Italian-Jewish Banker Gicomo Alatri, a 19th Century Italian-Jewish financier and bank- er, was one of the first presidents of the Bank of Rome: Days Remembered A Page From My Notebook By NATHAN ZIPRIN THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 46—Friday, September 16, 1966 thin on Glatstein himself, but in ■ those days- it was a daring inno- _ Holiday Greetings vation, a path larded with traps for all but the genuinely _gifted. SKY DIRT However, the gift that Glatstein brought to Yiddish poetry is not SOIL For Every Need introspectiveness, b u t incompar- able talent, combining audacious 15450 Schaefer, N. of Fenkell artistic sweep with savor of Jew- yE 7-9380 ish wisdom. ■ ■ ■ Glatstein has a sweeping theme, and there is no emotion he can- not limn. He has a remarkable Greetings and Best Wishes facility for subtlety and most elu- SPICK CLEANERS sive of nuances. He combines wis- dom with satire, depth with beauty, & FURRIERS wrath with balance. The canvas Specializing in All Alterations on which he paints is limitless in on Ladies', Men's and Children's Clothing a way, for no theme is alien to his fertile mind. But his colors 24813 Greenfield EL 7-1141 r. are at their most wrathful best when he lamentizes Jewish des- tiny. Jewish deterioration, Jewish pathlessness. He feels Jewish hurt New Year Greetings JACOB GLATSTEIN with painful sensitivity, so much so that he even bids the world a diance as they sought respite after long sessions with questions and symbolic "good night" in one of his poems, counselling Jewish .re- 800 W. McNichols, corner 3rd problems that were to judge their turn td looks and niches and ghet- Prescriptions Promptly Delivered competence for admission to the toes where there is no badgering, sanctum of learning they just left no sullying of values, no admixing. UN 1-8178 behind. Some trekked deliberately, His metaphors are striking, his _ like the pious on holy purpose. Others hastily, as if driven by fear. tanmage vigorous and his sweep Ioverpowering. And some strolled pensively. Glatstein now has mellowed a Happy New Year "Are you Glatstein?" I asked good deal. But his artistry has a pair of baffled eyes, and the neither diminished nor faded. It Rocky's Restaurant answer was a bewildered yes. is as fresh as on the day when & Pizzeria We had been total strangers, he composed his incredibly fanci- never having met before, but I ful poem "Tzella Tzeldi" and as 10517 W. 7 Mile Rd. at Mendota was completely certain as I refreshing as the probable early Closed Tuesday UN 4-8553 tapped his shoulder that here morning hour when he penned was the young poet whose golden what is one of the greatest poems pen was etching a revolution in of all time—"Sesame." ■0■ ■ ■ ■•■■ ■ Yiddish poetry and whose lin- guistic spears were piercing the Happy New Year to Our e New Year Greetings sacrosanct in semantics, medium Friends and Patrons. to Our Friends and Patrons and theme. Ray's Bridal Salon i Yiddish creativity in America KIEHLER Gowns for All Occasions was at the time still welded to shtetl, to the native lands, Russia, PHARMACY I 10909 Grand River WE 3-4636 Poland, Rumania, Austria and i 1530 Woodward WO 5-0922 18018 James Couzens other centers of Jewish congrega- 342-2233 tion. The Yiddish novelists had not yet discovered America and the poets most often were chained to HAPPY NEW YEAR Holiday Good Wishes a lyricism whose charm lay in evoking distant remembrances. The MR. and MRS. Day's Fashion Shop local landscape had not yet suf- Latest Apparel— SAM KLETTER ficiently impressed itself on the For a Happy Day Shop at Day's creative artist as a ripe theme for Mr. and Mrs. David Silver and FAMILY poetry or literary prose. In time, 9450 Jos. Campau 19730 Chesterfield of course, Yiddish was to absorb Hamtramck 12, Mich. Detroit, Michigan 48221 the aroma of the American soil ■ ■ and to produce outstanding works L ■ ■ deriving from the new climate. One example that comes readily NEW YEAR GREETINGS to mind is J. J: Schwartz's "Ken- • Best Wishes for a tucky," a piece of genuine Amer- Happy New Year icana comparable to any that has Leo Xniglit been penned by native poets. PHOTOGRAPHY