fistericam palish Periodical Cotter
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CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO
Friday, January 11, 1946
e
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
]LAIN TALK
(Continued from page 4)
•••
Speakers' Table
the child a pleasant contact with Hebrew. What educator inflicts
laborious memory work on a small youngster?
I used the rhymes with great success in my kindergarten. The
children loved them, and parents asked for copies. Dr. Eisenberg, who
is now the director of Jewish education in Philadelphia, and who was
then the director in Cleveland, recognized them as having educational
value, and put them in mimeographed form. In this form they were
made available to teachers throughout the country. After four editions,
Bloch's took it up, and made it into an attractive book.
In the review by Elma Erlich Levinger (outstanding author and
educator) she says,
Your Mr. Segal recently ascended to the speakers' table in Israel.
This is mentioned here not in vainglory but only in the mood of a
reporter giving out the new s.
There he sat high above all Israel, looking for all the world like
a white-breasted blackbird (in his tuxedo) in a long row of other
white-breasted blackbirds.
His underprivileged wife looked at him worshipfully from the
lower level of the banquet hall where she was made to sit and gave her
mind to invidious comparisons. How much more at ease her husband
looked in his high place than some of the other blackbirds! He was
like one to the manor born. Dignity sat like a crown on him.
Yes, it had taken him a long time to get there. She thought that
his case just went to prove that a good man can't be kept down too
long. There were all the years when he sat at the feet of the big-
shots at all the banquets. Now, Israel was sitting at his feet, you
might say.
It was a big Jewish occasion in our town amid the glitter of the
Hall of Mirrors in our best hotel. Segal's friends twitted him about it.
They recalled columns of his in which he had made envious light of
gentlemen who sit at speakers' tables and now he was there among
them.
His friends winked ironically at him from their lowly places in
the banquet hall and Segal replied by throwing out his chest and
looking like a stuffed shirt, indeed.
Segal himself was not unaware of the stately spot he had attained
in Israel. Now he had become a man of important dignity who, by
reason of that, couldn't let himself go so far as to pull anybody's nose
anymore in his columnar way. He must watch his step.
After this, as one who had been allowed to ascend to the speakers'
table, he must say only the becoming things that people like to hear
or read about themselves. He had been a kind of playboy in his col-
umn who liked to step on toes and tweak noses.
No, no, Segal, nothing more of that. You must reform and con-
form. A man who has risen to the speakers' table in Israel must guard
his new status; he must learn to say nothing in particular beautifully.
He must offend no one, keeping in mind that thz one he offends
may be just the one who might have made a sizeable contribution to
something or other.
1
Yet Segal, even in this moment of being high in Israel, couldn't
break himself of his old columnar habits. If you are a columnist you
are always thinking of what may make a column for you in next
w eek's issue. The columnar weeks just crowd one on another.
Segal had no speech to give at the speakers' table; he was just
one of the decorative pieces there. So he had plenty of time to meditate
on the matter of his next column in relation to his new elevation. He
applied his mind to the question: What does a man high up at the
speakers' table think about?
Well, Segal was thinking he would like to be away somewhere
playing rummy. Over there, down below, sat his old rummy partner
looking awfully uncomfortable and wondering why he ever let himself
in for this.
S
He was noticeably ill at ease as the steenth speaker arose and his
troubled countenance suggested the question: Why do there have to
be so many talkers in Israel? Rummy games are so much nicer;
nobody talks much. People just sit around, and for once Israel isn't
talking. Israel has no problem except how to schneider.
Segal's mind wandered around the banquet hall: That's a fine-
looking woman over there! But that other one at the same table!
Why does she have to make up like that? Can't women ever be made
to understand the lovely significance of wrinkles? Wrinkles are the
beautiful record of experience and character and why does she have
to plaster her face to hide them? Segal would like to tell her.
The next moment, though, he became conscious again of his new
dignity at the speakers' table, and what would people say if they
could discover that he was giving his mind to such trivia as women's
faces?
The countenance of a man at the speakers' table should have a
look of deep absorption in the affairs of Israel. People should feel that
at the speakers' table, anyway, sit men who can be trusted with all
the problems. A man at the speakers' table should bear a reasonable
facsimile of profound wisdom and what would the public think of its
leaders if it knew that from high position Segal's mind was pondering
upon women?
