62 Friday, October 5, 1919
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
53—ENTERTAINMENT
Blind Former Detroiter Writes on' Michigan at War
SINGING guitarist, violinist plus
Disco tapes. 398-2462.
A new book from the Uni- died and hundreds were in-
versity of Michigan Press, jured or arrested. President
"State of War: Michigan in Roosevelt called out federal
Enhance your Simcha (Happy
World War II" by former troops to quell the distur-
Occasion), by listening to the
Detroiter Alan Clive, tells bance, but the aftermath
melodious voice of an Israeli and
the story of the home front brought no great improve-
English folk guitarist. Reason-
able rates.
in America's "arsenal of ment in race relations.
Economically, the war
democracy." It is a story of
Please call 399-0079
people and institutions con- remade Michigan. An un-
fronting a supreme crisis — employment rate of 15 per-
cent in 1940 fell to less than
the challenge of total war.
BAND
Michigan played a key 0.5 percent by 1943. Wages
role in the battle of soared as the basis for post-
Excellent Music
machines. The automobile war consumer prosperity
For All Social
industry converted com- was firmly laid. Socially,
Occasions
pletely to the production of however, even the demands
guns, ships, planes and of war could not alter in-
731.6081
tanks. By dollar value, De- grained presumptions or
troit did more war work prejudices.
Although thousands of
than any other American
Newest Arab
city. The mile-long Willow Posies faithfully riveted for
Newspaper Open Run bomber plant turned victory, no fundamental
out more than 8,000 B-24 change in women's second-
to Israeli Writers Liberator
bombers between class status resulted from
JERUSALEM — "Al 1942 and 1945.
World War II. Many of the
Usbua al Jadeed" (The New
With manpower short, issues raised during the war
Week), only the second thousands of women, blacks years, such as civil rights,
Arab newspaper to appear and other minorities were left to a later era for
in East Jerusalem since the streamed into the war resolution.
Six-Day War, made its plants to replace those
Alan Clive, the author of
debut last month.
bound for the fighting "State of War," was born in
The paper has opened its fronts.
Colorado but has lived most
pages to Israeli writers, the
The war placed enormous of his life in Michigan. He
only current Palestinian burdens on the production attended elementary and
journal to do so.
centers. As workers flocked secondary schools in De-
The publication is part of to Detroit, Muskegon and troit. While nt-
a recent emergence of sev- other Michivanpitis,.....1,,,, obate University in the
ted. early 1960s he became
2
eral new
in the
iously theal most exclusive strained recreation and AZA branch of the Bnai
preserve of the three East health facilities to the limit. Brith Youth Organization.
Jerusalem dailies, "Al Theaters and bowling alleys His parents, now retired
Quds," "Al Fajar" and "Al remained open far into the and living in Royal Oak,
Sha'ab."
night to accommodate attend Temple Beth El.
swing-shifters.
After graduation from
"State of War" evokes Wayne State in 1969 with a
Nobel Winner
memories of ration stamps, master's degree in history,
at Tel Aviv U.
cans of kitchen grease and Clive entered the Univer-
TEL AVIV --f Prof. Nor- flattened tin cans. But Clive sity of Michigan to pursue a
man Ernest Borlaug, win- does not intend his book to doctorate in American his-
ner of the Nobel Peace Prize* be another sentimental tory. He received his PhD in
as one of the fathers of the tribute to the "good old 1976 and accepted a teach-
ing position at Northeast-
"green revolution," recently days."
"Many people see the war ern University in Boston.
visited the Tel Aviv Univer-
sity campus to deliver a lec- years through a nostalgic He has also taught at the
ture on "Food for Tomor- haze," he told The Jewish University of Massachu-
row's Generation" and to News. "They recall those setts in Amherst.
He is presently working
exchange professional in- years as a time when people
formation with Tel Aviv worked together for a com- on his next book under a
mon goal, as they don't seem grant from the National
University experts.
Prof. Borlaug's work on to be doing today. But that Endowment for the
development of new crop memory of unity is correct Humanities.
only up to a point. In reality,
In June 1966, only two
strains has been instrumen-
tal in substantially increas- Michigan society was riven weeks after he graduated
with conflict both before from Wayne State's Mon-
ing world food supplies.
and after Pearl Harbor."
teith College with a
Examples of wartime con- bachelor of arts degree,
Noshrim Policy? flict
abound. Despite a Clive unexpectedly began to
JERUSALEM (ZINS) — labor-management pledge lose his vision. By April
Israeli authorities, un- of no strikes or lockouts for 1967, he had becon* totally
happy with the number of the duration, hundreds of * blind.
