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PAGE FIVE

PIE VerRorrjaisnaiRONICIE

Modern Currents in
Jewish Literature

(Continued from Preceding Page).

it only imitativeness and mimicry,
which he detests from the bottom
of his heart. In a wonderful ar-
ticle entitled "Imitation and As-
sililation," he elaborates on their
dvantages and disadvantages, re-
a
spectively. He contends that imi-
t a tion is something natural; that
there is inherent in every human
being a desire to imitate others.
Social g roups must learn some-
thing fro m one another; no people
can live isolated from another na-
tion; no nation can intrinsically
well: out ideas by itself uninflu-
enced by the acts and ideas of
other groups or peoples.

roads).
They contain anything
and everything from "Welt Ans-
chaung" to theoretical speculations
on the idea of Zionism and practi-
cal suggestions as to the coloniza-
tion of Palestine. Subtle, aesthet-
ic, and most profound contribu-
tions, they are appealing to the
thinker as well as to the masses of
which he was one, one of the
many : "one of the people."
.
. Bialik and Chernichowsky

Ached Ma'am absorbs foreign
elements and thoughts, spiritually
metabolizes them, and creates
something entirely new.
Take, for instance, his attitude
towards Nietzsche. In 1902, when
the wave of Nietzscheism threat-
ened to engulf Jewish literary
circles, he published an essay in
his journal "Ilashiloach" about
Nietzehe's doctrine of the super-
man. In most convincing clarity
he sets forth the essence of such
philosophy and confronts it with
the doctrines of Jewish ethics, and
thence points to the line of demar-
cation where these two doctrines
meet. Ached ila'am distinguishes
in Ilietzsche's philosophy two
basic thoughts: one a purely hu-
man and one a specific Aryan. The
Aryan principle expresses itself in
the form of the Blond Beast;"
in the latter Nietzsche sees the
ultimate epitome of a most desir-
able and higher human type. "It
is apparent," Ached Ila'am re-
marks, that the philosopher Nietz-
sche does not strike us as a man,
but as an Aryan with a penchant
for bodily strength and beauty,
which constitutes the ideal of a
type. Were the some Nietzsche to
possess Jewish proclivities or
leanings, then the characteristics
of his superman would perhaps
appear strangely different."
Ached Ila'am wrote 40, perhaps
50, essays altogether, the work of
a lifetime, the creations of a great
thinker—the greatest thinker of
the age. These essays are collected
in one volume, called "Alpara-
shath-derachim" (At the Cross-

EZRA YEHUDA CLUB
MOTHERS, DAUGHTERS
PURIM CELEBRATION

is and
i
man emotions, sent men
hopes save that of his muse, and
the latter is a vivid, clear picture
of nature, which I only quote in
part:

o, GATHER ME
The mothers and daughters I'ur-
inn and anniversary celebration of Oh, gather me unto thr ehelterIng wins.
And Le to me mother and all:
the Ezra Yehuda Club will take
head ",% " bm" ." . r""" ""
place Sunday, Ma rch 31, at the My
liolmur-Tuxedo branch of the
Where prish y ' ers incene•ntly fall.
United Hebrew Schot4s. An elab-
ijorm =„gar.e when the twi•
orate program has been prepared, In hours
The second of this group is which will include a play, Poems,
a l she I languleh
To thee ' I'll revs
They
say
there abid eth still youth upon
Bialik, who, with Saul Chernichow- club history, club prophesy, Sha-
earth.
sky, ranks as the foremost Jewish loch Manua for the mothers and
Forsooth it h. left me in anguish.
poets of this century. Bialik is refreshments for all.
whisper ts
And trustingly secrets
distinctly national, while Chenri-
thee
chowsky is more of a universalist
Me heart is *glow with • •.•:
in his muse. Ile is a lyric poet, sky as a national poet par excel- Theg nay there •bideth atill love nPott
earth.
who culls also from extraneous lence. But be it as it may, Cher-
To tee it is only a name.
sources, and renders the gems of nichowsky's Ilebrew proves to the
all literature- in his beloved He- world and Jewry how flexible and The et., that Rhone brightly deceived
anti it
brew. For instance, Longfellow's adaptable this language may be-
dream-sit h. flitted
flitted anti passed:
"Hiawatha" was done by him most come to all needs and exigencies. My longings have routed and my Yearn -
beautifully in that tongue. There
Comparing these two, it might
stilled.
Desire has been vanquished at lent.
are very few genuinely national be said that although Bialik may
poems in Chernichowsky's collec- at times appear more versatile,
win g.
th y sheltering
h
tion. I will quote one that I have his muse is primarily permeated
be to me mother •nd all;
A
translated into English to the best with the fire of nationalism, and My head un thy bosom a ref uge obeli find
Where prayers incessantly fall.
of my ability.
his greatest strength lies therein.

