October 12, 2001 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 19709 Poles to save one Jew, and the Poles who wrote only pornography!’’ When Bar Ilan TRIBUTE TO THE COLORADO were saving Jews are the glory of mankind.’’ University in Israel was approached about a GENERAL ASSEMBLY Chaim Grade’s works reflect this truth. prize for the Yiddish laureate, he was re- No doubt, it is Chaim Grade’s absolute ob- jected so emphatically that the issue was jectivity and utmost spiritual and intellec- never raised again. HON. BOB SCHAFFER tual honesty that inspired Czeslaw Milosz, Czeslaw Milosz’s report is especially im- OF COLORADO the spiritual and literary heir of Mickiewicz, portant in view of the general contempt for IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES to devote to him a chapter of homage in the Yiddish Nobel laureate. Thus, less than a Thursday, October 11, 2001 Milosz’s ABC’s, where among other impor- month before the incomprehensible news tant comments, he reports what a Jewish au- from Sweden, John Simon wrote on Sep- Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor thority should have reported a long time tember 12, 1978, in The Esquire: International to rise today to express gratitude to the Colo- ago: The Nobel Prize for Isaac Bashevis Sing- understanding is a delightful thing. How nice rado General Assembly. I respectfully submit er was cause for violent controversies among it was at the recent Pula Film Festival, in the following Colorado Joint Resolution for the Yiddish-speaking New York Jews . Above Yugoslavia, between looking at films, to find RECORD. all, . in the opinion of the majority of the a group of critics and scholars from various HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 01S2–1002 disputants, Grade was a much better writer countries in agreement about the vast than Singer, but little translated into overratedness of that self-inflated, dully rep- By Representative(s) Dean, Spradley, English, which is why members of the Swed- etitious, barely second-rate fictionalist Isaac Grossman, Fritz, Cloer, Alexander, Bacon, ish Academy had no access to his writings. Bashevis Singer. Berry, Borodkin, Boyd, Cadman, Chavez, Singer gained fame, according to this opin- Clapp, Coleman, Crane, Daniel, Decker, And Israel Shenker concluded the defini- ion, by dishonest means. Obsessively con- Fairbank, Garcia, Groff, Hefley, Hodge, tive literary obituary of the Yiddish laureate cerned with sex, he created his own world of Hoppe, Jahn, Jameson, Johnson, Kester, in August 1991, in the Book Review of the Polish Jews which had nothing in common King, Larson, Lawrence, Lee, Mace, Madden, New York Times: He shied from chicken with reality—erotic, fantastic, filled with Marshall, Miller, Mitchell, Nunez, Paschall, soup—and chickens—and became a devoted apparitions, spirits, and dybbuks, as if that Plant, Ragsdale, Rhodes, Rippy, Romanoff, vegetarian . ‘‘So, in a very small way, I do had been the quotidian reality of Jewish Saliman, Sanchez, Schultheis, Scott, Sin- a favor for the chickens,’’ Singer said. ‘‘If I towns. Grade was a real writer, faithful to clair, Smith, Snook, Spence, Stafford, will ever get a monument, chickens will do it the reality he described, and he deserved the Stengel, Swenson, Tapia, Tochtrop, Veiga, for me.’’ Nobel Prize . Grade was attentive to the Vigil, Webster, Weddig, White, William S., accuracy of the details he recorded and has A New York Times reporter in 1978, the Williams T., Witwer, and Young; also Sen- been compared with Balzac or Dickens. year of the shocking choice of the Nobel ators(s) Matsunaka, Thiebaut, Andrews, This statement by an authority of Czeslaw prize for literature, Israel Shenker is known Perlmutter, Anderson, Arnold, Chlouber, Milosz’s stature, himself a Nobel laureate, is to have approached the late Eugene Rachlis, Dyer, Epps, Evans, Fitz-Gerald, Gordon, a very serious matter. Czeslaw Milosz goes the Editor-in-Chief of Bobbs-Merryl, then Hagedorn, Hanna, Hernandez, Hillman, Isgar, on to describe Jewish life in Poland as it was Chaim Grade’s English publisher (now it is Lamborn, Linkhart, May, McElhany, and Jewish-Polish relations as they were, all Knopf); and asked, ‘‘what’s going on? Every- Musgrave, Nichol, Owen, Phillips, Reeves, as reflected in the works of Chaim Grade. It body says that it is your man who should Takis, Tate, Taylor, Teck, and Windels. have gotten the prize.’’ All this explains why is regrettable that he did not know what was CONCERNING THE EXPRESSION OF THE SENTI- Israel Shenker chose to end the definitive very well known in Jewish literary circles, MENTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGARD- literary obituary of the Yiddish laureate that Chaim Grade forbade all from nomi- ING THE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON AMERICAN with the laureate’s own ‘‘chickens’’ words. nating him for the Nobel prize, mostly be- SOIL ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001. cause his pre-world war II prophetic and po- And all this proves the great truth of the Whereas, September 11, 2001, may live in etic visions of doom were recited like pray- words of the man who is America’s con- infamy as the day on which more people lost ers both in the Vilna Ghetto and in Ausch- science, Abraham Lincoln, ‘‘you can fool all their lives or were injured on American soil witz, along with the poetry of the great Jew- of the people some of the time, you can fool as the result of acts of terrorism than on any ish poet Yitzhak Katznelson, who, together some of the people all of the time, but you other single day in history; and with his wife and sons, perished in Ausch- cannot fool all of the people all of the time.’’ Whereas, On that day, terrorists forcibly witz, and of whose works very little has been Most importantly about this case is, of commandeered four commercial jet airliners rescued. All this was reported by the sur- course, not just that the Yiddish laureate is scheduled to fly routes from the east coast of viving eyewitnesses in Yiddish and published a ‘‘pornographic writer,’’ as rightly de- the continental United States to the west in Argentina, then in English in America— nounced by Saul Lieberman, nor that he is coast; and check the Jewish Book Annual—the Amer- merely a ‘‘self-inflated, dully-repetitious, Whereas, Once in control of these aircraft, ican Yearbook of Jewish Creativity 1990–1991, barely second-rate fictionalist,’’ as rightly the terrorists implemented a dastardly, sui- 5751. Many people regretted Chaim Grade’s stated by John Simon and colleagues, nor cidal plan of unparalleled proportions never decision, for it was taken advantage of by that—as he himself knew and said—he is a before carried out in this country or any- the writer unequivocally rejected by the writer for ‘‘chickens,’’—whatever this may where else in the world; and Jewish writers and readers for reasons well mean. The most important is precisely as Whereas, The terrorists, piloting aircraft explained by Czeslaw Milosz, who, by what- Czeslaw Milosz testifies, ‘‘he created his own fully laden with highly flammable jet fuel ever means, got the prize and paraded the world of Polish Jews which had nothing in and with total disregard for the lives of the foremost representative of Jewish literature, common with reality,’’ as the result of which passengers and crews on board or persons on of the very Judaism. Thus, the issue is not he has misinformed and mislead people, pre- the ground, turned these jet airliners into that Chaim Grade does not have the Nobel venting them from knowing the truth about flying weapons of mass destruction, each Prize, but that, from the Jewish viewpoint, Jewish life in Eastern Europe, especially with tremendous explosive power, and aimed the least suitable, the worst possible writer, about Jewish-Polish relations. It is to be their weapons at targets in New York City has it. hoped that responsible people like John and Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, As Czeslaw Milosz rightly testifies, the Simon and Israel Shenker will appreciate two of the most densely populated areas in Jewish people have the greatest appreciation Czeslaw Milosz’s testimony, that they are our country; and for Chaim Grade, especially because of his aware that the Jewish people are no ‘‘chick- Whereas, Two of these aircraft were inten- volumes of lamentations in poetry and prose ens,’’ that, prize or no prize, the Jewish peo- tionally flown directly into the World Trade about the Holocaust, for which Encyclopedia ple have rejected the so-called Yiddish lau- Center Towers in New York City, resulting Judaica reports, he is declared ‘‘the national reate, that his prize remains an incompre- in the terrifying, total destruction of two of Jewish poet, as Bialik was in his day.’’ hensible insult, if not an outrage. And we the tallest buildings in the world, home to Chaim Grade’s volumes resurrect the life of cannot be too grateful to Czeslaw Milosz, the some 50,000 workers and up to 100,000 visitors East European Jewry, such as it truly was, Polish Nobel Laureate, for having made in daily and causing untold loss of life and in- very much as stated by Czeslaw Milosz who, his ABC’s room also for Chaim Grade, the jury to innocent, unarmed civilians; and a Pole from Vilna, knew this life very well Jewish master, who describes Jewish life in Whereas, A third jetliner slammed into the and is a most reliable witness. Eastern Europe as it really was, and, above Pentagon in Washington, D.C., headquarters Czeslaw Milosz’s report about the Jewish all, the Jewish spirit such as it is, always of our country’s national defense and the attitude towards the Yiddish Nobel laureate and everywhere, beyond time and space, the largest office building in the world, also may be corroborated by the following vi- spirit of the Bible.