Soviet Jews who go to West- wildcat walkouts occurred
Clive had suffered a de-
ern countries rather than in Michigan. Rival AFL and tachment of the retina in his
Israel, are expected to pro- CIO unions fought each right eye.
pose that "noshrim" be other across the state, some-
Two operations failed to
aided by Jewish organiza- times disrupting vital war correct the problem and in
tions only if they have close production.
the spring of 1967, the
r -si Alves in the country of
Race presented the most retina in Clive's left eye de-
tneir choice or if they go to explosive area of conflicts. tached. Such "sympathetic"
Israel.
The manpower shortage led reaction from the other eye
widened job and housing is not uncommon. Again,
Losing Noshrim? to
opportunities for blacks. surgery could not repair the
TEL AVIV (ZINS) — Ac- But white resistance to damage.
cording to a report in the black progress by employers
"At first, you think the
newspaper Maariv, quoting and workers alike stiffened. world is over," Clive said of
Detroit Max Fisher, chair- In February 1942 an inter- his early reaction to blind-
man of the Jewish Agency, racial brawl broke out in ness. "My medical history
94 percent of the Soviet northeast Detroit when indicated a slight chance of
Jews receiving assistance blacks attempted to move such a thing happening, but
from the Jewish community into a new housing project. a chance so slight that no
Blacks demanded milit- one ever told me, which I
of Los Angeles have no con-
tact with that community or antly that the war against guess was a good thing. I
fascism abroad be trans- had always considered my-
any Jewish institution.
formed into a crusade self part of the sighted
To be a Jew is to be a against racism at home. majority. When I became
friend to mankind, to be a Growing tension culmi- blind, I thought it would be
proclaimer of liberty and nated in the terrible Detroit impossible to continue my
race riot of June 20-21, interest in teaching and
peace.
—Ludwig Lewisohn 1943, in which 34 persons writing history."
-
ALAN CLIVE
But with the aid of the
Michigan Office of Services
for the Blind and a number
of volunteer organizations,
Clive found the resources to
continue his career:
"I found that being blind
is nowhere as difficult as
sighted people make it out
to be," he commented. "Be-
cause they can't imagine a
life without sight, they
often can't believe that a
blind person can function
successfully. In some ways,
being blind is no picnic. But
I can truthfully say that, ex-
cept that it has taken me a
little longer, becoming
blind did not fundamentally
Clive devised a special
system to enable him to
write his doctoral disserta-
tion, a shortened version of
which was to become "State
of War."
Readers tape recorded
needed books and magazine
articles at various organiza-
tions or at a taping "studio"
in Clive's Ann Arbor
apartment. He worked with
other readers, recording
notes on newspaper stories
and from documents in arc-
hives scattered throughout
Michigan and in Washing-
ton, D.C.
Each note on tape had its
counterpart in an index
card coded in Braille. A
three-digit number gave the
precise location of the note
on its particular tape, and
the remainder of the card
held a brief description of
the material. The taped
notes were scattered at ran-
dom on three dozen tapes,
but the index cards were
filed in an increasingly
sophisticated alphabetical
and topical sequence.
"When everything was
down on tape and in the
Braille index, I could work
alone," Clive said. "That
was my goal. You can't get
readers at four in the morn-
ing, and sometimes I felt
like working then. With
this systein, I could."
To write the book, Clive
simply listened to the taped
notes in the order
prescribed by the index
cards, transferring the in-
formation to a final tape in
precisely the order re-
quired. He typed all rough
drafts alone on a standard
keyboard typewriter, later
editing with a reader. This
editing process continued
throughout the various
stages of the manuscript to
publication.
Clive uses much the same
method in preparing lec-
tures for courses in Ameri-
can history, although he re-
lies on Braille outlines,
rather than memorized
manuscripts. To grade
exams, he listens to the stu-
dents' essays or gives
multiple-choice tests that
can be easily corrected by an
assistant.
Mobility is always a con-
sideration. "I can't just go
into a new area like a
sighted person can," he
commented. "Orientation
takes time and Nark. You
have to figure ourroutes to
the specific places you want
to go to, noting the obsta-
cles, the twists and turns,
and so on. But it can be
done."
