THE INTROIT JEWISH NEWS
48—Friday, December 22, 1967
Israel's Trade Gap Narrows; Prices Hold
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel's merchants did not raise prices on
trade gap has narrowed appreci- imported goods in stock.
ably while prices, in the wake of
Israel's trade gap for the period
the devaluation of the pound, rose January to Nov ember 1967
by .5 per cent in November ac- amounted to $201,000,000 COM-
cording to a report Monday by the pared to $314,000,000 excess of
Central Bureau of Statistics. The imports over exports in the same
price rise on imported goods has period last year. In 1967, exports
been absorbed by some importers, increased by $30,000,000 and im-
the announcement said, and local ports declined by $83,000,000 as a
result of the government's "go
slow" economic policy, the bu-
Hanuka Greetings
reaus announcement said.
Bagel Restaurant
& Caterers
Hanuka Gift Airlift
Woodward and Vernor
Detroit
WO 1-3017
___.......,..._,—..._....,
Best Wishes for a Happy
Hanuka To Our Customers
and Friends
ABSO-CLEAN
CHEMICAL CO.
17325 LAMONT
FO 6-3820 — FO 6-3821
NEW YORK — A Hanuka airlift
will bring toys and educational
supplies to the children of Israel
from American children traveling
on a National Council of Jewish
Women tour this week.
Mrs. Melvin Stich of Brooklyn,
chairman of NCJW's national over-
seas committee, announced that
the "child to child airlift" will in-
crease the bonds between the chil-
dren of the two countries and
make sure that these NCJW toys
reach Israel in time for the Han-
uka festival.
Hanuka Greetings
Happy Hanuka
ALLIED
CYCLE CO.
11844 Grand River
BEDROOMS, Inc.
Detroit's Only Exclusive
Bedroom Store
5802 E. 8 Mile
WE 3-4050
TW 1 - 1720
next to Sofas. Inc.
-----,-
Holiday Greetings to Our Patrons and Friends
VINCENZO'S RESTAURANT
Luncheons — Dinners — Cocktails
18211 John R
TA 9-5674
Free Parking
Holiday Greetings
BERMAN'S CHOP HOUSE
1431 TIMES SQUARE
Ben Gottloeb and Sam Davis
Holiday Greetings
BERRY & SEYBURN
Property Management
28th Floor, Fisher Bldg., 48202
871-6700
Happy Hanuka — Shalom Aleichem
CADIEUX APPLIANCE SERVICE
863-8424
15349 WyomiNg
Holiday Greetings
AL COOK'S GULF SERVICE
8939 W. 7 Mile Rd. at Wyoming
861-5161
Holiday Good Wishes
DEARBORN BEER DISTRIBUTORS
Carling's Block Lobel Beer —
Red Cop Ale — O'Keefe Beer and Ale
6031 JOY ROAD
Detroit, Michigan 48204
TE 4-7170
4
Jewish Literary Values Diagnosed, Author's
Jewishness Analyzed in 'Bellow and Critics'
That an entire book should be
devoted to a discussion of an author
and the reviewers of his books
is in itself a great tribute. That's
the case with "Saul Bellow and
the Critics , " edited by Irving
Malin, participated in by eminent
authors, published by New York
University Press (32 Washington
Pl., NY3).
"Herzog" gets a lot of attention
and so do other Bellow novels.
Eminent critics who diagnose
Bellow's works include Maxwell
Geismar, LeSlie A. Fiedler, J. C.
Levenson, Marcus Klein, Daniel
Hughes, Richard Chase, Ralph
Freedman, Forrest Read, John W.
Aldridge, Daniel Weiss, Earl Rovit
and the editor of the book, Irving
Malin.
Adding to the importance of
the discussions of modern liter-
ary values is the concluding es-
say, by Bellow himself, on the
topic "Where Do We Go From
Here: The Future of Fiction."
He warns about deciding "that
any art is dead" when the future
of the novel is concerned. "The
novel," he declares, "to recover
and to flourish, requires new
ideas about human kind ... They
must be discovered and not in-
vented. We must see them in
flesh and blood .. ."
The Jewish characters in Bel-
low's writings are under scrutiny
and especially interesting in the
analyses in "Saul Bellow and the
Critics" are those of Leslie A.
Fiedler and Maxwell Geismar.
Fiedler states that "Bellow's own
story is like the Archetypal Jew-
ish dream a success story .. . for
he emerges at the moment when
the Jews for the first time move
into the center of American cul-
ture, and he must be seen in the
larger context . . ." In this con-
text he sees "the need of the Jew
in America to make clear his re-
lationship to that country in terms
of belonging or protest—and a
language: a speech enriched by the
dialectic and joyful intellectual
play of Jewish conversation."
Fiedler believes that "the Jew
is in the process of being mythic-
ized into the representative
America" and he states: "It is
to Bellow's credit that he has
at once accepted the full chal-
lenge implicit in the identifica-
tion of Jew with America, and
yet has not succumbed to the
temptation; that he has been
willing to accept the burden of
success without which he might
have been cut off from the cen-
tral subject of his time; and that
he has accomplished this with-
out essential compromise."
