Friday, March 2, 1956
JEW I SH   WESTERN 'BULLETIN
Page Five
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Books
• Alt    • Humor
'    EDITOR'S NOTE — This article is reprinted from the 1955-5$ edition of the Jewjsh i^k Annii^,:published by thef Nat^ JeMiidi Welfare Board- Jewish Book Council of America
Prol^sBp^ Liptzin, who Is editor of the Je^^ the article in connection with the ceniyinial bf '.>wiiich'dcdurr
By PROF. SOL LIPTZIH
HEINRICH HEINE was bom 13, 1797, at Diisseldorf on Paris oh February 17j 185a
Two years after his death, Matthew Aihiold stood beside Ae grave at Mcntmarte arid inahy; eniginatic t h 6 u g b t s cpiirsechthrough h^ niind ais be poMered the mfelahbholy fate of the gifted Geririah: Jew. Tlies0 thought^ the Eriglish critic recdi^ed in: a poem, entitled Heine's Grave, of which the xnost memorable lines were the following: V ^ ^^e spirit of the world, ^ Beholdins the absurdity ,of •■■inen '-^'-''^
Their vaunts^ their ifftats-^
let a sardonic smUe, For one short moment^ wan-
/.■•derso^er-liis':lii».'V.  ..:'.■' lliat si^^ y-SpT :;iti5''eart^
The stranire euest ^airkled: •flow *tis paasjBd^^^a^ Wtiiout being aware of the fact, Arnold had thus characterized not only the individual, Heituich Heine, but also the entire Jewish gene^ the Age
of Jewish parents on December the Rhine and died an exile in
of Emancipation, the genei'ation of which Heiiie can be regarded as ihe lanric spokesman and m^ sensitive symbol/i
The young n»n who swar out of the ghettos of Central Europe after their liberatloh from age-cid diMbilities by Napoleon and who sought to partake of the fruits of Westei-n ilnlightemnent were indeed strange guests M the banquet of Europe. The chaim-pagne of, liberty, equality, and fraternity,- of which they were invited to sip-^to sipbiit not to drink too hcartily-^thcy drained quickly to the last drop and became far top intoxicated. They had been-inYitedvas guests and they, made themselves at home.
lliey sb^ discovered, however, that their hosts were n<Jt too happy at the easy familiarity with which the Jews entered into the German heritage. Tension mCiint-ed ironi decade to deca^. The greater the urge of Jews^^^^^t^^ in-teisrate themselves into German
By OR. H ARiRY WIN ROB
REPRESENTATIVE collection of Israeli folk songs has recently been made av^sHble on ^1^^ iriiJ*;, No. 65iMt». It features Sharona Aron^ a native Israeli with a natural flair for folk singing. _
Miss Aron stumbled on her sihgihg career quite by accident a few years ago - while jiattending New York University^ She stayed at International House where it was the jcustpm^^
Tjepresenting countries from all over the woridj to present a cultural. program typical, of their Iu>nvela ISharona; folk sbriis of Israel a i)ublic whidi them; "with; such
enthusiashi that before she kne>ir it she was repeating them on'the radio and before wider audiences. Stiniulated by the experience, she learned to accompany.{herself on the guiitar, increased her repertoire and soon^ fbtind herself in { ■prof^ional demand.
In this, her first recording presented to a North American audience. Miss Arch, makes a valuable contribution to the evergrowing list of Israeli music, on records. vSoihe of the songs *aie
RECORDED MUSIC
Reviewed in this column,'togetlier wirfi current seiectiont IkiHi POP«|-l«r ond clossic<bi moy be pur-clrased.ot , . , - ^
FRANK 6. WARD MUSIC Lm
412 W. Hostings TA.6545
Mail Or4ers Promptly Attended To
recently imposed bui in; terms of their content which ties thein so closely to real life, simply stated and in a musical style which conforms to this simplicity, they poissess all the requisr ites of fclk nriiusic. They deal with the every day matters of work, and play, loVe and nature, in their many facets.
Miss Aron brings to these songs an intelUgerice ahd good taste that will only ingratiate her to her audience. Her singing is refined, intimate and relaxed; She does not strain for^ artificial effects that would J)rcject her own persCnality at the expeiqse of the folk character of the songs. Nor does she over«polish them so ttiat they become commercial products contrived for a foreign market. One can easily imagine the informal and spontaneous singing of these > songs wherever people gather for fun and Relaxation.
It is difficult to find a favorite aniongst this collection. So many of them have a freshness ai^d a vitality^ that flows from a rich melodiousness suitably fused with their content. Certainly tiiese are amongst the best of any of the recent releases of Israeli folk music. ■
AN older recording with much to recommend'it, is the l>un-don 10*v L.P. No: LS 409. Here we have the full-bodied lush tenor voice of Max Reiphhardt in a group of Yiddish songs.
Mr. Heichbardt has not the im-mediate appeal of a Sharona Aron, but a igrowing familiarity with his songs and his expansive^ grandiose style leads to more
(CbiitiHJed on Page 8)
culture and to act as its emis-s^es far and wide, uthe g^ the repisance, of the original bear? er,s of this culture and the more violent the ccuhter-measures taken . againist the brilliant; JeWii^
The Jewsj too, were <disappoint-ed at the behaviCir of their fellow-citizens, w^   seeined intent oirl '■ snatching the; ftuits-^ pation,^^^
JeSitiiials jtacne^^^ see throus^- the glamorous web of words to the lurking reality of the.death-deal-■ ing spiders and a sardonic smile flitted across their lips. ;They no longer took at face yalue the protestations of good-will- -wdth which-libci'Soi and radicals-show-ered them. Some even sought to ' grope their way. back to the Jew-ishness of their childhood and to the warnnth of their, family rituals. Of these, the most distinguished were Moses Hess, who found his way from; aesthetic ~ in-, ternatiohal coxnmunism to xeligi-r ous Zionism, and Heinrich Heine^ who meandered along many erring paths before homesickness for Jewishness brought him back to . his ancestral roots.
