To the Editor:

In his letter in the July issue commenting on “Singer’s Paradoxical Progress” by Ruth R. Wisse [February], Rabbi Samuel H. Dresner . . . criticizes the American Jewish community for failing to protest against Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Nobel Prize. This is taken as a clear symptom of the depravity of modern American Jewry. I fear, however, that Rabbi Dresner’s outrage is based on faulty perceptions. He has a distorted idea of the Polish shtetl, he misreads Singer, and he misunderstands the reasons for the present crisis in American Jewish life.

In The Earth Is the Lord"s, which Rabbi Dresner cites, Abraham Heschel gave us an account of the spiritual ideals of the Polish Jew, specifically of the Polish Hasidim; but ideals are not realities. . . . Shtetl culture had many beautiful qualities; it also had many ugly ones. For Rabbi Dresner to suggest that the shtetl even came close to embodying the Torah ethic is to confuse ideals with reality. . . . Let Rabbi Dresner read Mendele’s stories about the oppression of the Jewish poor, or Peretz’s stories about the oppression of Jewish women; these are as much a part of shtetl life as hasidic ecstasy.

Rabbi Dresner’s second point is that Singer is a neo-pagan who departs from true Jewish teaching. . . . Singer describes what happens when the defenses of our humanity are undermined. But does this imply that Singer rejects Jewish values? Singer’s awareness of the power of the demonic leads to the realization that our defenses against it must be strengthened.

Singer has a gift for describing—perhaps better than any other modern author—the human significance of that disintegration of moral order which characterizes the 20th century. It is clear to anyone who really listens to Singer’s message that his answer is to reaffirm classical Jewish values. . . .

But I have a feeling that Singer may be only a side-issue for Rabbi Dresner, a convenient take-off point for an attack on the Jewish community. Like Amos of Tekoa, Dresner of Deerfield courageously hurls God’s wrath at the modern calf-worshippers. Rabbi Dresner seems to be among those who view the shtetl as the supreme expression of “authentic Judaism.” This attitude is widespread among committed Jews and is itself one of the main factors preventing the emergence of a creative Jewish community in America. Our people have lived in many different ways in their long history and there is no one “Jewish way of life.” We must learn to develop our own expression of Judaism and we cannot do that until we are liberated from the psychological prison of shtetl nostalgia.

Rabbi Dresner accuses us of having betrayed the Jewish heritage. “Betrayed” is an inappropriate term, however. Modern American Jews are incapable of betraying the Jewish heritage because we do not know what it is. Our rabbis and educators have failed to transmit the tradition to us. All we have of our ethics is a vague sense that we should be liberals “because Jews are for the underdog.” As for our history, the impression of it that most of us have gotten from rabbis, teachers, and community leaders is that Jewish history consists of two things: the Holocaust and the rebirth of Israel. We were not taught how to observe the mitzvot; even more importantly, we were not taught why we should observe them.

The only real teachers of Torah and Jewish ethics we can turn to today are our novelists. Saul Bellow affirms the humanism of Jewish tradition against the purveyors of fashionable despair. Bernard Malamud teaches us the value of charity and mercy. Elie Wiesel has shown us how to protest evil when God is silent. And Isaac Bashevis Singer reminds us of the importance of menschlichkeit. . . .

If Rabbi Dresner wishes to do something constructive, let him teach Jewish values to our spiritually starved generation, a generation which needs compassionate guidance from the rabbis, not abuse. Let him help us express Torah in modern life, and show us how to respond Jewishly to the problems we face today. However, that would be difficult. It is so much easier to indulge in sterile shtetl nostalgia, or play at being the Jeremiah of Surburbia.

Michael M. Kaplan
Chicago, Illinois

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To the Editor:

With regard to Rabbi Dresner’s letter, . . . I too could never understand how Isaac Bashevis Singer even came to be considered for the Nobel Prize. His tales are boring, but more important is the manner in which he depicts the Jewish people. . . . Haven’t we been degraded and lowered in the eyes of the world often enough? Why must one of our own seek out lunatics, prostitutes, beggars, and all manner of riff-raff to write about? . . . Singer has done the Jews of the world a great disservice.

Pauline T. Bellow
Stamford, Connecticut