THE JEWISH NEWS (LISPS 275-•5201 Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951 Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co. Member of American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, National Editorial Association and National Newspaper Association and its Capital Club. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 Postmaster: Send address changes to The Jewish News, 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $15 a year. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher ALAN HITSKY News Editor CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Business Manager HEIDI PRESS Associate News Editor DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 16th day of Sivan, 5743, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues. ° Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 8;1-12:16. Prophetical portion, Zechariah 2:14-4:7. Candlelighting, Friday, May 27, 8:40 p.m. VOL. LXXXIII, No. 13 Page Four Friday, May 27, 1983 GUILT AND SELF-SCRUTINY In an era marked by painful reminders of the barbarities under Nazism, the continuing emphasis on truth and of the historic impor- tance of retaining the factual records -are ac- companied by renewal of indictments and chal- lenges as well as soul-searching. The many as- pects of guilt play important roles in the re- capitulation of the tragic events. It has two as- pects that are remote from each other: One is the guilt of participation in or endorsement of the crimes. The other is the self-scrutiny and self-judgment in the challenge to both those who resisted and the protesters, whether they had exerted sufficient forcefulness in the battles against Nazism. This is where the sensationalism accom- panying the claimed discovery of Hitler diaries fits in, even if to a minor degree. The doubts about the authenticity of the alleged diaries invite greater consideration. The fully- authenticated record of atrocities is of vaster importance. No matter how much or how little proof can be attached to the diaries, whether or not they are forgeries as seems apparent after the extensive discussions, the horrors that were committed were Adolf Hitler's. The mass mur- ders were the inhumanities of the Nazis. The Holocaust was the making of Germany of the , Nazi period in the blood-stained history of that country. That aspect of guilt is inerasable and can- not be denuded in any fashion. It was an un- forgettable and inerasable stain on the peoptes who both committed the crimes and encouraged them by their silence. - Therefore, the searching of the Jewish hearts and those in the Christian world who were either the victims or the protesters attains -importance in civilized- ranks. Jewish self- testers, who are now conducting an inquiry into the reactions during the Nazi era, are attesting to high moral standards among people who are willing to admit guilt in shortcomings of actions that were demanded in exposing the Nazi crimes. Thus the challenge to silence emerges on a high level of humanism. Was there too much silence even when the totality of Nazi criminality was placed on the record? Was there too little resistance? Primarily, the question of guilt related to silence is addressed to American Jewry. Was there too much submission to the State De- partment's inactivity, the slowness of White House action, the submission of Jewish leader- ship to the demands from high government quarters that there should be what was de- scribed as "caution" when this nation was engaged in a war with Nazi Germany? Much has been discussed and written about these issues. The Holocaust is on the record and its horrid history is of human concern. Few re- views of the events, of the actions of U.S. offi- cials, of American Jewish leaders, are as thorough as the account provided in the analysis of the events in the 1930s and 1940s that are provided in the special essay in this issue by the distinguished scholar .Dr. Israel Goldstein. Familiar with the responsibilities of that era, as one of the most eminent American Jewish leaders who later, on aliya, assumed a top role in Zionist ranks, Dr. Goldstein writes with authority. He shows clearly that there was some action in Jewish ranks, that men like Dr. Stephe • S. Wise were not silent, that there was anti-Semitism in top American ranks and they influenced. the State Department policies. Sumner Welles is absolved; others are accused and are deservedly damned . Dr. Goldstein's essay provides the desired data in the self-searching over the guilt. It adds one thing effectively and efficiently — that si- lence is wrong, that as in the instance of the Nazi curse it becomes criminal. There was guilt. There also was courage and fearlessness. The fact that such a self-study is now being conducted, to delve into the records of history during one of its most tragic periodS, is another tribute to the morality of Jewish ethics. . ' 'LET MY PEOPLE G- 0 9 Thousands who marched in New- York on Sunday, demanding the release of pris- oners of conscience who are held in Soviet jails as punishment for their demands to be granted the right to emigrate, represented the senti- ments of the entire