Page 4 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, June 24,1982
Editorial
M-T
The Canadian Jewisnnevvs
An indept^pdcni Cucnmuiiity Newspaper servitiij as a I'cirum for diverse viewpoints.
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VOL. XXIII, NO. 9 (2,109)
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Guest editorial
Blow to FLO means a chance for peace
Pt-(?sident Reagan's speech at the UN made it clear that the" United States, in. its , desire for peace, is not afflicted Vith starry-eyed ideas about how to obtain, peace. He used the UN's disarmament conference to lecture the assembled delegates about Soviet violations of weapons treaties, especially the proscriptions against the use of chemical and biological weapons.
We hope this same realism carries over into the President's discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Begin. It would be a shame if the President did not recognize that the Israeli strike into Lebanon, while costly In lives, has at least opened up a glimmer of hope that the peace process exiempUfied by Camp David can once again move forward.
Thckey to this was to break the power of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which through its intransigence and fanaticism has actually impeded effotlstiD, find a homeland for displaced Palestinians. The PLO has been dealt a body blow now that the Israelis have seized its strongholds in southern-Lebanon and encircled its leaders in an enclave in West Beirut.
But there arc sensitive military and diplomatic problems to be solved before the PLO's nihilistic leaders can be ousted and the Palestinian people given a chance for constructive representation. Mr. Reagan and. Mr. Haig would do well to listen, .carefully to Mr. Begin's ideas for doing this. He did, after .all. make peace with Egypt, His army, not ours, made this, new oppoj-tunity possible. . .
We are hot starry-eyed about those opportunities, but one thiiig is quite clear: Peace had no chance at al| as long as the FLO was in a position to threaten the life of any Arab leader who attempted to engage In serious peace negotiations. The PLO's terrorist arms have been a constant danger riot only to Israelis, bui to Palestiniian mayors on the West Bank, King Hussein of Jordan and Lebanese moderates striving for a chance to put their shattered country back together.
Indeed the PLO^ which evidence suggests has inci-easingly become an instrument of Soviet destabilization efforts arotmd the world, has projected itself into all sorts of trouble spots, including Central America.
As Henry Kissinger wrote in the Washington Post, this outlaw organization found itself with no real Arab friends wheri it went up against the Israeli tanks. The Syrians who have had plenty of troubles of their own with the PLO. were not eager to help. Nor was there much sympathy from the Lebanese Moslem left. In short, the PLO, expelled from Jordan in a bloody war in 1970-71. then from Syria (which saw benefits in exporting this problem to Lebanon), now has no place to go.
One of Israel's objectives, obviously, was to give Lebanon back to the Lebanese by disarming the PLO and chucking out the Syrians, who have been guilty of their own Cruelties to the Lebanese, This means reconciling Lebanon's factions, whose divisions were exploited by the Syrians and the PLO to vitiate Lebanese self-ruje. But we suspect those factions are by now weary of their long war.
To do this will require pacification of the PLO. That will mean arrest or expulsion of the PLO leadership, disarming PLO units that have managed to escape the. Israeli drive and adopting border control methods to prevent the Soviets from slipping new arms in to PLO groups that might still have a taste for fighting.
In approaching this task, the Israelis see ope thing dearly: The United Nations no longer has a role tp play. Its administration of the Palestinian refugee camps since 1948. allowing them to become breeding grounds for hatred, and its failures in peace-keeping roles have actually contributed to the problems.
If pacification forces are to be introduced into Lebanon, when the Israelis withdraw, they vviir have to be from countries the Israelis can trust.
If Lebanon can be restored and the PLO terrorism threat removed from the region — or at least sharply reduced — it will then be . time to talk about Palestinian autonomy. Only then can Israel have some assuratice of security. Only then might it be possible to persuade King Hussein to reenter the process on behalf of a peaceful solution. And only then will Palestinians themselves have a chance for peace. ,
From The Wall Street Journal, June 18
By DAVID BIRKAN
On July 1. 1808, Napoleon decreed that Jews throughout the.French empire must adopt surnames. Emancipation — and the government's need to streamline tax-collecting and conscription made mandatory a process that had been going on for more than 2.000 years.. - Jews began taking surnames,in the days of the second Temple, in the form of patronyms. Among the contributors to the Mishna tractate Pirkei Avot are Yosai ben (son of) Yochanan. Yosai ben Yoazer. Yehoshua ben Prachya. Yehuda ben Tabbai and Shimon ben Gamliel. The accomplishments of others, like Hillel and Shammai. made no additional identifiers necessary. Ben became ibn in Arab countries, fils in France, and sohn in German-speaking lands. ■
Surnames emerging in Italy, and France, dtiring the Middle Ages were based on their former homes. Merchants were the first to adopt them, outof homesicknes&anda need for Identification Jn a turbulent and = uncertain world. With expulsions large and small, such names became very common. After Spain of 1492, many new Immigrants arrived in Turkey bearing the somames De Leon, D'AIvo, 2^ora and Toledano.
