46 Friday, December 29, 1918
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Army Evacuates Gush From
Unauthorized WB Sites
Isaac Bashevis Singer Discusses His Work
The following is excerp-
TEL AVIV (JTA) — office, the Gush were ted from a recent dialogue
in New York between Isaac
Army units evacuated two allowed to remain on the
groups of Gush Emunim land nominally part of the Bashevis Singer, 1978
Nobel Laureate in litera-
settlers from unauthorized military compound, but the
sites on the West Bank army will soon relocate its ture, and Rabbi William
Wednesday without inci- base leaving the original Berkowitz, president of the
Jewish National Fund:
dent, but other develop- camp entirely to the Gush.
BERKOWITZ: Mr.
Similarly,
the
Gush
will
ments indicated that the
Singer, you have written
government is speeding up soon be granted permanent
your novels and stories in
plans to multiply settle- settlement rights at Shilo,
Yiddish and then they are
ments in that territory and an area they seized without
authorization last year. The translated into English. Is
expand existing ones.
At least two sites that Likud government allowed there a difference between
were seized by the Gush them to remain on the pre- the Yiddish and English
without authorization dur- text that they were on an reader? Does the Yiddish
reader expect more from a
ing the past 18 months will archeological expedition, a
story?
be turned over to them ruse that proved embaras-
SINGER: The Yiddish
shortly with official sing to the authorities and
reader
is a very capricious
was
emphatically
denied
by
blessings.
reader. Just like the Jewish
Deputy Defense Minister the Gush themselves.
Meanwhile, the govern- people: seldom satisfied.
Mordechai Zippori an-
You cannot really satisfy a
nounced on the army radio ment is expected to give
Jew. I don't say that in a
that preparatory work is authorization soon for sev-
negative way. I just think
proceeding to create the eral new settlements in the
that Jewish people are de-
infra-structure for future Samaria and Judea dis-
settlements in the Samaria tricts. These will include a manding people — even
about literature.
and Judea districts. In fact, settlement called
In other words, if you
he said, this work was never Mathatyahu, to be popu-
write a story a Jew will say,
suspended, despite Israel's lated by Orthodox Jews and
`Why didn't you write a
agreement to freeze settle- another in the Lucipher
ment activity during the area near Hebron. The lat- -socialist story?' But if you
write a socialist story, he'll
period of peace negotiations ter site was previously set-
say, 'How about the state of
tled but then abandoned be-
with Egypt.
Israel?' I 'feel that what
It was learned from re- cause of internal difficul-
Jews really want is that the
liable sources, mean- ties. • Three more settle-
writer should be like the
while, that the controver- ments are to be established
Almighty himself Or even
sial settlement estab- by the para-military Nahal
more than the Almighty. He
lished by the Gush near in the Jordan valley.
should take care of
the Kadum army camp in
Socialism and Zionism, see
Said Rabbi Joshua ben
the heart of Samaria al-
to
it that there be no crime
Hananiah:
"The
poor
do
most two years ago will
in the world, and make sure
more for the rich man by ac-
be given civilian status.
that family life should be
Originally declared il- cepting charity than the
good. This is what they
legal by the Labor-led gov- rich man does for the poor
want a story to do. So they
ernment which was then in by bestowing it."
really want the writer to do
1
r
the impossible, and at least
I am glad they have such a
high opinion of the writer.
1 751 5 W. 9 Mile Rd.
BERKOWITZ: What
role do you see for the mod-
Suite 865
em Jewish writer? Should
Southfield, Mich. 48075
he be an entertainer or offer
a message?
SINGER: In the 19th
Century the writer did not
think of himself as so impor-
tant. Let's say when Balzac
or Dickens, or Gogol wrote
their books, they did not feel
that they were competing
with Moses. They didn't
think: Moses wrote a mes-
To: The Jewish News
JUST
sage some 4,000 years ago,
and now we should bring
new messages. They had a
spark of religion. They un-
derstood that the messages
are already here.
The Jews have given a
message of 4,000 years ago.
The Christians, according
to their religion, have given
a message 2,000 years ago.
And so, Balzac did not have
to bring a message. All he
had to do was tell a good
story, and that's what he
did.
Today, the modern writer
when he sits down to write
feels that without a mes-
sage he is nothing. He im-
mediately has to find a way
how to save the world. And
because of this, they forget
the story. Story telling has
become a forgotten art in
our time. Hall the messages
would disappear and only
the Ten Commandments
were left, we would still
have enough messages for
the next 10,000 years to the
last day of life on earth.
What is really important
for the writer is to tell a good
story. A writer can have
many messages and ideas,
but if he stops being an
entertainer — if he's a bore
— I don't need his message.
BERKOWITZ: As a Yid-
dish writer, what future do
you see for the Yiddish lan-
guage in America? Is there
a revival or not?
SINGER: There are two
ways of thinking about Yid-
dish. You ask a Yiddishist
about the situation, he says,
`Wonderful, it's great.' He is
like a man who belongs to a
party and he must say al-
ways that things are good
even if they are not.
