Editor's Notebook
Community Views
Never Underestimate
The Power Of Words
Holocaust Education
Must Start At Home
PHIL JACOBS EDITOR
PETER GREENBAUM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
watching the rest of the movie
There it was.
to his wife's philandering,
with me, told me that we'd
As a video and cot," for example, a young boy blind
Schindler.
film director, I must pass an entrance examina- looks after the children she pro-
I've
done
my
"own"
it.
Schindler, I believe, should
am naturally tion to a Russian school with a duces, believing them to be his
best to avoid
watching it over be required reading or viewing
drawn to images. strict quota for Jewish students. own.
And in "Epstein," by Philip
the years. Even for all of us, and if the child is
Sunlight chasing The boy stands before the teach-
"missed" a se- ready, a rite of Jewish passage
shadows across a ers who have devised cunning Roth, a man is tortured by the
lect preview as important as a bar or bat
field, light at the questions for him in the hopes of memory of his dead child and an
unhappy marriage. Epstein even-
viewing in Mon- mitzvah. We rightly spend a
end of a tunnel or tricking him.
"What a people," exclaims one tually has an affair and becomes
treal prior to its great deal of time and energy in
a closeup of a
The Jewish News promoting
smiling face are teacher to another, when the lad afflicted with venereal disease.
release.
Finally, he suffers a heart attack.
teen trips to Israel and now
all tools that can be used to tell a blurts out a correct answer. As the story concludes, Epstein's
The little girl in red.
`There's the devil in them!"
Poland and Israel. We want our
She
was
all
I
could
remember
story.
Later, the boy buys some pi- wife hovers over him in the am-
Sometimes, however, I forget
pri- children to see Auschwitz.
Schindler's
List
when
I
read
geons with money his parents bulance as a doctor reassures her
The Holocaust presents an in-
the power of the written word.
or to its production as a Steven
that her husband won't be
teresting situation. As Jews, we
Browsing through a
Spielberg
masterpiece.
having sex for some time
bookstore recently, I found
I remember sitting on my sofa have an obligation to tell its sto-
to come.
a collection titled Great
in
my Southfield home reading ry to our children. The question
My imagination was
over Shabbat. When often becomes at what age it is
Jewish Short Stories, edit-
Schindler
stirred by these stories in
ed by Saul Bellow. Includ-
I
got
to
the
part about the little appropriate, and how we struc-
a way that hasn't hap-
ed were works by Sholem
girl,
I
looked
over at my ture the information.
pened to me for a long
Steven Spielberg has taken
Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis
youngest
daughter,
who was all
time. The stories ask
Schindler a step further through
Singer, Martin Buber,
of
about
3.
Could
have
been
her.
questions we ask our-
Philip Roth and others.
I remember consciously noting his Shoah Foundation, which
selves today: Why is the
With time to spare be-
that
I would never, ever want to tapes incredibly well-done in-
world such a harsh place?
terviews with survivors, many
fore going to see a film, I
see
this
as a movie.
Is God indifferent to our
of whom were teens when the
opened the book and read
For
five
years,
I've
taught
a
suffering? What is the
Holocaust hit. Professor Sidney
the first paragraph. I was
course
in
Holocaust
history
to
right thing to do?
Bolkosky of the University of
instantly transported to
seventh-graders
at
Temple
Kol
Most of the movies I see
Michigan-Dearborn was col-
another world filled with
Ami.
During
that
period,
my
today seem to avoid ad-
lecting and chronicling similar
kings and peasants,
classes
have
at
times
met
sur-
dressing difficult ques-
video interviews long before
thieves and fools and great
vivors,
visited
the
Holocaust
tions. They titillate and
Schindler. They are available
rebbes who perform feats
Memorial
Museum
in
West
vacillate but seldom com-
of magic. I forgot about the
Bloomfield, watched films and right up the road in Dearborn.
mit to a point of view.
There's got to be a time in the
discussed issue after issue.
movie.