New Era in Jewish Poetry.

CREDO—ANI.MAAMIN

Seot! at rne anti cast deril ■ ion.
I. • ugh and n "... !" ," . 1
Yet my
n, creed it holds a vise
atill believe in thee.
Man,

"'',

In the rod the breath of freedom,
Free from greed and III Pt for gold:
Out of bondage ever rising
Stars thy roue• th011.11 ■ Ifolti.

sel,

that fathoms deep att..,
Spirit raised to dirty heights:
cringe 'noun chains and
ehackleg•
But thy roof aspires to light.

sieves en v

s,otri I am ire] ave in friendship,
I believe in human heart.:

Hearts of hope. the heart of mankind.
As it seeds and buds and starts.

I believe in muds great future,
Tho the hour be far remote..
It will come with peace triumphant,
In its chords • bliseful note.

people'e rod will flower,
Thus
Fragrant flowers in the night,
Iron chains will fan asunder
As it sees the dawn tof light.

It will live and love •nd labor,
Cosi for shield and time for guard;
sing generation,
And in
It will find Its own reward.

/m i l
1 hn

Rarest flowers will then bloasom,
when my people sill awake.

Only with Adam ilaKohen Le-
benson his s in Mis c ha Joseph Le-
sc
'
( '
benson, and J. I, Gordon, there
begins a new era in Jewish poetry.
It receives a new impetus and
Their predecessors
orientation.
seem to dwindle into thin air, and
nothing of permanent value re-
mains of their work. A compen-
satory phenomenon takes place,
however; the culmination of their
sincere endeavors and aspirations
seem to embody themselves into a
host of modern disciples, and the
apex is reached when Malik ap-
, the
•
p
.
poetic star shining over the new
Jewish Parnassus. His poems ,
breathe once more the air of
spring, the fragrance of flowers,
the beauty and passion of love,
and now and then the warning
voice of the prophet. Two poems
follow to illustrate the above; one
is entitled "Haehnisini tahath
K'nafech" ("0 Gather Me Unto
Thy Sheltering Wings"), and the
other "Bassadeh" ("In the Field ').
The former is a renunciation and
a cry of dissatisfaction of all hu-

Insofar as the living Hebrew
Help Maintain the Glori-
cannot entirely rely for its growth ous Achievements in Pales-
and development on artificial or .
tine.
Subscribe to the United
extraneous sources, we cannot
I therefore designate Chernichow- Palestine Appeal.

IN THE FIELDS
Only by travail and reanelens toil
Hoe the stalks eluting tn , end grown ,
I have neither tilled nor have I sown—
Could ALAI harvest then be called my
own 7

You have thrived!, my heart remained
unnti rred:
Joy hati lied and all wan vain.
Neftner could my son g s enthrall
please,
Carnered not in sheaves of grain.

