Friday, December 21, 1945

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

Per sonal Problems

ARE YOU CONVERTED TO PEACE?

_

MAN CF 11 - 1E WEED

By LOUIS W. ENFIELD
Fluent, analytical, clear thinking Abram Meyerovitz is saluted by
The man is now an attorney the CHRONICLE as the Man of the Week. Meyerovitz, a teacher of
and occupies a high position in Yiddish in, and the director of the Farband Folk Schools in Detroit,
the offices of the C.P.A. Twenty took his early training in Russia. In that country, he was a student
years ago, however, he was a at the Vilna Teachers Seminary, the only one of its kind in the
young man who was just learning
country of the Czar.
how to drive a car. He had bor-
An employer writes: "People applying to us for work want only
His schooling there was interrupted by the first world war and
rowed
an
old
Chevrolet
and
was
the top jobs. Their main interest is in the salary. Actually they
he
left
Russia at the age of twenty-six.
celebrating his birthday by taking
want more money than they are worth. They haven't experience
In this country, he attended Fordham University where he was
the
maiden
of
his
choice
out
for
or education. Youngsters fresh from settee! ask $50 to $75 a week.
granted the degree of Bachelor of Laws. However, he has never
a ride.
Older applicants come without references or ability. Are they
practiced law. He then enrolled at Teachers College in Columbia Uni-
As befitted the dignity of a
day dreaming or has the world gone crazy ?" F. L.
versity but never completed his course there. In New York, he be-
We have seen the same thing in our counselling. Youngsters do young lady whom he wished to came a teacher and for eighteen years a director in the Farband
not hesitate to ask for wages paid by a factory on a cost-plus basis. honor, he had her sit in the back
They do not know nor have they ever faced normal working condi- seat while he drove through the Schools of that city.
The Farband Schools are part of a national program for teaching
tions. From now on, they will hear these questions and answers. streets. However, he was more
"What is your education? We take only high school graduates. chivalrous than discreet, so he Hebrew and Yiddish. It is guided by the Zionist point of view in
Where did you work? We take no one without experience except as constantly turned as he drove, to Jewish affairs. This program fitted in directly with the point of
a beginner. What are your references? No references, no job. We look with delight at her finely view held by Meyerovitz who has been a labor Zionist since his early
days in the city of Pinsk in Russia.
will check your references Come back in two chiseled features.
"We are ri part of the Poale Zion,' he said in explanation of his
weeks and if your references are satisfactory, we
Suddenly there was a crash. His
will start you at the bottom. You will be on trial car came to an abrupt stop almost stand. "The Poale Zion group differs a little from the ordinary
until you make good. You will not be kept on half way through the fenders of Zionist movement in that we are trying to build up a Palestine by
unless you make good."
a large shiny sedan. The fender; and for the laboring people."
Asked whether he thought the
The present arrogance of youngsters conies were crumpled and forlorn. The
second language of Jews ought
from the war. The war demanded workers, any beauty of the shiny sedan was no
to be Yiddish or Hebrew or both
kind of them. Some war workers contributed a more. It was a wreck.
or neither, he smiled. Then he
full days work, some only half a day's work. But
Out of a nearby house came a
became thoughtful.
any kind of worker was needed in a rush job of Bulgarian. When he saw the
production. No one WliS asked for qualifications. wreck, his heart was moved with
"If the national consciousness
The untrained worker was trained on the job and grief and anguish. He screamed
of American Jewry dwindles down
paid while training.
his sorrows to the high heavens.
to indifference to Judaism, then
Throughout the war I advised young people to Out of other nearby houses came
both languages and both literatures
take advantage of training programs then avail- other Bulgarians. The lad had
are doomed to oblivion. But if we
Dr. Goldberg
able. Many of them, I suspect, paid little attention. gotten out of his car and stood
arouse a more realistic approach,
The war upset the normal work experience of most young people. surrounded by a solid Bulgarian
and achieve what history calls on
Those available for work received unusual wages, often more than mass. He couldn't understand a
us to do, then we must inculcate
their fathers earned in ordinary times. These boys didn't need train- word that was being shouted.
our cultural heritage in our chil-
Mg. Their wages proved it. They had lost sight of their own goals
Casting around for help, his eye
dren's education."
and of normal living.
fell on a little girl standing on the
Speaks in Both Languages
outside of the crowd.
THE DAY OF RECKONING
"Do you understand English?"
Meyerovitz punctuated his re-
How many people, young or old, are prepared to face normal
marks with frequent asides in both
living and normal work? There is good reason to be alarmed about he called to her in desperation.
"Yes I do," she replied shyly.
Yiddish and Hebrew. He has no
the way many will face the necessary shift from war to peace. First,
preference himself for either lan-
the partially capable worker will be firm The indifferent will la
"Then tell the man I'll pay for
next, if the employer thinks the employee is hopeless. The rest will his damage," be shouted.
guage.
have to produce. Customers demand courtesy and service wherever
The girl spoke some rapid words
"Each tongue has its owl
