Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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Dke R eauerd by JEROME BOBBINS flN EVENT which did not receive the recognition it should hcfve in the dcdly press occurred some time ago in the animal world. I think it only fair to report in de- tail on this matter which is or is not im- portant depending upon your point of view. . . . It seems that long ago there was only one type of Beaver — the Scudges . All worked hard, took only a moment or two off every few hours to rest, and then con- tinued with their duties, building dams, changing the course of rivers, and gnawing down trees foolishly placed in their way by silly men. Everything went along nicely until a few of them began to see how futile it all was and gradually decided not to work at all. These lazy ones — they were called Jivs by the Scudges — who got away with as much work as possible, were scorned and disliked by the hard workers. One day, a Scudge got into on argument with a Jiv, and chased him out of the woods. He was a silly Scudge, young and headstrong. When his fellow Scudges criti-. cized him for wasting his time on a lazy Jiv, he said, 1 don ' t understand why we Scudges allow a Jiv to sit around and do nothing while we do all the work. He eats the same as we do, and sleeps in our palatial mud homes, but he doesn ' t deserve to, I think. The other Scudges, older and wiser, of course laughed at this silly young fellow and his foolish talk. A few more Scudges reported casually, as time passed, that they too had quarreled with Jivs who were insolent and spent their days lying on their backs and getting sunburned. What follows now I didn ' t get quite clearly from the one who told me the entire affair, but it seems that somehow the beav- ers suddenly became convinced that they needed some sort of system — they were working aimlessly, they were told, and needed some efficient planning. It came about like this — It seems that the Jivs, in order to pro- tect their honor, got together and formed a Mutual Aid Society. Then they approached Scudge 1 who had nothing whatever to do because of his elevated position as King of the Beavers. Well, they went to work on him with flattering words, and by good use of their persuasive tongues — you ' d never think beavers were such talkers, to look at them — they put a bug into his ear. After careful deliberation. Scudge I realized that he needed such an honest, sincere, patriotic group as the Jivs to help him with his laborious work for the betterment of Becrverdom. Why, he needed them for plorming out further expansion of the Beav- er empire, figuring out the size of dams, the number of trees to be cut down, and scores of other things which no one had even thought of before. Foolish Scudges, to be working aimlessly without definite plans and never coming to him with a plan like this. . . . Anyway, one morning the Scudges awoke and found that the Jivs were now to be called Sir Scudge, the name Jiv was outlawed, and the Scudges were to follow out the plans and instructions laid out by all the Sir Scudges, as seen fit by the infinite wisdom of Scudge 1. The Scudges were amazed. They just couldn ' t realize the benefit to themselves and to the cause of Beaverdom in general of this new system. They couldn ' t under- stand at first how much more work would Thirty

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M A S M I D those Arabs who desire to leave Palestine should be made feasible. The 1922 Greco- Turkish exchange of population can be worked out again in a better manner, to help those Arabs who desire to settle en masse in their native and holy land, Saudi Arabia. A huge international loan should be floated to carry out the settlement of Jews on those lands to be bought from the Arabs, All adverse legislation aimed against Jewish interests are to be removed. In brief the great powers must be made to recognize the fact that a Jewish Palestine, an Eretz Yisrael, is not a solu- tion for ameliorating Jewish hardships and struggles in the lands of their exile — rather it is the only solution for the Jewish people. The past twenty years have been a period of great importance for world Jewry. The great Jewish centers hove been weak- ened or destroyed. The inroads of assimi- lation have been great, especially in the new center in America. Only Eretz Yisrael has created an auto-emancipated Jewry which has returned to recreate its former grandeur. It is there that our hope lies. The Jew has been used to seeing things in the last century from the geo-political viewpoint. Today grim reality has knocked at his door and he finds himself the object of the greatest mass-extermination scheme. This is a definite war aim of the axis powers. Reality tells him that he can have little hope for a future unless