31 January 9, 1976

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

`A Hero in His Time'

A Jewish. Poet's Battle With Russia and Himself

But the poet's grim, but
The "iron curtain" is a satisfying reality is shaken
phrase which is not heard as by his "orders" to travel to
often in our age of "de- the United States, and
tente," but Arthur A. Coh- much of what he has re-
en's alternately funny and fused to think about
then chilling novel, "A Hero through most of his adult
in His Time," portrays a life is pushed before him.
Russia through the eyes of a
The author, Arthur A.
Jewish poet that many for- Cohen, earned the Edward
get exists behind the "iron Lewis Wallant Award in
curtain."
1973, for his work, and was
"A Hero in His Time," nominated for a book award
published by Random in 1972. Cohen spends a full
House, describes the life of one-third of "A Hero in His
Yuri Maximovich Isakovsky, Time" developing his main
a minor poet and translator character and some of the
who has avoided attention supporting cast, and the
of any kind during his years book doesn't begin to move
as poet and editor of an ab- or fully display the author's
scure official journal of real talent until after this
Russian folk songs.
development.
But eventually the system
Cohen touches on many
needs Yuri to deliver a coded aspects of Russian society
message at an international and the communist system,
Symposium in New York.
as well as the plight of Rus-
The author paints a
grim but satisfying life for
Isakovsky and the Rus-
sians of today: ever suspi-
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Vet-
-a- cious, ever watchful of in- eran Maparh leader Yaacov
formants, ever fearful, but Hazan has proposed a plan
alive.
for Jerusalem that would

sia's Jews. For example:
"The others like me,
with half minds — half
Jew, half Russian. We call
Russia our home, even if
it's an ungrateful house
which starves and beats
us. It's still a home. One
loves a mother and father
even if they beat you."
"Beating's one thing,
Yuri Maximovich. Kill-
ing's another. They do
more than beat us. They're
out to kill us . . ."
"But, you see, Reb Men-
del, there's one other
thing. I'm also a Russian
poet. I write in that lan-
guage. I think in that lan-
guage. It's my tongue. If I
sweat, yes, if I sweat, my
tongue pants in Russian."
"I understand. That's
why I never forgot my Yid-

Jerusalem Plan Proposed

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Heartfelt Gratitude

to all organizations and friends who are
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MITCHELL AND AUDREY FISHMAN

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leave the city united under
Israeli control.
He told Mapam's political
committee that under his
proposal there would still be
a central municipal govern-
ment that would have au-
thority over the entire city
but the city would be di-
vided into areas or boroughs
on the basis of the demo-
graphic distribution of the
population. The various
areas would have authority
to handle their affairs inde-
pendently.
Hazan said the Old City
should be governed by a
committee of Jews, Chris-
tians and Moslems and the
holy places should be re-
grded as having extraterri-
tiality, although Israel
should continue to be re-
sponsible for maintaining
order at the sites.
He said the Arabs could
hold citizenship in some
state east of Israel. (he did
not specify whether this
would be Jordan or a Pales-
tinian state) or they could
apply for Israeli citizenship.
He said if they retain their
Arab citizenship they
should still be given all the
rights of Israeli citizens ex-
cept to vote for the Knesset.

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Gr i

ARTHUR COHEN

dish and always study and
write in Hebrew."
As Yuri continues to pon-
der his fate, and makes no
attempt to change It al-
though the obvious opportu-
nity to defect presents it-
self, he comments on his
Russia and her problems:
"My God, I pity our poor
rulers. They're up there
all alone. If they gave us

8,000 Soviet Jew s
Arrived in Israel
by End of 1975

_

WASHINGTON (JTA) —
Soviet Jewish immigration
to Israel via Vienna is ex-
pected to total slightly more
than 8,000 in 1975 according
to statistics from American
sources. The figure does not
include Jews emigrating
from the Soviet Union
whose destinations are
countries other than Israel,
notably Western Europe
and North America.
According to the figures,
Jewish emigrants from the
USSR via Vienna who are
going to Israel totalled 7,460
in the first 11 months of
1975. Based on the monthly
average of 678 persons, the
overall total for the year
should be about 8,138. The
relatively small number of
Soviet Jews who pass
through. Rome en route to
Israel were not included in
the statistics.
No figures have been
made available on the num
ber of Jews leaving the
USSR for countries other
than Israel. This number
has been growing steadily
since the 1973 Yom Kippur
War and is estimated to
amount to about 40 percent
of all Jews leaving the USSR
via Vienna, according to
American sources. At that
rate, the total number of
Jews emigrating from the
Soviet Union in 1975 sould
be in the neighborhood of
11,300.
Jewish immigration to
Israel via Vienna was 14,000
in 1971 and 31,500 in 1972.
In the latter year, only 500
Soviet Jews went to coun-
tries other than Israel. Emi-
gration from the USSR
reached a peak in 1973 when
33,500 Soviet Jews arrived in
Israel and about 2,700 went
elsewhere. In 1974, 24,360
Soviet Jews passed through
Vienna, of whom about 17,-
000 went to Israel.

If a man does not make
new acquantances as he
advances through life, he
will soon find himself left
alone.
—Samuel Johnson

the chance of telling them
what we think, they might
be very pleased. Most of us
would say that it is just
fine, that things are going
well . . . that they're
much better than they
were in the twenties, that
we haven't been at war in
30 years and our young
people aren't dying far
away in countries whose
names we can hardly pro-
nounce.
"We'd vote the rulers in
again and again. But they
just don't believe it, so
they won't risk it. The re-
sult of all their loneliness

,

Palestine Woman
Named a Saint

up there is that they start
living their lives looking
over their shoulders. How
can the bosses get any
work done? They sit down
at their desks to go
through the papers and all
they can think of is some-
one spying at their back."
Arthur A. Cohen's "A
Hero in His Time" is a re-
vealing, though fictional,
look behind the "iron cur-
tain" at the life of the aver-
age Russian and a glimp
at the Russian Jew. Yuri
dilemma about delivering
the coded poem is resolved
in a mildly surprising con-
clusion for a well-written
novel. —A.H.

JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
For the first time in 1,000
years a Christian woman
born in Palestine, is to be el-
evated to sainthood by the
Vatican on the recommen-
dation of the Franciscan
Order in Jerusalem.
It concerns Sister Jeris
Boardi of western Galilee,
who died in Bethlehem in
the year 1878 while serving
in a Carmelite order.

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