By HARRY GOLDEN
WHERE ARE THEY?
One of the stories that Is always troot>p«j«^ ^ news is the story of someone lost People bav* « great concern over those who have disappeared, a concern which persists mer the. years. Wliat happened to Judge Crater who disappeared ki' New York City? What happeoed to-DoniUiiy Arnold, a dau^ter oif a New Toik aristocrat who bid her moUier goodbye and turned west~ on Twenty-Thini Street? Vlh^ hapiMned to the infant Charley Ross, the first tddoa^ victiin, who was abducted one bri|^t July day from his hoow in Philadelphia? What happened to Ambrose Bierce, ~^the California writer, who went to Mexico in 1913 to Join the staff of the insurgent Pancho Villa?
These are all famous mysteries. Explanations of what happeiied have from time to time been made: Judge Crater was carrying a large roll of money and was murdered; Dorothy AxoxAA died as a result of an illegal operation; Charley Ross was, cached by his abductors in a rooming-house and when the kidnappers were killed by police, grew xcp uiaware of his past and his fortune; Ambrose Bierce was shot as a deserter by Villa. No one quite believes them — ear'wants to. A disappearance remains a disappeannce tmtil a corpus delicti is produced. And the mystery, continues through the decades, never irfmtlng.
Even when those who are lost are not famons, editors know the value of a news story about a strayed child. Boy lost. Girl lost. Hiking party lost. Mountain climbers lost Aitd people wait breathlessly hoping for their rescue.
After the tragic circus fire in Hartford, one of the strangest of all phenomraa occupied the papers. There were several children who bad died in the fire who were not immediately claimed. In fact, it took several montJis to idenr Vij Vbsm and to locate relatives. In its way, thla search for parents who hadnt noticed a diUd became a horror story.
THE AGEi> AND THE COUNTRY
One little gbl was never claimed altbou^ eva-ijr iMw^piq;>er in country reproduced front page pictures of yAaX riia looked Uke. TO this day so parent or lelatiTe has cone forward to Identify or redte the fbcts «C how a diUd can'die and be buried unclaimed. Tbn Hartford Police interred the little girl under a headstone engraved "Uttte Was UealDeix:" and once a year lay flowen <Hi the grsrei. Tbs looeUnees of this diUd stQl mnalns a great mystery.
I think what grips people, what makes them foUow the stories about loss and disappearanoa avidly is the secret truth that most people f^ lost themselves. They feel an identity with Ihosa who have disi^qpeared. They feel the same anxiety, the same fear of the highly mechanized, impersonal society, Uie same distrust of all the statistics, fingerprints, card descriptions (which for all their ^iciency are inadequate in establishing identity).
The oldest story in Western literaiure is about Dlysses who wantoed for ten years before he returned home from Troy, ITlysses' son. Telema-ebuji. wmt out>4o him. Our first story was one with a happy ending. Would that all the wandering Ulysseses came home!
Only a taw ftma ago «a»oi; -the things a widowed liilher or pm a^ta^ tn(kh» feued was to.he oooimitted to the Oooit^ wonted abODt wpbxkig «al ■» test M-V6eiz Uvea in an Old Fo&i Bomik i
I remeniber tfa» Bom Ibv taOgmii UObx around Columbia tKohcnOy a plaica that seat Bhivm fla«a bMi;«C'«^ Om wait xahraaul imwoiMy JtadHrt;' 1^^^ to tblnk o( these bontea Wlrfeb van Wtt^iimfbe t^^ as. witniiBiinig MtaliifmMi to ft frtnn: ttw wme restiietlaM^ the sama: MfiriBiity^ the eama ing oinr, the aame-bland^ soanty food eveiytbbig was Just Uke a piiion ooqie 'Itaik' the people living theirs were, undeserving o( this iiidignity and deserved no .punidiment because tts oiily crime they committed was to grow bldl
Tet 50 years ago the Jews akog the Lower East JSide of New York had eac^ied this harsh reality. The pattern ctf the Jews, with their immense ro^ect for the iamily, was to establish Homes for the Aged which induced no shame or' guilt in'children who plaoed'^their parents there. These homes were no bett» that Uie ones foimded by the weU-intentiobed state legislature. The only difference xeaDy was in attibides. The Jewish Home for the Aged did not foreiUy sepaiBte the aged flon society, bide them away. Ihe Jewiata Home for the Aged 8inq;>ly reduced society. The iM folks still maintained a seiise ot community by, rmming the home themselves and by ^n^intinir their own committees to oversee the laws they had themselves set vtt for a well-nm social inechanisni.
