Schindler Tells Seder Audience America Will Not Abandon Israel

Speaking at the 44th annual Histadrut Third Seder at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last night. Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told an audience of 1500 that “Israel is facing a trying year” but America is not “prepared to abandon Israel” even though American and Israeli interests are not always “congruent.”

Schindler, who is also president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, averred that “tensions are bound to increase since American policy in the Middle East has been forged on the anvil of the Yom Kippur War” and everything is being done to bring the moderate Arab states, notably Egypt, under the aegis of the U.S. “American devotion to the Old-New land of Israel is not faltering, no matter what happens to the transitional quarter (the $550 million aid program)–two billion dollars are on the way, and Israel is receiving about half the total provided for foreign aid.”

Turning to the problem of Soviet Jewry, Schindler declared that “we must not commit the sin of silence a second time in a single generation” and American Jewry would strive to help Soviet Jews “to live as Jews,” whether they remain inside the Soviet Union or emigrate to Israel and other lands.

The Histadrut Third Seder, sponsored by the Greater New York Histadrut Council, was established by Labor Zionists in this country a half century ago as a special event during the week-long Passover festival, to salute the modern upbuilding of the Jewish homeland.

Aaron L. Solomon, Council chairman, who served as Seder toastmaster, declared. “Our theme this year is: Zionists all! This is our response to the calumny heaped upon our people by the United Nations when some hundred delegates sought to equate Zionism with racism. Zionism is a celebration of liberty, a true national liberation movement of an oppressed people, which does not seek to oppress others.”

HOLOCAUST STORY MUST BE RETOLD

Dr. Judah J. Shapiro, president of the National Committee for Labor Israel, parent body of the Council, said that on this Passover, when Jews were enjoined to “tell their sons the story of the Exodus,” it has become necessary to “tell to the new generation of non-Jews the story of the Nazi Holocaust, and the historic reasons for the establishment of the State of Israel.” Noting that a third of a century has passed since the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis, and 28 years since the founding of Israel. Shapiro stated:

“We are getting more and more people who have not vibrated with the world events that have affected the Jews. We must avoid the erosion of support of Israel based on the fact that tens of millions of Americans do not remember the events of 1933, when Hitler came to power, or 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, or 1948, when Israel was reborn. Even Congressmen are so young they do not have personal experience of that era.”

Greetings to the Third Seder were extended by Ambassador Amos Ganor. Deputy Consul General of Israel in New York, and Bernard B. Jacobson, executive vice-president of the NCLI. A stirring tribute to the six million martyrs of the Hitler era was paid by the assembly. Six survivors of Nazi concentration camps appeared on stage, holding lit candles, while a special narration was delivered by Zvee Schooler, followed by ghetto and partisan songs by Geula Gil and Cahtor Mordecai Spector.

COMBINED PESACH-BICENTENNIAL SERVICE

In other Passover events, Temple Emanu-El yesterday celebrated the Bicentennial that emphasized the relationship between the nation’s principles of independence and religious freedom with the Passover festival. Some 1200 worshippers filled the sanctuary and then gathered outside the temple for the dedication of the Garden of Freedom and its bench of Vermont granite.

The inscription on the bench read: “This garden is dedicated to the people of the United States in grateful recognition of 200 years of religious freedom–1776-1976.” Rabbi Ronald B. Sobel, spiritual leader of Congregation Emanu-El, offered the dedication prayer. Maxwell M. Rabb, congregation president, and Robert W. Bloch, chairman of the temple’s Bicentennial observance, participated in the dedication ceremony.

INTERFAITH SEDERS HELD

In Riverdale, NY, seven nuns broke matzoh, drank kosher wine, sang Jewish hymns and participated in a traditional Passover Seder before attending Holy Thursday mass. Sister Patricia Noone, the youngest attending, asked the “four questions” and Sister Kathleen Hanrahan read from the Haggadah. The nuns are members of the Sisters of Charity Order in The Bronx.

In Los Angeles, more than 1000 Catholic high school students were invited to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the largest temple in Southern California, by Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin, to participate in a demonstration of the Seder. The program was introduced by the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Timothy Manning, who explained the significance of the Seder in the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper. Magnin, assisted by Rabbis Alfred Wolf and Lawrence J. Gold-mark, and Charles Feldman, the temple’s music director, explained the prayers and the ceremonies of the Seder.

The events marked a new high in the cooperation and understanding between Judaism and Christianity. “It is a major educational break-through between the two religions.” Manning declared. He and Magnin embraced, demonstrating warm feelings about the common heritage of their faiths. “Passover and Easter are both symbols of hope–hope for a better world and for a more religious world…without which we will never be civilized.” Magnin said.

The idea for the service was attributed to a series of theological discussions held in Los Angeles last fall in which Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, Magnin, Manning and others participated. Manning said the program is one of many designed to “improve the understanding of Catholic students of both the Jewish roots of Christianity and the prayer life of contemporary Judaism.”

SEDER FOR SOVIET JEWS

In Riverdale, NY. The Bronx Council for Soviet Jews and the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry today sponsored an “Open the Doors Passover Freedom Seder” at the gates of the Soviet residence. Members of the Hebrew Institute of River-dale, who conducted the Seder, declared that “we will not be intimidated into silence by crude threats by the KGB against American personnel in Moscow.”

Each seat at the Seder table had a special place setting bearing the photograph of Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience Josef Mendelevich, 28, who was sentenced to 12 years in the 1970 Leningrad trial. “Mendelevich’s attempts to preserve at all costs his Jewish identification in the harsh labor camps symbolizes to us the determination of many Soviet Jews to Join their people in freedom,” declared Rabbi Avraham Weiss of the Hebrew Institute.