The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-06-15
MOiShe NadiK'
FROM PLAY-BOY TO REvOLUTIONIST


tions Tired But most of all there was that festive
tiredness of person who has passed through deep
emotional experience which has left him a little
fused, little uncertain Of his waking and dreaming.
More than year ago Moishe Nadr stood up to re-
ceiye similar ovation in Carnegie Hail. He going
away European trip most Of which would be spent
IN Soviet Russia Moishe Nadr the skepc the scoffer
at all deep ardors and positive faiths going to the
land where ardor and faith and knowledge creating
tangible miracles. In search of what Perhaps he didn't
himself know.
But at Central Opera House the other night there
stood up worshpper who had participated in some
thing intimate and joyous and in whose blood all that
he had and experienced during the last year had
risen to a great tide Of love and understanding.
About ten years ago Moshe Nadr was a regular
tribuor to capalistc Yiddish newspaper in Philadel
phia At that time he of many Yiddsh humor-
sts grinding out copy for the press. And if wrote
little cheaply at times, little vulgary, it didn't mat
ter much One had to live. But behind the
Moishe Nadir there still glowed something Of the
Isaac Reiss-Isaac Ress, the Galician Jew, who had
wanted to be serious poet and had been compelled to
become merely Moshe Nadr the professional humorist
Perhaps he only dimly sensed that Moishe Nadlr the
humorst, would become far greater poet than Isaac
Reiss could have been.
After Philadelphia there was Greenwich Village. Joe
King, editor of pagan" ephemeral literary maya
zine, began printing TRANSACTIONS Of Nadrs experiment
tai momentous rfles composed for the initiate
only. Nadir the first and only "Vllager" among
Yiddish writers But the Village like Philadelphia,
only episode.
Slowly Moishe Nadr was emerging into position
unique among Yiddish writer's He becoming
storm center. He discussed, anatomical quarreed
about. No Yiddish writer has been the subject of
much controversy. There those who worship him
and those who hate hm-hs enemies have always been
many. When Noah Steinberg young Yiddish writer
recently issued extensive study of Moshe Nadr he
attacked all Sides Nadir doesn't deserve such
serious treatment the pedants shouted he's poseur
trfler, he writes uninelgibly all correct and
dignfed expression. Nadrs personal and lit
bic to these petty attacks.
Some of these criticisms have doubt been justified
vivid, mercural personality he had exploited his
traordinary talents until he had become something of
professional esthete He jeered at phstinsm at banal
ty and soggy senmentasm, but also at all strivngs
toward great goals the struggles of the oppressed all
passionate living. The itself: Moishe Nadir. In
Yiddish there is something mpudent in the sound
thing vagrant and unabashed Nadir was the eternal
nose-thumber.
Yet something was gnawing at Moishe Nadr, and the
sterilty of such attitudes creating great need
It all very well to laugh at bourgeois smugness.
f5ut it was laughter in And it created snug
of its own that contemptuous smugness that made
itself felt in regard to the mob" that is, the toling
masses.
Something was gnawing at Moshe Nadir and he joined
the staff Of the "Freiheit The esthete the darling Of
the Literary" cafes, became contributor Commu-
mist newspaper This the early days of the paper
when its existence precarous and salaries
uncertain than they are now
Nadr began conducting his daily column, From Yes
terday Till Tomorrow" This personal vehicle, in
which he wrote anything that happened to pop into his
mind-and the mind of Moishe Nadir is amazingly,
breathessy fertile. It quickly became of the most
popular features of the Freiheit There is nothing
comparable to in the bourgeois American press Nadr
is easily the most brilliant columnist in America F. p
A. and Haywood Broun tyros in comparison. He is
perfunctory, wistfully weary Nadr always
writes if he discovering language for the first
time. His words hooking yet tender, warm light
flexible, always unpredictable. And most remarkable
Of all is his apparent spontanety, his endless and eff
fortress ingenuity OF course Nadr frequently outrages
the academicans He takes too many liberties with the
language that they have taken such pains to teach
rect behavior.
Yet even on the "Freiheit" Nadr remained very much
the diettane, the incorrigble child babbng inspired
precocitics. But the discomfort in him was growing
more camorous urging him to go away. AS revolu-
tonary artist he sympathized with any attack the
old order though he himself remained bystander, not
participant And he found himself drawn to the land
where the old decaying order being destroyed and
in which something vital and strong struggling into
being.
To Soviet Russia he brought with him his skeptcism
his dsiusion and discomfort his capricious mockery
And Moishe Nad the humorist and poet who had gone
from Gaica the United States Philadelphia Green
witch Village, the Second Avenue cafes found at length
that home that he had always been seeking At the age
Of fortytwo Moishe Nadr fell in love with strange
country and strange people
The love songs of Moshe Nadir the love songs that
he wrote during the past year to Soviet Russia
among the greatest in the Yiddish language They ap-
peared at intervals in the "Freheit written ostensbly
in prose He embraced the country its people, its Ian
guage and its way Of life with the passion that all his
life he had denied And he wanted everybody take
part in this love Of his he spoke constantly of tour coun
try" "our government"
There those who continue to scott at this new
fervor But it remains real and profound For when
Moshe Nadir, sympathzer with the Revolution, re-
turned Comrade Moishe Nadr a participant in that
Revolution he returned a reborn.