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DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

Friday, March 15, 1946

Book Review

and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

By LEON SAUNDERS

Published W.oily by Jewish Chronicle eublithing Co, Inc., 525 Woodward Ave., Detroit 26, Mich., Tel. CAdillac 1040

Symbolism vs. Realism

SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 PER YEAR, SINGLE COPIES, 10c: FOREIGN, $5.00 PER YEAR
'Pilfered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Postoffice at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879

Editor-in-Chief, LOUIS W. ENFIELD

Vol. 48, No. 11

Publisher, CY AARON

Managing Editor, NATHAN J. KAUFMAN

Friday, March 15, 1946 (Adar 11 15, 5706)

Detroit 26, Michigan

The Quinn Case

A body blow was dealt to the cause of
Americanism and democracy when the
Board of Education in New York refused
to dismiss May Quinn, a teacher charged
with spreading hate in her classes. This
case dates back to 1992 when sixteen
teachers in her school charged her with
spreading anti-Negro, anti-Semitic and an-
ti-Roosevelt propaganda.
There was no denial on her part that
she had taught these things in her classes.
Her claim was that she had a right to do
so and the Board by its action has upheld
that claim.
It is to be feared that a wave of such
teaching will spread, not only over New
York, but over many other cities. Once it
is officially established that the teaching
of hatred of minority groups is condoned,
we may expect that all those purveyors
of that kind of hatred will come out of
their holes and give out their slime with-
out let or hindrance.
There are two rays of hope in this
matter. The first is that numerous
groups of liberals, including parents'
associations, labor groups and minis-
ters, have started a protest to the
State Commissioner of Education de-
manding that the whole matter be in-
vestigated. Liberal thinkers will not
accept the New York decision as final.
They will never pause until the mat-
ter has been reviewed by the highest
court in the land.
The other ray of hope is a negative one.
When a Board of Education of the larg-
est city in the world is willing to permit
such vicious teaching in its schools, it is
clear evidence that the only way to stop
such proceedings is by Federal law. It is
to be hoped that the stage is now set for
a demand by all American minded citi-
zens that the "hatriots," as they have
been called, must be enjoined by law. It
is now in order that all these groups start
agitation for a Federal law making the
spread of hatred of minority groups a
crime punishable by prison terms.
It is not enough, however, for Jews
to protest the anti-Semitic nature of
these teachings. The anti-Negro end
of it is just as much a subject for pro-
test. Jews must rise to the support of

Federation Election

The annual meeting of the Jewish Wel-
fare Federation is over. The candidates
who were elected to office are all worthy
leaders in the community. They are peo-
ple who have rendered longstanding serv-
ice and have given unselfishly of their
time an /energy.
The task that confronts them is not a
small one. Community problems are grav-
er now than they ever were before. In ad-
dition, the national and international bur-
dens are such as to weigh more heavily
than any in the history of Jews in this
country.
It is up to them to plan courageously
and sensibly. It is up to them to lead the
way to solutions of the various crises that
now face the Jewish people at home and
abroad. And it is up to the community to
give them the fullest measure of support
in their activities.
It is a notable thing that nine of the
twelve new members elected to the Board
are also closely affiliated with the De-
troit Jewish Community Council. This pro-
vides for a unity of leadership that augurs
great progress for the community at large.
The Chronicle desires to wish the new
Board of Governors the greatest success
in tkeir work. The task is difficult. The
road Is- beset with dangers. But the need
is great. The caliber of the leadership is
4 of the best. Now is the time for these
• leaders to give of their best.
•
•

se t

any persecuted group. They must rise
to this support in order to justify
their own rights and demands. The
Jew must be in the vanguard of all
liberal fights.
The Jew must go even further. He must
oppose oppression of all the victims of
imperialism and fascism wherever they
are in the world. The Jew must cry out
against oppression in India and in Java.
The Jew must protest the enslavement
of the Arab by the fascist Arab leaders.
The Jew must protest against poverty
and wretchedness the world over.
The oppressed nations will learn of
this and they will take note. When
the time comes that they take their
own place in the sun, they will not
forget. Wherever there is a battle
for freedom and democracy, there, in
the forefront, must the Jewish voice
be raised, crying for justice.
It is to be hoped that the evil decision
of the New York Board in the Quinn case
will be the start of a plan for American-
ism in our schools that will have its re-
percussions throughout the world.

The Charge Is True

Purim, with its old story of the fight
against oppression, is here once more. The
story of Queen Esther and her victorious
battle with the evil Haman is just as ap-
plicable today as it was in the days of
the Persian Empire.
The old charge of the anti-Semites was
sounded then just as it is now. Said Ha-
man to the drunken Persian King. "Their
customs are different from those of all
other men." The Jews are different. They
are isolationists. They refuse to be assimi-
lated.
The charge was true then. It is true
now. Jews have always been individual-
ists. They have always been non-conform-
ists, refusing to bend themselves to one
single patter n. Therein lies their great-
ness.

Emerson said, "Whosever would.

be a man, must be a non-conformist."

