54 ;Friday, December 20 1 1980
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
:
Honorary Committee Marks
AJC's 75th Anniversary
:
Centenary of Author Sholem Asch Marked
to meet the enemy on the different expressions of the miracle of God. I also be-
same culture. By pointing lieve in the future of Israel,
enemy's terms.
em " out the common heritage of that no human evil will ever
NEW YORK — Some 50 Gottschalk; artist Chaim
With "Ridush Hash
This year marks the
distinguished American Gross; National Academy of centenary of the birth of (Sanctification of the Christianity and Judaism, succeed against her.
Although he lived his last
Jews have agreed to serve Science president Philip Sholem Ash
Name), a narrative celeb- h e hoped to contribute to a
h , the literary
Arthur
future
of
better
understand-
two
years in the Tel Aviv
rating
Jewish
martyrdom
as members of an honorary Handler; Rabbi or
story-
se
genius an d select
an d geni
suburb of Bat Yam, where
during the infamous ing.
committee to mark the 75th Hertzberg; auth
Irving Howe; Sen- teller, who managed to skip
The uproar was aggra- the mayor, David Ben-Ari, a
Chmielnicki massacres, a
anniversary of the Ameri- educator
ator Jacob K. Javits; Am- the obscurity most neophyte
recurrent theme in Yiddish
ddish vated by inexcusable tim- native of Plonsk, Poland,
can Jewish Committee, to
writers suffer. At 20 he was
bassador Max M. Kampel- already recognized; by 30 he
literature, his place in ing, not to mention critics had prevented an unofficial
be celebrated in 1981.
They include Nobel man; former Secretary
Jewish letters was secured. envious of his royalties and boycott urged by local Or-
laureate in medicine Julius State Henry Kissinger; Sec- had won international
Asch earned the dis- widespread success. "The thodox zealots, he died dur-
Axelrod; historian Salo W. retary of Commerce Philip acclaim.
He was the first Yiddish tinction, in the first half Nazarene" came out in 1939 ing a visit to London.
Baron; sociologist Daniel M. Klutznick; editor and so--
of the 20th Century, of —its hero, Rabbi Yeshua of
He spent his last
Kristol; writer to enjoy a worldwide
being the most popular Nazareth, whom Jews for July 10, 1957, at his cit.:
Bell; conductor, pianist, cial critic Irving
University reputation, the first to be-
composer Leonard Berns- Yeshiva
Lamm; come a leading contempor- Yiddish author in the nearly two millennia have writing in Yiddish. He was
Norman
world. In recent years, blamed as the source of at work on a novel based on
tein; publisher Robert L. president
industrialist FrankR. ary novelist in the West.
only Isaac Bashevis their afflictions. The year the lives of Abraham and
Bernstein; Brandeis Uni-
Official
statistics
indicate
Unive?sity of
1939 proved no respite from Sarah, Jacob and Rachel.
versity president Marver H. Lautenberg;
Chicago president Edward he was born Nov. 1, 1880, in Singer has achieved such previous
suffering. Chris- He had requested burial in
universal recognition.
Bernstein; Rutgers Univer-
His essential motifs were tians were once again Israel, but was interred
sity president Edward J. Bl- H. Levi; and political scien- Kutno, Poland, a village
near Warsaw, while his
oustein; Nobel laureate in tist Seymour Martin Upset. birth
certificate lists Jan. 1 man's . goodness and slaughtering Jews. To quietly in West London
generosity, Jewish survival suggest, at this moment, Synagogue's cemetery in
medicine Baruch S. Blum-
Also Senator Howard and his mother claimed his
and martyrdom. His fiction, that Jews receive the mes- Hoop Lane, Golders Green,
berg; economist Arthur F.
University of arrival four days after
sage that gentiles are their
Burns; union leader Sol C. Metzenbaum;
Pennsylvania president Passover. The 11th of 15 divided into three spiritual brothers was sheer a decision reached by
Chaikin; attorney and legis- Martin Meyerson; violinist children, he was the son of categories, include stun-
Matilda, his devoted
ning portraits of East Euro- chutzpa.
lator Benjamin V. Cohen; Yehudi Menuhin; playw- Moshe, a sheep and cattle
7".
for 56 years.
pean Jewry, Jewish life in
Jewish Theological Semi-
Grieved
and
confused
Arthur Miller; former dealer and innkeeper,
nary chancellor Gerson Co- right
Federal Communications whose first marriage had America and biblical by each hurtful UAHC Creates
hen; business executive Commission chairman produced five Hasidim.
novelszr
onslaught, Asch never
The latter, characterized deviated from his Religious Action
Henry Crown; industrialist
Although
he
began
Newton
N.
Minow;
artist
Nathan Cummings.
writing in Hebrew, under as his Christological period, passionate preoccupa-
Chancellor Louise Nevelson, broadcast- the influence of I. L. unleashed a tumult that tion with Jewry. With Center in D.C.
