Mosaic

Mosaic admirably fulfills its role as a "Jewish student journal" and at once transcends it. It is largely concerned with a wide range of Jewish topics--religion, philosophy, culture, politics. But its scholarly tone, and the lack of self-consciousness in its pages, make it a magazine well worth the attention of Jews and non-Jews alike. In the past, Mosaic has come in for a great deal of praise in these columns. With the current issue, now on the newsstands, Mosaic remains one of the finest college publications anywhere.

Perhaps the best article (this reviewer too has fallen prey to academic equivocation) in the current issue is "South African Jewry in Crisis" by Richard Suzman. Suzman, a junior in Social Relations, is, we are told, a transfer student from Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. In an extremely lucid and understated style Suzman describes the plight of South African Jews caught up in the turbulent and often violent politics of that land.

Anti-semitism among the white population has been stirred up in the last twelve years by Israel's votes in the United Nations and Jewish participation in "left wing opposition" to the Verwoerd regime. However, even the alternative of opposition politics will soon be eliminated. "There will be a terrible era of bloodshed in which neither side can win." Suzman writes, "and the country will polarize into White and Black, with room for nobody in the middle." Since "even now many Africans will not accept white help in their struggle," the only possible course for Jews who oppose the regime must be flight. Suzman concludes "I think that soon the highly exportable Jew will again be packing, with the more liberal element packing first."

Two other articles deal with Africa: "Israel in Africa: A Survey" by Guido Goldman, and "Israel in Kenya: A Case Study" by Emily Shrader. Miss Shrader, a Radcliffe junior who recently returned from a year in Kenya, emphasizes the political problems of Israel's diplomatic invasion of Africa. She notes that Israeli socialism is very appealing to the Kenyans, and Israeli agricultural problems are very similar to those faced by most of East Africa. In all, however, she is not sanguine about the success of Israel's venture. She warns that propaganda from the Muslim countries in the Casablanca bloc and Israel's associations with the West will hinder her attempt to secure allies and trading partners in Africa.

Goldman's article contradicts Miss Shrader's in several important places, and is not nearly so convincing. It also is prone to the worst sort of cumbersome academic prose. He writes "Israel has upon occasion been viewed as an oblique and indirect link with Europe and the West, but in a form precluding any semblance of neocolonialism." That might be Goldman's opinion; but if Miss Shrader is to be believed Israel has consistently been associated with neo-colonialism by African politicians. Even if the charge is largely for propaganda purposes it must be reckoned with, as Americans must recognize the widespread anti-Yankee sentiment in Latin America.

A second section of the new Mosaic is devoted to a number of tributes to the famous scholar, Prof. Harry Austryn Wolfson, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday. They include a biographical sketch by Richard B. Stone, a review of Prof. Wolfson's scholarly work by a student, Prof. Isadore Twersky, and seven short pieces by faculty friends.

The personal tributes by many of Wolfson's closest associates, such as Profs. Jakob Rosenberg, Morton White, Austin W. Scott and the late Arthur Darby Nock are deeply touching in their sincerity and warmth, and evoke a vivid picture of Wolfson's Harvard--Widener Library, "Wolfson's table" at the Faculty Club, the Square, and the University (now Harvard Square) Theater. It is at once one of the great things about Harvard and one of the saddest that these everyday sights mean so many different things to so many people. To Wolfson pre-eminently they are a setting for "his work," a work so astounding one is staggered just reading a brief account of it.

Prof. Twersky's piece clearly shows, in its incisive and gently ironic style, the influences of Prof. Wolfson himself. Stone's piece is often awkward, and far too serious for what could have been a delightful account of Wolfson's eccentric life and habits. And as all academic biographies do, he includes the inevitable description of the scholar's office, littered high with papers and books, in which the genius can find a 20-year-old magazine within seconds.

This issue of Mosaic includes no undergraduate fiction or poetry, but does contain an essay, "The Relevance of Jane Austen: Remarks on Jewish Writing in America," by Lewis Kampf, and a memoir by the Yiddish writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Kampf's piece is excellent as an historical examination of the traditional problems of Jewish writers in America. By the way, Daniel Fuchs' novel, Homage to Blenholt, whose obscurity Kampf laments, has achieved enough renown to make the supplementary reading list of History 163. Perhaps next year it will be required, and really have status.

Unfortunately, however, the "relevance of Jane Austen" is not at all clear. It is only mentioned once, in the next to last paragraph. Kampf claims that the solution to the dilemma of the Jewish writer, who either had to assimilate and lose his Jewishness, or get stuck in the dead-end of "ghetto literature," is "the novel of manners." But he never does explain what he means. He says Bernard Malamud's writing, for instance, is "claustrophobic" and smacks too much of the ghetto. But is anyone's writing more claustrophobic than Jane Austen's? Is The Magic Barrel, a story of a Jewish matchmaker and his young client, more parochial in its problems and milieu than Emma?

Singer's fragment is good writing, but I would rather see Mosaic publish student work. We can read Singer in Commentary.

The final section in this monumental 75 page issue contains three book reviews. The editors have taken great pains to secure the right people: Michael H. Bronnert, whose thesis topic is British policy towards Palestine in 1930, reviews The Balfour Declaration by Leonard Stein. Werner L. Gundersheimer, a Junior Fellow at work on a book in sixteenth century French history, reviews a study of Jewish-Gentile relations in medieval and modern times. And Michael Schwartz, a frequent contributor to these columns and editor of The Harvard Review, assesses Letting Go by Philip Roth. Only Schwartz, who has a much more difficult task than the others in reviewing fiction, is not completely convincing. He discusses at length, and very knowledgeably, "Roth's failure." Then Schwartz proceeds to remark, almost off-handedly, that "Still, I consider Roth's book perhaps the best American novel since the war." That's pretty strong statement to make on the basis of the discussion presented.