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Apartment House Joys and Sorrows

'Koptic Court: Well-Written
Novel by Herbert D. Kastle

Lei Medals Speak

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Jewish history is rich in re-
markable personalities and can
be well illustrated by reading
›-3
medals, those everlasting mem-
ti
ories of great persons and
Herbert D. Kastle displays He could not tolerate the op- events.
considerable ingenuity in his posite sex, part of his revulsion
The earliest medals coined by
novel "Koptic Court," the new- having been attained when, as or for Jews were struck in the
S-o
est
novel
published
by
Simon
an orphaned boy, he witnessed 15th century. One of the very
fr*
and Schuster (630 5th.,N.Y. 20). his widowed mother cavorting first known is a beautiful large
•I
Koptic Court is a six-story illicitly with all types of men. bronze medal issued in 1504 by
apartment house, the construc- In the apartment house explo- the grateful Jews of Rome in
tion of which is the fulfillment, sion, Elliot lost an arm. He felt honor of liberal-minded Pope
in 1927, of the wishes of a his problem was solved. He Julian II who, on the very day
greedy little Jewish painter, would now live by himself. He of his ascension, imposed re-
Harold Koptic. Came the de- would not be expected to make strictions on the cruel Spanish
pression, and Koptic lost his love to women, and he would Inquisition.
possessions. But his name re- be freed from their influence,
During the 17th, 18th and 19th
mained on the building. It also and would at the same time centuries, a great number of
was plastered in the basement, keep away from men in his free medals commemorating events
where the enraged Irish con- time away from the publishing of Jewish interest, were struck;
struction man had painted: house where he held an edito- some told of the consecration of
"Curse you 'and your house, rial post.
a synagogue, others of philan-
* * *
Koptic bastard!" The infuriated
thropic institutions, others cele-
Irishman, who could not toler-
Charles and Clara Maston are brated the ascension or jubilee
ate Koptic's impatience to see an interesting couple. He is the of a mighty ruler.
the building completed, Koptic's non-Jew in the intermarriage.
The Jews were considered to
arrogance and greed, then slap- They are deeply in love, but be excellent medallists and so
ped his hand on the paint and they do not want to have chil- this intricate craft had many
there remained only the words dren—because of the complexes prominent exponents in the 19th
"curse" and "Koptic."
they attained from their re- and 20th centuries.
In a large, exquisitely
We are then led through the ligious differences. When she
experiences of the tenants of becomes pregnant, they seek chiselled medal by Pastorius
this building, including young an abortionist. Having paid off de Pastorini (Ferrara, Italy),
Louis Schimler who was so dis- for the illegal operation, they about 1563, has been perpetu-
ated Dona Gracia Nasi, the
turbed by his pimpled face, by change their minds, Clara goes
the fear that he would always through with the birth, they are dominant personality in Jew-
repel girls, that he threw dyna- both rescued from the explosion ish affairs in the Turkish Em-
mite into the apartment house being in the hospital at the time pire.
furnace and destroyed it. Out of —Charles being there late at
Throughout the dark 16th
the ruins a young boy later night against hospital orders. century, the few countries which
drew a piece of cement with the They see in what has happened still permitted the Jews to
"curse" and `Koptic" words, and to them "a miracle," and breathe the air, vied with one
his mother, superstitious, made Charles sees himself as "one of another in devising methods to
him throw it into the garbage the Chosen People, by mar- degrade them. • Typical for the
can.
riage."
squalor and misery was the nar-
Sandwiched in between the
Bonnie Allan is the baby in row ghetto in Frankfort-on-
two .experiences are the charac- the story, the five-year-old who Main where 4,000 Jewish fam-
ters—a variety of people whose plays a side role, is rescued, ilies lived crowded and huddled
loves and hates indicate what helps lend joy to a devoted together.
A large medal commemorates
may, indeed, be located in any family. .
group-inhabited structure. It is
Joe and Paula Theck experi- the tragedy of the great fire in
reminiscent of one of the -fam- ence another type of tragedy. the ghetto, in 1711, where many
ous old Yiddish plays which Paula was in a concentration perished.
portrayed a funeral in one camp during the war, and she
The 17th century, satiric and
apartment while a wedding was begins, after her successful mar- anti-Semitic, brought forth
being performed immediately riage to Joe Theck, to see a many medals reviling the Jew.
next to it. -
brute in every German, to sus- Best known is the extremely
* * *
pect a Nazi in every German- rare and highly interesting
The characters are interesting sounding word and name. They medal on the "Grain Jew" which
and well portrayed in this novel. are on the brink of tragedy. accuses Germany's Jews of buy-
There_ is Eli Weiner, the dress Then comes the explosion, they ing up all the grain and of stor-
manufacturer, who was taking a are rescued, they reconstruct ing it away selling it later at
black market prices.
dislike for his wife, could not their life happily.
Another large- medal cam-
tolerate her nearness although
* * *
he knew she loved him, fell in
memoratef the cruel ban
Luke Brown is the superin- issued by Empress Maria-
love with his son's _girl friend,
conducted trysts with her over tendent of "Koptic Court." He Theresa of Austria in 174,5:
long week-ends, finally becomes is a conscientious man, but his all Jews were ordered to
bothered by his conscience and drunken son from his first mar- leave Bohemia and Moravia
feels his former affection for riage, Sam, comes to plague at a short notice.
It is one of life's greatest
his wife. Returning from his him, to take all the money he
last illicit weekend with the can from him, to try to seduce ironies that the liberal son of
his
step-mother.
Full
of
hate
young girl, be sees the apart-
ment in which he lived in of the white people, Sam spouts
flames. His wife and younger venom. He sleeps in the base-
son were among the dead He ment of the apartment house
ends up under psychiatric care. and Luke is told to get him out.
Elliot Wycoff suffered from Then comes the dynamiting by
revulsion of women. He had to young Louis Schimler. Luke
prove to those around him—so thinks he might have been his
he felt in his subconscious mind son. But the owner of the
—that he was not a homosexual. building comes to commend him
for heroism in rescuing many
of the tenants during the ex-
plosion.
Such are the multiple ex-
periences in group dwellings.
The tenants pass each other
LEADER
with casual greetings, none
CLEANED
knowing what is transpiring
next door, what sorrows or joys
RUGS and
exist in the apartments next to
them. Kastle has told his story
CARPETS
well and has delineated inter-
ACTUALLY
esting characters in a splen-
didly-molded plot.

