22
Friday, April 6, 1919
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Agreement OK'd
Happy Passover
To All Our Friends & Customers
31455 Southfield
Between 13 & 14 Mile • 645-5560
JERUSALEM — A scien-
tific and academic coopera-
tion agreement has been
signed by the Hebrew Uni-
versity of Jerusalem and
the Johann Wolfgang
Goethe University of
Frankfurt am Main.
Exchange of professors
and students, joint re-
search, scientific symposia
and publications, and visits
of groups of teachers, re-
searchers and students are
planned by the two institu-
tions.
Demise of Hebrew in the USSR
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Editor-in-chief emeritus, JTA)
(Copyright 1979, JTA, Inc.)
(Editor's note: This is a
chapter of Boris Smolar's
memoirs soon to appear
in the book, "In the Serv-
ice of My People.")
NEW YORK — The
status of the Hebrew lan-
guage in the Soviet Union
was very nebulous from the
very beginning of the Com-
munist regime. There was
no official law prohibiting
the study and use of it, but,
al.wcTE
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10m Swots bun. la MN
in actuality, it was banned.
Throughout the years
Anatoly Lunacharsky was
Commissar of Education, he
permitted the . Hebrew
"Habimah" Theater to func-
tion, in Moscow. He also
allowed the publication of
rabbinical books in Hebrew
-by government printing
shops, when their authors
covered the production
costs. During his adminis-
tration it was also lawful —
though only on paper — for
10 parents to join as a group
for the purpose of teaching
their children Hebrew, if
they so desired.
But, as time passed, every
vestige of Hebrew in the
country was wiped out. Not
only had it become impossi-
ble to print Hebrew publica-
tions privately, but all
books in Hebrew had disap-
peared from every library in
the land.
Parents desisted from
organizing groups re-
questing Hebrew for
their children, because
their petitions to the
Soviet authorities had
gone unanswered. Fre-
quently, the signatories
of such requests were
banished to far distant
regions as "counter-
revolutionary elements."
Teachers of Hebrew were
arrested, not because
they were privately in-
structing children in the
Hebrew language, but on
the charge of being anti-
Soviet elements. The cul-
tivation of Hebrew was
branded as an "under-
ground movement." Al-
though there was no offi-
cial statute banning He-
brew as a language, the
authorities somehow tied
it in with the Zionist
movement, which had
definitely been outlawed.
As an American corre-
spondent I had occasion now
and then to discuss with
Lunacharsky the tragic fate
of Hebrew in the Soviet
Union. Lunacharsky was a
man of culture who had a
sympathetic understanding
of Hebrew as one of the most
ancient tongues of the
world, one which had out-
lived many others. But, as
the years went by, he be-
came more and more power-
less to defend Hebrew.
In 1929, Andrei Bubnov
became the Commissar of
Education. As the successor
to Lunacharsky he did not
possess the broad, cos-
mopolitan view which his
predecessor had in'cultural
matters. He had been a
strict Communist, although
he held a secondary position
in the Communist hierar-
chy. In 1937, he vanished
without trace, during the
"cleansing" which Stalin
perpetrated upon Com-
munist leaders.
Bubnov made an excel-
lent impression on me. We
carried on our conversation
in Russian, and he listened
attentively to everything I
had to say concerning the de
facto illegal status of He-
brew in the Soviet Union.
The most important ques-
tion I put to him was: Did he
intend to continue the sup-
pression of Hebrew al-
though it had never been of-
ficially banned by law?
"Let me have all the facts
in writing," he proposed,
"and in time, you will re-
ceive a definite reply from
me."
A week or two passed,
then a month and more, but
no reply was forthcoming
from Bubnov.
One morning I opened
the- Moscow Yidc"
newspaper, "Ernes
the paper of the Yevsek-
zia, the Jewish section of
the Communist Party —
and read a furious attack
upon me. "More impor-
tant people than that Dol-
lar Correspondent, Boris
Smolar, have had their
wrists cracked by us in
the Soviet Union, when
they started meddling in
our internal affairs," the
editorial stated.
The paper demanded that
I be deported from the coun-
try because I "had the insol-
ence" to address myself to
Bubnov on the question of
Hebrew. It became quite
apparent to me, now, that
the commissar had not
taken my inquiry lightly,
and that he had obviously
submitted it to the Soviet
authorities for clarification,
including the Yevsekzia.
The leaders of the Yev-
sekzia were afraid that I
might develop further con-
tact with Bubnov and, by
chance, convince him of the
injustice of banning He-
brew.
I never did receive a reply
from Bubnov, but neither
was I deported.
was not long in learn-
ing why Bubnov was ob-
liged to move so cau-
tiously. In the Kremlin he
was considered "a mod-
erate," not entirely on
Stalin's side. That year
Stalin had just began to
sink his roots into his
powers as a dictator.
In good time all these
"moderates" paid with their
lives. Later, the Yevsekzia
too was dissolved.
SUNY Summer
Study in Israel
NEW YORK — The State
University of New York at
Oneonta is sponsoring a
six-week academic program
in Israel this summer for
both undergraduate and
graduate students.
Classes on "Modern'
rael: an Interdiscipl'h
Survey" will be given at
Hebrew University, Bar-
Ilan and Haifa University.
For information, write
SUNY Summer Program in
Israel, Oneonta, N.Y.,
13820.
,
Jewish Centers'
Role Discussed
NEW YORK — The
Jewish community center's
role in the 1980s will be the
topic of the Jewish Welfare
Board's Greater Northeast
Convention, to be held April
20-22 at Grossinger's, N.Y.
Dr. Sidney Goldstein,
Brown University
sociologist, will be keynote
speaker and scholar-in-
residence.