PURELY COMMENTARY
Sholom Aleichem
Continued from Page 2
_ Here is one explanatory element. It
may have been taken for granted that
the immensity of the Yiddish theme
might lend the assumption that Yid-
dish predominated in the Sholom
Aleichem sphere. The opposite is the
factual. The reader learns that Russian
was the language spoken in the home
of Sholom Rabinowitz, whose pen name
became Sholom Aleichem. As Wisse
wrote to Howe:
Remember I told you how
startled I was to find that all the
correspondence between the
author and his family, his wife
and children, was in Russian,
obviously the language of the
home. Unlike Tevye, Sholom
Aleichem encouraged his
children's Russification, realiz-
ing that the centrifugal force of
change would leave little of the
old way of life intact. Oh, to be
sure, he was still the product of
"tradition," and confined to a
Jewish fate. Raised in a Ukrai-
nian shtetl, he later suffered the
indignities of living in Kiev
without a residence permit,
scrambled like a thousand other
Menachem-Mendels to provide
for his family, fled the pogroms,
joined the great migration to
America. In some ways it's the
very typical Jewish-story. But
he was also the consummate ar-
tist, working the full range of
modern literary genres; the
shrewd journalist, attuned to
every nuance of socialist,
Zionist, or assimilationist
politics and polemics; the exac-
ting editor, forging a new
cultural idiom and enjoying a
cosmopolitan milieu. Small
wonder that there is so much
masking and unmasking in his
stories, so many instances of
dislocation and social ambigui-
ty. Everyone was remaking
himself, with varying degrees of
success. And among them was
Sholom Rabinowitz, experienc-
ing all the personal and social
upheavals that as "Sholom
Aleichem" he would reorder
with amusing grace.
There are explanatory factors worth
emphasizing in the recognition of the
values in the letter-exchange literary
seminar. Writing to Ruth Wisse,
however, defines the manner in which
Sholom Aleichem wrote about children.
The youthful elements in the stories in-
vited this comment by Howe:
Some of the children's
stories, like "Robbers" and "The
Guest," are not at all carefree.
But there are other stories,
happier in voice, where the life-
force, the child's sheer pleasure
in breathing and running,
breaks through. In the group
translated as "Mottel the Can-
tor's Son," from which we've
taken a few self-contained por-
tions, the tone is lighthearted
and playful. If Tom Sawyer
could speak Yiddish, he'd be at
home here. It's as if Sholom
Aleichem were intent upon
reminding his Jewish readers
40
FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1989 \
that we too deserve a little of the
world's innocence .
The Mottel stories are
notable because the note they
strike is heard infrequently in
Yiddish literature. The hijinks of
an adventurous boy, so favored
in American and English
writing, is something (I would
guess) that Sholom Aleichem
chose to write about only after
conscious deliberation, as if to
show his fellow Jews in Eastern
Europe and in the American
slums what life might be, or in
their long-lost youth might once
have been.
In his autobiography
Sholom Aleichem writes about
childhood pleasures: ". . this is
not meant for you, Jewish
children! Yellow sunflowers,
sweet-smelling grass, fresh air,
fragrant earth, the clear sun —
forgive me, these are not meant
for you . ." Mottel shows us
what has been lost.
Still, even in the saddest and
most burdened Yiddish writing,
there is something else shown
about the life of Jewish children,
and now, in retrospect, this
seems to form an overwhelming
positive contrast to the
literatures of our century.
In Yiddish literature the
family is still a cohesive unit;
fathers may be strict, mothers
tearful, brothers annoying, but
love breaks through and under
the barriers of ritual. If there
are few carefree children in Yid-
dish literature, there are few
unloved or brutalized children.
The exchanged letters made the ex-
pected reference to the fact that the
great modern Yiddish literature was
due primarily to the creative language.
Pioneering of Sholom Aleichem, I.L.
Peretz and Mendle Moher Seforim. In-
troducing this theme of Yiddish literary
history, Ruth Wisse asserted in a letter
to Irving Howe:
But of the three, Sholom
Aleichem alone really struck
the note of balance. Mendele
and Peretz were both embattled
writers, fiercely critical of their
society, and only gradually
softened by pity, doubt, and age.
As underpaid employees of the
Jewish community — Mendele
was a school principal and
Peretz a bureaucratic official —
they spent most of their adult
years torn between the daily
routine of duty and the personal
drive for literary
self-expression.
The strain of this divided ex-
istence, and the resentment,
shows in their work. Their
writing has a strong dialectic
tendency, pitting the old and
new, the impulses and ideas
against one another in sharp
confrontations.
Peretz's favorite literary
arena is the law court. As for
Abramovitch-Mendele, his fic-
tional autobiography literally
splits his personality in two and
has the critical, crotchety in-
tellectual facing the kindly
philosphic book peddler with
no middle ground between
them.