Then there are the pes-
simists who come over to me
and ask me, 'Why do you
write in a dead language?'
As for me, I would never say
that Yiddish is in a good
situation, but I am far from
admitting that Yiddish is a
dead langauge. Four mil-
lion people are still speak-
ing it!
I would say that Yiddish
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TO:
NAME
Please Allow Two Weeks
JERUSALEM — It is cal directors of large Ameri-
both possible and practical can oil or energy companies.
Oil shale, as bitumin-
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the Negev, according to an ,called, is a fossil fuel. It is
international symposium a sediment rich in or-
on oil shale chemistry and ganic matter which was
technology held recently at deposited at the bottom
the Hebrew University of of lakes or the sea in an
Jerusalem, under the au- oxygen-deprived
spices of the university's environment. The burial
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and the Israeli Ministry of ganic matter to incom-
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Israeli research pre- ess which would eventu-
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was praised by Dr. Arnold produced petroleum or
Pelofsky, American expert coal if the depth or tem-
on alternate fuel sources, peratures had been
who helped prepare an oil greater.
Energy can be obtained
shale use pre-feasibility
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Participating in the sym- solid suspension method of
posium were 120 scientists combustion at medium
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United States, Germany tion or liquefaction of the
and Israel, representatives rock, or by preparing it as a
..i_ree_material for_ the pet-
of the energy authorities in
is a sick language, but we
Jews know that between
being sick and dying is a
long, long way in our his-
tory. Hebrew was consid-
ered a dead language for
2,000 years and see what
happened to that language
in 50 years when the Jews
decided we wanted a life —
it became alive. Resurrec-
tion is almost a law of na-
ture with our people.
Because of this, I am far
from being ready to say that
Yiddish is hopeless or will
be forgotten. It will be re-
membered just as much as
Aramaic. We Jews suffer
from many sicknesses, but
amnesia is not one of them.
BERKOWITZ: Some of
your critics, even before you
received the Nobel Prize
said that your writings mis-
represented life in the
Jewish shtetl to its detri-
ment. Is this the case?
SINGER: Rabbi, when
Dostoevski wrote a novel in
which a student was killing
a washer woman, some fool
said that when people will
read this novel, they will get
a notion that all Russian
students kill old women.
So this kind of criticism
was written against all
writers. But real writers
don't listen to what silly
people say, they just do
what they find right, and
this is the reason they are
accepted, and remembered,
and appreciated.
I don't have to apologize if
I write about a Yiddish.
shtetl and I feel like writing
about a harlot. This does not
mean that everyone in the
shtetl is a harlot. I just hap-
pen to write about a harlot.
Some like to write only
about faithless women, not
about the faithful women.
The fact is that even
though according to some
critics these -writers made a
bad name for their nations,
the opposite is really true.
When someone will say bad
things about Russia today,
the answer will be 'but Rus-
sia produced a Dostoevsky.'
For that matter, let's take
our prophets in the Bible. In
every page of the Bible it
says that the Jews in Israel
were bad. Almost every
king was bad. The prophets
called us by the worst
names. It is not an exagger-
ation when I say that there
is not a single book in the
world which speaks more
evil about the Jewish people
than the Bible. and just the
same we accepted it as our
Torah, and it still showed us
how great the old Jews
were. They loved those who
said the truth about them.
Only the modern Jew be-
lieves that the duty of the
writer is to give to the
people publicity. The more
publicity, the better it is.
But I am not a literary do-
gooder. I don't write to do a
--fain
mitzva. I write to e
him
the reader, to mi.
think, to make him see
things.
BERKOWITZ: Al-
though you say that your
works are meant to
entertain, nevertheless,
your writings seem to
indicate that you do not
believe that progress is
possible; you speak of life
with a pessimistic out-
look. Why?
SINGER: Rabbi Ber-
kowitz, how can one ask a
Jewish man, or any other
man who has eyes to see and
ears to hear, why he thinks
that life isn't too good? I
have seen in my life so much
evil, so much cruelty, so
much bloodshed for no rea-
son whatsoever, that I
would be a liar to say that
humanity is progressing
and moving all the time
toward the good.
I would lie to myself, and I
would lie to my readers.
It is true that there are
many people who like this
kind of oily false promises.
But I am not going to be a
false prophet in my writing.
When I speak to my readers,
I say to them what I think.
Naturally, I think we are
progressing: we have built
planes, we have built auto-
mobiles, but the record of
humanity is such that we
cannot hope that human be-
ings will really progress in a
moral way. Unless the Al-
mighty will send the Mes-
siah, humanity will sink in
evil to the very end.
But, since I am a religious
man, the Almighty may de-
cide to change the course of
events. One thing I know: it
won't happen through polit-
ical people of action or
ecologists, or sociologists,
and all these other people. If
God will not help us, we are _
going to sink to the very
end.
Isaac Bashevis Singer, left, and Rabbi William Ber-