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• DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE,

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Friday, November 17, 1950

Vista of Israel Reborn
Detroit Jewish Chronicle 'Age of Faith'
Is Lewisohn's Spurs Literary Revival

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Friday, November 17, 1950

• •

Reply to Crisis

By HAROLD S. COVEN
THE AMERICAN JEW by
Ludwig Lewisohn ( Fa r r a r,
Strauss & Co., New York, 175
pp., 52.50).
has become a platitude of

This is the second in la series of articles by American Jewish
Chronicle wrote to these
authors for Jewish Book Month. The
cultural renaissance.
saw
a
Jewish
authors, asking them if they
they had picked the subject that they
They were also asked why
Rosen, of New York, is the author
did for their latest book. Isidore
Iron,"
which was reef-idly reviewed in
of
of a new novel, "Will
the Chronicle.—Ed.
•

By ISIDORE ROSEN

the day to say with Arnold Toyn-
BEEN a number of books published recently on
bee that we are living in "a time THERE HAS
subjects
of
Jewish
interest. My noval, ''Will of Iron," is one
of troubles."' All about us old A
values, outlooks, institutions are of these.
Arabs vs. Arabs
Being a part of the period and movement, it is difficult for
crumbling as they prove inade- me to evaluate objectively what is responsible for this phenomenon
again
been
propelled
quate to meet new challenges
The problem of the Arab refugees has
or where it shall lead. But being a foolhardy person, I shall take
limelight after a heated debate in the United Nations
from within and without.
into the
my head in my hands and step forward where it can easily be lost.
Political Committee which took up the question of further
not
new
to
Such situations are
First, let me make clear, that there are probably as many
financial aid for the Arab EPs.
history as Toynbee has shown, explanations for this "Jewish Renaissance" as there are people
While the United States warned the other UN members
every age has had them, and in
that they would have to contribute more money if they expected . each age three general types of thinking about it.
Secondly, that I am a novelist and not a learned scholar. Now
this country to do its part, and while the Israeli representative
solutions are offered.
to
get
on with the discussion, which will deal from the viewpoint
These can be called revolu-
told the committee that Israel was willing to talk peace with
who
tionary, conservative and reac- of the novel and not non-fiction.
the Arab governments alid pay c ompensation to those DPs ar
There are three outer facets to our literary "Renaissance."
tionary, without implying any un-
resettled elsewhere, the Iraqi delegate got up and chged
environment and
(a) The reader is a product of his times, his
favorable connotations.
that a "huge power politics machine has run over the Arab
go
into
the
making
up
of
the individaul.
a
to-
numerous other factors that
The revolutionary offers ,
peoples" and that all UN resolutions were just a huge plot to
As a result of these factors, the reader develops certain desires,
tally
new
solution
to
the
prob-
destroy the Arab nations.
lem, the conservative wishes to wants and tastes. And as the factors vary, his tastes and wants
An even bolder move, as we reported in last week's issue,
maintain the status quo, and the change, producing trends or patterns.
the
making
at
Israel's
border,
if
the
N.Y.
Times
seems to be in
reactionary wishes to return to
(b) The author, (and here I mean the serious author) selects his
correspondent, Albion Ross, is correctly informed. The leaders
subject
because he believes it needs telling. Because to him it has
a
previous
condition
of
excel-
of the Arab refugees are trying to organize a march to the Israeli
lence, often called a "golden age." become a very important part of life.
frontier and "offer Israel a choice between violence and letting
He tells his story without ever being aware that the public's
It is into the third of these
them return to their homes."
types that Ludwig Lewisohn interest may be awakening at that moment for that particular
talk
or
will
actually
We do not know whether this is just
falls. And he is in first-rate corn- subject.
take place, but it seems clear that this desperate plan is most
pany—Buber, NiebuhT, Toynbee,
(c) The publisher being a commercial democrat, discovess the
dangerous to the whole Near East.
Berdayaev, T. S. Elliot, Mrs. Luce particular desires of the public and tries to satisfy that desire.
It can be taken for granted that the situation of the displaced
•
•
and many others.
Arab is a deplorable one and that they probably are desperate
What Lewisohn advocates in
THESE ARE THE OUTER facets and it is easily apparent that
enough to do anything in order to get settled again. Israel has
"The American Jew" is finally, the reader is the one who determines trends. We now come to the
a return to traditional Judaism. inner facet of this "Renaissance" or the heart of the subject, "what
acknowledged its responsibility for aid to them. If there
In the face of a collapsing
were a little good will among the Arab nations, the problem

would long have ceased to exist.

