Americo Jewish Periodical Celli Friday, November 10. 1950 DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE Page 4 Detroit Jewish C hronicle Struggles of a Jewish Author Published Weekly by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc. WOodward 1-1040 900 Lawyers' Building, Detroit 26, Michigan Belie Cultural Renaissance Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879 As part of the observance of Jewish Book Mouth in Detroit, the Detroit Jewish Chronicle during the past several months in wrote to several authors whose books have be en reviewed increase in the number of books on subjects asked to espiaia the were our columns. These writers of Jewish interest during the last year. renaissance" in cultural terms They were asked specifically if they saw s igns of a "Jewish for it. They were also queried as to how they had come to choose the accounted and if so how they subjects of their recent books. Levin whose autobiography "In The author of the first in a series of articl es is Meyer the post-war period. Levin will be Search," we consider one of the most important Jewish books of Dec. 6. Ed. in Detroit to address the A inerfran Jewish Congress • • • SUBSCRIPTION $3.00 Per Year. Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year SEYMOUR TILCHIN Publisher GERHARDT NEUMANN NORMAN KOLIN Editor Advertising Manager Friday, November 10, 1950 Kislev 1, 5711 Action on a Large Scale The National Planning Conference held in Washington Oct. 28 approved, in a long statement of principles, aid to Israel on a large scale. Israel needs $1,500,000,000 within the next three years for the absorption and rehabilitation of the immigrants and the consolidation of its economy. Half a billion dollars will be raised by Israel itself. The conference decided that a billion dollars could be raised in America through contributions to the United Jewish Appeal, intensified private investments and loans from official and private sources. The meeting also pledged "fullest coopera- tion for the success of any effort that will be made by the gov- ernment of Israel to float a public loan in the United States." It is expected that such a bond issue will become a reality next spring. There is general consensus that without effective financial aid to Israel the whole existence of the Jewish state is seriously threatened. Israel's economy is too weak to cope with an im- migration that equals the original population. Any country, no matter how well established, would totter under such an impact. American Jewry's responsibility for the continued existence of Israel is of course the prime motivation for our concern with its problems and our willingness to assist the Jewish state. • • • The experts will have to decide now on the best possible methods of obtaining the enormous sums needed. However, it is not only a technical question which interests only experts and the organizations involved. It is really a question that concerns every Jew in this country. More than six million Jews laid down their lives during the darkest period of Jewish history. Their obliteration has left the Jewish people weakened physically and faced with the question: is there still a Jewish will to survive or should we give up and try to liquidate ourselves? The Jewish people answered the question without hesitation: Jews do not give up under fire. The Nazis perished. The Jewish state was born. It was a political event that electrified the world and in- creased the respect for the Jewish people immeasurably. But it was clear from the beginning that the problems of the Jewish state would be tremendous ones. The hostility of the Arab world put the Jews living in Moslem countries in an impossible situation, and the only place for them to go was Israel. Corn- pared with them, the DP problem in Europe was a minor affair. • Israel has struggled hard to do what it could within the scope of its possibilities. The people of Israel have accepted high taxation, low wages, low-calory food rations, housing shortages and many other impositions in order to relieve the suffering of their fellow-Jews. But their heroic efforts must fall short of the most elementary needs of the increasing population. We hope that American Jews will open their hearts and their minds to the plight of Israel and those who are seeking a refuge and a lasting home there. Whether they increase their contri- butions to UJA or decide to put their money into Israeli bonds— one should not interfne with the other—they should always bear in mind that their dollars will be used to save souls, to rebuild lives, to reconstruct the hopes of Jews who have lost their homes and citizenship. The Jews of America alone cannot do the job; they need the assistance of their Christian friends to put up the money needed in Israel. We cannot conceive of any cause that, at the same time, serves such high humanitarian purposes and also is a good and sound business proposition. Israel, as the natural gateway to the Near East, should interest American industry and invite investment on a larger scale. Israel must live. It