Perhaps it's because so
life of a young Jew when par-
In one story, the Baal
Some
of
the
students
have
even
many of these movies are
ents must sit down and present
Shem Tov brings a young
seen Schindler's List.
conceptualized by com-
the information of the Holo-
woman back to life so she
It's
sometimes
difficult
to
get
mittee.
can be married. In anoth-
the message across to my stu- caust. It's that critical to the un-
The characters in this
er, a young Isaac Babel
dents that this happened in our derstanding of the Jewish
collection lead lives that
flees a pogrom in the Russ-
century. That children their experience, especially as we pull
seem more full than any
ian seaport of Odessa. I
ages were living "normal" ado- into a new century.
characters I've seen re-
What adds even more ur-
also found a story about a
lescent
lives —having crushes,
cently in the movies. Con-
gency is a window of opportuni-
modern-day King Solomon
playing
sports,
taking
piano
sidering the brevity of
who welcomes the Queen
lessons and worrying: about ty that is sadly closing. Simply
each narrative, it's amaz-
of Sheba to his court — in
what to wear, split ends or even put, survivors are dying off.
ing that these characters
a Brooklyn tenement.
pimples. All of that was taken That opportunity to talk to
are able to wrestle with such big
grandparents or great-grand-
Many of the stories are set in have given him. Walking home,
away.
parents and see the Holocaust
the old shtetls of Eastern Europe. he finds himself caught in the vi- issues.
Sometimes
I
felt
that
the
Many cling stubbornly to their
Some feel connected to even more olent chaos of a pogrom. His birds faith, families and communities
Holocaust was something I'd through their eyes and experi-
leave at Monday night classes. ences is dying off.
ancient tales. The more contem- are killed and their remains are
terrible ordeals.
In much the same way adults
porary ones are set in America splattered across his face and despite
When rd come home, there'd be
A good film sweeps me along
clothes
as
he
runs
home.
dinner,
homework
and
other
need
to continue their learning
and blend a modern sensibility
The world as seen through the to its destination, its images
of the practices of their religion
with echoes of the hopes and de-
things
to
do
with
my
family.
eyes of these storytellers is hos- splashed across the screen with
Then came a realization. So before they can teach them and
spair of the earlier storytellers.
large, bold brush strokes. As I
much time had been spent talk- pass them down, we also need
Each story, directly or indi- tile, filled with Cossacks and cor- was reminded in that bookstore,
ing about the Holocaust with to have an understanding of the
rectly, conveys a sense of being ruption, dybbuks and deprivation, a short story must communicate
on the outside looking in. In Isaac but laughter mixes with tears, by mood and it must do so quick-
other people's children, that I Holocaust.
Doesn't matter if you're Or-
Babel's "The Story Of My Dove- giving these tales a bittersweet ly. A few fiery strokes, some flash-
forgot someone: my own 13-
taste. In Isaac Bashevis Singer's
thodox, Conservative, Reform,
year-old
daughter.
Peter Greenbaum is an
"Gimpel The Fool," the protago- es of dialogue and each
There she sat on that sofa, the Reconstructionist, Humanistic
independent filmmaker in
nist's wife never shares her bed character's desires and fears
same one where I read or unaffiliated. The Nazis didn't
with him. Kind-hearted Gimpel, smoldered in my heart. ❑
Chicago.
Schindler. An interesting dy- care. This was a shared expe-
namic played itself out. We have rience.
On the flip side, the numbers
only one TV in our home, so we
couldn't even think of watching of Holocaust revisionist and hate
Schindler until our younger materials continues to grow.
child was upstairs in bed. Which makes it even more
We saw the beginning when important for us to teach our-
Mr. Spielberg advised that selves, and pass on that learn-
Schindler is graphic and not for ing to our children.
Unfortunately, like so many
young children. Still, I wondered
once we turned it on, how my other issues in life, Holocaust
education for Jewish children is
older child would react.
She got to watch a small por- a rite of passage. And ifs some-
tion of the movie before it was thing that we need to learn in
time for her to go to bed. I put school. But more important, it
To respond: "So, What Do You Think'?"
her to bed, telling her that we'd needs to be taught in the home
rent the film. My wife, after as well. ❑
27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034
6355360 @MCIMAIL . COM .
11
What
Do You
/ Think?"
Should Schindler's List be
repeated on TV every year?
Why or why not?