•
20
Friday, October 11, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
The Parade Of Notables
Continued from Page 2
Weizmann Institute of Science bene-
a dinner party for the organization of The
fitted immensely from his generosity, and
Angels. They asked each enrolled Angel
to contribute $2,000 to the cancer re- he never failed to take into account, in
his writings, the gifts Israel was making
search fund. The urgency of the mounting
to mankind.
need was described at the gathering by a
His major articles always found a
Hebrew University cancer researcher, Dr.
Isaiah Fidler, chairman of the depart- place on this editorial desk, and he usu-
ment of cell biology and the Anderson ally translated them himself into English
for the benefit of his Jewish friends and
Hospital and Tumor Institute.
(As a matter of added interest, Dr. their fellow citizens in Detroit.
His atonement for the German
Fidler spent 11 years in cancer studies in
crimes tinder Hitlerism contribute toward
Houston, Tex. His mother, Shoshana Fi-
the nobility of his excellent journalistic
dler, has an administrative position at
and human record.
the Hebrew University and collaborated
His memory will always be blessed in
with Zuckerman in behalf of the univer-
Jewish and world historical records.
sity for some 25 years).
On the spot, at that social event,
$72,000 was raised. The sum has now
been increased to more than $80,000 by Scholarly Klangsbrun
gifts from invitees who could not attend.
Maxine Ashcrast, vice president of Defines Current Status
the Michigan Cancer Foundation, de- On Marriage, Divorce
scribed the first gathering of The Angels
as "having attained Heavenly heights."
Now each of the attendees at The
Angels' party in the Zuckerman home
boasts a gift from them, a long-stemmed
chocolate rose tagged "Thanks for Being
an Angel."
Himself not immune from the danger
of cancer — Paul has just returned from
visits at the Kettering Institute in New
York in his own behalf — Paul assures
that what he and Helen started is only
the beginning, that they will purse their
labors to mobilize support for the move-
ment to battle cancer and find the
prayed-for cure.
With this new creative effort to their
credit, the Zuckermans can walk with
added pride in the Parade of Notables.
Axel Springer Atoned
For Sins Of Germans
Francine Klagsbrun .
Axel Springer
Axel Springer never failed either to
defend Israel or to condemn any vestige
of Nazism and neo-Nazism or to atone for
the sins of his fellow Germans.
Whatever he wrote for his five mil-
lion and more readers, in the newspapers
and periodicals that influenced public
opinion in West Germany, was always
combined with his personal expressions of
friendship for Jewry and condemnations
of the criminally-minded.
It was always noteworthy, therefore,
that he viewed Jerusalem as his second
home. He occupied a home he purchased
on Jerusalem's King David Street
whenever he visited Israel and helped in
the establishment of many memorable
sites as his share in Israel's upbuilding
and security.
Enduring marriages, the problematic
divorce and related problems, are given
such unusual study by a noted scholar
and researcher, that her newest book
earns the best-selling status it has gained
in many communities. Francine
Klagsbrun already has high rating in the
publishing field with her previously pub-
lished works., her Voices of Wisdom is an
anthologically-superb classic of assem-
bled statements on Judaism containing
the most valued in the wisdom of Jewish
scholarship. In Married People: Staying
Together in the Age of Divorce (Bantam
Books), Mrs. Klagsbrun touches upon the
emerging occurrences in analyses of most
impressive experiences gathered in her
study of the subjects.
At a time when 58 percent of mar-
riages last no more than 15 years, it be-
comes valuable to know how the endur-
ing persist and why. It took the skill of
the brilliant journalist and researcher
Francine Klangsbrun to arrive at basic
facts. She achieved her aim in her new
book in a study of some 100 family ex-
periences and the case histories in her
latest book are most revealing.
There is a focus in the Klagsbrun
studies on the reasons for positive
achievements than the failures. The
three-year study emphasizes facts
gathered from the many interviews of the
100 actual lifelines outlined as well as
talks with psychiatrists.