This is the pattern most Homes follow itow. They xio longer sqiarate ma and wranen and husbands and wives live together. No -ooe any longer pretends the aged are iixs^ble of doing anything except vegetating. At the Uidted Nations today most (tf the buses 1^ puU filled with si^tseers are either high sdKwl cfalldrea or old folks who have diartered their own bus to see for themselves.
With the prraoises of medicine that we shall all enJoy a longer life and live into deep old age. there is a whole new set of attitudes germinating. Ihe new sdeqce of geriatrics has advanced many abhOiooa tor the poroldein of the aged. It has been fooDl ttiat tfaa mora Mtira older f<^ are, the longer they Itvi and «faa irfafla tfas iddn may wrtnUe and the ergntens wither, the amottons
The Conoiirbn iimbh'Kcvf; FrM^^^^^ S
REPORT FROM ALGERIA
By  JOSEPH BARRY
The following report, by the ■roviria reporter of the New York Post, underscores tht precarious position of the 130.000 Jews in strife-torn Algeria.
^    The Editors.
AllMia Is a I'Moch coiony In sesi<di of a masncre. Unless Oen, da GauUe and Fierfaat Abbas. ~ that Is, Fraiioe and the rebel FLN-maei Tery soon and work out a huinane soluttoh of peaceful coexlsteiioe, two oonkauriitles are beaded for rputual slau^ter.
Shortly before noon the other day, a young Arab wcnnan working in the huge government headquarters building mi the Algiers Forum, one of the young Moslein elite or third force de G^Ue is counting on, cried to an American corre^ndent. "They must stop! TeU them to stop r And, between sobs, she told him tiiat that morning dte had seen French soldiers firing into a group of young haya in the Casbeh as they danced and chanted of Algerian
independence.
EUROPEANS SURROUNDED
This week-end witnesses a turn* ing point in the life of Algeria, France and so of the Western
world. The diange was swift, su«Wen.. and deadly. It .was pxesbadowed «i Saturday Orleansville when a large'groiip of Moslems clashed with a smaller gang of Soropeon^ while de GsuOe was hurried past them. -   .. .
The clash was minor, the syin. holism significant. The first were £|sted youngsters shoutiiig 'Alge. rie Algeriepae^. itie second were bitter, fearfuUy angiy adults and adolescents huddled together on a lonely spci with an '^Algerie Francaise" banner, looking like Custer's Last Stand.
That's what it is. and ihey kiiow tt The Eurpp^uis of Algeria are an enclave in the Moslem land mass.
MOSLEMS LIKE DE GAULLE
Ironieally, it was the Moriems lAo eheeted the vlsttiiig French President while the French settlers booed and wished him hanging on the gallows. Then they broke through the police cordon toward the Moslem youths, throwing stones and trying to tear the "Welcome de Gaulle" banners from their hands. The Inmy has since become tragic, the clashes bloody and 80 far barely contained. De
Gaulle made legitimate thelr^ cry ol 'Algeria. must;beVAlgerlui,' which meanis/indepeodra and hir visit has given thorn the chance to shout it openly at the
tettlers and the French, army.
With . an exuberaiice that is vengeance and; hate;as much as anythlni;, the Aiabs; have come down from Belcourt and the Caabah of Algiers uatil many were shot by the anhy at the bottom of theirinarrow streets.
