3 ) • 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.