2 Friday, November 26, 1976 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary • Business Fraternizing and Social Gaps Between Jews and Gentiles and the Anti-Semitic Bias Dating Back to Amalek . . . Bellow's Star on Jewish Horizon By Philip Slomovitz 'The Social Gap' and the 5 O'clock Dividing Line An intriguing headline over an article in the Sunday, Nov. 14 edition of the Detroit News by a staff writer of that newspaper has caused eyebrows to flutter, socially-minded to quiver, the argumentative to relish a platform, the sensitive to consume aspirin. "Jews and Gentiles: The Social Gap Survives" was the headline causing the gasps. It aroused enough discussion and concern to merit an award for the writer, Shelley Eichenhorn. If an award is contemplated it also is merited for the . dispassionate approach, the adherence to facts, the authoritative quotes. Actually, what was there to be excited about? If it is truth, then it also is not news; if it is distressing, it also is not a new development. The senstitive are surely distressed because that which afflicted their pa- rents should also be a cancer in social realms for the children, posing the danger of being passed on without quiver to grandchildren. That's where the heartache locates. But if it is inevitable, then why the fears and worries and distress? What must be, must be, as long as the social gap is limited to the nights and unaffected by the sunshine of business relations, politi- cal tolerance, educational respect. Does the Detroit News analysis of an existing social gap inspire a study of Jewish experiences in this country? If it does then the story is as old as Amalek. ("Zkhor et Amalek" — Remember Amalek — "zakhor mah asah lekha Amalek" — Deuteronomy 25:17). It need not be an anti-Semite like Torquemada or Chemiel- nicki or their ilk. In the social gap it is the high ranking, the polished, the peace-advocate who plays with bias. He talks amity and practices animosity. Perhaps this chapter in social action should be entitled "From Amalek to Brandeis." Why be so concerned about a JeWish lawyer in Detroit or a merchant in Grand Rapids when the socially biased were also on the bench of the highest court in the land? Louis Dembitz Brandeis' name has gone down with glory in American history. He has enriched jurisprudence. Yet, when he mounted that bench there were two members already serving on the U.S. Supreme Court who not only hated him as a Jew but constantly harrassed him. The Brandeis experience can be multiplied a thousand-fold. Jews and Gen- tiles meet constantly for Lunch to make big business deals. Then the contact closes. Should Jews be grateful that at least in the spheres of business and education there is cooperation while the relationships relating to the academies and stock markets are in process? Perhaps it should be asked: what happens to the comradeship created by the Bnai Brith when it honors, perennially, a prominent non-Jew at an annual di- , ner? Hundreds of Christians are at these functions, arranged, understandably a large downtown meeting hall because the response from non-Jews as well aL, massive Jewish audience is so extensive. They do not meet in a synagogue since such an event is not synagogue-geared, but they serve kosher meals to the attendees. That's how they create a measure of understanding and camaraderie. So, it could be asserted with a measure of satisfaction, that philanthropically there emerges a cooperativeness. Jews go to philanthropic functions arranged by Gentiles, Gentiles come to philanthropic events administered by Jews. Should we shout hallelujah to philanthropy that unites faiths on some occasions? Indeed, the social gap sensationalized in the Detroit News' Shelley Eichenhorn article is not new: it is a mere reminder of continuity in social divi- siveness. Heywood Broun (1888-1939), that remarkable writer who was born a Protes- tant and died a Catholic, who was such a keen observer of human events, wrote a book on the subject in 1931. He entitled it "Christians Only: A Study in Prejudice." In that valuable study he coined the phrase: "Five O'Clock Anti-Semitism." More than 45 years ago that eminent writer exposed the facts: of business as usual between Jews and Gentiles until 5 p.m. Then the social anti-Semitism began. Isn't it evident that the sensation in the Nov. 14 Detroit News sensational article was history repeating itself? The, Bellow Role in Literature and on the Social Scene: Notable Characteristics Saul Bellow is a case all his own. He displays characteristics that are admira- ble. When he lost out for the Nobel Prize last year, while in Israel preparatory to the publication of his "To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account" (Viking Press), he was not bitter. When