Purely Commentary
'be Sins of Parents . . . The Protest of Children
.:/(- -.eat cartoonist Cra:k111;_
1111 13111111aa-
..: :10/. portrayec a youngster facing nisi reclining
tnt query
Wrier. art you goin; tr VLSI: yoar sin: door me"'
win nad followed the U e 113 ff:‘ over tat auopuor.
:,a sign: Saying plat for Meznigaz. a part of the
.-!ra: decision. wil: re aL tria: opt of tat arguments
.ttna:;vec2 agains: this state s concurrence with tit nationa:
:hat of the mothers. they irrtectec Lc more
wnict. wouit impost •Jpoi ten mure time with
modern. chimrer.
'::rent: and examples tc indicate tnt difference
rsarents and cmiaren ant LI• conflicts hetweer.
couic Jt quoted ad nauseam. Reco,gnitior. of
•
1 •
I.:ICI (37 11 rcah r
f'ernaps this conflict*
-
:actor
:amity relations it our time Yet that
-c miss: caution: us tc realize tna: clifferences be-
generations art mevitabit results of cnangin; times
anc ui differin; view: uetweer youn and oic anc that
two or no: deion; tc out era -but to aL
tnousno court tc, mind upor. reading -Fathers
iv Hefner Gott Random. House and more especial*
afLe• accoun: "Letter to His Fattier' oy Frans
Eafka . Scnocker.
it "f athers' we find a difference. Natural *
. so' The
ogler Sam wnc came to this country as a youn; toy. was
al. ousiriess seeking tc oenefi: from the advantages pro-
valec n' the Americas, environment. The younger Herbert
tat author aisc nearing tnt name Gold. had other ideas.
otner aspirations Bu: while they conflicted there 15 nc
enmity or. a grant scale recorder ir. this splendid work
Herber: seems u glory
-
it. Sam "Fathers' is in essence a
work of anulation
it i evident throughou: the work that, .the Jewish
backgrounc of Berner: is no: oeniec It is clear that it is
a Jewish famil7, that t depicted it is not unusua: ir. oth -
time to read about Jew's': families. and ofter. novelists.
tiescrion4- themselves and their parents. it works that
are frequent* admitted tc of autoniograniaical. deride
their parents ridicule their background. treat their Jewish
heritage with natred. Such at attitude is no: to oe fotmd
in Goid - s "Fathers. " Yet there is something lacking.
San: wanted tc go to America as a young lad lie was
induced by the Rebbe—the matter was left to the Rebbe
—to wait until after his Bar Mitzva he did He came here.
1k faced Jeers from non-Jews. he lived through the Hitler
era with an indignation against the brutalities. That's as
far as it went Herber: grew up. There is mention by
the author of the time when he became 12. reached his •
13th birthday. approached /115 14th. not a word about the
Covenant!
The Jewish reader. presented with a fatally portrait
introduced to Jewish fathers (and also the mothers. Sam
remained married. Herbert divorced his wife—another
element it changes we have witnessed between genera-
tions' • must wonder: Sam did not stern from assimilation:
was 1: so easy for him completely to abandon the past
anc to 'become thoroughly assimilated—so much so that
ins son's Jewish education was completely abandoned"
Apparently this is possible: it is evident in the Gold
story
Yet. it is among the isolated cases. It could no:
possibb be the rule. or we would know it.
And so we have "Fathers" portraying the Golds—
the father who assumed this name because he was coming
to America and he viewed this land as one where one
literally bathes in gold—only to learn quickly that here.
as everywhere else, one not only does not immerse in
goit but has to sweat for it must meet tip with racketeers
if as Sam was in Cleveland. one has to conduct a gro-
cery and fruit store in competitions involving control by
gangsters , and must accept the difficulties and challenges
of numan existence.
"Fathers" is a splendidly written story, a fine por-
trays: of father-son -relationships. It is because it is so
wel. narrated, it has gotten more reviewer's space than
many a popular novel. In a sense, that notoriety amazes
us Yet. it is so. But when studying the parent-children's
pointers.. of far greater oissoificance in posing a challenge
u snanging times is Kafka's "Letter to His Father." Surely,
r. is much more stirring from a Jewish point of view.
