1 PURELY COMMENTARY

Jews Under. Stalin

Continued from Page 2

I had no hearth, I had no
home.
It did not sate my spirit, no.
But lay upon my grief like
foam.
No precious metals quenched
my thirst—
My wealth increased, it grew
and grew—
Through all my grief:
I am a Jew!

Rabbi Akiba lives in me
and Isaiah's lofty song.
I am nourished by their
wisdom still;
And more than hate—my love
runs strong.
And always I have paid with
blood—
As now, again, this day I do.
Yet, my outcry will not cease:
I am a Jew!

There is one other among the stan-
zas that follow that merits considera-
tion. It is a paean of glory for Stalin.
Written more than a decade before his
execution, Itzik Feffer's work
represented the established loyalism
among Jews everywhere toward their
lands of birth and residence. Stalin was
a mass murderer, but when Itzik Feffer
wrote "I Am a Jew" he was the Jew
loyal to his country. The deep lesson
here is in the Jewish experience
through the ages. When the rulers of
the countries where Jews struggled to
attain justice were Jew-biting tyrants,
often as under Stalinism mass
murderers, no amount of loyalty could
help or save them.
In the instance of the martyred
Jewish writers and artists it is well to
note that they were secularists and the
synagogue may have been undesirable
for them, but they had great Jewish
loyalties, as Feffer's "I Am a Jew"
proves.
The Friedman-sponsored com-
memoration of the tragic occurrences
that led to the labeling of 1948-1953 as
the "Black Years of Russian Jewry," on
Oct. 25 at the United Hebrew Schools'
Friedman Lecture Hall, will be occasion
to pay tribute to the martyrs. It will
mark the presentation of the historic
facts and will enable attendees of the
event to view and study the exhibited
published works by the authors
murdered by Stalin. The YIVO
spokesmen at that event are the
specially-fitted Jewish experts who will
emphasize the importance of the com-
memoration. Sarah and Morris Fried-
man performed an important service by
making this commemoration possible.

Grandparent Symbols
Reflected In Activist
Retention of. Legacies

A new holiday on the American calen-
dar is assuming exciting identification
in family and communal acclaim.
Grandparents Day, legalized by act
of Congress during the Carter Ad-
ministration for observance on the Sun-
day after Labor Day, is now an event for
the elders and their third generation.
In this community it was an occasion

44

FRIDAY, OCT. 9, 1987

Sam Levenson

for great excitement at the Jewish
Home for the Aged on Sept. 13.
A way to give credence to the new
American holiday is advocated in an in-
terestingly defined volume, Reflections

— A Jewish Grandparent's Gift of
Memory (Jason Aronson Publisher). In

this splendidly annotated _volume,
Ronald H. Isaacs and Leora W. Isaacs
have compiled the finest examples of
Jewish traditional values to emphasize
the day.
Reflections is a proposed recording
text. It provides allocated space to
gather data, reminiscences and
tributes, photographs and documents.
It is like an encyclopedic diary, and
when properly cared for nothing occur-
ring in linking the generations can
possibly be lost.
From grandparents' memories of
their marriage through life, the
children's and grandchildren's ex-
periences, nothing is overlooked. Sab-
bath and holiday observances are
described, therefore the Reflections
become a chronicle of family life.
Then here are the Jewish legacies,
the ethical codes that dictate means of
striving for a good life.
An important Jewish practice
which prevailed among scholars
through the ages, that of writing ethical
wills, becomes one of the proposed em-
phases for grandchildren derived from
grandparents' guidance to a good life.
As an example, the authors introduce
the admonition to write an ethical will
in Deuteronomy 4:9: "Make them
known to your children and your
children's children." Then the authors
introduce the ethical will of the late
Sam Levenson, who was distinguished
as teacher, scholar and humorist, who
left a deeply moving document, a por-
tion of which follows .. .

I leave you my unpaid debts.
They are my greatest assets.
Everything I own — I owe:
1. To America I owe a debt
for the opportunity it gave me to
be free and to be me.
2. To my parents I owe
America. They gave it to me and
I leave it to you. Take good care
of it.
3. To the biblical tradition I
owe the belief that man does not

live by bread alone, nor does he
live alone at all. This is also the
democratic tradition. Preserve
it.
4. To the six million of my
people and to the thirty million
other humans who died because
of man's inhumanity to man, I
owe a vow that it must never
happen again.
5. I leave you not everything
I never had, but everything I
had in my lifetime: a good fami-
ly, respect for learning, compas-
sion for my fellowman, and
some four-letter words for all oc-
casions: words like "help,"
"give," "care," "feel," and
"love." ..
Finally, I leave you the years
I should like to have lived so
that I might possibly see
whether your generation will
bring more love and peace to
the world than ours did. I not
only hope You will, I pray that
you will.
Grandpa Sam Levenson

This text of an ethical will by the
highly-admired Sam Levenson, meant,
for his grandchildren and children
everywhere, adds immensely to a most
valuable volume that serves well as a
Jewish guide book for the generations.
The Isaacs have done well in their
voluminously chronicled book Reflec-

tions — A Jewish Grandparents' Gift of
Memories.