It would be ridiculous to repeat
the ecstatic utterances of certain
reviewers and critics who com-
pared Bialik with Jehudah Ilalevi
and even Isaiah. Ile is neither of
these; he is just Chaim Nachman
Bialik—a distinct literary entity,
a produce of the Jewish Renais-
sance of modern times.
Bialik was born in 187:3 in a
small hamlet in Volhynia. Ills
education was that of the usual
education accorded the Jewish
youth of those times and thus he
inevitably became acquainted quite
early in life with the Beth Ilami-
drash. And yet his career was not
comet-like, but proceeded by
steady evolution; no abrupt
changes are noticeable. He gradu-
ally emerges from the Beth Ilami-
drush and ascends upon the back
of Pegasus the path of the Olym-
pian heights. No sudden travails
are discernible, no inner conflicts
and no "Sturm and Drang"

HIGH COMMISSIONER
EMPOWERED TO FIRE
MUNICIPALITY HEADS

JERUSALEM.— (J. T. A.)—
The Iligh Commissioner of Pales-
tine is authorized to appoint the
entire administration of Palestine
municipalities by an ordinance
published in the Official Gazette.
This power is vested in the Iligh
Commissioner in the event that he
finds this drastic measure neces-
sary.
The ordinance authorizes the
High Commissioner to cancel any
decisions applying to the munici-
palities, substituting other rulings,
and to dismiss the mayor, council-
lors and clerks of the municipal-
ities, appointing others, if neces-
sary, the entire administration of
the municipalities.

The action of the Palestine gov-
ernment in issuing this drastic
measure is interpreted as refer-
ring to the situation in Tel Aviv
where, following a government or-
der cancelling the city elections,
the entire slate elected was ap-
pointed by the government. The
City Council insisted, however, on
the autonomous character of the
municipal administration.

period. He evenly climbs to the
summit and we' see before us
Bialik.
I quote one stanza from his irn-
assioned I sic "Enehn" (Her
Eyes) first in Hebrew and then in
English to show how flexible and
adaptable the language is. This is
the meter:

Achlu, vertu, yalskti real,
1 sham •ch•lathnl-
Shadliat, Shallot. k'ra hasatan!
Lilith Dad toatiathni!

Or, as rendered in English:

horn end
They anew end
ern
As if livingflame. have enwrapped
Oh, Lord. 0 Lord, call this Satan , from

Lilith, the imp, has entrapped me.

Sounds almost like the "Erl-
koenig."
Carlyle recommended his pupils
to master the German language in
able o rend Goethe in
o be
eae
or der to
the original. I would recommend
our Jewish-American youth to
learn enough Ilebrew so as to an-
derstand Bialik. Translations are
at best perversions of the original;

they lack something - essential to
every language—the biologic qual-
ity of idiom.
This is well illustrated in the
"Ilamathmid" (The Student), so
ably rendered into English by
Maurice Samuel; to be sure, it is a
most thorough and accurate trans-
lation and has much of the original
spirit of Bialik injected into it; yet
something is missing, something
that is untranslatable. In a steam
ore all translations suffer front this
shortening, and principally those
of poetry. "Iste perfecit opus,"
as Fillip° Lipp; would fain say.
The "Ilaniathrnid" is an epic
glorifying the Bachur or Talmudic
student. Our poet depicts the ut-
ter wretchedness of the Bachur,
who actually drowns a youth in the
depths of the Talmud. Here Bia-
lik displays his epic art, his power
of portraiture and his psychologi, ,
insight, because he himself was
once a Bachur studying upon the
hard benches of the Beth Ilami•
Brash.
And yet at times he forgets his
picturesque past and becomes a
real artist inspired by visions and
dreams. Such poems as "Rase
I,ailah" (Mysteries of the Night),
"Tsafririm" (Morning Spirits),
and his "Shirei Kaite" (Spring
Songs) betoken a pure esthetic
spirit far removed from the prag-
matic or descriptive type of
poetry. His masterpiece, "Scher"
(Splendor), is profoundly senti-
mental and recalls to us Schiller's
"Spaziergang." Another piece of
charming artistry is his fantastic
poem"Gamode Lailah" (Dwarfs
poe
of the Night). Thus you see how
our poet travels from one esthetic
mode to another, descriptive in
one, imaginative in another. And
this is done in a most beautiful and
perfect Ilebrew. Our anti-lie-
braists will surely have no fault
to find either with his diction,
style or the meter.
In another of his poems, or I
, should say a series of poems or'
prophetic polemics, he enters a
new sphere and assumes the role
of a prophet. This series is desig-
nated "Mishirei Ilasaam" (Songs
of Rage), which follow in the wake
of the Kishinetf massacres. They,
are composed of three poems in
all; let me quote a part of it in

ve the Builders of Zion.'
Give
G i to the United Palestine
Appeal.

