Mordecai Richler's Critical Essays Throw Light on Sports, Include Personal Views Mordecai Richter has earned acclaim for his novels. Now another of his works in- vites commendation for a number of its remarkable approaches to his personal reminiscences as a Canadian Jew and his tackling of sev- eral important issues. In "Notes on an Endanger- ed Species," a Knopf-pub- lished book, he has inserted IIAL GORDON Musical Entertainment Big Bands or Small Combos 626-3346 several of his important essays. Several are auto- biographical. These are in themselves worth reading for the enjoyment of his humor and his revelations of Jewish life factors in Canada. Especially notable is the essay in which he exposes the James Bond myths and shows how anti-Semitic tend- encies were resorted to Ian Fleming. He analyzes and dissects. He doesn't mince words. The essay first appeared in Commentary. He shows how "Fleming continued to type out his dream-life at Goldeneye, visualizing him- self as gentleman's James Bond, but the self-evident truth is he had infinitely more in common with his pushy, ill-bred foreign vil- lians, and one is obliged to consider his sophisticated racialism as no less than a Rose Citron 968-0670 25900 Greenfield In Landmark Bldg. Oak Park ROSIE'S PLACE Women's Apparel SUMMER CLEARANCE 4 5 0% 9 FF Mon. - Wed. 9:30 - 6:00 Thurs. & Fri. 9:30 - 8 Sat. 9:30 - 6 YOUTH ENTER - GIGANTIC SUMMER CLEARANCE ENTIRE STOCK OF • TENNIS DRESSES • SUN DRESSES • SHORT SETS • LONG DRESSES • PLAY SETS • BATHING SUITS TODDLERS 2 to 4 4 to 6x 7 to 14 REG. PRICE SALE PRICE '5.00 $6.00 7.00 '9.00 $11.00 $14.00 $397 $ 4 77 $ 4 97 $677 $747 $997, MANY UNADVERTISED SPECIALS, TOO — TAGGED FOR QUICK SALE! DEPARTMENT STORE FOR CHILDREN TEL-TWELVE MALL, 12 Mile & Telegraph OPEN DAILY 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. SUNDAY 12 to 5 P.M. ALSO NORTHWQOD SHOPPING CENTER 13 MILE AT WOODWARD USE YOUR BANK AMERICARD OR MASTER CHARGE projection of his own coarse qualities." The essay exposes the racialism. Then Richter states: "It is possible to explain the initial success of Bond novels in that they came at a time when (John) Buchan's vicious anti-Semitism and neo-fascist xenophobia were no longer acceptable; never- theless a real need as well as a large audience for such reading matter still existed. It was Fleming's most bril- liant stroke to present him- self not as an old-fashioned frothing wog-hater, but as an ostensibly civilized- voice which offered sanitized raci- MORDECAI RICHLER alism instead. The Bond nav- els not only satisfy Little der to their continuing notion Englanders who believe they of self-importnace." have been undone by dastard. In the process, Richter ex- ly foreign plotters, but pan- posed the vile resort to the: The Hebrew Book—An Essay By H. N. BIALIK Translated by Minni Halkin Bialik Institute, Jerusalem. Sixty years ago, Hayim Nahman Bialik's essay "The Hebrew Book" was published for the first time in "Hashil- oakh." The essay, historically important, is still timely and will remain so until its reali- zation. In this essay, the great poet advocates the "canonization" of the works of the Jewish genius "in which there is con- cealed a bit of the holy spirit of the people, a bit of the creative force of the finest of its personalities." Bialik used the term canon- ization as an approximate equivalent to the Hebrew term "kinus" meaning in- gathering. The essay was written years before the establish- ment of the state of Israel; Hebrew wasn't yet the offi- cial language of a sovereign nation and the living tongue of millions of people. Neither were there institutions of higher learning where every conceivable and imaginable subject was taught in He- brew. When proposing the "Ki- nus," Bialik envisaged that it would consist of both the Hebrew and "all the praise- worthy works produced by Jewish talent in •foreign lan- guages, all that bear the im- print of the Jewish spirit." He even composed a list of some of the works he would have liked to be included in the "Kinus." Among others, he recommended all the bib- lical books, the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, "selections from the Alexandrian litera- ture," a "complete edition of all the works of Josephus Flavius," the "Mishna in a popular edition, vocalized and supplied with a brief but ade- quate