JEWS & MOSLEMS
!nie Caibah 16^ half Winaw ghetto and'half Warsaw opilsiiig. We went throngli.. the .bnbed wire banrage np the refase-strewn streets and tnull boys led ob. to sdf-eonstitirted miids-tiies of Information. The Casbah is FLN. If the Algerian'Moslems were silent, they certainly are no longer. By how, 100 may have died in the shootfaig that stiB goes' on bat the FLN flags go np every time., the French forces leave.
Vive Kennedy." they say to the American and a taOor tells Um, "We bope America is with as this year," bat the sympathy cardies slighUy when he sees ttie sacked and looted synagogae. The Arab says, "Jews fired on os." Where in an Arab ghetto
fighttng for : fteedon is there room f«r a Jewish ghetto that wants to mnain FrenehT So, on this gatted alien hoase of p^yer, an FIJir Ihig files and FLN slogans are scrawled.
Along with the hundred or so adw may be dead' have died a namber of myths.- There Is no fntemity between ttie Moslems add the French. The aettiers' riogan of integratlQa. is. nothing Imt a. convenient farce. The hatred between the yoang generatioM of both commimities exidodes on contact. De GaoUe's poUoy was ttie settlers' last ehancefor a settlement and they have ■scorned If. Now^ unless de GaoUe and the FLN agree, they face slaOghfer or defett and the Congo Is there to prove it.
DANGEROUS GAME
"Th^ have sown the wild wind," said a French fnctionary at the postoffice. "Now they, are reaping the tempest's harv3st. They are scared to death of the Moslem descent from the Casbah. because they know they never went halfway to meet them."
The French Ultras here have played a mad, dirty and dangerous game. For two days they egged on teenagers to overwhelm   special  security police
from jnetr<^Utan v^'lre^ The pliui was to force - the army to intervene on their side as in May 1968. By Saturdaynight they felt defeated. But that nle^t the Mosleins moved aind eveiything changed.
Bat Sunday the Ultriu: sent ibdir most savage ndUtants. as close to the Arab qdarters as the police would permit and there they have Jieen shooting, ter-roridng and "rat" inntlng.* Kot to chase the Arabs back where the Ultras think they belong, bnt to provoke them inro a holy war that would bring the army in with force. What the teenagers couldn't do, a combinatiph of Moslem nationalists and Ultra provocation plus paratrooper tntblessness has done.
The army is high in th3 saddlo again, doing what '.t best understands: fighting the FLN to kesp the status quo, and if not, lo keep Algeria French. Ds Ga.\x]:s has cut his visit short arcl the Ultras consider that a retreat under army pressure. We may soon know if they are right.
Meanwhile, Algeria may soon be reported as returning to "normal," which means the Europeans are resuming a road marked "mutual slaughter" but they are too blind to read the signs.
REPORT FROM BONN
BY TERENCE PRITTIE
of lova and curiosity and aaOstmOiou do no*. Indeed, they are pi^babtf atraocer than ever.
We aU face the itroqiect of old aes with an Its sttendant iiKxaireulenota and Iwistoalioim. Ihis has introduoed a nKttoal and laog needed chioge into our eoooept of aodety. With medical sdenoe hnproving iltey^ioday it ,is obviouB fliat a larger proportion of our poptdaoe will be <Mer. Many things will have to be changed. 0(nporatfa»a will have to realixe that men over 45 are still Tigorous — in fact, in the prime of life. Retirement benefits will have to be urdversaL We will need new tax laws to alleviate the plight (tf.the aged whose taxes keep going up as their income goes down. When new health programs eome from our national and state legislatures w* will have made a social duoge comparable to that we made the Skxdal Seeority Xaii was IniK^ little by litHe we wm make the. advance to »ld|jber concept of the aged.