he received the Nobel Prize in Literature this year he was modest, gentlemanly. He commented, when asked about another famous Jewish writer, that he would not object to Norman Mailer receiving the Nobel Prize. He doesn't object to speaking about himself and he offered a revelation. He had planned to prepare for an academic career and wanted to teach English literature. He learned there was, when he had that hope, a bias against Jews in the departments devoted to literature in the American universities. He turned to writing and the success he has attained is a matter of record. This writer recalled his own days at the University of Michigan. Jews headed the German and French departments, they were on the faculties of economics and sociology and soon a Jew was to become Dean of the Department of Economics. But Jews had no chance in the English department where, ironically, a Jew, Dr. Louis A. Straus, who hailed from the Hart, Schaffner and Marks family, headed the department. An interesting counterpart to Saul Bellow's frustrated hopes for a teaching post in English literature is related by Charles Madison, the eminent author and authority on the publishers of this country, especially the Jewish publishing field. Upon his graduation from the University of Michigan, Madison, a former Detroi- ter, did graduate work at Yale, under a very prominent scholar. He expressed his interest in teaching, with English literature as his specialty, and the eminent professor who headed the English department at Yale told him frankly: you have a speech impediment which is not very serious, but you are a Jew and won't be placed; why don't you get a job in a publishing house. Madison followed his advice and adhered to his warning. He went to Henry Holt and Company (later Holt, Rinehart and Winston). He was employed, came on the assigned Monday morning to assume his duties as an editorial reader in the college textbooks department and was greeted with a hearty welcome. Then he was asked whether he had a nice weekend andwent to church on Sunday. Madison said it was a delightful weekend and if he was to go anywhere he would have gone to synagogue on Saturday. The man who gave him the job was horrified. He said if Mr. Holt were to know about it he would throw both of them out of the highest window. Madison offered to leave but was asked to stay on and risk the consequences and he remained with the firm for some 38 years until his retirement. He even authored a book about the Holt Publishing Co. His most recent book, "Jewish Publishing in America — The Impact of Jewish Writing on American Culture," was reviewed in The Jewish News on Sept. 24. (Madison was among the very knowledgeable authors who addressed the annual Jewish Book Fair here on Nov. 16.) Back to Saul Bellow: there is something remarkable about the man. He was not "born anew" in Jerusalem, and his experience in "To Jerusalem and Back" is not a "return" as such to the Jewish fold. It is primarily a great experience, an affirmation of a legacy he does not talk about, a dedication to truths he learned from experience and he now adheres to it. Viking Press understandably glories in Bellow's triumph on the world scene. The book on Jerusalem is certain to be a long-running success among best sellers. Interestingly, in a press release, Viking utilized a few exceptional quotations from "To Jerusalem . . ." At functions honoring Bellow participants have read excerpts from his book. Noteworthy, as a recognition of the new achievement, is the following, with excerpts from the book in the Viking news release: In the fall of 1975, Bellow and his wife people in a dining room like any other. Alexandra .visited Israel for seareral You know that your hostess has lost a months, she as a professor of mathema- son; that her sister lost children in the tics at the Hebrew University and he as 1973 war; that in this Jerusalem street, a writer, guest, traveler, reader, lis- cooly sweet with night flowers and dark tener, student, Jew, American. Bellow green under the lamps, many other visited the other dimensions of Israel's families have lost children . . But in mind and its spirit as much as he visited the domestic ceremony of passed dishes its hills, borders, and market places. and filled glasses thoughts of a destruc- The account he gives of his sojourn is a tive enemy are hard to grasp. What you very personal, often disquieting, al- do know is that there is one fact of Jewish ways engrossing view of Israeli life to- life unchanged by the creation of a day. Jewish state: you cannot take your right Here you sit at dinner with charming to live for granted . . . Life in Israel is far from enviable, yet there is a clear purpose in it. People are fighting for the society they have