THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS • Thinking Poetry Volume Challenges Jewish By SOL LACHMAN "After The Chebron Pog- rom" (Sand Ridge Books) by Shaya Kline is a loving, careful look at the recent Jewish history of suffering and bitterness, and like all good polemical poetry, the power and craft of its imag- ery sweeps us away as it elevates a truth and holds it out to us, each hard, cold facet gleaming in a harsh new light. The title poem, "After The Chebron Pogrom," ends with the lines, "Somewhere above me, for an hour, a woman has been screaming. Now it .is almost like sing- ing." In this line, Kline has accurately described his own work. The poetry of Shaya Kline assaults the suffering of Jews and tears it out from the roots, mak- ing it art. It is this ability to ritualize and transcend suf- fering, through which Kline ties himself to the great tra- dition of Hebrew poetry as exemplified in Bialik's "City of Slaughter." But Kline is a newer type of Jew. Bialik speaks of im- potent fury, of bitter roaring lost in a storm, while Shaya Kline's characters demand action, response and retri- bution. The work is as exciting as it is relentless in its pursuit of the heart of the Jew. Through an arrest- ing collection of char- acters, Kline pushes us to look at ourselves as suf- ferers of every kind, and to respond. When the mother in the poem, "Mourner," locks herself in the bathroom, crazy with grief at the death of her child, the aunt says that, "to get her out, my father should break down the door with an ax." This poetry is such an ax. Every type of Jew is re- presented in this collection; all people we could know or be. The rebbe's brother, Moshe, disappears with missionaries, leaving be- hind a trail of carefully cut payess, "forbidden" books, tefilin. When we last see Yaaciov of the poem "Lehi," he is being pushed into an alley by two British sergeants and four Jewish policemen. When Amram is blown in half by a bomb hidden in a basket of oranges in the poignant "Mahane Yehuda," his friend puts on Amram's clothes, lives with his wife, takes over his life, giving away his own. A scene in "Valley Ayyalon" finds a mother, raped by a cossack: "She went with him to the cellar so he wouldn't find the chil- dren sleeping in the attic." A man who was saved by a blind peasant girl in 1943 remembers, "The 18 lilac petals she tucked in the braids of her blonde hair carefully, I preserved be- tween the pages of a Humash." Another man, whose wife was left paralyzed, his daughter murdered in a ter- rorist attack, equally care- fully lists the body parts of former Nablus Mayor, Bas- sam al-Shaka, left behind the wreckage of his car, de- scribing the bomb as a "love offering." The poem "After The Chebron Pogrom," the second of the same title, bears the biblical epig- raph, "You should not stand idly by your brother's blood — Vayyi- qra 19:16." These poems, this poet and his char- acters, end all notion of passivity in the face of a threatening world. Perhaps the finest attri- bute of his poetry is its fear- lessness. Shaya Kline looks directly at tough Jewish is- sues, challenging our atti- tudes. This poetry is not af- raid of "what the goyim will think" of Jewish anger, or even Jewish vengeance. More importantly the poetry is unafraid of what the Jews will think. In - "Moshe Barazani & Meir Feinstein, The Martyrdom of," we are Confronted beau- tifully and powerfully with: The light in our cell is the fuse burning. Moshe I promised we would not hang, for this grenade we hold between our hearts is in fact the heart my bubbe embroidered on a pillow, with perfect yellow oranges, juniper ber- ries tateh picked cowslip, torn wrappers from my pocket Troy Jewish Congregation Celebrates 1st Anniversary when I was a child meteors showered the sky with cinders, a thousand moths fluttered against a lamp in the fog the first night in Palestine I slept on the same beach where you executed two British officers as they cried: Moshe, Moshe . . . , . . . there are those who will remember us with love. In the tradition of Ben Hecht, Kline's poem "Av- raham Staysky" begins, "Did you really believe a Jew could not murder a Jew?," and ends with the moot question, "how long did you live after Ben- Gurion's mortars exploded the decks of the Altalena and sunk our hopes, sac- rificed Jerusalem?" "After the Chebron Pog- rom," was published by Howard McCord of Sand Ridge Books in an edition of only 250 copies. Like most good volumes of poetry from small presses, it cannot ex- pect a wide audience, but Tokyo Oriental Health Spa • Whirlpool • Saunas • Showers • Oriental Staff • Muscle Prssure Massage • Private Rooms for Men & Women Open Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-1 a.m. Walk in or Appointment 28841 ORCHARD LAKE RD. (Between 12 & 13 Mile) FARMINGTON HILLS 553-2898 j JEWELRY APPRAISALS The time to update your appraisal is now! After you've had a loss, it is just too late. Don't delay, it is urgent that you call today. The number of thefts and mysterious disappearance claims are increasing every day. Your appraisal is the only proof of ownership you have. If you suffer a loss, you must be sure that all prices are current. The description of each item must be detailed and specific. 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Celebrating the first anniversary of the Troy Jewish Congregation are officers, from left: Shelly Binder, treasurer; Pamela Spitzer, secretary; Phyllis Wenig,' presiderit; and .Gary Mamas,' vice president. deserves one. This will not be a popular book with the liberal Jewish establishments, literary and otherwise, but it is a book that speaks powerfully to some of the most painful sufferings of our people, ad- dressing, at its best, the great perfidy which has been visited upon us, and for the first time since Uri Zvi Greenberg, we have a poet with the eloquence, craft and guts to do it well. 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