Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 September 1968 — Page 3

Friday, September 6, 1968

THE JEWISH POST AND OPINION

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'Available - Cordial' Ball Thrown To Morris Abram

Report On Gov. Agnew feperCUSSIOIIS PoSSlble

After Play At Brandeis

By GILBERT SANDLER

BALTIMORE (P-O) - “Available, cordial — but

somewhat involved.”

That’s the general appraisal of vice-presidential candidate Spiro T. Agnew’s relationship with Maryland Jewry, as revealed in talks with a number of Jewish community leaders here. The Governor’s position with the Jewish community appeared to parallel his relationship with other religious groups. The Associated Jewish Charities noted that relations with Governor Agnew have been “cordial” and that the Governor could be depended on for “in-

terest and cooperation.”

GOVERNOR AGNEW was named Honorary Chairman of the Maryland State Committee for Israel Bonds in April of 1967. A spokesman in the office of the Baltimore Jewish Council observed that Governor Agnew had much Jewish support — a lot of it vital — in his earlier campaigns for county executive and the governorship. The gen-

eral feeling was that a number of prominent Jewish leaders figured heavily in Mr. Agnew’s rapid rise from county lawyer to vice-presidential candidate.

It was noted that Governor Agnew has appointed no less than three Jewish judges — Judges Hammerman and Wolf, and most recently, Liss. All are strongly identified with the Baltimore Jewish community. A MEMBER of the Governor’s Annapolis public relations staff said that the staff of five includes three Jews; Charles Bressler, coordinator of federal agencies; Cynthia Rosenwald, a speech writer and researcher, and Robert Goodman, an advertising and public relations

consultant.

An officer of the Zionist Organization of America here indicated that while Mr. Agnew was unable to attend the Jewish community’s rally the night before the Six Day War because of a prior commitment, the ZOA had every reason to count on Mr. Agnew’s interest.

Sachar

Abram

More Jewish Children Seen As Drug Addicts

those seeking thrills. HE ADDED that the figures for Jewish drug addiction are “much larger than the Jewish community is ready to accept

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He said that the use of LSD is becoming less popular.

PHILADELPHIA — Alarm over the increase in drug addiction by Jewish youngsters was expressed by Louis Schneiderman, executive secretary of the Personal Aid Bureau of the Jewish Family Service here. He told Benn Friedman, managing editor of The Philadelphia Jewish Times, that the use of drugs among Jewish youngsters is on the increase and said the situation “is rather

alarming since the percentage |§ UpnGIC of Jewish teenagers hooked on *

certain drugs is proportionately higher than the ratio of users in general to the community.”

Split Worship

SCIINEIDERMAN said that most of the drug users come Lorn middle-class families, fairly affluent groups, with normal behavior patterns and the average ambition for education and culture. He compared the situation to Prohibition days when it became “an in thing" to drink alcohol beverages. The youths today in this aspect are, he said, instigated into the use of drugs by preconditioning circumstances such as family contradictions, tensions and pressures in living, encouragement by friends and “the thing to do.” The Personal Bureau executive said that although glue-sniffing has become the preponderant drug indulged In by the Jewish teenager, other

ESTES PARK, Colo. — A leading philosopher of Judaism, who is a Reform rabbi, told the B’nai B’rith Institute of Judaism here that he had no quarrel with the imposition of separate praying sections for men and women at the Western

Wall.

He is Dr. Emil Fackenheim, who now heads the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. “The men have always prayed there alone — before and after the destruction of the Second Temple. I appreciate the sacredness of this custom there and I go along with it.” He was not as complacent however about “the compulsion” and “coercion” of the Israeli religious establishment. “I don’t think they should have the right to tell you whom you can marry and how a person is to be buried . . . This should

WALTHAM, Mass. — Brandeis University was caught in the meshes of the argument over pornography and nudity in the theatre following performance of “Massachusetts Trust,” a play by Megan Terry at the Spingold Theatre on the

campus.

Retiring president Abram L. Sachar was nudged into the dispute, and he responded that he would ask his successor, Morris Abram “to take a hard look at the whole area of our

responsibility here.”

