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ETERNAL LIGHT EXPERIMENT
(Continued from page 9)
Nachman Bialik, Mendele Mosher
Seforim. Scripts like “The Tal
mud,’’ (which was recently pre
sented by Israel Blymenfeld over
the German network), “The Scroll
on the Doorpost,” "The Book of
Ruth,” have dramatized the Jewish
religious heritage. World classics
based on biblical themes have been
adapted, classics such as the "Jo
seph" trilogy by Thomas Mann,
adapted by Arthur Arent, “Athalie”
by Jean Racine and “Samson in
Chains," by Leonid Andreyev, both
adapted by Harold Rosenberg.
The positive force of Judaism in
enriching American democratic life
has been dramatized in plays like
“A Rhode Island Refuge" and “The
Man in the Touro Infirmary"—a
script which contrasted the charity
of Judah Touro, who gave without
regard to race or creed, with pres
ent-day bigotry and intolerance.
There have been scripts about
Jewish leaders—Louis D. Brandeis,
Solomon Schehter, Henrietta Szold,
Cyrus Adler—people whose lives
were spiritual contributions. There
have been scripts about great
thinkers and great doers—such as
Maimonedes.
These vast potentialities of the
Eternal Light program were hardly
glimpsed when the program was
initiated nearly three years ago.
The first script of the series was
"A Rhode Island Refuge" by Mor
ton Wishengrad, a play about the
early Jewish colonists of Newport,
Rhode Island and their patriotic
stand during the Revolutionary
War. In his recently issued collec
tion of Eternal Light plays, Mr.
Wishengrad described the opening
of the series as “probably as ner
vous as innovation as any in radio.
There were many things against it.
It had to overcome the entertain
ment industry’s prejudice against
religious drama. It had to over
come religion's uncertainty about
radio—it had to build an audience
not only in New York but in places
like Bozeman, Montana and Jack-
son Mississippi. The prospects
seemed dubious." But a year later,
when the 'Rhode Island Refuge’
was rebroadcast, the number of
NBC affiliated stations carrying the
program had more than doubled.
The ‘dubious’ experiment has be
gun to prove itself.”
The tragedy of European Jewry
during the past decade has been
sharply compressed in many of the
Eternal Light scripts. Among these
was "The Battle of the Warsaw
Ghetto,” about which the writer,
Morton Wishengrad, says: “ 'The
Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto’ tried
to capture the tragedy of the most
heroic resistance in Jewish history
since the Maccabees and to precip
itate from it a concentrate of eth
ical indignation and exaltation." In
two years, this script was presented
three times by NBC. It was broad
cast to troops overseas by Armed
Forces Radio. It has been per
formed all over the world—in Pal
estine, in DP camps, in hundreds of
American schools and universities.
One of the most popular of the
Eternal Light presentations has
been "The Song of Berditchev,”
which told the story of "The Kad-
dish of Reb Levi Yitzhok." Solos
of famous Hassidic music were sung
by Cantor Robert H. Segal, and the
production was conceived as music
fully as much as drama. Response
began to pour in immediately after
the broadcast. In the first week,
there were 1153 letters. To date,
there have been 1800 requests for
scripts, as well as a large demand
for recordings of the production.
In October of 1946, the week the
United Nations General Assembly
convened, the Eternal Light pre
sented a play called “Isaiah and the
United Nations,” by Stanley Sil
verman. In it, the Prophet Isaiah
* * * * *
United, the weak become
strong. —Schiller
* * * * *
appears at the opening session of
the General Assembly to bring the
voice of the holy scripture to the
delegates. The play touched a sen
sitive chord of hope in the United
Nations, a hope which was ex
pressed by the hundreds of letters
which came in from Jewish and
non - Jewish listeners throughout
the United States and Canada.
When an Eternal Light produc
tion goes on the air, at 12:30 on
Sundays, it is the result of the com
bined energies and talents of many
people, the fusing of many re
sources. Doctor Moshe Davis, Dean
of the Teachers Institute and Semi
nary College of Jewish Studies, is
Program Editor for the series. Un
der his guidance, themes are
sought, research is directed, ideas
are focused and explored. In give-
and-take between editor and w'riter,
the idea becomes a potential script,
the script a potential radio produc
tion.
An idea can spring from almost
anywhere—from a clipping in the
daily newspaper, a passage in a
book, a song about Palestine. For
example, the idea for “Thomas
Kennedy” by Morton Wishengrad,
a script which later won a prize as
the best religious drama of the
year, originated in a footnote in a
volume read for another research
project. The research which but
tresses these ideas has led staff
members to old Hebrew texts, to
books in the Seminary Library and
elsewhere, to the files of organiza
tions like Hadassah, the Jew’ish
Agency for Palestine, Friends of
the Hebrew University. For scripts
about famous figures many inter
views usually take place with liv
ing friends and relatives before the
research is well enough docu-
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