PURELY COMMENTARY

Sholom Aleichem

Continued from Page 2

their Rebbe with the same
devotion they obey the
word of God. Because the
Rebbe speaks almost ex-
clusively in Yiddish, it is
the preferred medium of
spoken communication
(the Rebbe's writings are
all in Hebrew).
You asked about Young
Israel. Most Young Israel
members these days are
American-born. Some have
immigrant parents, many
have
European-born
grandparents.
Their
knowledge of Yiddish
varies. Many can unders-
tand the language, but can-
not speak it, or can speak
only a broken form.
The Jewish language of
preference in Young Israel
circles is Hebrew — that is,
modern, Israeli Hebrew. As
you know, Young Israel is a
strongly Zionist movement,
with many branches in the
Jewish state. Yom Ha-
Atzmaut and Yom Yerusha-
layim are observed as
religious holidays. It is
common to hear a baal
tefilah or a baal kriah
reciting with an Israeli-
type pronunciation.
There are many Euro-
pean born-persons at-
tracted to the Young Israel
movement, and they are
virtually the only ones
speaking Yiddish in shul.

Although the Orthodox
community is segmented,
the lines of separation are
not always clearly distinct
and there is a good deal of
intermingling of congrega-
tions and social circles.
One can find a variety of
social and religious types
who attend study sessions
given by the Yiddish-
speaking Rabbis Leizer
Levin or Leib Bakst. The
participants respond
either in Yiddish or
English. Those who choose
Yiddish, do so, I suspect,
out of respect to the sage
with whom they are
studying.
An interesting phenome-
non worth noting is the
adaptation of native Ger-
man speakers to Yiddish.
The Orthodox community
includes a number of
families who came here
from Germany following
Hitler's rise to power. Or-
thodox Judaism was firm-
ly and formally entrenched
in pre-war Germany, and
included outstanding rab-
bis and institutions. Fin-
ding themselves a minori-
ty in the Detroit Jewry,
they gravitated toward and
became an integral part of
the community of Ost
Juden here.

32

FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1989

Because native Yiddish-
speaking rabbis conducted
most of the synagogue
study sessions, the Ger-
man Jews had to learn to
communicate in Yiddish.
Fortunately, it is easier for
a native German speaker
to learn Yiddish than the
other way around (Yiddish
having a simpler gram-
matical and syntactical
structure). Many of them
learned to speak a highly
passable Yiddish, some
with no trace of a German
accent. Some even read the
Yiddish newspaper.
It is an immediate ac-
complishment in having
secured such an opinion. It
renews confidence and ad-
monishes against believing
that Yiddish is expiring. It in-
vites a belief that "Yiddish is
alive."
One thing is certain: it
does not encourage the all-
too-often reproachable resort
to the ugly stage treatment of
Yiddish which had been an-
noying, insulting, unrepresen-
tative of the dignity of the
language when publicly
treated and resorted to.
Nevertheless, in spite of the
encouraging Applebaum
analysis there remain the
serious questions. How much
of the seriously classic Yid-
dish evident in Sholom
Aleichem is read, inter-
communicated, treated as a
linguistic fascination? How
many in all the ranks of Yid-
dish users mentioned in the
analysis know Mendler, Frug,
Peretz, Asch, and are aware of
the treasures they provided to
make Yiddish a classic
literature?
There could even be the or-
dinary question — how many
of those who still resort to
Yiddish read a Yiddish
newspaper?
The wish with which all
this started is inspired by the
conviction of a responsibility
resting upon world Jewry,
which is imbued with love for
Hebrew, truly to keep Yiddish
alive. This is the generation
obligated to do so because it
is the witness to the
Holocaust that saw the
greatest damage to Yiddish.

,

Therefore this appeal to ac-
tion at this proper time in our
history. There must be an
avoidance of guilt of having
contributed to demise. The
obligtion is total.
The encouragement needed
and desired toward language
rescuing on a highly cultural
level, a rescue leading to sur-
vival, must come from the
leading spiritual and educa-
tional movements. The rescue
must come from all the
seminaries, Orthodox, Con-

servative,
Reform,
Reconstructionist. From them
the movement should turn to
all the Jewish schools in the
land. Collectively they must
introduce the necessary
studies — not in translations
but in the original language
whose literature matches the
best in mankind.
To permit Yiddish con-
tinually to decline, leading to
a death knell, would be a
guilt for which future genera-
tions may be unable ever to
atone.
This is a time for rescue and
survival. The emphasis must
include the spiritual and the
linguistic. The duty rests
upon all who function
creatively. They can add to
the dignity of what is
treasured in our history and
existence and the motto beg-
ging for total involvement
should be: "Keep Yiddish
Alive."

Preserving
Ladino

There is much that is
historically obligatory that
must not be ignored and
neglected. There is another
Jewish language to be
remembered and respected. It
is the Spanish-Jewish Ladino.
Like Yiddish, it is not a
dialect. It was a spoken
language with many cultural
gifts.
It is heartening to learn
that the Sephardic communi-
ty is evidencing increased
concern over the obligation to
Ladino's status.
The protection of Ladino's
legacies is a duty for all of us.
The subject at hand will be
treated here a bit later. ❑

Weiss-Rosmarin
Leaves Legacy

T

o my sorrow, news
came Tuesday, when
this tribute was
already in type, that Trude
Rosmarin died. Blessings to
her memory obituary inside.
Selection of a successor to
any Jewish role is always ac-
companied by a hope that is
rooted in a commonality in
Yiddish expressions: "Is es
gut far Yiden — is it good for
Jews?"

The reason for this in-
troductory sentence is the an-
nouncement by Trude Weiss-
Rosmarin that she is retiring
from the editorship of the
Jewish Spectator and that she
has named Morton Bleiweiss
as her successor.
The special interest in
magazine and personalities is
the eminence of Rosmarin
and the importance she gave

to Jewish journalism and to
Jewish communal concerns in
her magazine. She was
critical to extremes with
justification, first in what she
had started as a monthly
magazine and in recent yers
in what was reduced to a
quarterly.
She is a challenging writer.
She exposed misrepresenta-
tions and miscalculations.
She assailed leadership in the
Zionist movements in which
she personally played signifi-
cant roles. Thereby she was
able to compel revolutionary
planning in communal
commitments.
Trude Weiss-Rosmarin is in-
scribed as an important name
in Jewish journalism and
cultural functioning as an
able writer, as a good judge of
political actions and as a
distinguished scholar. She is
a linguist, a lecturer and
university academician,
notably Jewish in her
knowledge and ability to in-
struct effectively. In her ear-
ly years as a Jewish scholar
she already earned the rating
of being the
"most
distinguished
woman
authority on Bible and
Talmud."
Therefore the wish that
whoever the successor to her
important position be an able
person. She asserts in her an-
nouncement that he is.
Robert Bleiweiss' background
promises fulfillment of such
anticipations. He had impor-
tant sharing in Jewish
causes. The 1987 edition of
Who's Who in World Jewry
concludes his biography with:
"Most proud of: Contributing
to the continuity of our peo-
ple by founding the Center for
Jewish Living and Values in
Israel." This already sounds
like a guarantee that he will
be a well-qualified successor
journalistically to Trude
Weiss-Rosmarin.

❑

Anonymity
As A Weapon

S

o many barbs are
targeted at Israel that
many are ignored —
all too often!
One of them is the manner
in which rumors are treated
as facts under the cloak of
anonymity.
Writing in the Washington
Post June 11, on the subject of
unnamed sources, Richard
Harwood relates the
following:

The use of anonymous
"sources" is the pandemic
of journalism in the United
States. The practice pro-
duces, most of the time,
trivial bits of information:

"Yes, it's true that the presi-
dent will speak at Old
Siwash, but for God's sake,
don't quote me." On occa-
sion an important revela-
tion comes over the tran-
som about the nature of
the society we inhabit,
evidence, perhaps, of
skulduggery most foul.
Just as often it produces
garbage and encourages
fearful or conniving infor-
mants to even scores,
embellish stories or
blacken the reputation of
rivals and enemies.

As an antidote, the Post's
policy manual promises
that we will "disclose the
source of all information"
published in the
newspaper; but there is a
loophole, somewhat wider
than the Pacific Ocean:
"when at all possible." Pro-
blems sail through.
Several examples are listed
here to prove his point. Then
Harwood continued:
During a visit to
Washington in April, Israel
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir had lunch with
several senators, including
Majority Leader George
Mitchell (D-Maine), Minori-
ty Leader Robert Dole (R-
Kan.) and John Chafee (R-
R.I.). The prime minister,
according to the accounts
of Mr. Chafee and Mr. Dole,
was informed that there is
great dissatisfaction in the
United States over Israel's
policies toward Palesti-
nians in the occupied ter-
ritories and considerable
anger at the brutal tactics
of the Israeli army, which
have included the kilning
of unarmed children and
adults.
An account of this
meeting, derived from
anonymous sources, was
contained in a column by
Rowland Evans and
Robert Novak published in
the Post on May 31. They
described the following in-
cident: "Sen. John Chafee
produced a list of children
killed by Israeli soldiers in
the intifada. When Dole
tried to get Shamir to ex-
amine the list and discuss
it, an annoyed prime
minister waved the docu-
ment away. That shocked
the senators and led Dole
to deliver his warning
about a crisis between
Israel and the United
States?'
The Israeli Embassy pro-
tests that the incident
never occurred, that no
casualty list was offered to
Mr. Shamir by anyone at
the lunch. Sens. Chafee
and Dole agree. E

