THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
David Schwartz Transforms Literary Oddities 14—Friday, September 16, 1966
to Monumental Gems in Book 'Yankees Yes' _Latvian Museum Has Room

David Schwartz is well known to
Jewish News readers through the
witty and informative columns he
writes weekly. His sense of humor,
mingled with his knowledge of
Yiddish and some ,.
Hebrew, his in- •
terest in Israel
and Zionism and
his masterful ac•
quaintance with
American histori-.
cal episodes
make him espe-
cially well qual-
ified to write his
entertaining col-.
Schwartz
umn.
Many of his excellent columns
now form his new book, "Yankees
Yes," with a crossed-out No sand-
wiched in between the two words,
and there are scores of items of
great merit to supplement them.
Theo. Gauss' Sons of Brooklyn are
his publishers but the many tens
of thousands of his admiring read-
ers will surely form the vast public
relations army that will publicize
his book.
Schwartz is an historian, and
be often philosophizes. It starts
off with a bit of philosophy in
his preface in which he advises
that every one should like his-
tory and if one likes the news-
paper he should like history,
"Perhaps if history were made
more palatable, if more of the
spice of human interest and the
raisins of anecdote were mixed
with the drier crust, more
would sit down at the table."
There is quite a mixture of the
palatable gems in Schwartz's book
-- about the first Americans and
the first immigrants, about the
pioneers who gave this country its
ideals and about the Jewish sages.
College professors will have as
much to learn from Schwartz's data
as will the average student, lay-
men, housewives, merchants — all
who enjoy a good story and at
the same time wish to learn history
and become acquainted with tra-
ditions.
In many respects, Schwartz's
book could be considered a Who's
Who of Great Americans. Nearly
every President from Washington
until those of our time are repre-
sented anecdotally. So are the
major events related to them.
And inter alia Schwartz also tells
about the French Revolution and
the American patriots, about the
Civil War and the South.
He stems from the South. He
was born there, his family moved
to Atlanta and he explains in an
autobiographical note: "We left
Atlanta about the time Margaret
Mitchell wrote 'Gone With the
Wind.' We left about the same time

PAYENU

as the wind. The city immediately
began to pick up. Atlanta has since
grown from 100,000 to a million
population. It goes to show how
little it takes to make a city grow."
He was at Camp Meade during
World War I and like his other
jobs, war service did not last long
— the war ended quickly, but he
does not blame his habit of not
holding jobs too long: "I think the
whole army was responsible for
that." How did he come to prepare
this book? He explains:
"I used to find that the foot-
n o t e s of books contained the
most interesting material. It oc-
curred to me if someone gath-
ered the footnotes and made a
book of them in larger type, it
would make an interesting work.
I think one reason why so many
writers put the oddities, the
items of unusual things in the
footnotes is that they are enter-
taining and there is a general
fear of entertaining things. If it
is entertaining, it is held, it can't
be significant or educational. I
take the contrary view!"
So we have in "Yankees Yes" the
oddities that entertain — and since
they also educate and inform, they
prove the point made by Columnist-
David Schwartz.
When he writes about Jackson-
ian democracy and reviews Jeffer-
son's ideas, contrasting many of his
facts with Jewish lore,- he intro:
duces history as well as folklore,
and turns footnotes into monu-
mental literary gems.
Here, for example, is a charming
literary-historical note about Henry
David Thoreau, appearing under
the heading "Thoreau Goes to
Jail":
"Polk (James K.) upon being
elected (President) said the
country wanted peace and sent
an army to Mexico.
"How much of a piece of Mex-
ico does the President want?"
asked a Whig congressman. Lin-
coln opposed the war and Thor-
eau stopped paying taxes, saying
he would not' pay taxes to a

government waging so wicked a
war. He was put in jail. Emer-
son visited him.
" 'Henry, why are you here?'
asked Emerson.
" 'Emerson, why aren't you
here?' replied Thoreau.
"Thoreau's fine was paid by
friends. In his essay on "Civil
Disobedience," Thor e a u ex-
plained his philosophy of going
to jail to obtain freedom. 'Cast
your whole vote, not a strip of
paper merely but your whole
influence.'`'-ItThoreau's ideas of
`civil disobedience' were taken
over by Ghandi and used suc-
cessfully in winning the inde-
pendence of India. Thor eau
coined a new beatitude: 'Blessed
are the children for they do not
have to read the President's
messages.' "
Would these views today be con-
sidered heresy -- or even lacking
in patriotism? But Thoreau is an
acknowledged great f i g u r e in
American literature and if he en-
couraged criticism he made a con-
tribution to true American ideas
by speaking as he felt -- with a
Passion for freedom. Such are some
of the oddities in Schwartz's col-
lection, so well written, gathered
pragmatically, providing entertain-
ment, assuring knowledge of his-
toric events.
Even Cassius Clay is remem--
bered anecdotally in this collection
of small essays. Bull Run and the
White House, religious giants and
musical geniuses, investors and
shlemihls, the great journalistic
pioneers who created the major
newspapers in this country, war
and peace, the League of Nations
and Israel, the KKK and civil
rights — there is a panorama of
events, people, nations, patriots,
artists — all conceivable items —
all in a single book, well done, the
result of a life's labors.
Those who read David Schwartz
in The Jewish News will crave for
his book — and having read it they
will cherish it and will turn to his
columns with added admiration.

Named for Actor illikhoels

LONDON (JTA) — A special
room named after the late Solomon
Mikhoels, the famous Russian-Jew-
ish actor assassinated during the
Stalin purges of Soviet Jewish in-
tellectuals, has been established in
the local museum of Dvinsk, in the
Latvian Soviet Republic, according
to a dispatch from the USSR.
Mikhoels, who was born in
Dvinsk, had been head of the Jew-
ish State Theater in Moscow when
he was murdered by secret agents
of the Stalin regime. He was also
at the time chairman of the Jew-
ish Anti-Fascist Committee of the
USSR.

he had worn w h i l e performing
"King Lear." His acting in that
part, it was widely held, had been
one of the finest interpretations of
the breat Shakespearean role.

A
Happy

New Year

to My
Customers
and
Friends

In the Mikhoels Room at the
Dvinsk Museum, the dispatch re-
ported, are now shown various
memorabilia associated with Mik-
hoels' artistic work. Among these,
the report stated, are the -costumes

ISAUL BERCH

AT

Packer Pontiac

When a diplomat says yes he
means perhaps; when he says per-
haps he means no; when he says
no he is no diplomat. —Anonymous

18650 LIVERNOIS

1 black South of 7
U N 3-9300

AM,

Best Wishes For

A Happy, Healt y
New Y ear

ntire Community

man J. Agins Family

and

Eugene N. Agins Family

I Lift My Eyes

Psalm 121

I will lift up mine eyes unto the
mountains:
From whence shall my help
come?
My help cometh from the Lord,
Who made heaven- and earth.
He that keepth thee will not
slumb er.
Behold, He that keepeth Israel
Doth neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord shall guard thy going
out and thy coming in,
From this time forth and ever-
more.

5727

BY HENRY LEONARD

WHY RABBIS GET GREY AT THE TEMPLES:

•

1966

Best Wishes

To The Jewish Community

'TEMPLE.

For A Year of

Niew Year
Services

Health and Happiness

ANN 0 UN arvorrs

Schedule

1.1

)

t,I

%

Its.t•

Alett li tA t •14

Yarn Kipfur

Copr. 1966;

I)t lVT11

"And I just want to wish you folks a Merry
Yom Kippur and a Happy New Year."

4:.1.

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A , • • •

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