2 Friday, January 9, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Leadership Crisis Is a Challenge for Constructive
Brutality of
Planning, Not for Destroyers of Unity
Ransoming Was Appalling in Jewish Historic Experience
By Philip
Slomovitz
Leadership Under Challenge: Misguided Easily Fall Into Trap of Exaggerations
On a recent trip to Israel, this commentator was cornered by a leader in the jour-
nalists' ranks who said he had some criticisms of Jewish leadership.
He said he didn't like "askanim," commonly referred to as the balebatim. The
expression of dislike was cause for concern, and excited interest and curiosity.
Interestingly, the highly acclaimed Hebrew-English dictionary by Reuben Alcalay
Translates askan as a communal worker, with an annotation that "originally it meant
an experimenter. This being the case, an askan is not only a dedicated community
activist but also one who experiments and is therefore expected while experimenting to
make improvements in the social aspects to which he devotes himself. This could encour-
age devotion to services for mankind, and in the Jewish community to Jewry.
The Israeli newspapers devote little space and give limited attention to the Diaspora.
American Jews are often ignored. Conventions of organizations from the Diaspora are
sensationalized only in paid advertisements, and Jewish groups have been known to buy
space in newspapers to call attention to their activities and leaderships.
Does the dislike for askanim account for it?
There is nothing new in these criticisms. They have been heard during the decades of
American Jewry's maturing into an admittedly strong society of people who are con-
cerned with the welfare of world Jewry, Diaspora and Israel.
Admittedly, vu es klingt is a khoge, where it rings, there is a holiday, where there
is smoke there is fire.
Of course, there is cause for criticism. It is yet to be fully established what adminis-
trative roles American Jews are to play in Israel, how Israelis are to respond with a
proper kinship. There could not possibly be agreement on the political forms Jewish
actions are to be pursued by Jews in the Galut.
There can't be any conflict in matters involving unanimity in tackling anti-Semitic
threats, although approaches vary even in this sphere. Social actions involving the needs
of the elderly, of the less affluent, of the less fortunate usually invite undivided responses,
except in the recognized prejudiced quarters.
How much justification is there, under these and.many other circumstances, for the
Did Secularism Cause Decline
of Yiddish as a "Living Tongue"
In 1939, just before the mass murder of Jews as a Nazi
ideology, there were 18 million Jews in the world. Six
million perished. The worldwide Jewish population did not
increase measurably. Some figures indicate a present popu-
lation of some 12 to 14 million. One Israeli authority main-
tains there are not more than 10 million Jews in the world
today.
When there were 18 million, two-thirds of them spoke
Yiddish. There was a thriving Yiddish press and the theat-
Brs drew record crowds. Now there is a drastic decline in
Yiddish as the Jewish language. What caused it?
Dr. Lucy Dawidowicz, noted author of works on the
Holocaust whose latest work, "The Holocaust and the His-
torians" will be published by Harvard University Press
later this year, said she believes that secular influences are
attributable to the decline of Yiddish.
In her review of "The History of the Yiddish Language"
by Max Weinreich, in Commentary Magazine, Dr.
Dawidowicz contends that there is evidence that "Yiddish
began to decline somewhat after it became a secular lan-
guage and after its function as a vehicle for Yiddishkeit was
reduced." She adds that "in America and even in prewar
Eastern Europe, the secular Yiddish press, the secular
Yiddish school, and modern Yiddish literature hastened
rather than retarded the acculturation of Jews to modern
urban Gentile society. Yiddish as a vehicle of Jewish sec-
ularism eased the Jews' transition from the world of tradi-
tion to the world of modernity."
How does she arrive at the definition of secularism as
the road to extinction for Yiddish?
There is a lengthy explanation s and the noted scholar
states:
Having originated and matured as the language
of Yiddishkeit, Yiddish underwent an extraordi-
nary turnabout in the last century or so when it
became identified as the vehicle of Jewish secu-
larity and secularism.
