New French novel causes stir
Thursday. February 12. 1981 — THE BULLETIN — 7
BY MICHEL GURHNKIEL
PARIS — Is Tikoun (Mending) the most powerful Jewish novel ever published in French? That is a question that French Jews and non-Jews are asking about the book written by "Arnold Mandel. the Alsatian-born novelist and essayist.
Mandel enjoys a considerable reputation as one of French Jewry's foremost intellectuals. His studies of Chassidism and of Jewish communal life, his reviews in the Jewish press and his lectures at the Rashi university centre display good humor, zest and scholarship.
A hallmark of his work is his distinctive view of "national" philosophy, a blend of ultra-Orthodoxy and the recent and partly secularized populist-tradition of Eastern Europe.
MandeFs earlier works — Periple (1972). The Silenced Virgin (1977) and a short story. The Hundred Gates — discuss and resolve the Jdea of the misfit striving for human and diviiie love, the dream of some ultimate kingdom where the contradictions of happiness and Jewishnessl and law and desire would be reconciled.
Tikoun. his .latest work, is an amplification of the theme which, in a mystical sense, describes the process by which man overcdmes^ original sin..
However, the novel is no mere philosophical tract. The hero is a French-Jewish writer. An Safran,
UKRAINIAN
SPECIALTY RESTAURANT
UKRAINIAN CUISINE AT ITS BEST
Opposite Rtetonond Mimicipai HaB
6950 No. 3 Rd., Rmd. Tetephone 273-4255
OpMi 10 Mn-10 pm llon.-Si«. S pm-9 pm Sun. -
Hi
THE" RESTAURANT ON THE WATER
FALSE CREEK MARINA
• •• ••••• • • • • • •
lOOOTAYLORST.
^ (footofSmytlie)
6874)111
LiiiKfieon: ^''Tiiday to Friday
DINNER 7 DAYS A WEEK
Yes! We are open Sunday Evenings
Pvivate Dinner itoens ond Bmiqiset Focilifies Avoilobie
who plans to write his memoirs, to be entitled Karma. ;
The vehicle allows Mandel to attack, with considerable irony, the so-called -symbiosis" of Western culture with Jewish values: eroticism; enlightenment: aestheticism: Marxism, and even some-reactionary forms of Zionism.
Mandel holds some sections of French Jewry to ridicule when he repeats the nineteenth-century story of a French Israelite** who made the naive claim that **there is no room fo^ anti-Semitism in Voltaire*s country.**
He IS no less scathing about the Israeli **micromaniacs** who hold their country to be a pocket-size.
social-democratic place where G-d never spoke.
Th& message is one of redemption, where the misfit can become the scholar. Karnia can lead to Tikoun and somehow, somewhere, the real ties with real, living Judaism can be renewed.
Mandel is just one of a whole school of French Jewish novelists apd writers who have claimed public attention in recent years with books on the Holocaust. Chassidism and contemporary Judaism.
Yet. he is perhaps unique among them in his mastery of a style which embraces both pure Judaism and a true expression of French culture.
JCNS.
Jewish teligious revival occurs In Singapore
SINGAPORE — Although Sing-apote*s Jewish community has dwindled to about 400. there has been a great revival in religious life since Rabbi Isaac Benzakin came frorn Spain in 1975.
Until his arrivaL the coihmunity had been without a minister for some three years.
Due to Rabbi Benzakin'js efforts, there is a minyan for moriiing and evening synagogue services, and a large attendance at Sabbath services. Some 40 children are receiving instruction in the Talmud Torah.
The Jewish National Fund and Wizo are both active, but links with Israel remain muted. The Singapore Government is politically neutraL maintaining diplomatic ties with both Israel and Arab States.
The leaders of the community have acquiesced in a political request to keep links with Israel at a low and unofficial leveL and it has declined to
John Lennon forest planned near Safad
SAFAb — John Lennon*s widow. Yoko Ono. has pronjised to compose a special song for the dedication of a peace forest in his memory near Mt^ Meron. it was reported here recently.
The forest will be planted in several weeks by a group of Arab children from- Galilee along with children from Safad.
Shortly after Lennon*s slaying, a group of orthodox immigrants from the U.S. living here began raising money among Galilee residents and Jews abroad for the forest. Contributions totalling $600 recently arrived from the U.S.. mainly from New York and Philadelphia.
The Jewish National Fund helped the group find a suitable site for the forest, believed to be the first Lennon memorial forest in the world.
Bank Hapoalim in Safad has opened a special account. No. 239684. for those wishing to contribute to the project.
(Jerusalem Post).
Reject Menten appeal
THE HAGUE - The Dutch Supreme Court recently rejected an app^l by 81-year-old Dutch millionaire Pieter Menten against his lO-year jail sentence for war crimes committed in Poland.