The longest Jewish family name, Katzen-ellenbogeh, was assumed by the 16th century Chief Eabbi of Venice, Meir ben Isaac. \It recalled his place of bulh, . Katzenelnbogen, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau,
Taking surnames based on the mother's first name, like Edel, from Ethel or Adele, became widespread in communities where the. wife or mother-in-law was the family's sole breadwinner, as husband ^and boys^ pursued full-time Torah studies. :
Occupations provided .surnames . like Abzug (copy, sheet, from the printing trade), Weiner (from the wineindustry — \^
- - J..
-0
not to be confused with Wiener, a-person from Vienna), Graber (engraver of seals), and Schneider (tailor). Medicine, masonry, dyeing, minting and hostelry also left thier ■■• mark; . ■ ■.
The. profession of ritual slaughterer yielded the Yiddish Schechter, the Hebrew Shochet, the Slavic Resnick, and Shnb, an abbreviation of shochet ubodek [slaughterer and inspector];
Names with biblical associations were fayored and varied. Kohanim called themselves Cohen, Kahan, Kahn, Barkahn. (son of Kahn) or Katz (an anacronym for Kohen tzedek). Leviim became Levy or Segal (from seganLeviim, meaning "the number of Levites) or their many derivatives, including Chagall. The priestly ceremony of duchening (blessing the congregation) led to Duchin.
Teachers became Melamed and Lehrer. London as a Jewish surname comes from— the Hebrew lamdan (scholar), -not the English .city.
Each of the 12 tribes of Israel was associated with a particular animal, which provided another source of surnames. The most prevalent was Wolfe and Its derivatives, associated with the tribe of Be^|amln — Lapo In romanlan and Lopez hi Spanish-spealdng countries.
A declaration by Austro-Hungarian emperor Joseph II forced the registration of surnames for Jews in Galicia and Bucovina several years . before Napoleon's more : embracing decree. Local German officials in charge found a new source of extortion. Jews who could not afford to pay . for pleasant names derived from flowers or gems, like Rosenthal or Diamant, were stuck with names like -Schmalz (grease), Gaigenstrick (gallows rope), Eselkopf (donkey's head) or Oxenschwantz (oxtail).
Under Russia, the imposition of surnames on East European Jews took place from 1840 to 1845, This included the Jews of Poland.
By SHELDON KIRSHNER
HeinrichHeine [1797-1856], whose books were gleefully burned by the Nazis, was one
of Germany's greatest lyric poets and certainly its most outstanding Jewish writer.
Works such as Buch der Leider, Die Harzreiscand DicNordsee are enshrined in Germany's literary tradition. Yet Heine, a convert to Lutheranism, has never fully been accepted by the German Establishment.
Recently, the University of Dusseldorf took a decision which underscores that fact. By a vote of 44-41, the university's council rejected a proposal to rename the university after Heine, and thereby triggered a pubUc debate throughout West Germany.
Marcer Reich-Ranicke, one of West Germany's leading critics, wrote in AN gemeine Zeitung that the university did not deserve the name of the Rhine city's most famous son. The Frankfurter Rundschau alluded to Hcine's.Jewishness as a probable reason for the university's decision. Die Welt defended the verdict. In Dusseldorf, a protest march was organized by supporters of renaming the university, and a local poet penned a poem in Heine's style to deplore the decision.
The Stuttgarter Zeitung probably put It best: 'Mt was a democratic decision but did scant credit to either Dusseldorf and its university or the academic world In Germany as a whole...; The decision defies a common sense explanation but is only too well in keeping with the treatment Heine has been given in his own country for the past centur> and a half."
A disciple of philosopher G' W. F, Hegel, Heine was'baptized in 182S. 5ut, unlike some Jews, he was ashanied of his conversion, which he spoke of as an "admission ticket" to European society. "I make no secret" of iny Judaisir, to. which I have riot returned, because I never left it." he said in 1850. Soon after his conversion, he wrote a poem, To an Apostate, in which he condemned the renegade's "crawling to the cross" and mocked "yesterday's helro; who is today's scoundrel."
