36 Friday, December 9, 1977 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

French Support
Soviet Jewry

PARIS (JTA)--Solidarity
Week with Soviet Jewry
was launched here last Sun-
day night at a mass meeting
of some 2,500 United Jewish
Appeal campaign workers.
Jewish communities in
West Europe also marked
this week their solidarity
with Soviet Jews.

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"FANTASIA"
"FIRST LOVE"
"LOOKING FOR MR. - GOODBARI'

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Poland—A Land Without Jews Where Tattered
Remnants of Old Jewish Culture Linger On

BY EDWIN EYTAN

Rinatzan and AnSki. Next to
it lies Esther Rachel Ka-
minska, the founder of the
Warsaw Yiddish Theater,
and further away the thea-
ter actors who died in the
war.
Joined in the peace of the
dead side by side, lies the
former president of the
Warsaw Ghetto "Judenrat,"
Adam Czerniakov, who
committed suicide on. July
22, 1942 after realizing that
the Germans were deter-
mined to kill all of Poland's
Jews, and 11 of the ghetto
fighters.
The cemetery stands
deserted. The Polish gov-
ernment pays only for the
upkeep of the area in which
the former Jewish Com-
munist revolutionaries are
buried. The tomb of former
Bundist leaders, Szuldenfrei
and Michael Kleptfisz, is
looked after by their current
followers. The rest is left to
nature.
The cemetery porter, an
old Jew in a leather cap
who sits all day in his but
drinking vodka to keep "the
evil spirits away" rarely
ventures into "the jungle."
The synagogue's regular
minyan, led by Rabbi

(Copyright 1977, JTA, Inc. ►

WARSAW—The entrance
to the Warsaw Jewish cem-
etery is on Okipownah 51. A
plain double, wrought-iron
gate which opens wide lets
the hearses through.
Here starts the jungle,
360,000 tombs scattered
along the endless alleys,
overgrown with high, wild
grass. Weeds of all kinds
and shapes grow among the
tombs, sometimes right
through the tombstones. It
is the largest Jewish ceme-
tery in the world—a city by
itself.
To the right of the central
alley is the Square of the
Great Rabbis, their cen-
turies-old tombstones lean-
ing at a perilous angle. Next
rises the monumental cu-
pola which marks the grave
of Miroslav Schwartsz, a
former millionaire.
The tomb of Bronsilav Ha-
ber, a colonel with Pil-
sudski's 18th Cavalry Bri-
gade who died in 1915 for
Poland's independence is
more modest: a plain slab
with two crossed swords.
A little to the south there
are buried, in a joint tomb,
known as the Peretz Cupola,
Jewish writers I.L. Peretz,

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Moishe Szapiro, comes once
or twice a year for yizkor.
The "Kulturverband," the
government-backed organi-
zation, gathers en masse on
April 19 to commemorate
the ghetto uprising.
The director of the gov-
ernment-supported Warsaw
Yiddish Theater, Szymon
Szurmej, walks with me
along the alleys. We stop
from time to time to read
the inscription on a grave : a
millionaire, a "kabtzan"
(pauper), a doctor, a for-
mer officer. "The day the
Messiah comes and the
graves will open, the great-
est Jewish elite will come to
life—rabbonim, poets, drea-
mers and vagabonds will
rise," sighs Szurmej.
Till that far-off day, old
Poland comes to life three
times a week: Saturday,
Sunday and Monday nights,
on the stage of the Warsaw
Yiddish Theater. In this city
practically without JewS is
one of the world's last Yidd-
ish theaters, with a revolv-
ing stage, electronically
programmed lights and a
102-member staff, including
36 veteran actors. I saw two
plays, AnSki's "The Dybuk"
and Babel's "The Thieves."
It is strange to hear Jew-
ish actors act a Jewish play
in Yiddish in this city with-
out Jews and in front of a
non-Jewish audience of
some 400. The spectators
listen to a translation into
Polish through earphones.
To6y the Warsaw Yidd-
ish Theater is one of the
handful of Yiddish theaters
left and probably the best.
The departure of Ida Ka-
minska has not impaired its
performance. Its new direc-
tor, and several new actors,
have on the contrary, given
it a new lease on life.
Of its 36 regular actors,
six are Polish Gentiles, in-
cluding the actress who
plays the star role of Lea in
AnSki's "Dybuk." The thea-
ter operates a Yiddish "ul-
pan" and holds daily lessons
in Jewish and Yiddish cul-
ture for its six non-Jewish
actors. It is probably the
only establishment of its
kind in the world.
Practically no one in the
large hall built with Joint
Distribution Committee
funds, understands a single
word of what is said on the
stage. Many of the. choirs
sing their lines which they
have learned by heart with-
out grasping their meaning.
Szurrnej hires outside pro-
fessional singers and danc-
ers for many of his shows.
And yet the magic is there.
The traditional East Eu-

ropean Jewish characters:
Menahem Mendel, Hershele
of Ostropole and Mirele
Efros come to life on the
stage of this city practically
with no Jews.