he concen- trates his energies on one thing — self- preservation as a group based on our past culture. As a writer so well put it, Jews hove been benumned by the fear of anti- Semitism and are so overwhelmed by the line-up of forces against them that many of them are incapable of taking a vigorous stand on anything. ' ' We find the orthodo c few pessimistic and the assimilated one optimistic. American Jewry can become the de- cisive force if it but heeds the words of such messengers from Palestine Jewry as Rabbi Berlin and Moshe Shertok. They have brought word that in spite of every- thing the Yishuv stands firm. In actuality it acts and functions as a semi-autonomous group. Even in the face of the nearing Nazi forces they stood up firm and resolute. American Jewry can only help them if it becomes one solid body of united opinion and demands our right to a Jewish state in Palestine. For an era of Eretz Yisrael will see not only the mundane success of a people but a spiritual revival in the only land where the full life in the spirit of the Torah can exist. 13) Political and Cultural Aspects of Jewish Post-War Problems, by A. Duker. op. cit. T oenty-nine

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M A S M I D be accomplished now. And somehow, they juBt couldn ' t get through their heads an understanding of how much arduous toil the Jivs— er, Sir Scudges — were doing now. Why they were the real leaders of the Beaver Society, their work was more im- portant by far. However, after grumbling a bit, they began to realize these inescapable truths and settled down to their work as before. Only now they had to report at the end of every day to a Sir Scudge and find out their duties for the next day. How wonder- ful it was they soon realized — now we ' re going to accomplish something, no more aimless working! And at the end of a hard day, they just ate as much as they could hold, and went to sleep. The Sir Scudges thought up some more wonderful plans as time went on. Why let everyone ecrt as much as his belly could hold? That ' s just foolish extrava- gance. Why not ration to everyone a cer- tain amount of food and save the rest in case of an emergency. Scudgel agreed immediately and blessed the sagacity of his clever advisors. So the Scudges were told to bring all the fool they found to central headquarters, and there equal por- tions were given to all, and a large per- centage was saved. The foolish Scudges couldn ' t understand the reasons for this, but since Scudge 1 ruled it so, they com- plied, at first reluctantly, later without sec- ond thought. After all, it was all for the advancement of Beaverdom. . . . Lo and Behold! after a few years the system was working smoothly and perfectly. A Scudge was allowed to sleep a certain number of minutes a day, he received a daily allotment of food from a Sir Scudge he was told where to work and just how much he was expected to do each day. Of course no one said anything — perhaps they were a little inconvenienced, but it was all planned out by Scudge I cuid his noble assistants. No one dared to complain — why should he? — if everyone else did as he was told without squawking why shouldn ' t he? Everything was wonderful. The Golden Age of Beaverdom had arrived. The sons of Sir Scudges became Sir Scudges and directed Scudges who were the progeny of other Scudges. But Time, which has a unique v ay of passing, did so even in Beaverdom. And something terrible happened. If seems that a young Scudg e began to complain under his breath! He was probably a descendar.t of the Scudge who had first chased a Jiv. And this Scudge had the most naive ideas. He said to all who cared and dared to listen. Look, we Scudges work and work and work, and sleep and get a bite to eat and then work some more, and then we die. The only recreation we get, it seems to me, is the by-play involved in bringing some more Scudges into the world to work and eat and die. Now I don ' t mind too much, but why don ' t the Sir Scudges work the way we do? They eat the food we bring them, but they don ' t do anything for it. One old Scudge explained to him that on the contrary the Sir Scudges really worked hard — they did all the planning. Besides, it had been like this for as far back as he could remember, so why should they complain now? The young fellow just couldn ' t see the wisdom and philosophy to be found in these words and continued to complain. One dcry a Sir Scudge heard him. The next day this foolish one was assigned to no work, and at the end of the day was given no food (very simple — no work, no food). After a few days he was forced to leave Beaverville and go farther up the river, for having such dan- gerous and foolish ideas and for CTitidzin.5 the system. The other Scudges. though, felt vaguely tha ' somehow, something was wrong. No