8-THE BULLETSN-Thursday, April 27,1978
most prestigious M.B.A. program.
Harry Henig speaks from the travaO of e}q>erience not from untested theories^
A SHORT REVIEW of this nature cannot do justice to the
kaleidoscopic qualities of a rare look into the soul of a virtUQus man. Canada is luc^ to have had a man of Harry Hehig's stature. For the Jewish people he is ialso one of bui spiritual treasures.
MORE SSRAELI YOUTH WISH THEY WERE BORN NON-
I SOLD MYSELF A DREAM By Harry Henig Exposition Press 289 pages. $10.
IN REVIEWING a book by Harry Henig, the conventional rule of 'literary criticism must be waived. It would be easy for a mischievous critic to point out the infelicities of style, the factual errors, the disorganized subject matter and the errors of diction which are found in this extraordinarily interesting autobiographical memour by one of. the Canadian Jewish community's most colors personalities.
To concentrate on these deficiencies would be to miss the point. Harry Henig is a national monument and he should be respectedas an eloquent testimony to a period of Canadian-Jewish history, for his book furnishes important insights not only into the man himself but into the social history of the Canadian West as well as Toronto.
One can learn more about the trials of Canadian Jews in the early years of this century from Harry Henig than from maiiy a learned treatise.
HENIG HAS TWO GIFTO as a writer. He has a sense of humor and a finely-honed moral sense. The first quality is reflected in the hundreds of anecdoctes some true, others fanciful, which are found throughout this book. I found myself constantly . chuckling at Henig's descriptions of life in Western Canada. Equally amusing were the author's lau^ter-pro-voking chronicles of his experiences in the retail dress business in Toronto.
Probably the best of the latter is his retelling of his attempt to remove a garment from an "Amazon" who had entered a
Significant New Book Reviewed by Dr. Ages, Professor of Romance Languages and Literature, , University of Waterloo.
HARRY HENIG
fitting room to try on a dress. Because his female sales personnel were absent, and because of the woman's height, Henig had to mount a ladder in order to assist the woman in this delicate exercise. When he succeeded in his Herciriean task, Henig discovered that;the woiid(ai^^as stkrk haki^!
VWhy are you looking at me like that," she said, "I am not that ugly."
lliiS story is merely one of the many vignettes that Henig records in his absorbing memoir. Readers will enjoy the author's explanation of how he purchased a grocery store in Winnipeg, deceived by the
owner's claim that it was largely a phone order operation; and how he divested himself of the same store through a less than admirable stratagem. "I was a candidate for survival, not sainthood," remarks Henig.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I followed Henig's involvement in transporting chocolate eddies (they melted under the hot praurie stin). It is {easy to understand his indignation in the face of cruel exploitation by ruthless foremen when Henig worked as a truck driver in the depression years in Western Canada.
What makes the narrative so enjoyable is the author's ability to reflect good-humoredly on his triumphs and failures.
DESPITE THE FAILURES Henig always maintained his moral equilibrium. The death of a much-beloved wife after a lingering illness rocked him to his foundations. His religious upbringing in Rypiana (Ukraine) and his wide readings in literature and philosophy have made of Harry Henig a kind of Jewish Eric Hoffer.
His book is filled therefore witti aphorisms and witty sayings from the rabbis, from English literature and from Harry Henig's own rich reposijtory of life experi^ces.
The art of saiesmanship filtered through Henig's own business acumen acquired during almost 40 years selling various commodities, is prominently displayed in this bode. I daresay, moreover, that an aspiring businessman would learn, more about his future metier by reading the nuggets of wisdom in this book than by enrolling in the
JERUSALEM — Israel's young people are tummg away from their Jewish roots, Professor Simon Herman of the Hebrew University observed here, addressing a seminar on 'The Jewish Character of Israel Society'.
The researcher reported on a survey he conducted which asked the following questions: If you could be born anew, would you choose to be bom a Jew?; If you could be bom anew outside Israel, wbuldypuchoose to bebom a Jew?
The response, Herman disclosed, was as fbllowis: To both questions, 100 percent of the Orthodox youths opted fdrJudsusin. But amon^ others; only 62 percent preferred to be bom as Jews in Israel. If they were to be hwn abroad, only 35
percent would opt for Judaism. These findings were those of a 1985 poU.
The same questions were asked in 1975, Herman reported. "We sought to learn if the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War has affected Israelis' thinking . along religious lines. Wediscovered that not only had their Jewish identity failed to deepen, but it had actually weakened. IM^re of thef secular Israeli boys and gurls wished th^ had been bom nonsJews."
As for Jews abroad, Herman believes that despite Zionist activity, Jews are really less tied to Israel and their own people today than in the beginning of the cen-ixacy.
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live without fear of reprisal and without prejudice to their ability to work or study, to seek to exercise the right guaranteed not only in the Helsinki Fuial Act but also in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to leave their country to go to Israel or to another country of their choice."
He said that the Soviet Union's "sehsitiVity to honest criticism can lead it to retreat for a tune into retribution."
Referring to the recent imprisonment of Jewish activists and other dissidents, Goldberg declared: "The temptation exists as we have seen in its reaction to the brave efforts of individuals -r maiiy but by iio misahs all Of whom are Jewish to imbhitor Soviet compliance with Final Act.
"What happens to these individuals -T- the Orlovis, the Gin-sburghs and to Anatoly Shatansky; who combines in his person both the role of,monitor and 'refusnik,' seeking to exercise his right to emigrate to Israelwill tell us
much about how in the short term the Soviet Union will respond to this new imperative of in-temational affairs and about how far the detente process can presently go." ;
He called ''detente between East aiidW^t precarious and subject to rev^sal" but added: "Over the long run I am confident that the powerful idea of human rights, not only for jews but for all, which was articulated in Brussels seven years ago and which has now become a central element, must prevail."
Goldberg said that the U.S. government will publish the procieedings of the Belgrade conference which lasted six months and ended early this year.
He also ssad he w pointed by the poor pre^ coverage of the conference, especially by the American press, but attributed it largely to the fact that most of the sessions were dosed.
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He said he was not sure ttiat he would attend the next conference to monitorthe Final Act which is to be held in Madrid in 1980 but will continue to discuss human rights with American and world leaders in the interim. "
The children's march to the Soviet Embassy was the opening eirmi of National Solidarity Day for Soviet^ewry. It drew a crowd of some 4,000. The rally ; that preceded it was addressed by several members of Congiress.
The letter addressed to Brezhnev pointed out that the principle of the Helsuaki Final Act was the right of "all people to live in a country of their dunce. That, chiance to go elsewhere is why our parent grandparetnis cameto th^ country," the letter contiitued.
"We can^^ country or we c£ui lea^^ a up elsevi^re. in f^ . friends and their families have goi^ to Israel to build a Jewish state,''the letter concluded.