The late Jacob Glatstein, the celebrated Yiddish post, was honored yesterday posthumously with the B’nai B’rith Jewish Heritage Award. The $1,000 literary prize was accepted by his widow, Fanny Glatstein, who cited the writer as a “national cultural spokesman” whose works helped to preserve “a distinctive Yiddish consciousness.” Glatstein was 75 when he died last November.
In presenting the award, Dr. Louis L. Kaplan of Baltimore, chairman of the B’nai B’rith’s Commission on Adult Education Advisory Council, urged the luncheon audience of 300 “not to let the Yiddish heritage of Jacob Glatstein slip through our fingers.” In his tribute, Dr. Kaplan recited “A Farewell to Glatstein,” a Yiddish poem written for the occasion by editor and essayist, Eliezer Greenberg.
A companion B’nai B’rith literary prize of $500 for a single work of Jewish excellence published in 1971 was presented to Cynthia Ozick. the young author of “The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
