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Friday, May 3, 1985
v` T r(f 130 -111—
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
onagenarian Dulles And Prof. Blondheim, Her Jewish Mate
A mere news item, an episode relating
a distinguished personality, what may
pear as minute in the brevity of a news-
per story, could, as it often does, emerge
a most intriguing and dramatic tale.
• is is applicable to the New York Times
ril 19, 1985, Washington Talk page
'efing column. Here is the text of the
m about a most eminent American
me:
Eleanor Lansing Dulles, whose
brother was John Foster Dulles,
will receive a medal for promotion
of German-American friendship
from the German-American Club
of Bonn in ceremonies in Wiesba-
den early next month. Miss Dulles,
who will be 90 years old in June,
was asked by a presumptuous
guest at a Washington party last
week whether she felt up to the trip
abroad. By way of reply, she rose
to her feet and danced a polka.
A story in the NYTimes of June 18,
982, on her 87th birthday recounted her
imily record, referring to her brothers
ohn Foster Dulles who was Secretary of
tate and another brother, Allen W. Dul-
?.s, who was the director of the U.S. Cen-
ral Intelligence Agency, both under
esident Dwight Eisenhower; as well as
0 her grandfather, John W. Foster, and
er uncle, Robert Lansing, both having
erved as Secretary of State under
esidents Harrison and Wilson respec-
.
vely.
But nowhere except in her own book,
hances of a Lifetime, and in a review of it
ad any attention been given to the matter
f one of the most brilliant Jewish scholars
f the century.
This is how, the attention to what had
een described as a "newspaper episode"
las developed.
Eleanor Lansing Dulles was married
o Prof. David Simon Blondheim. He was a
uicide. She did not hide the fact in her
utobiographicat work. There were no
efinite explanations, except in the New
York Times Book Review Section. Two im-
pressve essays about him appear in the
Universal Jewish Encyclopedia and the
Encyclopedia Judaica. Only in the latter is
there a comment that he had a tragic
death.
Prof Blondheim was a dedicated
ionist as well as one of the very great
ewish scholars, linguists, translators. We
new him from original Young Judaea
days when he and we were associated in
the movement with David Schneeberg,
who was really the founder of the Young
Judaea movement; the martyred Dr. Israel
Friedlaender, the movement's first na-
tional president; Mrs. N. Taylor Phillips,
Samuel J. Borowsky, Dr. Israel Goldstein,
Carl Alpert, Max Arzt, David deSola Pool,
Emanuel Newmann, Henrietta Szold, Dr.
Israel M. Goldman and many other nota-
bles.
This leads us to the personal interest
in David Blondheim. When the item about
Eleanor Dulles appeared in the NYTimes
April 19, the first place to turn to was to
sister-in-law Rabonit Mildred Goldman,
the widow of Dr. Israel M. Goldman.
Mildred had the facts about the great —
and that's not an exaggeration — Prof.
Blondheim and his son David who adopted
the name Dulles after his father's suicide.
But the very next day Mildred passed away
— on April 20 — after a long illness. There-
fore it became necessary to resort to a letter
she wrote to us about the Blondheims:
' I think it was Max Arzt — or
maybe Moshe Davis — I can't re-
member — maybe neither of them
— who told us the story of the son
of that marriage who was named
David Dulles (dropping the Blond-
dheim biographical-character sketches in
the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia and
Encyclopedia Judaica should be read. It'll
be worth being acquainted with the
philological genius of David Simon Blon-'
dheim.
Meanwhile, the historic incident,
Dulles-Blondheim, should not be erased
from history.
Soncino Retains
Fame In 500th
Publishing Year
Eleanor Dulles at age 87.
.
heim) and, of course, being
brought up as a Christian by his
mother. Max and I were told that a
few years ago he came to the Semi-
nary wanting genuinely to learn
about Judaism. Whether he con-
tinued for any length of time I do
not remember. And I also seem to
remember that he did sub-
sequently seek out his half-brother
(they had never met) by Blon-
dheim's first wife. She was the
daughter or sister of a prominent
rabbi — maybe Eugene Kohn —
here again I can't really remember.
The brother is a physician and a
professor, I know, at the Hebrew
University — very brilliant and ob-
servant, too. At any rate, Max and I
were in the home of Professor
Blondheim in Jerusalem. The fam-
ily is a good friend of Eva Lowent-
hal Zamir.
Now we come to the only available
public reference to the Blondheim suicide.
In the referred to review of Loyal Sister:
Chances of a Lifetime, a Memoir by Eleanor
Lansing Dulles, in the June 1980
NY Times Book Review Section, reviewer
Eve Auchincloss stated:
Her lover was 11 years her
senior, a penniless philologist, di-
vorced, and a Jew. Foster thought
him "a fine man," but hardly mar-
rying material. She dreaded the
strong feelings that took hold of
her. Marriage would "interfere
with my teaching." After seven—
tormented years of making and
breaking engagements, they mar-
ried in 1932. His work was in Bal-
timore, hers in Philadelphia. They
met on weekends, planning to
write a great French dictionary
and, though she was now 39, to
have two children.
