NEWS Lea s ing lS a s p eC CORSICA from $ 1 5 2 9 2* CAVALIER from $ 1 6 0 5 6* BERETTA from $ 1 5 8 5 2 * *Lease pymt. based on approved credit on 48 mos. closed end, 60,000 total mileage w/6i; per mile extra charge. To get total amt. multiplypymt. times 48. Subject to 4% use tax, 1st mo. in advance, sec. dept. equal to 1st mo. pymt., plate cost extra. 348-700 HOURS Mon. 8 Thu. Ill 9 Tu.. Wed.. Fri. Iil 6 42355 GRAND RIVER Just East of Novi Rd., Novi MARLA FELDMAN LEASING MANAGER Reports Of Yiddish's Death Are Exaggerated BEN GALLOB N ew York — A staunch supporter of Yiddish has asserted that the expansion of the study of the language in North American universities is "one of the most positive developments for the maintenance of Yid- dish for future generations." That appraisal was offered in a recent issue of Midstream magazine by Meyer Bass, former executive director of the National Council for Yid- dish and Yiddish Culture. Bass' optimism was strongly supported by Joseph Mlotek, education director of the Workmen's Circle, in a telephone interview. Bass, a lecturer and teacher now living in Albuquerque, N.M., criticized "detractors, antagonists and pessimists who have existed since Yid- dish began as a language about one thousand years ago." He contended that "Yid- dishkeit has remained an un- quenchable factor in the Jewish experience, a vital ver- nacular for centuries." Bass conceded that until the university programs the future of Yiddish had seemed questionable. Citing gains for the language, he noted that Hillel Foundations conduct Yiddish classes on 40 to 50 campuses each year for hun- dreds of students. The Weinreich Center at Columbia University, New York, and the Jewish Teachers Seminary, now at Touro College in Manhattan, "have established a high level of Yiddish research," he added. He asserted that the Yid- dish press continues at a high level, despite declining readership and fiscal pro- blems. He said Yiddish poetry was "published in journals and books" here and abroad. He reported that Yiddish classes, festivals, lectures, community events, film series and similar Yiddish projects have been held in North American Jewish community centers and synagogues "for more than a decade and are proliferating?' In addition, he asserted, "The rhythms and melodic tones of Yiddish are iden- tifiable in the works of modern Jewish writers who are part - of the literary . mainstream." He said that Yiddish stories reach "a large proportion" of American readers through translations. Yiddish author Isaac Bashevis Singer has won a Nobel Prize for literature, he noted. In a kind of footnote, Bass commented that Yiddish "has continued to become in- tegrated into modern American English" through usage in speech, the arts and the media. In his interview, Mlotek added that many other Yiddish-language activities were taking place regularly. He said Workmen's Circle had started two-hour summer festivals in Yiddish in Manhattan's Central Park in 1968 and that such gather- ings are now held annually not only throughout New York City but elsewhere in New York State as well as in Cleveland and Detroit. About three years ago, he said, the Workmen's Circle started seminars in Yiddish and Yiddish culture in col- leges and universities, but because the campuses lacked the facilities needed for such gatherings, they were switch- ed to the Workmen's Circle Lodge in Sylvan Lake, N.Y. Mlotek said that the Workmen's Circle is receiving a steadily increasing number of requests from synagogues and centers for help in stag- ing such programs. A seminar on Yiddish and Yiddish culture, to include Yiddish scholars from all over the United States, will be held in Washington on March 20. The Workmen's Circle is one of six organizations com- mitted to the preservation, development and augmenta- tion of the Eastern European culture heritage and Yiddish language that recently form- ed an American Committee for Yiddish and Yiddish Culture. The others are the Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish Forward Association, Labor Zionist Alliance, I.L. Peretz Writers Union and Zerubavel- Goldman-Tyberg Poale Zion Circle. Jewish Telegraphic Agency Writing Contest Is ,Announced Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council is accepting entries in its fourth annual National Writing Contest on the Holocaust. The deadline for the contest, which is open to all high school students in grades nine through 12, is