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November 24, 1989 - Image 50

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1989-11-24

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

'BOOKS I

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then you should go to
Israel," he says.
Hertzberg, 69, a retired
rabbi, has directed the corn-
munity as a former head of
the American Jewish Con-
gress, authored several
books and lectured on
Jewish history. Today, Hert-
zberg teaches religion at
Dartmouth College and is a
senior research fellow at
Columbia University's
Mideast Institute.
Writing History of Jews
was Hertzberg's way of an-
swering a question for which
he had a basic
premise."They didn't come
here for religious freedom,
which was the only thing
they had when they left
Europe. They came here for
opportunities."
Now he wants to share his
findings to insure the future
of American Jews. He wor-
ries that the American
Jewish community may not

have the energy to continue.
He says the community is
"running on .ethnic
togetherness," which is
porous.
"American Jewish eth-
nicity is dead," he says. "We
fight our enemies, we are
anti anti-Semitism, and we
don't care what we do pro-
vided we do it together."
He writes in the final
pages of the book,"American
society no longer forces
assimilation into a dominant
culture. It is possible in this
new age of America to evap-
orate out of being Jewish
without making a decision to
be anything else.
"Ethnicity will no doubt
last for several more genera-
tions, but it is well on the
way to becoming memory.
But a community cannot
survive on what it re-
members; it will persist only
because of what it affirms
and believes." ❑

Dawidowicz

January 6 - 14, 1990
$1,799.00

Sponsored by

AMERICAN-ISRAEL

Chamber of Commerce of Michigan

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Attend the 3-day Jerusalem Jewelry Showcase and meet over 100 major
jewelry manufacturers.
• Individual business appointments arranged for you with appropriate companies.
• Visit the internationally known Israel Diamond Exchange.
• 7 days and 6 nights in 5-star deluxe hotels.
• Touring of historical and current sites with Israeli guide.
• Optional extension to the Vicenza Jewelry Show
• Round trip Detroit - New York - Israel on El Al Israel Airlines
• Cocktail receptions and select dinner

FINAL PAYMENT DUE - DEC. 4, 1989

For further info., contact Shelly Komer Jackier
at Chamber Office: (313) 661-1948

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 24 1989

,

Continued from preceding page

Continued from preceding page

JEWELERS TRADE MISSION to ISRAEL

50

Hertzberg

Lucy Dawidowicz in Vilna

Dawidowicz tried to
"recapture every detail of
what life in Vilna was like
then," she said. "For me,
everything was new and
different. This was true not
only in the daily routine —
the European work schedule
included a longer day punc-
tuated by a meal in the early
afternoon, and the fact that
we did not have hot showers
— but in our life histories
and the (Vilna Jews') knowl-
edge that they were living in
a world where they were
constantly aware of the
hostility and Polish anti-
Semitism."
And even though she met
numerous wealthy Jewish
families, Dawidowicz, who
spent virtually her entire
time abroad in the Jewish
section of Vilna, always was
aware of poverty, she said.
A city with a top univer-
sity and a rich Jewish
culture, Vilna also was pro-
vincial. Its mood in 1938 was
best expressed by a popular

saying of the day, "If I don't
show up today, I'll show up
tomorrow," Dawidowicz
said.
While Dawidowicz said the
Jews of Vilna "always
sensed that war was immi-
nent," they were loathe to
envision another battle.
"They all lived with the
experience of the Great War
— the refugees, the hunger
"and the revolution — and
that's what they feared," she
said. They were confident
Jews would suffer in any
other massive war, though
the true horrors of World
War II were inconceivable in
the late 1930s, said
Dawidowicz, also the author
of The War Against the Jews.
Dawidowicz, whose visit
here was sponsored by the
Congregation Shaarey
Zedek Library, lived in a
new building on Ulica
Makowa in Vilna. From her
large bedroom window,
covered with lace curtains,
she watched children going

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