To a friend, he lamented: ''I aiti very sorry that I was baptized. . . , I have had nothing but misfortune since."
Indeed, conversion did not facilitate his entry into the German mainstream. Doors remained closed to him. To Jews, he was a renegade, and to Christians, he was an insincere turncoat or a dangerous radical. Heine failed to obtain a piromised chair at the University of Munich, and in 1831 he settled in Paris. -
Heine, who identified himself with liberal . political movements which sought to sweep away privilege- and corruption, satirized religious bigotry and political reaction before his departure to France,
In 1835. the German authorities temporarily suspended the publication of his books as a sign of displeasure: Heine was likewise disillusioned. Except for two short visits to his family in 1843 and 1844, he never went back to his homeland:
The  stigma : attached   to  his name endured.   His  books  were  banned in; Gottingen. where he got his doctorate degree. In 1897, the city of Dusseldorf was offered a .sculptured memorial to him. But the German: government refused to accept : It. A stamp was issued in his honor in 1972,. ; but only after the minister for postal services dropped his opposition. .
Heme died in Paris as an exile. In I94I, the Nazis desecrated and demolished his grave.   ■ .
Another Jew who abandoned Judaism, but without regret, was Albert Norden.
Norden, who was at one time head of East Germany's press department..died earlier this month at the age of 77. He was born in Upper Silesia, and his father was a rabbi. Norden had no affinity for religion and he drifted away from Judaism. He joined the Communist Party in 1920 and served the . cause for the rest of his life.
For a short period, he was chief editor of Rote Fahne (Reg Flag)./ the leading newpaper of^he party: With the advent of -Nazism, he fled to Czechoslovakia, then France. During the war,-he was interned. His father perished in a concentration camp. Norden foundrefuge in the U.S.vbut returned home: after the establishment of East Germany, where he resumed his career in journalism.
Considered a hard liner in Communist circles.: Norden became^Easf Germany's chief propagandistijyith the rank of state secretary. AskecJ^'Once why East Germany did not provid<^^ Israel with reparation payments, Norde^n said the Jewish state had no right to advance claims on behalf of Jewish victims of: Nazism. He added: '■Israel cannot bring back to life the six million Jews murdered by the Third Reich."
Sherman Block,, who was raised in a strictly Orthodox household hi Chicago, has
HebiikhHebie
become the first Jewish sheriff hi the U.S.
Not bad for a guy who once ran a deli counter.
Fifty seven years old. Block Is the new sheriff of Los Angeles County, whose'forice of 7,500 men and women Is the largest in the U.S. Block immigrated to California hi 1953 and soon found work as a coonterman In an LA .delicatessen. He» was drawn to police work by an old dream. ''I always.bad a feeling for law enforcement," be toki The Jerusalem Post In an Interview. '*Ab c ^y, I liked to be on the school patrol, and before 1 went into the army 1 served as a'Chicago block warden."
In 1956, he passed a written exam, gave up his job at Cohn's Deli and started his career as a deputy sheriff trainee. Nineteen years later, he was named undersheriff, A few months ago, Block was appointed sheriff by the County Board of Supervisors. .
One of President Reagan^s appointees, Peter Grace, is under fire from Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the (Reform) Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Formerly a business executive, Grace heads a panel on government cost control. ■
Schindler says Grace has maintained "a close relationship" for many years with a convicted Nazi war criminal. Dr. Otto Ambros, who reportedly used slave labor in a chemical plant he operated for I. G. Farbeii during World War II. The rabbi has called on the White House to dismiss Grace, who emplbyed Ambros while he was chairman of W. R. Grace & Company. V' "The .Reagan administration hasn't responded to Schindler'.s call, but Grace has not done himse;lf any good by mouthing what.some charge is a slur against Puerto Rican Americans. In a Dallas speech, Grace described the fedieral food stamp program as "basically a Puerto Rican prpgrani.",He apologized for an "oratorical mistake." But Schindler, seizing on this remark, claimed that Grace had thereby demonstrated his "gross unfitness" for office.
Israeli troops in Sidon, Lebanon, were
surprised to find a Jewish, fkmlly hi that seaside city. While screening Sidon's inhabitants after a battle, they caniie across four members of the Halevy clan — fathei-, son and two teenage daughters. - •'
the Halevys told ihesipldiers that their; family history in Sidon went back 150 years. There are ;i6 more than a few hundred Jews at most in Lebanon. Several thousand lived there prior to the 1975-76 civil war.
- Strange but true: Two brothers in Johannesburg, South Africa, have applied to the government to change their surname from Israelto Sirael. They claim that their present name is a hanidjcap iri their business dealings with the Arab world..
