PURELY COMMENTARY
Mobility
Continued from Page 2
desperately to get religious
While this is painful enough,
Zionism back on track again?
even more painful is the fact that
the saner voices in Israel,
How many people know that
these are the persons who insist
America and even England are
that yeshiva students should not
not heard, and the nobler ex-
be exempt from military duty in
ponents of the faith do not get
Israel and that they do so on the
the media coverage that the
zealots enjoy. That is why I feel
basis of Halachah and not only
for reasons of security?
so strongly that I must use
Neither of the two groups I
whatever means are available to
have described had any in-
give the other side of the picture
fluence on the recent
and to report on individuals and
reorganization of the Religious
institutions that can make us
Zionist Party in Israel. They do
proud of Judaism rather than
not have much regard for the
ashamed.
leadership of that party, rarely
How many Jews in the
vote for it and do not seek elec-
Diaspora have even heard of
tion to any office.
Hakibutz Hadati? Or of its
They are idealists, not politi-
publication, Amudim? It reports
cians. Perhaps impractical, yes.
well on the intellectual and
But they are the kind of people
religious ferment in Israel. It
Jews cannot help admiring and
also conveys the feeling that
respecting. And what a grand
religious and Zionist idealism is
image they give Orthodoxy! In-
very much alive and an inspira-
cidentally, both groups are not
tion to all who are depressed
only committed to the unity of
because of the behavior of the
the Jewish people, they actual-
men in control of Israel's
ly communicate with all Jews —
religious establishment.
secularist and religious; Or-
The purpose of it all is to invite a
thodox, Conservative and
commitment to genuine unity by
Reform. They are "modern Or-
recognizing everyone's right to differ.
thodox" in the fullest and finest
The purpose is to assert that Jewish
sense of that term. Who knows
ethical cores reject prejudices. The pur-
but that for this reason, the
pose is to emphasize that in a society
religious establishment ignores
like ours, whose members will fight for
them!
a non-Jew's right to benefit from
Yet why are there so few
democratic principles of justice without
Jews who give these groups the
malice, there also exists the commit-
financial support to make their
ment to grant such rights to all Jews as
voices heard, to command the
well, without prejudice from fellow
attention of the media and to
Jews. Therefore the call to all Jews to
give their co-religionists a sense
judge unity with honor, not by prejudice
of pride that they exist? The
that suppresses rights of Jews within a
zealots can get all the support
Jewish Kehilla. What we say: Refuse to
they need. Perhaps donors hope
divide, be firm when we say UNITE.
to get to heaven more readily if
they support extremist groups
of the right or left. They must
Martyrdom
feel that God, unlike
Continued
from Page 2
Maimonides, is on the side of
His more aggressive and violent
Gubernia of Vilna of Czarist Russia,
champions.
that I earned my diploma in the Czarist
I deliberately held the opening Russian government school. Lida is
paragraphs of Dr. Rackman's article for identified here as being in the
the end. There was no intention to Novogrodek district that provided an
spread bias but only to emphasize the added agony. Novogrodek, the former
human-democratic elements in a Russo-Polish city in the Minsk Guber-
dispute that demands recognition of the nia, was the city of my birth, whence
right to differ. Dr. Rackman com- the family home and cigarette tubes
menced his article "The Future Does factory moved to Lida.
Such are the tragedies to be shared
Not Belong to Orthodoxy's Zealots" by
stating:
in studying martyrology!
The tortures recalled are agonizing.
The image of Orthodox
The great Yiddish poet, Zalman
Judaism in Israel and perhaps
Schneur, writing in Medieval Days
most of the world has never
Draw Near, (1913), literally exclaimed:
been worse. One cannot deny
"Enough of playing the martyrs! Learn
the legal right of rabbis in Israel
to be heroes instead."
and the party leaders subser-
The Wiesenthal anthological calen-
vient to them to engage in any
dar is important and challenging.
kind of political blackmail they
Schneur's admonition also has much to
choose. Their tactics may even
learn from, but is not easy to adhere to.
achieve a gain or two for what
they believe is their honorable
cause. But who can forgive them
the harm they are doing to the
Schocken: Gem In
very tradition they profess to be
Publishing Diadem
serving? They are making some
people hate it, others disrespect
Schocken is a highly respected
it and still others wish to destroy
name in the publishing world. It is no
it. Yet they simply do not care.
longer an identity.
When one is sure that he has
Its absorption into the Random
God's backing, he ignores
House dynasty, announced by Random
everybody, and everything else.
House President Robert L. Bernstein,
30
FRIDAY, AUG. 7, 1987
now lends it secondary status in
publishing leadership.
Yet, the name will live indelibly in
the history of literature.
As publisher of Franz Kafka, Y.L.
