The Phoenix Jewish news., 1961-10-20


He saw that he s,Il
was being dis '''-'''
eliminated against from certain
positions in universities because
he was a Jew. Then he did the
most amazing part of being a man
who returned to his faith.
HE RETURNED with zeal, en-
thusiasm, and joy, to learn some
thing he had been deprived of as a
child. He saw in his JewiShness
and Judaism something that he
had never seen before, and he
wanted to discover this Jewish
heritage which had meant to him
the opening of new field. He be-
came in the universities of Amer
lea the most gifted Baal Tsuvah,
man who returned from outside
of his people to come back to lead
them, to inspire and to edify.
His novels and his studies earn
ed him place pre-eminent among
American writer's. His last years
as professor of comparative litera-
ture at Brandeis University saw
the vigor of his creative mind and
the power of his pen which led
many students to understand the
great heritage which he sought to
give to all of his students.
Before he passed away he
wrote a magnificent essay en-
titled, "What Is This j w b
Heritage?" He wrote this book
out of a deep necessity to see
something more in Judaism than
he had ever seen before.
He wanted to probe into the
depths of the Jews mind an
heart.
One of the profound things OF
Ludwig LewiSohn was that to be
born a Jew to him was no acci-
dent. 1t was something that w a S
meant to be, a cause of events
and chain of existence which
brings you to the realization OF
what you are. If you are known
as a Jew and if you acknowledge
yourself to be one, it is because
of a chain of cause and effects
that have gone on for many, many
centuries which have not b e n
broken. You have two parents and
four Jewish grandparents and eight
Jewish great-grandparents and 16
Jewish Observation-Disclosures.
Around the year 100 you had
512 Jewish ancestors, and around
the year 1870 you had 1924. If you
should pursue this chain of your
background you will find how
deeply rooted you have been to the
cause of the JewishnesS that you
have been given.
THIS is SOMETHING that few
of us realize whether you come
to Judaism through birth or
through conversion. There is a
chain which makes you fulfill your
self in a way that is deep an d
meaningful. For all the ancestors
which bore you willed to be Jews.
They all affirmed their humanity
within and through Jewishness
and clung to their Judaism wheth-
er in good times or in bad.
LewiSohn'S penetrating m n d
points to the fact that everyone of
us, if we choose, can b o m e
anonymous. We can belong to
nothing. give to nothing, and in the
end, we die as we live. We are,
in the end, nothing. The gre a t
command of our forefatherS was to
"become what you are" In other
words, seek your destined being,
and try to uncover your true
reality.
LewisOhn points out to his
readers that the Jew is only best
when he is what he is. When he
wants to escape he becomes the
slave of nothing and his escape
is only a kind of black search
for things that he cannot know.
So many fail to realize their
Jewishness and come to rethink
the fact that in conformity to
ones destined form is the high
est exercise of moral freedom.
The Jew who lives within his
tradition finds the power of free
dom through study, through the
holidays and through the ritual
traditions of the lore and the life.
How wen did Ludwig Lewisohn
know the meaning between free
dom and slavery. The years in
which he tried to be something
that he was not, he found himself
a slave, a kind of parasite upon