Almost every time I visit a female relative, of an older generation and a older tradition, she wishes to know, in all seriousness, why I am unwilling to use my influence and my authority to castigate her landlord for his failure to make repairs and to reduce the rent. Being blissfully ignorant of the laws of libel, not to mention the Journalist’s responsibility to his dear, dear public to discuss large and impersonal problems, she is persuaded that if I wrote a line in this column naming the person in quesion and calling him bandit, robber, murderer, or something equally endearing that the person in question would cry “Uncle!” or something equivalent, for the sake of having these unsolicited atten tions of mine called off. In this somple comception of relastions, wherein I would play the role of Nemesis, in the form of a literary blackjack, there would be nighty little rent. And Mr. Landlord would be kept hustling and bustling with most obsequious earnestness anticipating repairs. I have likewise a standing commission to call to book the New York Edison Company an the Consolidated Gas Company, as well as the New York Telephone Company, not overlooking th corner drug store, the butcher shop and grocery store, as well as well as several neightbors. I try to state valid reasons against being used as a clud and to states some of the requirements of the laws of evidence and the law of libel, but to no avail. I say, for example, that you cannot call a man a crook or a murderer unless you have evidence, but all I suucceed in doing is emerging bedraggled from the conversation, my tail between my legs, an undutiful relative who won’t do right by his own.
JOB-SEEKER
A young man-as young men will-called the other day to ask for a job on The Bulletin staff, and came up against one of its brightest editors, The following colloquy ensued.
“Ever had any experience on a paper before?
“No, but I studied composition and French at New York University.”
“What makes you think you’d do on a paper?”
“Well, I’d like to try, I want to start at the bottom and learn everything.”
“But the bottom is all filled up.”
“But maybe I could be a rewrite man.”
“A rewrite man must know more than a reporter.”
“Maybe I could start by writing a clumn.”
“But we’ve got a column.” We expeet to be hearing soon from this young man.
THE GOLDEN ATGE
We were drinking some liquor at the home of a friend and since this is being written some time after repeal, it isn’t boasting we are. During the delighted sipping, one of the sippers asked the usually polite question, “Where did you get this stuff?” or, perhaps, “Where can you get this stuff?” and our host, in perfect seriousness, replied: “Oh, you can’t get this stuff any more; that’s Prohibition liquor.” Which means simplay that at least one fellow I know is working, unconsciously, to creat a leagend to the effect that Prohibition liquor is better than legal liquor. And during Prohibition liquro thing to say, wasn’t it? was that the best liquor was before Porhibiton. The best books were written in the past, the most beautiful women lived in the past, all the Golden Ages were in the past and some day some one will hark back to the depression of 1929-34 as the Golden Depression. It’s a wise man who knows he’s having the good time that the other fellow thinks his granfathr had.
Admirers of the art of Solomon Judovin, Russian Jewish artistcratsman who expresses himself in the medium of the wood-block. will be pleased to learn that seeral of his wood-blocks are nwo in the collection of priont room of the New York Public Lirary. Some months ago, wheb The Bulltin published for the first time in the United States, as series of this Russion artist’s memories in wood-block of the village in which he had spent his boyhood years, commendations were received from many sources and a wide interest expressed in his work. It was thereafter that museum directors in New York saw and expressed admiration for his wood-blocks. The New York Public Library acquisitions are the first to be made by a public institution in this country. In Eurpe, of counrse, there are examples of Judovin’s work in many public museums, particularly in Leningrad and Riga. But even more heartening to the humble workman andartist who ekes out a bare living in Leningrad today must have been the commendations made by museum directors who could not, because of the economic stringency, make th purchases desired. Also, friends of Judovin may be interested to know, an anonymous gift to the artist made it possible for the Jewish Culture Society of New York to acquier a small group of Judovin’s wood-blocks, which may now be seen at that organization’s rooms. In order that the new readers of the Bulletin may acquire a more graphic idea of Judovin’s work than merely verbal description can give them, we shall reproduce, beginning to day, an additional set of wood-blocks, which, we hope, will be as pleasing as the first set of Bulletin reproductions was
CULTURE IN SOVIET RUSSIA I DISCUSSED OVER RADIO
“One of the most dramatic attempts fo the Soviet government to encourage cultural expression,” said Mrs. Corliss Lamont in her talk on “Culture in Soviet Russia over Station WBNX, “has been its encouragement of minority cultures. Racial and natinal minorities have been urged to work out their own aphabets when no written one existed, to use theri own languages for all cultural and official purposes, to cultivate their own dramas, music and folk dances.” This encouragement of minority culture is “a distinct improvement over the attitude under the Czars,” she said.
‘DISSEMINATIOR’ BEGINS MONTHLY PUBLICATION
“The Disseminator,” compendium of abstracts in religion, philosophy, letters and social science, to be published monthly by the Academy for Advanced Studies at Yonkers, appears for teh first time this week.
Dedicated “to provide a stimulus to the studay of social sciences, history, polities, economics, philosophy, anthropology, and comparative religion,” it is edited by Benjamin Were. Jacob S. Orleans is managing editor, Louis Golman business editor and Aaron Addelston assistant editor.
“All the news conerning Jews” is faithfully and promptly reported in the Jewish Daily Bulletin-the only Jewish daily newspaper prined in English.
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.