TheArgo Restaurant
OUR SPECIALTfES:
• SEAFOOD
• STEAK and LOSSTER
• PRIME RIB
• LAWIB
Pills a very winiive 3f iio Sir
Special this week: Steak and Lobster. Baked Salmon. S7.%
(ample paiking) 2340 WeSt FOUflll AVO. ««Mnfiawt 731-1736
join the World Jewish Congress.
Rabbi Benzakin disagrees with this policy, but he is out-voted.
Jews have been established in Singapore since 1841 when the first synagogue was built. Their numbers grew with the arrival of merchants fron^ Cafciitta. as well as Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East areas. In the peak years, there was a community of more than 2,500.
Today, there are two synagogues, although only one, the Maghain Aboth in Waterloo street, is in regular use. The other synagogue, the Chesed El. was built in 1905 as a private extension to the home of Sir Manesseh Meyer, who led the community in the closing years of ~the nineteenth century.
Singapore*s leading Jewish official is' David Marshall, 72, who was his country*s first Chief Minister in 1955, He will be retiring soon as Arhbassador to France. ' JCNS.
EGYPTIAN MINISTER of State for Wampt Afbin,BMras Gfeafiiccn^ Aviv Univcrsiiy pnrfcssors tiiat tJK MinBafization ptocMswiBaotMovefwwMdwalil a solBtion is found to tfac PkietiniaB probBcm. Inthe fktmn (GhaS tfcinJI fhmi riffat aloag witfa Ptrof. BM-Sfcdkar, Ptcsidcnt of Td Avir Uoivcnitj) look at the' University's Soia^ Electric Research Car. (bnelSam.)
Claim ship attaclcedby pirates
EILAT IsmdU sailors claim that th^ usecf automatic weajpons in a prenlawa battfe to ch^ 40 armed pirates wWboaid ship in Manila haitor stycial iveeks ago.
Crew membeis of tbeshipEtiog, which arrived in Eilat recently, said that the pirates jumped^ into the water duriiig the exchange of fiie to flee in waiting motor-equipped canoes. But at daylncak the sailors discoverod that the pirates had made <^ with considerable booty, including two oxygen tanks.
The EtrogTs captain, former cavy officer Anmon Tadmor, would not confirm the story, but other officers said it was true.
The sailors said that their ship had docked at the caphal of the Philippines to seelf emergency treatment for a crewman injured in a work accident wben the ^p iras en route to Yokohama from Siiigapore.
For the finest smoked Lox. Superbly Oait Smoiced on the premises to readr you moist, tender^ and in prime «o^
Sliced 11 Jn per lb.
Street 286^19
(Continued from Pkge 1)
One of its major passages read: **The classic Zionist ideology which denigrates the prospects for a secure or meaningful Jewish existence in the Diaspora, and which conceives of Diaspora existence as living in exile, is remote from the thinking of most Jews who live in free democratic societies.
**The persistent hopes and efforts of Israeli leaders and Zionist organizations to achieve substantial increases in aliyali from Western Diaspora communities cannot confidently be counted upon to achieye far greater success than they have achieved in the past.**
Another key passage stated: **To forge stronger ties between Israel and the Diaspora, we rtarommend that Israel, with the active participation of the Diaspora, create a strong and dedicated Shalom Corps, whose members would spend a year or two abroad in response to requests from weaker communities for teachers, rabbis and other essentiaf Jewish services.**
The document was not formally preseiited to the assembly nor endorsed by resolution. Edgar Bronfman, president of the WJCon-gress. stated in his preface to the document' **Its independent conclusions and recommendations are naturally those of the Commission alone — the World Jewish Congress is neither responsible for nor committed to accept or support any of them. We do believe, however, that this thoughtful, sensitive and significant report warrants the
Rafygae oa-mp inu.rdsr
JERUSALEM — Jamal Yassin, 5Q, was murdered in the Jebalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the 12th murder there in the last few months. JTA.
serious coiisideration M»ri(^^ Jews everywhere.*^ Tlwrstiii^ was initiated two years ago by Philip Klutznick who was then the WJCongress president.
The document was sharply criticized by WZO leaders. Leon Dulzin, chaimaan of the WZO Executive, appointed an Executive subcommitteelo prepare the WZO*s official response to the document
Dulzin aidvised against exaggerating the importance of the WJCongress. "This is a body which represents communities, and it cannot compete with the WZO." he said. WZO treasurer Akiva Lewinsky* charged that too many monied individuals were on the WJCongress Commission, thereby distorting its findings. He said that althpugh it was a document that could not be ignored, he was not ready to accept it as the unanimous voice of Diaspora Jewry.
Moshe Krone, of the department of Torah- culture in the Diaspora, sujggested that the Zionist Executive issue a protest against the actual publication of the document, since its authors exceeded their authority. Tavin said that the document was "chutzpah.** JTA.
SANDRO
ITiyjAffiSIMO!
WE USEi> TO CALL OURSELF
^aie the same people! We serve the same beauiul
niimmK
SANDRO RESTAUimT
774 OBMMiSr.(fMrflabMfi) S»0545-OpM5:98pjli,