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Friday, December 3, 1982 85

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Grade's 'Rabbis and Wives' a Tribute to E. European Jewry

By ALLEN A. WARSEN
"Rabbis and Wives,"

I authored by Chaim Grade,
) translated from the Yiddish
by Harold Rabinowitz and
Imma Hecker Grade and
Lpublished by Alfred A.
- Knopf, is composed of three
intense, moving novellas:
"The Rebbitzin," "Laybe-
I Layzar's Courtyard" and
"The Oath."
Though separate stories,
combined, the novellas are a
i_Jpeople's mirror reflecting
its social, economic and
CHAIM GRADE
') spiritual life, and depicting
neuvered
her husband to
( its rabbinical and educa-
tional institutions, espe- try to become, against his
cially the yeshivas and their _will, the head of the local
rabbinate. At the same
methods of teaching.
A good illustration is this time, she manipulated to
insightful introduction to win over to her scheme
the study of the Torah: the community's leaders.
But her daughter, Serel,
The Torah,' explains the
rabbi, 'is a link with ancient who sided with her father,
times. It is like a path that resisted her mother's tactics
runs from primeval forests, and explained to her
through deep canyons and brothers their mother's real
over tall mountains . . . motivation. " 'Mother,' she
• The Torah was given to us to told them, 'is pushing
show . how to live. We must father' to become rav in
insist
its precepts stand be- Horadna because she wants
•
'‘,D fore our eyes straight and to take 'revenge on the
Horadna Rav for breaking
clear . . ."
The principal char-
acter of the first novella,
j; "The Rebbitzin," is
Perele, the daughter of
"the great sage, Rabbi
NEW YORK (JTA) —
Osherel Broido, the Gaon
(' of Staropol." Short "with The "once strong sense of
sharp, searching eyes ethnic consciousness"
and a tall rabbinical among American Jews is
forehead," Perele was fading, with the result that
engaged to the young secular Judaism is bank-
- scholar, Moshe-Mordecai rupt, in the view of Rabbi
Eisenstadt. Realizing Walter Wurzburger,
that his fiancee, Perele, president of the Synagogue
(' and he would be incom- Council of America.
The Orthodox rabbinical
patible as husband and
wife, he withdrew from leader said the synagogue
must be "re-Judaized" to fill
the marriage.
Perele never forgot nor the void left by the "wither-
ing" of "secularism." Rabbi
forgave this slight.
Nevertheless, she mar-
ried soon afterwards the
Teacher Training
IN Ray of Graipewo, Rabbi
NEW YORK — More
,? Uri-Zvi HaCohen
than 500 teachers from the
Koenigsberg, whom she
740 afternoon religious
completely dominated.
schools affiliated with the
Years later, as their chil-
Conservative Movement
dren were grown, married
will be invited to participate
and settled in Horadna, the
in a two-year training pro-
• Rebbetzin Perele persuaded
gram conducted by United
Synagogue of America.
2 her husband to relinquish
his rabbinical position in
The two- and three-day
Graipewo and move to training sessions will be
Horadna, ostensibly to be
conducted in 20 locations
, close to their children, actu-
throughout the country,
ally to reside where her
close to smaller and more
former fiance, the world re-
isolated Jewish com-
nowned Rabbi Eisenstadt is
munities and to those con-
) ray.
Once in Horadna, the gregations which rely most
Rebbetzin Perele ma- heavily on para-
professionals.

r

•

"

their engagement before
father married her.' "
As anticipated, the Re-
bbetzin Perele attained her
desired goal.
The novella, "Laybe-
Layzar's Courtyard," is
really a collection of short
stories. The characters,
residents of Vilna's famous
courtyard, were noted for
their peculiar personality-
traits and unique problems.
The courtyard's most
popular dwellers were
Rabbi Yoel Weintraub and
the blacksmith Heskiah
Teitelbaum.
Rabbi Weintraub, a
tall, distinguished-
looking man, was ray in
Zaskowicz, a small town
near Vilna. There he had
been very unhappy, be-
cause a ray, he told his
wife, Hindele, "must be
able to stand up and say
that what may not be
done simply may not be
done! If it's not kosher, it
is not kosher! But I just
don't have the heart to
forbid so many things."
Consequently, he res-
igned his rabbinical posi-

Orthodox Rabbi Proclaims
Secular Judaism 'Bankrupt'

-)

1

`Schindler's List'
Film Deal Near

NEW YORK — The film
rights to "Schindler's List,"
the prize-winning non-
fiction novel by Thomas
Keneally (reviewed in the
-" Jewish News Nov. 20, 1982,
p. 20) will be purchased by
Universal Pictures, accord-
, ing to the New York Times.
The book is an account of
the life of 'Oskar Schindler,
the German industrialist
7, who saved the lives of hun-
dreds of Jews during World
War II. Universal has of-
fered $500,000 for the rights
and hopes to sign Steven
Spielberg as director for the
project, the Times reported.

Master's Degree
in Communal
Service Offered

WALTHAM, Mass. — A
master's degree program
designed to train men and
women for management
positions in the Jewish
community has been estab-
lished at Brandeis Univer-
sity.
Graduates of the program
are awarded two master's
degrees — one in Jewish
communal service from the
University's Hornstein
Program and the other in
management of human
services from the Heller
School.

