12 Friday, February 24, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS T. Carmi Adds Enrichment to JPS Jewish Poetry Series T. Carmi is one of the most distinguished Hebrew poets. He is presently visit- ing professor of Hebrew lit- erature at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. He has gained an important platform both as poet and translator, as lecturer and as a native American who now has leadership in Is- rael's cultural ranks. Born in New York in 1925, his family was Hebrew-speaking and he pursued that status in his poetry. For two years, 1947 and 1948, he served in Is- rael's defense forces, his family having settled in Is- rael in 1947. His career is so replete with academic as well as poetic accomplishments that he is as famed now as teacher as he is in his poetry. Among . his major achievements was his translations, noteworthy in the "Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse," a verita- .ble encyclopedic achievement. Now T. Carmi has reached new heights with a volume that enriches the Jewish Publication Society's Jewish Poetry Series, under the title "At which inspired Carmi's works. Explaining the poem "Judgment" is this notewor- thy source: "The poem makes use of elements in a Hebrew legend in a tractate of the Babylonian Talmud, Megilla 10b. The passage reads: 'While the Egyp- tians were drowning in the sea, the ministering angels wanted to chant hymns, but the Holy One, blessed be He, said: How can you sing while the deeds of My hands are drowning in the sea?" T. CARMI the Stone of Losses." Grace Schulman, herself a poet of distinction, whose works were published by Princeton University Press, authored a most interesting introduction to this volume, defining Carmi and his works. She is also the trans- lator of this series of poems. The 140-page book is di- vided into eight sections, the last entitled "Judg- ment." The title poem in this section is among the many meriting quotation. The new T. Carmi volume has the special value con- tained in a series of notes explaining the Scriptural and other scholarly sources In her introduction, Grace Schulman acclaims the poet as "a poet whose vision is both historical and miraculous." There is this tribute to the great poet: "Seeing a world that is di- vided by time and by the no- tions of being and becoming, Carmi focuses his gaze on ordinary things in the struggle to redeem a broken universe: his agents of transmutation are, var- iously, 'white fire on a black sky' or 'a fire that roars / without wood or ash.' "His hallucinatory clarity calls back the surrealists, as do many of his images of flaming visionary change, despite their origin in mid- Judgment ,1I9V7:1 51) .1:1*; 1:11/74i1./ ,13 77.79 D' P1 5 ?.3 nT? 13 '51? ,TV??.017 ltj? VT? 1 P ,1!)14 ry 574n - ri5r5n-Invl? nirrInvi 1' tp, ; : t:? .131r1?7 574, .n. own nationals. It was in the 1880s that large scale immigration of Jews began from east- ern Europe to America. Many of the new Ameri- cans failed to integrate in the New World and soon moved on to Palestine. The elderly especially felt lost in the tumult and bustle of New York. The Orthodox feared for their Yiddishkeit in an alien atmosphere. And some simply wanted to be buried in the holy soil when the time came. We have seen no statistics but it is obvious that the number of such "Ameri- cans" coming to Jerusalem was quite large. They at once found it necessary to organize their own community, which they called Kollel America, and they had the good fortune of being taken under his wing by the distinguished corn- munity leader and scholar, Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Dis- kin. He was recognized as one of the leading per- sonalities in the Ashkenazi community. To this day an orphanage which he founded bears his name. According to one story we heard, the American consul was delighted that he was at last getting a "consti- tuency" of his own. He was also grateful tha the needy arrivals from America were being taken care of, and thus not falling as a burden on the consulate. In reac- tion, he is said to have ar- ranged for Rabbi Diskin to receive U.S. citizenship, if this were indeed then possi- ble. Once organized, Kollel America began raising funds in the U.S., and this brought down upon it the wrath of all the other com- munities who had come to look to the "rich Jews" of America as a great source of income for themselves. Their fear was that Kollel America would monopolize America. Kollel America is still alive and functioning. While to many it seems an anachronism, it con- tinues to receive contri- butions from the U.S. and continues to provide charitable help to Ameri- can immigrants of their descendants, all of them Orthodox. Those who come from other coun- tries have other sources of help, we were told by Ben-Zion Rabinowitz, who today mans the office. The connection with the Sitting on the bow, I see the deeds of our hands drowning in the ocean. The deeds and the hands, words from mouth to mouth, your forehead when the question ebbs, eye to eye, awake and asleep, and no border between the skies of day and night— all, all drowning in the ocean that swells before our eyes. rrrvi I sing 71Y1 125 1/T.1 /? because there is no other language. 