88 Frbay, December 2, 1983

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Re-Prin tng of Asch's 'East River' Recalls Our Roots

.

By DR. PETER MARTIN

Rereading "East River"
by Sholem Asch, just re-
issued in paperback by Car-
roll and Graf Publishers, is
like reliving my parents'
and grandparents' experi-
ences as immigrants living
near the East River in New
York City. It involves a
strong personal reaction.
It sharply refocused my
awareness of the passage of
time. The earlier- immig-
rants are no longer living.
The later immigrants are
older senior citizens and the
first generation American
born are the newest senior
citizens.
Most of the younger read-
ers of this review have
never read this novel about
their immigrant ancestors.
There were two million
Eastern European,,Jews
who, during four decades
beginning in the 1880s, set-
tled in America. What a cul-
ture shock it was for them to
change- from the relatively
quiet, religiously Orthodox
shtetls of the Russian Pale
to the exploding big cities of
"Columbus' Medina." They
either fought against the
change and tried to re-
establish the shtetl tradi-
tions or had to create new
structures and techniques
for membership in a mar-
kedly different normal fam-
ily and community.
These new structures
were necessary to make
communication in the new
culture possible but it led to
agonizing struggles bet-
ween the generations and
often to unbreathable gen-
eration gaps. Vices un-
thinkable to the Orthodox
affected the Americanized
Jewish generations.

My rereading of this book
also led to the recognition of
the changes that have taken
place in me since first read-
ing it 35 years ago. It was
both surprising and en-
lightening. I mention this to
illustrate what has hap-
pened to my peer group
through these years.

When I first read "East
River," I had already re-
turned from the European
Theater of Operations,
deeply shaken by emotional
reactions to helping to lib-
erate a Holocaust concent-
ration camp. These freshly-
imprinted memories were
burning in my memory.
It is clear to me that I was
ripe for Sholem Asch's style
of writing. He was a roman-
tic who was heavily en-
dowed with sentimental
remembrances and idyliza-
tion of the past. The prim-
ary color pictures he
painted aroused intense
emotions.
In reading the dramatic
scenes this time, I was like a

DR. PETER MARTIN

spectator quietly watching
my old self reacting emo-
tionally to scenes reminis-
cent of my own childhood.
However, my earlier re-
sponse was not one only
emanating from a Jewish
Orthodox culture. It was
also added to by the culture
of America during that
time.
Between World War I and
World War II America was
optimistic. It made Asch its
most popular Yiddish wri-
ter. He was among the first
Yiddish writers in America
to write the kind of thick,
leisurely social novel that
dominated Europe earlier
in the century. In fact, when
first published, "East
River" was considered not
as a novel of Jews, but as a
novel illustrating the
American Spirit.
Those were happy days
for America when we
thought of ourselves as
powerful saviors of the
needy. We thought of ourse-
lves as an energetic good
people with faith; a people
who looked splendid "to the
humble and good people of a
troubled world." America
considered itself as living
with a purpose "which alone
makes living an experience
of dignity and delight."
What a sad, humbling
change has taken place in
America since those glory
days. With it, my genera-
tion changed. With my
change, my current observ-
ing self had achieved a more
critical disengagement
from an earlier, less sophis-
ticated culture.
The biggest change in me
was a rejection of Asch's
glory in the pathos of mar-
tyrdom. I saw that I was
more allied with current Is-
rael's fighting spirit. Now,
it is no great honor to die as
a martyr.
Let me illustrate this
through a depiction of the
character of the hero: Moshe
Wolf Davidowsky, Jewish
martyr deluxe. Davidowsky
is an angel of charity-
grocery store owner in the
48th Street block near the
East River, occupied by a
polyglot of ethnically

