THE DETR OIT JEWISH NEW S—Friday, Janu ary 16, 19 59- 2

Purely Commentary Sholem Aleichem-Zionism's Laughing Propagandist

• Continued from Page 1 •

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

. . ?`

'How Do I Get Integrated

Integration is the big international problem. It is the plague
that has disrupted a large area of our democracy. It has other
sad aspects in other parts of the globe. There is the problem
of integration in the Middle
East. While politicians are
toying with Nasserism and are
beginning anew to give recog-
nition to the major trouble-
maker in the Middle East, the
Arabs are being kept in sub-
jection and poverty and stag-
nation rules in that area. What
can Israel expect in such a
charged atmosphere? The
clever Israeli cartoonist, Dosh,
expressed "the Israeli view"
in the accompanying cartoon,
which shows little Israel, sur-
rounded by saber-rattling mili-
tarists. Israel is saying, in the
words of the cartoonist. "How
do I get integrated with this
lot?" Meanwhile politics and international expediency continue
to complicate the problem for the infant Israel.
*
*

Tribute to a Great Newspaper and Its Staff

We doubt whether anyone could possibly challenge the
opinion that the New York Times retains the position of the
world's greatest newspaper. The Times strengthened its hold on
such a title with its resume of 17 days of "missing news" after
the prolonged New York City newspaper strike.
In its issue of Dec. 31— on the third day after the end of
the strike — the Times incorporated a section "For the Record:

17 Two-Page Papers as Prepared Day by Day During Strike."

This section is a remarkable addendum to journalistic history.
Each of the daily two-page editions in this section is a tribute
to the genius of the Times' staff that has succeeded so well in
preserving the facts regarding the major events that transpired
during the newspaperless day, in addition to an editorial column,
a review of the previous night's new play, weather summary,
a stock exchange table, obituaries, a personality sketch and a
Washington report.
It is no wonder that the New York Times serves as the
model for those aspiring to highest creativity in journalism.
Proof of the ability of the N.Y. Times' staff will be found
in a most interesting new book, "Watch Your Language," by
Theodore M. Bernstein, the Times' assistant managing editor

who concentrates on the paper's news operation.
This book, described as "a lively, informal guide to better
writing, emanating from the News Room of the New York Times,"
will be very helpful to reporters and to news copy readers, and
it will be found valuable by English majors in our universities.
Actually, it is a compilation of the bulletins on better
English that are being issued to the N.Y. Times news staff under
the title "Winners & Sinners." Thus, "Watch Your Language"
is the W&S collection for which those who know about the
bulletins have been clamoring. Advertising agencies, public rela-
tions agencies, colleges, high schools, students and teachers have
clamored for W&S copies. Now they have a valuable collection
of them in a single book.
Ted Bernstein credits his wife with having suggested the
title for this book. They live in Greenwich Village and "they
have a dictionary in every room," the publishers, Channel Press,
Inc., Great Neck, N.Y., inform us. Bernstein, co-author of "Head-
lines and Deadlines" with Robert E. Garst, not only is a busy
editor and the able W&S compiler, but for the past 25 years
also has been a member of the faculty of Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism.
Dr. Jacques Barzun, well known educator, historian, author
and critic, who, as a college freshman, aspired to the news board
of a college newspaper of which Bernstein was at the time
managing editor, is the author of the preface to "Watch Your
Language." He differs with Bernstein on some matters but he
pays him the compliment of calling him "a superb mentor who
gives not merely rules but principles of self-correction."
This is exactly what the able W&S editor and the author
of this book does: he guides writers towards self-correction.
It is a remarkably good guide.— for storytellers, for head-hunters
(those who write headlines for newspapers), and for hatchet men
(copy editors).
There is an appendix of excellent stories — by N.Y. Times
writers—that proves some of the Bernstein points.
Those who are anxious about "words that need watching,"
reporters, editors, all who desire to improve their mastery of
the English language, will find "Watch Your Language" to be
just the book they need.

*

*

*

Hit _Among Recordings
'Nava Nagila'
For many years, we have been singing "Hava Nagila." -It
was an especially popular song at Zionist meetings and on happy
family occasions.
Harry Belafonte had recorded it in Hebrew. Then came an
English translation. It did not sound like "Hava nagila-
ve'nismekha • . ," but the tune is the same, and the melody
is appealing.
In English, the text of the song, called "Dance, Everyone,
Dance!", is as follows:
"Over the valley, voices are singing. Bells are ringing, dance,
everyone, dance. Come to the valley, run through the clover,
harvest is over, dance, everyone, dance. Dance where the corn
is high, under a golden sky. Dance where the wine was born,
dance, everyone, dance. Whirl and turn about, pick up your
arms and shout, join hands and skip along, dance, everyone,
dance. Turn left, turn right, hold tight, lift your feet, the
heart will follow. Lift your voice and fill the hollow. Spread
your wings, life will follow, fly away, sweet the day, dance,
dance, everyone dance."
The English translator is unknown, and we have not been
able to trace the Hebrew authorship. But the mutual acceptance
of the theme is as thrilling as the song itself.