they shop. Employers demand results in typing, sales or customers in Bulgarian. At once the atmos-
value," he said. "Yiddish is the
waited on. Most employees during the war forgot these essentials of phere cleared. The tumult died
language of our millions. Hebrew
making customers buy and keeping buyers as customers. Each em- away. The frowns melted. The
is the language of our culture.
ployer normally has a standard for each job in his company. Each threatening looks disappeared.
One cannot be given up for the
ABRAM
MEYEROVITZ
job has its normal level of results.
The boy pulled out a note-
sake of the other."
During the war there was a reversal of the usual labor condi- book and wrote on a page the
Connected with the Jewish National Workers Alliance, Meyero-
tions. Employees were at a premium but jobs were plentiful. From name and address of a garage.
vitz is also on the executive board of the Jewish Community Council
now on many former workers will return from military service.
"Tell him," he announced grand-
They will be entitled to their old jobs. From now on there will be ly, "to take his car to this garage of Detroit, on which he was chairman of the Yiddish Cultural Com-
more workers than jobs. Tomorrow's competition will be by prospec- and have it fixed completely. Then mittee for two years. Asked to evaluate the work of the Council,
he ventured the opinion that its work must be extended.
tive employees for jobs.
he can send the bill to me."
"The Council is performing its duties to the maximum of its pos-
This makes it necessary for each prospective and present worker
The girl translated. The Bul- sibilities,' he said. "However, we must find a way to widen its field
to answer these questions honestly:
garian took the paper and bowed so that it will include the Jewish Welf Ire Federation in its scope with
As a prospective employee:
low to the good kind gentleman. the consent of the Jewish population in whose name both speak,
What
type
of
job
do
I
wish?
1.
The good kind gentleman stalked This is not to condemn the Federation," he added. "That organiza-
Do
I
have
the
qualifications
for
the
job?
2.
back to his old Chevrolet, started tion is older than the Council. It is well established and is doing a
Have
I
the
required
education?
3.
the motor and drove off.
good job within the scope of its activities."
What
impression
do
I
make
unon
people?
4.
Not until he finally arrived home
Meyerovitz is married and has three children. He wears con-
5. What is my personal appearance?
(lid he realize that he had failed servative clothes and has no preference for any special kind of food.
6. Am I asking for the level of job I can do reasonably?
to put his own name and address He is soft spoken, quick thinking, keenly analytic and has a race
As an employed person:
on the paper. He was scared to ability to put the proper value on neople and organizations. His
1. Am I satisfied with my present jcb?
death to go back lest damage ne wife, a graduate of the Jewish Teachers Seminary of New York, is
2. Am I doing this job to the best of my ability?
done him before he could explain. a teacher alongside her husband in the Farband Schools.
3. Will more education or training get me a better job?
So he never went back and he
Ambition—To Live In Palestine
4. Will the new salary pay the cost of training?
An ambition he has long cherished is to settle in Palestine and
5. Where can I get the required training during my spare hours? never got the bill and to this day
he looks back on the whole inci- "be of use to the growing Yishuv there as far as my capacity snows."
As an employer:
dent with regret.
Some day, he hopes to realize this ambition and spend the rest of
1. How can I encourage employees to improve their work?
2. What help can I give and is this a justifiable business expense?
his days in an established commonwealth in Palestine.
Will
such
help
bring
more
to
my
employees
and
to
the
com-
In
the
good
old
pre-war
days,
In considering the problems of the day, Meyerovitz is not too
3.
an American family lived in disturbed about anti-Semitism here.
pany:
No one will fool himself that he can continue giving as little effort Shanghai and engaged in the oil
"America will never adopt anti-Semitism as a state policy," ha
as possible. Peacetime competition for jobs and for business will business. They had one little declared. "There will be sporadic outbursts but the future of Jews,
demand more knowledge, education and courtesy on the job. In ef- daughter named Nancy. They al- in my opinion, is not in danger in this country."
fect, peacetime conversion in business asks: How can the employee so had a Chinese cook, a very fat
He has been active in the Labor Zionist movement. In this con-
make himself more valuable to the business?
man with a very expansive smile nection, he has written articles in the "Labor Press." He has also
For youngsters, this may mean dropping a job to return to school. who cooked delectable dishes that written frequent dissertations on social and educational problems,
Training, at the beginning, is more important than a job. It carries simply melted in the mouth. They using both Yiddish and Hebrew.
more possibilities for advancement. It may mean, to others, taking a had a rare kind of flavor that no
Delegate To Geneva Congress
wage cut if the worker is less competent than his fellow workers. one else was able to iiiirlicate.
As a delegate from the Bronx to the First World Jewish Congress
Some people will stubbornly maintain that they are entitled to war
Nancy loved the evenings when
wages. They will say they are indispensible. They will face disap- they had company because then held in Geneva in 1936, Meyerovitz went tc vist% Poland at that time.
pointment because no one, in any job, is irreplaceable. These people Ah Sing simply outdid himself. He There he found a great desire on the part of almost all the Jews