'Letter to His Father — Brief an den Vater'
Franz Kafka's book is bilingual. It was written in
Novemiser 1919, was given (according to Max Brod) by
toe author to his mother for presentation to his father. He
had hoped to regain a relationship that was mutually lost
in tension and frustration. There is a publisher's note
appended to this volume which contains the Kafka letter
it its German original and the English translation by
Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins, stating:
"He (Frat=1 could not help seeing the gulf between
father and son as another moment in the universal predica-
ment depicted in so mach of his work. Probably realizing
the futility of her son's gesture, the mother did not deliver
the letter, but returned it to the author."
The original 4S-page, typewritten-by-himself script,
averaging 34 lines per page, had corrections in Kafka's own
handwriting. To the original the author added two and
a half handwritten pages. The German text in the Schocken-
published "Brief an den Vater" is presented in its totality.
The publisher's note, explaining names in the latter, states
that Kocka's three sisters, Ent, Valli and Ottla, perished
it the Nazi holocaust.
Portions of the Kafka letter are bitter. Almost at the
very outset Kafka unburdened himself as follows:
1 have never talked to you frankly: I have never come
to you when you were in the synagogue. never visited you
at Franzesbad. nor indeed ever shown any family feel-
nag I have never 'taken any interest in the business or
your other concerns; I left the factory on your hands and
walked off: I encouraged Ottla in her obstinacy. and never
lifted a linger for vou tnever even got you a theater
ticket), while I do everything for my friends. If you sum
Father-Son Conflicts as Told
and Jewish Challenges
by Kafka and Gold
us your judgment oS me the result you get is that, al
tnougn you hot': charge me with anything downright
improper 01" w- ickec with the exception perhaps of my
latest marriage plan: you do charge me with coldness,
estrangement and ingratitude. And. what is more. you
char-gc me with it in such a way as to make i seem no
fault. as though I might have been able, with something
lire a touching,' or. the steering wheel. to make everything
quite different while you aren't in the slightest to blame.
tiniest. it IV, for naving been too good to me."
This migre sound familiar in many sons-fathera efts.
especially Ir. relation to not having taken - any interest
the ousiness But there is much more to the story
Kafka wrote "As a father you have. beer, too strong for
me. particularly Rase my orothers died when, they were
smat and my sisters only came along much later. so that
I alone had to bear the brunt of it—and for that I was
such too weak " L domination. implied" Yet. here a more
of Kafka to father.
"It is also true that you hardly ever really gave me
a whipping. But the shouting. the way your face got red.
the hasty undoing of the braces and laying them ready
over the back of the chair. all that was almost worse for
me I: is as if someone is going to be hanged. If he really
is nari2est: then he is dead and it's all over. But if he is
to go, through al: the preliminaries to being hanged and
fit learns of his reprieve only when the noose is dangling
Defore his face. he may suffer from it all his life. Besides,
frorr., the many occasions or which I had. according to
your clearly expressed opinion: deserved a whipping but
was le: off a: the last moment by your grace. I again
accumulated only a huge sense of guilt. On every side I
was to blame I was in your debt."
It numerous ways. the Kafka letter raises questions:
how are parents to act" Is there need for a new pedagogy
Ir. family relations And what about the Jewish element
it, a family quarrel' Kafrfa touches upon that. He wrote
to nit father:
"I found as little escape from you in Judaism. Here
some measure of escape would have been thinkable in
principle. moreover. it would have been thinkable that
we might both have found each other in Judaism or that
we even migh: have begun from there in harmony. But
what son of Judaism was it that I got from you? In the
course of the years. I have taken roughly three different
attitudes to it.
"As a child I reproached myself, in accord with you.
for not going to the synagogue often enough. for not
fasting. and so on. I though: that in this way I was doing
a wrong not to myself but to you. and I was penetrated
by a sense of gull: . .
