BRUSSELL
580 Magellan Avenue San Francisco, Calif.
salves. There were many friendly encounters, as people came up to extend kind wishes and give encouragement. The vast majority of those who vocally expressed themselves were belligerent towards the stranger. If I had a recorder with me and took down all the names I was called by my well-dressed and well-educated brothers and sisters, I would have to add a whole page to this letter. The name ‘crackpot’ was used hundreds of times, and it was among the mildest of names. I have no malice towards Anshe Emet or towards the attackers. Many asked: ‘‘Who is Joseph?” Apparently, the TORAH is a closed book to them. ELIEZER 3811 W. Ainshe Chicago 60625 TO MY PEOPLE Thus saith the Lord: ‘Who told you that I can be bought with money? I abhor your temples because they lack holiness, and despise your charities as they are not doing justice. Your prosperity is disdainful to Me. I cherish a humble honest life of a poor man more than all the temples and charities you boast of. I love whole-hearted soul-service, not your contemptible lip-service. This is your final year as free citizens. You rebelled against Me. You have forsaken My laws. The bankbook is your idol from whom you toil day and night and on the Sabbath. But for Me you have no time. You do not seek My ways.’
When Children
Of Rabbis Unite
Your rabbis have kindled the wrath of the Lord. They split the community into many congregations. Each goes their own way as if there were no TORAH to unite all of Israel. They sell themselves to the highest bidder instead of humbly serving God. A true rabbi lives simply among the poor, not in luxury among the rich. He must be a shepherd who protects his flock from evil temptation, and he instructs those who stumble. But your rabbis made a business of the holy Torah. They misled you to worship prosperity by making it seem, that God loves your money above everything else. They have polluted the holiness of Israel.
Is not this the way to seek God: that in daily business and family life you conduct yourself according to the commandments of the holy TORAH. If you are a merchant you must only advertise the truth. As a lawyer use not technicalities to aid a criminal evade just punishment. As a rabbi you must not seek a material profit from the TORAH. As a landlord consider the disabled, orphan and widow when collecting the rent. As a publisher do not print stories and pictures that corrupt the minds of children. Children are ike clay: their minds are molded by what they hear and see. As a public official do not accept any gifts, for a gift blindeth them that have sight and perverts the words of the righteous. A sacred trust is public office that no son of Israel must violate.
Who asked of you to build these million-dollar temples? How dare you call it a house of God? Since
when does God dwell only with the wealthy? In a true temple the poor mingle freely with the rich. Your temple is a circus where you come to be entertained, instead of beseeching the Lord. Why did the Lord bring you and your parents to America? So you can grow fat and become rich? And you who survived Nazi persecution and deathcamps: did you forget vows and promises? ises? Your family is no longer the center where truth justice and righteousness is taught. Marriage is no longer held sacred. Divorce and adultery is widespread. Mothers spend more time by mirrors than with their children. Daughters dress in immoral seductive fashion. What do you teach our youth. They know more about Hollywood than they know of MOSES and Jeremiah. The immoral life of our youth is an abomination against the Lord. You are proud that Jews are prominent scientists, businessmen, lawyers, statesmen, doctors, actors, engineers, artists, writers, scholars etc. You are called a ‘success.’ But did the Lord give you good minds to achieve material wealth to live in luxury? Did you forget the covenant God made with our forefathers? Must you be reminded by calamity and persecution that you forsook the covenant for false gods? Did you learn nothing from the fate of our six million brethren? Teach your sons the laws of MOSES. Teach daughters to dress modestly. Then God will have mercy and amend the evil you are to suffer, if He sees your righteousness. Eliezer—a servant of the Lord.
Editor, POST and OPINION: That was a large and intriguing headline you put over the reference to the wedding of my son and Ann Lois Abramowitz in a recent “Names in the News” column of The POST and OPINION. I thank you for giving us so much attention. I can guess only that you must have based your item on some remarks in my own Temple Newsletter, which you receive. However, some errors crept into your reporting, and in the interests of preserving historical accuracy and preventing posterity from being misinformed, I send you these corrections. I am not the only rabbi ever to have officiated when children of two members of the C.C.A.R. were married to each other. I am probably Uie only rabbi to have officiated at two such weddings. However, in one of these Rabbi Alvan Rubin, now of St. Louis, co-officiated with me and in the other Rabbi Meyer Abramowitz, father of the bride. The latter occasion was probably the only Reform wedding at which the fathers of the bride and groom officiated together. Furthermore, the principals in the Lichtenberg-Cook wedding were Ruth Lichtenberg and Michael Cook. You have the families names reversed. Also, you may be interested in knowing that a few days ago a son was born to Michael and Ruth Cook. The two grandparents, Rabbi Leo Lichtenberg and Rabbi Samuel Cook will participate in the liturgy of the Brit. This must also be some kind of a “first!” RABBI SIDNEY BALLON Nassau Community Temple 240 Hempstead Avenue West Hempstead, N.Y. 11552
Everything Plot To For Left, Far Right Says Dore Schary
ATLANTA (P-O) — Movie vetwan Dore Schary, the Anti-Def-amation League’s national chairman, was the “head Jew” to the late George Lincoln
Rockwell.
Schary, in Atlanta to serve as keynoter for an ADL banquet which presented the second annual Abe Goldstein Human Relations Award to Mayor Ivan Allen. said in an interview that the assassinated Rockwell “was symptomatic of something dormant in American society.” THAT "SOMETHING,” Schary said, is “an unrest in the American mind about conspiracy.” “You know,” Schary continued, “the far left and the far right have something in common: They both believe everything is a plot, a conspiracy. Rockwell thought so. He was a very sick man, tormented with dreams of glory. He used to write me, in my capacity as chairman of ADL. He called me the ‘head Jew.' He hated black men, too.
"IT’S FUNNY if you think about it, all this conspiracy stuff. I wish some of these people could hide themselves in a meeting of Jews some time. Hell, they can’t agree on a damn
fj
DORE SCHARY ... all this conspiracy stuff
thing except how much the other Jew should give to charity.”
Klan Invites Jewish Writer
LOS ANGELES - Columnist Samuel B. Gach of The Jewish Voice turned philosopher when he opened an invitation addressed to him — from the Ku Klux Klan. Postmarked Glendale, the invitation was to a “special pot
luck supper” honoring a couple leaving for Georgia, from where they will work as KKK co-ordi-nators throughout the country. “Makes no sense to ask me te revel with the Klan?” Gach asked his readers. “Why not? These are hot, crazy days.”