HAVE THE
FRAGRANCE
OF SPRING!

LEADER

CARPET CLEANING CO.
8700 LININ000:AVE.

---47

TY 5-8400

,%110

Senate Unit Approves
U.S. Funds to Aid Nazi
Victims From Austria
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—The
Senate Foreign Relations Com-
mittee has approved an amend-
ment to the Mutual Security
Bill authorizing the use of U. S.
counterpart funds to enable
Austria to loan 100 million
schillings to the "Hilsfond" to
compensate Jews and other
victims of the Nazis. The amend-
ment was introduced by Sen.
Jacob K. Javits, New York
Republican.

bigoted Maria-Theresa, Emperor
Joseph II (1765-1790) issued
the famous Edict of Tolerance
thus' removing many, although
not all restrictions imposed on
Austria's Jews.
Napoleon's Sanhedrin
(1807) in Paris is pictured
on a large silver medal;
there he announced his in-
tention of "putting an end to
the unfair practices" against
the Jews and promised that
he would revive "the civic
morality of the Jews' lost dur-
ing the long centuries of a
degraded existence."

When, in 1860, Emperor
Franz Joseph I of the Austrian-
Hungarian Monarchy allowed
the Jews to own real estate, a
large silver medal was issued
showing the figure of "Austria"
holding scrolls with a Hebrew
inscription above the head of
the young Emperor. A genius
holds high a wreath of laurels.
The inscription reads: "The
Jews of your entire empire are
building an altar in their hearts
as an eternal monument of their
gratitude."
Came a period of happy inte-
gration, of wholehearted colla-
boration in the cultural devel-
opment of their adopted country,
with outstanding physicians,
scientists, writers, poets, musi-
cians, actors blossoming forth
on the fertile soil of humanita-
rianism. A record in 1940 re-
veals that the Jews although
constituting only 3/4 of 1% of

By TINA JOFFE

(Standard Feature Syndicate)

the population, counted 21
Nobel Prize winners out of 207
winners.
In 1906, at the instance of the
American Jewish Historical So-
ciety, Isidore Konti struck a
beautiful medal commemorating
the 250th Anniversary of the
Jewish Settlement in North
America and 50 years later, the
Tercentennary Medal was struck
crowning a jubilant series of
celebrations of the valuable
Jewish contributions during
three hundred long years in the
United States.
And now that the Jewish
State has become a reality,
many medals commemorating
the struggle of the first 10
years and the brilliant achieve-
ments of their settlers, are be-
ing issued.

Re-Elect Ross President
of Hebrew U. Friends

Daniel G. Ross was re-elect-
ed president of the American
Friends of Hebrew University,
and Philip M. Klutznick of
Park Forest, Ill. was chosen
chairman of the board of di-
rectors at the 33rd annual
meeting held at the organiza-
tion's headquarters, University
House, 9 East 89th Street,
New York.
Justice Felix Frankfurter,
Mrs. Felix M. Warburg and
Dr. Israel S. Wechsler serve
as honorary presidents of the
American Friends.

,

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Gracia Mendes, the Young-
er, later Duchess of Naxos.
Medal struck by Pastorious
de Pastorini, Ferrara, Italy,
1563.
Franz Joseph I grants the
Jews the right to own real
estate in the Austrian-Hun-
garian Empire (February 14,
1860).

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