72 Friday, November 14, 1980
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Holocaust Mission, HMC Plans Reviewed Nov. 24
Prof. Alice L. Eckardt,
special consultant to the
President's Commission on
the Holocaust, will narrate
slides from the President's
• Mission to Eastern Europe
at a meeting on behalf of the
Holocaust Memorial Center
8 p.m. Nov. 24 at the Bir-
mingham home of Mr. and
Mrs. David Hermelin.
Guests at the meeting
will view the architect's
plans for the Holocaust
Memorial Center, to be con-
structed as an addition to
the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.
Prof. Eckardt, a member
of the history and religion
studies faculties at Lehigh
University, has taught and
lectured widely on the
Holocaust. She has joined
her husband Roy in re-
search for a forthcoming
work, "Long Night's Jour-
ney Into Day: Life and Faith
After the Holocaust." They
also co-authored "En-
counter With Israel: A
Challenge to Conscience"
and have contributed to
leading Jewish and Chris-
tian journals.
A lecturer at Hebrew
University and Yad
Vashem on several
occasions, Prof. Eckardt
chairs the Catholic-
Protestant "Israel Study
Group" and is a leader of
An exterior view of the Holocaust Memorial Cen- the National Christian
ter as it will appear adjacent to the front entrance of Leadership Council for
the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield.
Israel. She also is vice
president of American
Friends of Nes Ammim,
served on the planning
committee for the Third
Jerusalem Conference of
Christians and Israelis
and is assisting with a
study program for
American Christian stu-
dents in Israel.
In 1971, the Eckardts re-
ceived a human relations
award from the American
Jewish Committee and in
1975 the Myrtle Wreath
Achievement Award from
Hadassah.
Mrs. Eckardt serves on
the executive board of
Zachor, Holocaust Resource
Center in New York, and is
on the Council of Associates
of-the National Institute on
the Holocaust in Philadel-
phia.
Persons who are in-
terested in participating in
the parlor meeting on be-
half of the Holocaust Memo-
rial Center may contact
Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig,
executive director, 559-
3649.
United Jewish Charities,
the Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion's "senior" agency, is
managing the capital and
endowment funds raised for
the HMC. Henry Dorfman
is chairman of the capital
and endowment campaign;
and Leon Halpern is chair-
man of the HMC.
This drawing depicts the memorial room of the
Holocaust Memorial Center, in which a flame of the
Six Million will be kept burning. The room also will
contain Holocaust exhibits.
Modern Israel's Prophet Counseled the Desperate
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
(Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.)
(Editor's note: This
special feature first ap-
peared in The Jewish
News Purely Commen-
tary, Oct. 6, 1978. The ar-
ticle is being syndicated
by special interest by the
Jewish Telegraphic
Agency on the occasion
of the 100th anniversary
of the birth of Vladimir
Jabotinsky.)
Prophecy is not dead. It
gained immortality in an-
cient Israel, it assumed sig-
nificance for the 20th Cen-
tury in relation to Israel
Reborn.
Inevitability of Zion's re-
demption dominated
Prophecy. In modern times
it was more Hope than Re-
demption, except for the few
with vision who anticipated
an Israel rebuilt and Jewish
statehood reborn.
Chief among the Prophets
of Zion was Theodor Herzl.
He foresaw statehood 50
years after he began his
Zionist activities and had
called into being the World
Zionist Congress in 1897. In
his "Complete Diaries," sec-
ond volume, under the date
of Sept. 3, 1897, Vienna, he
predicted:
"Were I to sum up the
Basel Congress in a word
— which I shall guard
against pronouncing
publicly — it would be
this: at Basel I founded
the Jewish state.
"If I said this out loud to-
day, I would be answered by
universal laughter. Per-
haps in five years, and cer-
tainly in 50, everyone will
know it."
There was subsequent,
equally if not more impres-
sive, Prophecy that resulted
in fulfillment. It was in the
vision
of
Vladimir
Jabotinsky, who, four de-
cades after Herzl, expressed
an augury that the Jewish
state would emerge in 10
years.
In 1938, Jabotinsky re-
ceived a letter from a South
African Jewish student who
contemplated suicide be-
cause of the manifestation
of anti-Semitism at his uni-
versity.
Jabotinsky's reply is a
classic in Jewish literary
annals. It attained two
objectives. It rejected any
thought of suicide. It in-
spired hope in the Zionist
ideal. It predicted Israel's
rebirth in a decade.
The text of that letter Was
made available by the
Jabotinsky Institute in Tel
Aviv, Israel. The name of
the student was deleted.
Here is the text of this his-
toric document:
"Suicide is worse than
cowardice; it is surrender.
Try and analyze any great
or small Schweinerei in his-
tory or in life: you will al-
ways detect that its root was
or is somebody's surrender.
Surrender is the dirtiest
trick in creation; and
suicide being the symbol of
all surrenders, is like a call
for universal betrayal.
"In the case of your gen-
eration, it would also be a
silly bargain. Your genera-
tion is destined to see mira-
cles and, collectively, per-
form miracles . . . Don't get
downhearted because of
butcheries going on; every-
thing, all forms of life and
death, are now converging
toward one end, a Jewish
state, and a great exodus to
Palestine. I think, on a very
conservative estimate, that
the next 10 years will see
the Jewish state of Pales-
tine not only proclaimed but
a reality; probably less than
10. It would be unspeakably
cheap and foolish to forego
all this because there are
Schweinereien at your uni-
versity.
"What to do? Forgive
me, but this question al-
ways int my practice
really means: 'Can't you
suggest a way in which I,
. . . should at once be-
come a general with a
special mission of my
own?' We need privates,
doing drab comonplace
jobs, and your age (what-
ever your gifts) is a pri-
vate's age. Go to HQ and
ask for drab errands to
run. We all did it.