—

-

Zionist Organization, wherever
Yiddish was spoken. Thus Sho-
lem Aleichem became mediator
and messenger between the Yid-
dish masses of Eastern Europe
and political Zionism. In those
times, already popular and
loved, he spoke the characteris-
tic language of the simple Jew.
The pamphlet was often read
aloud in synagogues or at meet-
ings and it sustained the hopes
of tens of thousands of Jews —
as Sholem Aleichem and Man-
delstamm had intended it to do.

well-known in Western Europe. for the well-loved story-teller.
He was feted everywhere, espe-
cially by the Zionists. Everyone
— Zionist and non-Zionist, Bund-
ist and Territorialist, Socialist
and religious Jew — flocked to
see him and partake of his

At Zionist meetings and on fest-
ive occasions, the reading of his
humorous stories became in-
creasingly popular. When Sho-
lem Aleichem's name appeared
on a program, success was cer-
tain. The audience laughed, and
so did the reader. Sholem Alei-
chem did not want only to
amuse his Jews, but to educate
and teach them. Almost every
funny story had a moral. In "Ma
Nish tan a" Sholem Aleichem
asked four — in fact four-times-
four and more — kashes (ques-
tions): "Why do we know so
well the history of all peoples,
ancient and modern — with the
exception of only one people,
our own Jewish people?" "Why
are we so at home in the geogra-

Sholem Aleichem was the
laughing propagandist of Zion-
ism. His readers became Zionists
as tears of laughter ran down
their cheeks. How did Sholem
phy of all countries — with the
Aleichem explain Zionism?
exception of one country, the
In his own pamphlet "Why do Land of Israel?"
the Jews Need a Country?"
When Herzl died in July 1904,
(Achiasaf, Warsaw, 1898), Sho-
lem Aleichem promoted Zionism there was mourning everywhere.
in his own way. "What kind of In Kiev, the Jewish shops were
a question is that?", asked the closed and the Jews gathered in
king of Jewish humor: "Could the synagogues where sermons
one not ask differently? Why and speeches were delivered.
should it be just the Jews who Sholem Aleichem said at that
do not need a land?" The Jewish time: "Is it true, then, that
problem was actually for Sholem Israel has no luck?"
"Is it true, then, that Israel
Aleichem a question of habita-
tion. With the fall of Jerusalem has no luck?" was soon repeated.
the Jewish people lost their In Kiev, pogroms raged (1905).
land, their home — their own Sholem Aleichem sent reports
habitation. The Jews looked for and appeals to a Jewish paper
a habitation in the Diaspora but in New York. This was quite
were always given notice to quit another Sholem Aleichem. No
—going from one dwelling-place longer tears of laughter but
to another. So now they had tears of terror and suffering.
come together in Basle to solve Sholem Aleichem then believed
the "housing problem" of the that: "A time will come when
Jews. Under the guidance of the Russians will read the his-
Herzl, so thought Sholem Alei- tory of their liberation and their
chem, the Jews would once hearts will soften, their eyes will
more gain possession of their overflow with tears and they
land, their home — their own will kneel before our descen-
dants and ask their forgiveness
place of residence.
for the sins of their barbaric
Sholem Aleichem's booklet,
passed by the Russian censor, ancestors."
Sholem Aleichem was mis-
was widely read. It became a
taken, for Russia is the same
textbook, the Aleph-Beth, of
Zionism in Eastern Europe. The Russia today.
He left Kiev. His European
pamphlet was naturally welcom-
ed by the Zionist press and tour was a triumphal procession

medicine: "Laughter is healthy,
doctors order laughter!" Loebl

Taubes, a pioneer of Zionism
accompanied him through the
old Austro - Hungarian Empire

and in other countries reception
committees were formed. He

also visited England, and was
greeted in London by Joseph
Cowen, who was for many years
president of the English Zionist
Federation, and by Chaim Weiz-
mann in Manchester. Every new
Zionist library in East or West
Europe ordered the works of
Sholem Aleichem first of all,
either in Yiddish or in transla-
tion, and in Zionist centers his
picture, provided by the Keren
Kayemeth, could generally be