can live when we decide to make it live. The Jews who came to Washington have decided so. Preaching and Reporting Jewish writers had better be practical businessmen or good entertainers, stop bellyaching about- Jewish ideals, Jewish decency and Jewish self-respect, be willing to learn which side their bread is buttered on — or remain where they are." This is the opinion of Philip Rubin who in Congress Weekly (Oct. 30) writes about the Anglo-Jewish press and what is wrong with it. He finds that the Anglo-Jewish press is mainly concerned with "making money" but does not "preach" about "principles and ideals." No doubt, there is some justification in Rubin's criticism. A great number of Jewish papers fall under his classification. We do not agree with him, however, that the Anglo-Jewish press is not being read by its subscribers. Since they buy a paper such as the Jewish Chronicle of their own will, it must be assumed that they take some interest in Jewish affairs, although we feel that much remains to be done to stimulate greater reader in- terest which would manifest itself in a more active participation of the readers in the paper. Rubin is quite right when he states that a Jewish paper has to deal with more "sensitivity" on the part of influential Jewish personalities and organizations than the Yiddish press or the normal daily paper. What the Anglo-Jewish press lacks is a frank discussion of local issues and sufficient information on what is going on. The Jewish Chronicle is determined to report and comment on such issues and considers it its main journalistic duty to keep the public informed. It seems that our organizations are not yet quite used to this idea, but we think that they will understand sooner or later that an informed public is of greater value than a public left in the dark. Let's leave preaching to the rabbis, Mr. Rubin. We stick to reporting. — By MEYER LEVIN MO, THE MILLENIUM has not come for the writer who writes about Jews, even though there seems to be a "flood of Jewish Books" this season. The number of books on Jewish subjects is a p of the reflection of the dee p Jewish ex erience past decade. The tragic drama in Europe and the intense activity in Israel have provided material such as no other people possesses. If there seem sto be a good deal of material pub- lished, it is probably only a small proportion of the highly valuable material being produced. For publishers still don't want books about Jews. Here is a concrete example: In Amsterdam, two refugee Jewish families hid in a tiny backyard house, to be caught just before liberation. A girl of 14, Anne Frank, kept a diary during the entire period of hiding. It was published recently in Holland and France. "The Journal of Anne Frank" has gone through eight editions in France. It is accepted as a mas- terpiece, for it is a beautiful picture of the un- folding of the nature of a young girl, even under these extraordinary conditions. In short, this diary is, in actuality, what "The Wall" purported to be—a document of Jewish life, found after that life had been destroyed. • • • IT MIGHT BE thought that with the immense popularity of "The Wall," American publishers would have concluded that there is an audience for this sort of thing, and that since the literary value and public appeal of this book has been proven, in two languages, an American edition would be easily secured. Not all. Up to this date, "The Journal of Anne Frank" has been turned down by an impressive list of American publishers—much the same list, I might say, of publishers who turned down my own book, "In Search." And the reasons are the same. They doubt the commercial value of the book! I am known to be bitter on this subject, and I will not disguise my bitterness. Indeed, I will say some of the things that people like to keep hushed up. Let us take the case of "The Wall." I am not the only writer who feels a jealousy and a dis- appointment in the fact that is was not one of ourselves who was chosen to write the story of the Warsaw ghetto. Chosen? you ask. Yes, chosen, for it is commonly known in New York publishing circles that the book was stimulated by certain Jewish philanthropists. This is not a literary discussion. There is no question of whether Mr. Hersey did a great job or a mediocre job, whether the book is definitive or not. The point is that when leading Jews sought to have a book written about this great tragedy, the symbolic book of the entire Jewish tragedy in Europe, they turned not to a proven Jewish writer but to a non-Jew. Why? Over and over I have been told by publishing friends, "It was a very wise thing10 do. Had -Ile Wall" been written by a Jew, it would never have secured the attention it received." • • • I FOR ONE am sick and angry over this atti- tude. I've had to contend with it all my writing life. I had to contend with it in bitterest form last year, when I could not find a publisher for "In Search," and had to resort to publishing it myself in Paris, though 1 don't have the money for that sort of thing. Yes, in a self-pitying way I had