- 2 Friday, April 27, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS PURELY COMMENTARY PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Linguistic attachments as sources of patriotism . . . preserving the records During World War II, a puzzle emerged. How is patriotism to be measured? What causes people to be deeply devoted to the loyalties they acquired as a heritage from grandparents and great-grandparents? The question puzzled many who heard and witnessed German Jews, even as exiles under Nazism, speaking passionately about German culture, the German language and its literature. Many retained those loves even as escapees from Hit- lerism in Israel. In the United States and elsewhere, refu- gees from the barbarism that was proclaimed in German retained a love for the language and what it represented in literature and music. Is there an explanation for it? One emerges in a report from East Germany, marked by most interesting revela- tions about the patriotic love now being tested and those promulgating it. The current status of Jews in East Ger- many is described in an article from East Berlin, in theNew York Times, April 11, entitled Two Berlins and Two Worlds of Jews" by the well known NYTimes correspon- dent James M. Markham. While it was generally believed that there were only 450 Jews left in East Berlin, Markham states that there are at least 14 times as many, and he gives a 6,500 figure. The disparity may be considered as explaining the remoteness 3f East Berlin Jews from Jews and Judaism. Attention also should be given to the fact that East Germany does not give reparations to sufferers from Nazism. Markham points out in his study of the contrasting situations in the two Berlins: The East German state takes good care of its dwindling population of Jews — which official figures put at about 400 people in the whole coun- try — and provides an annual $65,000 subsidy to the East Berlin group. Even so, this has not been enough to maintain the sprawling 118-acre Weis- sensee cemetery and its 115,000 graves or to re- build the shattered synagogue on Oranien- burgerstrasse . Where does the loyalty of German Jews, in either or both states, enter into this discussion? Markham's NYTimes article includes this case history: "The day of German Jewry is over," said Yit- zhak Pruschnowski, a television producer at Radio Free Berlin in the western side of the di- vided city. "What we have today is simply Jews in Germany." Born in Berlin in 1926, Mr, Pruschnowski outlasted the war in the Polish forests around Lublin before making his way to Israel. "But in the Jewish State of Israel, I, as a Jew, felt like a stranger," he said, explaining his return to a Ger- many where he still does not "feel good in my skin." "There is, despite everything, a feeling of something like homeland here," he said. "I am rooted to the language and culture here — not to the people. Such are the loyalties and they cannot be ignored. The euphemism can be stretched into many spheres and many lands. It explains the loyalty to Yiddish that is unconquerable even under the most tragic conditions under which the language of the Jewish masses is suffer- ing. Tragically, Germans may never have appreciated how much Jews had done for the German language. They took it with them wherever they traveled and made it compulsory in many areas, even under conditions of horror. They helped perpetuate it in the Germanized functions of Yid- dish. Philology has an interesting lesson in the devotions thus defined. A love for music and literary qualities lends power to patriotism as well. Perhaps Yiddish will continue to benefit from similar cultural and linguistic patriotism. Preserving the records: American Jewish Archives forefronting the needs Commendable labors are being exerted in the urgent task of preserving the historic records of American Jewry. The current impressive achievements evident in the accumulation of data about Michigan Jewry, exhibited at the Detroit Historical Museum, emphasize recognition of the need to assure the chronicling of the events that were e kperienced during more than a century of activities, and i 1 assuring that the personalities who formed the cast of A Magen David Adorn gift and a lesson in good will Dr. Jacob Marcus Guiding spirit of the American Jewish Archives characters in this process is on the scene again, in memory as well as in recorded history. The Detroit Historical Society has an act in this dramatic task, and the American Jewish Historical Society is major in the tracing of the records. Therefore, the pioneers in the total undertaking gain recognition that leads toward the totality that is vital in writing history. On the agenda in such projected labors is the aim eventually to witness the completion of history-writing about Detroit Jewry and the related facts about all Michi- gan Jewish communities. Playing a leading role in achieving these aims is the American Jewish Archives, the movement's functions hav- ing been assured by Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati (now having the merged name of Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion) and the Union of Atmierican Hebrew Congregations. Its guiding spirit as a creative force for the