The survivalism indicated in the
studies of the case histories are those of
the creative marriages, of the continual
pleasures and the "survivor marriages,"
which are dependent on the economic and
other outside forces.
Klagsbrun makes the point that
"marriage adds depth to one's being, the
Menachem Begin
depth and understanding that comes from
looking into oneself in order to under-
stand another." Thereupon, she offers her
deep joy at the loyalty attained in her
personal life:
"But me, I don't want to rest alone. I
want to rest — and run and laugh — with
my husband at my side. Forever."
They are not all "case histories" dealt
with by Klagsbrun. She utilizes an im-
portant historical occurrence, in Israel, to
illustrate her emphasis on the positives
in marriages. A point is made that "even
in the most autocratic marriages men
have dependencies of their own. They
turn to their wives for nurturing. They
turn to them for emotional support, for
ego strength, as an outlet through which
to express their fears or frustrations."
Thereupon, Klagsbrun includes this im-
pression she gathered from the Israeli
occurrence:
I think of Menachem Begin,
former prime minister of Israel,
and during his tenure in office
one of the most powerful men in
the world. Begin resigned his
position several months after the
death of his wife of forty-three
years, Aliza. With her death, he
became a shadow of himself,
morose, withdrawn, uncom-
municative. For Begin, Aliza pro-
vided the emotional balance in
life. Only to her could he speak of
his doubts and insecurities, only
to her reveal his weaknesses.
From the viewpoint of the outside
world, she was very much in the
background, the devoted wife fol-
lowing him wherever his career
took him, backing him no matter
what he did. Yet he needed her
and depended on her to sustain
his life as he wanted to live it.
There is a Jewishly religious refer-
ence to the Klagsbrun studies in this
comment about a prominent rabbi:
"People connect marriage
with religion," said Rabbi Judah
Nadieh, spiritual leader of the
Park Avenue Syynagogue, one of
the largest in Manhattan. "Mar-
riage is a sacred institution, so
when something goes wrong, the
first person they think to call is a
religious leader. I have had phone
calls from people who are not
even members of my congrega-
tion or observant Jews in any
way."
One of the most noteworthy case his-
tories in the Klagsbrun studies is about
miscegenation. Here's the story:
Aliza Begin
A couple who seem to have
found a balance between being
emotionally too close or too far
from their married children are
the Newmans of Florida, Zach
and Sylvia, and they achieved
that balance only after great pain
and great effort on their part and
the part of their son and their
daughter-in-law. The NeWmans
are traditionalist Jews, if not Or-
thodox then fairly observant of
Jewish law and ritual. They gave
both their sons substantial
Jewish educations and lOoked
forward to the day when they
would have grandchildren to con-
tinue their beliefs and culture. So
when their younger son, Michael,
brought his fiancee home to meet
his parents, the Newmans were
shocked. Almost a takeoff on the
Katharine Hepburn-Spencer
Tracy movie Guess Who's Coming
to Dinner?, the young woman who
came for dinner at the Newman
home was black. And a Baptist.
"I cried for a year," said Syl-
via. "I told him, 'Michael, you're
going to break my heart.' And you
know what he answered?
'Mother, what about my heart?
I'm going to live a long time after
you're gone. This is my chance for
happiness.' "
"You see the difference in
generations?" Zach broke in. "I
would never have spoken that
way to my parents. 'I'm going to
live for a long time after you're
gone.' But he was being honest."
"He wasn't honest at first,"
Sylvia continued. "He went with
her for a year and a half before
we ever met her. And all that time
he was accepting the blind dates
my friends were arranging for
him. He's a very attractive man,
,even if he is my son. A jewel. But
that's not the point. He knew how
we would react, and he was
Scared to tell us. Later they told
us that they used to'sit in the park
and cry, the two of them, because
they were afraid of what we
would do."
What the Newmans did, voce
it became clear that Michael ad
made up his mind, was think
hard. Between her tars, Sylvia
knew in her heart that she "loved
Michael so dearly, nothing could
take away from that." And Zach
reasoned, "I suppose there are
much worse things that can hap-