Communal idmily, Future With j By MANDELL L. BERMAN President, Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit With the coming of a new year it is time for us to reflect on what we have done throughout this past year and what we hope to accomplish in the future. When we pause and consider our past and future plans, we realize the difficulty of drawing fast lines between previous per- formance and what we hope to accomplish. We see, in fact, that seemingly fulfilled goals usually must be adjusted furth- er in order to meet the com- munity's growing needs. We are a communal family working together. We are con- cerned with continuing to pro- vide a Jewish environment for ourselves and for those who succeed us.—We take pride to note not only what we have done together but also what we can still do for our own and our children's sake in the coming years. Let us take a look at some of the accomplishments that MANDELL L. BERMAN have become realities due to our cooperative efforts. The Jewish Community Center is Together, Wei „ Er L expanding its social programs to help meet the needs of all ages, from its parent-toddler program to its col- legiate drop-in evening activities to its senior citizens' clubs. The Fresh Air Society has pioneered a program for retarded children. A new camping unit for emotionally disturbed children will be fully operative next summer. These are in addition to the regular camping experience normally offered to thousands of Jewish youngsters each season. Resettlement Service is presently guiding numerous newly-arrived families through the complexities of a life unfamiliar to them. How many of us can still recall the years when our Jewish existence in other lands was op- pressed and threatened? Adjustment to America and to Detroit often required much time. This Federation agency continues to assist in the absorption of several recent immigrant Russian families. We thus see that at the New Year we not only think about new challenges. We also realize the necessity of maintaining our earlier accomplishments, the need for strengthening already created programs. Maintenance and firm support of programs for improving the quality of our lives is crucial. We note that although we have worked together to build Jewish Homes for Aged and Community Cen- ters, we must maintain and keep them vital with our energies and our resources. Although we have created the Jewish Vocational Service, we are continuously ex- es ear, Goals 1,, I 14.0 573- panding efforts to aid people who are in need of jobs or vocational rehabilitation, whether they be teen-agers or retirees. Already we have aided in the rescue and absorption of those multitudes of Jews who have claimed Israel as their homeland during the past twenty five wars, yet we must continue to support Israel as she strives to main- tain the freedom and dignity which she provides for her citizens. All of our accomplishments are ours as a community, unified in its concern for Jews here at home and around the world. Only when we work together can we most silo fully provide the funds and creative talent that we and in Israel so desperately need for human service: In addition to our innovative allocations• for Jewish education activities undertaken in the past year, only when we work together as a community can we further proceed to meet the crucial educational needs of our high school youth. This task perhaps eludes the ability of any single constituency locally. Hearing the pleas for help and confident in our abil- ity to respond to them, we pledge continued concern and commitment to our fellow men. Let the sounding of the shofar at this New Year impel us to renew our energies toward these goals. Let us resolve together that we, the Jewish residents of greater Detroit, will find additional strength to successfully meet tomorrow's challenges. George Gershwin's 75th Birth Date an Occasion for Musical Rededication to Eminent Composer This week there has been a scramble for a new stamp marked: II. S. 8 cents American Composer George Gershwin The communications media is giving preference to the music of this brilliant com- poser whose 75th birthday was marked Wednesday. A demand for new recordings of the Gershwin music adds to the attention given to the birth date of the great musician who created so much, whose works are in greatest demand, whose scores for ballets remain among the most significant, who also loved to paint and whose piano playing was part of a dedication that made him the life of a party. He died tragically, at 39. He had worked closely with his brother Ira, who wrote many of the lyrics for his musical composi- tions. He labored with the great of his day, in advancing the music that made the Gershwin name imperishable. The most noted actors of the century performed in casts that are linked with musicals made famous by Gershwin music. A great book, published by Atheneum, tells the Gershwin story. "The Gersh- wins" appears on the 75th birthday of the man who made musical history in the few years of his creative efforts. The book, like the Gershwin music, is the sensation of the week. Wilson's biographical notes contain inter- esting facts about Morris Gershwin, the philosophical father in the poker-playing atmosphere; the mother, Rose Gershwin, who wanted the children to have a good education and who had to yield to George's desire for a piano and to devote himself to piano-playing: "She opposed George's de- sire to