Wurzburger spoke as a
member of a panel on the
future of the synagogue,
presented at the 38th an-
nual convention of the
alumni of the Rabbi Isaac
Elchanan Theological Sem-
inary of Yeshiva Univer-
sity.
He said that there was a
time when synagogues
could exist by functioning
as outlets for sentiments of
Jewish ethnicism but at
present, he added, "Jews
feel very much at home in
the United States" and
there is "not as much anti-
Semitism as there once
was."
In the years after crea-
tion of Israel, a sense of
Jewish ethnicism grew
with Israel, he said but at
present, "because of the
waning of Jewish ethni-
cism, there are large
numbers of Jews who
have no real interest in
Israel."
Under present conditions,
he argued, Jewish survival
"hinges on our ability to
create the will to survive as
Jews." He said re-Judaizing
synagogues means taking
more care about the topics
discussed in the synagogue
and the kind of activities
sponsored by the
synagogue.

Witnesses Sought
on Use of Dogs

NEW YORK — The
World Jewish Congress, at
the request of the U.S. Jus-
tice Department, is seeking
witnesses to the use of dogs
in Buchenwald and Sac-
hsenhausen concentration
camps during World War II.
Persons with information
should call Ms. Bessy
Pupko, (212) 679-0600, or
write her at the World
Jewish Congress, One Park
Ave., New York 10016.

tion in Zaskowicz and
moved to Vilna where he
rented a small dwelling in
Laybe-Layzar's courtyard.
There, he spent entire days
as a porush (a reclusive
Talmudic scholar) in the
courtyard's beth midrash
and depended for his sup-
port on his wife, Hindele
(little hen), who looked like
a little hen and "rejoiced
with every grain and every
bread crumb."
The novella's other char-
acter and frequenter at the
beth midrash of Laybe-
Layzar's courtyard was
Heskiah Teitelbaum. A
Master blacksmith and an
expert on the Codes of Law,
Heskiah spent the morn-
ings and late afternoons in
the synagogue immersed in
the study of the Talmud and
the Codes. In addition, he
fasted on all public fast days
as well on Mondays and
Thursdays and often on or-
dinary weekdays.
Heskiah, a strict observer
of the law, caused his oldest
daughter to divorce her
husband because he wasn't
careful "in adhering to the
laws governing a woman's
intimacy with her hus-
band." He similarly forbade
his youngest daughter,
Itka, to move to a room of
her own. He told her that
she "would leave her par-
ents' home and live apart
from them only after she
married a young man whom
he, her father nvould choose
for her. Were he to permit
her to live by herself now,
how could be be sure she
wouldn't be washing and
combing her hair on the
Sabbath."
'The Oath," the small-
est of the novellas, is full
of drama and suspense.
Its main hero, Shlomo-
Zalman Rappoport, was
noted for his personality
split: a pious Jew, resid-
ing among irreligious
neighbors and giving his

bis . . .
"Members of the Choral
Synagogue also came —
pharmacists, building
managers, self-styled legal
consultants . . . From
Shavelska and Rudnicka
streets came the cloth man-
ufacturers . . . And finally,
from the small streets
around the courtyard of the
Grand Synagogue came the
common folk."
In contrast to Shlomo-
Zalman Rappoport, the
novella's other character,
ALLEN WARSEN
Rabbi Avraham-Abba Sel-
children a secular educa- igman, was a man of integ-
tion; a hard-headed busi- rity and strict principles.
Owners of a grocery store,
nessman, yet softhearted
and charitable; a Hassid, his wife, Hodel, conducted
but associates and bef- the business, while he
riends "the free-thinking watched over her lest she
should, "God forbid," give a
Maskilim."
Curiously, before his customer "in error too small
an amount or too little
death, Shlomo-Zalman de-
manded that his son Gavriel change."
Unable to tolerate her
take an oath that Ire would
cease attending the univer- husband's fanaticism
sity. Instead, he would de- any longer, Hodel di-
vote his time to the study of vorced him. But
the Talmud and the Codes. Avraham-Abba after a
Similarly, he asked his while married
daughter Asnatto to prom- Bathsheva, the widow of
ise "to marry an observant Shlomo-Zalman.
Following her marriage,
young man, a yeshiva stu-
Bathsheva expressed this
dent."
afterwards wish:
Soon
"May God help my chil-
Shlomo-Zalman died.
Fascinating is Grade's dren to be no less happy
description of Shlomo- with their spouses than I am
with Reb Avraham-Abba."
Zalman's funeral:
Chaim Grade, the great
"Since he had been born
to Lithuanian Hasidim and Yiddish poet and novelist, a
attended a Hasidic beth native of Vilna, the
midrash every Sabbath, a Jerusalem of Lithuania,
large contingent came from died recently in New York
the small Hasidic shtibls in at age 75.
Referred to by Elie Wiesel
the courtyard — from
Kaidanova, the Stolin, the as "the most authentic Yid-
Lachowicze, and, of course, dish novelist," • Grade
authored, inter alia, "Rab-
the Slonim . . .
"Standing apart in a bis and Wives," "The
circle of their own were Yeshiva," "The Aguna,"
the Lubavicher Hasidim "The Well" and the
from White Russia . . . Holocaust memoir, "The
and in another group Seven Little Lanes."
Grade's works serve as a
stood the affluent con-
gregants of the Grand memorial to Jewish Vilna
Synagogue of Vilna, sur- and its culture that once
rounding the town's rab- blossomed and is no more.

HANKA
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