THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, February 24, 1984 69

1984 Is the Year of George Orwell and Emmanuel Goldstein

presentation, is suffi-
By JOSEPH COHEN
NEW ORLEANS — Just ciently strong to threaten
about everyone will agree Big Brother. That is to
that 1984 is George Orwell's say Goldstein stands for
year. I think it belongs al- human freedom, the
most as much to Emmanuel worthiness of the indi-
Goldstein. That may be a vidual, dignity, decency
fairly brash assertion, since and compassion, all the
Orwell is famous but Gold- values which have been
methodically destroyed
stein is hardly known at all.
Some of us have never by the super-totalitarian
even heard of Goldstein. state envisioned by Or-
Even Orwell says he is well in his anti-Utopian
"shadowy." We wouldn't epic.
That Orwell's book is im-
recognize him on television
if we saw him. There are no portant to us is obvious, not
known pictures. He can't be so much for the accuracy of
reached by phone; and his its prophecies, of which
much is presently being
address is unlisted.
Is Goldstein for real? Or- said, but more for its warn-
well says he is, and that ing against the possibility of
should settle it. When Or- total enslavement. Golds-
well's protagonists Winston tein is the embodiment of
Smith and Julia in "1984" that warning. That is why I
establish contact with O'B- believe it is as much his
rien whom they mistake for year as Orwell's.
In the summer of 1982,
a rebel against Big Brother,
to whose regime they are the Irish goverment, during
opposed, O'Brien assures the centenary celebration of
them that Goldstein exists. James Joyce's birth, un-
"There is such a person," veiled a plaque in Dublin's
O'Brien says, "and he is Old Jewry commemorating
the birthplace of Joyce's fic-
alive."
However anonymous tonal hero, the Jew, Leopold
Goldstein is, we are all in Bloom, in "Ulysses." If the
his debt. In Orwell's Irish people can pay such
novel "1984" only Golds- homage to a fictional Jew, it
tein or, to put it more pre- behooves us to do no less
cisely, his symbolic re- with one of our own who re-
mains unsung.
Although Joycean criti-
51—MISCELLANEOUS
cism is filled with specula-
tive commentary over the
NEW CREDIT CARD!
Irish author's choice of a
Nobody refused!
Jew as the central figure in
his most important work,
Also Visa/Mastercard.
Orwell's choice of Goldstein
Call 1-805-687-6000,
as the erstwhile opponent to
Big Brother has, as near as I
ext. C-3069
can tell, gone virtually un-
noticed. When and how did
53—ENTERTAINMENT
Goldstein's Jewish presence
VERSATILE sophisticated party
come to grip Orwell's con-
music. Call 326-6995.
sciousness?
ENRICH YOUR SIMCHA
Like Joyce, Orwell was
(Happy Occasion)
not Jewish. Both came
With a melodious dynamic
from humble origins but
Israeli-English and Yiddish folli
were well-educated. Just
singer, guitarist.
as Joyce did, Orwell was
exposed in his youth to
Please call
the anti-Semitic gut-
399-0079
tersniping of the common
folk he encountered and
CAR1OONS
pub-crawlers with
CARICATURES
whom he associated. To
BY
his later shame, Orwell
JULIUS
even indulged in some
293-1723
mindless anti-Semitic ut-
FOR ANY OCCASION
terances in his early book
"Down and Out in Paris
BIRTHDAY PARTIES
and London." That work
And other Special Occasions.
was published in 1932.
273-6716
A few years later, when
Clowns, juggling, magic, Orwell went to Spain to
music dance, Puppets, fight with the Loyalists in
balloon sculpture.
the Spanish Civil War
where he nearly lost his life,
SPACE AGE
having been shot through
COMPUTER PICTURES
the throat by a sniper, his
Taken of your guests at Bar social consciousness was
Mitzvas, weddings, promo- awakened, and he sub-
sequently became one of the
tional parties, etc.
century's leading cham-
Call 863-7736 for info
pions of individual freedom
and personal integrity.
IT'S DE-LIMIT,
What he had to say about
IT'S DE-LUXE,
intolerance,
bigotry, human
IT'S DE-LOVELY.
treachery, totalitarian de-
spotism on both the left and
I will play and sing the the right, and the prostitu-
great tunes from the 20s,
tion of rhetoric in the proc-
30s, 40s and provide my esses of corruptive power
made his readers acutely
own piano.
uncomfortable. Such truths
often do.
JEFF LINDAU
Often challenged and fre-
Piano/Song Stylist
quently attacked for his
views, he stood by his con-
646-9531 (after 6)
victions and earned the

acclaim he is accorded to- titularly in the prostitu-
day. His death in 1949 from tion of rhetoric, seem
tuberculosis was a loss the dramatic and they catch
Free World could ill afford. our attention. One has
His prophecies, par- only to observe what is

Boris Smolar s

`Between You
. . . and Me'

Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA

(Copyright 1984, JTA, Inc.)

