2 Friday, June 6, 1975
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Language Dilemma: Yiddish
on the Way Out; Warning
to Hebraists in Diaspora
A development affecting the very exist-
ence of the only surviving Yiddish newspaper
in the United States compels a reconsidera-
tion of the conditions revolving around the
possible survival of the tongue which has de-
veloped a great literature and was the me-
dium of expression for millions for centu-
ries.
In its issue of May 18, a front page six-
column headline and story asked for reader
supporting funds for the Jewish Daily For-
ward. As means of assuring the paper's ex-
istence, Friends of the Forward was organ-
ized a§ a functioning organization to receive
contributions.
Many reasons are given for this regretta-
ble step, including the shreckliher yakres,
the frightful increase in costs of production
and newsprint.
The plight of the Forward is deplorable.
Yiddish is so rich literarily, it was such a
power as the language medium for the mil-
lions of Jews in Eastern Europe for so many
centuries, its use and effectiveness had
spread to'so many other countries, including
the United States, Canada and the Latin
Americas that its decline is cause for deep
regret.
It was not so long ago that Yiddish was
claimed as the mother tongue by some 90 to
95 per cent of Canadian Jewry. Now it has
declined to about 5 per cent of such claim-
ants.
(One Canadian Jewish community — Win-
nipeg, with a Jewish population of 21,000 —
is perhaps still an oasis in the Yiddish de-
sert. Nearly all the Jews there still speak
Yiddish, the sermons in the three Orthodox
An Unfortunate 'Misquote'
Misquotations and out-of-text clips often
create injustice. Israel's eminent statesman
Abba Eban was such a sufferer and the rec-
ord should be corrected.
A furor was caused by what the Jerusalem
Post calls a "misquote." This brief item from
the Jerusalem daily English language news-
paper should have the widest circulation:
Eban misquote
Jerusalem Post Reporter
The Tel Aviv evening paper
"Ma'ariv" last week printed a re-
traction of its front-page summary of
an interview with former Foreign
Minister Abba Eban on May 9, which
Facts Dispute Myths in Israel's Relationship With the
U.S.. . Grants and Credits Indicate Repayments
by Israel . . . New Blow for Yiddish Press
ISRAEL
MIDDLE EAST
POWER BALANCE
In its yearly re-
port on the world
military situation,
just issued in Lon-
don, the Interna-
tional Institute for
Strategic Studies
gave the follow-
ing figures on the
Middle East Situ-
ation:
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Tanks (medium range'
Armored vehicles
Field artillery
Submarines
Destroyers
Missile boats
•Bombers
Fighter-bombers
Interceptors
Reconnaissance craft
congregations still
are delivered in Yiddish,
a weekly newspaper still appears in Yiddish.
But the decline is beginning to become evi-
dent even in this community).
Only a few years ago the Yiddish press
and the schools conducted in Yiddish in the
Latin American spheres were effective and
kept professing. Now the Yiddish interest
there is minimal.
The Jewish Daily Forward and the rest of
the Yiddish press may as well admit that it
is more than the shreckliher yakres. It is
the approaching complete demise of a lan-
guage. It is.one of the very great Jewish trag-
edies now being witnessed by a generation of
Jews, most of - whom do not even appreciate
the values that are disappearing.
Not to be forgotten is the inerasable fact
that Yiddish was a dominant force in the
American Jewish experience. So powerful
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and extensive was its usage as the fiesr lan-
guage of the millions of Jews whose large
'immigration to this country commenced in
the early part of this century that —
• William Randolph Hearst, when he ran
for Governor of New York in 1914, for a time
published a Yiddish newspaper as part of his
appeal for Jewish votes.
• Louis Marshall, as the unchallenged
Jewish leader of his day, indicated that in
order to understand the masses of Jews he
wished to lead he must learn Yiddish — and
he did. And for a short period he and Zvi
Masliansky published a Yiddish newspaper.
• In 1914, when there were 2.4 million
Jews in this country, less than half the num-
ber there is today, there were 10 daily Yid-
dish newspapers with a total sworn circula-
tion of 762,810.
These are facts not to be ignored in an era
in which the task of perpetuating the Yid-
,
sent reverberations around the -to .believe that he might betray a sacred
world.
trust. He was and remains one of Israel's
"Ma'ariv" said in its retraction
that its abbreviated and compressed
summary failed to give a balanced
and accurate expression of Eban's
views. It misquoted him as saying
"Egypt was justified in refusing to
annul the state of war."
Mr. Eban told the Jerusalem Post
that the key sentence in the full
"Ma'ariv" interview was "our Gov-
ernment had no choice but to reject
the plan in the form in which it
emerged. in the final stage of the
negotiations."
most dynamic leaders and among the most
respected by world Jewry in diplomacy and
the sphere of eloquence. ,
Israel Pays for Credits
Rightful recognition by the U. S. Congress
of Israel's grave needs for military assist-
ance subscribes to the urgency of supplying
the embattled state with military assistance.
Yet there is exaggeration even in the very
term. Much of hat Israel receives from the
United States is paid for. The Near East Re-
port, whose factual presentations have al-
ways been corroborated, this week defined
To have misjudged Mr. Eban was to have the grants and credits by this country to Is-
acted in haste. His role in Israel and in world rael as follows:
Jewry is too important historically suddenly
Last year the Arab states received
w
By Philip
Slomovitz
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dish language pathetically' required the for-
mation of a society of fund-raisers. The
moment rescue work for a newspaper in-
volves the philanthropic, the occurrence be-
comes most deplorable.
