Jerome Weidman's Constancy for Mother-Wit, Yiddishisms, East Side Nostalgia Found in New Novel Jerome Weidman does it a g a i n. Nostalgically, he writes about the old East Side of New York. He recap- tures the spirit of the early 1930s and portrays the char- acters who were the parent generation to the American Jewry of our time. He did it in his charming work "Fourth Street East." He does it with equal warmth in his newest novel, "Tiffany Street" (Random House). Once again, the story is about Benny Kramer, a prod- uct of the earlier years who, in the present, is confronted with the problems of the 1970s and his son's candidacy for the draft in the Vietnam era. In the process of narrat- ing this story, Weidman weaves the threads of the contrasting generations and the roles of its citizenry. Benjamin Kramer shares the limelight in this story with Sebastian Roon who en- ters into his and his mother's life as a client of the accoun- ancy firm where Benny is an office boy. Sebastian, it is learned quickly, is none other than Seymour Rubin, the im- migrant from England with a British accent, who came to this country at the invitation of his uncle, the client of Ira Bern, Benny's employer. The uncle dies and Sebastian — Seb—does not inherit what could have been imagined as a great fortune. Soon he is a guest of the Kramers — the immigrants who had not yet mastered Americanism—and he occupies Benny's bed, Benny being transferred to the floor in the living room in the Tiffany Street tene- ment. That's how the title of the book was adopted by Weidman. Filled with action, and semi-dramatic episodes, the Weidman novel describes Seb's influence upon Benny's mother. He teaches her the , English language and how to figure, he encourages her to go into business, making ties, soon earning by employing others. Seb does more: he takes Benny's girl Hannah Halpern away from him, she goes to England with him, but Seb has the urge to go back to America, Hannah marries his brother, and it is when Benny visits her, uni- formed as a major in the U. S. army, that she is killed in an air raid in World War II. Seb does many things that could antagonize, but he and Benny remain good friends and the story is marked by many delightful episodes re- lating to that friendship. The theme actually begins when Benny, a successful lawyer, 'goes to Philadelphia, on the excuse of seeing a wealthy client; actually to see an influential doctor who is powerful on the draft board, hoping to get his son Jack out of the army that might take him to Vietnam and to his death. When Benny is ready to put the idea into action, Jack rejects the proposal that he pose as a bed-wetter—an ex- cuse for rejection by the draft board. Instead, Jack claims to be a conscientious objector and he gains rejec- tion: the board member knew his father. But in the They merely discuss it. End- lessly. Most of the time lying around puffing grass . . " That's one of the lessons in a book filled with memories of a past distantly related to the present, since Tiffany Street itself is of the past and the tenements are not Jack's concern. It is because this novel is replete with humor that the Weidman skill is also studded with Yiddishisms. Words and phrases reminiscent of mo- ther's days spice the narra- tive. Is it measurably auto- biographical? Recalling a story written for the Jewish Publication Society Book Mark and reprinted in The Jewish News (Aug. 6, 1971), JEROME WEIDMAN course of the dispute with his father over the conflicting approaches to gaining army rejection, Jack has an ex- planatory detail for his fa- ther regarding the genera- tions. To quote the Weidman philosophy vis-a-vis Jack-to- Benny: "You see, Pops, when you were my age there were no issues. It was all very sim- ple. When you got out of high school, if you were luc- ky enough to make it through high school, you didn't lie around in some acid-rock discotheque trying to decide what would be a relevant way to spend your life. There was no time. Thinking about relevance could cause you to die of starvation. What you did was go out and find a job so you could eat. You had to. Nowa- days, kids my age, they don't have to worry about eating. Nice guys like you, Pops, you provide the groceries. So we have time to worry about what we should do with our lives that's relevant. Most of my friends don't even worry. about his mother and Somer- set Maugham, there is reason to believe that the nostalgic story about Benny Kramer's mother was influenced by author Jerome Weidman's personal nostalgic recollec- tions of his own youth, and his East Side New. York home. In fact, toward the close of his narration about "Tif- fany Street" Weidman does not resist the temptation and refers (without elaboration) to a "story about Somerset Maugham and the Internal Revenue Service." As stated, "Tiffany Street" is replete with Yiddishisms and witticisms. He makes much of the need for "koy- ach"—strength, power. The last line in the book, as a reference to Benny, by his pal throughout this story, reads: " 'The lad has koy- ach,' Sebastian Roon said." And Benny himself, much earlier in the story, had a definition for the word for Webster, thus: I don't believe Noah Web- ster was ever put to this par- ticular test, but I do believe he would have brought to the word, koyach some of his more penetrating talents for definition. Thus: koyach, n. koy, as in coy. yach, as in Bach. (Bach, as in composer.) So we have the word koyach. A common Yiddish expres- sion meaning strength. Ex.: Samson, before Delilah gave him his world-famous hair- cut, had koyach. But the word has a much broader meaning. Of a person who is said to possess koyach the word usually means that he or she is imbued with intest- inal fortitude (see Be. Broygiss, The Brass-Sotto Barmaid by Damon Runyln). Or guts (see Bull in the f- ternoon by E. Hemingwa ,' ." Thus the continuity in Weidman's narrations — his East Side recollections, his constant recapturing of his mother's wit, his Yiddish- isms. The reader's affections for his stories will remain equally as constant with his newest novel. —P. S. Notables Speak Out Against Genocide in Littell-Locke Edited Book Basic obligations to pre- vent crimes like Nazism, and similarly to avoid theo- logical prejudices are at the core of a significant study, "The German Church Strug- gle and the Holocaust," published by Wayne State University Press. Edited by Franklin H. Lit- tell, professor of religion at Temple U n i - versity, Phila- delphia, a n d Hubert G. Locke, associ- a t e professor of sociology and social wel- fare at the University of Dr. Locke Nebraska, Omaha, this vol- ume -contains the papers de- livered at the International Scholars' conference, which concerned itself with the Holocaust and the religious groups involved. (Prof. Locke previously was student ad- viser for religious affairs at Wayne State University. -(Dr. Littell will be guest speaker at today's Acadamic Bonds to Honor Weisbergs at Shaarey Zedek 'Dinner Mr. and Mrs. Peter Weisberg will receive the Sword of the Hagana award on June 26, at the Cong. Shaarey Zedek- sponsored annual tribute dinner on behalf of Israel Bonds, David Hermelin, dinner chairman, announced. Weisberg and his wife Clare will be honored "for their many years of devoted service to their congregation and community." Weisberg is a member of the Metropolitan Detroit Israel Bond Committee and a founding member of the Prime Min- ister's Club of the State of Israel. He has been the chairman of the Shaarey Zedek daily minyan committee for many years. Recently the Jewish Theological Seminary announced the creation of a Peter and Clara Weisberg Scholarship at its rabbinical school. Louis Berry is honorary chairman of the testimonial dinner. The acting committee, still in a formation, has Dr. THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Jerry G. Margolis, Marvin Fleischman and Mrs. Joseph 48—Friday, May 31, 1974 Deutsch as co-chairmen. Conference on the Holocaust at Mercy College of Detroit. His talk at the 9 a.m. session will focus on "The Story of the Holocaust— Implications and Values for Today.") Noted scholars and authori- ties on. the religious issues during the Nazi regime are represented in the compiled essays. A key admonition in this project is contained in the introductory essay by Prof. Littell who declares: The truth is that Christen- dom is sick, sick with so wick- ed a malaise that the bap- tized destroyed 6,000,000 Jews in Hitler's Europe, so sick that many 'Christian' leaders were prepared to look on from the balcony while Nasser tried to carry out his threat of a Second Holocaust in June, 1967. "My earnest plea is that before you join the neo-Nazis, Communists and black eth- nics (not to mention the American Radical Right!) in automatically considering the essential affinity of Judaism and Christianity 'patently Zionist,' you examine your own theological commitments. The Jews are not Chero- kees, and the wrong done them by faithless baptized is not the same thing as the white man's injustice to the American Indians. There is a demonic quality to hatred of the Jews which makes it more than human cruelty: it is blasphemy. By the same token, the guilt of Christians and the obligation to repent and right the ancient wrong is far heavier upon us." Prof. Gordon C. Zahn of the University of Massachu- setts, reviewing the activities of the Catholics in Germany during the Nazi regime, points to guilt as well as to resistance and protests. He maintains