to
Jewish Owners of Industry
WhUo the West Gerinan State has made steady progress in settUng the claims for compensation which have arisen from Nud persecution. Instances still occur of dilatory and ob-structive action on the part of the German authorities. A par-ticulariy flagrant case has come
HUMAN RELATlbNS>s
r=   DR. ROSE N. FRANZBLAU
QUESTION: I am 17. Four moMtht ago 1 met o yoang man of 23. We doted three or four times ■ week. About a moRlli later ho began to got tarious, said he loved me and began to spook of marriage and settlmg down. . .BecoHse hit prasont. job doosa't pay aiieugh far him to support a wife, ha bogan to take a businats machine course and inteiided to got a well-paying job in that field. The course did not work oat. Apparently ha isn't skilkd in that field. Ha becomo discovroged.
i suggostod that ha qet another job in his present field which would pay more. From the way he ipoke, I learned that he is afraid to try ba< cause ho is afraid to fail agofai.
Three, wetkt ago ho called to soy he wouldn't see me any more because he didn't want to ruin mjr life and if he foiled he didn't want'to drag ma down with him. I was so shocked'that I.was unable to; reosOn with him or soy anythfaig that might help or encourage him.
come to on end.
When he felt pressured by your advice ond your specific suggestions, his inferiorities were re-crouted, ortd he lost confidence in himself.
But the role yoa played coaaot bo held totally
responsible for his running owoy. Some people ore OS frightened at the thought of/aibcess os others ore of failure. Bosicolly, their problem is the some. The irKtrdinote feor of failure inakes any movement toword success oppeor terribly risky. They cdnriot take o chance at failing, and so never tokcocharKe at succeeding. This feor does not necessarily limit Itself to only one area of operation. Sooner or later it-appears in all relationships —- oociol, marital and vocational.
Your optimism OS to how much hclp you con be to hirn is ratherriirweolistic. A;person's Irise-curity can never be dispelled merely by encourog;^ ing or complimentary remarks fiorn frferids or . . ..    . loved ones. While the person teves to hear the
Ever since,^i hove boew mBatoble. AiihougiL l_. nice things thot or* saW to him, he doesn't tmst
wasn't sure of my feelings for him bofote, I now feel that I am in love with liim. Since he lives bi my aelghbofliOod I pass him on the sttoet Occasionally, but lie ignores eiid avoids mm as much as possible.
I know thot if I could talk lo Mn I cooM encourage him and give him the confidence that he needs. Would it be right for me to start « discuuion with him? Is thera any way for ma to get him bock?
ANSWER: Although he is chronologicoiiy of age to get married, your former dote is apparently, still too young emotionally and much too .unsettled and insecure vocationally to form a lostirtg relptionship. Even more thon the financial resporisibllities of marriage, the yourig mori Is probobly frightened by Its emotional implicdfions.
Usuolly d youth of 23 with eglri six years younger assumes the leadership. It k he who advises and guides,, arid she who listens ond follows. A young mqh. of this oge may seek out o girl much younger than: himself becouse he con feel superior and achieve status only with o- less experienced person. ^
As long as it stayed In the talking stage, the rclotionship he hod with you was fine. But when it hod to be implemented by acts, then it hod'to-
them anymore than he trusts himself.' He feels thot the sweet, complimentary remarks ore used os a polliotive or sedative to quiet'the agitating fears within him.
• .* ■
Yea percehro thot Ih* leesoa be geva (or brooking
up wos just o means of getting owoy frorn you witfwut hurting himself or you too.much, A lorge port of your roitcry stems from hovirtg given him the material for breaking Off the relatkirtship.
You yourself state thot you .%ref»n't too sure of your feelings before.: Only after ho broke off : did you decWe, you. really loved' him.' When he become unavailable, then he become desirable. This is rK> Feolbosis for bveiwrja sigh of true love.
You are old enough, of 17, - fo'foce.the foet thoit if this boy really loved you, he would not give you up arid ovoid you. He did you o great service in some ways, in withdrdwing, from the scene. He is. giving you time to grow lip. emo-^tionolly, ond tomoke a better choice.
When you have: gotten over your anger, you will :l>e able to greet him casually in passing. Ybuwin then see him in his proper ploce, os just a pdssirig person In your life..