"Later. as a young man. I could not understand how.
witr the insignificant scrap of Judaism you yourself pos-
sessed. you could reproach me for not making an effort
for the sake of piety at least. as you put its to cling to a
similar. insignificant scrap It was indeed. as far as I could
see. a mere nothing, a joke—not even a joke. Four days
a year you went to the synagogue. where you were, to say
the least closer to the indifferent than to those who took
is seriously. patiently went through the prayers as a
formality, sometimes amazed me by being able to show me
in the prayer both: the passage that was being said at the
moment. 'and for the rest. so long as I was present in
the synagogue rand this was the main thing I was allowed
to hang about wherever I liked. And so I yawned and dozed
through the many hours (I don't think I was ever again
so bored. except later at dancing lessons) and did my
best to enjoy the few little bits of variety there were. as
for instance when the Ark of the Convenant was -opened.
which always reminded me of the shooting galleries where
a cupboard door would open in the same way whenever
one hi: a bull's eye: except that there something always
came out and here it was always just the same old dolls
without heads. Incidentally. it was also very frightening
for me there, not only. as goes without saying, because
of all the people who came into close contact with, but
also because you once mentioned in passing that I too
might, be called to the Tora. This was something I dreaded
for years. But otherwise I was not fundamentally dis-
turbed by my boredom, unless it was by the bar miteva,
but that demanded no more than some ridiculous memos=
izing. in other words,.it led to nothing but some ridiculous
passing of an examination . . . That's how it was in the
synagogue: at home it was. if possible, even poorer, being
confined to the first Seder. which more and more devel-
oped into a farce. with fits of hysterical laughter, ad-
mittedly under the influence of the growing children.
(Why did you have to give away to that influence? Because
you had brought it about) . .
"Still later. I did see it again diffe•eht15 and realized
why' it was possible for you to think that I in this respect
too I was malevolently betraying you. You really had
brought some traces of Judaism with you from the ghetto-
like village community, it was not much and it dwindled
a little more in the city and during your military service-
but still, the impression and the memories of your youth
did just about suffice for some sort of Jewish life, espe-
Cialb- since you did not need much help of that kind,
but came of robust stock and could personally scarcely be
shaken by religious scruples unless they were strongly
mixed with social scruples. At bottom the faith that ruled
your life consisted in your believing in the unconditional
rightness of the opinions of a certain class of Jewish
society . .. Even in this there was - still Judaism enough,
but it was too little to be handed on to the child; it all
dribbled away' while you were patting it on. In part, it was
youthful memories that could not be passed on to others;
in part. it was your dreaded personality. It was also
impossible to make a child. overacutely observant from
sheer nervousness. understand that the few flimsy ges-
tures you performed it the name of Judaism, and with an
indifference in keeping with their flimsiness. could have
any higher meaning. . ."
fineh is the challenge, and the indictment, of the
By Philip
Slomovitz
every eminent Cze•h-Jewish writer Franz Kafka (1883-
19'41) who was 36 when he wrote "Letter to His Father."
II.' qualified the above statements by declaring: "Had
mepnle % %s r o t u e
your Judaism been stronger,.yo.,tu Reexath
l d about
li ri- egst in Judaism, but because of his
lbois".1:iot ir iw i.';e:t7 Pienite
father's opposition to being a writer there must have
emerged that enmity; and on this score Kafka stated
in his letter: -.through my intervention Judaism be.
a yish
havnetrm
itin
ean
gst i.tonureins
..anie abhorrent to you, J rn eo
adaisbted
le;
they 'nauseated' you. This
that only that Judaism which you have shown me
ou beyond
sv
it ' there
t he in was
childhood was the right one, and
ays
nothing .