The Palestinian Arabs left Israel in a sudden panic when
the Jewish state was established and the Arab countries
descended upon Israel in the expectation of finishing the job
within a few days. The Arabs fled because they' feared they
would be killed by the Israelis, and their leaders exhorted them
to stay away for a little while until the war was over.
These victims of Arab propaganda suffered the greatest
shock of their life when they realized that their protectors
and saviors could neither protect nor save them and, moreover,
that the Arab countries had no intention of receiving them with
brotherly love or offering them a homestead. There are vast
deserted areas in all Arab countries, but the DPs found out—
just as many Jews did when Hitler made them homeless—that
there was no place for them to rest their heads .
No doubt, it is a tragic situation. Tremendous human suffer-
ing is involved. As Jews who have suffered a similar fate
throughout the centuries we sympathize with the Arab refugees.
However, we are certain that this situation cannot be blamed
on Israel and, furthermore, that it can be easily remedied by
the Arabs themselves. They have the resources and they have
the land to resettle the refugees. If they are really trying to
build up their countries, the sewcomers should be welcome.
But it seems that they do not mean what they say and that
they consider the DP problem a convenient pretense to keep
up their fight against Israel. It must be stated that the Arabs
so far have done nothing to alleviate the suffering of their
fellow men. On the contrary, they have kept the issue alive since
the end of the Israeli war., and they probably will try to keep
it alive as long as the United Nations permits them to do so.
A return to Israel is hardly feasible. The refugees cannot
expect to find their homes and property waiting for them.
Things have changed and cannot be undone. The only thing
that can be done is compensation within the means of the
Jewish state and adequate help from the Arab states.
The only way out is strong pressure by the UN on the
Arabs to adopt a realistic view and restore peace in the Near
East.

Martin Buber

Hermann Hesse, a famous Swiss novelist, has suggested,
according to a news item in last week's Chronicle, that Martin
Buber be awarded the literary Nobel Prize. (In the meantime
the prize has been awarded to William Faulkner and Bertrand
Russell.).
Since we may safely assume that the majority of American
Jews do not know who Martin Buber is, we feel that a few
remarks about hint are in order.
For many decades Buber was the outstanding leader in
Germany of the Jewish renaissance movement. It was he who
rediscovered the value of Hasidic literature. His philosophic
work was an attempt to integrate Jewish thinking into modern
thinking and to find the synthesis of modernism and tradition.
His monumental translation of the Bible into German—
which appeared as late as 1935 when it was published by
Schocken—was considered by outstanding Christian theologists
as coming closer to the original than any other translation,
including Luther's.
For the intellectual youth of Germany, Buber was the man
who interpreted their aspirations and ideals most brilliantly. He
enthused them with a burning desire to shape their lives along
the lines laid down by the "master." One can indeed speak of a
Buber cult in German Zionist youth.
Around 1936 Buber went to Israel where he became
professor at the Hebrew University. The change of climate,
however, did not bring about any change in his furious pace of
work. He continues to be a path blazer for Jewish ideals in an
unbelieving world. He continues to interpret Judaism to a
largely indifferent Jewish people.
Buber's leading question has always been: How can thought
be geared to action? It has been a question plaguing our gen-
eration painfully. But it is Buber's conviction that only through
the spirit can this world be saved

