THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
The Voices of Poet-Philosopher James Feibleman
By DR. JOSEPH COHEN
NEW
ORLEANS — It is
rare to find a true
philosopher who is also a
true poet. That is what
makes James K. Feibleman
so phenomenal. He is both,
and he has 45 books, includ-
ing five volumes of poetry,
200 articles, three honorary
doctoral degrees, and an in-
ternational reputation to
vouch for it.
Passing him familiarly on
the Tulane University cam-
pus for many years, I never
once thought to take him for
granted. I suspect, however,
that many people do in New
Orleans, where he was born
and reared and has lived all
his life except for his exten-
sive travels abroad.
Perhaps fewer will do so if
they take the occasion to
look into his recently pub-
lished "Conversations: A
Kind of Fiction" (Horizon
Press).
Jimmy Feibleman is
Jewish, and while his
interests are more uni-
versal than those most of
us entertain, his perspec-
t3
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tive on life, perceived
through the manner by
which he articulates
human concerns, seems
to me to derive from the
Old Testament emphases
on the intrinsic value of
human life and the inher-
ent worth of social jus-
tice.
His passionate opposition
to Nazi anti-Semitism and
his horror of the Holocaust,
however dispassionate his
philosophical stance seems,
turn up in a number of
books, including "Conver-
sations."
Feibleman was born in
1904, the only child of
German-Jewish parents.
His father, from a peasant
farming family living near
Mannheim, at the age of 16
drove a cow to market, sold
it, and with the earnings
came to America, settling in
New Orleans, where in time
he became a successful mer-
chant.
The young Feibleman
was reared in an elixir of
business, literature, music
and philosophy. Much of his
learning came from his own
reading, for he left college in
the middle of his freshman
year, convinced that it was
seriously obstructing his
education. He became in-
terested in, indeed, obsessed
with poetry, and he deter-
mined to be a poet.
Though his parents
were reformed Jews and
saw to their son's proper
religious instruction and
synagogue attendance,
neither they nor he were
more than casually affil-
iated. Still, some of
Feibleman's early pub-
lished poems were on
Jewish subjects.. One is
entitled "For Theodor
Herzl," while another is
called "Two Jewish
Hymns."
Among the magazines
which printed his work was
"The Menorah Journal."
When the poet later
turned philosopher, he de-
veloped a formal interest in
religion and it is not a neg-
lected subject in his works.
He tends to be anti-
institutional and is con-
vinced on philosophical
grounds, that there is in all
religions, as in other human
constructs, a stultifying
rigidity. This subject he
treats in some depth in
"Conversations" and in his
autobiography, "The Way
Of A Man," publshed in
1969.
,
In his young adulthood,
before he went into the fam-
ily business, Feibleman was
frequently in Paris and
London where he ran with
the literary and Bohemian
communities. He came into
contact with Ernest
Hemingway in Paris, and
with Israel Zangwill and
Jacob Epstein in London,
among many other nota-
bles. Epstein he came to
know well. .
In 1926, Epstein did
Feibleman's head in bronze.
When it was completed, the
famous sculptor asked him
what he thought about it.
Feibleman answered, "It
certainly does not look like
me." "No," replied Epstein,
"but it will." And it does,
remarkably.
In America, Feibleman
was to cross paths with
other luminaries, includ-
ing Robinson Jeffers,
Gertrude Stein, John
Steinbeck, William
Faulkner, Sherwood An-
derson and Albert Eins-
tein.
By the late 1930s,
Feibleman was committed
to philosophy though poetry
was favored in his heart of
hearts. He branched out to
aesthetics, ethics and psy-
chology, and avidly pursued
his research into the new
physics, immersing himself
deeply in relativity theory.
In the 1940s, Tulane in-
vited him first to teach
English and then to head
the Department of Philos-
ophy, a post he kept for sev-
eral decades.
His academic tenure was
spent, apart from lecturing,
in producing his books and
articles. Among them is a
modestly-proud and
thoughtful piece entitled
"The Global Contributions
Of The Jews to Culture,"
published in Humanistic
Judaism in 1968. Its thesis
is summed up in this suc-
cinct quotation from the ar-
ticle:
"The device of a single
society with its culture
which is both mobile and
worldwide, and consists
in a great number of par-
tially isolated breeding
populations each of
which maintains avail-
able for exchange a cul-
tural autonomy, is, from
the point of humanity as a
whole, extremely valu-
able, and it is exclusively
Jewish." -
Though an anthology of
Feibleman's writings was
published a few years ago, I
think that the best survey of
his thought is in "Conversa-
tions." It is a high-powered
intellectual excursion in
which 11 university profes-
sors from different disci-
plines and a well-informed
business executive meet in-
formally at lunch to talk
about the major issues cru-
cial to contemporary human
existence. Politics, science,
government, religion, war,
genocide, education and the
arts are considered in their
myriad ramifications.
The book succeeds in its
design to engage the minds
of thoughtful people who do
not ordinarly indulge in
philosophical discourse and
are apprehensive of it. It is
noteworthy in the enormous
Flexibility of the dialogue,
the range of issues ad-
dressed, the fresh insights
and the liveliness of expres-
sion by the various partici-
pants.
legedly made to the U.S.
Several FBI agents were
sent to the Miami airport to
await Mengele's 4 a.m. ar-
rival, according to the
Chronicle. However,
Mengele did not turn up.
According to the British
newspaper, Mengele, who
was responsible for
thousands of deaths and
cruel "medical experi-
ments" at the Auschwitz
concentration camp, was
tipped of by an unknown
source and never made the
trip.
t
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Class
NEW YORK — The
American Jewish Commit-
tee announced its second
in-service training program
to acquaint Israeli teachers
with North American Jews
has begun in Tel Aviv. Two
of the teachers are former
Detroiters Daniel Elazar
and Robert Rockaway.
CATERING FOR ALL
OCCASIONS
Mengele Tipped Off,' Evaded
Capture in the U.S. in 1979
LONDON — Nazi war
criminal Josef Mengele
learned of his impending
arrest by U.S. authorities
on a planned 1979 visit to
Florida and managed to
evade capture, the London
Jewish Chronicle reported.
The Justice Department
had uncovered precise in-
formation that Mengele,
using a fake passport and a
false name, had arranged to
travel from Paraguay to
Florida, the Chronicle said.
It was to be one of several
trips Mengele had al-
Friday, April 8, 1983
-cry"
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