,.„ 12 Friday, February 18, 1983 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS JPS Poetry Series Offers 71 - n New York' by Halpern PHILADELPHIA — In New York," the fifth volume in the Jewish Poetry Series sponsored by the Jewish Publication Society, is the first to present the work of a Yiddish poet, Moyshe-Leyb Halpern (1886-1932), re- garded as one of the most robust voices in American Yiddish poetry. Halpern emigrated to New York from Eastern Europe in 1908, where he soon became a leading force among the group of young Yiddish poets who were creating an innovative Yid- dish poetry. During his first years in America, he wrote a large number and wide variety of poems, which were published in journals. In 1919 he selected 95 titles and ordered the chosen works into "In New York," his first book of Yiddish poems. The present volume offers a selection of poems from that book, most of them in English translation for the first time, with facing Yid- dish texts. Incorporating about one-third of the origi- nal, it includes the best of Halpern's early effort and seeks to maintain in the selection a sense of the am- bitious narrative that was 115 trV158,1 Halpern's intended design. immigrant Jew's disillu- By the early 20th Cen- sionment and loss of hope in tury, Yiddish was finding America. The setting is its full scope and power New York, a city depicted as as a modern literature. a symbolic place in which Moyshe-Leyb Halpern the narrator contemplates, soon emerged as one of • dreams, remembers and its leading spirits, par- hopes. Here Halpern estab- ticipating in the efforts of lished a new kind of narra- the insurgent literary tive in Yiddish, combining movement known as Di the didactic and folk- Yunge (The Young). With element conventions of the publication of "In Yiddish poetry with what New York," his reputa- he knew of American tion was firmly estab- poetry, especially the per- lished. sonal voice and epic of Walt An experimental verse Whitman. narrative notable for its The narrative proceeds by thematic coherence, "In repeating versions of a story New York" presents the in which a protagonist who In the Golden Land believes in an ideal con- fronts the facts of the exter- nal world, negating it. Hal- pern retells this story both on a large scale — in the five sections of "In New York" — and on a small scale — in the discrete poems within each section. Thus the voice of one modern man repeats the story of the eternal, rest- less anxiety of the Jewish people in exile. In this selec- tion, this distinctive voice reverberates anew. The impressive character of the great contributions to Yiddish literature and to poetry is evidenced in the ?t,:ti114 2 114 41:144 Z 1r' /ID 11$ t152 ,10 43 —Mama, why, oh, why do you hold That everything here is changed into gold, That gold is made from iron and blood, Night and day, from iron and blood? Tyn t5emez 7y en 1t30 ,711 105s0 ynen_ t3 714 taepnyl ymen 8 tet Irt 1Y tsriz 714P tnen VT te - ,TT tZtrT 140 .tS111): oy1y15el nyi tone" 1 414 —My son, you cannot hide from a mother— Mama finds out, mama feels, with a shudder: You don't have enough meat or bread— In the Golden Land you aren't properly fed. ns, by tho 4 Y ,yrkpZ 744t5 ,ynto 4 1H 144N3 'yowl rki Ipb 1111$ 44 Z 10 1112 s1 5410 11314 t 41 ay 51111 nanyll tzl1y'r7e: r.)y-r 71 4 51e0 Te tonsirva te —Mama, does it come into your head, That people here throw away bread? That on an overgenerous earth, Things may lose their golden worth? — — ?nem rt, 11$3 ,111 1»n ,tosi assli 41 4 11 b 4 114 tyt tzln IN 41 4 1116 1DZKI ,1Y 1 41 /VIA sl 7580 prriyoyhr pri .11 t r/1-1 myrsti 44 1 4 11 4118 trlynya 11$1 tnbUil VT ;yin-en issn ,ynerz 4 14 — ,11y nyl 1rtt114 pes 011 4111111 1110 asrle ny45y: po Tea 41 tny5tr :etoneD .14111 Ism 1y1 ,11 tnnyns n:83 nr Dyer! .111411 1 44t3 TIM Listo nyze Fill issn 041 11 ts431T3,n 714 :114 D pnyv3Pyll8 111 zeri .iyllya ay Ili tory Ito3y3 toe lst -nnel 41 141 1:5 -,11e 11n tnssrl —Mama, surely. you have heard Of trains, that, racing under the earth, Drag— us from bed at the break of dawn And late at night bring us home again. —Son, I don't know. It hurts deep and high. Just yesterday when we said good-bye You were healthy, young, and strong— I need to see now that nothing's wrong. atrr Irlen pp liDasto Dell — ?tom 1st, ssii 4 11 - trprIto iy-T 11005 4D ,Y ;141K 1y1 11001/1 ,pea Tssn ,11=3 ,4 11 DISI1 141;1 114 VOYPD '111K t01811 —I don't know, son, but my heart cries— From here your face looks dark as the night And your eyelids fall shut drowsily Like the eyes of a man dying for sleep. 