mixed, poverty-stricken
immigrants — Jewish,
Irish, Russian; Italian,
Polish. He a truly religi-
ous, Orthodox Jew who not
only quotes the scholars but
lives their highest ideals.
He is not a Tevye (a some-
times comic who wistfully
tries to manipulate God to
help him share the wealth).
Moshe accepts poverty, and
his adored intellectual son
Nathan's crippling by polio,
with the uncomplaining
dignity (and humorless-
ness) of the martyr who
murmurs Kidush Hashem
as he dies.
His son Nathan accepts
his physical helplessness by
becoming the Jewish intel-
lectual social reformer sup-
porting the union's fight
against the sweat shop
owners — including his own
brother Irving. He absorbed
his personal disaster and
wove it into the pattern of
his life.
In contrast, brother Irv-
ing is the prototype of the
Jewish boy who identified
poverty as the enemy to his
family and became the
businessman when just a
boy. It was he who knew his
mother's need for money to
feed the family. Money be-
comes his God as he lifts
himself, his family and his
mother out of the slums.
_As was often seen, pious,
materialistically impracti-
cal, psalm-quoting Jewish
husbands were often
criticized and ridiculed by
their preservation of the
body-minded, poverty-

stricken wives.
The father loved the intel-
lectual son. The mother
loved the practical,
poverty-preventing son.
Moshe devoted his life to
Nathan. He would leave
customers waiting in the
store as he ran upstairs to
move or dress or feed
Nathan. But the generation
gap existed. Listen to Moshe
speak to his bitter atheistic
son Nathan in a voice filled
with humility, passion and
the deep pathos of martyr-
dom:
"Of course man is nothing
but dust. As it says in our
Bible, 'What is man that
Thou are mindful of him?'
But still the Heavenly
Father is concerned over
him, watches over him
every minute of his life,
guards his every footstep

"Our sages have said that
under every blade of grass
there is an Angel, who tends
it to make it grow. Thus it is
that all creation gives
thanks to God."
Here we see an example of
Asch's romantic style melt=
ing into the sentimental.
But he paints these scenes
in such raw colors that they
arouse the deepest emotions
in the reader. This gave his
stories a power that en-
deared him to popular audi-
ences in Yiddish and the
many other languages into
which his works were trans-
lated.
Characteristic of his
emotion-shaking style is
the crisis between Moshe

SHOLEM ASCH

and his rich, garment sweat
shop owner son, Irving. The
latter marries the
neighborhood Catholic girl,
Mary, who Moshe himself
had befriended and who in
turn shared in the physical
care of Nathan.
After the wedding, Moshe
declares Irving dead and
sits through a shiva period
for the son who secretly
gives money to his mother,
Deborah, to support the
family.
Mary is an interesting
study. She is the daughter of
Patrick McCarthy, poverty
stricken, alcoholic Irish
Jew-hater. She illustrates
Asch's deep interest in mar-
tyrology and the Judeo-
Christian continuity.
In 1937, Asch published
his best selling Christologi-
cal trilogy illustrating his

interest in Jesus and the
Papacy. As his popularity
rose with the non-Jewish
readers, it dropped in the
Jewish- world. His search for
a universal outlook was
narrowly interpreted by
Jews as proselytizing for
apostacy. His interest in
Jewish martyrdom in be-
half of .the sacred led to a
link-up with primitive
Christianity.
Mary illustrates the
Catholic inheritance of
martyrdom in the following
passages, as she tells about
her drunken father beating
her. ". . . 'Oh, it's good to suf-
fer a little for Jesus' sake .. .
Yes, Nat! Yes! I'm telling
you'it's good . . . it's good .. .
I'm content with my whole
heart, with my whole soul
. . . It's good to suffer for
Jesus' sake . . .' Mary closed
her eyes in ecstasy."
The excerpts quoted
above give the reader the
flavor of this passion-filled
book. You can see the ele-
ments of the Jewish tradi-
tion which Asch has picked
up: passivity, martyrdom in
the Jewish pre-Holocaust
view of life. There are many
other exciting character
studies in this book.
I hope this book review
leads to reading or reread-
ing this novel by an author
who elevated Yiddish liter-
ature, through Maurice
Samuel's English transla-
tions, to a position of
world-wide respect.
Through this, you can also
study the roots of your own
character.