Segal snapped out of this for a moment. He cupped his chin in his
hand and took on the solemnity of the other thinkers at the long
table. Now his wife could feel certain that here was a man in whom
Israel could have faith; he looked the part of a phophet, as prophetic
as any of them, you might say.
But soon Segal again was forgetting his position and his part. He
was looking at Zilch down there at the right. Zilch, too, used to be a
big man in Israel. Zilch for chairman of the Committee on Saving
Israel for Torah. Zilch for chairman of the Committee to Raise Money
for This and That. Zilch for chairman of the Committee to Get Rid of
the Mortgage. Zilch was at all the speakers' tables.
All that was in the time when stories of fabulous fortune were
being told about Zilch; he was one of the bigger men of Israel until
adversity overtook him in the depression. Now Zilch was S itting down
below and this Segal was sitting high, looking down, though Zilch
remains the same fine gentleman he used to be.
Contemplating Zilch, Segal could feel humble and his starched
front subsided. Yes, he mused, what goes up may come down and the
time may come when you, too, Segal, will be kicked in the pants.
It seems he will have to keep on being a columnist instead of a
dignitary. He can't be reformed even by the respectable environment
of a speakers' table. He will probably continue to tweak noses and
step on toes.
JOSEPH LATTIN
Certified Public Accountant
Announces
his Return from Active Duty
pith the United States Army
To Resume Practice At
1404 Dime Building
Telephone 26, Mich.
Telephone RAndloph 1416
•0,
Memorial Meeting To
Honor Reverend Mogul] Author's Comments On Book Review
By AL SEGAL
4
Page Thirteen
"Here we have a child-like simplicity, and a musical swing
which children love. Its material deals with his own experiences
told in lines easily memorized and pantomimed. And for good
measure, the youngster painlessly learns a few Hebrew words."
This is no defense of my work. Mr. Saunders has every right not
to like it. However, please tell him this:
REV. SAMUEL MOGILL
A Memorial Meeting will be
held in honor of the late Rever-
end Samuel Mogill on Monday,
Jan. 14, at 8:30 p.m., at the Con-
gregation Emmanuel, Taylor cor-
ner of Woodrow Wilson, under
the auspices of the Yidishe Folks
Verein with the participation of
the Cantors' Association and the
Halevy Singing Society.
Prominent Rabbis will dwell
upon the late Cantor's activities.
Reverend Samuel Mogill served
the community for twenty-six
years. He had been Cantor of
many leading congregations of
the city, and had been president
of the Jewish Ministers Cantors'
Association for the last four
years.
He is mourned by thousands of
friends he had made during his
lifetime in this city. A large at-
tendance is anticipated.
Isaac Franck Reviews
Book at SZ Brunch
A child may not like to eat fish, but nevertheless he likes to re-
peat a verse about buying it for Sabbath. He may not like to work,
but he enjoys the verse about Jack polishing the candlestick for the'
same reason that he likes the traditional rhyme which reads "This is
the way we wash our clothes, etc.," which is followed by ironing the
clothes and scrubbing the floor; As for the verse about "Sheleg,"
please inform him that the children enjoy this in pantomime to such
an extent, that the repetition requests take too much time from other
plays in the curriculum.
I was glad to note that Mr. Saunders is so ardent a Zionist, that
he wants to cram all there is to know about Palestine into a little
four or five (Ed. bold ours) year old head. Does he not know that the
approach must be made subtly through that which captivates his
interest and imagination. It is not an end in itself, but a means to
an end. If Mr. Saunders would have taken the trouble to look, he
would have found other verses which tell of planting trees, orange
trees, and chalutzim at work.
What is wrong with Mr. Saunders vision? He says, "It does not
say so, but it seems to be Purim." Please tell him to look again, and
to note that there are a number of verses under the distinct caption
"PURIM!"
Also, there is not a child who would associate the Jack and Jill
verse with inebriation. Yes, a child's imagination can carry him up the
hill to borrow some charoses. Mr. S. may call it a bit of clever remark,
but he forgets that he is giving a book review.
I would not have taken the trouble to write this letter if it were
not for the fact that I am outraged at his personal references. I do
not like It, and must add a few remarks about same.
He refers to a Mr. Feinberg.