makes the 'reader trend' "?
world, he seeks the solidity,
Why at present a "Jewish Literary Renaissance"? And I believe
the beauty and the morality to there is one. Let us trace the life pattern of the reader and as I
be found in the Jewish religion. said previously, it leads down many paths. I will select only one as
We would like here to exam- an example and call it the historical aspect.
ine briefly three questions, among
The vast majority of Jews who came to America during the great
dozens, that are basic to Lewis- immigration period were poor and knew only the ghettoes of
ohn's argument. These are the Eastern Europe. The dignity they hungered for was something they
validity of science, the result of symbolized in dreams of a homeland in Palestine, dreams that were
the Haskalah (enlightenment) on their strength and sustenance and shone through all their ordeals.
Jewry, and the relation of re-
In America, they became Involved in the struggle to build
ligion to Zionism.
financial security for themselves and their families. It was a new
On the problem of science, opportunity and the beginning of a new feeling. Their lives became
Lewisohn points out correctly completely centered and absorbed in the struggle.
that the Newtonian universe, a
Then, with the second generation, came a greater awareness
mechanistic, causal world, has of the realities around them. Their economic struggles were easier,
collapsed under the impact of their education better, they had more time. They also began to
Einstein's theories, Planck's theo- hunger for dignity, the dignity of man; for the feeling of being able
ries and the atomic bomb.
to walk down a street as an individual equal to all others.
No reasonable man will take
There followed the growth of more and more progressive
exception to the statement that groups. But always a shadow lingered over their dreams
the old scientific concepts are
cbsolete, the difficulty begins
EVERYONE ELSE HAD a land of his own, or a land from which
when one wishes to attack the
his ancestors came. The Jew had always been a guest—sometimes
basis of science itself.
To say that new scientific dis- wanted—most often unwanted.
Always he had to live in fear like the poor relation who may
coveries have invalidated science
is foolish, since these new con- any moment be told to go. And the dignity of man does not exist
cepts are based on the same when one must always shrink back. But gradually the Jew began
principles of procedure as the to create a place for himself in America—to build a home.
With this development came a desire to learn where might be
old ones.
his
place
in the scheme of things. And books became one of the
There is nothing wrong with
science, only with certain scien- media which supplied him with an answer.
With the creation of Israel, he begins to experience that sought-
tists, who have attempted to in-
ject their methods into realms for dignity. He is like a man toiling up a steep wooded incline along
where they have no competency. a narrow path that continually turns in and out of the shadowy
Science cannot speak on mat- darkness of the trees.
Abruptly, he comes out into the clear and he is high up on a
ters of faith, morality, aesthetics
mountain
top with the entire world stretched beneath him. And he
or ethics.
The beauty of a painting is not is richly aware of his dignity.
And it is in this direction, I believe, that the Jewish Literary
determined by its weight, size,
chemical content or position in Renaissance will be directed in the coming years. Novels from and
space. But Lewisohn in his of Israel; novels of the Jew in America under the direct impact of
eagerness to fight such think- this new influence; and of course, novels of the direct impact.
I hope that what I have written has in some way served as an
ing is in danger of throwing
out the baby with the bath explanation to events occurring and about to occur.
vater.
On the question of the value States as an example, are Jef- return to Zion? The ghetto type,
of the Haskalah, the author finds
Franklin, Lincoln, until political Zionism showed
in it the root of almost all the ferson,
the way, was only able to return
evil that confronts Jewry today, Roosevelt, Taft and Lewisohn. to Israel for the purpOse of dy-
Enlightened
men
are
not
kill-
the lack of "faith and form" that
ing, not living.
leads to assimilation on the low- ers- -rather men of dogma, in-
Without minimizing the efforts
tolerance, and superstition are
est level.
and accomplishment of religious
To attack the source of eman- the killers in today's world. The Jews in building modern Israel,
world needs more, not less, en-
cipation of the Jews in Europe
it must be said that the majority
on the grounds that it led to lightenment and liberalism and of Israelis are not traditionalists.
Lewisohn shows it, as he is quick
assimilation and death is to play
They live Judaism not in the
fist and loose with the facts and to avail himself of the products synagogues, but in the fields, in
of the system he condemns, free-
the truth.
the workshops, in the army and
For the enlightenment was the dom of thought, freedom of wor- in the halls of state.
ship and freedom to think dif-
savior of Jewry from the me-
Lewisohn in "The American
dieval morass of superstition, ferently from the majority.
As to religion and Zionism, Jew" has presented much that is
poverty, persecution and ignor-
valid, particularly his piercing
ance. Lewisohn, himself a pro- any man who can categorically and accurate criticisms of the
state
that
Zionism
and
religion
duct of the liberalism he attacks,
faults of our age, but his solu-
has no right to lay at the door of are one and the same in the final tion will not rally the majority
analysis,
has
missed
the
road
enlightenment the monstrosities
of American Jews.
of klitlerism and Stalinism as he and is lost in the woods.
Those who have faith are wel-
Modern Zionism, the only
does.
come
to enter Lewisohn's vine-
These systems are not the Zionism that means anything to- yard, where there is much good
day,
was
conceived
and
executed
product of liberalism and en-
fruit, but for those without his
lightenment, they are rever- in large part by men who cared faith he offers little aid.
little
for
traditional
Judaism.
sions to scholastic and even
To command a legless man to
If Zionism is rooted in religion,
tribal methods of thought and
run
is futile, and crutches are a
behavior. The products of as Lewisohn thinks, why did not poor substitute for legs.
middle ages accomplish the
liberalism, to take the United the