PAGE FOUR

FRANZ WERFEL

SEVENTY YEARS OF JOURNALISM IN
PALESTINE

I

—
By M. A. TENENBLATT

..,

(eoevelithe ism J. T. A.)

Can we live without faith in
Cod? Franz Werfel, the famous
Jewish dramatist and poet, asked
when he addressed an audience of
some of the leaders of intellectual
life in Vienna recently.
• Speaking as a firm believer In
religion and a determined oppon-
ent of materialism, Werfel de -
nounced the Godlessness of our
generation, which he saw as the
source of present-day materialism
and exaltation of chauvinistic
belligerent nationalism, and the
twin-authors of destruction, Bol-
shevism and Swastika National So-
cialism. Both, he said, are a kind
of substitute for religion, for
neither of them are based on
reason or can be justified by
reason, Historic materialism and
mystical raceology both appeal to
blind instinct, and thrive not on
logic and argument, but on phrase-

because every religious man feels
Socialistic, although religious,
epiritual Socialism is in no way to
be Identified with the Socialism of
any political party. The boastful
race purity Ideas of the National-
ists were equally false, for the
fact was that there are no pure-
blooded racial-Europeans In exist-
ence.
1 I, as a Jew, Werfel cried, look
to the salvation of the world to
tome from a revival of a pure'and
teal Christianity.
'I The poet, who has often been
accused, in spite of his constant
'vowels of his Jewishness, of being
impregnated with a kind of mysti-
cal Jewish-Christianity, cretainly
betrayed In this particular lecture
definite trend towards something
of the kind on which the charge
is based.

' It is possible that the explana-
tion of this nebulous Jewish-Chris-
tian mysticism which is so marked
In Werfel's work and public ut-
terances, is to be found in his pri-
vate life. His wife is a devout Ro-
man Catholic. Although he has
remained a Jew, Welfel married
Alma Maria Mahler, the widow of
the great Jewish composer, Gustav
Mahler, whom her influence led to
baptism. She has not been able
to get Werfel to abandon Judaism,
and it is very unlikely that she
will ever manage to do that. Wer-
fel was an ardent Zionist in his
student days, and he has repeated-
ly made it clear that he will never
enter the Christian faith. But a
wife asserts her influence over her
husband in subtle ways, and Alma
Maria Mahler-Werfel is a woman
of remarkable ability, with much
artistic and spiritual strength, and
there is little doubt that it is her
influence that has given Werfe l
that curious Jewish-Christian ad-
mixture that has become so
characteristic of him and his work.
The great Hebrew poet, Dr. Saul
Tchernichowski, has not suffered
In this way from a similar relation-
ship. His Jewish feeling is too
strong, and his national Juwish-
ness is invincible. He is a na-
tional Hebrew poet. With Werfel,
his wife's influence can be seen
In his Christianizing drama, "Paul
Among the Jews," which expresses
the same kind of Idea that he
dwelt on in his address the other
.day, that as a Jew he looks to the
salvation of the world to come
from a revival of a pure and real
Christianity.
Perhaps it is not quite the thing
to talk of a writer's private life
in public, and to bring in his re-
lations with his wife in discussing
Ms work. But Franz Werfel is
greatly read by Jewish intellectu-
als, and especially by the Jewish
youth. Ile has several times been
to Palestine, and he has had a good
deal to say about the building of
the Jewish National Home. (Ills
wife, Alma Maria Mahler-Ferfel,
too, has confessed herself in love
with the "Holy Land," and she has
certain sympathies for Zionism.)
For that reason it seems necessary
to make the facts known, so that
his Jewish readers should know
how matter: stand with Franz
Werfel, and what is at the bottom
of his constant vaccilation between
Judaism and Christianity, which,
by the way, is true also to some
extent of the work of other Jew-
ish writers who belong, like Wer-
fel, to the "Prague" school.
There is no doubt that sooner
or later Franz Werfel will publish
a book dealing with this particular
q uestion, and revealing the strug-
gle and combat that is taking place
in his own soul. Werfel is • fine
and sensitive poet, a man who
feels and thinks profoundly, and it
will be of tremendous interest to
hear him. explain himself, and
reconcile his Jewish feelings and
:his Christian mysticism.