there was an ig- norance among some German bishops. But he chose to con- clude that "the lessons of the Nazi era have not been learned." Consideration: was given in the discussions of the ex- tent of resistance and the problems that emerged in National Socialist Germany. Prof. Peter Hoffman of Mc- Gill University dealt with the opposition that emerged against Hitler, he described the execution of conspirators and he quoted Dietrich Bon- hoeffer who, in 1941, said: "If you really want to know— I am praying for the defeat of my country because I be- lieve that it is the only way to pay for all the suffering that it has caused in the world." Prof. Hoffman said regard- ing the opposition: "It has made a contribution to the demythologization of ideolo- gies (Weltanschaungen), to the breaking down of vicious patterns of group behavior. It has contributed to the de- motion of politically oriented, group-oriented, violence-gen- erating values, and to a re- emphasis of humanistic, re- ligious and ethical values. A deeply moving state- ment is offered by Elie Wiesel whose essay is en- titled "Talking and Writing and Keeping Silent." It took time for him to assert him- self-10 years to write his first book — then he was heard! He offered a parable: "When Shimon Dubnov, probably the greatest his- torian we have had, was led to the mass grave in Riga together with all the Jews, he shouted, 'Jews open your ears and open your eyes! Take in every cloud; take in every smile; take in every sound. Don't forget, He was even then , even there, obsessed with the need to communi- cate, to tell us certain tales. In Auschwitz—worse, in Bir- kenau, in t h e Sonderkom- mando, the commando that worked in the crematoria — there were historians; men who wrote down, day after day, fact after morbid fact, dryly and soberly: They were conscious of the necessity to transmit. Why? Why did they do it? And what for? In whom could they believe? In man? That is what bewilders me and astonishes me: that they could still think of man and of God and of • us, while they lived and died in an age in which both Jew and man were betrayed by man and God. This story of spiritual strength—I won't call it 're- sistance' because the word itself was devaluated—of the Jew has to be told. I think this is what makes us so humble. But here we touch, I believe, the very substance of what I call an an anan of what I call Jewishness — because I don't like the word Judaism. There are too many isms in this world. What do I call Jewishness? "There is a story in the Tal- mud, a very beautiful one. And it's relevant, because you spoke of martyrs, and we speak of martyrs. The story goes: When Rabbi Ish- mael, one of the 10 martyrs of the faith in Roman times, 'was led to his death, a heav- enly voice was heard, saying, `Ishmael, Ishmael, should you shed one tear, I shall return the universe to its primary chaos.' And the Midrash says that Rabbi Ishmael was a gentleman and did not cry. And I couldn't understand for quite a while: why didn't he cry? The hell with it! If this is the price to pay, who needs it? Who wants this kind of world? Who wants to live in it? Yet there are many reasons why he didn't cry. "One, he was a martyr. Two, he obeyed. Three, the last and most poetic ulti- mate reason why he didn't cry is because he wanted to teach us a lesson in Judaism. Rabbi Ishmael—contrary to his classical opponent, Rabbi Akiba — was a rationalist. Even while dying, he wanted to teach us a lesson: Yes, I could destroy the world, and the world deserves to be de- stroyed. But to be a Jew is to have all the reasons in in the world to destroy and not to destroy! To be a Jew-is to have all the reasons in the world to hate the Germans and not to hate them! To be a Jew is to have all the rea- sons in the world to mistrust the church and not hate it! To be a Jew is to have all the reasons in the world not to have faith in language, in singing, in prayers, and in God, but to go on telling the tale, to go on carrying on the dialogue, and to have my own silent prayers and quarrels with God. "That is the lesson that Rabbi Ishmael, when he died, taught me; but then he was Rabbi Ishmael and I am only a teller of his tales. P then, perhaps, that is meaning of Jewish ext. ence, especially for a story- teller, to tell tales lived so many times by so many Jews, and I am only one of them." A statement quoting Wil- helm Niemoeller, essays by Henry Friedlander, Beate Ruhn von Oppen, John S. Conway, William Sheridan Allen, Frederick 0. Bonkow- sky, Michael D. Ryan, Eber- hard Bethge, Arthur C. Coch- rane, Ferdinand Friedens- burg, Richard D. Rubenstein and Theodore A. Gill, all add importantly to make "The German Church Struggle and the Holocaust" a vital book on a major subject.