WalgaWAAILIS.:301'
Emma Goldman's Life Story Recalls
Dr. Zhitlovsky's Attempt to Enlist
Her Interest in Jewish Activities
American Jewish history is re-
plete with episodes relating to
every conceivable movement. The
labor ranks have been filled with
Jews. There have been Jews in
Communist ranks and there still
is a small daily Communist Yid-
dish newspaper. There have been.
and undoubtedly still are, Jev,s
who are anarchists and the Yid-
dish anarchist paper, Freie Ar-
beiter Stimme, recently cele-
brated its 70th anniversary.
The most interesting and most
active anarchist was Emma Gold-
man, and her two-volume autobi-
ography. "Living My Life,'' re-
tains great • interest. It provides
first-hand information regarding
the exciting times during which
she advocated and lived her views
on New York's East Side. Her
life story is the hisory of a period
in anarchism during which many
prominent persons figured in
American history.
Republished as two paperbacks
by Dover Publications. the two-
volume Emma Goldman story
serves to recall the activities of
her closest associate, Alexander
Berkman: the activities of Russian
anarchists and the events that
marked the exciting times when
views like hers were intolerable.
There are frequent references
in her story to her Jewish back-
ground, her knowledge of Yid-
dish, her arrests. She tells
about her year's sentence to
Blackwell's Island Penitentiary,
where she was ordered to go to
church because religious observ-
ance was compulsory. When she
asked if there was a synagogue,
she was told that as a single
Jewish prisoner they could not
provide her with the synagogue
services.
The Yiddish anarchists are de-
scribed, there is frequent refer-
ence to S. Yanofsky, editor of
Freie Arbeiter Stimme and the
events in Russia are given con-
siderable attention.
In respect to Communist Rus-
sia—Emma Goldman had gone
there and was not pleased—her
comment was: "I had come to
realize that with all the Bolshevik
mania for power they could never
have so completely terrorized the
Russian people if it were not in-
herent in mass psychology to be
easily swayed. I was also con-
vinced that the conception of revo-
lution in our own ranks was too
romantic, and that miracles can-
--
not be expected even after capital-
ism shall have been abolished and
the bourgeoisie eliminated . . ."
Of special interest in her auto-
biography is the description of
literary and other activities on the
East Side, the role of Ab Cahan
of the Forward and of other Jew-
ish notables. She relates:
"Among my many visitors
were M. Katz and Chaim Zhit-
lovsky. Katz held a special place
in my affections: he and Solo-
taroff had been my most faith-
ful friends during my ostracism
following the feud with Most
and later again at the time of
the McKinley hysteria. In fact,
I had been thrown together with
dear Katz much more than with
Solotaroff, both in our work and
in more intimate social gather-
ings.
"Zhitlovsky had come to Am-
erica with Babushka. A So-
cialist Revolutionist, he was also
an ardent Judaist. He never
tired urging upon me that as a
Jewish daughter I should devote
myself to the cause of the Jews.
I would say to him that I had
been told the same thing be-
fore. A young scientist I had met
in Chicago. a friend of Max Ba-
ginski, had pleaded with me to
take up the Jewish cause. I re-
peated to Zhitlovsky what I had
related to the other: that at the
age of eight I used to dream of
becoming a Judith and visioned
myself in the act of cutting off
Holofernes' head to avenge the
wrongs of my people. But since
I had become aware that social
injustice is not confined to my
own race, I had decided that
there were too many heads for
one Judith to cut off."
Several references are made in
Emma Goldman's story to a for-
mer Detroiter, the late Jacob Mar-
' golis.
Describing the emergence of
anti-alien laws, she states that
they had "almost destroyed the
Yiddish anarchist movement, as
everyone active in the East Side
feared expulsion at any time."
She went to France, where she
took up residence in her later years
and wrote her life's story there—
a story of conflicts. advocacy of
violence, endorsement of free love.
She met many of the world's great
personalities who pass in review
in the pages of this most interest-
ing autobiography, that forms an
important sociological chapter in
the history of radicalism.
Yarmulkas for GIs in Vietnam
Judith Lamm blocks knitted yarmulkas for Jewish servicemen
in Vietnam on the head of her teacher, Rabbi Tzvi Marks, at the
Salanter-Akiba-Riverdale Academy in Riverdale, N.Y. The Jewish
Welfare Board women's organizations' services launched this project
in response to requests from young military men for knitted yar-
mulkas. The yarmulkas, embroidered with peace signs and designs
of Jewish ceremonial symbols, are handmade by Judith and other
girls in the academy's graduating class.
48—Friday, August 20, 1971
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
An Eminent Israeli Personality
Gen. Yitzhak `Talke' Arad Lithuanian
Partisan, Directs Zahal Education
By MOSHE RON
Jewish News Special
Israel Correspondent
TEL AVIV—Yitzhak Arad, who
is known by the nickname "Talke,"
was born in Lithuania 45 years
ago. He speaks fluent Yiddish, at-
tended Hebrew school "Yawne" in
his youth in Lithuania, afterward
went to Poland where he studied
in a religious seminary "Tahke-
moni," in Warsaw.
When the Second World War
broke out, he fled as a boy of 13
from Warsaw back to Lithuania.
His parents remained in the Polish
capital and were murdered by the
Nazis.
In 1941, the Nazis invaded
Lithuania and murdered many
thousands of Jews. Yitzhak was
captured by the Nazis and was
ordered to transfer captured Rus-
ssian arms to German military
camps. In the course of this work,
he organized a Jewish partisan
group which concealed part of the
weapons.
In 1943, Yitzhak fled with
some of his comrades to the
woods and joined a group of
Russian partisans. The partisans
started sabotage actions against
the Nazis. They succeeded in
blowing up not less than 16 Ger-
man trains, full of soldiers and
arms.
