THE JEWISH NEWS ETEktIAL MONUMENT IN Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951 (lb PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher SIDNEY SHMARAK CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Advertising Manager Business Manager inereitNALcrry dedkalfoo of Ike Pitman ceittee . for me Advancement of Awe injervsakm) Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235. VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7. Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan CHARLOTTE HYAMS City Editor Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 28th day of Tammus, 5726, the following scriptural selections will be read synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Num. 30:2-36:13; Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4. in our Licht Benshen, Friday, July 15, 7:48 p.m. VOL. XLIX No. 21 Page 4 July 15, 1966 Housing for Elderly--A Significant Decision "It is our conclusion that (the Jewish Wel- fare) Federation should join the growing number of Jewish communities in sponsoring a residence project for elderly citizens," is the positive assertion with which the Feder- ation's Committee on Housing for the Elderly commenced its recommendations for action to solve the pressing needs of providing hous- ing for the hundreds who either can not be accommodated in the Home for the Aged or who prefer on a family basis to retain their independent status in retainina their homes. Under the chairmanship of b Leonard N. Simons, this committee on housing for aged has taken initial steps of such vital signifi- cance that we may well hope to see a vital need filled here in a most humanitarian fashion. While the proposal at the outset calls for "a project for about 200 persons as a demon- stration program," it could well lead to a solution of a major program for many hun- dreds with emphasis on a major point in the recommendations, that: "As long as individ- uals retain the capacity for self-care, they should remain independent." Many problems will be involved in attain- ing the high goal envisioned by the commit- tee on housing for the elderly. There will be the need to acquire land for a large structure, the necessity to secure government coopera- tion, the urgency to assure for those to be housed in such moderately priced apartments the fulfillment of their religious needs. But the sincerity with which the functioning com- mittee pursued its task served in advance as an assurance that much good is to be ex- pected from the new and very commendable undertaking. A fact not to be overlooked is that several thousands of elderly are affected by housing needs—by the necessity, if their homes are to be kept intact, of provisions for low-cost housing. Studies of the needs in our community for the elderly commenced five years ago. In 1962, Prof. Albert Mayer of Wayne State University, who commenced re- search on the subject, indicated that of the 90,000-plus Jews in Metropolitan Detroit 7,000 were 65 years of age or older and that 65 per cent of them were women. Dr. Mayer is continuing his surveys on the subject, and his findings are certain to be of great help to the Federation. In the meantime we have the advance knowledge of the large numbers who are in need of the projected help. The committee that has made the positive recommendations for speedy action has earned the gratitude of the -entire community for its understanding of the issues involved and its readiness to act. Important Decisions on Transliterations Action relating to establishing a uniform system of transliterating Hebrew into English has been pending for a number of years. The English-Jewish publishers' association inaugurated an effort to secure the co- operation of all national educational and religious movements for the acceptance that will eliminate mispronunciations — such as referring to Hanuka as TCHanukah, or in the German fashion of Chanukah. At a recent dinner here for Merkos L'In- yonei Chinuch—which would have been more understandable if it were spelled hinukh- accepting in this instance the h for the first heth and the kh for khaf—there was contin- ued reference to the term as tchinutch. This was puzzling. It emphasized the lack of proper transliteration and the need for the in- troduction of proper terminologies to avoid confusion. Thanks to Leo Frisch, editor of the Amer- ican Jewish World, a pioneer in English- Jewish journalism, the need for a proper sys- tem of transliteration was emphasized and its acceptance pursued for nearly two decades. A code has been adopted by the publishers and editors of English-Jewish newspapers. Now it must be impressed as disirable and urgent upon advertisers, publishers of maga- zines, dictionaries, encyclopedias. It is in order to obviate confusion among Jews as well as non-Jews--because Jews who are not steeped in Hebrew and Yiddish fall prey to the same errors in pronunciation as non-Jews—that a proper, an acceptable, sys- tem of transliteration that will fit routine English reading is vitally needed. The steps taken thus far to achieve this goal are highly commendable. They should be pursued until every element in Jewish life accepts the need for uniformity so that Hebrew and Yiddish terms will not be corrupted by improper usage. Supplying the background for an ,understanding of Jews and Juda- ism, as they have emerged as part of the American literary theme, Prof. Sol Liptzin has written an important analysis of the Jew in belles-lettres. In "The Jew in American Literature," published by Bloch, Dr. Liptzin, formerly chairman of the department of Germanic and Slavic languages at the College of the City of New York and now a member of the faculty of the Technion at Haifa, Israel, commences his analyses with the Jews in Colonial and Young American Republic eras, proceeding until the pres- ent time with comments on the impact of Israel on American writers. The interest in and their knowl- edge of Hebrew by early Christian colony-builders on this continent— William Bradford, Cotton Mather and others—and the biblical inter- ests among the early patriots point to the interest in Jews in early times. Literary works about Jews and non Jews in the early years of this Republic, dramas, like those