Friday, September 21, 1962
JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN
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Deaths my father died
Editor's Note: Yehuda Ami-chai (born 1924) has published a book of poems, "^"low and at Otb,3r Days". A new kind of Israeli writer, Amichai's short stories appear in many magazines in Israel. This story appeared in Jewish Frontier and was translated from the Hebrew by Rabbi Zaiman M. Schachter, director of Hillel at the Univers. ity of Manitoba.
By VEHUDA AMffCHAI
It was Yom Kippur, and Papa was standing in front of me in the synagogue. I climbed on a chair in order to see him better from the back.. It is so much easier for me to remember his back than his face. The back of his head never changed. His face was so mobile. When he spoke his mouth was like a dark and caveirnous entrance or like a waving flag.
His eyes were like butterflies, or like istamps on a letter which is always sent to a faraway . place, pr his ears, which were ! like ships about to cast off over the ocieans of his God. His face ;i was either red or white as his hair.; Thp wrinkly waves of his forehead were but a tiny beachhead; if ronting a universal sea.
ij AH I saw then was the back Ms . n6ckw A deep furrow swept-io^her its width, almost like 4 split Although at the time I .was st^llfar away fromthis country, I then saw for the first time a dry wadi, dry and deep. Per-baps Papa, too, began with such a wadi, for the rains had not yet descended and intense heat prevailed in this land, which on that Ybto. Kippur was not yet inine.
you see are other combinations: skm and eyes, a smile and a dark entrance, hands and a mouth.
I went up to the women's gallery. I just had to tell Mamma about the miracle of Papa's resurrection. They had apples there with cloves stuck in them, for smelling so that the women would not faint wliile fasting. I am jealous of, the women. I al-ways wanted to' faint, but I
couldn't manage it, to be wiped from the blackboard, to step back from it all without having to be told what to do and without having to face opposition. The spiced apples were in the women's hands as was I, as is the whole ball of the earth. They kept me opposite the big clock as if to balance the time against (Continued on Page 9) See: DEATHS
Faith, History and Opinion
(Continued from Page 3
the so-called Jewish question, such as is posed in Europe at the present time, derives from an i antjisemitism impregnated with Christianity, In one sense, Cbristiatas cannot be antisemites —Jesus was born of the Hebrew
' I now see his face on a photograph in the closet. He looks like a mail who had begun to eat what looked like a delight'-ful dish and who has just become aware of something noi-som§4n its flavor, and now feels disappointed. The corners of his mouth, which turn downward at its edges, testify to this.
' The wrinkle in his nose testifies to this; the crow's-feet at his eyes express this in sadness. I see the testimony of so many details in his face. And I see this 'testimony not for the sake of judging him, but rather for the siafce'df judging myself.
; On. that Yom Kippur he stood '-befbr^ rne\ oh so busy with his growri-up God. How white he was ip his shroud. Beside him the whole world looked like aii abandoned picnic - ground all blackeped by campfire soot. As if the d^ncets had left and the musicians, tdo, and all that re-ma i n e d was blackened rock. Thus Papa remained, dressed in his white shroud. This then was the first death I remember.
And when they came to recite the Adoration, he kneeled altogether, touching the floor with his forehead. It seemed to me as if he were drinking with his forehead. I thought that perhaps his God was flowing between the legs of the table.
Before he kneeled, he spread the wings of his talliih in order not to soil his knees. But he did not seem concerned about soiling his forehead — and then he was resurrected. He rose without separating one foot from the other. He rose and the colors of his face changed several times and again he lived, again he was mine and I climbed oh a chair to see the back of his neck and the furrow on it. He was the resurrected flesh and blood. Why do they call people flesh and blood? Flesh and blood you only see when someone is wounded or when someone is injured or dead. When people are alive all
people*, But in another sense, many would aver unjustly, the Jews have been labelled as the people who killed God, and it is argued that their misfortunes —the destruction of the Temple; the Dispersion, ahd persecution — are Divine punishment for an inexpiable crime. '
Common Hatred
What relevance has this historic-theological argument to the Jewish question today?, ;t^ie sceptic might ask. "Hitler united Jews and Christians in . a common hatred. If he' had won the war, after the extermination of the Jews he would have waged a struggle against the Christian church, the Catholic church in particular. The small shopkeeper who hated Jews because he identified them with the owners of big stores^ was quite ignorant of the passion and the people who killed God.