commentary." It is interesting to note that Bialik left out the "Halakha," while including the "Agada" and the "Midrashim." It should also be noted that he did not mention works cre- ated in Yiddish. However, this seems to be implied in the proposal that the "Kinus" comprise "the best works by the most gifted writers, the finest writing produced by Jews in the last 150 years." On the other 'hand, Bialik's attitude to Aramaic was pos- itive and unequivocal. He predicted that Hebrew and Aramaic would someday blend, because " . . . Their mutuality of stem and devel- opment has long ago made possible their complete un- ification." Naturally, Bialik's central idea was that all the selected books would be translated in- to Hebrew, and ingathered by scholars inspired by the holy spirit. Should the "kinus" be rea- lized, it would mark a turn- ing point in the history of Jewish thought, and would be the fourth such undertaking in Jewish history. The others were the canonization of the Holy Scripture, the Mishna and the Gemara. Bialik was convinced that the fulfillment of his dream would forever unite the "Am Hasefer"—the People of the Book with the "Sifrei Ha- Am"—the Books of the Peo- ple. "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the "Goldfinger" in- sults, the anti-Semitism of Harold Nicholson. "Jews in Sports" is a most interesting review of the book "Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports" by Bernard Postal, Jesse Silver and Roy Silver. Many errors are corrected, some facts are set straight. Richter emerges very knowl- edgeable on athletics and athletes. While he is very critical, perhaps the authors of that encyclopedia should be grateful to him—for cor- rections and the advertising thus given their book. The background of his ex- periences in Jewish schools in Canada, the humor inher- ent in these descriptions, add magnificently to the fascina- tion of his narrativeness. He He wrote from . London to make this comment on ac- cents: "Many years ago my par- ents emigrated from Poland to Canada, to Montreal, where I grew up ashamed of their Yiddish accents. Now I had seemingly settled in London, where my own chil- dren (spoiled, ungrateful, en- joying an easier childhood than I had, etc.) -found my American accent just as em- barrassing." A devastaing critique of a history of Canadian Jewry by Rabbi Stuart Rosenberg throws light on Richler's abil- ity to do research on his own and to assail a rabbi's lit- erary shortcomings. And there is lots more, of humor and fact, about fel- low Jews and others, teach- ers in the Jewish school and fellow classmates. It's an entertaining book, and it is revealing in his- torical facts. It certainly gives Richter added status as a storyteller reviewer, critic and essayist. THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, July 5, 1974-31 P rescription 26001 COOLIDGE Hwy . OAK PARK 543-3343 MICHAEL KAPLIT Photography Weddings • Bar Mitzvas 642-1039 ■ .11=11■111. FIRESTONE RUSSELL SCHREIBER ASSOCIATES JEWELRY AGENCY OF THE SHOW WORLD' holesale Diamonds & Jewelry enumming, Jeindry- & P,Uch Repaiiin . • Orchestras • Entertainment • Speakers • Concerts SUITE 364 ADVANCE BLDG. 23077 Greenfield at 9 Mile (313) 557-1860 Downtown Detroit - 962-8000 ■••■•1111•■ Wool, Linen Garment Rules By RABBI SAMUEL J. FOX (Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.) It is prohibited for a Jew to wear a garment whose cloth consists of a mixture of wool and linen. The basis of this prohibi- tion is the text in the Bible itself where it is written "Thou shalt not wear a gar- ment of mixture of wool and linen" (Deuteronomy 22:10). Rabbinic commentators try to give reasons for this pro- hibition. Maimonides (Guide to the Perplexed, 37) ex- plains that such garments were worn by ancient people when they worshiped idols. Since such a mixture is as- sociated with idol worship, Jews are forbidden to wear such a garment. Nach- manides explained that since these two fibers were kept apart by the Almighty's plan — coming from two different sources (i.e. animal and plant), — man should not try to defeat the purpose of God in keeping them apart. In the Midr a sh (Tanchuma Genesis 9) we find another explanation. Cain's offering was linen seeds while Abel's was a sheep (the bearer of wool). 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