Howard Fast's 'Tort' uemada'
Rebuilds Inquisition Theme
In "Torquemada," his newest
novel, Howard Fast reconstructs
the theme of the Spanish Inquisi-
tion.
A brief story of less than 190
pages, one that can be read in
one sitting—it holds the reader's
attention sufficiently to keep him
glued to the book—this work, pub-
lished by Doubleday, reveals the
brutality of Thomas de Torque-
mada, after he had been named
Chief Inquisitor by King Ferdi-
nand.
It is Ferdinand who is portrayed
as the avaricious Jew-hater, and
Queen Isabella plays the innocent
victim of a Spanish situation.
Torquemada is pictured here as
a friend of Don Alvero de Rafel,
a Spanish nobleman. He had bap-
tized his daughter Catherine. Al-
vero and his wife Maria were
among the highly esteemed Segovia
Christians.
Torquemada and Alvero are
on their way to Segovia when
they hear shrieks, they see a man
being attacked by three hood-
lums, and the nobleman rushes
to save the attacked man's life.
It turns out that he is Rabbi
Mendoza. This is when Torque-
mada, the once friendly church-
man now turned Inquisitor, ut-
ters a wish that the Jew had
been killed. Then the hatred of
Jews comes into full play.
When they reach the palace to
meet with Isabella, they find Col-
umbus with her, proposing his plan
for the historic sea voyage, Isa-
bella being offered a chance to
rule an empire. In the course of
the reference to Columbus, he, too,
is condemned as "the Jew" from
Italy.
Then commences the inquisitory
search of Alvero's background. It
is discovered that next to the cross
of his Christian loyalty he wears a
capsule with a scroll that reads:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and all thy
soul and with all thy might." Tor-
quemada accuses Alvero of Judaiz-
ing. This grandson of a Jew is tor-
tured. The familiar charm is used
as an excuse for the misery to
which he is subjected.
Meanwhile, Alvero's daughter
Catherine learns about her back-
ground, she does not feel the less
Christian for her being of Jewish
descent, she leaves her home,
where her mother, like the Inquisi-
tors, shouts "Jew" at her husband.
She wanders into Mendoza's syna-
gogue and while there the syna-
gogue is put on fire and she and
all therein are burned to death.
Conscience bothers Torque-
mada when he learns of the
Catherine tragedy. He releases
A 1 v e r o. Catherine's fiance,
also of Jewish extraction, hav-
ing been the one to tell Torque-
mada about the contents of the
scroll that was retained by Al-
vero, is attacked and nearly
choked to death by Catherine's
father who then mounts his horse
and gallops away from Segovia
and from Maria.
The central theme is not only
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the role of Torquemada, the story
about the friends he betrayed, but
that of the Jews who were to have
been left in peace—because they
were not Marranos and were not to
Judaize—but were molested; and
the emphasis is on the cruelty
that was imposed on Jews .whose
properties church and emperor de-
sired to acquire.
A tragic tale of one of the bit-
terest periods in Jewish history
thus is dramatically portrayed in
Fast's "Torquemada." —P.S.
Colonization Assn. Votes
Funds for Emigrants
LONDON (JTA) — The Jewish
Colonization Association voted
Monday to increase its contribu-
tions to the United Hias Service
for transportation of Jewish emi-
grants from East Europe and North
Africa to countries outside of Is-
rael, and to the World ORT Union
for Jewish vocational training in
various countries.
At a meeting of its administra-
tion council, the JCA also approv-
The Ambassador of South Vietnam, Vu Van Thai last week
accepted a $500 check for the South Vietnamese Red Cross
from two representatives of the Bnai Brith Youth Organization.
Meeting in his office at the South Vietnamese Embassy, the
ambassador told Robert Frankle and Margery Brenner, both of
Greater Washington, that the displaced people aided by the South
Vietnamese Red Cross (Hong Thap Tu) will be highly grateful
for the teen-age organization's gift and the thought behind the
presentation. The ambassador will take the check to Saigon when
he returns there for consultation. The check is part of $50,000
raised and distributed annually by the teen-agers to various
charities, health research funds and leadership training programs.
ed grants for the agriculture facul-
ty at Hebrew University, for the
general budget of Mikveh Israel
Agriculture School in Israel, Youth
Aliyah, the plant genetics section London Laborer Charged With Synagogue Arson
of the Weizmann Institute, the
scholarship fund of Israel for scho-
lars and students at agricultural
training establishments, the Alli-
ance Israelite Universelle for its
general education program and a
specific grant for the Jerusalem
Trade School.
