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A RETREAT
THE AUTHOR RETURNS
TO HIS HOME TOWN
FOR A SEARCHING
RE-EVALUATION
by HOWARD AMES
(A Seven Arts Feature)
Are you tired of the cliches
surrounding us on such sub
jects as “Who’s a Jew?” the
“Vanishing Jew,” “Is God
Dead?” “The Jew and Ecum
enicity,’’-etc. etc., ad nauseam?
I am too. This year, during the
High Holy Days, I’m going to
escape from all that by return
ing for the period to my home
town.
Let me tell you about my
home town. It’s a city of
300,000-plus population, where
the Jews have numbered about
20,000—give or take a minyan,
for fifty years or so. Last year,
I visited the home town—here
after referred to as H.T.— be
cause one of my brothers, the
only one of eight born there,
still lives in H.T. A couple of
days after my arrival prior to
Rosh Hashana, 1 went about a
tour of the places I knew—and
loved—as a kid.
First I was shocked. Not one
of those places was recogniz
able. My late father’s little old
synagogue, where the most
zealous group of hassidim wor
shiped, was, true, still there. It
had stayed on through all the
years, at its original locale—
now a solid Negro neighbor
hood. Its president was-—still
is this year—a wealthy in
dustrialist who is the grand
son of one of the original
founders. There may be more
nostalgia there today than
hassidism: but the shul is still
functioning, even though
many of its leading baal-haba-
tim, unlike their grandparents,
come to worship in fancy cars
which they park around the
corner before walking solemn
ly a block or two to services.
But not another of the old
landmarks was found on my
tour. Beth Hemedrosh Hago-
dol, the fanciest Orthodox
shul in our section of the city,
is now in the suburbs. The old
Yiddish school, run by the
Poale Zion, is gone. The YM-
YWHA is now an integrated
community center. Even the
Reform temple has moved, and
the beautiful synagogue built
in our town by what was the
“New” denomination in my
youth, the Conservatives—had
been turned into a movie
house. It was disconcerting, to
say the least.
My brother, however, start
ed driving me around. I found
every one of these institutions
functioning. They were in dif
ferent locations — but they
were far from dead.
H.T. had not grown in over
all population—any more thap
