U.S. Jewry
Continued from Page 2
tional scale. A cross-section of such ex-
periences is provided by a challenging
book entitled Jewish Times, subtitled
"Voices of the American Jewish Ex-
perience." The prominence of the author
immediately encourages taking these
voices into account. This Houghton
Miflin volume is by Howard Simons, the
former managing editor of the
Washington Post. He is now curator of
the Neiman Foundation for Journalism
at Harvard University.
Himself an identified and commit-
ted Jew, Simons incorporates in his
most interesting book the views of some
226 persons he interviewed. They
presented their views without pressure.
They traced their lifestyles indicating
in very many cases their ultra-religious
backgrounds and the events that mark-
ed the changes that occurred in paths
towards the American way of life. There
are some very prominent names in the
list. Only U.S. Senator William Cohen
and former U.S. Senator Barry
Goldwater are the acknowledged "non-
Jews" in the responses to Simons' in-
vitation for views on their Jewish back-
grounds and experiences. The
Jewishness of his study is defined in
these references in the book's
prefatorial note:
Here is a carefully crafted
portrait of the Jewish ex-
perience in the United States,
drawn from more than 200 inter-
views conducted by the author
over a four-year period. This is
by no means a systematic sampl-
ing; it is not meant to be formal
social history. Rather, it is a col-
lection of stories, family and in-
dividual memories of people
whose background or per-
sonality seemed interesting to
the author either in themselves
or because of the special aspect
of Jewish life they represent.
These pages contain won-
derfully varied and vivid ac-
counts of lives and worlds: in
their own voices, we hear
General Robert Bailey Solomon
on life in the army; Henry
Morgenthau III on a life of
privilege; Professor Daniel Bell
on the world of new immigrants
and their children; Reuben
Greenberg on what it's like to be
Jewish, the chief of police of
Charleston — and black; Hasse
Haley on raising Jewish
children in a virtually non-
Jewish community; Alvin Fertel,
a school principal, on the art of
bagel making.
This is not conventional oral
history, a collection of cradle-to-
grave autobiographies. Howard
Simons succeeds brilliantly in
making narrative sense out of
what he calls the most extraor-
dinary experience that Jews
have had in a "long, rich, and
burdened history?'
It would have been a privilege to in-
corporate many of the stories in the
book's review. It is understandably
impossible.
Especially compelling as a
historical note is the "confessional" of
Henry Morgenthau III. He recalls his
grandfather, Ambassador to Turkey,
Henry Morgenthau; his father, U.S.
Secretary of the Treasury Henry
Mogenthau Jr.; his aunt Barbara
Tuchman, and others in the family.
Like practically all the interviewed
there is a frankness here, unlimited
criticism, revelations about the Jewish
attitudes. The impressive element is
that after recalling all the hesitancies
about Jews, Judaism and Zionism, the
storyteller, Henry Morgenthau III and
his family, thanks to his wife's devo-
tions, became loyal, observant and
devotedly Jewish in all respects.
Therefore the need to deal with the
author's basic conclusions. How does
eminent journalist Howard Simons
define the title of his book? He asserts
that "Jewish times are not always good
times or bad times, but they are always
telling times." Therefore, when testing
the judgments, the pessimistic as well
as the optimistic sentiments, it is well
to know Simons' conclusions. In the
epilogue to Jewish Times he states:
whose life stories are incorproated in
this volume.
Each of the three volumes in the
Bader encyclopedia account, now
presented in the one volume English
edition, is preceded by explanations of
the development both of the Babylonian
Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud.
There is an explanatory note
relating to the limited availability of
biographical facts and the manner in
which the problem is tackled. On that
score, Bader wrote:
that the original text of the
books regarding historic events
and names of persons was not
strictly adhered to.
Therefore, there exist in the
Talmud numerous versions of a
tale pertaining to people and
events. Thus, we read a story
regarding a certain talmudic
personality, but another version
of it may vary by one word and
change the sense of the event to
have involved another person or
to have occurred in a different
manner.
There is a remarkably interesting
and most important commentary in the
Bader introduction on the monumental
achievement by Jews in the talmudic
developments. It has a major reference
to non-Jewish claims to the sharing of
the Bible literature and their being
deprived of such claims to the Talmud.
As Bader stated it:
As far as the Bible is con-
cerned, Jews are confronted
with various accusations. The
enemies of Jewry find it un-
dignified to admit that the Jews
are the creators of the greatest
spiritual treasure that the
civilized world possesses.