125 nr:z4r? 11-7t:2 .1a1734 1310, n irr) rt1 7 rashic sources. However, while the surrealists un- ified a divided world, often using fiery images of trans- formation to illuminate contradictions and make American Flag in Mea Shearim Section By CARL ALPERT JERUSALEM — On a side street in the Mea Shearim quarter of Jerusalem one can find a building which bears the following large sign: "Kollel America — the Oldest American Jewish Charity in Israel." The sign is deco- rated by two painted pen- nants colorfully depicting the American flag. There is an unusual story behind this sign. European Jews immig- rating to Jerusalem in the previous century organized communal landsmanshaf- ten, each known as a kollel., They served as actual com- munities, with their own in- stitutions and social agen- cies. Funds were provided by the Jews back in the orig- inal home town. Eighty years ago there were about 30 of these kollelim in Jerusalem. Among the largest were Kollel Poland, Kollel Galicia and Kollel Hungary. In carrying on its reli- gious and charitable activi- ties, each kollel also looked for civic protection to the consul of their respective countries. Under the system of capitulations then preva- lent in the Turkish Empire, each of the major powers provided protection for their IV./1??? If we had one perhaps we would not be tried by water. them whole, Carmi's oppo- sites are never reconciled. His poetry is a quest for a day that is alive, that does not- end in death." The new T. Carmi poetic collection was co-published by the Jewish Publication Society and the University of California Press. It is genuinely a classic. —P.S. Olympic Records Dwarfed by Biblical Athletic Feats present American consul is slender indeed. On the By HASKELL COHEN (Copyright 1984, JTA, Inc.) Fourth of July the kollel sends him flowers, and he This is the time of the invites a representative to year when sports fans begin come to the consulate's to evaluate the records, Fourth of July party. times and distances of We looked over some of would be aspirants to the the requests for help. There U.S. Summer Olympic were appeals to help marry Team. Trials in dozens of off a daughter, to support a sports events will comence yeshiva student, to meet immediately upon the re- bills after an illness, etc. turn of the U.S. Winter The kollel also makes funds Olympic Team from the available through free games in Sarajevo, Yugos- loans. lavia. Although located on MEA It is safe to say that few Shearim Street, they prefer Jewish athletes are going to to use as their address the make the various competi- adjoining Chesed L'Av- tions. Here and there, par- raham Street because of the ticularly in fencing, gym- negative connotations nastics. and weight lifting, which many attach to Mea also possibly swimming, Shearim. Yet among those one will be hearing of some cited as endorsing the kollel Jewish athletes who will is the Eda Haredit, represent the United Jerusalem's extremist States. However, by and ultra-orthodox community. large, there won't be a An innovations which flurry of Jews who will old Rabbi Diskin never serve as standard bearers. thought of is the kollel's There isn't a Mark Spitz on "Hot Line to Jerusalem." the horizon. In cases of serious illness, The Bible and Talmud, surgery, crisis or on any which admittedly cannot be occasion when "a prayer verified as factual, offer would help," application stories of some astonishing can be made to the New athletic accomplishments York office of the kollel. by ancient Jews. A cable is sent to For instance, there was Jerusalem and the Moses, who held the Ten appropriate prayer is at Commandments. Our once said at the Western sages differ as the rela- Wall. We saw a large tive weight of the two sheaf of such cables. stones on which the Much of the collecting in world civilization is the U.S. is done through the based. The Talmud little boxes, pushkes, which Taanit (Jerusalem ver- feature the name of Rabbi sion) states that the tab- Meir Baal Haness. lets Moses carried were The American flag was two feet in length, two raised in Mea Shearim in feet in width and twelve 1897. It still waves there in inches thick. How much 1984, on Chesed L'Avraham did the tablets weigh? According to the Talmud, Street. Moses lifted a weight equal to 40 seahs or merely 1,920 pounds. Compare that to the lifts of 500 pounds our present day weight lifters haul. If speed is what you're looking for, the book of Jasha refers to the time Esau refused to permit his nephews to bury their father, Jacob, claiming the burial plot belonged to him. Upon hearing Uncle Esau's claim, Joseph and his breth- ren told their speediest brother, Naphtali, to run back to to get the confirm- ing document attesting to the rightful ownership of the burial plot. Naphtali was so fast — he could out- run deer — that he sped upon the ears of corn in the fields without breaking a single one and brought back the burial deed. Talk about marksman- ship recalls the tale in the Talmud Hulin concerning the accuracy in shooting darts by Rabbi Jona ben- Tachlifa. Rabbi Jona was so accurate in his aiming darts, the Gemara relates, that he would perform shekhita (legal slaughter) of birds in flight, in full ac- cordance with the law per- taining to ritual -killing of fowl. The holy books also relate that Jacob's sons, in aveng- ing the rape of their sister Dina, did battle and wiped out all the male members of the community involved. They were forced to hurdle over the wall surrounding the city. Said wall was a mere 75 feet high, certainly an all-time high jump re- cord.