In 1944, Yitzhak joined the Red
Army and fought the Germans
until their final defeat. As a Zion-
ist he left Russia in May 1945,
for Poland, in order to be able
to meet emissaries from Eretz
Israel, who were dealing with
illegal immigration to Palestine.
With difficulty, he succeeded in
reaching the Holy Land, and there
joined the Jewish Brigade. He
brought in a group of illegal im-
migrants on the ship "Hannah
Szenesz" (named in honor of the
fighter pilots, using Czech planes.
But as his eyesight deteriorated,
he was no longer used as a pilot
in the Israeli air force. He took
part in the military action "Nah-
shon" as an officer commanding
a sabotage unit. His chief com-
mander was Gen. Chaim Laskow,
who was later appointed chief-of-
staff of the Israeli army. During
the "Nahshon" action, Israeli
forces broke their way through
Hulda to besieged Jerusalem. The
breakthrough was achieved by
the famous Palmach battalion,
"Harel."
Arad took part in the fighting
in Jerusalem, Ramat Rachel,
Sheich Garash, Mount Scopus, in
the breakthrough into the Old
City and in Bab El-Wad, . on the
road to Jerusalem, under the com-
mand of the former chief-of-staff
of the Six-Day War, Gen. Itzhak
Rabin. Afterwards, he was nomi-
YITZHAK ARAD
nated commander of the 9th
Battalion.
Jewish heroic partisan from a
In 1956, during the Sinai Cam-
kibutz who volunteered during paign, he was commander - of the
World War II to parachute into tank units under the leadership of
Nazi-occupied Hungary, and was today's chief-of-staff, Gen. Chaim
caught by the Nazis and executed). Bar-Lev and his deputy, Gen.
When he arrived in Palestine he David Eleazar.
joined Kibutz Yagur near Haifa.
For three years Yitzhak Arad
In 1946 he enlisted in the Pal- served as chief of the instruction
mach as a pilot. He passed a spe- department in the general staff.
cial flying course in Kibutz Noan. Afterwards, he studied at the He-
He obtained a pilot's license from brew University in Jerusalem and
the British authorities. Then he graduated with a B.A. in history
was active as an instructof of and political science. He also grad-
Palmach officers in the kibutz uated as an M.A., after doing ex-
settlernents—Ashdot and Afikim. tensive research work on problems
In 1947, when fighting broke of the Holocaust.
In the Six DayWar, Arad took
out with the Arabs, Arad flew
missions to the cut-off kibutzim active part in preparing the plans
in the Etzion area.. Ile also of the campaign in the general
staff. Since 1968, he serves as the
brought relief to the Jewish
fighters who had been trapped most senior education officer in
by the Arabs in Nebi Daniel. the Israeli Army. He is married
Later he worked as an instruc- and has three children. One son
for in the first course of Israeli is already serving in Zahal.
Davidson's 'smith's Gazelle,ia Superb Fantasy
"Smith's Gazelle" by Lionel Da-
vidson (published by Knopf) is a
fantasy. It is the story of gazelles
which were disappearing — only
six were left; then they dwindled
to four—and an Arab shepherd
who had just committed several
murders managed to get the last
one, a pregnant gazelle which
gave birth to a male and a female.
He began to breed them in a
ravine on the Israel-Syrian border,
just before the Six-Day War. He
was unnoticed until he was joined
by a young Bedouin who was in
search of his father—murdered by
the Arab escapee Hamud—and by
a young Israeli boy who dreamt of
finding what became known as
Smith's Gazelle.
It's as simple as that, yet it is
much more extensive both as fan-
tasy and as a lesson in Arab-
Jewish relations and in Israel's
desire to prevent the destruction
of the species.
Young Jonathan ventured into
the ravine together with Mussalem,
and Hamud welcomed them. They
helped him and they kept his
secret as they made frequent visits
into the ravine.
The two gazelles had multi-
plied to hundreds when Hamud
finally was discovered by the
Israelis, who had begun to give
credence to Jonathan's story.
Hamud's figure was that in 10
years the gazelles would increase
to 16,740,000 and then — would
they take over the land which
was engaged in a battle between
two familiar peoples?
When Hamud was discovered
and an effort was made to preserve
some of the gazelles in Israeli
zoos, they fled and there was dif-
ficulty in retaining many. The
imaginative theme thus grew in
dimension and with Hamud's death
and Jonathan's indifference, the
tale ended as a charming story.
But in the process there are in-
teresting developments — of the
brutal Hamud who suddenly be-
came an impassioned preserver
of the gazelles during eight years
in the ravine, where he grew prod-
ucts for himself and his animals;
of a Bedouin boy and an Israeli
lad who became fast friends and
swore to secrecy in brotherhood
the discovery they had made in
the ravine; of the kibutz nearby
whence Jonathan came, Kibutz
Gei-Harim—of the ravine—and life
there.
Of considerable importance in
this novel is the aspect of archae-
ology as well as the Arab-Israeli
youths' friendship and the passion-
ate desire of an Israeli general to
preserve the gazelles. (In his re- .
view of the book in Life, the Israe-
li Knesset member Uri Avnery --
suggested that General Mor in this -
story is modeled after the victor-
of the Sinai in the Six-Day War,
Gen. Avraham Yoffe.)
"Smith's Gazelle" is a well writ-
ten story and will surely be listed- -
among Lionel Davidson's best
novels. As fantasy it is superb.
—P.S.
,
ITS A FACT
There are 15,000
Jerusalem families
receiving public assistance---
with over 70% living
under thepovert
level of $25.41
per person
per month.'
Educational television is
now in use in over
one thousand Israeli schocls.