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.