2 Friday, January 28, 1977

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Purely Commentary

Echoes of Struggle for Yiddish at
World Conference of Journalists
JERUSALEM — The language
struggle is an old experience in Jewish
history. The fate of Hebrew could never
be endangered because it is the lan-
guage of the synagogue and the Jew's
prayers. It has been like the Latin of
the Catholics who pray recitatively
without necessarily understanding a
word of what they read or chanted.
Isn't this how it is with the overwhelm-
ing majority of Jews who pray by rote
without understanding the meanings
Of their words? Now there is an urge to
match the translation with the recita-
tion, and the new glory has been added
to the tongue that has become a revived
language. This is thanks to the rebirth
of Israel, its Hebrew a spoken language
for the world to recognize and Jewry to
take pride in.
It all began as the task of Eliezer Ben
Yehuda who put life into what had been
viewed as one of the dead languages by
making it first the spoken tongue of his
own family, by undertaking the publi-
cation of an encyclopedic dictionary, by
insisting that Jews in the then Pales-
tinian Yishuv make it obligatory not
only to pray in it, but making it the
medium of interchange and expression
in every-day life.
An interesting story was related to
this correspondent many years ago by
the late Jacob Miller, who was the
executive director of the early United
Palestine Appeal campaigns in De-
troit and who later became director of
the leading Palestine insurance com-
pany. Mr. Miller, upon arriving in
Jerusalem met the then Governor of
Jerusalem, Sir Ronald Storrs, who was
named by the British Mandatory
Power to head the Jerusalem district.
General Storrs certainly was not a
philo-Semite, but he was clever,
scholarly, diplomatic. When Mr. Miller
addressed him in English, General
Storrs said to him — this was in 1922 - or
a year or two later: "Miller, daber Ivrit.
Atah b'Eretz Israel" — "Miller, speak

The Language Struggle in Israel Recalled as Journalists
Hear Urgent Calls in Defense of Yiddish and Pleas for Its News-
papers . . . Spirit of Israel Affirms Normalcy

Hebrew. You are in the Land of Israel."
This was during the time when there
was a struggle between Hebrew and
Yiddish in Palestine. A small group
wanted Yiddish to be recognized as the
language of the Jewish settlement, the
Yishuv. The Hebraists became bitterly
anti-Yiddish.
There also was the incident of the
struggle between Hebrew and the sup-
porters of German and French. The
Technion and the late Dr. Shmaryahu
Levine was in the center of the strug-
gle. The Israelite Universelle Fran-
caise battled for French, the Verein der
Deutchen Juden battled for German,
Dr. Levine and his Zionist associates
insisted. on Hebrew. The result is the
historic, established fact.
The bitter feud between Hebrew and
Yiddish subsided long ago. The tragedy
is the decline of Yiddish generally.
There is a Yiddish daily in Israel — Die
Letzte Nayes. It is as minor as all other,
non-Hebrew publications, yet it plays
an important role because its editors do
not let an opportunity go by to plead for
life and preferred treatment for the
language that is so vital as a treasure
house of great literary productions, a
tongue that served millions of Jews for
more than a thousand years.
At the sessions of the World Union of
Jewish Journalists held here last week,
the Yiddishists were the pleaders for a
great new life. S. L. Schneiderman of
New York was most impassioned. He
emphasized that there still are Yiddish
dailies in five countries—Israel, the
United States, France, Uruguay and
Argentina, and there was insistence
that the language not only merits and
was rich in traditions in poetry and
history but that it was regaining life
and 'should live. The lovers of the lan-
guage wish it well and hope the Yid-
dishist aspiration will succeed. Tragi-
cally, it is a hope against great odds. To
wish it well is, also, to give-it encour-
agement.' Perhaps the . great goals it
had attained also will give it new life in
the years ahead.