To deny the threat to the very existence of
the language is to be blind to reality. If Yid-
dish, the press, the teacher, the school pro-
grams, the medium of expression, is to be
saved, other means will have to be found.
They are not in the depleting university pro-
grams which attract so few that the effort is
unimpressive; and the college emphasis is
mainly on the literature available in transla-
tions from the Yiddish. This is not language-
saving.
Can the problem be solved? Can YiddiSh be
saved? Who are the wise, and whence will
come the saviors? The demise of a significant
language that has greatly enriched literarily
is tragic.
more grant assistance from the
United States than did Israel, and it is
important to clear away the confusion
surrounding Israel's current re-
quests. The media have been mislead-
ing in reporting the $2.5 billion figure
without making a distinction between
grants and credits, the-latter usually
being ten-year loans repaid with in-
terest. Moreover, much of the Israeli
request is in the form of credit guar-
antees, rather than expenditures.
Even the credits that are honored by Israel
scrupulously would be unnecessary if not for
the overwhelming military supplies that are
constantly being poured into the Arab arsen-
als by the Soviet Union. Therefore the assist-
ance to Israel is a mark of sheer justice to
which, fortunately, the U. S. is committed as
the Jewish state's traditional friend.
Likud Defeated in Move to Oppose Sinai Troop Reduction
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
Likud hardliners suffered a
major defeat in the Knesset
Wednesday when they were
unable to muster even a ma-
jority of their own bloc
against the government's
decision to thin out Israeli
forces in Sinai as a unila-
teral gesture on the eve of
the re-opening of the Suez
Canal.
Eliezer Shostak, of Lik-
ud's two-man "Independent
Center" faction, the author
of the motion, agreed not to
force a vote when it became
apparent that Likud's Lib-
eral Party and Free Center
factions would not support
him.
Nevertheless, Foreign
Minister Yigal Allon deliv-
ered a spirited defense of
the government's decision
which he described as a
"calculated risk" that has
been justified by favorable
World reaction that bears
out the government's
hopes and expectations.
He said, at the same time,
that Israel had "the right
to expect that it would
have full freedom of access
for its cargoes (through.
the Suez Canal) as agreed
to in-the disengagement
accords."
He said that Israel would
also fight for the passage of
Israeli flagships through
the Egyptian waterway as a
matter of right although
this was not part of the dis-
engagement agreements.
He said he hoped Israel's
gesture would not be misin-
terpreted by Egypt and
would not tempt Egypt into
"taking steps which would
force Israel to revoke its ac-
tion."
So far the public response
by Egyptian President
Sadat on the matter of car-
goes has been hedging and
non-commital although the
Egyptian leader voiced ap-
proval of Premier Rabin's
announcement that Israel
would unilaterally thin out
its forces in Sinai on the eve
of the canal's re-opening.
But Sadat, in a television
interview in Salzburg, Aus-
tria Monday night where he
had just concluded two days
of meetings with President
Ford, said the thinning out
action by Israel was "not
sufficient" to justify lifting
Egypt's embargo on Israeli
cargoes.
Asked to define what
conditions would be re-
quired to end the embargo,
Sadat replied, "I an-
swered this question be-
fore and I said it will be
according to the conduct'of
Israel."
Nevertheless, Israeli offi-
cials -said they found
Egypt's reaction to the
"thinning out" gesture to be
"encouraging," the very
word Sadat himself used
Monday to describe the Is-
raeli move.
Shostak, whose only sup='
port came from the militant
Herut wing of Likud, con-
tended that the govern-
ment's decision was ill-con-
ceived, ill-timed and
unjustified. Shostak also
claimed that the timing of
the announcement made it
appear to be a hasty and
frightened reaction to the
meeting between President
Ford and President Sadat in
Salzburg.
Allon replied that the gov-
ernment welcomed Egypt's
reopening of the Suez Canal
and "sincerely wished" the
Egyptian government suc-
cess in this project. He said
the re-opening had been
part of the disengagement
understanding of January
1974 and that while it served
Egypt's interests primarily,
the re-opened canal and the
rebuilding and repopulation
of civilian centers along its
banks was of very direct in-
terest to Israel.
Most members of Lik-
ud's Liberal Party ab-
sented themselves from
the Knesset debate
Wednesday. The opposi-
tion's discomfiture was
compounded by a wither-
ing attack from former
Herut stalwart Binyamin
Halevy, now an Indepen-
dent MK, who accused
Herut of taking a negative
"reflex action to any peace
move by the government."'
He urged other constitu-
ents of Likud not to be
dragged along by Herut's
extremism. Halevy moved
to have Shostak's motion
stricken from the agency.
Meanwhile, Israeli armor,
artillery, infantry and anti-
aircraft missiles were rede-
ployed Wednesday well be-
yond firing range of the
Suez Canal, leaving a much
reduced force on the front
lines in Sinai in accordance
th the unilateral
"thinning out" gesture an-
nounced by Premier Yit-
zhak Rabin Monday.
.
Artillery batteries were
moved well beyond the
30-kilometer line while anti-
aircraft missiles were re-
positioned 40 kilometers
from the canal and in some
cases as far as 48 kilome-
ters.