Like Fiedler, Geismar comments
on Bellow's treatment of the Jew-
anti-Semite theme. He devotes him-
self to analysis of Asa Leventhal
in Bellow's "The Victims:" of All-
bee who lost his job through Leven-
thal's fit of anger and who has
"a morbid curiosity about the Jews
which he is at no pains to con-
ceal" and who "taunts Leventhal
whom he is slowly destroying."
Geismar deals with "the spiritual
agony in The Victim" and the
enemies involved, giving Leventhal
"pain to think about his father's
sense of these things," and he con-
tinues with this illustrative com-
ment:
"Ruf mfr Yoshke, ruf mir
Moshwe, Aber gib mir die gro-
schke"
"His father had cried—`Call
me rimy, call me Moe, but give
me the dough.' No wonder the son
had rejected and recoiled from
his father's vision of tyings, just
as he had repudiated, as Bellow
himself does, the whole ethic of
American success, power and
money: the fear of lagging, the
Happy Hanuka To Our Friends and Patrons
Hanuka Greetings
DELITE CLEANERS and LAUNDRY
BLUESTEIN BROS.
IRVING WEISS AND FAMILY
UN 4-8722
12931 W. Seven Mile Rd.
UN 1-3024
10006 W. Seven Mile Rd.
Dealers in Scrap Materials
dark climate within. Yet the
father's generation had had its
own form of defense, if only
through hatred, arrogance and
cunning, against the evil world,
and those 'imaginary' enemies
who were often actual enough."
Viewing Allbee as more Jewish
than Leventhal himself, Geismar
says Allbee "taunts this sweating
hero with perverted references to
Jewish folklore and history that
Leventhal is ignorant of; he is al-
most the symbol of the cultural
heritage that the Bellow spokesman
has cast aside unconsciously, and
that now returns to strangle him
in twisted and evil form."
Geismar makes another interest-
ing observation: "Is New York a
'Jewish' city in his (Leventhal's)
fevered imagination? But then it
is a city in which, like olden Babel,
no man can any longer speak to
or understand another. And in-
deed the whole 'Jewish' concept
in this hero (and in the author?)
is so close to paranoia and mad-
ness, so fraught with guilt, anxiety
and fear, so lacking in warmth,
humor and joy, that it is no longer,
in the historic sense, Jewish. There
is all the Jewish guilt without the
Jewish pride, there is all the agony
of life but no enjoyment, there
is the heavy vestigial morality with
none of the deep or wild human
impulses which necessitated this
morality."
We owe to Geismar's interesting
analysis of Bellow's work also this
most valuable observation:
"Just as Bellow himself has
always stressed the narrowest
part of the Orthodox Jewish reli-
gious tradition—rather than the
flowering of secular Jewish cul-
ture and art in the New World
—so, too, all his heroes continue
to be ashamed of and to repudi-
ate their true religious heritage.
Judaism in Bellow's work is a
source of nostalgia, but also of
guilt and anxiety rather than of
pride and pleasure. It is a con-
structive and disturbing, rather
than an enlarging and emancipat-
ing force."
Geismar also states: "There is
something in Bellow's accent that
may remind us of the innocent and
childlike spirit of a Stephen Crane,
consumed as the earlier writer was
also by the flames of his own oedi-
pal and religious conflict. If I have
already made the comparison with
another Jewish writer in the popu-
lar field, it should be clear, too,
that Saul Bellow is genuinely con-
cerned with, and even oppressed
by, the moral values of his heritage
—that he suffers from them—while
Herman Wouk has cashed in on
them."
Here is a volume that is devoted
to Bellow, yet is a valuable collec-
tive commentary by noted critics
on modern literature in general,
with emphasis in some respects on
the Jewishness of Bellow and his
heroes. "Saul Bellow and the
Critics" is a most impressive and
valuable collection of essays, ably
edited by Malin.
The earliest dam ever built was
the Sadd el-Kafara, seven miles
southwest of Helwan, UAR. It was
built in the period 2950 to 2750
BCE and had a length of 348 feet.
Happy Hanuka to Our
Friends and Patrons
CONTINENTAL
HAIR FASHIONS
19191 Livemois
UN 1-9100
A Happy Hanuka
Season's Greetings
CHRISALLE
HAIR FASHIONS
KAY DANZER
Specialists in Hair Tinting
FLORIST
Flowers - Gifts
Shops in
17190 Livernois
862-2337 — 862-2338
Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel
Stiller Hotel
600000000300000000000051
WOodward 1-1992
Happy Hanuka
SAUL KATZ CONSTRUCTION CO.
625 Lafayette Bldg.
Happy Hanuka
HIGHLAND BOLT & NUT CO.
64 Victor Ave., Highland Park
TO 9-5588
Sincerest Hanuka Greetings
HOA KOW INN
Chinese and American Restaurant
Specializing in Contonese Foods
13715 West 9 Mile, West of Coolidge, Oak Park
LI 7-4663
Happy Holiday Greetings
GREENE'S HAMBURGERS
Spceiolizing in Corry-Out Service — Open 24 Hours
13545 W. 7 MILE, corner Schaefer
10001 W. McNICHOLS
24155 ORCHARD LAKE RD.
DI 1-4717
UN 1-0188
GR 4-7980
A Very Healthy and Happy Hanuka
to the Jewish Community
3195 BELLEVUE
FIELD'S EMPLOYMENT
WA 2-2720
TR 3-7770