•
In the first place, let me inform him, that I have never had the
pleasure of meeting him. He just happened to have sent in a few
rhymes to the Bureau at the time when mine were being mimeo-
graphed. When it went into book form, they were included with his
permission.
Secondly, his title is not Mr.
In the third place, he is not jobless, for at the present time he is
the esteemed Rabbi Louis Feinberg of Cincinnati, highly respected by
his congregation and colleagues.
Is Mr. Saunders' face red? Is this type of writing a credit to your
paper?
Another thing, Mr. Saunders misquotes my verses to which I
object strenuously. When he quotes, every letter must be exact. This
is particularly true in verse, where every syllable affects the meter.
There is a difference between his quote
"Little Jack Homer has to sit in a corner"
He took out some mohn from his Haman Tash
And said, what a good boy I am, by gosh!"
and the correct lines, which are,
Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner,
Eating a Haman Tash.
He put in his thumb,
And took out some mohn,
And said, "I'm a good boy, by gosh."
An open apology is certainly due Rabbi F'einberg and myself.
Another thing, what does he mean by his sarcastic reference to
"art work?" This may give a wrong impression of the Illustrations,
which are delightful.
ISAAC FRANCK
The third brunch book review
in Shaarey Zedek Sisterhood's
current series takes place this
Tuesday, Jan. 15, at 12:30. Rabbi
Milton Steinberg's book, "A Par-
tisan Guide to the Jewish Prob-
lem," will be reviewed by Mr.
Isaac Franck, Executive Director
of the Jewish Community Coun-
cil of Detroit. The program has
been planned by Mrs. Walter
Field and Miss Hattie Gittleman.
Mrs. Samuel Singer, general
chairman, states that a few tick-
ets for individual brunch book
reviews are available, and can be
obtained at the door. Arrange-
ments for this brunch are in
charge of Mrs. B. H. Rosenberg
and Mrs. Max Fertel.
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And in the last paragraph, I was taken completely by surprise to
read that he commends the book as worthwhile and attractive. What
a paradox! I shall await your answer.
Very truly yours,
(Signed) SARAH G. LEVY
12321 Phillips Ave., Cleveland 8, Ohio.
Book Review
(Continued from page 5)
The acute indignation Miss Levy displays in her letter does not
fool us a bit. To us it savours a bit of insincerity and the acrimony
with which she demonstrates her resentment makes her
arguments
strained.
My attesting to the general value of the book did not really dis-
please her and my apparent inconsistency would be forgiven by an
author less sensitive.
Miss Levy must be familiar with Schopenhauer's admonition in hit
famous essay "On the art of argument" in which he advises to impete
to the opponent an idea or words which he never thought of. Miss
Levy being convinced that I am an ardent Zionist charges me with
the cruel and heartless desire to "cramp all there is to know into the
little heads of 4 or 5 year olds."
Now we know for whom the book was written, because that was
our contention and that is what we objected to: viz.: that 4 or 5 years
old children's heads should not be cramped with Hebrew words which
have no meaning to them and which do not fit. The mixture of Eng-
lish with Hebrew is a dissonance and a natural discord. It reminds me
of the high-fallutin' sermons in English to a congregation which
scarcely understands the language.
I wish to assure the author that I never wanted to be hypercritical.
I have been only doing my duty in my humble way as a reviewer. And
it does not lie within my duty and it is not in accordance with my
natural disposition to discourage authors, as
though that were possible.
I am no Zoilus, the "Homer's Scourge" as Miss Levy wishes to
make
me appear. If I have inadvertently offended Rabbi Feinberg of Cincin-
atti by assuming he was an "unemployed relative" of the author, I
sincerely apologize to the reverend gentleman.
Of course, I am not writing this in compliance with Miss Levy's
ultimatum to "apolozige." My duty is towards the reading public and
to my reviewer's conscience, and as Pope expressed It:
'Tis with our judgments as our watches
None go just alike, yet each believes his own.
As to Miss Levy, we hope her next work will be as piquant as
Crebillon's tales, full of emotions and tender as Petrarch's sonnets,
adventurous as Lesage's picturesque romances and poetic as Dante.
All I can say to the charming author of Mother Goose Rhymes is
"Feel quod potui faciant meliora potentes."