Strengthened Jewish Press Urged

JERUSALEM — Philip
.Slomovitz, editor and
publisher of The Detroit
Jewish News, vice presi-
dent of the Jewish Tele-
graphic Agency, founding
president of the Ameri-
can Jewish Press Associ-
ation, addressed the
opening session of the
Conference of the World
Union of Jewish Jour-
nalists, at Beit Agron in
Jerusalem, Jan. 11.
Greeting the more than
100 delegates from some
12 countries, Slomovitz
recalled that the World
Union was founded dur-
ing the Fourth Plenary
Session of the World
Jewish Congress, in
Stockholm, Sweden, in
August of 1959. He told of
the gathering at that
time of some 70 newsmen
who joined him and Josef
Fraenkel at a meeting of
Jewish journalists.
The late Meir Gross-
man, a world Zionist
leader and a founder of
the JTA, presided at the
sessions, and the move-
ment had the encour-
agement of Dr. Nahum
Goldmann.
While there were few
from Israel at that found-
ing session, Slomovitz
pointed out, because the
Israeli press had not yet
attained its present pow-
erful role in Jewish life,
the centrality of Israel has
become a vital factor for
the world Jewish press,

and the Israeli leadership,.
with Moshe Ron in a very
creative role, now the host
to the Jewish newsmen
throughout the world.
He asserted that the
centrality of Israel does
not negate the vastness
of the profession, the im-
portant role of the Jewish
press in the many lands
represented at the 1977
conference. The press in
Jewish communities
everywhere—
, he said,
must maintain the vital
role in the wholeness of
the scheme now under
view and consideration at
this world conference of
news gatherers. -.
Slomovitz called .atten-
tion to the fact that when
the World Union of
Jewish Journalists was
organized in 1959 there
still were four or five
daily Yiddish newspapers
in the U.S., with impres-
sive circulations. Now
there is only - one im-
poverished American
Yiddish daily, and it was
the Israeli directorate of
the journalists' confeder-
ation that saw fit to pub-
lish an impressive, vol-
uminous work that was
entitled Dos Yiddishe
Presse Bos Is Geven
The Yiddish Press That
Was, a tragic reference to
a demise to be seriously
regretted. "Couldn't we
also say Ladino She-Haya
— Ladino that once

lived," he asked?
Because of this de-
pressing experience,. he
said, there must be seri-
ous consideration for the
future of the entire
Jewish press everywhere.
There is, he emphasized,
the obligation to raise the
standards of Jewish jour-
nalism, to cooperate for
the assurance - of
strengthening the most
important media.
The World Union,
Slornoviti maintained,
has the great duty to sol-
idify the unity that is so
vital to a working press
that elevates the com-
munities they serve.
Out of the conference, if
experience is the teacher,
are certain to come
analyses of the status of
Jewry, he said.
American Jews will be
advised in many matters.
There will be advice
about increasing inter-
marriage, the Jewish
educational laxities and
other faults.
They are faults pos-
sessed by all Jewries and
only through a
strengthened press, by
assuring the unity of
journalistic purposes, can
•the solutions be attained,
he said.
In this spirit the pre-
sent conference of Jewish
journalists assumes a
vital purpose to which the
English-Jewish press is
strqngly _cte,,dicAtecl,

The Courage of a Nation
With Creative Powers
TEL AVIV — Twenty visits in Israel
attune to a factual realism. If it is nor-
mal to keep returning to the Jewish
state, to watch progress, to share in the
satisfaction of seeing people defy dan-
gers and live normally, then it is
equally realistic to fit into the scheme
of things with a consideration of
realities as normal as those at home.
This is a great country. Israel pro-
duces everything.- She ,has the best
chocolates, matching the Swiss. You
can get a Shalom smoking pipe the most
fastidious collector can be proud of. Our
fellow Jews here have begun to man-
ufacture jets. You can get good food
and the hotels operate efficiently.
In the instance of the French -pros-
titution of justice, in the Daoud case, a
visitor begins to wonder how the people
react. Like decent folk everywhere
they are angry, outraged, puzzled that
a great power should be so indecent.

By Philip
Slomovitz

But that's 'only a mere incident: life
goes on, people work and study and
pray — and produce! And while they —
would act against indecency, they do
not permit even the most serious obsta-
cles to stand in the way of progress.
This is a normal people — so normal
that some even become attuned to the
frauds and corruptions that have
caused so much travail here.
, Israelis are more concerned now with
their internal divisiveness, with the
dishonesty among some officials. So,
they say, they will aim for a change in
government. Perhaps there will also be
a hemshekh — continuity — in govern-
ment, since acceptance is based on
realization that if there are human er-
rors, time will correct. Meanwhile; a
normal people creates, defies obstacles,
asks for uninterrupted cooperation
from fellow Jews, invites them to come,
to make pilgrimages to a great land re-
built by remarkable people. It's normal
and a joy to take pride in them.

