28' Friday, May 11, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS - BILL MEYER MUSIC 355-2721 HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY We have beautiful Mother's Day Arrangements Beautiful Roses & Plants Also Beautiful Corsages BY NECHAMA BAKST Special to The Jewish. News OPEN ALL DAY MOTHER'S DAY Original Rose Florist Shop INNO- VATIONS 589-2478 22173 Coolidge, Oak Park, MI. 546-9500 546-6200 ADO The Jewish mother: every one's relative PEOPLE'S CHOICE 459-7287 Still Specializing In Beautiful Wedding Work Specialists In Housing Pest Control ERADICO PEST CONTROL FERNDALE, MICH. 48220 1030 WOODWARD HGTS. • PROFESSIONAL, QUAUTY SERVICE FOR HOME, APARTMENT AND INDUSTRY • SERVICING SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN FOR 50 YEARS IN ALL PHASES OF PEST CONTROL REASONABLE RATES FREE ESTIMATES COMMENT 11 1 .1111115111.11. . .ft• • The Jewish mother has been discussed, maligned, frequently ridiculed, some- times rejected and consis- tently stereotyped. Now it seems as though we intend to banish her altogether. For what difference is there really, between the modern Jewish mother and her non-Jewish counter- part? On first glance, you have to admit, not much. The question then appears to be: Is she still -there somewhere, or is she a vic- tim of iconoclasm — im- prisoned in the past as surely as trolley cars and Michigan Central? In order to make a fair judgment, let's first define the term "Jewish mother." Stereotypes and some American Jewish writers like Philip Roth would have us believe that she is essentially characterized by two main ideas: a pri- mary obsession with get- ting the medical profession into the family, and a sec- ondary, but no less urgent, obsession with food. This article by Nechama Bakst is especially relevant this week with the celebration of Mother's Day on Sunday. As a life-long observer of a true "Yiddishe Momme" I am happy to say that I can categorically refute this unworthy interpretation . The Jewish mother, as we saw her in the past, de- voted her entire life to her family. She had little use or need for the indulgences of the outside world. Like a queen in a castle, sur- rounded by her family, she was content. In Alteh Bobbe, Charles Angoffs poignant tribute to his beloved grandmother, the old woman's philosophy is encompassed in two short sentences, ". . I've lived long enough. All my chil- dren are married happily, and that's all a woman really wants in life." The Biblical mother exemplifies this image. King Solomon the Wise, in his stirring poem, A Woman of Valor (Proverbs 31) depicts a mother as one who protects her home from "snow," snow sym- bolizing malignant intru- sions. This, then, is the primary role of the Jewish mother — guardian of the home, defender of her chil- dren, upholder of the Jewish tradition. Peres pitches 'alternative' policies in WJC address Other Custom Sizes at Equal . i, . t ns?s n 9, In S av i uri 100x84 2W 365.00 ion & Moo tt~ 139' 337.00 OU 962° 100") t~ 1141 NO FREIGHT • NO HANDUNG CHARGES DN'osmiginnasiscrvniacregsat ..ICS custom "11 Prints OFF \'‘111 \ \I "FREE a - 0808 '3°40-60°4 of IN SIOCR FABRICS Styling With Imagination 1 1 ' ','__,=. ii i : ,, -.- Cos Boli tiorizontal Blinds a lto OFF SHAT o ff pl 5 50% us ADO / 0 OFF pts313% OFF that off that off Pits 2.0% 1" Wood Blinds 50% 37041 Grand Fever Farmington (313) 478-3133 Dolly 9:30-6.00 Mon. S Thurs. 9:30-8:30 Closed Sunday 30858 Orchard Lake Rd. Farmington Hills (313) 826-4313 Jerusalem (JTA) — Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres has indicated a sharp differentiation between the policies he would pursue if elected the next Prime Minister of Israel and those followed by the Likud gov- ernment. Meeting with the 20- member International Executive of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) here last week, Peres said he would not insist that the Camp David agreements be the only basis for negotia- tions between Israel and Jordan; he would almost immediately cut in half Jewish settlement activi- ties in heavily Arab- populated areas of the West Bank; and would im- mediately end the confron- tation in Lebanon by pul- ling Israeli forces back to a flexible line on Israel's northern border. Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, the 850-member Central Committee of the Herut Party last voted by secret ballot for its 35-member "panel" from which its can- didates for the July 23 elec- tions will eventually be named. The committee had to chose from among 140 party members who had of- fered themselves as candi- dates. Former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon accused Pre- mier Yitzhak Shamir and other top leaders of Herut of trying to relegate him to the bottom of the party's ticket. Sharon named the "lead- ing five" who are "out to get me" in radio and television interviews last week. In addition to Shamir they are Deputy Premier David Levy, Defense Minister Moshe Arens, Finance Minister Yigal Cohen- Orgad and former Finance Minister Yoram Aridor, currently secretary general of the party. In other election-related news, former Defense Minister Ezer Weizman has urged the government to "climb down off the with- ered limb of its policy in Lebanon and stop insisting on linking an Israeli with- drawal with a Syrian pullback of troops." Weizmann spoke last week at the first press con- ference of his new party, Yahad, which he will head in the July vote. Even as recently as the latter part of the 20th Cen- tury, the great Jewish humorist Sam Levinson describes a mother "in the great tradition of the He- brew matriarch — a calm, dignified, self-sacrificing . . . wife and mother, ask- ing nothing for herself. A girl must look forward to a domestic existence like Mama's." But, as society has swung far in the opposite direction, this traditional view has come under at- tack as too subservient, too "unliberated," in fact, sim- ply old-fashioned. Inevitably, the Jewish mother has emerged from her glass tower as a woman in her own right. Unlike our own mothers, we are no longer content to live through our children, iso- lated in our homes, at once the protectors and the pro- tected. Today, we want more. We want to fulfill ourselves as well, to carve out for ourselves a niche in society, not as wives or mothers, but as women. If this is the case, there seems little hope but to let the traditional image of the Jewish mother dwindle away until it finally exists only in our memories and in our literature, a faint relic of bygone days. But, are we ready for that? Yes, the taste of self- confidence and success is indeed alluring. But at what cost? As mothers, Jewish mothers, are we prepared to cast away gen- erations of sacrifice for one heady hour of pleasure? The core of the Jewish heritage is said to lie with the Jewish mother. Even "Mama Loshen," as we often lovingly describe the Yiddish language, alludes to the mother's un- equivocal position in the home. As Leo Rosten states in The Joys of Yiddish, Hebrew was the father's language, since the holy books were in Hebrew, and only Jewish males were taught to read. Yiddish be- came known as the "mother tongue," the lan- guage of the home. Before we shatter one more illusion, before we carelessly dismiss our old ways, let's be very certain we aren't discarding some- thing rare and precious as well. One Jewish mother has very special meaning for me, and I will always have treasured memories of her. I think my children- de- serve to have these memories, too.