will have to be re-educated. They will do this voluntarily at an used to cook little dumnlines that he met to emigrate.
His own family has not been heard from since the advent of
early time or they will do it forcibly, at a later time. The voluntary made her feel just this side of
Hitler and he sadly fears they have all beer massacred. His visit
process will be more pleasant. Their employers, if alert. will lend he aven, they were so tasty.
a hand in this personal reconversion to peacetime production.
One evening, company was com- to Poland brought back poignant memories. In 1921, he was a
ing and Nancy asked her mother member of the first executive board of the Tarbooth. the Hebrew
for nermisgion to go out into the school movement in Poland. This movement had lasted all through
cookhouse and watch Ah Sing the first war and in 1921 culminated in a convention in Warsaw.
prepare the dumplings. Her mother In this convention, Meyerovitz took an active part.
consented and Nancy was on her
Asks Little
"I ask very little from life," he murmured. "And," he added
wan'.
The kitchen was not part of the dryly, "I get just about what I ask for."
By LEON SAUNDERS
house but was a little building off
He has been a camp director in the Farband camp in New York
by itself in a corner of the yard. and for the past five years has directed the Detroit Farband camp.
The door was open and the little He likes to read as much as time allows.
Vitally interested in adult education, he constantly offers his
girl trotted over to it.
Of all the books discussing anti-Semitism, and God knows, there
At first, she couldn't see a thine services as a speaker to any group that calls.
are plenty of them, the one entitled "MUST MEN HATE" by Zigmund but a cloud of steam. The interior
"And I find," he commented sadly, "that there is all too large
Livingstone is the most informative. Its primary value lies in rlin of the cook house was almost ton a segment of the population which sees very little of Jewish proo-
way the facts and pertinent arguments are based on documents and hot to enter. As her eyes grew terns and knows very little of Jewish culture. These are the people
accustomed to the steam she whom we have to get back in our fold."
authoritative statements.
It is not the duty of the reviewer to assist the author in his argu- could make things out. There be-
According to the consensus of opinion, the Yiddish Culture series
ment even if he agrees with him. The relation of the critic is with fore her eves was Ah Sing making co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Council and the Jewish
the
dumplings.
He
had
his
shirt
the reading public, and not in rivalry with the author. Mr. Livingstone
Center rose to a new level when Meyerovitz was the chairman.
enumerates the factors responsible for the eternal enigma of anti- off and was bare to the waist. Large audiences attended. The programs were so arranged that they
Semitism. The author. digging deep into the sources and causes of The perspiration was pouring were a part of the organizational life of the people who attended.
the disease, shows the fallacies and wrongs resulting from them. from his body as he rolled the Interest, therefore, was so intense that all the programs were out-
The reader feels like a man crying out in the wilderness, or preach- dumplings and threw them intl standing successes.
ing to a deaf audience, seeing blank expressions on the faces of people the not to boil. lie did not see
Fluent Speaker
the little girl as she watched him
Who do not know what he is talking about.
Meyerovitz is noted as a very fluent speaker with a wide back-
The book gives the names of 700 Jews who have contributed curiously.
ground of Hebrew and Yiddish culture.
There was the explanation for
talents to the treasury of world culture. We all know the fact that
At one time, he was called upon to act as chairman at an affair
that
rare
kind
of
flavor
that
to the world Einstein is a German and to the Germans he is a Jew:
where the scheduled speaker was the editor of the "Hadoar," national
she
liked
so
much.
Ah
Sing
took
that Yasha Heifets is a Russian and Trotzkv is a Jew.
Hebrew naper. The subject was the life and work of Chaim Nach-
each dumpling before setting it in
Having advanced arguments about the injustice and unreason- the not and rolled it round and man Bialik, most noted of all the modern Hebrew poets.
Almost at the last minute, the speaker was unable to attend and
ableness of anti-Semitism, the author boldly undertakes to solve the round on his fat stomach until
the affair seemed doomed to failure. But Meyerovitz rose to the.
problem and to show a cure for it.
tly. little ball was soaked in per- occasion. He delivered a lecture in Yiddish for one solid hour en
First he advises that the non-Jew make an effort to correct thi seiration.
Bialik, a lecture which held the audience spellbound with its depth
fallacy. But a non-Jew does not wish to give up his prejudices.
The little girl quite lost her
He relishes them. It does him good to have somebody to blame foe taste for company. She never ex- and understanding.
He himself considered that he had merely risen to an emergency.
his troubles, failures and inferiority complexes. Various classes of Plained to her wondering family But his friends were not surprised. When Meyerovitz was in charge,
non-Jews have their peculiar reason for nurturing the prejudices. or to the suspicious Ah Sing but
emergencies just didn't happen.
she never ate dumplings again.
(Continued on Page 13)

By W. A. GOLDBERG, Ph.D., Director, Counselling Service

•avOWIL

So They Tell Me---

Von. Five

Book Review

MEN MUST HATE

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