The audience consists
mainly of people who come
to "enjoy the show." The
400-seat hall is nearly al-
ways full.
Less efficient is the Yidd-
ish weekly, "Folkstimme. -
Practically no one, Pole or

Jew, is convinced either by
its arguments or by its pre-
sentation.
Half in Yiddish, half in
Polish, it devotes long, bor-
ing articles to Yiddish
writers and to the glory of
the regime. In most issues
there is not a single word
about Israel. Its readers, if
they were to rely on "Folk-
stimme" alone, would not
know that Israel exists.
Another dead institution is
the Jewish Historic In-
stitute, in a musty, aban-
doned building in which
Ringelblum wrote his war-
time Ghetto Chronicles. Its
prize exhibits are the two
milk cans in which Ringelb-
lum hid the history of the
sufferings and heroism of
the wartime Warsaw
Ghetto.
There are three floors of
dusty exhibits and faded
photographs. On the third
floor, the archives contain
back issues of the pre-war
Polish Jewish press, and in
an iron strongbox the Ring-
elblum papers are kept.
The Institute is part of the
Polish Academy of Science.
It has a staff of 34, but it has
not produced a single
serious scientific pub-
lication in years and its only
purpose seems to be to try
and show that Poland has
not forgotten its "Jewish
past." -
All the truly precious
documents, the 600-year-old
manuscripts, the writings of
the great "Hahamim" have
disappeared. Some are in
the State Library in War-
saw, many are in the Marie
Curie University and others
still are in the Lublin Catho-
lic University.
The "Yeshivat Hakhmei
Lublin," once reputed for its
library, has become the
medical school. Once there
were 40,000 Jews in Lublin.
Today, the president of the
local community, Shulim
Garin, whose brother lives
in Israel, estimated the

city's Jews at "40, maybe 50
people."

The old Jewish quarter,
the "Square of the Holy
Ghost, - has been renamed
after a wartime Jewish he-
roine, "Hanke Savietko-Sza-
piro." But the Jews them-
selves have disappeared:
The only building of pre-
war Jewish architecture
that remains, houses the
"Beit Midrash Hevrat Nos-
sim"—the last remaining
synagogue, a large room
with a "balabatishe oven''
and a bed on which the
gabbai sleeps. "We have not
had a minyan in months.
There are no Jews left in
Lublin," sighs the old gab-
bai sitting on his bed in
pajamas and slippers.
Shulim Garin speaks a
little Hebrew. "I knew He-
brew much better but there
is no one here with whom to
practice," he said. The only
good Hebraist in Lublin is a
Catholic priest, Father
Josef Homarski, dean of the
Theological School at the
Catholic University.
Father Homarski, who

teaches Syriac, Aramaic
and Persian, is considered a
world authority on the "Old
Testament." He spent a
year in Jerusalem before
the reunification of the city.
The students, five priests
and five laity, study He-
brew. The program lasts
three years, the first de-
voted to basic Hebrew and
the two succeeding years to
the study of grammar and
literature. Father Homarski
regrets, however, the old
days.
"Ten years ago we had 30
Hebrew students and 20
years ago, 50 or more," he
said. "We hope to send to
Israel one of our assistants
to attend Bible and archae-
ology courses at the Hebrew
University or at Bar-Ilan. It
is practically impossible for
us to do useful scientific
work without knowing what
is done in ISrael. One cannot
understand the past, the
days of the Bible, without
knowing the present."
Father Homarski would
also like to have an Israeli
researcher work in the uni-
versity's library. "We have
hundreds of old Hebrew
manuscripts but we have no
one capable of using them,"
he said. Homarski, a tall,
thin man, sighs "Alas, I
fear that nothing will hap-
pen till Poland and Israel
" reestablish diplomatic rela-
tions."
Father Homarski also
regrets that "the Jewish
priests" (Catholic priests of
Jewish origin, converted
Jews) are neither Hebrew
scholars nor interested in
research work. Several of
them are stationed in Je-
rusalem but they all seem
to prefer pastoral work
(probably missionary activi-
ties) rather than studying or
devoting themselves to bib-
lical research."
Night falls over Lublin. In
the Catholic University the
bells call for evening pray-
, ers. In the corridors stu-
dents and priests hurry to
church. The Beit Midrash is
empty. Lublin, like the rest
of Poland, is tcday prac-
tically "Judenrein - -at
least free of living Jews.

Black Africans
May Resume Tie
With Jewish State

NEW YORK (JTA)—
Black African states that
broke diplomatic ties with
Israel under Arab pressure
are likely to resume normal
relations with the Jewish
state in the wake of Egyp-
tian President Anwar Sa-
dat's pre cedent-shattering
visit to Jerusalem, predict-
ed Bayard Rustin, civil
rights leader and an early
organizer and supporter of
Black African liberation
movements, and Rabbi Ar-
thur Hertzberg, president of
the American Jewish Con-
gress.

Better ask 10 times than
get lost once.

