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Thursday, April 15, 1965 THE JEW t S fJ PO S T' Page Nineteen P~erugh~en~ ______~T~lf~E~'~J~E~W~IS~H~P~O~S~T ______~ ______~Th==~==~,_A~p_rU __ ~~,_1_96~5 -, ,---,~.=:..:~------.:..------

A HannahG. 'Fellow NEW LIG,HT ON AN ANCIENT LAN.GUAGE .. ··. Examines Bellow. Roth; even written Hebrew poetry .Qf' great and moving With this object in view the Institute of Jew­ Malamud,et aI. ' quality, in language inspired by the Bible and ish Studies at the Hebrew University s'Ome time the prayer-book. Inevitably, however, the lang­ ago initiated a project for research in the lang­ Reprinted . ~ American Judaism FASCINATING uage 'had remained static. archaic in character, uage traditions of the Jewish communities,and Denow yielding nothing to the changes that had taken charged Dr. Shelomo Morag, Lecturer in Linguis­ place in the world and in Jewish life since the tics, with its execution. A sabra ·and graduate

" days it had serv.ed as a vital medium of human of the Hebrew University,Dr. Morag has for STUDY OF intercourse. some years now been working in this field and An American Jewish Literature Is Born Traditions Established recently brought out a volume, "The Hebrew I setting, the historic Jewish mission to be the young American-Jewis1;t lawyer, living in a sub­ But if the language itself had ,become frozen Language Tradition of the Yemenite ," which "ch.osen people." Even though. they themselves urban town, is hired by 'his Jewish neighbors, HEBREW in the mould it had acquired centuries ag.o, the revealed thorough and intensive investigation of may not be aware of it, in their writing 'ancient all 'as assimilated as he, to evict from the town manner .of reading it had certainly not. The Jew­ the l3ubject.· . Jewishthernes survive in new f.orms.· Ii yes'hivah run by a Jewish displaced pers.on. ish communities. widely scattered and s.ubject to , Lar,Jre-Scale Research The NCJW Hannah G. Solomon Fellowship is given I • annually to a writer or rlsearcher doing original 'work to "The"Jew," writes Dr. Malin in the' preface They are afraid that theDP',s in their odd-looking, READING the influences .of various peoples and languages, The primary task which Dr. Morag has ,set deepen understanding of American-Jewish life.' It is ad- to his ho.ok; "Whether he likes it or not, has old-fashioneed Hassidic dress will awaken anti­ each 'began to evolve reading patterns of their himself is to record all the language traditions . . ministered by the National Foundation for always been 'chosen' ,to bear God's message. He Sernitism on the part of their 'Protestant, neigh­ .own which differed in greater or lesser degree to be found in . Aided by his students. he Jewish Culture. . , tells unbelievers that He exists. But'in America bors. They are also emMrrassed; they don't want from the patterns of others. In time certain tr~­ i s indefatig- ' Dr. Irving Malin is the second scholar he is unsure of his historic mission. He wants to be so identified. TRADITIONS ditions of, reading were established - and thIS able in estab- . to be. aw8rded the fellowship. In 1962-63 t.o be accepted by 1Jhe others; he relinquishes reli- When Eli goes to see the head qf the yeshivah, applied also to Aramaic. in which the traditional i. f '. 'itenabled Dr. Erich Rosenthal to complete lishing contact a .study that startled American Jewry by gious commitment for social gospel; he tries des- howeveer, the accusing eyes of the old Jew awaken translations .of the Bible (the Targumim:) and a with scholars' ". i i Reprinted from Scopus I "\ , its revelations about Jewish intermarriage . perately to, be 'natural,' not 'supernatural'." . ~uried loyalties in him: Filled with guilt and large part 'Of the were written - which of the various in the U.S. Like 01:. Rosenthal, Dr. Malin i,' ',," The seven writers, as he put . were 'handed down orally from father to son, communities i: ; " offers original insights into the life of it in a recent interview,. "seem with each generation adding features of its own. I . , , American Jews. His book, Jews and all 0 v e r ' the I' . , ' , . Americans, is being published this spring. to be standing on the hyphen LANGUAGE' develops through usage.. In In due course three distinct groups of tra:ditions country and , 1 :. '.