The Council also approved an ex-
pansion of JCA participation in a
project for three settlements of 50
farm units each in Israel. Further
progress or extension of other set-
tlements in Israel which the JCA
either founded or assisted in found-
ing will be facilitated this year by
LONDON (JTA)—A 23-year-old
laborer was remanded in custody
after being charged with starting
fires at two London synagogues
last June which caused damages
estimated at 200,000 pounds ($560.-
000). David Thorne was accused of
Day Schools Enrollment
Shows Vast Increases
Enrollment at all-day Jewish
schools has increased nearly 800
per cent since 1940, with over 60,-
000 youngsters now attending as
against less than 8,000 a genera-
tion ago.
The statistic, revealed in a
forthcoming book called "The
Jewish Day School in America,"
was described by the volume's au-
thor as evidence that an increas-
ing number of concerned Jewish
parents and lay leaders view the
day school as the best hope of
assuring survival of Jewish prin-
ciples and traditions among their
children.
The author, Dr. Alvin I. ScluTf,
associate professor of education
and chairman of the department
of religious education at Yeshiva
University, noted that Jewish en-
rollment in all elementary and sec-
ondary schools during the period
rose little more than 300 per cent,
from 190,000 in 1940 to approxi-
mately 600,000 today. He said
many Jewish leaders who once
questioned the Day School's valid-
ity are now among its staunchest
proponents.
Our life is frittered away by de-
tail • . . Simplify, simplify.—Hen-
ry David Thoreau (1817-1862).
"unlawfully and maliciously" set-
ting fire to the Brondesbury and
Bayswater synagogues on June 30,
1965. He was ordered held until
Feb. 5 for a hearing.
Want ads get quick results!
Do electric dryers really cost less to buy?
Do you really get no-charge service?
JCA credits to finance construction
projects and by helping the sons
of colonists to be placed on farms
of their own.
Sir Henry d'Avigdor-Goldsmid,
member of Parliament, was re-
elected JCA president.
Who Is a Gentleman?
By LUWIG LEWISOHN
(An Excerpt from "Mid-Channel")
The Christian command not to
judge is, of course, a Jewish com-
mand and antedates Christianity
by centuries. Of many specific ap-
plications of the command one of
the happiest in tone is this: "If you
see a learned and pious man corn-
mit a sin on a night, think of it
no more on the morrow. Perhaps
he has repented. Nay, to say so is
not enough. He has surely known
penitence." But what is true of
the learned is equally true of the
simple and the inclusive principle
is this: "Judge every man accord-
ing to his better self, literally, ac-
cording to that scale which holds
his merits." Upon this point the
sages are uncompromising and de-
clare that whoever invokes God's
judgment against his neighbor will
be the first to be punished, irre-
spective of the merits of the case.
It follows from all this that the
so-called Christian gentleman of
Anglo-American tradition is a Jew-
ish gentleman. He is not knightly
in the Nordic, pagan, belligerent
sense. He is never truculent; his
great aim is to spare his neighbor
shame and pain; he is commanded
by the sages to "let his language
and his relations with his neigh-
bor always be gentle and gracious."
His character is defined once and
for all in the tractate "Kiddushin,"
"Sanctifications": "If two men
quarrel, watch him who gives in
and is silent first. You may be sure
that he is of gentler birth than
the other."
Clothes Line
The modern woman wears just
as many clothes as her grand-
mother did — but not all at once.
—The Chewelah (Wash.) Indepen-
dent.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
18—Friday, February 4, 1966
Do kids like ice cream?
The answer, of course, is a rousing YES! Model for model, electric
dryers cost from $20 to $40 less than gas dryers. And every electric
dryer is backed by Edison's No-Charge repair service. No charge for
any electrical parts. No charge for labor. Edison is the only utility
company in this area that offers no-charge repair service.
Can you get this kind of worry-free assurance with a gas dryer?
Sure—with a manufacturer's repair service policy. But it will cost you
up to $120 over the first five years of operation alone!
One thing more. Edison's No-Charge repair service applies even If
you don't buy your dryer from Edison—so long as the dryer is electric
and you get your electricity from Edison. And if you buy now from a
participating dealer, the low price Teu pay includes the cost of wiring,
if any's needed. So when you add it up, an electric dryer can save
you up to $160 in just a few years. That can
EDISON
keep the kids in ice cream a good long time.
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