64 Friday, January 22, 1982 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Tuchman's Analysis of Assimilation in 'Practicing History' Barbara Tuchman, twice. Pulitzer Prize winner for her historical essays and full-length works, provides evidence for having merited such recognition in her newest work, "Practicing History" (Knopf). It is a collection of essays, and of speeches later used as essays in national magazines, including Commentary. In a sense it is also autobiographical, in the recollections about her distinguished family whose roots were in American JevAsh ranks. In this collection of essays Mrs. Tuchman touches upon Japan, Spain, China, Vietnam, and on political affairs, including Water- gate and the Presidency. Is- rael has many roles in the articles in which she emerges as an advocate of justice for Israel, Jewry, Zionism. Included in the Israel- oriented is a review of Gideon Hausner's "Jus- tice in Jerusalem," re- printed from the New York Times Book Re- view. She titled her arti- cle "The Final Solution." From the NYTimes Book Review also is reprinted her review of Dr. Henry Kis- singer's "Kissinger's Self- Portrait." Of major interest is the essay "The As- similationist's Dilemma: Ambassador Morgenthau's Story." It is reprinted from Commentary and originally was an address she deli- vered before the American Historical Association, in December 1976. The 10-page article is voluminous in recollections. It is the story of her grand- father, Henry Morgenthau Sr. It relates to her father, Maurice Wertheim, Morgenthau's son-in-law. There are many as- pects to this story. Of in- terest, of course, is Morgenthau Senior's deep interest in social causes, his role in sup- port of Woodrow Wilson for the Presidency, his early pro-Zionism which he later abandoned. He was a supporter of Stephen S. Wise in the founding of the Free Synagogue, but he resigned from its presidency as a pro- test against Wise's Zionism. He wrote an article expres- sing his anti-Zionism and included it in 1921, in his autobiography. He called the movement "an Eastern European proposal which, if it were to succeed, would cost the Jews of America most of what they have gained in liberty, equality and frater- nity." Mrs. Tuchman states that "in his eighties, in the shadow of the Holocaist, he privately acknowledged that he had read history wrong. He died at 91 a year before the re-creation of the state of Israel." Therefore, the notewor- thiness of her speech and es- say. Mrs. Tuchman began her recollections about her grandfather and father by recording how Morgenthau dispatched aid to Palestine during World War I. Mrs. Tuchman maintains that the aid he sent to Palestine saved the Jewish commun- ity from extinction. As she stated it: "The incident that suggested Henry Morgenthau, Sr., as a focus of the modern Jewish dilemma is one of history's classic ironies: that by his alert dispatch of assistance to the Jewish colony of Pales- tine in August 1914 — when serving as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey — he saved it from starva- tion and probable extin- cition, thus preserving it for the ultimate state- hood which he came to believe was a "stupend- ous fallacy' and 'blackest error.' Measured in material terms, the aid was minuscule, and the incident remains virtu- ally unknown except to a few investigators; but it was of decisive and im- mense historical impor- tance." worked, as well as a house to live in and schooling for his daughters, were arranged for by my father (who had visited Ben-Yehuda in Jerusalem) and were supplied largely by his father, Jacob Wertheim, and a committee consisting of Jacob Schiff, Felix War- burg, Julius Rosenwald, and Herbert Lehman, the magnates of the so-called gilded ghetto. "Why did they care about the revival of Hebrew? Or, in the earlier case, about the survival of the colony in Palestine? The answer to that — the unbreakable tie to the group — is the answer as well to the unique survi- val of the Jews for over 1,900 years without state- hood or territory. It is also part of the assimilationist's dilemma. "Assimilation was a solu- tion born of an Enlighten- ment — a dream of adapta- tion within a dominant Gentile society while sup- _ posedly maintaining some- thing not quite definable called Judaism. Whether this was to be equivalent to or more than the Jewish re- ligion depended on the indi- vidual interpreter, but in any case it tended to shrivel in partnership with assimi- lation. "In degree and nature the whole concept of as- similation was a disturb- ing problem of belief tor- tured by doubt, and so troubling that it was not discussed in front of the children. It is likely, I , suspect, to remain forever unsolved, never wholly achieved or , wholly abandoned. "Meanwhile the record suffers from a certain dis- tortion — in that the do- minant voice, as in every historical record, belongs to the victors, who in this case are the Zionists. Events proved them right with re- gard to the revival of Israel, and the assimilationists wrong. Consequently the , BARBARA TUCHMAN father, who was then visit- ing him. "When' it came to dis- tribution, the gold precipi- tated an attack of inter- necine quarreling among the various local organiza- tions, until my father, who was then 28, picked up the suitcase, locked himself in an adjoining room, and told his clients he would not come out until they had reached an agreement. Under that ultimatum, they did." It is on the question of assimilation and the urgency of the Zionist ideology that Mrs. Tuchman's essay is espe- cially impressive. Here is a portion worth studying as a significant historical analysis of Jewish inner conflicts and the even- tual triumph of the liber- tarian Zionism: "Another contribution to Her father, the future of Israel, as im- Maurice portant in a different way, Wertheim, who . was was the support that made noted as an possible the revival of Heb- art collector rew as a living language. and author=- Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the ity and was compiler — one might say, WERTHEIM president of the creator — of the