FijiaBieial Crisis
QUESTION: Because my mothop-ln^owBuffeiM o stroke and needs quite 0 bit of modicai ono nursing can, our expenses hove grawn quite out of preportion to my husband's income. This inalEoe it necessary for me to go bock to work, at least until my mother-in-law's condition improves and our expenses come bock to lionmol.
However, i don't know whot. is the best thing to do with regard to my childran. I have twin sons age 3. They ora fine, healthy boys, completely normal in every respect, and I. wont to keep them that way. With my past secretarial experience, i kn^wlcan, earn o good sojhiry, but 1 don't know whether to piit the boys into a good aarsery school or got a woman to come into the house every doy to take core of them and do light houMkeeping. , \ Having o woman in every dby would cottahily Nl easier for line. My beds would be mode, my dishes .washed and perhaps niy dinner wobid even be prepare.^. But would this be as good for my childran os e nursery schooir ANSWIli Whot«v«r menefeiy
your husband-assume for his nrwther's-core, you must always be nriost rhliidful of ttie psychological cost to your^children^ ^
A working mother who hds tO'poy for school-Irig and some after-school core: of her children, plus hei- own carfare, luncheons and clothing/ must earn o very good sabry in order to hove any appreciable sum left over. In addition; when somelwdy other than the wife runs the. house; the. fringe exehses always increase. Also-a person who has hod^experience running a house and caring for children usually commands 0 very good solory.
Ther* ora some eily   nursery schools yrhoio
services ore ovdiloble to the children of "working mothers. While some mothers pay rK>thing, those who con offbrd to pay ore charged occording to their ability to do sa But when the children were ill and stayed hon»e from school, you/would hove to stay oWdy from work, entollinga,possible k»s In sakiry. Also; school'holklaysore.notVfwce«<'
<
MWaO
to light of faihue to coaq>ensate the Jewish owners of a prosperous eenmt firm which was sabnd by Hermann Goring 1998 and which is now under the trusteesfa^ of the West German State.
FORCED TO SELL TOGOERING
The flim, ths Xalkwei^ D. Punk of R^ensburg. was owned by tbe Austrian Jewish family of Homlk. This family was forced to take German nationality after Oie; Nazi, invasfan. of JLustda. in; 1938. Withlii a few wedu pressure was hrou«^ to bear on the family to sell the firm to the Bimcmaa Goring Werke, a vast tadustrial complex which was centred on the iron ore mines of Watenstedt-Salsgttter and wfakdi was beins built up by meaiis of ccmfisct^on, tlue^ and forced agreements^
MONET CONFISCATED
The Homik family bad to the firm, for one million ma^ against a face .value of two million marks anid a higher asset
value. The one million marks was then Md>Jected to Nazi "special' taxes which were levied on Jews. The Hotnik family could not tou^h the much smaller residue, irtiich was paid into a blocked mark account. Under the currency refonh of IMS such blocked nnaric accounts were depredated to between 6 and 10 per cent of their face value. .
COURT FIGHTS DELAYING ACtiONS
The Hornik family fled vf run Nad persecution diprtly aiter the virtual confiscation of the Begensburg fimi. and since 1960 Jt has been trylnig to got back its property but has stiU not g6t even a part of it. For the West Geirdaii law (»urts ha,ve fougjtt a delayinsr acition which may well have a l«ig: term aim—the retentiian of this firm in Government hands until there are no claimants left to press for its restoration.
Wheii the case of the Kalk-werke D. Punk was brought before a Begensburg court, its lullng was that the Herman Cioring Werlce was an ordinary, pleaceful / undertakii^, created by normal commercdal methods. Courts of appeal have later ad-netted -that a claim for restitution of ppopwty should be alkmed in principle, and the Nuremberg lestitutioQ court has directed thiat^-an agreement should be reached between the Jewish owners igmd the preeoit trustees. But this court has not ye^ laid down a firm basis for such an agreement..