to view my situation as a man who had devoted his career to writing about his people, who had worked well enough so that many critics called his novels the best in the field, and yet who at the height of his powers found his work rejected by one publisher after another because it was "too Jewish"—while at the same time the community called in a non-Jew to write a book of Jewish experience! Isn't this scan- dalous? When my book finally found publication through a small h9use in New York, I was gratified to re- ceive praise from Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Sholem Asch, dozens of important rabbis, and from some of my most respected contemporaries, Norman Mailer, Max Lerner, and Quentin Reynolds. But sales are usually in proportion to the re- view space and advertising, and though individual readers wrote me that "In Search" was a most important book in their lives, and though one might expect that the community would desire its author to have the opportunity to continue his work, my earnings could scarcely keep me going for a few months. • • • THERE IS NO supporting audience for Jewish books. For example—the most imposing magazine in the Jewish cultural fi61d—"Commentary"—has not, to this day, published a review of "In Search." How are we to get our work to its audience? The general press tends to neglect books of special Jewish content. I had to beg for the reviews a book of this quality—if on another subject—would normally have received. Yes, a lot of Jewish books are being written, and by sheer weight of product, a certain amount gets published. It must also be realized that events in Europe and Israel have produced a conscious- ness and a thoughtfulnes in American Jewry, so that there is indeed an audience for this material. But in the terrible competition for attention in the book field, it is very difficult for a work of "a special nature"—that is, on a Jewish theme—to receive enough advertising and publicity to bring it to its potential audierlce. Such discussions as yours are helpful. Such promotions as Jewish Book Week are helpful. But when I talk to publishers about a next book they ask: "About Jews again? When will you get wise?" Writer Breaks a Lance for the Jewish Woman By WILLIAM ZUKERMAN EVERAL MONTHS AGO, the English-Jewish press was agitated by the story of a unique "sit-down" strike of Jewish women in the Great Synagogue of Louisville, Ky. The women struck in protesti against their segregation from to do a "man's" job. They were their men in the synagogue. They shouted down, insulted publicly, demanded the right to be seated and their motion was defeated. with their husbands and sons The meeting ended in "one of during the service as is the cus- the most shameful public scan- tom among every civilized peo- dals ever known in Johannes- burg" as it was described by the ple. When this was refused again Jewish press of that city. • • • and again, they declared a THE SO-CALLED "inferiority" "strike" and stopped the Sabbath services for several weeks in of women proclaimed by the succession until their demand was Torah is a mere religious myth which has not existed in Jewish granted. A similar incident which, how- life for hundreds of years. Throughout the Middle Ages ever, ended differently, has oc- curred now in Johannesburg, and down to the beginning of the South Africa. There, a number 20th century, the Jewish woman of Jewish women belonging to of the ghetto was not only the the Burial Society, and, inciden- mother who raised the family, tally, running its entire relief but also the provider of the department, demanded the right family. She kept the store and inn; she to stand for office in the execu- tive committee of that organiza- traded in the market; she han- dled the rough peasants and tion. Johannesburg orthodox Jews dealt with the nobility; she work- were horrified by the demand. ed on the land whenever that The women were told not to try was permissable, tending the S garden, milking the cows and performing most of the tasks which were performed mainly by men in the western countries. In the middle and upper class- es of the ghetto, the real "man" of the family was the woman. The man was, at best, a gentle scholar who spent most of his days and nights at the synagogue studying the Talmud and wast- ing hi. time on legalistic specu- lation. • • • THIS LED TO a deporable dAerioration of the man in the ghetto. As a result of centuries of idleness and futile speculation, he became weak, flabby, ineffi- cient, unable to do anything real in a practical world. To hide his inefficiency and weakness, he invented a double theory of being choseh by God both for his race and sex. On the other hand, his "in- ferior" wife became strong, self- reliant, independent and free— a real person of quality, charae- ter and beauty. The independence of the ver- age Jewish man in &stens Europe, is as old as his eman- cipation, which is less than 100 years. The Jewish woman, on the other hand, had been free, active, independent and had lived outside the ghetto walls for centuries before that.