I do not disregard the time span, psychological and historical, between the rivalry of Judaism and Christianity at the end of the Roman Empire and the social conflicts of today! But if one forgets this religious antagonism, one cannot uiiiclei'stand why and how Jews have become throughout the centuries the scapegoat of Christian societies, responsible for all misfortunes and an object of the desire for vengeance or expiation.
Environment
The Jews owe their cohesion, (thieir capacity to survive, both ^ to the uncompromising nature j: of their faith in a God who is unique and to the constant opposition of the world around them, the culture of the Jewish co^imunities was profoundly influenced by that of the nations in whose milieux they were living but the study of the Bible and Talmud commentaries, the intellectupl growth resulting from beliefs and traditions, left their mark on the minds of the Jewish population. It was these varied circumstances that later on came to be described as the genius of a people.
Yet do not let us go too far; hereditary gifts are not uniformly spread throughout the human species. The Jews, it can certainly be said, are gifted for metaphysical speculation, for mathematics, for commerce; they are not renowned as soldiers, in agriculture, or as creative artists. Obviously one would not wish to infer that all Jews possess these ifts, or this absence of gifts, one means, or one ought to mean by this that the number of those who are gifted or not gifted by this or that is proportionately higher among Jews than among non-Jews. Such a hypothesis is difficult to prove; it is neither borne out by the facts not contradicted by them. Now having
become full citizens, at which point do Jews lose the singularities on which they Jiave proudly drawn and for which non-Jews have either given them credit or debitv
Double Assessment The present era of more or 1/^ss complete freedom has lasted about a century for the European group of nations, markedly less in the eastern part of the old continent. The Hitlerian fury has its impact on all Jews. Orthodox or non-observant, faithful to the law of thfeir fathers or completely detached. At the present time, a Jew has to define his position by a double assessment: with regard to his religion and his tradition, on the one hand/ and with regard to israel on the other. For the existence of Israel, faitifrom solving the Jewish problen^, has given it an added Idimensioji.
In effect, although it is normal for a Frenchman of the Jewish religion to seek to be at one and the same time both a full citizen and also faithful to the synagogue, he could not legitimately claim to be both a citizen of Izrael and a citizen of France. Each of us has a country and a religion. No one can possibly have two countries. The Jew who feels himslf politically loyal to Israel has the strict obligation to square his condiicit with his sentiments, that' is to say to emigrate to the Holy Land. To make the point clear: it is normal, probably inevitable, that most Jews should have for the work of their coreligionists in Israel sympathy, admiration, respect. It would be surprising if it were otherwise, and even, to be honest, just a little shocking. I feel' iriyselJE^ Very far frohi those European Je]^y^s (there are some of theiH) * Who 'are biasically hostile to Israel because it may provide a new argument for possible persecutors in the future. But I feel also quite far from those European Jews who did not wish to become citizens of Israel and who yet believe themselves to be bound to take, part in favoring Israel in all circumstances. As France has been in recent years, in almost perma^ nent conflict with the Moslem world, this double loyalty, to France and to, Israel, has not ^reatecl- an- issu^ of conscience. One;of my acciuaintances is a :|'rench journalist of Jewish origin. Hostile to the Sinai Campaign and to the Anglo-French expedition to Suez, he was reproached for his attitude by the directors of his pai^er. "How can you, a Jew," they asked him, "leave to us the task of justifying Israel?" The reply was that citizenship is indivisible. One does not feel bound to approve Israeli diplomacy because it is that of Israel.