STATE OWNS FACTORY
The present trustees-are, theo-reticaUy, the firm of Steine.und Erden, In GosMur. This firm is 100 per cent State owned and a compoheiit of the. more broadly based holding onnpaiiy of the A.\Q. Fuer Berg und Hutten-betriebe. Steihe urid Erden is a thriving concern, with an; annual tuntover of about 30 < milUoh nuui^ Likie oth«r Stata ad. ministered eompaniea tt enjoips advantages over noimal eom» meidal undeitaUnffi. There are aiiar»«o)dsn^ and. pnttUa
can be ploughed back into the business under the most favourable possible terms.
The case of Steine und Erden is based on the supposition that the State has invested large sums of money in the Kalkwerke D. Punk and should therefore be entitled to claim a share, evoi a controlling share, to the business. Against this it is argued that The West Gennan State has been enWIed coty to ddegate managerial reaponsajility for this Arm, pending Us lestoratkm ta its rightful owners. ^The approsdtes made to the Jewish owners of tite firm have betrayed a growing uncertainty of conscience. The first offers of a "sbare out" between the own-en and the State were couched in vague language. Then i»me a recommendation by the Nuron-henLOOfivt.fto a.4^ omtirdpr ipnMnt s&te out betweiBn^tl^'
owners and the SUte. I^ter a 50-50 division of. assets was unofficially prtqxMed. But Steine und Erden. which is no more than the underling of the Federal State, has continued to maintain that around 80 per cent of the firm's assets should be retained by it.
UNCERTAINTY OF CONSCIENCE
An.taqportant step was taken by tlie West German authorities in-appointhigaja economic tapert a Herr Preiberger, to tacamine the oonfUcttog daims. AcconUng to the owners, his report indicated that an 80 per cent interest dxMld go to the owiwrs and a 20 per cent share be retained hy the State trustees. This urdiiased' report has .either been ignored or forgotten.
The l^lkwerke lias taken over, by the.Nssi oofitetdlBd HOrmatmi
Goring Werke 22 years ago. It was iterated during the war by slave labour, and expendable workers were sent to the gas chambers. Elements in the numi^iement of the Hermann Goring Werke complex have remained in positions of authority, and there have recently been re-uni<m celebratioris iriiich cast an unfortunate light on the powers of survival of the Naii industrial bureaucracy.
"BURDENED" WITH PROPERTY
This affahr is governed by a strange paradox. The West German Governmort, in the words of the German Iixlustrial Institute, is nMudened" with property worth at least-mlllian marks, whose vahw is bicreasfaig. Property owned by FedMal, Lander and mirolf^par authorities now' has ut eitflmatfd
value of 28,000 million marks. It is the Pederal GovenmMnt's declared policy to divest itself of such holdings. It did this with, for instance, the PTeussag coal and nonferrous metal firm a year ago. and IsDow in process of doins tt with the Volkswagen motorcar firm.