Them

Mn

for Zalmon Pevsner). And simul-
rect our newspapers today. Yet,
taneously with the noisy exposi-
without R. Joel Moses Salomon, the
tions and celebrations of spring
peace-loving editor of Halevanon,
1932, this modest exhibition was
who proclaimed in his paper to his
also opened to the public.
"We shall not mount
adversaries
vers
But this exhibition of the periodi-
you on Mount
y
cal press, coming at the close of batteries
Lebanon," against
there would have been
seven decades of Jewish journal- no room for the publicists of 1932,
ism in Palestine, was no ordinary who are as far removed as can be
one. It was a tremendous demon- imagined from his outlook. Dur-
stration of the revival of the He- ing the exhibition, a memorial
brew language and the introduc- meeting was held for Frumkin, the
tion of civilization into the coun- editor of Ila•llavazeleth; and the
try by the Jews. Every number , council of the Township of Tel
every issue—some of them sear- Aviv at one of its meetings, re-
leaved and moth-eaten—is a slic e solved to name a street after Salo-
of history, a fragment of life, a mon, the editor of lialevanon. For
chronicle of the builders and coin- days and weeks thousands of adults
mural figures of the Yishuv at and children passed through the
every stage of its history.
hall of Ohel Shem, where seventy
x years of history gazed at them
.
pressi sheaenmirror tohf flei l f er reflex
The
form and tempo of the newspapers from the walls and tables in every
faithful
always
sort of Hebrew print. Every page
of the intensity of the country's spoke a living tongue. Here were
life. The first periodical appeared monuments of days of joy and sor-
at a time when the land was still sow, jubilation and gloom, gather-
laatell whaesmteheurnedeetr Jews e rule e togs and celebrations, war and
adesoem
barbaric government. There were banishment, political events and ca-
in the !amities, bloodshed and heroism—
only
er no t n e, and the papers or the ephemeral
't Hebron,
(Jerusalem,
ns (.le
r
Four
JF
eoffu e
Tiberias, Sated) and a handful in pamphlets, legal and otherwesi, it-
s a l e settlements
r RTehgei oagricultural
t l l e em b
tered shrieks of anguish and hys-
had not yet been founded, and, feria, gnashing% of teeth and cries
needless to say, the railway and of vengeance or shouts of joy and
the telegraph were unknown in exultation, triumph and happiness.
Palestine. The mails were trans-
As the wheel of time revolves,
ported on camels or donkeys: some- every day a stone is added to the
times, for better safety," by a structure. Seventy years ago the
robber chieftain, who had a sort of foundation was laid, and today
concession. The roads were un- newspapers are published in Pal-
paved, strewn with rocks and atones estine not only for the purpose of
and beset with danger. Ships from "inspiring our brethren in Israel
across the sea used to anchor in in all the lands of their dispersion
the roadsteads of Palestine once in with reverence for which is holy,
three or four months, and in the with love for Judah and Jerusalem;
intervals between, the country of reconciling and uniting; of pro-
would be completely cut off from moting the knowledge of the Torah
the rest of the world. The "mes- and the fear of God" (the object
hullahim" who travelled abroad to of Yehuda v'Irushalayim, 1871).
collect the "halukka" were the only Even the agents of Moscow are
links between the Diaspora and the obliged to publish their pamphlets
priesthood, as it were, that dwelt in the hated Hebrew language if
in Zion. they want anybody to glance at
But the seventieth year of Eretz them. So are all sorts of other in-
Israel journalism •es celebrated in citing literature published in Ile-
a purely Jewish city, the center of brew; out of necessity, of course.
the new Yishuv, under an enligh- For Hebrew is no longer only the
toned European government; amid Holy tongue, but the medium for
modern buildings, temples to col- everything that is expressed in
ture, concrete roads, active rail human language.
an dmotor communications, steam-
Hebrew journalism did not orig-
ships and air mails, telegraphs and irate in Palestine. The Konigs-
telephones, secondary and higher berg Meassef began to be publish-
schools, theaters and opera, daily ed in 1784. But today it appears
newspapers supplied by interne- that the foundation of real journal-
tional telegraphic services, dozens ism, which is tangibly connected
of periodical journals in every with life, was laid in •Eretz Israel,
trade and every aspect of life, and 70 years ago. Today there is hardly
above all, a living Hebrew speech and Hebrew periodical press in the
in the mouths of babes and grey- Dispersion; everything has been
beards, doctors, engineers, tailors, destroyed together with the old cul-
cobblers, joiners, locksmiths, chauf- tural centers, A Hebrew press ex-
fears and gharry-drivers, porters ista, and wil undoubtedly continue
and street-cleaners. A miracle, one to exist and develop, in the land
of the world's wonlers. And all where a new life is being created
these years of development are in the Ilebrew tongue; it is the
wrapped up in these discolored tongue in which a mother babbles
sheets of newsprint; here are pre- to her infant and an old man whis-
served every generation with its pers his last words to the heirs that
taste and style, every generation are gathered round his deathbed.
and its ideas .
From the bi-monthly Mehuda v'- Testis of Austrian High Society
Irushalayim on the titlepage to be
Has Jewish Blood In Its Veins.
to "inspire our brethren in Israel
VIENNA.—(J. T. A.)—Declar-
in all the lands of their dispersion ing that there is no racial purity.
with reverence for that which is Otto Forst de Battaglia, well
holy, with love of Judah and Jeru-
known Austrian writer, declares in
s alem; to reconcile and unite, to
• new book, "Secrets of the
promote the knowledge of the
Blood," that many royal families
Torah and the fear of God, wisdom have Jewish blood in their veins.
and science, and the expansion and
Esther Shapiro, he asserts,
prosperity of the Yishuv; and to daughter of a vice-chancellor of
exalt the Holy Land dailies, one
Peter
the Jewish
Great
of Russia,
of them, the organ of the workers brouoht
blood
into