American people. It was not merely a Jewish demonstration. Both U.S. Sen- ators from New York and the U.S. chief delegate to the United Nations were among the speakers who joined in the repeated protest against Rus- sian persecutions. The demand was and continues for the right of people, according to the United Nations basic principles and in the spirit of the civilized ideals of mankind, to choose their place of resi- dence. In Russia, it is much more than that. It is a demand to seek a haven from the oppressions that are practiced and the bias that is rampant against Jews as Jews. . At the assembly that followed the New York parade and demonstration in support of the Russian Jewish applicants for exit visas and in defense of the prisoners of conscience, there was a reminder that in 1979 more than 51,000 Russian Jews were granted the right to leave their native land for havens elsewhere. This number dropped to 2,688 in 1982 and the depar- tees from Russia in the first four months of 1983 was 484. This is evident proof of a growing bias and of a menacing situation. Therefore, the repeated demand, "Let My People Go," retains the vitality that must be given to an effort to enable the oppressed to find escape and to establish homes in lands of their choice. There is an inheritance from Czarism that demands unified action from Christians as well as Jews against bias. Book Fascinatingly Links Stage, Language and History Nostalgia linked with history, punctuated with historic recollec- tions, attest fascinatingly to a most remarkable book about New York's East Side. "From Hester Street to Hollywood" (Indiana University Press) combines recapitulation of notable stage sagas and the notables of the theater with memorable acclaim for the role of Yiddish in an impor- tant era in American Jewish life. Sarah Blacher Cohen, the editor of this volume, associate profes- sor of English at State University of New York at Albany, proves highly qualified for his impressive effort. Her "Saul Bellow's Enigmatic Laughter" has already earned wide recognition. Her ear- lier "Comic Relief: Humor and Contemporary American Literature" in a sense served as prediction of what was to be expected in a volume entitled "From Hester Street to Hollywood." In this collective effort she has included essays, in addition to her own, by Nahma Sandrow, Mark Slobin, June Sochen, Jules Chametzky, Enoch Brater, Leslie Field, Daniel Walden, Steven J. Whitfield, Keith Opdahl, Lawrence L. Langer, Mark Shechner, Sanford Pinsker, Alan Spiegel, R. Baird Shuman and Bonnie Lyons. They dealt with such topics as "Yiddish Origins and Jewish American Transformations," "Yiddish Theater and American Thea- ter," "Fanny Brice and Sophie Tucker: Blending the Particular With the Universal," "The Jew in Stand-Up Comedy" and essays about Elmer Rice, Clifford Odets and Lillian Hellman. Of special interest is the essay by former Detroiter Mark Slobin, who wrote on the subject "Some Intersections of Jews, Music and Theater." Slobin, an associate professor of music at Wesleyan University, is the author of "Tenement Songs: The Popular Music of the Jewish Immigrant." A full page review of this book appeared in The Jewish News, June 25, 1982. Subsequently, he was one of the 1982 Jewish Book Fair guest speakers. He is the son of Judith and Norval Slobin, welly known Detroiters. He had specialized in Afghan music and switched to the Jewish folklore themes. In the Sarah Blacher Cohen-edited volume, Slobin reconstructs early Yiddish theater influences upon the general theatrical sphere, and this quotation from his essay emphasizes the important factor of this theme: "In 1916 Joseph Rumshinsky was writing the score for the operetta 'Broken Violin' (Tsebrokhene Fidele), which was to help win him the title of The Jewish Victor Herbert.' Eager to maintain com- plete secrecy, he presented the score privately to Boris Thomashefsky, superstar of Yiddish theater, at the latter's country estate. A teenager sneaked in to listen — his name was George Gershwin. "This piquant moment can stand for an intersection of two overlapping worlds which encompass the relationship of Jewish- American artists to musical theater. The world of a Rumshinsky is group-specific: songs are in a European language, sensibilities have been trained in Old World contexts; but the composer constantly struggles to create an international style within ethnic boundaries. "The world of Gershwin and his Jewish colleagues lies within the American mainstream, but occasionally suggests the world of tradi- tion through minor keys and turns of phrase. At the point of contact of these two musical spheres we find many intersections: countless mutual borrowings found on 78 rpm records like 'The Yiddish Yac- kadula Hickadula,' an imitation of the Hawaiian sound, and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's Talesteena Fox Trot'; or messages from one world to another, such as Irving Berlin and Al Jolson salut- ing the creation of the state of Israel with new songs." "From Hester Street to Hollywood" merits extensive study and for Yiddishists its impact will be immeasurable. This is a very excel- lent book.