It was ille. maord-r in which the father treated Kafka's
!orations. his approach to marriage. the sneers
writ di
at his way of meeting a Jewish girl—these are part of
a son's indictment of his father. Franz anticipated a
rejoinder, even without his father seeing his letter. It
is through the rejoinder that he sought "new material to
the characterization of our relationship," a way to "reas-
,seiasr ieerus both a little and make our living and our dying
In the light of interminable father-son conflicts, in
view of the Jewish element in Kafka, the Letter is sign-
ificant. It provides means of studying relationships, rea-
sons for probing approaches to good family kinships, the
need for a new pedagogical approach to Jewish living, to
exemplary Jewish training. to the observances that should
command respect .rather than arouse the resentments and
create the indignities reflected in the Kafka Letter. That
document is well worth studying—and Jewish pedagogueS
should apply its lessons properly.
A Significant Statement by Robert Gordis
There is an important comment on the youth-elders
relationships in Dr. Robert Gordis' great work, "Judaism
in a Christian World" published by The Grand Hill. From
the chapter on "Intermarriage" we quote:
Emphasizing the welfare of the individual means
much more than giving statistics on intermarriage, the
higher number of divorces, or the low fertility rates of
intermarried couples. It means highlighting the injury
to their psychological health and to their moral stan-
dards which is invoked in forsaking their own people.
It means revealing the intellectual and spiritual im-
poverishment of their lives entailed by intermarriage,
which generally cuts them off from the Jewish heritage.
When the young people say to me, "Well. our parents
do not know Judaism themselves," the answer should
be, -All the more reason why you must explore it for
yourself before abandoning it."
Another observation may be added. It often hap-
pens that a youngster contemplating intermarriage says,
"I don't know why my parents are so disturbed. They
never gave me a Jewish education. They do not practice
the Jewish religion in the home. They were never the
least bit interested in Jewish culture and now they're
hysterical. They don't know why they object. They are
either hypocritical or prejudiced or both. They are
thoroughly unreasonable. I do not see why I should
give up something precious to me." The contention is
highly reasonable—but it fails to reckon with what lies
beyond reason. The response would be somewhat as
follows: "It is true your parents do not know what to
say to you. But behind their apparently irrational
attitude is something far deeper than logic. What is
involved here is one of the basic drives of human
nature, the dread of annihilation, the passionate desire
for immortality. Whether or not we believe in im-
mortality beyond the grave, we all know that we attain
to immortality in this world through our children. When
your parents contemplate the possibility of your marry- .
ing outside the fold. and reallYp that their grandchildren
. will no longer be Jews, it is the end as far as they
are concerned. If they sound hysterical, it is
because they are faced by the specter of their own
extinction. They cannot put their fear into words for
you. they are not even consciously aware of what impeli
them, but it is as deep as the instinct of sell-preserva-
tion. There lies the source of their agony."
Experience testifies that in several instances this
approach made an impression so sensitive young people,
who were made to realize that their parents were not
merely expressing some narrow prejudice or indulging
a dislike or contempt foe the alien. It suddenly became
ely ear
es r to them
e irhamk
that they literally held their Parents'
fiver
their
There is need for re-establishing the closeness between
parents and children, to re-affirm the family relationships
which have assumed proverbial dignity in the thinking of
our naet
neighbors. Butis often an aloofness that staggers
times
There is an example in an interpretation of Susan
Sontag and her "Notes on Camp" that attracted wide
attention. Wins Sontag was quoted in a recent article
as eommenting on her parents:
"They are nice enough, but for Jewish parents they
lack that Jewish warmth we all bear about. The fact
is, I am a little sad about our relationship. They seem to
regard me as something of an oddity, and my writing and
what you might call in,v present success leave them un-
moved and unresponsive. I s-uppose they find it's all very
n
a n
i ede..pbu ut
zzie s s vh ine
en .,, I think about it, their aloofness disturbs
Franz Kafka put it in much stronger language. He .
was bitter. He protted. He condemned, indicted, chal-
leng.ed his father. Both in their ways seem to be saying
that there is another way. Which means that while youth
is groping it also asks for understanding, for acceptance—
and when it seeks Jewish values it desires them on a high
level . Wleevsetould find a way of pr es enting them on the
highest
APHI 21, 1947
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS