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• THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Sholom Secunda Biography Due
NEW YORK — Fifty
years ago Sholom Secunda
wrote "Bei Mir Bist Du
Schon," one of the great hit
songs in the annals of popu-
lar music. That anniversary
will be marked by the publi-
cation of the composer's
biography, "Bei Mir Bist Du
Schon: The Life of Sholom
Secunda," written by his
daughter-in-law, Victoria
Secunda, with a foreword by
Walter Matthau (Magic
Circle Press).
"Bei Mir Bist Du Schon,"
from which the composer
earned only $15, became the
number one international
hit song in 1938 as recorded
by the Andrews Sisters with
English lyrics. Though it
was eventually performed
by other greats of the time,
it was the Andrews Sisters'
recording which made his-
tory.
Buyers of the record and
sheet music tripped over the
title, calling it "My Mere
Bits of Shame," or "Buy Me
a Beer, Mr. Shane," but buy
it they did. It was a favorite
of the Nazis, until its Jewish
origin was discovered and it
was banned.
The generation too
young to have heard "Bei
Mir Bist Du Schon" grew
up with another Secunda
hit, 'Dona, Dona, Dona,"
recorded by Joan Baez,
Theodore Bikel and
others.
Secunda, composer of
more than 1,000 songs and
65 operettas, was born in a
small village in the Russian
Ukraine in 1894, from
which his family fled to
America to escape from
Czarist anti-Semitism The
Secundas, their passage
paid by Sholom's earnings
as a boy cantor, joined the
more than one million Jews
who poured into the teem-
ing tenements on the Lower
East Side.
The book traces Secun-
da's classical music training
with Ernest Bloch and
others, his popularity as a
songwriter and serious
PLO to Shift Headquarters?
JERUSALEM (ZINS) — neuvers. The Syrian gov-
The Israeli invasion of ernment has refused to
Lebanon may force the PLO allow the Palestinians to
to move its military head- carry out raids from within
quarters to Damascus, ac- the country's borders.
Meanwhile, analysts be-
political
to
cording
lieve that the Syrians have
analysts.
Israeli experts feel that if lost a dominant role in
the PLO is driven into Lebanon and that the Soviet
Syria's grip it would se- position in the Middle East
verely constrict the ter- has been undermined by the
rorist group's room for ma- events of the last month.
composer at a time when
more than 20 Yiddish
theaters flourished in New
York, his 30 years as music
director at the Concord
Hotel in the Catskills.
Throughout, it explores
his relationship with the
foremost musicians of the
era. There are 16 pages of
photographs, including
those of Secunda with Eddie
Cantor, Richard Tucker,
Pablo Casals, Molly Picon
and the Andrews Sisters.
New Approach Is Urged for Cult Victims
By BEN GALLOB
(Copyright 1982, JTA, Inc.)
A legal expert on cult ac-
tivity has asserted at a
Jewish-sponsored seminar
in New York that his col-
leagues should intervene to
assure that the freedom of
choice guaranteed by the
First Amendment be in-
voked on behalf of victims of
cults, in place of its current
use as a weapon against the
counter-cult movement.
That argument was made
at the seminar on cult ac-
tivity co-sponsored by the
New York Jewish Commu-
50,000 Jewish
nity Relations Council
Profs. in U.S.
(JCRC) task force on mis-
NEW YORK (ZINS) — sionaries and cults, and the
There are approximately Jewish Board of Family and
50,000 full-time Jewish pro- Children's Services
fessors on the faculties of (JBFCS) cult hot-line and
American colleges and uni- clinic.
versities, according to a
Seminar participants
study by the Carnegie were also told that there has
Commission for Higher been growth and increasing
Education.
success in application of
The study reported that mental health services and
the average age of the community outreach in the
American Jewish professor battle against the cults, but
was 45 and that nearly 25 that a void continues in the
percent teach law, some 22 area of legal services.
percent teach medicine and
That latter point was
15 percent teach psychol-
made by Herbert
ogy.
Rosedale, the expert on
cults, who called on his
Scholar Named
fellow-lawyers to seek to
JERUSALEM — Prof. resolve, rather than
Samuel Eisenstadt of the avoid, the complicated
Hebrew University of legal issues affecting
Jerusalem has been elected families, religion and cult
a foreign associate of the group activities.
U.S. National Academy of
Rosedale also said there
Sciences.
was danger in teh "increas-
A sociologist, he is cur- ingly blurred" lines be-
rently a visiting professor at tween religion, economics
Harvard University.
A TIME FOR HEALING
By MAURICE CROLL, M.D.
Time, unrelenting in its course; A complete entity within
itself. No King can halt its course, No Queen can soothe
its tears. Atom bombs may fall on innocents, Tidal waves
may drown millions.
Time pays no heed to catastrophies. It draws a solid
curtain, Impregnable tithe future of us all. It doth wreak
havoc with each in constancy. It looks neither to the left or
right, Its course is straight ahead. No matter how the
world doth say.
Time, the enemy of the young. They know it not at all.
They squander it listlessly, Put aside like some worn out
broken toy. And, when in latter years, When time has
dealt them life (time), They can look back in horror And
wonder how little did they know To make such progress
as time doth now bestow.
All our days are squared into time; From one to twenty-
four. Into these allotted boxes We must then conform.
Even in our birthday days It is allotted that the female
Will share her life with her unborn bloodlines directly
attached these many days.
I had hoped within time, firm healing measures, My
senses would dull somewhat, would humor me some-
what, to reason out, so righteously, That now they both
reside in Heaven. Can it beso, as I would want to be?
Two months beyond their death, Our Elizabeth, whom
God so kindly spared, said unto me (she is now five):
"Grandpa, last night I had a dream. Papa Bruno and my
little brother Danny were standing by my bed, Yes,
Grandpa, I saw them there. It was for real.
And there they were, They talked to me. I heard each
word so plain. And then, smiling, they walked away,
hand in hand. I think they were happy.
"I cried, 'Pappa Bruno.' I held out my hands. I cried
'Please take me with you.' I cried until I woke up."
I held her close to me. Tears came into my eyes. I could not
control myself. My whole body shook in disbelief.
What can I say? Can I say it is not so? What lurks in the
mind of a three-year-old sensitized child after such a
traumatic overwhelming shock?
The sages with their wisdom, say Time, in time, heals all
wounds. I have listened well tb all their platitudes, hop- ,
ing to find some degree of comfort in their wondrous
words.
And so I said, "Yes, sweetheart. Papa Bruno and little
Danny are now in Heaven with God, But each day they
watch you from the heavens above with love."
•
Great measures of joy came unto me, And these are the
golden moments that God has allotted unto me with time.
I try, and try, and try to heed their soothing words, And,
though I long to find some comfort alcove that I seek, I
find but none as yet, No matter where I seek.
I hope and pray in time that they may counteract in full
the grief that still holds me.
Of healing in my tortured brain I have none as yet. I see
my two beloved — Bruno, my son-in-law, the gentle giant
and my only grandson, Danny boy, A blonde,
perpetual-motion bombshell.
I see them now — so silent, Both lie, so quiet, in my brain
and my grief rises up in full terror to overwhelm, And all
this on the day of my birth, the 12th of July.
Upon this day that marked my birth I have decreed upon
myself a holy day of absolute prayer and fasting.
The need for prayers are always there. So that, with
hunger, my body may farther reach out to touch my two
beloved.
P.S. Papa Bruno and our little Danny were killed in an
auto accident on July 12, 1980. Elizabeth, in the same
car, was spared. She apparently was written into the
Book of Life. For her life I am forever grateful. In
sorrow, after the death of loved ones, ybu walk alone.
Sorrow is such a private emotion. I am attempting to
put out my hand to those of you who are in the midst of
your own personal death sorrows.
Addendum: Papa Bruno and little Danny were put in
one casket. Danny was put into the encircling arms of
his father. As in life. Sleep well my two beloved.
and politics, citing the re-
cent court decision sustain-,
ing the religious nature and
tax exemption of the Unifi-
cation Church.
Rosedale said the First
Amendment, rather than
being the bane of the
counter-culture movement,
is really its foundation be-
cause of the freedom of
choice it guarantees. But,
he said, this freedom does
not exist for those decep-
tively recruited by cults be-
cause its protection is not
sought for cult victims by
attorneys.
Museum Displays Menora
Other European Artifacts
This upright "Frankfurt" style Hanuka menora is
one of the items currently on display as part of an
exhibit on European Judaica at the Israel Museum in
Jerusalem. The bells dangling near the center of the
lamp indicate that it was probably the work of a gen-
tile silversmith, unfamiliar with the Jewish holidays.
St. Louis Holocaust Center
Aims to Educate the Public
By HEIDI PRESS
Education is the major
focus of the St. Louis Center
for Holocaust Studies, ac-
cording to its director, War-
ren Green.
Green, who was in Detroit
Monday, met with princi-
pals of the local Holocaust
Memorial Center Commit-
tee and related groups.
He said the major func-
tion of the St. Louis
Holocaust Memorial Center
is to coordinate all
Holocaust-related pro-
grams and projects in the
Jewish community and in-
- itiate and coordinate pro-
grams in the public sphere.
"It's important to
create a coalition of
educators. It's important
to find people and train
them to tell the story of
the Holocaust and to
make it comprehensible
to the respective groups."
He explained that when
speaking to non-Jewish
groups, the Holocaust is re-
lated via an aspect of daily
life that the particular
group would understand.
For example, he said when
speaking to black youths,
the topic of being street-
wise in the Warsaw Ghetto
was used to open the discus-
sion. To Catholic groups an-
other aspect was found, and
so on.
Green added that the St.
Louis center also deals with
the "abuse and misuse of the
Holocaust." As an example,
he cited a Catholic cam-
paign linking the abortion
issue with the Holocaust.
The St. Louis center was
founded in 1977. It is spon-
sored and funded by that ci-
ty's federation and seg-
ments of the non-Jewish
community.
Neighborhood
Is for Sale'
in Beersheva
BEERSHEVA (JNI) —
Although there's no "for
sale" sign in front, a com-
plete neighborhood
Beersheva has been placeu
on the market by the De-
fense Ministry.
The neighborhood, in-
cluding 40 villas, a high
school and offices, was con-
structed for the American
engineers who prepared the
new Negev airfields for Is-
rael's withdrawal from
Sinai. The list price is repor-
tedly about $6 million.