~ Dr. Malin,' who is,30 years old, is an between American..Jewish. They. A. every 'age it absorbs within it,self !lew words. emerged:' rthose of the Ashkenazie Jews, situ­ t \ ,; i n persuading I ir . assistant· professor. at the City College of are in the .centre of the conflict new idioms and new forms tIf expressIon as they ated largely in Eastern Eur.opefrom where they them to corne I "; , New York. He has also written' Willjam between the two cultures. They come to it from. the street anrl the. market-place, spread out to 1Jhe U.S., to Britain and c~l"tain t: ' ! FaulkJler: An Interpretation and New American Gothic, to Jerusalem' L " ' are also full of tension becauBe from the halIs of learning and the seats. of gov­ British Oommonwealth c.ountries; of the Seph­ I " . hasco-edi~ Breakthrough,' an anthology of AmeriC!lll­ for .the pur-·· " j.;; '. ,-. Jewish writing, and is editor of Psychoanalysis' and Ameri­ none can accept the old tradi-. ernment. Language is, in. short, a reflecti.on of arqiJews; to be found mainly in the NorlhA.fri­ pose of having .. .:," L, . can, to appear later this year. tional God, but aU are engaged life itself, and ,because life is in' a constant pro­ can and certain' Middle Eastern countries; and their readings . It','" in a search fora new,God." cess of change, language too, as. it continues to of rthe Yemenite Jews, Wh.o lived f.or centuries ,I' :.. :: from the Bible , "Even when they're rebelling Schwartz" serve as a medium of communication, changes . at the south-west tip of Arabi-a. Within these and Mishina . I ·· OST READER~. think of men Hk~ Bernard against.1Jheir Jewishness, they from generation to generation, and even from groups there were sub-gr.oup/!, with c.ommunities tape - recorded., ' :. :"I:: M. ··Malamud,Phihp. Roth, Bellow as do it in a JeWish way," Dr. Malin.says, smiling. conflict, he goes "mad." He don's a Hassidic cos­ , . year to year. In the course of centuries it may in different regions, t.owns 8IIld villages eae'll Already a fair­ Ameri~n writers who jUst happen to be Jews. "Look at Philip Roth in Goodbye, Columbus. That tume and ,goes' Wandering through the. suburban become radically transformed, not only in vocabu­ introducing their own variations ,into the general ly impressive Irving Malin thinks just. the opPOsite. was a book that offended many Orthodox Jews town.' . , lary and pronunciation but even in. form and traditi'On of the group. library of ,·.·In a new ,book to be published this spring, Dr. by its rebellion agamst the trooitional God. 'But stru~ure, Thus 20th century English is only The frequent use of fantasy and madness by The Differences tapes has been Malin will .offer the thesis that American Jewry it is fun of the search for a new God. In The these .Writers is 'basic to their themes, Dr. Malin barely rec'Ognizableas the language which built uP. but Rabbi Yichye ai-Sheikh, a promi- has given birth ,to a unique 'and popular literature Conversion of·, the IJews, ,the protagonist exiles thinks. "It is easier," he says, ",to approach holi­ Chaucer used in ,the 14th century, whilst the The differenc~s in the traditions related to there is still nent member of the Yemeni~ com~ ·of·its own throughsuchwriters as Malamud, Roth. pronunciation, the relative stress laid on syllables, mlUlity .' in Israel, reads' passages himself from his rabbi. and family ina stubborn, . ness in terms of fantasy." language of Chaucer in turn in equal~y remote mulCh ,to .do. from the Mlsbna for tape-recording Bellbw,'LeslieFiedler, Isaac Rosenfeld 'and the fanatic search for: a God .who can do anything. Dr. Malin believes . that it is when they are from the language of the 8th cent)lry Beowulf. and other features. Often, for instance, the same and Dr. Momg purposes poets,Karl Shapir9 and Delmore Schwartz, These Eli. the Fanatic, one of the book's.most mov­ directly concerned with' this redefinition of their Hebrew, of a:ll the ancient languages still in w.ord was pronounced in 'a number .of· ways, de­ fEels i tWill. ' al"El not only Jewish writers, 'he says. but all are ing stories, highlights the con1lict between old Jewisihness - "reintel1Iireting the Gad of their existence today, is unique in having resisted Ibhis pending on where it was spoken. Most striking take several years bef.ore' he acquires sample linked by 'a deep need to work out, in