I PURELY COMMENTARY

Much Sadness Emanating From Embattled Jerusalem

When the mayor of Jerusalem goes
to the outskirts of the Holy City,
pleading with young people in taxis on
the road elsewhere for their social life,
begging that his city not be abandoned,
the message is one of sadness for all
Jewry, for Israel as well as the Diaspora.
When tens of thousands demon-
strate against certain ways of providing
entertainment in the Holy City, with
horror directed at the functioning
theaters on the eve of the Sabbath, it
is saddening for all in Jewry.
When a war is waged against
secularists in Israel, descendants of
many leaderships in Israel's history
that was secular in spirit but devotional
nevertheless to Jewry and Israel, it is
depressing.
One must therefore ask whether the
Psalmist has failed when he appealed
(Psalm 122:6):
"Pray for the well-being of
Jerusalem; may those who love you be

at peace."
Much more in Psalm 122, with his
call to peace in Jerusalem needs to be
emblazoned upon the hearts and minds
of our people. The Psalmist appeals to
all of us:

Pray for the well-being of
Jerusalem;
may those who love you be
at peace
May there be well-being
within your ramparts,
peace in your palaces.
For the sake of my kin and
friends,
I pray for your well-being;
for the sake of the house
of the Lord our God,
I seek your good.
Such is the call to action, for peace,
from the Psalms to all of us. The ideal
called Peace is to and for all of us.
Yet, there is a divisiveness that

threatens "the peace of Jerusalem."
There are all-too-frequent evidences
of such threats to amity and well-being.
There is a divisiveness that has caused
the media to describe demonstrations in
the Holy City as "the war of Jew and
against Jew." How appalling this is for
all of us!
And the divisiveness on religious
grounds also affects our neighborliness
with the Arabs.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency a
few days ago released the following:

Tel Aviv (JTA) — Social
education instructors from
religious-governmental schools
have refused to participate in
joint workshops with Arabs in a
two-week summer course con-
ducted by the Ministry of
Education and Culture's youth
division, according to media
reports.

Organizers of the course
were forced to establish a
separate workshop for the
religious participants, while the
Arabs were assigned to the
workshops of the secular
Jewish participants.
Is it conceivable that a desire for
Arab-Jewish cooperative neighborliness
should be so sadly frustrated?
Jerusalem in her sanctity, Israel in
her craving for ethical fulfillment, are
in agony in their search for peace.
There is a testing in these ex-
periences for our People Israel.
Hopefully, as in the challenges con-
fronted through the ages, the highest
goals in Judaic teachings will triumph
over the self-imposed bias. Every ele-
ment of cooperation toward that end
must be provided by all factions in
Jewry. In that spirit the entire people's
aim for solidarity and unified amity
should be treated as attainable.

Emma Lazarus Centennial: Her Life A 'Colossus'

Millions have visited Liberty Island
to view the Statue of Liberty in its new
garb. The procession of visitors
continues. Millions are now reading
again the text of The New Colossus and
the memory of its author, Emma
Lazarus, will always stay alive.
On the 100th anniversary of the
death of the ennobled Jewess on Nov.
19, "The New Colossus" will be recited
everywhere. It will be sung to the music
of Irving Berlin.
Emma Lazarus was born on July
22, 1849. She died at the early age of
38. She left many legacies to be
remembered.
Emma Lazarus' memory and an
evaluation of her many creative
accomplishments received noteworthy
acclaim in An Epistle to the Hebrews
edited and with comments by the
prominent historian Morris U.
Schappes. It was first published by the
Federation of American Zionists in
1943. Schappes edited it while serving
a jail sentence during the New York
witch hunt of the early 1930s when he
refused to be an informer. He was
discharged from his academic career by
the City College of New York. Forty
years later there was an apology and his
academic rights were restored. The
Schappes story was related on this page
in the issue of July 24.
The Schappes-edited Emma
Lazarus story has just been reissued on
the occasion of the centennial of her
death by the Jewish Historical Society
of New York.
Dr. Schappes provides a highly-
commendable contribution to American
Jewish historical records with his
commentaries on the life and works of
Emma Lazarus.
Dr. Schappes goes into detail in a
30-page essay and 129 pages of notes
about Emma Lazarus. The series of her
articles appeared in the American
Hebrew from Nov. 3, 1882, to Feb. 23,
1883, under the title "An Epistle to the
Hebrews!'
In the preface to the new edition of

