‘caricatures’ of Yiddish Charged Against National Television in U.S.

A Workman’s Circle official charged here today that national television programmers were “presenting grotesque caricatures and distorting the contributions made by Yiddish language writers, journalists and actors in the fields of world literature and American culture.”

The charge was made by Joseph Mlotek, educational director of the organization, at the 50th jubilee of the organization’s schools. He did not single out any network but noted that “within recent weeks several national television programs, purporting to depict Yiddish language contributions to American culture have given a distorted and sophomoric conception that was painful to watch and historically inaccurate to hear.” The ABC network televised a series of four programs on the Yiddish language and culture during January.

Mr. Mlotek asserted that the programs were “in effect,” anti-Semitic “without meaning to be and only because no one bothered to check out the facts. The history of the Yiddish theater as shown on the TV screen was a caricature, with names of past stars bandied about in a pot-pouri of hurried studies rather than respectful portraits. The whole Yiddish press and literature were treated as though they trespassed on American soil instead of having contributed to its cultural spectrum.”

He spoke at a luncheon honoring three graduates of Workmen’s Circle schools, Israel Kugler, president of the American Federation of College Teachers; Harold Ostroff, president of the United Housing Foundation, and Jacob Sheinkman, general counselor of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.