modern the American Jewish Hebrew dictionary, was Committee, supervised the brought to this country in distribution of food and 1914 under Zionist auspices medicaments which were to continue his work in provided with Morgen- safety during the war years. thau's- aid, and that role is But the funds to support thus recounted by Mrs. him and his family while he Tuchman: "Morgenthau's cable stated that 'immediate as- His way was not an easy sistance' to Palestine By MOSHE RON one. The way of building a The Jewish News Special Jewry was required and Israel Correspondent bridge of peace with Israel suggested the sum of TEL AVIV The widow has to be continued in order $50,000. Jacob Schiff of the of the late Egyptian to strengthen and per- AJC and Louis Marshall, its president, convened a meet- President Anwar Sadat re- petuate this peace not only ing and raised the cently gave an interview to with words but with ac- suggested sum within two Israeli journalist Smadar tions." Jehan Sadat, clad in days. Half was contributed Peri who visits Egypt often by the AJC, $12,500 by and has established close re- black, said "We are people Schiff personally, and lations with leading Egyp- with hot feelings. If we shall accompany our labor for $12,500 by the American tian personalities. Jehan told the journalist peace with our love feelings, Federation of Zionists. "The funds were wired that she wished to appeal to we shall reach the desired to Constantinople, con- the Israeli people: "I know aim for both sides, the verted to gold, and carried quite well that you have re- Egyptian and Israeli people. spected the late President I know how the Israeli in a suitcase to Jerusalem Sadat and that you have people liked my late hus- by Morgenthau's son-in- law, Maurice Wertheim, my held him in high esteem. band and this gave me much satisfaction. I heard about the deep mourning in Israel after the death of President Sadat and about the eve- ning on which tens of thousands took part in an open-air mourning cere- mony. "Sadat wished that not only Egypt but also other Arab states would make peace with Israel," Mrs. Jews from Hitler's final sol- ution. "Needless to say, the German program of annihi- lation was the experience that turned assimilationists into supporters of state- "The malice and falsity of hood, anti-Zionists into re- Felix Frankfurter's recol- luctant pro-Zionists. Nor lections of Morgenthau, was it Hitler alone who ac- published after the subject complished the change but was safely dead, are a the reaction of the Western mean-spirited example. democracies — the lack of-„ "Yet while the Zionists protest, the elaborate d supplied the impulse, the nothing international con=- ideal, and the driving force, ferences, the pious evasions, not to mention the settlers, the passive connivance in the fact remains that the which Hitler read his cue, German-Jewish leaders in the avoidance of rescue, the America, whether from mo- American refusal to loosen tives of guilt or reinsurance immigration quotas when or a sense of responsibility, death camps were the alter- or a mixture of these, gave native, the refusal even of the support without which -- temporary shelter, the turn- there would have been no ing back of refugee ships fil- living settlement to incor- led with those rescued by Jewish efforts. porate statehood. former appear in the record as the disciples of truth and the latter as obstructionists, blind and selfish bitter- enders, objects of scorn and sometimes of malice. "The work of Louis Marshall, for one, was es- sential. As chief spokes- man of the 'establish- ment,' he cooperated with Chaim Weizmann to create the Jewish Agency, through which non-Zionists could sup- port the settlement in Palestine. Nathan Straus was another. His support of public-health and other projects in Pales- tine, estimated to have absorbed two-thirds of his fortune, is commemo- rated in the town named Natanya on Israel's sea- coast. "Ultimately it was Morgenthau's son, Henry Jr., who, on leaving Roosevelt's Cabinet, as- sumed the chairmanship of the United Jewish Appeal in 1947-1950 and raised the funds critical for the survi- val of Israel in the en- dangered first years of statehood. He was gal- vanized, I have no doubt, by the failure of his ceaseless effort, as Secretary of the Treasury under Roosevelt, to make the President take some effective action to save HENRY MORGENTHAU . "More than 900 on board the St. Louis were turned back to Europe within sight of the lights of Miami, more than 700 on board the leak- ing Struma were turned back from Palestine to sink with all on board in the Black Sea. Was their fate so very different from that of Auschwitz?" Barbara Tuchman the prize-winning historian emerges in her collected es- says as a remarkable in- terpreter of the Zionist idea, of Israel's status. Her family recollections about her peers add immensely to American Jewish data. She "practices" history with great skill. —P.S. Mrs. Sadat Asks Israelis to Preserve Peace day. Present were members of the Egyptian Cabinet and governors of several parts of the country. Jehan Sadat will con- tinue her studies. She will earn a doctorate in English literature. She is also preparing an auto- biography dedicated to her late husband. Mrs. Sadat invited in her home a 17 -year-o] pupil from , the "Peace Cir- JEHAN SADAT cle" in Haifa, Merav Sadat gai& "We must Gelfman from the Reali continue and strengthen High School. Mrs. Sadat ex- this way, in order to pressed her wish to visit avoid further wars in the Haifa for a second time. She future. We must pave a was pleased to hear that the better way and build a fu- youth in Israel were ture for our children, enthusiastic about peace. grandchildren and corn- Sadat's youngest daugh- ing generations. Let us ter also wishes to visit Israel open a new epoch after again and believes in a last- his tragic death." ing peace between Israel The family of President and Egypt. Merav Gelfman Sadat assembled in the vil- presented a present to lage of his birth, Abu El- Jehan Sadat, a plate with kum, to celebrate his birth- quotations from the Koran.