To the Editor:
Permit me to make two observations in connection with Morris Freedman’s articles on Grossinger’s (July and August 1954) and on some letters printed in their wake.
Firstly, I find it inconsistent with your pursued selective policy, and incompatible with the high standards of COMMENTARY, for a member of your editorial staff, under the pretense of describing the American Jewish way of life, to portray an extremely successful commercial enterprise with a healthy, say truly American, sense for publicity. In a country where business firms are so shrewd about getting publicity, an editor ought to guard his pen.
Secondly, let me say that the reaction (to use this ominous word) that came to light from some of your readers’ letters (October issue) shows that, at best (or at worst—as you please), Grossinger’s is only one current in the broad stream of Jewish life in the States against which many are valiantly struggling, and that there are currents running in the other direction. Thank God, Grossinger’s isn’t the last word.
And as a postscript, let me correct an impression possibly given by Mr. Norman Lourie’s letter (“Grossinger’s: Israel Division”) which smacks of being a hitchhike on the publicity bandwagon. Mr. Lourie writes: “The Dolphin House Hotel and Country Club . . . operates very much in the spirit of Grossinger’s, a fact which Mrs. Grossinger much appreciated when she came here.” I find this statement ought to have been qualified by admission of at least one fundamental difference in spirit between both establishments. The Dolphin House of Shavei Zion (which, incidentally, means Returners to Zion), Israel (of all places), is strictly and guaranteed—treif. I wonder whether Mrs. Grossinger indeed appreciated, or did she, though it is most improbable, overlook that fact of difference in spirit?
L. Wagenaar
Jerusalem, Israel
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