Also
Emeritus of Jewish ing executive William S. Peretz, he soon turned to never subsided, not even profound knowledge and
NEW YORK — The
Theological Seminary Paley; opera singer Jan Yiddish. His portrayal of with his death. Endeavor- insight, he caught the es- Union of American Hebrew
Rabbi Louis Finkelstein; Peerce; Nobel laureate in the shtetl world was a ing to create a climate of sence of the Jewish soul Congregations announced
former Supreme Court Jus- physics Arno A. Penzias; departure from the pens mutual trust and under- and the expectations of that it has raised special
tice Abe Fortas; indus- opera singer Roberta Pet- of his predecessors who standing, he produced a the Jewish heart.
funds to create a new reli-
trialist Max M. Fisher; ers; author Chaim Potok; had depicted life in ex- triology: "The Nazarene,"
During the Sinai cam- gious action center in Wash-
industrialist
Jay
Pritzker;
"The Apostle," and "Mary," paign, Sholem Asch de- ington as a "visible presence
author and women's advo-
elusively Jewish terms.
fictionalized accounts of the clared: "With the heroes of in our nation's capital of the
cate Betty Friedan; Nobel laureate in physics
Although
fervently
com-
I. Rabi; Senator Ab-
educator Paul Freund; Isidor
raham Ribicoff; attorney mitted to his fellow Jews lives of Jesus, Paul and the Israel in the desert-trinal religious conscience in the
economist Eli Ginzberg; Simon H. Rifkind; and and their destinies, he mother of Jesus, portrayed were all the generations of struggle for social justice."
Hebrew Union College- former Undersecretary of broke away from the limited with loving piety.
The new center will serve
the Jewish people and with
Jewish Institute of Religion
Instead of enshrining him those who fell there were all, as headquarterl for efforts
confines of the distinctly
State
Eugene
V.
Rostow.
president Alfred
Jewish genre, becoming the as a champion of the sacrifices of all the by Jewish and inter-
first Yiddish writer to ecumenism, the books fired Diasporas. I believe com- religious groups to oppose
"paint the out of doors with a fierce controversy in the pletely that the creation of "the radical right attack on
pagan joy, the first to Jewish world, with wild the state, after the destruc- America as a pluralistic
luxuriate in the description charges of reverential
tion of Eastern Jewry, was a society."
17515 W. 9 Mile Rd.
of sensuous beauty for its treatment of Christianity.
own sake," as a scholarly Despite denials of defection
Suite 865
admirer of Sholem Asch ob- he was the target of merci-
Southfield, Mich. 48075
-served. less attacks. He was
Exposed to no formal branded a charlatan and
disciplines except the Bible meshumed or apostate.
and Hebrew religious writ- While his books became
ing until his 18th year, he best sellers, he was os-
was basically self-educated tracized by leaders of
but never provincial,. ex- Jewish groups.
hibiting intellectual pro- -
He was accused of
wess and vivid imaginative courting gentile favor, of
powers. He excelled in the distorting Jewish history
outpouring of simple, sen- to serve as missionary for -
suous emotions.
the Christians. Most sav-
Asch wrote almost daily, age were the tirades by
non-stop for five hours after Abraham Cahan, power-
breakfast identifying with ful editor of the Jewish
his characters as completely Daily Forward, who di-
di-
as an actor in a new role.
rected a campaign of hate
Although he lived in and vilification. Ironi-
the United States for ex- tally, Freiheit, the Com-
publication
tended periods and was munist
an American citizen, he which Asch had always
found difficult the disliked, was the only
adaptation to the fast, Yiddish paper willing to
noisy and distracting accept his fiction.
Asch could never com-
tempo of American life. -
Asch sought to inspire prehend the avalanche of
Paste in old label
readers with a readiness to antagonism his book
struggle militantly on be- prescribed. Critics thun-
half of Jewish survival, re- dered that "it was a mis-
jecting the pacifist role and sionary book, designed to
reinstituting the tradition lure Jews from their tradi-
of Jewish heroism. He was tional faith. Some suspected
driven by the compulsion to that this was a last-minute
put blood and guts into strategem to win the Nobel
Jewish life. Prize, after all previous at-
Not given to obeying tempts had failed. For
popular demands, he wrote years, Asch had hoped des-
as his conscience and im- perately for the Nobel Prize;
pulses dictated, glorifying hi s frustration had been bit-
the "proste," the ordinary ter, especially since he was
folk, and the "grobe nominated in 1933.
Prof. Michael Cais of the Technion's Chemistry
Asch insisted he wanted
yungen" unfamiliar with
Department has developed a new system of test-tubes
society's refinements. This to emphasize the founda-
NAME
and equipment based on immunoassay techniques
theme was best exemplified tions which Judaism and which will make clinical diagnostic tests safer and
in Kola Street, honoring Christianity share. The two
Effective Date
expensive by reducing radiation hazards.
rough, earthy brutes, eager faiths, he was certain, were less
L
By GLORIA CHARNES
(C opy g ht 1980 , JTA Inc.)
-
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To: The Jewish News
Technion Prof's System
to Make Medical Tests Safer
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