become a musician, thinking of such a career in terms of a $25-a-week piano player. But she did nothing to stand in George's way when he left school to take his first job as a pianist." Ira Gershwin's story as a collaborator with brother George is fully accounted for, and there is the story of another brother: "Arthur, the third Gershwin son, started out on violin, but soon gave it up. It was at a time when George had just begun to study piano. Arthur complained that George could take his lessons sitting down whereas violin lessons meant standing up. After abandon- ing the violin, Arthur became a stockbroker and, eventually, a pianist who played by ear —and, of course, sitting down." And the Wilson bio chapter also contains this informative paragraph: This is the extent of Jewish background to be found in "The Gershwins." But there is also the account of the funeral at Temple Emanu-El, New York, July 15, 1937, Stephen S. Wise delivering the eulogy. All the great of the time in New York were at the funeral service: Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, former Mayor James J. Walker, George M. Cohan, Al Jolson, Walter Dam- rosch. There were 3,500 in the temple, 1,000 outside, to pay tribute to the master who died of a brain tumor. For musicians, for students of the history of the Gershwin arts, for those who study the theater, this volume is magnificently revealing. The great stars of the Gershwin generation—the Astaires, the Marx brothers, the Ritz brothers, Ginger Rogers, stars in "The nature of that Gershwin house- all categories of the theater, they are re- hold — its priority values — may be corded to attest to an impressive Gershwin summed up most readily in the matter career. cf Ira's name. As a boy, he was always "The Gershwins" is significant for many Robert Kimball, who was the author or the great book "Cole" about Cole Porter, co- authored "The Gershwins" with Alfred E. Simon. Like "Cole," the new work is large, replete with the list of Gershwin's musical works, splendidly illustrated, serving almost as an encyclopedia of the stage and its actors in the years of the Gershwin domina- tion on Broadway; and as an anthology of musical scores and the ballets of those exciting years of music-making by two eminent brothers. Richard Rodgers' introduction to this volume, already reproduced in a recent NYTimes arts and leisure section, is a beautiful tribute to a notable personality. George Gershwin's love of art, his ability to paint and to draw, his acquisition of a Chagall before Chagall's works became almost prohibitive price-wise—especially his leve for the piano and his mastery of it—these are recounted by a friend and admirer. Then there is the biographical foreword by the NYTimes jazz critic, John S. Wilson, and the commendable designing of the book by Bea Feitler, art director of Ms. magazine. 80—Friday, Sept. 28, 1973 known as Izzy and he assumed that his name was Isadore, although neither of his parents could remember the name they had given him when he was born. When he was 30 years old and applying for a passport, Ira found out for the first time that It!s name was legally Israel. (George was named Jacob, after his pa- ternal grandfather, Yakov Gershovitz)." THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS more reasons. It contains a chronology of the shows with the Gershwin songs. This in itself is history-making for musicians. It includes an alphabetical listing of all the Gershwin songs. There is a section "Dis- cography of Original Cast Recordings and Studio Re-Creations." There is a "Piano Rollography." These fill many pages, attest- ing to the unusual list of Gershwin's musical creations. There are a number of reproductions of Gershwin's art work — his paintings, a full page drawing of his brother Ira, the ac- companying one of George himself dated June 9, 1931. In "The Gershwins" is the full record of the great productions that still enchant, that bear the famous name, that are imperish- able, like "Porgy and Bess" in which "I Got Plenty of Nuthin' " remains one of the very exciting and moving songs (lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Rose Heyward). Note refrain 2 of this song: I clot plenty o' nuthin'. An' nuthin's plenty fo' me. I got de sun, got de moon, got de deep blue sea. De folks wid plenty o' plenty, Got to pray all de day. Seems wid plenty you sure got to worry How to keep de Debbie away, A-way. I ain't a-frettin"bout Hell Till de time arrive. Never worry long as I'm well, Never one to strive To be good, to be bad— What the hell! I is glad l's alive. Oh, I got plenty o' nuthin' An' nuthin's plenty fo' me. I got my gal, got my song, Got Hebben de whole day long. (No use comptainin'!) Got my gal, got my Lawd, got my song! The genius of Gershwin is defined in the concluding sentences of this wonderful book: "The music of George Gershwin did not stop with his death. It has spread and flourished in the years since then even more than it did during his lifetime. His music and the songs he wrote with Ira have proved to be touchstones that Americans and others throughout the world continue to return to as a source of musical vitality and inspira- tion. It can be said that the Gershwins wrote 'period pieces' in that they captured a period. But, in a larger sense, their work was best described by Ira himself in the remarkably prophetic title he gave one of their earliest collaborations — 'The Real American Folk Song.' " —P.S.