Jewish Journalists Conference
Can Not Answer the Problems

BY MURRAY ZUClidiT-

Editor, Jewish
Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM (JTA) —
The World Conference of
Jewish JournalistS which
'met at Beit Agron for
three days last week had
all the ingredients that
make for a successful
gathering.
There were more than
100 Israeli, Yiddish and
English-Jewish jour-
nalists and editors from .
15 countries who were
brimming with en-
thusiasm when the con-
clave began.
Collectively, they rep-
resented the experience
and expertise of decades
of Jewish journalism; all
devoted and dedicated to
the task of dealing with
all the nuances of the
identity, continuity and
security of the Jewish
people in the Diaspora
and the state of Israel.
But by the time the con-
ference ended the over-
whelming majority of the
participants agreed that
the forum where they had
hoped to deal with the is-
sues and problems they
face in making the Jewish
press around the world an
even more efficient and ef-
fective medium for gather-
ing and disseminating
vital news had been a voy-
age in routine,.nostalgia
and frustration.
Many problems the
participants had hoped to
deal with were not even
mentioned.
Most notable was the
absence of any discussion
dealing with the plight of
the Jewish press in coun-
tries controlled by right
or left-wing dictator-
ships.
Worst of all, journalists
whose function it is to
communicate found
themselves stymied in
their efforts to communi-
cate to each other. More
frequently than not they
talked at cross-purposes.
This was not entirely the
fault of the conference or-
ganizers — journalists
such as Moshe Ron, chair-
man of the World Federa-
tion of Jewish Journalists

which sponsored the con-
clave, Arieh Tzimuki,
executive of the Federa-
tion, and Yitzhak Shargil
of Yediot Ahronot and Tel
Aviv correspondent for
the Jewish Telegr-aphic
Agency.
They and others on the
organizing committee
worked diligently for
months to try to assure
the success of the gather-
ing.
Almost from the outset
it was clear that the con-
ference was a gathering
of journalists who were in
proximity but not two-
Otherness.
There were actually
three blocs of jour-
nalists and editors — Is-
raelis, Yiddish and
English-writing — who
spoke at each other but
rarely to each other.
Their interests and
perspectives could not be
resolved nor even cross-
fertilized.
The Israelis sought to
convince the others that
news from Israel pu13-'
lished abroad should con-
tain nothing which would
embarrass the Jewish
communities nor make Is-
rael look bad in the eyes of
its enemies.
The Yiddish jour-
nalists, with the notable
exception of the Jewish
Daily Forward represen-
tatives, seemed to be
locked into a time frame
that ended somewhere
just before World War II.
They were caught up in
delivering speeches
about the good old days
when the Yiddish press
was influential, bemoan-
ing the fact that less and
less Jews are writing or
•reading Yiddish and
campaigning to convince
all present 'to return to
"mameh loshn."
The English-writing
journalists, almost all
• from the United States,
dealt realistically with
the need to expand and
deepen the coverage of
world Jewish events, the
necessity of utilizing the
most advanced tech-
niques and technologies
for gathering and dis-
. semijkating _ the news,,

finding ways to attract
young people to the field
of Jewish journalism and
the obligation to report
on all nuances of Jewish
life both in Israel and the
Diaspora in an objective
and impartial manner.
Another impediment to
the success of the confer-
ence was that there were
too many ceremonial
speeches by Israeli offi-
cials which broke no new
ground.
In addition, the work-
ing sessions consisted of
eight or nine panelists
and no discussions from
the floor. Many of those
who spoke did so with au-
'thority, fluency, and even
audacity. But their views
and suggestions had no
practical results.
Yet, out of the welter of
speeches by the jour-
nalists there emerged a
the
or
consensus
strengths and weaknes-
ses of the Israeli and
American Jewish press
which helped lay the
basis for a rethinking of
the aims and needs of
both.
The Israeli press was
castigated by this writer
and others, including Is-
raeli journalists, for fail-
ino. to reflect properly the
situation of world Jewry.
Shargil stated that not
enough is being done in
the Israeli press "to give
us a glimpse of Jewish life
abroad..We .learn from
textbooks about the
world of Sholom Aleichem .
and the shtetle that is no
more. But we do not learn
from our press about the
Jewish world as it exists
today and our Israeli
youth is ignorant about
it."
Levi Yitzhak Hayeru-
shalmi, chairman of the
Tel Aviv Journalists As-
sociation, berated the Is-
raeli press for devoting
more space to the prob-
lems. of India and China
than to the world-wide
Jewish communities.
In an address at the
home of President Ep-
hraim Katzir, this writer
criticized the Israeli
(Continued on Page 56)

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