Sholom Aleichem is dif-
ferent. Though he too felt the im-
pending break in the "golden
chain" of Jewish tradition, and
felt the cracks in his own life, he
makes it his artistic business to
close the gap.
Thus we keep learning about
Sholom Aleichem and the lessons of his
life and writings.
We are grateful for the availability
of Sholom Aleichem stories in transla-
tions and we admire the translators'
skills.
Southern arena side by side with Atlan-
ta and its enriched Jewish Times, there
is the urge to recall an important an-
niversary in the history of the
movement.
On May 20, 1965, under the direc-
tion of the AAEJN, co-sponsored by a
committee of prominent citizens,
Adolph Rosenberg's Southern Israelite
and Leo I. Goldberger's Hebrew Wat-
chman were honored on their 40th an-
niversaries. Their newspapers were
founded the same year and therefore
the 1925-1965 joint celebration, com-
memorated at the Jewish Community
Center in Atlanta.
There is a sense of pride in this
recollection because as the then
AAEJN president I was the principal
speaker at the anniversary celebration
Yet, there is the wish that the great of two southern newspapers, published
popularity was in spreading the Sholom in Atlanta and Memphis.
Aleichem narratives in the original
Such are the records of progress in
Yiddish. An example is Dreyfus ib American Jewish journalism. ❑
Krasrilevke. We are grateful to the
translator. But we miss the Yiddish of
it. This applies to all translations.
Gromyko, Baruch:
Perhaps the encouragement to be
with Sholom Aleichem and a text like U.N. Recollections
the one now under consideration will be
t was on that historic afternoon
an inspiration and encouragement to
of Nov. 29, 1947, when the United
many actually to acquire the texts of
Nations voted- in support of the
The Best of Sholom Aleichem in Yiddish rebirth of Jewish statehood, that Andrei
and to urge learning the Sholom Gromyko stood in the U.N. lobby with
Aleichem language.
Bernard Baruch, chatting with a cou-
The selection of basics in the em- ple of other prominent personalities.
phases given in what is described by the (Anthony Eden, of the non-too-friendly
reviewer as a "literary Yiddish British delegation, passed us with a
seminar," does more than evaluate the wave.) They had just returned from a
genius of Sholom Aleichem. It sup- fishing trip. There was relaxation only
plements studies of historic Jewish ex- a couple of hours before the pro-Zionist
periences. It adds new glory to the vote.
enrichment of Yiddish always made
Those of us who had witnessed the
possible by the Sholom Aleichem meeting sensed a relaxation and we
stories.
learned the reason a bit later. It was the
Now the meaning of "re-discovery" positive pro-Zionist international vote
gains justification with just another and there was no secret immediately
thought: every reading of the works of thereafter that Bernard Baruch had
the famous writer adds satisfaction and much to do with lining up Latin
thrill to the admiring Yiddish readers. American delegates in that support.
Meanwhile, we are all enriched by
The Jewish delegation knew who
Howe and Wisse. They have added the friends were. It was when the
glorified dignity to Yiddish literature delegates were lining up to go in for the
through their deep involvements in balloting that Abba Eban, on the way
assuring enthusiasm for the language to the delegates' hall where he had a
and its literature.
privileged seat, was passing me as I was
proceeding to my press seat. That's
when Abba said to me: "Slomovitz, you
Adolph Rosenberg
are here on a historic day."
He had reason to say it because he
Continued from Page 2
was aware of all Bernard Baruch had
Hebrew Congregations.
done with his Latin American friends
Editor Abe Slabot of the New to line them up Jewish-wise. He already
Orleans Jewish Ledger also was among knew what the favorable vote would
the presidents of the AAEJN.
proclaim.
Jimmy Wisch of the Dallas, Texas,
We can imagine what remarkable
Jewish Post, a popular member of the stories could be related on that score by
southern editor society is a former both Gromyko and Baruch. Now both
president of the AAEJN.
are gone. Gromyko may have had a role
Leo I. Goldberger, as editor and in the USSR being the second to the
publisher of the Memphis Hebrew U.S. to give recognition to the reborn
Watchman, was for decades an activist Israel.
in the AJPA.
Abba Eban can tell us much and
It is in these ranks that Adolph often does. Our long friendship began
Rosenberg had a role of leadership with about that time. It could be linked in a
a background for high ranking Jewish sense to the witnessing of a notable oc-
journalism, now elevated in continuity currence at the U.N. with Gromyko and
in the Atlanta Jewish Times and its new Baruch acting unconcerned in the
management and editorial direction.
knowledge of a historic vote about to be
With two major cities — Detroit cast.
with its Jewish News and Baltimore
These are among the historic occa-
with its Jewish Times — entering the sions to remember. ❑
I
❑