VIVIP EXPRESSM>N OF
i COMPJE/EXmi^S .
The paradoxes, contradictions, and inconsistencies in the life and thought of Heine find their parallel in other, Jewish intellectuals of his ^ generation, but he, ; far more than others, possessed the igift of ei^ressihg these comr plexities. in Clear images and melodious verses. The pupil of the Cheder early came in contact with Catholicism in a ■French lycee at . Dusseidorf, when this town was > • temporarily dominated by French troopsji French administrators, and French culture, and hig appreciation of Catholic religious fervor - led him to compose llie Pilgii^^ age to Kevlaar, one of the finest Catholic lyrics in the German tongue.
Although Heine was in the eighteen-twenties a Colleague of Leopold Ziinz and a co-founder of the Geselichaft fur Koltur und Wissenschaft der Judni, he nevertheless turned apostate during the epidemic of baptism which characterized that decade in Germany. He was converted to I/U-theranism, even while working on his Ksbbi von Bacharach, a novel which was to idealize medieval Jewish life. As a lover of Hellenism and as an aesthetic worshipper of Venus and ApoUo, he wrote during his robust, sense-intoxicated days inspired, hymns to the gods of Greece and to the heathen heroes who, preferred beauty to truth. BACK TO JUDIASM[
However, in his years of affliction, writhing in his mattress-grave, he reverted to the God of the synagogue and to the Princess Sabbath of his childhood; he rediscovered his affinity with ancestors who wept by the waters of Babylon and with the Sephar-dic troubadowrs Ibn Gabirol, Ibn Ezra, and especially Yehudi Halevi, whom he hailed as the flaming pillar of song at the vanguard of Israeli's suffering after Berlin and Athens had failed him and he lay dying in Paris. The truth of Torah then rated higher with him than the beauty of Phidias and Homer or the mockery ot iiristophanes and Voltaire.
Scornfully he nvrote of those whose supreme achievement, lay in fashioning works of art of brick and granite. Hehad learned to prefer the Jewish artist Moses who built human pyramids, who
HEINRICH HEINE
carved human obelisks, who took a poor tribe <rf herdsmen and formed it into a people which was to defy the centuries, a great, eternal, holy people, God's people, which could serve as a model for all mankind. He had found con-solation for the loss of his German fatherland in the rediscovered portable%therlahd of his coi-> religionists, the Bible. '
•♦A book; is their ftitherlaad, their estate, their ruler, their Joy, and their misfortune. Within the well-fenced borders of this book, they live and exercise their Inalienable rights as citizens; here they .cannot suffisr e3a>tiIsio»n or scorn; here they are. strong and admirable. Burled in the reading of this book, they little noted the chaneres taking place In the real world about them. Nations arose and perished, states blossomed 'and became extlnct> revolutions swept across, the ;f^^ the earth. But they, the Jews» sat bent over their b^ the wild chase of time that swept abovf^ their ^eatds.'"
On the"- centenary of Heine's death, the Germans still regard their, finest nineteenth century
Courtesy Vancouver Province
poet, their wittiest prose-writer, the continuator of their great Goethe, as a stepchild. Put the Jews view him, despite his aberrations, as their own, a wayward chUd but still their child, flesh of their own flesh and soul of their soul. When Heine lamented that on his Yahneit no tnasi iit^ould be- sungdPdr hhh ai^ no Kaddish would. be said for him, he was but half right. No mass is being sung for him. But every Jew who hais survived the lure 6t alien hearths and Who has come home to his father's fireside recalls with poignant sorrow this early victim of a mirage of Germanization,'Russificaton, Pol-onization, or assimilation to Anglo-Americanism, a mirage from which Heine emerged crippled in body, wounded in his pride, but clear in thought.
On Heine's hundredth Yarzelt, Kaddish ought to be said for this son of Israel who left his father's house but who saw the error of his ways long before others did. He atoned by the creation of. great Jewish works, which will long be treasured among the inmiprtal products of Jewish gen-iuis.
Deborah Chapter of Hadossoh presents PREMIER SHOWING OF THE 6REAT SSRAELI PRODUCTION
Powerfully ployed by o syperb English cdsf
STUDIO THEATRE, 919 GRANVILLE SUNDAY, MARCH It; 8:15 P.M.
Tickets by invitoHon only: CH. 4789 or CE. 6137
VANCOUVER SYMPHONY
Sa.BfDAY; MASICH 4, Orpheum Theatre 3pjii.
^ /IRWIN HOFFMAN CoRdtictor
SEYMOUR LIPKIN "•fclMSl.r
Program   inefudes   Voughen-Wilitoms, ^ Concerto . Grosso •  Mozart, Linx  Symphony     •  d«  Folio,  3 OeRses Tkkots: $4.50, ?3.75, $2.59 (Inc. *n)
HUNGARIAN POP CONCERT
SAT.,, MAR. 10, Georgio Auditorium, 8 p.m.
with EDWINA HELLER, pianist i Tickots: j$1.50, $1.00 & 50e shi4«nta (inc. tax) ^
1^ Free baby-sfttiaa with Goy Scrivner. 9 "Meet your orchestra" coffee party for audience after concert. Tickets 25c.
Bex Office: 570 S^our Street (MA. «1«l)