THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

`Voices from the Yiddish' Spotlights Jewish Authors

By ALLEN A. WARSEN

In recent years American
literature has been enriched
with translations from Yid-
dish belles lettres. These
include novels, novelettes,
poetry and drama. Lately,
anthologies of the masters
of Yiddish prose and poetry
have been added. The most
recent anthology "Voices
from the Yiddish," edited by
the essayist Irving Howe
and the poet Eliezer Green-
berg (Schocken Books,
1975), consists of essays,
diaries and memoirs. These
compositions reflect a com-
mon historical experience in
a Yiddish milieu and cover a
period of 70 years.
In their introduction the
editors examine analytically
and objectively not only the
book's themes, but also the
attitude of the early Jewish
intellectuals toward Yid-
dish.
Interesting is this obser-
vation: "Yiddish was the
language that sprang first
to a Jew's lips. a language
cracking with cleverness
and turmoil, ironic to its
hones; yet decades of strug-
gle were required before the
learned and the orthodox
could be convinced — some
never would be — that this
mere `zhargon; this street
tongue, this dissheveled
creature wearing the apron
of the Jewish week, this
harum-scarum of a lan-
guage recklessly jumbling
bits of German, Hebrew,
Russian, Polish, Provencal,

English, and God alone
knows what, could become
the bearer of a literature
that might gain admiration
of the world and serve as a
medium through which life
would regain its bearing."

The anthology is divided
into topical units with
brief interpretive prefa-
tory statements. The unit
"The Founding Fathers"
includes essays on Men-
dele Mokher Sforim, Sho-
lom Aleichem and I. L.
Peretz.

Mendele, according to
Ba'al Makhshoves, one of
the foremost Yiddish liter-
ary critics, "was the offspr-
ing of a generation that pro-
duced a new type of a Jew,
the `maskilim,' or 'enlight-
ened ones,' men who se-
cretly sought in their read-
ing the Bible and Talmud
justification for their ra-
tionalism they had recently
imbibed from the general
European Enlightenment."
Sholom Aleichem who
dubbed Mendele "der zeide"
and in turn was nicknamed
the Mark Twain of the Yid-
dish literature, authored
"Tevye the Dairyman" (The
musical "Fiddler on the
Roof" is based on it) and
other humorous books.
I. L. Peretz, the father of
modern Yiddish literature,
was called by the great Yid-
dish poet, Jacob Glatstein,
the Maimonides of the 19th
Century. "Maimonides,"
Glatstein stated, "perceived

Balfour Concert to Feature
Noted Violinist as Soloist

FELIX RESNICK

Violinist Pinchas Zuker-
man will be featured soloist
at the 43rd annual Balfour
Celebration Nov. 9 at Ford
Auditorium. The concert is
sponsored by the Zionist Or-
ganization of Detroit.
Born in Israel in 1948,
Zukerman began his study
of the violin at the age of
seven. At eight he entered
the Israel Conservatory and
the Academy of Music in Tel
Aviv.
He has appeared with
leading orchestras around
the world and has conducted
the Los Angeles Chamber
Orchestra and the English
Chamber Orchestra.

Felix Resnick will be the
conductor of the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra for
the Balfour Concert.

Resnick is the conductor
of the Grosse Pointe and
West Bloomfield Symphony
Orchestra. He also is the

fully Jewish spiritual life. A
brief .passage from this es-
say reads: "Their life was
spirit; there arose in them
an infinite world of inward-
ness, a Law within the heart
in addition to the Oral and
Written Laws. They develop
like artists that know how
to fill the week-day hours
with mystic beauty. They
write no poetry. Their life is
a poem."
Only the author of "The•
Earth Is the Lord's" and
"Man Is Not Alone" could
describe so impressively
Jewish life before it was ex-
tinguished by the forces of
evil.
"Voices from the Yiddish"
is a comprehensive and
thought-provoking anthol-
ogy.

IRVING HOWE

in his own day that foreign
ways of thought would have
swallowed us up completely
had we not adapted them to
our own spiritual heritage.
He therefore grabbed hold
of Aristotelianism and har-
nessed it to normative Juda-
ism . . . Maimonides dem-
onstrated that the Torah
was in fact the ethic that
Aristotle had been seeking."

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Similarly, Peretz
brought back to Judaism
the estranged and assimi-
lated Jews by unearthing
"the finest Jewish trea-
sures" and "gave Jewish
life wings, lifting it up
high and saying, 'For you
there are no limits, no ob-
stacles in the way of your
spirit. Fly high, if not
higher, to the unattaina-
ble.' "

Another unit traces the
history of the East Euro-
pean Jews and examines
their life and institutions. A
contributor to this unit was
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
the great Jewish theologian.
His essay "The Eastern
European Era in Jewish
History" describes master-

October 10, 1975 19

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assistant principal second
violin in the Detroit Sym-
phony.
In a preview of the Bal-
four Concert, Resnick will
address a special musical
afternoon of the ZOD 1:30
p.m. Sunday at the Zionist
Cultural Center. The public
is invited.

Arab Schools
Lack Classrooms

GENEVA — Arab
schools lack 2,000 class-
rooms to make them able to
comply with Israel's com-
pulsory education laws ac-
cording to a delegation of
chairmen of local Arab
councils who recently met
with Ministry of Education
officials in Jerusalem.
A new Ministry allocation
for Arab school construc-
tion will help but still isn't
enough, the delegation said.

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