10 Friday, January 21, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Volume Chronicles Jewish Life in European Towns By DAVID FRIEDMAN (Copyright 1984, JTA, Inc.) WASHINGTON — The Nazis, in murdering six mil- lion Jews during World War CALL H.M.H.F. LOWEST FARES EVERYWHERE 557-4422 II, also destroyed the vigor- ous Jewish presence that had existed in Eastern Europe for 1,000 years. The hundreds of Jewish com- munities in small towns and large cities where Jewish culture in all its forms had thrived were wiped out. But the people who came from those communities, both Holocaust survivors and those who were lucky DAYTONA BEACH — 2 HOURS MORE OF SUNSHINE DAILY \G.LA CI TT5 2 0 SCHECHTER'S „:, 'KOSHER HOTEL 1 HOUR FROM DISNEY WORLD EPCOT CENTER KOSHER HOTEL QVGLATT MAR. 18 to APRIL 15 from daily from : Per Person Per Day — Double $54 Occupancy, Plus Tax and Tips Weekend Rates SNghtly Higher person c . INCLUDING MEALS • OCEAN FRONT ROOM • BREAKFAST & LIMIER CALL FREE to MIAMI BEACH 800 - 327-8165 • 3 MEALS ON SABBATH Entire Oceanfront Stock 37th to 36th Sts MIAMI BEACH Phone 13051531 0061 SAM SCINCNTER Ortnet Mgmf in TOLL FREE 800-874-1824 OR CALL YOUR TRAVEL AGENT enough to have emigrated before the war, have wanted to preserve the memory of not only their martyred relatives and friends but their hometowns. Beginning in the Dis- placed Persons camps in Europe after the war and continuing until today in Is- rael, the United States, Argentina and wherever Jews now live, "landsleit" have gotten together to pro- duce memorial books about the community in which they were born. These books serve in a way as the tombstone that the Holocaust victims never had, but they also help preserve the history and traditions of each commu- nity. Since most of these books are Yiddish or He- brew, Jack Kugelmass and Jonathan Boyarin, two anthropologists con- nected with the Max Weinreich Center for Ad- vanced Jewish Studies at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, have EL AL YOU DID IT AGAIN $699" Round Trip Detroit-Tel Aviv til March 3, 1984 $799 til March 24, 1984 plus U.S. Departure Tax $3 For Reservations Call: GOLDSTEIN TRAVEL 559.2770 Lathrup Landing Plaza corner of Eleven Mile and Evergreen Road Deluxe Kosher Passover Tours World Wide 3 FRESHLY PREPARED GLATT KOSHER MEALS DAILY • 2 TRADITIONAL SEDER SERVICES • TOP NAME ENTERTAINMENT Midwest Acapulco EL PRESIDENTE AMERICANA Miami Beach Aruba DIPLOMAT RESORT Hollywood-by-the-Sea FONTAINEBLEAU HILTON AMERICANA ARUBA Bahamas Miami Beach BAHAMAS PRINCESS Freeport BALMORAL BEACH Nassau California SHERATON PLAZA Palm Springs THE NEWPORTER Newport Beach Spain PEZ ESPADA Costa del Sol Florida BARCELONA HOTEL INNISBROOK RESORT Tarpon Springs LAKE GENEVA RESORT N.Y. Area AMERICANA,GREAT GORGE Vernon Valley. NJ. HOST FARM CORRAL RESORT SEVILLE HOTEL Miami Beach SHERATON BAL HARBOUR 1301 Harbour Hawaii Lancaster. PA ROYAL LAHAINA Puerto Rico SHERATON MAKAHA PALMAS DEL MAR Maui Honolulu. Oahu Georgia St. Maarten SAVANNAH SHERATON GREAT BAY BEACH HOTEL 25 W. 43 Street, NYC 10036 (212) 575 , 8840 Outside N.Y. State Toll Free 800 , 752-8000 ! translated selections from 70 such books in "From a Ruined Garden: The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry" (Schoc- ken). Although the shadow of the Holocaust hangs over this book, most of it is enjoyable reading. In sec- tions called "Our Towns," "Townspeople," "Lifeways," "Events," and "Legends and Folklore," the editors - translators provide a good glimpse of the lifestyle of Polish Jewry from the be- ginning of the 20th Century until the 1939 German in- vasion of Poland. The authors of the memo- rial book wrote about the town personages, both those that were important and those who were just local characters. There are also many interesting vignettes on how Jewish religious holidays were celebrated, the economic life of Jews and particularly the dis- crimination they suffered in Poland, and their cultural life. Various local disputes as well as the closeness of the communities are de- scribed. Many of the stereotypes American Jews have about the shtetl will be shattered by this book. One interest- ing selection is from the "Sefer Mir" which tells how American Orthodox Jews sent their sons to the yeshivas of Poland and Lithuania to study. In Mir, which had the largest con- tingent of Americans, 48, there was one major dis- pute. Some of the Ameri- cans wanted to play football before class, a sight that had never been seen by either the Jews or non-Jews there, and were forced to stop. The- final two sections of the book deal with the Holocaust and the return of some of the survivors to their former homes. There is M. Rapoport's account of his return to the town of Bilgoray, the day before Rosh Hashana 1944. "I was born in Bilgoray and lived there until the war, and now, walking around in broad daylight I barely recognized the city. Lubelski Street, where the synagogue had been lo- cated, the great study house, the little study house, the bath house, the slaughterhouse, the Zik- hron Yankev Cheder, the old graveyard, the old rab- bi's house, the new house of the Belzer Rebbe's son of blessed memory, the meet- ing houses of Trisker and Rudniker Hasidim — ev- erything was a void, and in midday there was no living soul to be seen. Zachary Baker, librarian of the Yiddish department of the Montreal Jewish Pub- lic Library, compiled a bibliography of East Euro- pean memorial books which takes up the last 52 pages of Fables take off from the severity of instruction, and enforce at the same time that they conceal it. — Addison JUNKETS! JUNKETS! the book. 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