"Mon ami, I should be
thrilled every hour of my
wake and dream. if I had the
luck of being 20 today, on
the threshold of a redeemed
Israel and, probably, a re-
deemed world to boot, no
matter what butcheries it
may cost."
Thus, the dissenter at
World Zionist Congresses
the challenger of Chaim
Weizmann and David Ben-
Gurion in Zionist ideologi-
cal controversies, proved to
be a Prophet in his own
right. At the same time, he
enunciated the most vital
ethical and social codes, as
in this document in which
he warned against any
thought of suicide. He
echoed the teachings of the
11th Century Spanish
Jewish moralist who stated
in Bahya Hovot HaLevavot:
"A suicide is a sentinel who -
deserted his post."
It is also the emphasis
to a rejection of suicide
by Baruch Spinoza who,
in "Ethics," 1677, wrote:
"Suicides are weak-
minded, and are over-
come by external causes
repugnant to their na-
ture."
There was an epidemic of
suicides during the Nazi
years. Appeals to the con-
science of Jews rejected the
tendency. A noteworthy
document that has come
down from that era was the
so-called Cologne Public
Appeal Against Suicide,
which declared:
"Under the shattering
impact of the events of re-
cent weeks, during which
suicide claimed victim upon
victim within our commu-
nity, we turn to you, men
and women of the Jewish
community, with the ap-
peal:
"Maintain your courage
and will to live, preserve
your confidence. in God and
in yourself!
"The fate which has befal-
len each one of us is a part of
the great universal Jewish
suffering: Let us bear it to-
gether and help one another
fraternally!
Advisory
boards of our Gemeinde as
well as the homes of all
members of the under-
signed bodies are open to
you — come to us with your
spiritual and material
needs; we will advise and
help you as much as we can.
"Do not take the path in
to darkness from which
there is no return. Think
of those whom you must
leave behind in all their
sorrow and affliction;
think of human and
Jewish destiny; do not
lose hope for a better fu-
ture!"
Vladimir Jabotinsky's
memory emerges anew at
this time, on the occasion of
the 100th anniversary of his
birth and of the 32nd an-
niversary of the destruction
of the Irgun weapons-
carrying ship, the Altalena.
Altalena is an Italian word
meaning "a swing," defin-
ing swinging back and
forth. When Jabotinsky
lived in Italy he used the
word as his pen-name. He
had written articles for two
Russian Jewish newspapers
and signed them "Vladimir
Altalena."
That the current events
should serve as credit lines
for Jabotinsky's genius is a
necessary addendum to the
story of a remarkable per-
sonality. Jabotinsky was a
master of languages. He
translated the poems of
Chaim Nahman Bialik into
Russian. He translated into
Hebrew "Massa Nemirov,"
the Bialik classic.
He translated into He-
brew Edgar Allen Poe's
"The Raven," Dante's "In-
ferno" and the French-
Italian works into Hebrew
poetry. He was the editor of
the first Hebrew geograph-
ical atlas.
The story of a literary
genius relates also the
vision of a man who
prophesied the emergence
of Israel.
NY Revival for Yiddish Theater
By DAVID FRIEDMAN
(Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.)
Leo Fuchs. That name re-
calls the 1940s and 1950s
when Manhattan's Second
Avenue was still the
"Broadway of the Yiddish
Theater."
But now, after years of
appearing on the general
stage, including the na-
tional companies of
Cabaret" and "Fiddler on
the Roof'; countless televi-
sion programs, and a co-
starring role in Gene
Wilder's "The Frisco Kid,"
Fuchs has left his Beverly
Hills home for another re-
turn to the New York Yid-
dish stage.
He is starring in "One of a
Kind" at Manhattan's
Norman Thomas Theater
with Mina Bern, a play for
which he composed the
music and lyrics as well as
the book and which is pro-
duced by Bern's husband,
the Yiddish folksinger Ben
Bonus.
"Nostalgia," Fuchs
said in an interview, ex-
plaining why he returns
to the Yiddish theater
every so often. "It's like I
go home for a visit."
Fuchs, who admits to
being in his 60's, was born
in Lemburg, Poland, the
same hometown of his idol,
Paul Muni. His parents
were on the Yiddish stage
and by the time he was five
or six, so was Leo. But when
he was 17 or 18 he moved on
to the Polish theater and
was soon one of Warsaw's
leading Polish dramatic ac-
tors.
But in 1936 he was ap-
proached by a producer who
wanted him to go to New
York and appear at the
Jacob Adler Theater on Sec-
ond Avenue in a play writ-
ten for him, "Lucky Boy."
"This saved my life," Fuchs
said, noting that he was
thus able to leave Europe
before the Nazis invaded
Poland in 1939. It also
started his long and suc-
cessful career in the United
States.
Although like all Yiddish
actors Fuchs has done
countless comedies, he is
quick to point out that he
considers himself a drama-
tic actor who can do comedy.
He declares that his
proudest role was in "Salva-
tion" by Sholem Asch, about
1941, in which he aged from
17 to 85 during the course of
the play. Fuchs said that
both Prof. Albert Eins
and Mimi came back
the show to praise him.
Yet when it comes
down to it Fuchs also
enjoys comedy. "I like to
make people laugh," he
said. "It makes me
happy." Fuchs notes that
no other audience has the
response that is shown in
the Yiddish theater, with
the people singing along
with the-actors. "There is
a genuine joy."
The show stopper in "One
of a Kind" is a tribute to
Second Avenue in which
Fuchs imitates some of the
great stars of the Yiddish
theater. He ends by imitat-
ing himself.