going on in Iran today to
realize that the despotism
Orwell said was possible
has indeed come to pass.
The slogans and chants
used in Iranian prisons
parallel "doublespeak"
and "thoughtcrime":
"Khomeini is our leader.
Death to America. Death to
the USSR. Death to our
former leaders. Death to
Bani-Sadr. This is not a
prison, it is a university. We
are happy to be here. We
want to go to the front and
fight. We want to die for the
Islamic Republic."
However dramatic the
prophecies, they do not, at
least to me, constitute the
real significance of "1984."
That significance lies in
Orwell's warning that such
despotism was possible. I
believe that early warning
has been a potent force in
helping us to safeguard our
liberties. And it is here that
the Jewish presence of
Goldstein has an additional
meaning.
It troubled him that so
much of English litera-
ture from Chaucer
through Belloc and Ches-
terton was hostile to the
Jew and he kept search-
ing for explanations, ar-
riving usually at the not
unexpected conclusions
that people, even well-
intentioned ones, were
perverse in their need for
scapegoats, or, simply in-

THE NJCRAC CONCLAVE: The National Jewish
Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC), which
opens its four-day annual conclave on Sunday in Washing-
ton, marking 40 years of its existence, is an example of
unity in diversity in the American Jewish community. It
coordinates — on a voluntary basis — the policies,
strategies and programs of 11 national and 111 local organ-
izations active in the field of community relations. It
evaluates developments of concern to the Jewish commu-
nity, plans how to deal with them effectively, and develops
guidelines for its constituent organizations for appropriate
action.
The NJCRAC was established 40 years ago after Hitler
came to power in Germany. His anti-Jewish propaganda
machine had an impact in the United States. Various
anti-Jewish groups emerged in this country, financed from
Nazi Germany. Old groups, like the Ku Klux Klan, began
to raise their ugly heads. Also emerging on the American
scene was the Detroit priest, Father Coughlin, who spouted
strong, poisonous anti-Jewish propaganda in print and on
radio. The venomous Nazi propaganda disseminated in
America by German agents and native sympathizers was of
a ghastly new dimension.
It was only in 1938 — five years after Hitler came to
power — that, under the pressure of the Council of Jewish
Federations, a General Jewish Council was formed. It was
composed of the AJCommittee, AJCongress, ADL and the
Jewish Labor Committee. However, this body failed to
overcome the national fragmentation, and the organized
communities throughout the country were highly dissatis-
fied with this situation. They requested that the Council of
Jewish Federations — their central organ — should under-
take to create a united national body to replace fragmenta-
tion, a central coordinating body comprising leading na-
tional groups and local community councils.
The request was approved by the General Assembly of
the F'ederations in 1944. The NJCRAC thus came into
existence as an autonomous agency.
COORDINATED STRENGTH: During the 40 years
of its existence, the NJCRAC has gone a long and product-
ive way in its developments and achievements. It actually
became the "brain trust" of the most important national
Jewish organizations and of local Jewish communities on
matters of Jewish concern.
The NJCRAC still concentrates primarily on combat-
ting anti-Semitism and fighting for human rights, but its
scope of activity has become much wider with the march of
time. The post-war years produced complex political, eco-
nomic and social situations directly and indirectly affecting
Jewish security in some countries and well-being in the
U.S. New problems have arisen for Jewish community rela-
tions agencies. They were all included in the agenda of the
NJCRAC, in its joint program planning and action guiding
its affiliated groups.
The state of Israel did not yet exist when the NJCRAC
was established. It was proclaimed four years later. But the
NJCRAC was active in dealing with problems preceeding
the adoption of the Partition Plan by the United Nations
which led to the proclamation of the Jewish state. Today
the NJCRAC has an Israel Task Force to combat the grow-
ing and sophisticated Arab propaganda in the. U.S. It has a
program of action on U.S. aid to Israel. It has a consensus
policy on methods by its affiliated groups to counteract the
Arab challenge on the campuses. It hammered out a con-
sensus policy of its constituent organizations on the issue of
moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem. It watches developments in the Camp David
accords. It urges its constituents to emphasize Israel's im-
portance to American national interests. It is alert to any-
thing in this country concerning Israel.
The NJCRAC was also instrumental in making the
plight of Soviet Jewry a compelling priority on the agenda
of the American Jewish community. It developed action
goals for Jewish community relations agencies and target
days for massive activities to draw attention to the Soviet
Union's brutal treatment of its Jewish citizens.
Its policy is: while coordinated worldwide activity on
behalf of Soviet Jewry is essential, vigorous sustained ac-
tivity on the part of the American Jewish community is
crucial to improve the situation of Soviet Jews. It acknowl-
edges the positive efforts of the U.S. government on behalf
of Soviet Jewry.
L

r

clined too strongly
toward intolerance. He
convinced himself that
things were improving,
however slowly, and he
took pride in his belief
that the "Jewish joke"
had disappeared by the
early 1930s from the
English music hall and
theater. That might have
been wishful thinking,
for it was not within his
power to turn the tide of
English anti-Semitism
from its traditional
course.

What was in Orwell's
power was a moral impera-
tive to set things right in his
own work, an imperative
which I am inclined to be-
lieve grew more out of his
intellectual honesty than
any negative sense of guilt
for his earlier insensitivity.
That imperative manifested
itself in his decision to make
Emmanuel Goldstein,
whose "shadowy" presence
was real enough in his own
mind, the symbolic hero of
"1984."
It was an act by one indi-
vidual attempting to com-
pensate for the injustice of
centuries. But in perhaps an
undefinable way, it was
something more monumen-
tal: it was an acknowledg-
ment that so long as the Jew
insists on human freedom,
all humankind can stand
against enslavement and
the death of the spirit.

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