The IfMlustriisI Institute points out that. Government holdings in industry benefit to an unfair degree, as opposed to public companies. The latter an
average dtvidoid of 9.3 per cent last year, vrtiile the average for Gorenmsat oontrolled firms was 4 per eenl. The Industrial Institute admits that new owners (in the form of shardMldns) mig^t have to be found for
Government htid undeitaUngs. This does not apply to- the Kalk-werke D. Punk, whose rightful awnera.]iapve hem eUlmint^' their propnty tor ttw 1^
BOOKS AND MEN
BY HAROLD RIBALOW
THE JEWIN THE NORTH-AMERICAN LITERATURE
B Is one of the paradoxes of Jevi^Ameiican fkstian that the more sUcoeeafui it is and tbe noore aoceptaUe it beocmes, the more Americari it bepOmes. Once creative Jewish writing in ttie United States w»s an alien se^XKnt of Americah literature, treated aa tbouj^ it were an exotic hot^uwaa fknrar. Its authors ware Judged to be some-hoir ua-Amedcan while, at the same tkni^ those who wrote of Ixiah^Americaa Uf^, or Itidian American life, or Armeniui immigrants to America, were ranked as Americaa novelists. Today ihe Jewish work of fleUcxa is not (Hdy read by ncm^ews; it is abs<^utety unbraced by ^ thern. Lem Dris's "Exodus" is only the
latest and most extrerhe exurq;>le of this trend, biit it Is a common ooet
in addition, Jewi^ writers rio longer need expect, indifference from the critics. Three decades ago the noyels of a Ludwig
yean novds by Jemne Wddman rrhe Enemy Gamp"). Mjnton S. Kaafmaoi ('^Remember Me to God"), Jleyer Levin ("Com-palBton" andr«1Bva"). Hdman Weak (»BIarj«de Mondngstar") have been national best^sdllers, and many of than bave bedi sdected as lint ehefoes by book dobs. It Is no aoddent tbat Bany .GoldeB. foUowbg the pabUeatioa of "Only In Ainieriea" and "FOr 3 e.JPiidn.'^ shcmld have beoome a n^enal orsde. He has halt Us name ta advertisements by ibe Ford Motor Company, by; El AI airlines; and seorm (of other oemnierdal^terprises. He wAtea a natiohally isyndicated eolnmn in which he dlseosses Yiddish poetry, Isnud, the East JSflde,' and nudal segregation. Be appcan en radio and tdevislon book-nps. He is a Pusonality — even thoo^ be^Is a Jewlsh\Fer-sonaUty M/wdL The 'Idsi of deaih". wU^ eiiee was attached to aMiet JewlA wadv; hasjbeen washed away kr nattMMd amvt-
Thus, for the second yrar in succession, a book of^ Jewish short iftories has been awarded the National Book Award, oiie of the hig^Mst accolades of the American piddishtog industry. TUs, ]reu^ wbmer nas "Good-
bye, C(dumbu8", by a6-year.oId Philip Roth, a ooUectian of short fiction phis an ambitiduB noveUa. ah of thtm (wttfa one eoBociitkm) dealing with ndddlOrdaiss Jews to the United States. Mr. Roth*^ worie is hig^ controversial, for
his oausila appraacb ■ to Mr ehanaeters lends credence H chMTges o« Jewidi self-hatredtf Neveitfaaloas. tt is symptomatic that a prevtously r unknown airthor could, with a single (eeattaed ea pmie I) •
By Carl Alpert
I Think As I Please
Lewisohn were not rioticed by the literary headme^ of Arner-ka's ci;itical jounuds. Maurice Samuel,-ft-r-proflle novelist 9S well ak e^yist, remalnied uii-mentioned in the acaderhic literary histories. A Meyer Levin was also left in limbo.
Today the f Jewish novel and short story win national awards; Jewish writers civtue ttie icover of "Time" magasine; and novris by Jews (as as nbn-ttetlon) appear on the-biestHidlrir lists and zcmsin there ilxmlyfora year pristtoe national elements of the and longer. WikUn the past f«^^ ^sause, was considered a threat
HAIFA — Some thirty years ago the late Ittamar Ben Avi began, a movement to Latinize the Hebrew alphabet-rto print and write Hd>rew words i*on-eUcally in the ABC letters which are^conuncni to ahnost all languages of the western world He went so far as; to publish a Hd>rew newsp^ier printed in this viray, but Ben. Avi's attonpt to popularise this program faikd.
He was a prc^het before, his time. The strong nationaUstic impulses which motivated the revival of the Hebrew tongue as a necessary corollary of the ni^al . reWrtlL In Palestine, could brook of no compromises, the battle for Hebrew had not yet be«i wOTi, arul anythirjg whkdl   would minimise the
The use of Yiddish was dis^ OQiiraged. !nii8 fanatkal eqioUsal oi; the language paid off. Hebrew is today firmly established as the natfamal tongue of Itoael,--wlttir out competitor. Wheire as fai the old days no Yiddish nowtpuper was permitted to. appear, the custodians :of ttie natkmal culture in Israel today have Hoensed al^Tlddiah-prees. Yiddish stage shows cater to large Midlences of the dd folks or new jhanigrants, but no longer con-
stitiites any threat to Hebrew.