Archives, Dr. Jacob R. Marcus, has several decades of achievements, and the historic treasures he has preserved continue as a lasting tribute to his genius as historian, author and one of the nation's most brilliant lecturers. He now has as his associate in directing the American Jewish Archives the able scholar and chronicler Dr. Abraham J. Peck. Attention to those aims and aspirations is inspired by another very vital joint Marcus-Peck literary product just issued by University Press of America under the title Studies in the American Jewish Experience. In the second volume in this series appear recollec- tions about the most notable in American Jewish ranks. East European immigra- tion records, the Jewish as- pects in the Scopes Trial, the effects of the World War I crisis in the then well known Kuhn-Loeb finan- cial force, are among the over-all subjects under scrutiny. Then there are the famous personalities under review. Horace Kallen, Ludwig Lewisohn, as well as the two dominant factors in Labor Zionism and sub- Dr. Abraham Peck sequently Israel — David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi — emerge anew in American Jewish history. These facts are so vital for an understanding of Ameri- can Jewish developments that the volume that calls atten- tion to such factors has great significance. Therefore, the need to give emphasis to the American Jewish Archives as a major force in history writing and preservation. To Jake Marcus goes a special acclaim for an inerasable role in Jewish history. The inspiration thus provided for Jewish scholarship invites gratitude from the generations. A fairly generous gift to the Magen David Adom, the Israel equivalent of the Red Cross, was accompanied this week by an interesting story about a lawsuit and how it was resolved, the contribution to the American Red Magen David emerging as the gainee. Dr. Milton Steinhardt, the local psychiatrist who had leadership in Zionist movements and as president of the Detroit Zionist Federation, is also a letter writer. He had written to one of the local newspapers protesting a number of derogatory articles which he condemned as harmful to American-Israel relations. Thereupon he began to receive threatening phone calls. They were endless and the an- tagonist even gave his name, making it a personal dispute. They became so aggravating that the police were asked to intervene and a libel suit ensued. The court action brought in the sons of the antagonized and the antagonizer, both lawyers. They not only tackled the case but became good friends. The suit was resolved with the gift from the nuisance phone caller, which this week brought the gift to Magen David Adorn, while erasing from the records the lawsuit. Dr'. Steinhardt, in his dual role as psychiatrist and Zionist activist, has a double view of the outcome of this interesting incident: First, that it allows for free expression of differing views, as long as it is not leading to violence; and, second, perhaps the second generation, as was indi- cated in the resolution of the incident, will covet friend- ships. If time cures, it also teaches, and the ultimate is yet to be learned. Jerusalem .. . . . . Washington . . . intruding stupidities • Amazing how stupidities can intrude — even in diplo- macy! When it is coupled with vengeance, stemming from anger, lack of good judgment becomes even more ridicul- ous. This is regrettable, ascribably to the silly suggestion by a member of the Israel Knesset that his government abandon Washington and make New York the headquar- ters of the Israel Embassy in the United States. That would accomplish exactly what Israel's enemies advocate: adherence to the injustice in U.S, diplomatic policies of making Israel an exception in the established policies of setting up embassies in the capitals of each nation's choice. By abandoning Washington, ISrael would adopt a policy of setting up an embassy in a non-capital setting of the nation with which it establishes diplomatic relations. Such statesmanship equates with the bigotries which Israel presently resents and conducts diplomatic battle with. Joseph G. Weisberg and the Jewish Advocate: a respected editor's affiliations The English-Jewish press lost a distinguished person- ality in the death of Joseph G. Weisberg, editor-publisher of the Boston Jewish Advocate. Abandoning the practice of law to enter the family's newspaper business, he was a dynamic leader in growing efforts to keep raising the standards of Jewish journalism. His uncles, Alexander and Joseph Brin, pursued pro- gressive policies as editors of the Jewish Advocate by in- fluencing the generations. Their readers in the early years of their activities included Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis. The prominent Zionist leader in the early years of this century, Jacob de Haas, was one of the Advocate's early editors, and Brandeis became interested in the news- paper through his influence. • Joseph Weisberg's affiliations, in civic as well as Jewish movements, included leadership as a newspaper- man as well as in tasks in support of civic protective move- ments and Israel. He leaves a record of noteworthy creativity and the nationwide tributes to his memory are meritoriously earned.