Once an organic community, indivisible as a
people and a religion, the Jews were split apart by
religious and class wars, and became estranged
from one another by new national loyalties. Al-
though observant Jews continued to use Yiddish
as the language of Yiddishkeit, their world ap-
peared to be shrinking and growing more isolated
from the larger society, Jewish as well as Gentile.
In the rush of history Yiddish now came to be
appropriated by a self-reliant labor movement,
committed by its revolutionary fervor to make
war on Jewish traditionalism and "clericalism."
The secularists took over Yiddish to reinforce
their identity as an ethnic community with a polit-
ical agenda.
As politics moved to the center of Jewish com-
munal life in the 19th Century and thereafter,
Yiddish, invigorated by its new functions, ac-
quired new energy.
A great Yiddish press came into being in East-
ern Europe and America; secular school systems
with Yiddish as the language of instruction com-
peted successfully with government schools and
also with the heder and yeshiva. Yiddish litera-
ture and theater flourished on both sides of the
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resentments embodied in charges that the Jewish communities are dominated by the
moneybags, that there is need for democratization, that there is a leadership domination
to be challenged?
In the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the 35
recognized major American Jewish groups are fully represented. In their ranks there
surely are differing opinions. They undoubtedly challenge each other before arriving at
decisions for serious action in behalf of the Jewries of the world, including the American
community. Is a new movement needed in these critical times for the Jewish people?
A new society is being mobilized. It seeks a dues-paying membership. It is critical of
the askanim. With due credit for sincerity, it will be well to know whether the newly-
aligned form is a new body or whether they are defectors from existing groupings. If it is
the former, then the new alignment may well represent the hitherto unorganized who
could eventually have a place in the organized American Jewish community. If it is the
latter designation, then they may well be asked whether, as affiliates of existing move
ments, have they made any effort to improve on the existing factions and thereby a ,
strength to the kehilla, the community that needs strength rather than divisiveness.
Philanthropically, socially, politically, the responsibilities are overwhelming. The
needs are indescribable. Is the aspiration for unity, spelling the claim to am ehad, one
people, or is there to be an encouraged scrapping of the forces that are dedicated to the
many needs of a people always under pressure?
Is it to be inferred therefore that a new establishment has for its purpose the
destruction of the existing establishment?
The common sense of what had been treated as a realistically-organized community
will surely know how to deal with new approaches, mounting challenges, justified
criticisms.
The good sense of the functioning movements will surely dictate an acceptance of
criticism and the application of realistic proposals to the functions now embodied in the
kehillot, the communities of Jews everywhere. This very application of realism will
surely prevent the destructive that comes from whatever may lead to divisiveness.
working class. It was the language, too, of Men-
dele, Sholem Aleichem and Peretz.
In the remarkable success of Yiddish as a secu-
lar vehicle lay the seeds of its decline. But other
reckonings must first be made in charting its rise
and fall. In 1939 nearly two-thirds of the world's
18 million Jews spoke Yiddish; it was the princi-
pal language of more than half of them. It is thus
not mere rhetoric to say that Yiddish did not die,
but was murdered by the Third Reich. Had its
speakers lived out their lives biz hundert un
tsvantsik, Yiddish too would have survived, and
Eastern Europe would have continued for some
time to have nourished the Yiddish-speaking
communities in America and Israel. For how long,
it is idle and melancholy to speculate.
Thus, it is not secularism alone that reduced the im-
portance of Yiddish. The murder of Jews also spelled mur-
der for their language. The people whose language was
popularized more effectively than by any other means, the
legacies perpetuated in Yiddish by its retention of the old-
est forms of the German tongue, contributed towards the
massacre of the kinship of German in a language that
matches any other in its literary gems.
Indeed, whatever strength is retained by Yiddish now
is due in great measure to the secularist subscribers to the
Forward, and also to its very religious readers who now
utilize it because it is the only surviving Yiddish daily in
America. And the champions of Yiddish remain those who,
in their schools and academies, teach the Tanakh and the
Mishna by translating the texts for the students in Yiddish.