And then he added, "For non-con-
formity, the world whips you with
its displeasure."
The essence of democracy is indi-
viduality. It is the combination of indi-
viduals that makes up a great and
well rounded whole. Jewish law and
Jewish philosophy have always in-
sisted on recognizing the dignity of
the individual. This is one of the
great contributions of the Jews to
civilization. It is the essence of Amer-
icanism and therefore this country is
the one place in the world where a
man may rise to any height depend-
ing on his own individuality and the
advantage he can take of his oppor-
tunities.
In the dictator ruled countries, there
was no room for any individuality. A pat-
tern was set for all to follow. Whoever
protested, whoever defied the ruling, was
whisked off to the concentration camp.
For centuries, however, the Jew was
different. Therefore, his culture is alive
today. What he thought was fine, what he
thought was worthwhile, he stuck to it in
the face of death itself. The song of indi-
viduality is a fitting part in the great sym-
phony of Americanism.
This week Jews everywhere will read
the Megillah of Esther in their syna-
gogues and homes. They will read Ha-
man's charge, "The Jews are different
from all men." They will glory in that
charge. The charge is true. Therein rests
their nobility.

An article in a new French literary review on symbolism in Mere.
ture discusses Mallarme, Paul Verlaine and the prodigy Rimbaud. The
author starts out with dissecting Pirandello, but strangely turns to
the above writers, perhaps, because they were French.
This article is significant of a renewal of this esoteric movement
or a continuation of it. Since Aristotle raised the question of "Art for
Art's Sake," art has the arena of strife and division. Symbolism re-
placed realism; impressionism replaced symbolism; then came futur-
ism, dadaism and tutti quanti.
My attitude towards Pirandello Is expressed by Tolstoy's words in
setting forth his opinion about Dostoyevsky. "I can't read Dostoy.
evsky. I know beforehand that his hero or heroine will certainly act
the wrong way. The hero will be slapped in the face. He will kiss the
hand that slapped him, and then there will be an insanity of words"
No man liked and disliked so many things as Tolstoy.
In general, the gist of symbolistic writing is to unveil for others
the sort of world which mirrors itself in an individual glass. Some
critics ascribe an important place in symbolism to Edgar Allan Poe
and to the fact that Bodelaire discovered him for Europe. "I knew,"
says Poe, "that indefinitiveness is an element of true music of poetry,
a suggestive indefiniteness of vague, and, therefore, of spiritual of.
feet." This indefiniteness meant also a confusion between the percep.
tion of the different senses, like HEARING the approach of darkness.
The prophet of symbolism, Mallarme, summed up his theory as
follows. "To intimate things rather than state them plainly, to r om.
municate unique personal feelings." Our objection to symbolism is its
lack of curiosity about life. All of them are pessimists, renunciates,
resignatlonists, or as we say now, defeatists. As a movement, it was
promoted in 1922 by a Roumanian named Tristan Tsara.
It is cynical and hysterical, indicating the social, intellectual and
moral chaos of Europe after the last war. An example of their work
is a book by Gertrude Stein, entitled, "Have they attacked Mary, he
giggled?" The title is enough.
Movements like this appear in transitory periods, In periods of
despair or turmoil and stress. In Russia, after the failure of the 1901
revolution every conceivable wave or bent in literature abroad was
grasped and adopted.
The poet Balmont found everything in life dismal and dead, but
"luckily egoism without shame is shining." The poet Briussof offered
three commandments: "Not to live in the present, not to sympathize
with anybody, and to love yourself infinitely." The aesthetic side of
this kind of poetry was expressed by him in a one line poem: "Oh,
cover thine pale legs," and was supposed to represent the ultime
thule of passion. The imaginists, a left-handed branch of the futur-
ists preached destruction in the name of destruction. The seeking of
acute sensations, here, is the "Foundry of Words" by the poet Chleb•
nikoff.

I pray to the queen of clubs
I carry the ikons to the garbage can
I change the obscene inscription on the fence
Into a holy psalm. (i)
The formula of the imaginists, anti-rhythm, anti-grammar and
anti-substance was the culmination of a crazy movement, which had
the audacity of claiming that it is constructive in the breation of a
new anarcho-individualistic idealism. The main thing is not WHAT
but HOW. Turgenieff expressed his contempt of such driveling,
through his hero of "Fathers and Sons Bazaroff." When his young,
romantic friend would start to spill his romantic nonsense, he would
remark, "Arkash don't speak beautifully."
Of all the arts, literature is the most important. The other arts
bring beauty into life and help make it worth living, but literature
combines all the arts, as it contains facts, imagination and wisdom,
One may have any kind of definition of literature, but there is only
one kind that survives; the old, the eternal, the valuable. Extreme
individualism, anarchic ideas of the freedom of the individual, mys-
tic attitude towards the creation of the world and human relations and
cosmic ideology are creatures of unhealthy sources. Along with the
constant changes in the physical world literature is also constantly
changing its appearance. Ulysses may be a great work of art, Joyce
undoubtedly a genius, but in life and in literature the strong, the val.
uable, the eternal survives and anything which is artificial or convul•
sive will fall off. Healthy conditions of life demand healthy literature,
works which describe life as it is, which teaches, which stands for
righteousness and justice. The condition of the world cannot permit
itself any harlequins in literature only fighters for truth.
(i) Translation by author of this article.

For Thee Duration