Before their son was born,
David Blondheim committed
suicide. Here she says only that he
suddenly died. "I did not know the
reason for his death. More than 40
years later, I still do not know." Mr.
Mosley suggests that Blondheim
was tormented by the betrayal of
his religion and the prospect of a
half-Gentile child. When it was
born, Foster advised her to give up
her husband's name, and she did.
The son was named David Dulles;
later she adopted a girl.
What a dramatic tale — and so sig-
nificant are the characters in the great his-
toric incident.
Advice to our readers: the two Blon-
Five hundred years of publishing is
itself so remarkably fascinating a record
that the project accomplishing it must
command most dominating attention in
reviewing historical records. This fame be-
longs to Soncino Press.
Soncino's is so fascinating a story. It is
a publishing project dating back to 1465.
Of interest is the origin of the name as well
as the originators of this eminent publish-
ing firm.
The lengthy account of the Soncino
story in Encyclopedia Judaica invites spe-
cial attention to the origin of Soncino and
=commencement of its worldwide signifi-
cance:
Soncino, family of Hebrew
printers active in Italy, Turkey,
and Egypt in the 15th and 16th
Centuries. The Soncino family
originated in Germany and
claimed among their ancestors
Moses of Speyer, mentioned in the
tosafot by Eliezeeof Touques (13th
Century). Five generations later
another Moses, resident at Fuerth,
succeeded in driving the wander-
ing Franciscan monk and rabble-
rouser John of Capistrano (1386-
1456) out of the town (see title page
of David Kimhi's Mikhlol, Constan-
tinople,11532-34). His sons Samuel
and Simon left Fuerth for Italy,
where in 1454 they obtained per-
mission from Francesco Sforza
duke of Milan, to settle in Soncino
near Cremona, from which they
took their surname. Samuel's son
Israel Nathan (d. 1492?), a physi-
cian, was renowned for his Tal-
mudic scholarship and piety; he
died in Brescia. Printing had taken
place in Italy from 1465, and it was,
no doubt, under the influence of
Israel Nathan and in partnership
with him and his other sons (Benei
Soncino) that his son Joshua Sol-
omon (d. 1493) set up a Hebrew
printing press which in 1484 pro-
duced its first book, the Talmud
tractate Berakhot, with commen-
taries in the arrangement which
became standard. This was fol-
lowed by a complete, voweled He-
brew Bible (1488), the Mahzor
Minhag Roma (Soncino and Casal-
maggiore, 1486), and 15 other
works (to 1489). His were the first
printed editions of the Hebrew
Bible and Talmud tractates. From
1490 to 1492 Joshua Solomon
printed at least nine works in
Naples, and altogether more than
40 works are ascribed to his press.
His nephew Gershom Ben
Moses (d. 1534), also called Menz-
lein — perhaps for having learned
the art of printing in Mainz — be-
came one of the most successful
and prolific printers of his time —
and one of the finest of all times —
printing from 1489 to 1534, not only
in Hebrew (and Judeo-German?),
but also in Latin, Greek, and Ita-
„ Han and using for non-Hebrew lit-
erature the names Hieronymus,
Geronimo, or Girolamo. During his
extensive travels, to France in par-
ticular, he obtained valuable
manuscripts for publication, e.g.,
the tosafot of Eliezer of Touques
which he was the first to publish.
He was also the first to use wood-
cut illustrations in a Hebrew work
(Isaac ibn Shaula's Mashal ha-
Kadmoni, Brescia c. 1491), -and to
produce secular Hebrew literature
(Immanuel of Rome's Mahberot,
Brescia, 1492). Soncino also
printed in small, pocket-size for-
mat, assembling an expert staff of
literary advisers, typesetters, and
proofreaders. His letters were cut
by Francesco Griffo da Bologna,
who also worked for the well-
known Aldo Manutius.
What an interesting introduction to
an immensely fascinating account about a
great form and its founders! Imagine: Son-
cino even pioneered in producing
pocketbook-sized books! It also pioneered
in expert proofreading.
There is another interesting item in
the Soncino record. The Bible Soncino pub-
lished in 1488 was the text used by Luther
for his German translation of the Bible.
Soncino now has numerous competi-
tors in the publishing of the Mishna, Tal-
mud and other sacred and traditional
texts. Yet its history supercedes in publish-
ing thrills anything else in historic re-
cords. Therefore its 500th anniversary in-
vites acclaim.
Arnold Goldman sold a thriving U.S. business and moved to Israel where he formed
a solar energy company, Luz.