The Lost Arab-Jewish Paradise in Spain

NEW YORK -- A mil-
lenium ago, Jews and Arabs
lived prosperously side by
side in a glittering pre-
Renaissance civilization
known as Andalusia. In
"The. Rise and Fall of
Paradise: When Arabs and
Jews Built a Kingdom in
Spain" (G.P. Putnam's
Sons), Elmer Bendiner il-
luminates this 10th Cen-
tury Spanish kingdom in an
engaging history that
weaves tales of emirs, magi-
cians and harems, with col-
orful stories of intrigue,
exotic travels and shimmer-
ing palaces to bring this
little-known paradise king-
dom to life.
It was a short-lived
paradise, built on the ruins
of the faded Roman civiliza-
tion. It began in 755, when
Abd-er Rahman, a gentle
Moslem, finally wrested
control of the area from the
fighting Visigoths, Franks
and Moslems. A descendant
of the Omayyad clan, the
former rulers of Damascus,
Abd-er Rahman conquered
a pleasant vineyard-dotted

land populated by people of
the Moslem, Jewish and
Christian faiths.
Under the control of
Abd-er Rahman and his de-
scendants, Cordoba, the lar-
test city of Andalusia, blos-
somed into a thriving met-
ropolis of over one million
people. Surrounding cities
of Lucena, Seville and
Granada were smaller but
equally prosperous.

The prosperity and
comfort of Andalusia de-
rived in part from its de-
pendence on slaves of
every nationality and
complexion, most of them
pagans from distant
ports, who later won
their freedom through
hard work and luck.

Jews of every class and
trade flourished in both
Cordoba and Lucena, an
almost exclusively Jewish
city famous for its medical
schools. In an open society
they practiced both tradi-
tional trades, such as tan-
ning, metal work and mer-
chantry, and also profited
from the less traditional oc-
cupation of farming.
Within Cordoba they
were both "a part of and
apart from,society," looking
to their leaders, Rabbi
Moses ben Hanoch and
Hasdai ibn Shaprut, the
Caliph's friend, adviser and
physician, for guidance on
matters outside civil law.
Their presence in An-
dalusia added immeasura-

bly to the quality of life; free
to travel without being sus-
pected of carrying the Mos-
lem or Christian creed, they
"opened the windows of the
world to Andalusia."
As trader-navigators
they brought rice, sugar,
mace, gems, silk, art, relig-
ous, musk and slaves
from China, India, Persia
and the wild frontiers of
Europe. In every port of call
they found kinsmen, a hot
meal and a warm bed.

The emirs and (after
declaring complete inde-
pendence from Syrian
domain) caliphs serviced
enormous harems, the
members of which
exerted powerful cul-
tural and political influ-
ence. In charge of the
harems were trusted
eunuchs — fat, be-
jeweled, petted — former
slaves, fitted for their
peculiar station in life on
the operating tables of
Lucena. Their duties in-
cluded running diploma-
tic errands, managing the
emir's domestic house-
hold, counseling, enter-
taining and, in times of
turmoil, plotting with or
against their masters.

In "The Rise and Fall of
Paradise," Bendiner celeb-
rates the larger than life
personalities who led this
vital community: the poet
Gazalle; the magician
Abbas ibn Firnas; Tarab,
who made her emir husband

purchase her favors with
gold or gems; Yahya ibn
Yahya, strict and pious
minister to Abd-er Rahman
II; and Ziryab, "who was to
teach Andalusia at least the
superficial graces that
would save it from the
grossness of mere wealth,"
by setting up schools or
music and beauty, prescrib-
ing a fashion calendar for
tunics, and designing prac-
tical wooden spoons and
fetching hairstyles.
He paints portraits of the
Omayyad rulers in bright
Arabian colors, including:
Abd-er Rahman, conquerer
and lawmaker; his grand-
son Hakam who decapitated
5,000 Toledans to win a
bloody peace and later re-
tired to his concubines;
Abd-er Rahman II, the wit-
ness of the bloody massacre,
who fathered 45 sons and 42
daughters, and Abd-er
Rahman III, who was proc-
laimed emir at the tender
age of 22.

Inner turmoil and
foreign invaders faded
the Andalusian paradise,
toppling it completely in
the 11th Century. Its
color and majesty are
known only to historians.

Elmer Bendiner has writ-
ten history of widely varied
times and places. His re-
counting of the air war in
World War II, "The Fall of
Fortresses" — in part a per-
sonal memoir — has won
wide acclaim.