2

FRIDAY, SEPT. 4, 1987

Emma Lazarus
her book Irving Ruderman states:
"While her sentiments might border on
the apologetic, her passionate defense
of the Jewish people, taken up only late
in her illustrious literary career, and
her eloquent plea for pride in one's
ethnic and American heritage, are as
meaningful today as they were when
first written 100 years ago."
Schappes relates the
commendations that poured in
acclaiming Emma Lazarus' genius as
poet and libertarian pleading for just
rights for her people. Robert Browning
was among those who paid honor to her
memory.
Notable in the Schappes story of her
life is the account he gives of her
advocacy of the movement for the
upbuilding of a Jewish homeland in
Zion. She was certainly among the
earliest American Zionists.
Emma Lazarus was involved in
disputes on the Zionist issue. As in later
years, she was met by strong opposition.
Her firmness, therefore, is a chapter in
militant Zionism.
The Schappes review of the Lazarus
poetic works and An Epistle to the

Hebrews gives an account of praise and
dissent. It introduces her growing
interest in her Jewish heritage. It
introduces the polemics that grew out
of her Zionist advocacy It is as a chapter
in American Zionism that the following
is vitally interesting in the Schappes
essay:
While the congratulatory
reviews were appearing in the
New York Sun and New York
Times, the Critic, and in
England, Emma Lazarus began
to study Hebrew, to read in the
original some of the Hebrew
poets she had hitherto
translated from German
translations. And then she
turned to her major, and most
sustained, prose work, An
Epistle to the Hebrews, perhaps
borrowing the title from Paul in
the New Testament. During the
month before the series began
on November 3, Emma Lazarus
had visited the East European
Jews who were temporarily
housed in the Schiff Refuge on
Ward's Island, had seen at first
hand how they lived, and, when
they rioted for more food, had
described in the American
Hebrew of October 20, 1882, the
miserable conditions that led to
the eruption. In her Epistle, she
was both passionate and
compassionate in her polemics.

Fifty years later the
publisher, Philip Cowen,
remembered that "this may well
be called her most fruitful work.
She was indeed very proud of it,
as well she might be. It was
suggestively stimulating, and
led to successful action, for the
establishment of the Hebrew
Technical Institute was the
direct outcome of her 'Epistle,'
and of communications by her,
or inspired by her, that had
appeared previously." What was

"suggestively stimulating" to
some Jews, however, was
resented and rejected by others,
who did not hesitate to proclaim
their opposition. For she was
defending East European Jews
not only against anti-Semites
but also against those American
Jews who scorned them or were
grudging and condescending
even when they helped these so
Continued on Page 40

Bayard Rustin,
The Giant In Civil
Libertarianism

Bayard Rustin is acclaimed as a
Humanist in the tributes to him in the
media. He was, indeed, consistently
humanist. It is best appreciated when
the term is associated with his militan-
cy in support of the great causes he was
linked with all his life. In that respect
he was among the giants in all aspects
of civil libertarianism.
Segregation was exposed in all its
ugliness in the Bayard Rustin dic-
tionary. Therefore many triumphs for
just rights for the black people are to
be ascribed to his actions, preachments,
rejection of any semblance of prejudice.
Therefore his philosophy was one of
justice for all peoples. Therefore he
became an ardent Zionist. Therefore he
was among the most consistent sup-
porters of Israel's right to live freely
among the nations of the world.
Perhaps, therefore, also the dif-
ficulties he encountered in many of his
preachments among his own black peo-
ple. Therefore his struggles to overcome
the regrettable frequently critical of
him in the ranks he sought to liberalize.
He hated anti-Semitism as much as
he hated anti-Negroism. He was a
strong supporter of labor. He was ge-
nuinely liberal.
Therefore the salute to him as a
giant among the major civil liber-
tarians of this century.