On May 1,9. 1943, Jpseph Goebbels. Hitler's minister of propaganda, was in a jubilant mood. Beriin, he wrote in his dairy, had been proclaimed Judenrein, or free of Jews. "I am convinced that purging Berlin of its Jews is the greatest of my political achievements." he noted. "Whenever-J. -remember the sight of Berlin on my arrival here in 1926 and compare it with its appearance in 1943. after the Jews have been evacuated, only then can I appreciate the greatness of our achievement in this field."
Goebbels, who was considered a radical anti-semite even in Nazi circles, was wrong.
Despite the deportations, Jews were foond In BerUn after May 19. In The Last Jews hi BerUn [Mosson, $19.95], author . Leonard Gross estimates that 5,000 Jews remained In Berlhi, hi hidhig, throughout the war. But, he adds, there may have been as many as 9,000. »
It was remarkable that they survived. "... I had learned in the course of writing this book that nothing Could be more miraculous than the survival of Jews during the last years of World War II," Gross, a former Look Magazine editor, comments.
The Jews who made it called themselves ■, "U-boats," a self-mocking refeirence to Germany's fleet of submarines. To survive, they needed wUe, stealth, coinage, and, In some cases j plenty of money. Not only were the Nazis after them. Perhaps an even more, sinister enemy wiere turncoat Jews — so-called catchers — who worked directly for
. the Gestapo. Theh: payment was freedom, and as long as they could ferret out "Illegal" Jews, they avoided deportation to
£ death camps itf Poland. i In telling his aniazing^ory, Gross zeroes in on a handfiii of Jews, most of whom were hidden by sympathetic Germans who abhorred the Nazi regime. Virtually all of them who are alive today live iri West Germany. One of the fugitives. -Hans Rosenthal. is a well-known TV personality.
.. Another, Fritz Croner. is a successful jeweler. Countess Maria von Maltzan. who harbored a Jew, the man she loved, works as a veterinarian in West Berlin.
Of the. approximately 600,000 Jews in ; Germany oh the eye of Hitler's accession to
power, 160,p001iyed in Berlin, By Septem-, ber of .1941, Jews unfortunate enough to be in Berlin Were ordered to wear the degrad-'ing yellow star. Crammed into aipartments, _ sometimes 20 to a _rpom£ Jewis were forbidden to leave - their neighborhoods without perinission or be outdoors after evening curfew hours.
In January of 1942, with the tide of war swinging against Germany, Jews were told to surrender all their winter clothes and warm clothing and blankets. German troops in Russia got them. A few months later, all Jewish households were; :required to post the Star of David on their doors.
The screws were further tightened when Jews were banned fi-om piiblic streets where govemmerit buildings were located, as well as from the great shopping streets of the city, and were forbidden to ride public transportation, use public, rest rooms or public telephones.
By the spring of 1942, Jews had to give up their telephones and radios and conld not buy newspapers or periodicals. Jewish schools were dosed and Jewish children forbidden ftfxm taking private lessons. —Certain food — eggs, milk, dieese, fish and smoked meats — cpiild no knger boojght by Jews. According to decree, Jews had to subsist on potatoes, iwarse black bread, cabbage and beets.
Beginning in 1940, the first batch of Jews was arrested and sent off to Poland. On Oct. 18,11941, the first transport of Jews was. dispatched to Auschwitz. Early on the morning of Feb. 27, 1943, units of Hitler's elite corps, the SS, rounded up Berlin's remaining Jews iri Operation Factory..
Goebbels wrote: "We are definitely now pushing the Jews oat of BerUn.... Unfortunately, oar better cirdes, specially the inteUectaals, on<^ again have laUed to :, understand our policy aboat the Jews and In some cases have even taken their part. As a result oiu: plans were tipped bCf prematurely, so that a' lot of the Jews' slipped through our hands. Bnt we will catch them yet. I certainly won't rest imtil the capital of the Reich, at last fbeconles free of Jews."
Goebbels did not succeed iri this "historic" task. He did not realize that some men and women are very resourceful under conditions of extreme duress, nor did he contemplate that German Christians would risk life and limb to help Jews, a category of sub-humanity under the Nazis.
In The Last Jews in Beriin, Leonard Gross has woven Ills story with professional skUI. To the best of this reviewer's knowledge, it is the first p«^alar accoontln English of l^w Jewii : Uved tliroitgfr' th^ heD" of Nazi Germany, and, as soch, represents a notable contribution to lilstoriography.