Ai^ ii is precisely because Het>rew Is here to stay, that the time has ctnne once again to oonsid,er the desirability of discarding the ancient alphabet hi favor of the staridard Lathi characters.
It should be emphasised at the outset that there is nothing sacred or nationaUstlcaUy precious about, the classical Alepb Bet. The Mter ^ carne into uiae relatively:late In Jewish history. Ths Dead Sea Scrolls are written
obviously related to the modem Aleph; Bet Sitill. they cannot be read easily by the modem Isr^-li. Bar Kochba and the Maccabee^, Isaiah and King I^vid, would not be able to read a modern Hebrew paper.
At any rate, the argiiments in favor of Latipixing are worthy of serious consideration. The nature of world cqnununlcatlon today is such that standudi-zatiori is Increatingly necessary. How fbrtimate that the fathers of modem HObrew did not also iiisist on retaining the letters of the Aleph Bet as numerals. Wisely, they jielded to. the internationally standard Arabic nu-rnerals.
Growing numbers of people are today studying Hebrew. For millions of - Jews it can serve as a second language, ^a bond >be-tweoi them and Jeire dsefilriliere, as well as ah historic and cultural tie with Israel. Retention of. ttie : ciuhbersonM, straiige letters makes "sfady of U» language uniaeoBSsarlly difficult ddays mastery of the -tongue, and in niany cases discourages would-be students. It miay sound surprising, but aside from Jits a^faabet Hebrew is ui easy language to leani. The Aleph Bet may be artistically attractive, but it is responsible for keephig Hdirew a closed book not Onliy to Jevra. but also to maidy others Of the western world whoVmlght OaA it desirable to acquire the language.
Otlier nations have faced' this some problem. In recoit^generations ttie Gemuui language has: gradually drifted from its own individually jdiqied letters to the rnodem, sinqiie Roman char^ actors. In Tuhcey. the.step was taken jRlUi radical efficiency, aiid .^qUlte suooeasfully. ISuiy Ed|^ has uhdergorie great modiflcattoiiB. No pwrticulair vir-
an archaic form, when a better and tmiversal substitute is ai hand.
Any Hebrew secretary or typist can tell of the difficulti^ which she faces in typing Hebrew when numerals are involved. The typewriter carriage moves to. the right »s she types her Hebrew s«itence, but the mo-mmt she comes to a row. of figures (which are i-ead from left to right in EngUsh style) she has to pick them out backr wards, or play games with the typewriter carriage; This is. but one of the practical cUfficulUes in the use of ttie andent characters that bedevils government .and budness office* aUke through Israel.'
More familiar is. the problem of the .missing - vbwels-rthose-dots wki dashes which !?)eU out the Hebrew word in greater detail, but Me droi^)ed from ;all eiK«pt children's ■ books and rpoetry. Hundreds of thousands of .new immigrants ill Israel aris hai)di-capped ini their readlrig knowledge of Hebrew by the absence of the vowels. To include the points tai newspapers and books would be a cbsUy process,, for tedmical reascms. It seems that we prefer to retain the old forms; even ttwugh Uiis roakei printed Hebrew unintelligible to half the pc^Hilation. ;
The ttrre ^s oime, I to consider very serkmidy a shift from the old Hebrew ali*abet, to the^ihternationalty reooi^ilaed and Latin alphabell
A definiUve sysUin o« phonett4 triascriptloD ebuld ba 'certWed by Israel'k nattcnal Languagf Aoad«ny--aM the Hetoew bMM guage would be brmilht.vlthl* reach; of all ■ wlUioat: ardubul effort. SurelTrtiito VoiiWri^^ in a lipguage  rerival sepoial
(DcUy to that adiieved tar XUmM Tahudah.