20

Particular importance is being

THE ETERNAL PEOPLE

'Numerous peoples and power-
ful kingdoms have disappeared ,
have gone down when their day
came, and have not risen again be -
fore those that destroyed them;
and many another people, when its
day comes, will go down and be
lost. But Israel will still live, for
the breath of life is in him,
"When driven from bis land,
when kingdom and liberty were
taken from him, he still refused to
utter the word of despair; for a
new idea broke into blossom
f
above the ruins of his cities and
the
day of
above his desolate land;
hope.
And was
w the day of a new
his defeat
hile the body crum
bkd in the dust, he took courage,
fashioned for himself a heart of
bronze, which could resist both
the mews of hate • ad the fires
of the most terrible wars."—Peres
Smolenskin.

in Palestine, that are published
, am„-.
he
he
every morning in Tel Aviv and ro y a"
'"' ^m""'" t m
Jerusalem and vie with each other lists the Chigis, hereditary mer-
in the distribution of the latest idians of the Roman Catholic
Church, the
news; the weeklies, the monthlies, koronaki;
and Polish royal families
the host of periodicals of every of Lubomiraki, Potocki mad Lane-
the Dukes of 111.
sort; some of them illustrated and
made outwardly attractive by the stein.
most recent technical improve-
One tenth of high Austrian so-
ments." There is a journal for ciety has Jewish blood in its v eins,
every occasion; trade journals, he declares, through marriages
humorous papers, juvenile papers, with Pereira!, Arnstein, lienig-
and whatnot. Hardly a party or stein and others.
organization or any other import-
Socialist headquarters in Vienna
ant institution but has its own or- have been requested by their
gan—and of course, in sliebrew, branches in the provinces not to
the exclusive language of life and send Jewish speakers to their com-
of the press. Here everything as- munities in connection with the
sumes a Ilebrew form, here every- forthcoming election campaign.
body speaks the language of the
Jews who are converts to Chris-
Psalms and of Jeremiah and Is- tianity and those who are non-
aiah; a certain Professor Picard believers are likewise on the
who soars into the stratosphere, the
banned list, it is learned.
Lindbergh baby and its bereaved
Dr. Bernhard Weiss, ousted
father in America, the arbiters of
vice•president of the Berlin Police
the world's destiny at Lausanne—
compelled to
and even Hitler, the modern Ha- Department, was
man, and every other Jew-baiter leave the health resort of Gmun-
can hardly be conceived of other- den near here owing to Nazi
threats against him and his wife.
wise than in Hebrew charactere.

VIEW OF THE BUILDINGS OF • HEBREW UNION COLLEGE

p and noza collection; a large reading
right the library, soon to be converted into there will be a manuscrit
a seminar room, two private
di
This picture shows the group of , completion.
From left to
rare book room with spa ce for room,
Union Museum.
music
room, study rooms, administration of-
a
gym-ithe
15,000
volumes;
,
-
buildings which comprise the He.' ' buildings
bu ildi
are the dormitory
The new library, erected at a
, and • cataloguing depart-
fires
c
Union College in Cininnati.'
ma'am, administration building,' cost of 1250,000, will provide for 'eventually to contain 10,000 items; I me

Anyone turning over the leaves
of the bibliographical pamphlet
which was brought out on the oc-
casion of the exhibition, is aston-
ished by the multitude of abortive
journalistic enterprises and met-
eors that have been originated by
and for the tiny Yishuv during this
period; medical, engineering, agri-
cultural, threatrical, art, sport. in-
surance and co-operative journal;
buiders, carpenters, carmen oper-
positors, railway employees, chess-
players journals, and so on. I do
not think there is a single trade
or occupation whose exponents have
not at one time or another under-
taken the experiment of publish-
ing a periodical for themselves.
That is felt to be indispensable. If

Cornelia Otis Skinner at

CU.

Cornelia Otis Skinner, solo-
actress, in her own composi
"The Wives of Henry VIII," will
open the 1932-33 Detroit To
Hall, Inc., series at the Cass The.
ater, Friday morning, Oct. 28, s
the usual hour, 11 o'clock. Misi
Skinner, the versatile daughter e1
Otis Skinner, had great 44".. e "
both abroad and in New orl
whirl
with this production in
repro uc
her costumes are enact
tions of Holbein's paintings 0'
Henry's wives. Miss Skinne
be the guest of honor at a lunch
be
eon at the Book-Cadillac after
performance.