an American . . and new cultures, Malin points out. In iIt, a (Continued on page 26) process of change over an extended period. By .of a:ll were the differences in .1Jhe reading of the records .of' ev.ery tradition in existence. When, Mishna. its absence of vowels finally, this stage is reached the material '\viIi opening the door wide to any be subjected to searchingan'alysis and study, To what iUeg~1 u:s~ean be put ?' Well, number of oral traditions. Some leading, it is expected; to results which will throw agent Burstein was Ilianded an alleged extortion of these traditions go back a .considerable .. light on a field of lingUistics in letter Written in Yiddish and !pr(lceeded to trans­ very long way indeed. The which little research :bas been done to date, and late ---,..but was stumped ,by one word. He delved .,-ews of Yemen, fur example. . ' certainly none of it on the large and systematic. Yiddish· deep into books in the Hebraic Section. of the Agent who for centuries lived in geo­ • scale now devised by Dr. Morag. -M.G. but was stillbatfled. graphical isolation, continued gation during the war years - that' he h,ad the Back 'at the otflcehesaw the answe~ suddenly to read the Mishna as it had distinction of being the first Yiddi'sh and Hebrew dawn_ ·"The word," he recalls, "W8sneither Yid­ been read in 'i1he rabbinical speaking FBI agent! . '.. academies in Babylonia almost THE YIDDISH Reprinted from Cowell Woman dish nor 'Bebrew,but'it was an English word To be sure. the FBI has employed'many Jews, written out phonetically'in' ~iddisp.characl;ers." '·1,000 years ago. In this re­ bJ.lt Mr. Burstein was the oIlly one with the ability Agent Bursteinf.ound himsel-r in on spect the reading of the Bible . AGENT NTER the name of Harvey Burstein into the to handle Yiddish and Hebrew in their written had fared better. A system of an investigation on the eve ···of Passover. He page 18) fOITIl as weJil as orally. · vocalization hrad been estab­ ('Continued from E roster of ingenious and' creative Jews. He entered ~napartmen,t ;h.ouse· oocupiedmainly by /' , ' , shaped his career on the grindstones of the Tal­ The files .of the FBI attest to his contribu­ JewiS'h residents. He ,knocked· on a door. The lished by the scholars .of the near favorite.. Only the odds were Jistedin yid­ mud and on a knowledge of Yiddish and Hebrew tions to the nation's welfare because of his know­ door was' opened,.about an . inch. In a Jewish 'Masoretic schaol in Tiberias dish as GimeI over Aleph. (In. Yiddish, each language 'and literature. . ledge of Yiddish. There may ,be those who might accent, a woman replied through the crack that between the 7th and 9thcen- letter has a numerical value. Gimel is three, At first 'glance; the . sCholarly, bespectacled quarrel that his eXIPloits were not ,of the cloak she had no inf.ormation forilrlm.. ' · turies, and this had graduaHy Aleph, one.). . , Mr. Burstein'gives rf;heimpression of 'hol(ling a and dagger variety - but Mr. Burstein did his A!gent Burstein resorted t.o Yiddish: been accepted by Jewish com- C.onfronted wi1Jh this bit of evidence. the chairdeV'Oted to the Greek translation 'of . the part. I,t was notable - and ·all because of his "I to'I~ h~rsorry' I was for interfering with · munities everywhere. While bookmaker changed his plea. from "not guilty" Bible, or JewiSh Helimism. He doesn·t, but he Yiddish. . her preparatIons for Pesach, how difficult for not eliminating the differences to "guilty" and placed'himself at the mercy of knows these subjects too., It was 1941. He :was assIgned to' all aspects her ,to answer questions in the midl3t of cleaning Morocco;ReeOrdings right, are frommade the as islaDdtwo mbbisof Djerba, 'frOm near. ~~5~i~~~~'m hi regard to pronunciation by the court - or in this case, "di rachmonis von Mr. Burstein also can rhapsodize freely - of internal security, the tasks of espionage and and cooking, in the midst of grinding her getilte ing to their iDdivldaal an three groups, it had never­ di betdi!ll." . and in fluent Yiddish - on what was .once, in the foreign intelligence. The war was raging in Eur­ fis'h." . the-less' reduced. the range of Former Agent Burstein is quick to stress that pre-HiJtler era. "fue wonder of the Shtetl,'· the ope, and tensions were mounting between Japan The door literally. fl~w open. Agent