PURELY COMMENTARY ■ simmim Imm PHILIP SLOMOVITZ The School And Its Students: Our Chief Concern Dr. Alvin I. Schiff, executive vice president of the New York Board of Educa- tion, has made known the distressing facts about the decline of enrollment of students in the afternoon schools in the New York metropolitan region. The reported steady decline in enrollments over a 20-year period has dropped to half. Enrollment was at its peak in 1965 when 96,000 were enrolled. Now there are 51,000 students in 22 supplementary schools in New York City and in Westches- ter, Nassau and Suffolk counties. Dr. Schiff stated that national enroll- ment has fallen from a high of 540,000 in 1962 to 220,000. Detroit falls into the general pattern of educational experiences and enrollment declination. Local current figures are: Afternoon schools, kindergarten through grade 12, 8,991 in 1965; 4,910 in 1985; with another slight drop in 1986 to 4,830. Day schools: 756 in 1965, going up in 1985 to 1,292, with another increase in 1986 to 1,311. Nursery schools of the United Hebrew Schools, 732 in 1977 and 1,178 in 1986. In a comment on the decline of Detroit area enrollment from 11,617 in the years under consideration to 7,617, Peter M. Al- ter, chairman of the Jewish education committee of the Jewish Welfare Federa- Dr. Alvin Schiff Peter Alter tion, makes the realistic judgement that the decline in the Jewish population of Metropolitan Detroit and the transfer of residences by many young people to the South and Southwest is partly accountable for the enrollment decline. In consideration of the continuing problem, Mr. Alter should be taken seri- ously when he asserts that "the decline in figures does not necessarily represent a de- crease in commitments to Jewish educa- tion on the part of the existing Jewish population." The fact that the day school idea, which was propagated as a solution to existing educational needs in the past two decades, is showing marked gains is impor- tant in tackling the issues involved. The commitment to Jewish educa- tional needs as a priority in communal planning is a most heartening assurance from Mr. Alter who speaks authoritatively on behalf of the organized community when he states: "Detroit Jewish Welfare Federation, as well as many other constituent parts of the Detroit Jewish community, is deeply commited to examining and improving De- troit's Jewish education programming." It can be assumed that the problem aroused by the difficulty of encouraging young Jews to train as teachers in Jewish schools also will be pursued. There is, however, a more serious chal- lenge that relates to the successes of Jewish school systems in this country. It is the concern of parents and the attitudes of families toward the vital need for identifi- cation. Shortly after issuing his distressing report on the decline of Jewish school enrollments, Dr. Schiff, speaking in Pittsburgh during its annual Jewish Edu- cation Week observance, made this equally distressing declaration: "Jewish children today bring little or no Jewish baggage to school. It is the na- ture of the clientelle. The homes of many of these pupils are devoid of Jewish experi- ence. Most of the parents do not fully asso- ciate themselves with the philosophy and purposes of the school programs, nor do Continued on Page 28 Prof. Richard Ellmann As The Literary Authority If "the history of the world is the his- tory of great men" (Thomas Carlyle), then the eminence of distinguished Detroit per- sonalities lends significance to those in our midst and in the writing of and in assemb1 7 ing Detroit Jewry's records. A gallery of notables commenced with the recognition of the Columbia University honors accorded native Detroit Prof. Mar- shall Shulman, who is widely acclaimed as one of the most authoritative public figures on Russian affairs. This leads us to another eminent aca- demic, the native Detroiter Prof. Richard Ellmann. Recognized as the most authoritative scholar on James Joyce and W.D. Yeats, Prof. Ellmann has completed extensive studies on Oscar Wilde and it is being awaited with great ardor as a biography that will match the earlier extensive studies. These are not the only men of emi- nence who have attained increased recog- nition thanks to the Ellmann writings. There are others who have been dealt with by him. The Library of Congress has just reissued a volume by Prof. Ellmann, entitled Four Dubliners. They include the biographies under the titles "Oscar Wilde at Oxford," "W.B. Yeats' Second Puberty," "James Joyce In and Out of Art" and "Samuel Beckett: Layman of Noland." Now Oscar Wilde will be "in the cards" as a Richard Ellmann product, and this creates a new sensation. It introduces the noted scholar who has a sense of the artis- tic, a degree to be judged also as a sense of humor. Indeed, it all alludes to a card game. His publicist, Hilary James, 331 E. 60th St., New York, issued this announce- ment: Designed and produced by ar- tist and publisher, Rosita Fanto, in collaboration with professor Richard Ellmann, the renowned authority on the Irish writers James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde, a