DAVIS IRON The "Old Country" was still • Weddings • Bar Mitzvahs beckoning many of the Yiddish • Movies • Portraits WORKS; Inc. writers in those days. The Ameri- 17590 WYOMING, UN 1-7018 can climate, they felt, was not conducive to literary creativity and the Jewish immigrant was too Best Wishes for a Happy New Year busy adjusting himself to his new surroundings to pay attention to . To All Our Friends and Patrons scribes and elegant penmen. The tradition of reading was the first of the luggage to be discarded by WHOLESALE GROCERS the new immigrants, and the poets Serving Restaurants, Hospitals and Institutions and artists were craving for the VINIMOMINI•041111M M11 Editor, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate Hundreds of students milled on the college campus as. my vision New Year Greetings rested on a young man who ap- peared dreaming with eyes open to the sky. INTERIOR DECORATORS There was a gazelle-like quick- Draperies—Furniture ness to his countenance, contrast- Re-Upholstering—Slip Covers ing sharply with his firm gait, 3143 W. McNichols Road and a distinctiveness one impul- UN 1-7100 sively associates with the creative. It happened on a bright summer "="Za•"=-='="z7 day almost five decades ago, and the site was the campus of the Greetings on New Year's College- of the City of New York atop a hill whose western wing CURTIS DRUGS sloped gently . downward toward 18201 the corner Hudson River. The doors of Curtis Wyoming, )1 . the main college building, a gothic WE DELIVER edifice silent with splendor, had DI 1-2450 opened widely, thrusting out an L array of students hungry for ra- COBURN STUDIO . I AM•0 4111111•01111M. 0 MITCHELL. SYRUP & PRESERVE CO. Detroit 1951 E. Ferry WA 1-0800 Holiday Greetings MOTOR CITY TRANSIT MIX, Inc. READY MIXED CONCRETE 444-1290- 21420 W. 8 Mile Rd. MINE1•04••• 4■ 41.M.041M11.0.41•11,0 ■ 1•0 ■ 11•0•11 ■ 04 ■ 04.••••0 ■•■■ 0.11 ■0■ 11.1•0 411M1.0 411M1.0.111111.0. ■ 0 AMD.0 ■1•1■0■ 111•41 OMI•0 ■0■0■•; - RAYMOND, HAROLD, LESTER GREENSPAN NOR-LES SALES 3915 "A" Street, Detroit, Mich. 41.1M0 ONIMP.111111i0.1 ■ 0.11/11•04••••04 ■ 041 ■ 0•11 ■ 0.011MI 0.011i 0• ■ ••4 0•11.3.0 0 ■ •• ■ •011=1•4011111111•1.0•0 ■ •11.1• ■ •0 ■ 111.0.01•0.04111.0411M I We Wish Our Friends and Customers A Year of Health, Happiness and Simchas MR. & MRS. SAMUEL HERSKOVIC & SONS OAK MANOR KOSHER CATERERS 863-2446 8900 W. 7 Mile Rd. Happy New Year OPTICAL CENTER JO 4-6313 160 Vesper 11111•0•11•01.0 11.0 11.00.1•14.4•111• 04•11•111.401Mb SHARE PHARMACY Happy Holiday To All New Year Greetings 041=1•41 ∎04111111•0411111. 0 ∎0 1M 1•0 •11•111.0 •1 O•11 0 4 01=1111•04M1.0•1•1110.011•11•11.0411 1.1 0411MIWO •••1•140 0i.O.1•11 00•••41.11 0• –1 •01••••0.1•10, 0 GEORGE MIESEL & SON FROM THE PACKER FAMILY TO YOURS OUR BEST WISHES FOR A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR niches where there was sviva, cli- mate, atmosphere. But amidst all this there was awareness among the creative in the Yiddish tongue that here was the- new center of Jewish creativeness, of Jewish growth. As more and more literary greats began swarming to our shores, there was mounting reali• zation that anchoring to new soil implied new paths, new visions, new horizons, if the Yiddish me- dium was to bear fruit. . When Jacob Glatstein arrived from Poland as a young man— almost a boy—he fell into a stream of literary debate that was current at the time in a hopeful America. The new cen- tury—or so it was thought—was beginning to find itself, and the artists were asserting themselves with a bold and abundant ar- ticulateness. America then ap- peared to be seething more with literary debate than political discussion., It was against this background that Glatstein was emerging as a poet and initiator of a new school in Yiddish poetry and prose as, well. Introspectivism today has worn TA 5-7990 6000 BUCHANAN i Happy New Year MICHIGAN INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY, INC. Louis Dalitz 9350 Roselawn WE 3-1850 Holiday Greetings to Our Friends and Patrom TOPINKA'S COUNTRY HOUSE W. Seven Mile & Telegraph KE 1-9000 TOPINKA'S Across from the Fisher Theater TR 5-2614 II