A reviewer is left with mixed feelings as he puts down this volume.
Heis revolted by Germany's descent into barbarity. How could a people who produced gifted writers, composers, artists arid scientists sink so low? But he is comforted by the thought that, even inthose dark years, there were enough Germans, around who Cared for their fellow human beings arid refused to be a party to an assault on civilization.
Ben Gurion^s 1915 visit here?
By J. B. SALSBERG
It's one of those times again, my highly esteemed readers. I welcome, of course, letters from you. But when they begin to accumulate in the unanswered file they also begin to haunt me. Eager to assuage my troubled conscience i will begin to dotheright thing.
Calling Poale Zionists!
Dr; Leon Kronitz^-- executive—vice-president of the Canadian Zionist Federation, transmitted to me a call for help that came fVom Israel. It seems that Dr. Yeshayahu Jelinek, of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, wrote ifi" his capacity of "Editor, Ben-Gurion Papers,!'seeking help in his research.
Jelinek, examining the late Ben-Gurion's private papers, found references to BG's visits to Toronto and Hamilton in 1915, where he presumably founded ; branches of the Hechalutz movement. In Hamilton the group "took physical training at a Jewish organization named Queen Esther's Court." ^--^
Prof. Jelinek also offered a list of people who joined the Toronto branch of the Hechalutz at that time. The names,. evidently found in Ben-Gurion's papers, are as follows: Menacfaem Reizer or Reiser, Israel Frelman, Yehuda Gertler, Lelbnsh Jager [YegeV], Taviah Zachsj Shimon Julian and FIschel Walerstehii
Professional researchers are odd people. Jelinek writes that he is "in need
of biographical data of these Zionist-Socialists — years of birth and death, theirprofessionin 1915," etc. etc. etc;
I was too young to have been associated with the group referred to. But some of the names evoke very positive memories.
There arcv thank heaven, a few old-V timers in our midst who might recall useful data for the Israeli study.
At the moment I can recall David Gold, . Leibe Bogard's brother-in-law and a Toronto volunteer in the renowned ■: Jewish Legion, formed during World War I. that served with the British armed . forces under Lord Allenby to liberate Palestine from the Turks;
Another Toronto Poale Zionist of that ' period is the still very active Avrohom Merker. Than there is Avrohom Frelman (the referred-to Israel's brother) another Poale Zionist of that period, still, thank heaven, very much among us (biz hundred un tzvoncik) who may recall details of Ben-Gurion's work in these partsin 1915.
llimiRllinillllllllllUllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllll
GoodpeofJe,
let's hear from you
uiiiniiiiniiiiiiniiiiuiiiitiiiuiuiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiii^
Are th|ere others around of that vhatage. In Toronto, Hamilton or Montreal who/may become helpful hi the enterprise that the^n-Gurion Unl-: verslty has undertaken?    v .
Incidentally, the Canadian Jewish community, might gain some hiurels In; the process. So, come all ye good people.
wherever yoa are. Pat on yoar.thinking caps and let's hear from you. ^
(Ah, what a load off my shoulders!)
•"»■ ■ ■.
The N.Y.Yiddish scene
Morley Pape left his native Toronto a fewyearsago to reside in New York. But Morley never severed his lifelong links with us. Norhas he been forgotten by the thousands he catered to with readings and recitations in Yiddish.
Morley was looked upon and admired . as a native Yiddish lover. He even used his good offices as co-ordinator of the Liberal-Reform temples in Canada: to plant and'nourish an appreciation of Yiddish in the ranks of Reform Jewry. .
Now, Morley was considerate enough . to supply me with material, including a program, of "an evening of Yiddish : poetry and music" at the Donnell Library Centre, a branch of the New York Public Library system, all under the direction of Morley Pape.
Thanks, Morley.-for the information and for the work of love on the Yiddish cultural front you are engaged in. Morley is an avid reader of this paper and. I have reason to know, also of this column. So, on behalf of all us here, in Morley's native city and country, I say: carry on, Morley, until the proverbial . 120. plus. Keep your Canadian admirers fully informed of your cultural activities. .. ■.* . ■■■
The space problem
My humble apologies to Messrs. Elias (Montreal). Bengali and Starkman (Toronto). Your literary contributions deserve; of course, to be published; The editofPwho has more than the .usual /share of problems peculiar to editors I (space, space', space) pleads for sympathetic understanding. But. I haven't given up and will pursue the matter with him.
In the meantime accept my personal^ thanks and appreciation. Keep it up'and keep me up to date. Miracles do happen, they say, so why not in these c^ses?
Halevai:
V