Clive usually does his
orientation work with a
mobility instructor from a
state. commission or with
his wife Mary. He became
proficient enough within
the maze of tunnels beneath
Northeastern University
that he was able to give di-
rections to a lost sighted
student.
Clive's latest project, for
which he has received fed-
eral funding, is a study of
three great floods that de-
vastated Johnstown, Pa., in
g
22.,ysitu,-„AILWA
work grows directly out of
the previous research.
"State of War" deals with
a community's reaction to
disaster — total war — and
the Johnstown project will
trace the impact of and reac-
tion to natural disaster on a
single community.
He is using the same basic
tape-and-card system that
proved successful in writing
his volume on wartime
Michigan.
"Sighted people should
not regard me as somebody
special because I have pub-
lished a book," Clive said.
"Blind people are just like
anybody else, except that
they can't see. That is a
problem, but there are other
problemi. Thousands of
people are agoraphobic, and
dread leaving their homes. I
don't. Some people have
physical handicaps, some
have emotional handicaps. -
"Blind people would
make pretty bum surgeons,
but then, so would a person
who couldn't stand the sight
of blood. By the same token,
blind people can make ex-
cellent teachers, resear-
chers, mechanics, adminis-
trators, and even politicans.
"I wrote 'State 5f War' not
because I'm blind, but be-
cause the subject of war-
time Michigan interested
me and no one had worked
on it before. If people buy
the book — and I hope they
do — they should do so be-
cause it's a good book, not
Exempt Women
Carter Urged
NEW YORK — Agudath
Israel of America has asked
President Carter to reject
any attempt to register
women if the selective serv-
ice system for the armed
forces is reinstated.
The House of Representa-
tives recently voted 259-155
against re-establishment of
the draft.
because of who or what I am.
"Actually, the blind will
have won their own victory
over stereotypes when arti-
cles like this one are no
longer needed. If I can speed
up that V-J Day for the
blind, I'll have done my bit."
Robert Lewiston
- Robert R. Lewiston, an
attorney with offices in
Southfield, died Sept. 30 at
age 70.
A native Detroit&
dr.
Lewiston was graduated in
1930 from the Detroit Col-
lege of Law. He was a
member of the Michigan
Bar Association and the A-
K eidan Lodge of Bnai Brith.
He leaves his wife, Pat-
ricia; three sons, Michael
B., Richard M. and David
M.; a brother, Irving Levin;
a sister, Mrs. Marvin (Rae?=,
Laker; and six
grandchildren.
Seymour Jacobs
Seymour Jacobs, a retired
attorney, died Oct. 1 at age
Col-
of Law. He resided at
14261 Hart, Oak Park.
He leaves a son, Lawr-
ence of New York; a daugh-
ter, Mrs. Bertram (Janet)
Feldman; a brother, , Dr.
Clarence; a sister, Mrs. Isa-
dore (Beryl) Winkelman;
and three grandchildren.
-
lege
Albert E. Kahn
GLEN ELLEN, Calif. —
Albert E. Kahn, nephew of
the famed architect and an
author and publisher, died
Sept. 15 at age 67.
A former Detroiter, Mr.
Kahn was an authority on
the McCarthy era and in
1953 co-founded a firm to
publish the works of writers
blacklisted for alleged
Communist sympathies. In-
terested in politics, he often
identified himself as a Mar-
xist without party affilia-
tion.
Harold Ziv, 76
Harold E. Ziv, retired
chairman of the board of Ziv
Wire and Steel, died Sept.
28 at age 76.
Born in Chicago, Mr. Ziv
was a member of Temple
Beth El, Franklin Hills
Country Club, Bnai Brith,
Engineers Society of Detroit
and was a former board
member of the Masons.
He leaves his wife, Viv:
ian; a son, Alvin; a
gh-
ter, Mrs. Melvin
ty)
Rosenhaus; and tnree
grandchildren.
James Aftel, 74
James Aftel, a hardware
manufacturer's representa-
tive, died Sept. 28 at age 74.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Mr.
Aftel was a member of
Knollwood Country Club,
Bnai Biith, the Shriners, ce:
Temple Israel and the
Standard Club.
He leaves his wife, Ruth;
two daughters, Mrs. Ken- -
neth (Frances) Eisenberg
and Mandy of Berkeley,
C al i f. ; and three
grandchildren.