writ- Dr. Liptzin ten by Mordecai Manuel Noah, and other evidences of attention given to JeWs are recorded here. Dr. Liptzin points out that the New Englander saw "Jews in the light of biblical prophecy and talmudic lore. Their poets did not show keen insight into American Jewish reality but did glorify the Jewish past and did revivfy half-forgotten legends. They continued the tradition of philosemitism which had been brought to America's shores by their Colonial forebears." - The poetic works of Longfellow ; Whittier and Holmes, with their Jewish themes, are described in a special chapter about the New Eng- land poets, and there is a review of 19th Century Jewish lyrics. Legend and reality are discussed, the part-Jewish ancestry of Bret Harte is referred to, there is a comment on Henry Ward Beecher's sermon "Jew and Gentile," an interesting story relating to the "property values" dealt with by William Dean Howells when Jews moved into a non-Jewish neighborhood, and Mark Twain's attitude toward Jews is recorded. The works of other writers in that era are under review, and there is an especially important chapter on the "persistence of stereotypes." Like Mark Twain, Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard from 1870 to 1909, "was an eloquent exponent of the philosemitic legend." There is a long list of other philosemitic writers and the "new immigration" at the beginning of this century which brought to the fore another type of writer, and it is at this point that "a hungry, hope-inspired, dream-in- -. toxicated Jewish generation was gradually yielding to a prosperous: bility of Poland being the fourth such nation disillusioned, self-hating generation." WJC's Significant Plenary Sessions With 400 delegates from Jewish commu- nities throughout the world — except for the Soviet Union — and with an American dele- gation of 100 — the plenary sessions of the World Jewish Congress scheduled to open in Brussels, Belgium, July 31, may well be looked to as auguring important develop- ments. Every aspect of Jewish life is on the agenda of this important gathering. Jewry's roles in many lands, the Israel-Arab prob- lem, the situation in Russia, educational and other aspects are to be considered by the most eminent leaders of Jewish communities. While debates alone do not solve problems, serious consideration of events as they affect Jewish life must lead to some bases for action. The previous World Jewish Congress plenary session, held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1959, had as participants practically every country on the globe except those behind the Iron Curtain, with the exception, then, of Polish Jewry in behalf of which there were spokesmen whose share in the deliberations occasioned several stormy discussions. At the Brussels sessions the participants will include Jewish representatives from at least three Communist countries — Romania, Yugo- slavia and Czechoslovakia -- with the possi- 'Jew in American Literature' Describes Image in Belles-Lettres to be represented. There is cause to believe that the tensions relating to those coming from Communist lands will be obviated this year and that the deliberations therefore will tend towards necessary and valuable prag- matism in dealing with the position of the Jewries who are affected by communist ideologies and whose status must be viewed as part of the over-all Jewish scene. The experts who will appear in discussions dealing with German-Jewish problems, with the Arab issue, with the questions of assimila- tion and our cultural needs, with matters relating to Latin America as well as with Russia, already assure for the WJC plenary vital significance. Out of these sessions un- doubtedly will emerge guidance for world Jewry that is so urgently needed at this time. Involved in these issues are matters re- lated to the security of a number of Jewish communities, to the need for emigration, to the pressing problems involving the extension of our educational systems. The men and women of authority who will assemble to review the vital issues are so grossly in- volved in these problems that much good must come from discussions that are certain to compel the interest and attention not of Jews alone but of the entire world. , , Thus commences a review of the works of a number of Jews,— some of whom came "to grips with reality," some describing "the vulgar Jew of obtrusive manners," the Jew in Hemingway who was "an unpleasant, ridiculous figure," and on the other hand men like Hutchins Hapgood who "tried to convince Hemingway that it was an error to depict Robert Cohn as the typical Jew." Then there are the affirmations—the creative efforts of Ludwig Lewisohn, Maurice Samuel, and numerous others. The 1930s are described as "the decade of the uprooted and the estranged Jewish intellectuals." There were breaks with the links to Judaism, but there also were some creative forces. The holocaust pro- vided numerous themes for novelists and 'short story writers. The satiric works of Leo Calvin Rosten (Leonard Q. Ross) in depicting I -PY*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N; the not unkindly Jewish but nevertheless hedonistic writings of Jerome Weidman; Saul Bellow's peripheral Jew Herzog and other works marked numerous changes. There is the comment that "Maxwell Geismar, who admired Bellow as the novelist of the intellec-- tuals, wondered whether Bellow was really happy about his Jewish heritage." The changed attitude resulting from the rise of Israel and the emerging "Jewish acculturation," the problem-of how to be a Jew in America as it is treated in literature and as it affected the writers and Israel's impact lead to discussions of works of Charles Angoff, Meyer Levin, Waldo Frank, Robert Nathan, a number of the popular novelists and short story writers. Dr. Liptzin believes "the impact of Israel was slowing down ultra- assimilationist tendencies" and "was buttressing resistance to the con- formist American environment." His entire study contributes immensely to an understanding of the Jew in. American belles-lettres and provides an excellent guide for those seeking knowledge regarding the Jewish position as it has been delineated by writers from earliest times to the present.