THE UPROAR came after limits of censorshl P

one of three daily newspaper Two other critics of Boscritics, Eilliot Norton, of the ton dailies were almost ecstat-

Boston Record, wrote that the ic in praise of the play,

production “violates good sense, Kevin Kelly, of the Globe, good taste and the canons of gave the p] a y a rave, calling common decency, and in so in “unforgettable theatre” and doing produces nothing that is concluding his notice, “If you theatrically valid or anything care anything at all about more than a big, pretentious, w hat’s happening in the theatre, noisy bore.” y 0U have to see it. You may

Norton devoted a good part not like it, but you have to see

of his review to the nude scene, it.”

He reported that the play “has SAMUEL HIRSCII, of the Herno plot, no story, no con- aid, also was enthusiastic, ventional development. What it terming the show “a muscular offers is merely a series of ode to joy, a kinetic ritual in stage movements by young men praise of love and an ecstatic and women in white or black search for affirmation — for costumes; a great many sprints identity — for freedom — and up and down the aisles; a lot for pleasure.” He reported, of chanting and shouting and “Bravos came from a moved, some singing of generally mystified audience.” unintelligible songs; a few in- Referring to the Broadway terludes lampooning the production of “Hair,” which techniques of politics, and a arousea such a furor because grand finale in which a Man of its nude scene> Norton candidate for office and a p 0 j n t e d out that in one of its Woman, having made speeciies scene s four men and two womfull of" platitudes, are un- en are stripped down “in semidressed. darkness.” In “Massachusetts DR. SACHAR said he was not Trust,” members of the chorus presuming to pass judgment on strip the clothes off the Man and the performance, and asserted the Woman candidates and rethat those in charge of the four- veal them naked, but not unweek International Theatre adorned: he is wearing patches Festival, which has ended, were to simulate a woman’s private “very responsible people, but parts, and she has ornaments with this and other questionable to make her look like a naked productions, we are going to man. Then, these being have some problems about the presumably cumbersome, they

take them off, and while she kneels, he stands behind her. Both are now completely nude and well lighted. “THIS WILL presumably shock some playgoers and titillate others. What follows is contemptible: the Man, his body pressing against the girl’s back, now recites a ‘poem’ describing the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in terms of mawkish sentimentality.” “Freedom is vital,” Norton asserted, “ and so is experimentation, to keep the theatre alive. And if the old forms and conventions are atrophied, it is fair to sweep them away and substitute something new. But there is nothing new in ‘Massachusetts Trust’ except the use of the one fourletter word which other experimenters have so far avoided; here, along with all the rest of the vocabulary of the gutter, it is shouted out in the aisles.” FLATLY CONTRADICTING Hirsch’s description of the audience reaction to the show, he reported, “At the end of last night’s performance, when the 35 or 40 extroverts of the cast came forward to take bows, there was hard, noisy booing. This is the first time I have ever heard booing in a Boston theatre, and it was welcome.”

17 AT NEW SEMINARY PHILADELPHIA — The first year of the newly-established Reconstructionist Rabbinical College will see 17 students and a faculty of eight rabbis and scholars inaugurate what is the newest rabbinical seminary in the world. Rabbi Arthur Gilbert, assistant to the president of the Reconstructionist Foundation, will commute between this city and New York, as dean of the college.

Wailing Wall Mystique 3 Belated Bar Mitzvahs

stimulants are being utilized by not be a government matter.”

JERUSALEM - The peculiar appeal of the Western Wall has seen three Americans, 19 and 20 years of age, celebrate belated bar mitzvahs at the sacred remnant of King Solomon’s Temple. The three are Anthony Lefco, of Wyncote, Pa., Alvin Solomon of Helena, Ark., and Stephen Wise, of Van Nuys, Calif. LEFCO AND Solomon are members of the United Jewish

Appeal University Study Mission. They were confirmed at the age of 15, but never were bar mitzvah. Lefco attends Denver University, and Solomon, Tulane. Wise, who L' a student at Tel Aviv University, told a reporter for the Jerusalem Post that he

parents chose not to put up a fight. “It did not mean anything to me, the archaeology major explained. “I never had a Jewish education aside from a little Sunday School.” STEPHEN WROTE to his parents about his decision and their first reaction was to send

followed his older brother in him his father’s talit — prayer deciding at the age of 11 not shawl. Stephen intends to use to be bar mitzvah. He said his it in the ceremony.

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