The Tragedy of Ransoming:
The Lessons Taught by Jewish
Experience Through Centuries
So tragic is the Iranian situation for Americans and for
all peoples who are concerned with basic human and dip-
lomatic rights; so pressing is the need to secure the release
of the hostages; so depressing is the indignity of the occur-
rence, that many now speak in terms of actually paying
some form of a ransom for the 52 held by the Iranians for 13
months.
It is generally agreed that ransom is inconceivable,
that it approaches the aspect of blackmail.
In Jewish experience through the ages, there were so
many occasions involving hostages and demands for ran-
som, that an entire historical chapter, covering centuries of
experience, has been recorded on the subject.
In "A Book of Jewish Concepts," the eminent scholar,
Dr. Philip Birnbaum points out, in an item on "Ransom of
Captives," that such ransoming is considered "one of the
most sacred obligations of a Jewish community." He wrote
that in Jewish law "it is placed above the important duty of
feeding and clothing the poor."
In his extensive definition of the terms involved in the
freeing of captives, Rabbi Birnbaum wrote:
The ransoming of captives is considered to be
one of the most sacred obligations of a Jewish
community. In Jewish law, it is placed above the
important duty of feeding and clothing the poor.
Special collections were made for extraordinary
communal expenses, such as the support of or-
phan children and fitting out a poverty-stricken
crirl with clothing and a dowry (hakhnasath kal-
lah), but particularly for the ransom of captives.
The Jewish people of ancient and medieval times
were frequently subjected to capture by enemies
who extorted ransoms from the communities. In
the 17th Century, the Jewish community of Ven-
ice organized a society for redeeming the captives
(hevrath pidyon shevuyim), for the liberation of
Jews incarcerated by pirates. Many other com-
munities, following the example of Venice, ap-
pointed special parnasim (communal wardens) to
collect funds for the purpose of ransoming the
captives. The community was obliged to pay ran-
som for any of its members who sold himself into
slavery or was taken captive for debts he owed. It
was not obliged to pay all that was demanded for
the ransom of a scholar.
••
According to a tannaitic
statment, if a man and his VI= IrM
father and his teacher were
incarcerated, he takes precedence over his
teacher in procuring ransom, while his teacher
takes precedence over his father; that is, he must
procure the ransom of his teacher before that of
his father; but his mother takes precedence over
all of them. A scholar takes precedence over a
king, for if a scholar dies there is none to replace
him, while all are eligible for kingship (Horayoth
13a).
The Talmud relates that when Rabbi Joshua
ben Hananya visited Rome, he was told that a
handsome-looking boy with curly locks was in
prison. He stationed himself at the doorway of the
prison . . . and said: "I will not budge from here
until I ransom him, whatever price may be de-
manded." He ransomed him at a high figure, and
it did not take long before the young man eventu-
ally became a great teacher in Israel, namely:
Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha (Gittin 58a).
In the tannaitic period it had been found neces-
sary to enact a law against paying too high a rar
stom for Jewish captives, lest kidnapping migh..
become a lucrative trade. The Mishna therefore
states: 'Captives should not be ransomed for more
than their value, as a precaution for the general
good' (Gittin 4:6). The price might not exceed the
value of the captive if sold as a slave. The talmudic
sages forbade the assistance in their attempts to
escape, for fear that the treatment of captives i
general would be made more cruel. When en. ___,
peror Rudolph demanded a large sum from the
Jews for Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, who had
been seized and committed to prison in 1284, and
the Jews were ready to pay any sum the emperor
demanded, Rabbi Meir, known as the Maharam,
refused to be ransomed. He spent the last seven
years of his life in prison, revising his literary
works. When he died, the emperor refused to sur-
render Rabbi Meir's body for 14 years until a
large sum was paid for its redemption.
This does not solve the American dilemma, the tragedy
of the hostages in Iran. But it offers a guideline on the
thinking and attitudes of people affected by threats of ran-
som that now spells blackmail. The horror of the inhuman-
ity of man to man remains the challenge to all generations.