created, and for life and honor . . . Sartre and others apparently want the Jews to be exceptionally exceptional. Perhaps the Jews have themselves created such expectations. Israel has made extraordinary efforts to be democ- ratic, equitable, reasonable, capable of change. It has, in fact, transformed its Jews. In Hitler's Europe, they were led to the slaughter; in 1948, the survivors became formidable fighters. Landless in exile, they turned into farmers. The Mamelukes had decreed that the Palesti- nian coastal plain should be a desert; they made a garden of it. Obviously, the Jews accepted a historic responsibility to be exceptional. They have been held to this; they have held themselves to it. Now the question is whether more cannot be demanded from other peoples. On the others, no such demands are made .. . "To Jerusalem and Back" is a liter- ary cornucopia: Bellow's interests and curiosities are as individual as they are wide-ranging — food, people, politics, poetry, more people, guns, weather, and more people. His account is stud- ded with conversations and interviews: the old barber at the King David Hotel; Mr. D., a proper diplomat of the Foreign Office; his friend John Auerbach, a kibutznik seaman; Dr. Z., the gynecologist; Weisgal, the Zionist pioneer; an indignant middle-aged librarian; Michel Tatu, foreign-news editor of Le Monde; an Armenian ar- chbishop; Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem. For the most part, Bellow listens, but not always: I briefly tried to persuade Rabin that Israel had better give some thought to the media intelligentsia in the United States. I say that the country is in a let's- clean-it-up mood. We've cleaned up Vie- tnam, cleaned up Watergate, we are now cleaning up the CIA and the FBI and the Medicaid frauds. If the media were to lay the problem of the Palestinians or peace in the Middle East before Ameircan pub- lic opinion while the country is in this impatient state, calling on the govern- ment to 'clean it up,' it might be disastr- ous for Israel. Israel's survival depends inordi- nately on other peoples and other na- tions, and Bellow looks to them — the Arab countries, England, France, and, above all, America — to try to un- derstand and explain Israel's behavior, posture, and fate. A small state in perpetual crisis, it is forced to keep pace with the superpow- ers, to buy the sophisticated arms at great cost and master them, to live in a condition of partial mobilization; it has to do business, to analyze correctly Ameri- ca's fiscal policies, the mood of the Con- gress, the powers of the American mass media. Out of pure need, for the sake of survival, it must immerse itself in American problems. Israel must reckon with the world, and with the madness of the world, and to a grotesque extent. And all because the Israelis wish to lead Jewish lives in a Jewish state. Bellow was honored by the Bnai Brith Anti-Defamation League on Nov. 14 with the Democratic Legacy Award and the principal speaker at the function was Israel Ambassador to the UN Chaim Herzog. It was the appropriate time to expose the injustice of a UN Security Council resolution relating to the status Jerusalem. Because Bellow's latest and Jewishly most impressive theme w. Jerusalem it was especially effective that Ambassador Herzog should have stated, addressing the Nobel Prize winner: "On Thursday evening, the Security Council by a consensus statement ex- pressed the opinion that measures and actions taken by Israel in Jerusalem are invalid and called on Israel 'to rescind all such measures already taken.' "Translated into reality, Mr. Bellow, the Security Council unanimously called on Israel to return the building and district in which you lived and wrote 'To Jerusalem and Back' from its present aesthetic beauty, its peculiar attraction, its spectacular architecture, its human purpose, back to death haunted mine-fields, a no-man's land strewn with barbed wire and reeking with the decaying corpses of straying animals blown up on the mines in which the voice of hatred reigns, in which the laughter is not that of children but of jackals and in which the voice of human intercourse is replaced by the stutter of the machine gun. "The beautiful immortal city which has been so lovingly nurtured by Mayor Teddy Kollek is to revert, according to the Security Council, to a city torn, divided, at war again. The freedom for all religions, which had been the pride of the Israeli administration, is to be replaced by the restrictions, the discrimination, the anti- Jewish and anti-Christian laws of the Jordanian regime. "You could not, Mr. Bellow, return to your apartment in Neve Shaananim, a center of writing, of culture, of beauty, because it would revert to the center of a no-man's land." .