won- derfully unique set of playing cards and limited edition book of original drawings and texts per- taining to the life and works of Oscar Wilde has been created. As a master of indolence and hedonism both in his writings and life, Oscar Wilde is a colorfully appropriate subject for such an unusual and intriguing deck of playing cards, his ascent to literary prominence and subsequent col- lapse of fortune providing one of the most brilliant and tragic se- quences in the history of literature. The Oscar Wilde playing cards condense Wilde into pictorial form. Three suits are based upon his writings: Hearts are Instigations, Clubs are Images and Diamonds are Complications; the fourth, Spades, are Happenings in Wilde's life. Although Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde's biographer, has de- vised this fascinatingly provaca- tive and intricate scheme, the cards may be used as would any ordinary deck. This first, limited edition book has been printed on an especially made "Vergata Antique" paper in Italy and the luxury boxed sets, which comprise the book and two decks of playing cards, are avail- able in black, lilac, grey, green and burgundy. Single and double decks of the cards are also avail- able in attractive, unusually de- signed boxes. Thus, Prof. Richard Ellmann the famous author and academic becomes a creator of playing cards. His family background is noteworthy. His father, the late James I. Ellmann, was a Highland Park municipal judge. He was an early Jewish Community Council president and was a leader in local Zionist tasks. He held the presidency of the Zionist Organization of Detroit and traveled to pre-Israel Palestine on study missions. His mother, Jean Ellmann, had liter- ary and artistic skills. She wrote poetry, reviewed stage plays and operas for local newspapers and was an encouragement for the pursuit of literary efforts, thus in- fluencing her sons. Prof. Ellmann's brothers, Erwin and William, are practicing law in Detroit. The impressive career of Prof. Ellmann has thus been assembled by his fellow creators of the Oscar Wilde Card Game: Richard Ellmann was Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature at Oxford from 1970 to 1984 and is now Woodruff Profes- sor at Emory University. He is an honorary fellow of New College and an extraordinary fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. Born in Highland Park, Michigan, he was educated at Yale and at Trinity College, Dublin. During the Sec- ond World War he served in the Continued on Page 28 `Exile, Enlightenment' Festschrift When a scholar is accorded the honor of having a festschrift compiled in his honor, it afforms his recognition for honors by his associates in academia. This is the distinction to be accorded at a festive occasion tomorrow at Oakland University, marking a festschrift pre- sentation to Prof. Guy Stern, presently Wayne State University distinguished professor. There were occasions, very recently, to take into account other such honors to dis- tinguished scholars. Dr. Jacob R. Marcus of Cincinnati and Prof. Sol Liptzin, who now resides in Jerusalem, were given added recognition in this column for festschrift honors accorded them. Now it is an added delight to treat a similar honor accorded a fellow Detroiter. In a festschrift, fellow scholars of the academic honored deal with important subjects of historic and human interest. In the Stern festschrift, this established pol- icy is pursued. It echoes sentiments that take into account the background of the honoree, his distinction as linguist, his de- votion to music, his mastering of pedagogy. The title of the volume in his honor has special significance. Added to the "Enlightenment" tribute is the reminder that Dr. Stern is an "Exile." This is of great importance in treating the experiences of the scholar. Guy (named Guenther at birth) Stern attended Jewish schools in Hildesheim, Germany, and at 15 he was brought to St. Louis, Mo. by an uncle and aunt and by the Childr9n's Committee on affidavits then demanded by the U. S Tmmigration and Justice departments. This is the symbol of the "Exile" who rose to academic heights in his pursuance of scholarship. He became a self-made and self- protecting aspirant for U. S. citizenship. In a typical fashion of earning his way — Nothing was too difficult for him — he was bus boy, waiter, and from dining room to classroom was his way of attaining success. Inducted into the U.S. Army, he served in military intelligence and as an interrogator of prisoners of war, and earned the Bronze Star. It is the fact that he never forgot his "Exilic" role that lends importance to the honor now accorded him. He has kept ac- count of the Holocaust as it struck others who did not escape from Nazi Germany, wrote about the tragedies, helped in keep- ing reminders of it so that the "Never Again" should symbolize his life's aims. That is why in the ranks of those hon- oring him is Wayne State University and WSU Press, University of Cincinnati, other state universities and their scholars and the Leo Baeck Institute. All honor to Prof. Guy Stern upon being acclaimed in a festschrift.