1 11 1,1 1y:4 14 ,111 issa ,iyis411 10'3 (451 '11 - .1'n 11$ 1DVY1 6 0 114 tot0 1 t 1 10Vi1t3 0 ,tNe11 e py5 ylyrsti Del 1 ,1 IDY'H .121iS5 t41y15til oy1 7414 :y11 Tsx 141 nsstoty ae11 ansstvyy lyrist "ra .ynen. tanyiy: — ..to"P 1/111 1 "4 114 —Iv'', 1,31,15U: - it;D 'VII 1 4 K — 51= 1y3y15to nni m5ri tt — oy:yi* —Mama, why do you suck my blood? You're hurting me, and it does no good. Why are you crying? Do you see at all What I envision—a high dark wall? —Why shouldn't I cry over you, my son? God and mother both forgotten! Now your own life is a wall that stands Blocking your way in the Golden Land. —Mama, you're right. We are far and gone. A golden chain . . . and an iron chain .. . For you, in heaven, a golden throne, A gallows for me in the Golden Land. Cartoonist Cited PARIS (JTA) — The Foundation of French Judaism has awarded its annual prize for distin- guished service to culture to Jewish cartoonist "Tim." The 100,000 Franc ($15,000) presentation of the award will take place April 20. • The translator of "In New York," Kathryn Hellers- tein, is an assistant profes- sor of English at Wellesley College. She holds a PhD from Stanford University, received for her doctoral dissertation on Moyshe Leyb Halpern, from which this book is drawn. Faction Squabbles Creating Problems for Israel's Mafdal By MOSHE RON ,m5eliy: 7:753 14a ,ynem sY t516writo tnnyli Tini 41 2 V1Y58 TS ,10.Sny3 IT 44 8 110 718 D15s 710 tly11 15tP bilingual character of this new JPS book. Among Hal- pern's notable poems, re- flecting the role of the im- migrants, their new life in New York, the Americani- zation process, is "In the Golden Land." The Jewish News Special IsrAel Correspondent TEL AVIV — Yitzhak Raffael, the son-in-law of the late Mizrachi leader Rabbi Jehuda Leib Fishman (Rabbi Maimon), has been for years one of the outstanding leaders of fthe Mafdal (National Religious Party). He was a leading member of the Jewish Agency, Vice Minister for Health and Minister for Religious Affairs. In the Mafdal he was the leader of the Likud Wetmura group. In 1977, on the eve of the Knesset elections, the lead- ers of the Young Guard, — the present Minister for Education Zevulun Ham- mer, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Yehuda Ben-Meir and some mem- bers of the Likud Wetmura assembled in Tel Aviv and decided to remove Raffael from all his offices and to omit his name from the list of candidates for the Knes- set elections. They chose the former Minister for Religious Af- fairs, Ahron Abu Hatzeira as new head of Likud Wet- mura. Even the best friend of Raffael, the former Knes- set deputy David Glass, par- ticipated in this act. Raffael quit with deep regret and abstained for many years -from all party activities. Four years ago the Mafdal also put an end to the parliamentary activi- ties of Glass, who is a legal expert and was chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Knesset. Several weeks ago Glass came to Raffael and asked to make amends. He asked Raffael to return to Likud Wetmura. Raffael told him he was ready, but does not wish to hold any offices in the party. Raffael told reporters that he was willing to re- turn to party activity be- cause its leadership had caused the defeat in the last Knesset elections two years ago, when it lost half its mandates. Now he wishes to change the party leader- ship. Raffael has contacts with the Lamifne group, led by the Cabinet member Dr. Yosef Burg, Knesset member Abraham Melamed, Raffael Ben- Natan and Rabbi Moshe Salomon, in order to get a majority in the next inter- nal elections of the National Religious Party and try to establish a coalition gov- ernment with the Maarakh (Labor Alignment). Lately, some rabbis of the Mafdal, like Rabbi Yehuda Amital and Rabbi Ahron. Lichtens- tein, leaders of Yeshiva Har Ezion, have opposed the policy of the Mafdal leadership in support of Likud. and Gush Emunim. They advocate territorial compromises in order to reach peace with the Arab countries: They say they prefer more Jews in Israel than more territories. The Kibutz Hadati movement is beginning to oppose the policies of the Mafdal leadership. They are opposed to the radical opin- ions of Knesset deputy Rabbi Druckman and Gush Emunim. They announced that they would participate in the internal elections of the Mafdal only if the Ministry for Internal Af- fairs would control the elec- tion procedure. They ac- cused the party forgeries -during the last election. The Bnei Akiva move- ment is also showing signs of dissension and even Burg and Ben-Meir have been having problems with the Gush Emunim. In addition to these splits, the Hasidic groups have been sparring politically. The Mafdal will have to work hard to bring its house to order before the next elec- tions. 1983 Weizmann Parley in Ariz. NEW YORK — The 1983 National Weizmann Lead- ership Conference, March 18-20 in Phoenix, will pro- vide American and Cana- dian supporters of I§rael's Weizmann Institute of Sci- ence with briefings by sci- entists on its latest research breakthroughs, newest perspectives and growing international impact. The conference features a program of five forums in- cluding institute advances in the battle against cancer, high technology and genetic engineering.