We save your
Rug and your
time.

Forest's rug cleaning
method preserves the
2:2 sheen and lustre of the
finest Oriental yet removes
every spot and each dis-
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prose—. mcivical translation is
impossibly: What bitterness and
misery! the gauntlet is flung at
justice, at human society and at
the banalities and meaninglesses
of history.
"Justice," he cries out, "if thou
art not mirage, what art thou?
But shall ever thy kingdom be es-
tablished and thy throne erected
after I fun no niore, of what avail
is it to me? May thy throne
crumble and be thou accursed!
May heaven cease and return to
chaos! And ye, barbarians, ty-
rants, ye may live on; live on in
your crimson glory and lave your-
selves clean in our blood."
A German poet says "Wer den
Dichter will Verstehen muss in
Dichter's Lande gehen." In order
to fully appreciate his poetry
and many other gems of Jewish lit-
erature, we must first understand
their sources—the Hebrew tongue
and Ilebrew culture. What we

know of it is mighty little, so lit-
tle, indeed, that it does absolutely
no justice to Bialik, no matter how
well his works are rendered lu
other languages.
We as Jews should cultivate the
Ilebrew considerably more than
other languages of antiquity—ouch
as Greek and Latin. We should
become familiar with the gems of
our literature, a literature that
has few equals in the entire do-
main of human culture. We have
acquired Babel but not Bib le and
are complacently satisfied with the
dregs of a hybrid twentiet h cen-
tury literature.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The &bow Is the
text of an address delivered by D r. Aron.
,tam recently before the Detroit Ma
n"rah SocietYL

Know the Joy of Building
a Home. Give to the United
Palestine Appeal.

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Have You Made Your Invest-
Future of Jewry?
ment for the
VERY DOLLAR you give for the United Pal-

estine Appeal, to rebuild the Jewish Homeland
is a seed which grows a new branch of Jewish life

.9me
f v‘si
ikFutul
ew y,

UNtilf 1PAi EST I N E

Half of Detroit's quota
of $100,000 for the upbuild-
ing of Palestine is yet to be
raised.

q Is YOUR contribution among those which

are holding up the speedy conclusion of the

drive?

("Palestine cannot and must not wait. Give
today and help invest for all time for the fu-
ture of Jewry.

011

and endeavor.

The dollars heretofore given were seeds out of
which sprouted forth Jewish villages, Jewish farms,
Jewish colonies, a Jewish school system, a chain of
Jewish hospitals. What is of greater importance is
that they have helped to develop a fine, strong and
alert new race, of new Jews in a Jewish environment.

The dollars now asked for are needed to guarantee the con-
tinuation of the new life; to strengthen the foundations thus
far laid for institutions which are lending glory to the Jewish
name wherever it may be pronounced.

Join in the great work today, and you will thereby link your name for ,

ever with the noblest Jewish accomplishment in all our history.

Detroit Campaign for $100,000 for
the United Palestine Appeal.

Mail your contribution to Campaign Headquarters, 633 Barium
Tower.

Join the ranks of the workers by TELEPHONING CADILLAC 4038

DETROIT CAMPAIGN OFFICERS

FRED M. BUTZEL, J. S. SAULS,
Honorary' Chairman
Secretary.

ABRAHAM COOPER, LOUIS DANN,

Chairman.

Honorary Treasurer.

BEN B. FENTON,
MORRIS FISHMAN,
WILLIAM B. ISENBERG,
Treasurer.
A. J. KOFFMAN,
WILLIAM R. BLUMENTHAL,
ISRAEL ZILBER,

Vice-Chairmen.

Regional Director.

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