NE DETROIT JEWISH IRS

Friday, November 10, 1978 25

The Concluding Chapter in Story of a Legendary Zionist Figure

•

•

•

radiating with health. We
have sanctified the law of
equal effort for all. Before I
left this world 50 years ago I
thought that all was lost. I
wanted something differ-
ent, but this is great!"
"I missed my life" was
one of the fighter's last
words before his end. For
such men as he was,
human forces fail before
they can complete their
too gigantic task. But we
cannot measure their ac-
complishments by their
DR. MAX NORDAU
subjective gauge; we
men and girls made a chain must measure them by
with their knotted hands to our own scale and by the
check the crowd, leaving a depth of the furrow they
free alley in the center for drove into man's mind.
the procession. The school
He survives whose ideas
children served as a guard become part of ourselves,
of honor, waving flags and whose judgments go sweep-
banners.
ing around by word of
The body was deposited mouth, whose criticisms
under a canopy in front- of appear vain because they
the Town Hall, whose bal- have had their effect and
conies were draped in black become useless. Max Nor-
cloth. The Maccabeans, dau could not suppress the
then the scouts, filed past evils inherent to human
for their last greeting to him imperfection; at least he
who had given them their forced men to think and
reason for living.
enlightened them.
The burial took _ place in
Many chapters of his
the afternoon. Speeches works still remain to be
were delivered, in Hebrew realized. They are prophetic
of course. Then the proces- because the moral state
sion marched once more they condemn has not yet_
through the incredibly changed. It needs more than
crowded streets to the last a short human existence .. .
resting place, the music His ideas are now part of the
playing the melodies that treasure of mankind, they
spoke of sorrow and mourn- are leading -forces that can-
ing but also of hope and not be suppressed.
courage. The coffin was
Max Nordau lived a full
draped in the flag of Israel. life. He knew all joys and all
Max Nordau rests now pains. He loved and hated,
His death resounded in the old cemetery in was defeated and victorious.
through the world. Even Trumpeldor Street. Next At least he was spared the
those who had fought him to him are Ahad Ha'am, abominations of the Second
bowed before his greatness. Bialik, Arlosoroff, Dizen- World War and the
All were moved by the spec- goff, Israel Rokach
monstrosities of racialism,
tacle of a man who had at- Herzl, Jabotinsky are on against which he had
tained a summit in human Mount Herzl, but it may warned mankind in "De-
achievement and in the end be better that Max Nor- generation."
had been exiled- and dau should remain in the
He constantly acquired
finished his days in distress city which is entirely the a better knowledge of
and poverty. Not only creation of the miracul- reality: the works of his
among the Jews but also _ous development of Is- old age are still deeper,
among the Christians was rael, a symbol of its new more just, more construc-
his passing respectfully life.
tive than those of his
commented and mourned.
Max Nordau's was a youth of maturity. He
He was buried according strenuous career that was to was equitable and
to the Jewish rites, purified be crowned posthumously. forebearing to all, be-
and garbed in white. His Among all his ideals, he had cause his vast bounty
beauty was such as we had preferred one. It was the corrected the sternness
never seen before.
most difficult to realize, yet of his reason. He was
stricter to himself than to
Like Moses, he had never the most urgent.
From his study, the others. He tried to re-
.beheld Eretz Yisrael. Fate
struck him down not long thinker had listened to the semble the ideal that he
- before he meant to take the call of his harassed and per- had drawn for himself
journey. But three years secuted race. He 'had ac- and that he proposed to
after his death the munici- knowledged the m3ssage of his fellow-men; yet he
pality of Tel Aviv, headed the prophet Herzl. He had was one of the few
by the great mayor Meir Di- rallied his people and famous people who gain
zengoff, the founder of the summoned it to arms; he in being known person-
town, decided to have his had endeavored to marshal ally, in his intimacy.
Despite his lack of reli-
mortal remains transferred it, to teach it political disci-
pline and to lead it towards gious faith, he was not a
to that city.
salvation. And he would materialist. He threw back
Farewell ceremonies perhaps have said today:
with dismay those solutions
were held at the railroad
"I wanted more and bet- which tend to make a man a
station in Paris, at the ter. I have sacrificed every- stomach only. He consid-
departure of the ship in thing to guide my people to ered civilization from its
Marseille and at the arri- perfection. Too many errors spiritual angle.
val in Alexandria. This have heaped obstacles; but
Deeply optimistic be-
was the way to reach what has been created can- cause, he explained it him-
Palestine, as the port of not be wiped out. Those who self, he enjoyed an overflow-
Jaffa was very primitive came here live dangerously, ing vitality, he hoped
and the Haifa harbor was but their life is worthwhile.
against hope, he believed in
not developed.
"We work to show the good, in progress. He
So one had to pass world that life is more pow- foresaw horror:
through Egypt and then erful than death, love
"Distress and bloodshed,
take a train that crossed the stronger than hatred. Out of many crimes and deeds of
Suez Canal and arrived in a desert we made a garden; violence; peoples will rage
Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. out of trembling souls, against each other and
There, the solemnity was athletes and heroes; out of whole races will be
most impressive. Young weaklings, men and women pitilessly exterminated;

(Continued from Page 24)
cians fought the malady
with utmost devotion. On
the eighth day of his ill-
ness Nordau said to his
wife: "My poor darling,
this is the end."
Of course,-the lecture tour
had to be cancelled.
Nordau lived on, but his
strength was broken. He
could not work anymore, al-
though he was still in-
terested in all events. He
followed the debates, at the
arlsbad Zionist Congress
d answered the telegrams
e received. But the im-
provement did not last.
For two years, he tried
treatment after treatment
which tired and saddened
his soul. Then his heart
began to show signs of
exhaustion.
During January 1923,
he grew weaker and suf-
fered. Dr. Marmorek
notified Jean Fischer
who hastened to Paris.
Myriam Schach came
daily.
On the afternoon of Jan.
- 21, Nordau summoned all
his family around him. He
kissed them. He was calmer
after that. He bade farewell
to no one; his stoic pride sus-
tained him to the end. He
breathed his last at one
o'clock the next afternoon.
His family was at his bed-
side as well as , Marmorek
and Jean Fischer. Jean
Fischer closed his eyes . . . _

.

tragedies of exalted heroism
will be played along with
tragedies of human base-
ness; cowardly multitudes
will allow themselves to be
emasculated without resis-
tence; armies of brave men
will fall with glory in the

combat."
Yet he did not deem it the
end of the world. He would
have seen in the inevitable
social changes the forecast
of a better era. Not that men
learn, their memory is too
short; but if they wish to

survive, they must create
for themselves livable con-
ditions.
The last lines of Max
Nordau's last book are
again phrases of hope: "The
word 'despair' makes no
sense to me."

HEAR

FATHER ROBERT F. DRINAN,

Distinguished Congressman from the State of MassacKusetts
Spokesman On Behalf of Soviet Jewry
Advocate of the Cause of the State ofIsrael

at

TEMPLE BETH EL

Telegraph Road at 14 Mile

November 17
Friday Evening
at 8:30

Rabbi Richard C. Hertz will present to Father Drinan

TEMPLE BETH EL's

FIRST MERIT AWARD

for his efforts on behalf of

soviet Jewry and the state of israel

Open to the Public

All Are Welcome