Therefore, they claim that the
Bible is not specifically Jewish.
The liberal legislation of the
Pentateuch and the noble ideals
of the prophets, they say, have
In the case of my generation,
the past is epilogue, a rich and
robust past. Today's American
Jewish generation and the
generations to follow face the
prospect of far fewer Jews in
America's future, not more; of a
loss — if it has not already taken
place — of Yiddishkeit, that self-
sealing religious and cultural
membrane that swaddled Jew-
ish communities; a loss, too, of a
good deal of the societal cement
that kept the family together, the
divorce rate low, and value of
religious fervor high; and a fur-
ther loss of the richness of the
bubbe mayses, the grand-
mother's tales that sprang from
Yiddishkeit and the ghetto and
the feeling of feeling different. If
assimilation is success, it also
can mean failure — a failure of
identity.
As for anti-Semitism, it is
here to stay; now dormant, now
activated, now dormant again.
The pardon of Leo Frank, given
grudgingly after 70 years and
clear evidence of his innocence,
is symbolic.
But Jews are here to stay,
too. And their experience over
200 years ought to serve as a
paradigm for new immigrants
who make their way to America
and then make their way in
America. Jewish times are not
always good times or bad times,
but they are always telling
times.
These are views that can motivate
studies like those sponsored by the
Detroit Jewish Welfare Federation and
other communities. They echo many im-
pressions and experiences. They are the
realisms that stem from the privileged
who have a concern about the Jewish
future in America and wish for ideas
that will stimulate retention and
perpetuation of the very best in Jewish
life and a commitment toward
strengthening the American idealism
in the process. In search for an answer
to the question "Whither U.S. Jewry?"
we have a basis in the studies just
outlined.
Talmudic Sages
Continued from Page 2
duced the Lukhes annuals in
Yiddish, and in 1903-04 a
parallel Hebrew annual
miscellany, Hermon.
In 1912 Bader settled in New
York, where he contributed to
the Togblat and the Jewish Mor-
ning Journal. Of his Yiddish
plays, the most successful was
Dem Rebens Nign ("The Rabbi's
Melody"), produced in 1919. His
writings include: Helkat
Mehokek, a life of Jesus (1889);
Medina va-Hakhameha, a lex-
icon of Galician Jewish cultural
figures (1934); and Mafte'ah le-
Rashei Tevot . . . a dictionary of
talmudic abbreviations (1951);
Jewish Spiritual Heroes (three
volumes, in English, 1940); and
his memoirs, Mayne Zikhroynes
(1953).
Biographical sketches do not appear
in talmudic and midrashic texts. All the
more admirable that Gershom Bader so
brilliantly assembled data from record-
ed occurrences and from the disputa-
tions, to assemble a cast of characters
whose views remain indelibly stored as
historical addenda and as interpreta-
tions of the Law and traditional
legacies.
As introduction to the personalities'
sketches, the eminent author explain-
ed the Talmud and its participating
discussants, the Midrash and the differ-
ing views that characterized the sages
42
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1988
If one wants to establish the
facts concerning events that
took place at that time from the
information contained in
talmudic literature, he must
bear in mind that these books
were not written with the aim of
presenting hitory. The com-
pilers were, therefore, not
careful to present exact dates or
precise information regarding
the people of whom they wrote.
History is generally embellished
with many legends, and even the
personalities of the heroes are
not definite.
For our purpose, the event
that occurred may be of para-
mount importance, but the
authors stressed a personality;
in other cases, we may be in-
terested in a personality
whereas they stressed the event.
It is also necessary to remember
been borrowed from neighbor-
ing peoples. When they do
recognize the greatness of the
Bible, they give equal credit to
other peoples.
The style of the Bible is to-
day the possession of all civiliz-
ed peoples and has become a
fructifying element in every
language; but the Talmud can-
not be taken away from us and
the honor of being the creators
of this great work will remain
with us forever.
Seven centuries passed from
the time of Simon the Just, the
last of the members of the Great
Synagogue or Great Assembly,
when the oral law became
popular among the masses of
the people until the conclusion
of the Talmud. On the founda-
tions of the Torah there was
erected an imposing structure —
an eternal monument to Jewish
spirit as it developed in those
seven centuries.
The Tannaim who created the
Mishnah and the numerous other
groups of scholarly disputants in the
talmudic eras are defined and their
views analyzed by Bader.
The nearly 100 sages biographed by
him include important names whose in-
fluence on Jewish studies and thinking
have retained significance during the
pursuant centuries to this time.
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