The Message, Volume 16, Number [8], March 1962 Page: 3 of 8
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Page Three
The MESSAGE
RELIGIOUS
SERVICES
and
Friday and Saturday
March 30 and 31
8:00 p.m. and 10:15 a.m.
Friday and Saturday
March 16 and 17
8:00 p.m. and 10:15 a.m.
MEN'S CLUB SABBATH
Conducted by members of the
Men's Club
Friday and Saturday
April 13 and 14
8:00 p.m. and 10:15 a.m.
BAT MITZVAH
NATALIE GOREN
daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Goren
BAR MITZVAH
SAMMY LAVIAGE
son of
Mr. and Mrs. Louis Laviage
BAT MITZVAH
GLORIA YELLEN
daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. David Yellen
Friday and Saturday
March 23 and 24
8:00 p.m. and 10:15 a.m.
BAR MITZVAH
RICKY HILLER
son of
Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Hiller
March 25 — 2 p.m.
Unveiling of a monument
to the late
MRS. MILLY MONITZ
April 1 at 2 p.m. at
BETH EL CEMETERY
Unveiling of a monument
to the late
MR. JOE BAYER
BAR MITZVAH
ELLIOT RUBIN
son of
Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Rubin
Friday and Saturday
April 6 and 7
8:00 p.m. and 10:15 a.m.
BAR MITZVAH
DAVID AMDUR
son of
Mr. and Mrs. Will Amdur
and
UNVEILINGS
March 18 — 2 p.m. at
BETH EL CEMETERY
Unveiling of a monument
to the late
MRS. ETHEL LASSER
Sentence Commuted
The United Synagogue appealed to
Governor Rockefeller this month to
spare the life of Salvatore Agron, now
under sentence of death for the play-
ground killing of two boys in 1959.
Rabbi Harry Halpern of the East
Midwood Jewish Center in Brooklyn,
N. Y., chairman of the United Syna-
gogue’s Commission on Social Action,
expressed the organization’s view in a
telegram addressed to the Governor
during a clemency hearing of Agron’s
case.
He recalled that “the concept of mer-
cy for sinners is so deeply ingrained in
the Jewish tradition that the Talmud
referred to a court which authorized
one death sentence in 70 years as a
‘murderous court’.”
Referring to the Governor’s own
statement on the case, Rabbi Halpern
said:
“We urge you to pursue the logic of
your own statement that ‘we must share
the tragic life of this boy’ to its in-
evitable conclusion that it is his tragic
life we must share, not his tragic death.
“We sue for his life; and we take
the liberty of reminding you of the
words of the Old Testament: ‘I have
set before thee life and death . . . there-
fore choose life, that thou mayest live’.”
A week later Governor Rockefeller
commuted Agron’s death sentence to
life imprisonment.
UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA TAKES STAND AGAINST
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND LEGALIZED GAMBLING
The United Synagogue’s views on two controversial current issues
were announced in puolic statements issued in recent weeks.
One statement urged repeal of New York State’s law permitting bingo
for charitable purposes. A second statement opposed capital punishment
and called on New York’s Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller to commute
the death sentence of an 18-year-old convicted killer.
No Gambling
The Standards for Synagogue Prac-
tice adopted at the United Synagogue’s
biennial convention in November urge
that “synagogues shall . . . not permit
any form of fund-raising under their
auspices, on or off the premises, which
is not in keeping with the spirit of Ju-
daism, even though such activity may
be sanctioned by civil law.”
In this spirit, vice president Henry
N. Rapaport, chairman of the Commit-
tee on Congregational Standards, testi-
fying before a New York State Com-
mission, called for repeal of laws sanc-
tioning bingo for charitable purposes
and denounced the “transformation of
the house of worship into a miniature
Monte Carlo or Las Vegas.”
Mr. Rapaport said that where a house
of God sponsors bingo it suffers profa-
nation, degradation and desecration.
“The synagogue,” he continued,
“teaching honesty and integrity and
preaching against avarice, cannot be the
vehicle for nurturing the something-for-
nothing yen that is the real motive for
gambling, whether legalized or not,
whether for charitable purposes or not.
“The United Synagogue would rather
have its affiliated congregations work
harder in clean and proper ways to
raise funds than yield to temptation by
seeking funds through bingo.”
DID Y0U KN0w7hAT . . .
1. If a city has been surrounded by
a wall since the days of Joshua, the son
of Nun, the Megillah is read on the
15th day of Adar. Shushan, as any
great metropolis in those days, was sur-
rounded by a wall.
2. On January 30, 1944, Hitler in
a speech said that “If the Nazis went
down to defeat, the Jews would cele-
brate a second triumphant Purim.”
3. The Book of Esther, is the only
book in the Bible which makes no men-
tion of God’s name.
4. In Persia, Jews do not use the
Grogger. Children masque and go from
house to house beating drums. In Italy
trumpets are blown while Jews circle
round an effigy of Haman.
5. A custom among the Yemenites
is to light 10 wax candles in a circle,
representing the ten sons of Haman.
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Congregation Beth Yeshurun (Houston, Tex.). The Message, Volume 16, Number [8], March 1962, periodical, March 16, 1962; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1287730/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.