Genealogists who are making an
art of tracing family roots will be
delighted with the encouragement by
the authors of this book to follow
through on this idea. Therefore "trac-
ing our roots" has an important place
in the activities for the generations.
The idea of it not only encourages trac-
ing the past but affirms the need to
preserve the present for the future.

Henry Ford

Continued from Page 2

If I recall correctly, Harry Newman
drove me to that meeting in August
1940. At the entrance of the building on
that sunny day, there were more than
a dozen handsome young men sprawled
on the entrance steps. The first en-
trance room was like an armored
gallery with scores of guns hung on the
walls.
As we sat down to the luncheon I
asked Bennett who were the men at the
entrance of the building and why so
many men. "They are my salesmen,"
Bennett replied, "and we love hunting."
When I related it to Henry Ford II, he
laughed heartily.
When he ousted Bennett it also
marked the end of the gang of
"salesmen" who had nefarious roles in
Bennett-engineered anti-labor prac-
tices. It also was the demolition of an
arsenal.
I must mention here that as we sat
chatting in 1972 — Henry Ford II, Boris
Smolar, Raphael Levy and I — the door
opened unceremoniously and Max
Fisher walked in. He was like a brother
to our host, the two veritably forming
a scriptural Jonathan and David team,
as I mentioned in the Ford obituary last

week. Fisher was always the welcome
guest and the relationship the two men
established is one of the most im-
pressive in the records of human
relations.
Our discussion, with Fisher adding
to the glory of an unforgettable event,
dealt with Israel, philanthropy, the
Arab threats to Israel. Among the
Henry Ford II commitments was the •
declaration to us: "I disapprove of bias
of any sort. I do not go along with the
Arab threats. A boycott of Israel will
never, never, have my endorsement."
I have a temptation here to relate
a professional experience. After the
1940 luncheon meeting with Harry
Bennett, I wrote an editorial exposing
the anti-Semitic fallacies of the
defender of the elder Ford. I had never
submitted an editorial for approval or
advice then or now But I felt that was
necessary at the time, in view of the
elder Ford and his associates' notorie-
ty. I was then the editor of the Jewish
Chronicle which was absorbed by me in-
to The Jewish News in 1942. I showed
what I had written to my attorney, Mor-
ris Garvett, who was one of the wisest
men I ever knew. He advised that I
destroy it and not use what I had writ-
ten. He warned: "Bennett and his
associates will treat you as they did
Rabbi Leo Franklin when they dealt
with him They'll deny and call you a
liar." I followed Garvett's advice.
The Max and Marjorie Fisher
friendship with and devotion to Henry
Ford II will be a lasting recollection. As
in scriptures (II Samuel 1:23) there will
always by the tribute: "Lovely and plea-
sant in their lives . . ."
When the biography of Henry Ford
II is completed by Prof. David Lewis,
who was commissioned by Ford himself
to compile it, there will surely be scores
of revelations relating to the Ford fami-
ly, to industrial factors, to friendships,
to humanitarian and libertarian tasks.
The history of Detroit and biographical
literature will surely be enriched by the
Lewis account of an important man and
an important era.

The Bitter
Grandfather Years

In recognition of the nobility of
Henry Ford II it might have been wiser
and certainly more pleasant to ignore
the grandfather legacy of villainy. This
has become inevitable and the bias that
was generated by Henry Ford I is recall-
ed. It therefore becomes an obligation
to portray Grandfather Ford with
historic accuracy.
Now there are so many sad recollec-
tions, so many comments on the Fords,
including the prejudicial of the past,
that the actual story cannot be ignored.
On the occasion of the Henry I
centenary, efforts were made by his
defenders to bestow honors upon his
name They failed.
Twenty-four years ago the London
Jewish Chronicle invited me to relate
the facts about the anti-Semitism of the
elder Henry Ford. It published my ac-
count of those bitter years in its issue
of Sept. 6, 1963. Under the headline "In
Henry Ford's Centenary Year: Detroit
Remembers Its Most Famous Bigot," my
story was:

There was a great to-do in