PURELY COMMENTARY
Shipler's Pulitzer
Continued from Page 2
most distinguished American Jews. This
is where the patrilineal angle, proposed
by Reform Jewish leaders, plays a role. Ac-
tually, Pulitzer was not' a Jew. His father
was Jewish and his mother was a Roman
Catholic. There is no record of Jewish af-
filiations by Pulitzer. And there is no
record of denial either.
Yet, there is a sense of glory claiming
him for our distinction. He was born in
Budapest in 1847. He came to this coun-
try at the age of 17 and soon entered the
newspaper field. His first job was as a
reporter for a German newspaper. His
career included a short term in the U.S.
House of Representatives, but he resign-
ed his elected place as Congressman to
pursue his newspaper career which in-
cluded domination in the field for a
number of years. The St. Louis Post
Dispatch and the New York World were
among his great accomplishments.
His fame is inerasable from the
history of American journalism as the
man who endowed the Pulitzer School of
Journalism at Columbia University and
the Pulitzer Prizes for Journalism.
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia
and the Encyclopedia Judaica carry im-
pressive items about him. They are dif-
ferent and should be studied together. Col-
lectively they define a marvelous per-
sonality. He was a patrilineal product, a
great American to be cherished in all
ranks. Since so much attention is given
his name in both encyclopedias and in all
Jewish records, why not take pride in
possessing him?
As an emphasis on the remarkable
characteristics of Joseph Pulitzer, it is
necessary to indicate that in the final
years of his great achievements he was
totally blind. But he never avoided his
dedicated journalistic and communal in-
terests. The U.S. recognized his genius by
issuing a Pulitzer U.S. postage stamp in
1947. Therefore the pride of honoring him
as a fellow American, with a Jewish
patrilineal acclaim.
Jewish History
Continued from Page 2
a great deal is missing. The giants of
world Jewry in its cast of personalities
isn't there. What's to be expected in 644
pages, in what we judged as an essay on
history more than history itself? Yet, there
are the valuables not to be denigrated.
In many respects, Johnson's history
renders an important service. He power-
fully portrays mankind's guilt. His sum-
mation is a tribute to the Jewish will to
live.
There is a lesson from Scriptures in
Johnson's history. Analyzing the collective
hatreds he indicated the recognition that
submission is unacceptable to Jews under
any and all circumstances. He draws upon
the warning to reject fear. He has written
an indictment of the cruelties in mankind,
asserting:
The Jews had grasped that the
civilized world, however defined,
could not be trusted. The over-
whelming lesson the Jews learn-
ed from the Holocaust was the im-
perative need to secure for
themselves a permanent, self-
contained and above all sovereign
refuge where if necessary the
whole of world Jewry could find
safety from its enemies. The First
30
Friday, May 22, 1987
to give meaning to creation, the
Jews will take comfort from the in-
junction, thrice repeated, in the
noble first chapter of the Book of
Joshua: 'Be strong and of good
courage; be not afraid, neither be
thou dismayed: for the Lord thy
God is with thee whithersoever
thou goest:
Richard Ellmann: Genius
Belongs To Generations
Paul Johnson
World War made the Zionist state
possible. The Second World War
made it essential. It persuaded the
overwhelming majority of Jews
that such a state had to be created
and made secure whatever the
cost, to themselves or to anyone
else.
The drama of Jewish existence is
defined by Johnson in these expressively
concluding words, with the "fear not"
admonition:
The historian must also bear
in mind that Judaism has always
been greater than the sum of its
adherents. Judaism created the
Jews, not the other way round. As
the philosopher Leon Roth put it:
"Judaism comes first. It is not a
product but a program and the
Jews are the instruments of its
fulfillment."
Jewish history is a record not
only of physical facts but of
metaphysical notions. The Jews
believed themselves created and
commanded to be a light to the
gentiles and they have obeyed to
the best of their considerable
powers. The results, whether con-
sidered in religious or in secular
terms, have been remarkable. The
Jews gave the world ethical
monotheism, which might be
described as the application of
reason to divinity. In a more
secular age, they applied the prin-
ciples of rationality to the whole
range of human activities, often in
advance of the rest of mankind.
The light they thus shed
disturbed as well as illuminated,
for it revealed painful truths about
the human spirit as well as the
means to uplift it. The Jews have
been great truth-tellers and that is
one reason they have been so
much hated. A prophet will be
feared and sometimes honored,
but when has he been loved? Yet
a prophet must prophesy and the
Jews will persist in pursuing
truth, as they see it, wherever it
leads.
Jewish history teaches, if
anything can, that there is indeed
a purpose to human existence and
that we are not just born to live
and die like beasts. In continuing
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Richard Ellmann belongs to the
generations. His genius as biographer and
essayist, as literary critic, uplifts -him
monumentally in world literature.
Already fully admired and appreciated, it
will take the generations fully to evaluate
such genius.
When, in our issue of Jan. 30, a major
portion of this page was devoted
testimonially to acclaim his achievements
as the outstanding authority on Yeats and
Joyce, attention was called to the publica-
tion before the end of this year of another
monumental Richard Ellmann literary
classic, the biography of Oscar Wilde. The
leading literary masters of our time await
the Wilde work as a masterpiece mat-
ching Ellmann's previous achivements.
He had produced much more, and
other biographies. The glories attached to
his name, as they are outlined in the an-
nouncements of his death, merely scratch
the surface as tributes.
There is so much to admire in the
Richard Ellmann record that a true
evaluation of him will require one
emulating him to produce a full-length
biographical volume about his gifts to
literature.
When I wrote the earlier tribute to
him in the Jan. 30 issue I had no
knowledge that he was suffering from a
dreaded illness.
He defied his sufferings. Out of his
necessity, he communicated by writing
brief notes. Reportedly, they were filled
with humor. He was always full of humor
and it was evident in his literary master-
piece. Those who have seen advance por-
tions of his "Oscar Wilde" advise an an-
ticipation of an entertaining as well as
enlightening work.
He was a native of Highland Park,
Mich., and he and his name lend glory to
Richard Ellmann
the Michigan city where his father was a
municipal judge and his mother an ac-
complished poet and artist. From the
spirit enthused in the parental home of
James and Jean Ellmann emerged incom-
parable genius.
The Ellmann background record
would be incomplete without mentioning
Connecticut Avenue in Highland Park
where the three brothers, Erwin, Richard
and William, received their inspiration in
a home where Judge James I. and Jean
Ellmann hosted civic-mindedness; where
Zionism was a cause to strive for; where
ecumenism involving all faiths, all races,
were confronted without bias, with con-
tempt for prejudices. Connecticut in
Highland Park was a street where other
notables were domiciled, as a
neighborhood that took pride in per-
sonalities like U.S. Court of Appeals Judge
Charles C. Simons.
Surely, much more is yet to be said
about Richard Ellmann the literary
genius and his creative gifts as an author.
As an initial reaction to the sad news
about his passing it is necessary to pay
some small measure to a literary giant I
have known since his earliest childhood.
There are not to many who match the
legacies with which he has enriched our
generation. They will always be treated
as blessings.
Shimson Lemberger's “Kapparot," part of a collection of 80 Israeli paintings that
are being exhibited at the Jewish Museum in New York.