Liberal Century Personally, if I am asked what conclusion I draw from the experience of the liberal century, I would not hesitate: the conclusion I would draw would be exactly the opposite to the opi-(Continued on Page 13) See: FAITH
CHARTER MEMBERSHIP DRIVE EXCEEDS All EXPECTATIONS
The. new Centra's Charter Membership Drive wcps Q; fantastic success.
the Centre officials were'literally asfounded. by the tremendous Community response. At the end of the official charter period 293 memberships had been received against an original goal of 150.
In percentages thifi means that the Charter Drive exceeded the goal by 95 percent, and in terms of the total membership goal the Charter Drive finds the Centr^ with ^9 percent of its total goal of 500 families already obtained. Charter members who were not listed in last weelf's sumr mary are as follows: ,
HEALTH CLUB MEMBERS
■::f.
Mr.{& Mr. & Mr. & Mr. 8i Mr. & Mr. Si.. Mr. g. Mr. R. Mr. ]\| Mr. H. Mr. m Mr. F Mr. I' Mr. A. Dr. &
Mrs. B. Panar Mrs. A. Herstein Mrs. W. Kaplen Mrs. A. Bogoch Mrs. H. Cristall Koffman Fainstein Kantor
ftark Itman Rayburn Cdllarman Weinstein Grey
Mts. H. Krivel
Mr. & Mrs. S. Kirson Mr. B. Kleinfeld ' M. R. Kliman ^ L. Curtis E. Abramson Mr. & Mrs. M. Charkow Mr. & Mrs. N. Kates Mr. & Mrs. T. Gelfand Mr. & Mrs. J. Hindin Mr. C. Tarnow Mr. & Mrs. S. Field Mr. J. Garfinkel Mr. H. Woogman Mr, E. .B. Rosebourne Mr. H. Field
FAMILY MEMBERSHIPS
C. Margolis N. Chelin
Dr. M. Weintraub Mrs. Etta liCVinson
Jack Rose L. Plottel
J. Aknin Dr. M. S. Wolochow
H. Harrison H. Gelfer
S. Berman J. Segal
Wm. Goldman Dr. Hirschberg
Harry Baker Sonny Cohen
Sam Gold L. Lowy
H. Herman R. James
S. Winberg M'. Osten ^
J. Kafka H. Saltman
C. Friedman M. Burnstein
J. Winfield E. Glasser
Sam Zack D. Grey
G, Shapiro E. Trademan
Ed Shawn L. Komar
E. Oser L. Bevan
N. Archeck H. H. Cohen
D. Stein M. Packer
H. Isman B. Schachter
J. Austin M. Chechik
A. Kagna E. Wener
Wm. Gelmon L. Korsch
J. Samuels N. Shapiro
D. Harris M. Rose
Dr. J. White M. Solman
I. Epstein N. Singer M. Rubin
M. Koffman
R. Field D. L. Silvers
M. Kushnir H. Freeman
S. Wosk D. A. Freeman
Morris Stone L, Berger
D. Shafron S. Rabinovitch
Dr. Kliffer M. Goldstone
H. Panar H. Seeman
Dr. Mickelson M'. Abrams
Dr. Mallin B. Lerner
S. Heyman S. Angel
Prof. Lipson A. Joseph
Dr. Ames S. Malkin
I. Mackoff A. R. Bigio
L. Mallin K. Stein
H. Friedman M. R.i Chess
Dr. Winrob M. E. Thai
Dr. Yorsh Aser Harowitz
C. Leonoii Dr. Roy Waldman
SINGLE MEMBERSHIPS
Wm. Fogel
Mrs. Fannie Segal
Prof. Cherry
D. Field
R. Field
Harry Goldberg
M. Weinstein Miss A. Ru'oln Miss S. Rose R. G. Blackwell S. Simon A. .Shapiro