Canadian Jewish Review

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Title: Canadian Jewish Review

Full text: December 5, 1958 CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW 61 Only Soviet Jewry is de facto not granted these facilities for the reason that they are not territorially concentrated. Although one must recognise that this creates a specific problem for the Jewish minority in the Soviet Union, nobody has the right to deny three gious or national, means equality not only as individuals and citizens, but also equality as a distinct group with the same rights as those of the majority to maintain its distinct entity. To uphold that the minority group has to integrate fully into the cultural million Soviet Jews the possibility to remain Jews because or this lack of territorial concentration. We have recently heard voices from the Soviet Union admitting that there is a Jewish problem in this respect. Neither have the Jews in Soviet^ Russia disintegrated as a distinct community, nor have they accepted territorial concentration in Birobidjan, We hope that the leaders of the Soviet Union will recognise that the leaders of the Soviet Union will recognise that the problem exists and just as the Soviet Union itself in previous years and other East European Communist states are giving their Jewish communities such possibilities, one is entitled to hope that the Soviet Union too will grant these facilities. As long as this is not the case it is our~ebvious . duty to press it, The future of three million Jews depends on it and God help if" our people, after the losses in the lifetime of our generation, should also lose these three millions because of their spiritual and cultural disintegration. To press for these demands does not mean to fight the Soviet Union. These are demands we have to insist upon irrespective of whatever regime or social concept. In' the West too there are countries where we have to make efforts to put through this concept of Jewish equality. If a country like Tunisia which certainly has granted full civic equality to Jewish citizens intends to dissolve the communities and wants and educational structure of the majority practically leads to the concept of a totalitarian state. No state has the right to ask its minorities to give up their specific character. This cannot be the price to be paid for equality of individual rights. The famous slogan of the French Revolution: "All * rights for the Jews as human beings, but no rights for them as Jews", if well understood, is practically a complete denial of equality, otherwise our emancipation may become identical with our disappearance. To 'overcome the danger of silent disintegration will require tremendous efforts. Next to securing the existence of Israel the main activities of our generation will have to be centred in this direction. Instead of being a sideline in Jewish public activities the efforts to maintain identity and Jewish consciousness, especially among ^_y^D^g6?eration, must become the central issue in Jewish life. reduce them to purely religious institutions, it is our duty to make clear to the leaders of Tunisia in whose decency and democratic intentions we have full confidence, that a Jewish community has a right to have its own institutions, take care of the education of its children, and that to safeguard Jewish traditions and Jewish survival is in no way in conflict with the rights and the duties of Jews as citizens of their countries. But this is not only a question for governments and legislation, it is much more a question for Jewish policies and activities. The central problem of Jewish life today is education, is Jewish culture in all its aspects and our survival as a distinct entity. There are still many of us who regard these demands as a kind of separatism, of ghettoisation, as something which does not fit in within the concept of a modern, folly democratic society. Nothing is more dangerous than such an interpretation. Equality for Jews as for any other minority, reli- The time has come when the leathers of Jewish communities all over the world should come together and devote their attention and discussion to the elaboration of a policy to reduce these dangers. The main source of strength will have to come, naturally, from Israel. Without Israel, and after the destruction of East and Central European Jewry the chance for a successful prevention of a process of erosion and assimilation would be very slim indeed. With Israel as the new centre of Jewish activities, the possibility exists to revitalise Jewish life and secure Jewish continuity. But in order to play this role, the great and unsolved problem of Israel, of Israel-Diaspora relationship, will have to find its constructive solution. We are far from it. The relationship which exists today, is, at the same time, emotionally deep and from the point of view of effectiveness most superficial. Israel has aroused tremendously strong Jewish emotions of pride and joy in her existence and the achievements of the Jewish State: but the expression of these emotions has merely limited itself to financial and purely political support The Jewish Diaspora has not yet in a large measure, started to benefit from the values of Israel's new culture. In order that Israel should be able to serve as a main source for new and permanent Jewish values for the Diaspora communities, a relationship will have to be worked out giving the Jewish people a much stronger feeling of co-responsibility for Israel than it has now in bufldtng the channels Chanukah Greetings from GREAT UNIVERSAL STORES OF CANADA • with stores from coast to coast Woodhouse, Qua., Adams, Ont Forsts, B.C. 4205 Cote de Liesse Road 7 traurent~~ ~~~ Garters - Arm Bands - Suspender* Hose Supporters - Garter Belts - Elastic Products Trimtex and RicRac Products Quality production of styles that sell Donahue Corporation of Canada L I M I TED ST. HYACINTHE, QUEBEC Sales Offices MONTREAL 1117 St. Catherine Weet VANCOUVER 178 Wert Cordova TORONTO 94 Wellington 8t W. WINNIPEG Gait Buildiaf HOLIDAY GREETINGS amazing sock comfort 10*4 Patented "2-Sole" Socks Hie sole is knitted in two layers, the inner layer reversed so that your foot IB in contact with the soft ode of the fabric. 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