Agnon and Elie Wiesel, Schocken must
continue among the dominant forces in
world-famous publishers.
Announcing the agreement with
the Schocken family for the sale of
Schocken books, Bernstein stated that
it will continue as part of Pantheon
Books, a subsidiary of Random House.
He called the acquisition "an extraor-
dinarily appropriate marriage of two
liata."
It is necessary to indicate that
David Rome, who is a member of the
Schocken family and current president
of Schocken, will continue with Pan-
theon as consultant and advisory editor.
It is also important to note the
similar past of Schocken and Pantheon,
each having been started in the United
States in 1942 by escapees from the
Nazi terror.
It is the indelibility of the Schocken
name that is significant. The world
leadership of-the founders needs to be
recorded and as it already is in the in-
ternational encyclopedic records, with
emphasis on the Jewish.
The Schocken name is associated
not only with publishing but also with
Israel, the Zionist cause, and the
establishment of an institute for the ad-
vancement of Jewish historical and
theological subjects. The pioneering
founder of the family's noteworthy roles,
Salman Schocken (1877-1959), had
strong links with the Zionist move-
ment. He had active roles in European
circles as well as in Israel, from 1912 to
1945. He was a member of the world ex-
ecutive of the Jewish National Fund —
Keren Kayemet leIsrael. He moved to
Israel from Berlin in 1934. He also had
active official roles in the Hebrew
University, serving as chairman of the
university's executive council from
1934 to 1945.
His son, Gershom, carried on in the
family fashion, both in publishing as
well as in Israel's government, serving
as a member of the Israel Parliament
— Knesset — from 1955 to 1959,
representing the Liberal Party.
Salman Schocken and his brother
Simon commenced their joint business
activities by establishing a chain of 19
department stores. He is described en-
cyclopedially as a "Maecenas of general
and Hebrew literature" and became a
leading newspaper and book publisher.
It is interesting to note that in the
early years of Nazism Schocken began
in Berlin, as the initial publishing
house was known. From 1931 to 1938
it was permitted to publish Jewish
authors. Then the Schocken Publshing
House was established in Tel Aviv, go-
ing on to the United States in 1940.
His son Gershom Schocken was the
publisher and chief editor of the Israel
morning daily Haaretz from 1939 and
the ensuing years. His activities con-
tinued through the early years of the
redeemed state of Israel when he serv-
ed as a Liberal member of the Knesset.
One of the great and lasting
achievements of Salman Schocken was
the establishment in Jerusalem of the
Schocken Institute which houses the
.
Schocken Library, the Research In-
stitute for Medieval Hebrew Poetry and
the Institute for Jewish Mysticism.
Salman Schocken started the
Schocken Library in Germany at the
beginning of the 20th Century. It
became one of the world's most impor-
tant collections of Hebraica. The library
was moved to Jerusalem in 1934. The
building for that purpose was especial-
ly designed for Eric Mendelsohn.
In 1961 the Schocken name became
associted with the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America. An institute for
study of the Talmud was added and
Talmudic texts and their commentaries
are assembled there. The JTS Schocken
also publishes a Yearbook Perakim.
Such is the fame of a name now
merged with another important
publishing house.
It is to be believed that the
Schocken insignia will not be lost. The
names of the very eminent authors
associated with it will surely help to
keep it, and Random House will find it
to its advantage to do so.
History And Piety
Gain From
Legendary
Legends have a way of enriching
history. They lend glamor to religious
fervor. Therefore piety acquires added
strength from the storehouse of the im-
aginative and the fictional.
On record are scores of books with
assembled legends. Even the
secularists succumb to the charm of
such tales.
Special significance attaches to
Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginsberg.
These are primarily the biblical,
talmudic, midrashic sources.
In Orthodox ranks in Israel there is
a growing tendency to preserve the
legends that emphasize piety. One such
especially impressive work is Jerusalem
Gems. (Mesorah Publications).
The compiler of these tales has an
important link to Jerusalem, thereby
increasing the value of his collected
tales. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Son-
nenfeld, a fourth generation
Jerusalemite stemming from an older
generation family in the Yishuv — the
pre-Israel Jewish community, devoted
most of his life to the gathering of the
inerasable tales. His scholarship as a
collector is evident in the stories. He is
a city planner and is especially fitted
to the task he accomplishes in the
Jerusalem tales.
Many times a publisher's ex-
planatory note adds fascination to the
published work. This is true of Son-
nenfeld's tales about which the
publishers, Mesorah Publications state:
One of the most fascinating
parts of a visit to Jerusalem is a
slow, contemplative walk
through the winding streets and
narrow alleys of the old
neighborhoods.
Memories crowd the
thoroughfares that were built
for donkey-drawn carts.
Nostalgia takes over as we
realize that these tiny shops and
storehouses were once home to