seen.
Sholem Aleichem created
many types in his writings,

above all "Menachem Mendel".
Max Nordau, in his speeches at
the Zionist Congresses, describ-
ed the same type as a "Luft-
mensch" with complete brutality
and bitterness as opposed to
Sholem Aleichern's love and
humor. "Menachem Mendel" has
now disappeared and belongs to
the past. But he lives and will
always go on living in the works
of Sholem Aleichem.
There was a time when Sho-
lem Aleichem was widely-read,
more than Mendele Mocher
Sforim and Yitzchak Leib Per-
etz. He has remained the favor-
ite writer of the Jewish people.
Are his stories read much now-
adays? What did Sholem Alei-
chem ask over 50 years ago:
"How is it we know so exactly
who Pushkin was and Lermon-
tOv, Gogol, Gorki and Tolstoy,
and know nothing of Yehuda
Halevy, Levinsohn, Lewanda,
Gordon and Mendele Mother
Sforim?"

r _.—.......—.....)...........-----..........—

Prof. Michael Berkowicz, Herzl's
Hebrew secretary, wrote in Die
Welt that Sholem Aleichem had I
Boris S molar's
1i
succeeded in making plain the 1i
principles of Zionism to the
N
masses and in "illuminating the
natural need of the Jewish peo-
ple for a Homeland". Berkowicz
also admired the fine style of
the language and the substance ;
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
"of this extremely successful lit-
The Bingo Issue:
tle publication".
The multitude of synagogues in New York are facing a
Theodor Herzl published some
of Sholem Aleichem's humorous question involving the resistance to temptation . . . The
stories in Die Welt, though he question is—to bring or not to bring bingo, which has now been
never mentioned him in his legalized in New York for the benefit of religious and
Diaries. I once found a letter charitable institutions—into the synagogues . . . In New Jersey,
written by Herzl to the editor for instance, more than 100 synagogues and some 110 synagogue-
of Die Welt which I included in affiliated organizations have applied for and received licenses
my booklet "Dr. S. Werner — a for bingo as a method of fund-raising . . . Rabbis usually oppose
collaborator of Herzl" (1939). the playing of bingo under synagogue auspices . . . They
On Jan. 17, 1904, Herzl wrote: consider it gambling, and as such beneath the dignity of any
"Dear Friend, we absolutely house of worship . . . But in many eases they come across a
cannot print the Sholem Alei- different sentiment among members of the governing boards
chem scene. Please give the of their synagogues . . . Usually businessmen, these board
manuscript back immediately". members look upon synagogue income from bingo like any
It is difficult to say which scene other source of income . . . And they insist on holding bingo
he meant — probably one about games not only because of the profit, but also because these
the Uganda conflict.
games keep the membership close to the synagogue.
Strongest voices in opposition to bingo in the synagogue
Through his writing for Die
Welt and for other Zionist jour- belong to the leaders of the Conservative movement . . .
nals, Sholem Aleichem became The United Synagogue of America, central body of Conservative
congregations, urged every Conservative Jew to sternly oppose
bingo and other gambling as a synagogue-sponsored activity,
Schedule Second Trial regardless of the financial benefits . . . Of the Orthodox groups,
only the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations and the
in Georgia Bombing
Rabbinical Council of America came out against bingo . .
ATLANTA, Ga: (JTA) — Other Orthodox groups have thus far made no publie
George Bright, the first of four statements Oil the issue . . . The two Orthodox organizations
men indicted on charges of which have stated their views point out that there is no
having bombed a Jewish temple definite ban on gambling in the Jewish religious law, but
here last Oct. 12, went on trial like the Conservatives, they too stress that Judaism disqualifies
for a second time. The first gamblers as witnesses . • . The tendency among some Orthodox
proceedings, last December, leaders is to emphasize the moral effect, but to leave it to each
ended in a mistrial when the synagogue to decide for itself the issue . . . In the camp of
jury failed to agree on a ver- Reform Jewry there is strong opposition to bingo-playing
in the Temples . . It comes from the central body of the
dict.
The defense and prosecution Reform rabbinate and of the National Federations of Temple
are still trying to pick a jury. Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods • . . The Union of American
Bright has new defense attor- Hebrew Congregations, central body of the Reform Temple,
has never adapted an official policy on the subject of bingo
neys, the last attorneys having . . . Its social action commission has, however, concurred with
refused to continue with the the Reform rabbis that any kind of gambling on Temple
premises is "ill-advised."
ease.

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Between You 1
I
.. . and Me
I