Burstein the end of the 2nd century C.E.. following the disparities in genera'!. J ews ar~ "very definitely in the minority where and the United States.' ' Jewish city-within~a-eity in old Europe.. When he was inviJted in. She had, no inf.ormation to give, c.onquest of Jerusalem and :the destruction of the The different language traditi.onsconstiturte crimes of violence are involved." ·talksabout Yiddish"':" "its rich and.lush idioms" On FIfth Avenue, a loyal citiZen moved >slowly, but agent 'Burstein got a piece of getilte fish for Jewish State, it :had ceased to be 'a spoken lang­ He has felt no qualms about using Yiddish and glanced down. A metal container glistened material of great importance in the study of the , .1, - Mr. Burstein, uips into the valley and climbs Passover lunch, and a delicious glass of'tea. And uage. .Dispersed through.out the, countries of history of Hebrew. It is not an exaggeration to "against my pe.ople." because a person who be­ the highest peaks. . . in the corner of a building. The alarmed citizen anytime.he was in 1Jhe neighborhood he was "t~ the then known world, ~ews Iliad learned other comes part of a criminal activity so discredits ! .. '"L say that some of· them, preserving ancient fea.­ , ',h quickly picked it up. He was convinced that this " " He will talk to you of Yiddish journalism that ,'. . be sure to call for a good Jewish meal." Yiddish . tong:ues, forgotten the living Hebrew of their tures, could even provide a clue as to how the . the Jewish community that there is no reason flourished in ,this country, in the no.t-too-distant was a coded message being pas'sed between ene­ O}l!:lns many doors. , forefaJthers, and not unti[ the end .of the 19th language sounded wheli it was spoken 'at the time to 'have a conscience about the arrest of a Jew­ yesteryear; Reverently he intones passages from mies of the United States. He rushed to the New century did the language come into its own again ish' gambler. One ,time the Chicago police raided a large " of the destruction of the Temple. But whilst the works of· Sholom Aleichem. Peretz, Sholom Y.ork offices of the ,FBI. Washington' was notified. race-bet establishment. They seized records rac­ . with the birth of modern : and the move­ these traditions are still in force today, there is Agent Burstein did not stay in Chicago lon'g. Ascl1, . Pinski. He will tell you that the A courier hastened to WashingtOn with the ing forms, and other items connected with the ment for the revival of Hebrew culture. a great danger of their disappearing very soon. Members of Congress were confronted with prob­ plays of AbrahaDl Goldfadden, S. Ansky,. Israel "cOded message." "Get Burstein on the double," ring's operations. One particular book confronted But although not 'sPoken during those 1,700 The living, pulsating Hebrew of modern Israel 'lems calling for knowledge of Yiddish. J. Edgar J. Singer are proof thalt Yiddish can be beautiful, rang out the :Order. Agents were crowded around the loca:l constabulary· with a vexing problem. years, Hebrew 'had far from disappeared from is exercising a powerful influence over them, Hoover. the FBI chief, ordered him back f.or the as well. as a juicy, literary medium. . the desk when A!gent 'Burstein entered; took one . The entries were. in 'a strange language. ' human recollection. Throughout their exile the and there is a tendency among most Jews now assignment. Today,l\Ir.Bu'rsteinis ge~eral counsel for a l.ook at the container and said: Agent Burstem was summoned. The entries Jews had continued to read and study the Bible to adopt the f.orms of Hebrew expression as de­ In ·1954. Mr.' Burstein resigned from the ser­ contract ..' firm. living' a sedate life with his wife "Gentlemen, 'thIs is the Sh'ma, the basic credo were in Yiddish. The bookmaker was 'keeping a . and those 'later writings which -were embodied in veloped'in this country. In Israel itself, where vice - not without 'high meritorious recogniti.on in Ma:maroneck,N.Y, He devotes ·time to con­ of the JeWish faith - nothing to worry about." record of all. bets in Yiddish with the names of the Mishna, the Talmud and the Midrashim. Their all the .traditions areSltill. alive, Ithe process of by the heads of the FBI. When he is not swamped sultin.ir

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