PURELY COMMENTARY
Liptzin, Mann And Albert Einstein On Kristallnacht
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
F
ifty years after the savagery that
retains the Kristallnacht mem-
ory, there is the justified question
whether the evil of it lived on for a
number of years without striking the
conscience of the people — that nation
calling itself civilized. The courage was
totally lacking to express horror over
the burning of synagogues, the broken
plate glass and doors of all the Jewish-
owned stores — giving the national Ger-
man crime the title Kristallnacht.
Does the evil such people do live
after them?
Now Chancellor Helmut Kohl of
West Germany equates the German
massacre of Nov. 9-10, 1938, with the
Russian pogrom!
For every single Jewish tear shed in
remembering the agonies and suffer-
ings of those days 50 years ago, paying
tribute to the hundreds of Jews who
were murdered, in the tens of thousands
who were sent to concentration camps
on Kristallnacht, there should be Six
Million conscience-stricken tears shed
by Germans!
Even among the democratically-
idealized nations there were too few
tears at the time. Those who were in
evidence were mostly the exiled from
Germany.
Those who had the courage are not
to be forgotten.
Prof. Sol Liptzin, the eminent
scholar, the academician who headed
Thomas Mann
Albert Einstein
the department of German at the City
College of New York, privileged me
with a memo from his present home in
Jerusalem, providing recollections of a
visit on the day after Kristallnacht with
Thomas Mann and Albert Einstein. His
deeply-moving message arrived two
weeks before the 50th anniversary of
the savage performance under orders of
the then Hitler-governed Germany.
I share the following Prof. Liptzin
recollections with my readers in the
hope of the widest readership for them:
Next month will be 50 years
after the Kristallnacht of 1938
and it brings back to memory
my reactions to that tragic
event. Perhaps you may want to
remind your readers of that
night that ended the illusions of
German Jews after a century of
trying to adjust to the Kultur of
Das Land des Dichter and
Denker.
On the morning after that
night, I was supposed to inter-
pret the work of Thomas Mann
to my students of German
literature at City College. But,
after reading the morning
newspaper, I could not do so.
I suggested that one of my
students drive me down to
Princeton, the home of the
exiled Thomas Mann and also of
Albert Einstein. We would pose
the question uppermost in our
minds: "How can we continue
normal existence when such
atrocious events occur and what
explanations do these thinkers
of Nobel Prize caliber have for
the behavior of their ex-
countrymen?"
We spent the morning with
Thomas Mann and the after-
noon with Albert Einstein.
Mann had no explanation. He
could not understand how this
marvelous people in the heart of
Europe could become such
savages. But he was sure that it
was only a temporary derange-
ment. After all, they had absorb-
ed the nationalism of the West
and the mysticism of the East.
They were the synthesis of Nor-
thern Viking culture and of the
classical southern culture of
Hellas and Rome. They would
recover before long from their
aberration.
Einstein was less upset than
Mann. Yes, he said, it seems as
if a new medievalism was
Continued on Page 44
Ze'ev Chafets Conducts An American Jewish Travelogue
Z
e'ev Chafets, Pontiac-born writer
who went on aliyah to Israel in
1956 and gained prominence as
director of the Israel Government Press
Office during the prime ministership of
Menachem Begin, authored three books
after retiring from that position. As
spokesman for the Israel Foreign Office
during the crucial years of the Lebanese
conflict and thereafter, Chafets was
judged as an authority on the political
situation in the Jewish state where he
continues to retain citizenship. Now he
is certain to acquire additional atten-
tion with his new book, Members of the
Tribe, On the Road in Jewish America
(Bantam Books).
It is evident at once that this is a
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Vol. XCIV No. 11
2
November 11, 1988
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1988
"travelogue." It is much more: it is a
portrayal of people and major Jewish
causes; it is so descriptive of prevailing
situations that it is revealing to the
unknowing and thought-challenging to
the knowledgeable.
As a tourist exploring "Jewish
America," Chafets visited scores of com-
munities and acknowledged the iden-
tified by the causes to which they were
dedicated.
That's how he learned how the
"members of the tribe" selected
movements for dedication and support
and how the major events in Jewish life
were judged by these affiliates.
The travelogue, by a student of Jews
and their interests, turns into a mission
and Ze'ev Chafets emerges as an able
reporter of what he has seen and a good
judge of what he has learned.
Every Jewish cause is accounted for
in this travelogue and the reader will
be able to adjust to the many com-
mitments spoken for by the cast of
characters in the tribe under discus-
sion. Israel predominates. Therefore
AIPAC — the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee — is well
represented. The federations have their
roles as major in the importance of the
report submitted by Chafets.
He does not overlook his native ci-
ty of Pontiac and tells about the
changes in the temple he attended as
a youth. The congregants are different
and new to him; the sermon has the
continuing flavors.
He couldn't ignore Grosse Pointe
and had to visit the area where Jews
were once discriminated against. He
selects a lady resident there who wears
a gold-chained Magen David as a de-
fiance of possible suspicion of her iden-
tity and she gave an assurance that she
would some day resettle in a "Jewish
neighborhood" as a retention of Jewish
affiliation together with her family.
There are many angles to the
philanthropic accounting in the Chafets
tours. Detroit and Cleveland get fairly
good ratings. Both communal federa-
tions, Chafets asserts, are "more
cohesive":
Detroiters, their Welfare Federa-
tion, the fundraising, and everything
associated with them, are given much
space. Chafets' uncle, Joe Colten,
unveils for him the settings, the aims,
the actual operations of Federation ac-
tivities. Therefore his elaborate report
on a campaign meeting held in the
Hebrew schools. It is not without
humor, and there is much on the lighter
vein in all of the travelogue reports.
There is much that is alike in the many
visited communities; the causes provide
a repetitive aspect; the anecdotal is
there.
It is in the treatment of the
federated life, of the Welfare Federa-
tions that there is an angle that may
raise eyebrows and perhaps a bit of ten-
sion. Chafets went to New York,
witnessed the "Sukka on the Roof'
which is annually erected by the Robert
Arnow family on top of towering New
York building. Thereupon Chafets has
this as a comment on the Federations'
leadership:
Marvin Hier, David Arnow,
and Israel Singer are self-
appointed Jewish leaders.
Singer's choice of Juan Peron as
his model is apt; like the late
Argentinian statesman, he and
his colleagues function in a
world without democracy. The
American Jewish community
has no electoral process, no con-
stitution, and no publicly
chosen representatives. It is, if
anything, a plutocracy — anyone
with enough money can buy in-
to the leadership business.
The closest thing to a central
organization is the Conference
of Presidents of Major Jewish
Organizations. But the con-
ference is only an umbrella
group, and it deals exclusively
with foreign affairs, such as
Israel or Soviet Jewry. Occa-
sionally it has produced an
outstanding leader — Rabbi
Alexander Schindler of the
Continued on Page 44