BOOKS OF THE MONTH
POEMS By Miss B. A. Eisendrath, Bloch Publishing Co.
Miss Eisendrath writes good political satire, and her portrayal of child-dialect is eminently satisfactory. Her poem "Sez I to Taft” is a fine bit of work, and an example of mildness in satire not without a certain serene though hidden strenght. Her love and beauty poems are touching. There is one poem in her small volumn which is displeasing. It is entitled “Odessa-Casablanca” and, though it is the only Jewish poem in the collection, it is not in accord with the newly awakened spirit of Israel.
STUDY FOR PRIMARY GRADES
These books, courses A and B, are designed for the use of Jewish religious schools, from the curricula of which every trace of Jewish nationalist sentiment has been eradicated. In both books one feels the lack of unity and life. Miss Jacobs has not seen it fit to draw upon any of the fine character pictures in the Bible which illustrate Jewish character and Jewish conduct. In her effort to avoid any taint of nationalism she has managed to escape giving any impression of nobility of Jewish history which one would think it would be the aim of the schools to inculcate. From the literary and pedagogical standpoint, Miss Jacobs' books are beneath criticism.
COLLECTED ESSAYS OF AB. GOLDBERG,
The thirty one essays in this book are mainly critical, the author assures us. but unless we keep in mind that there are two kinds of criticism, appreciative and analytic, we will not truly undedstand him. Certainly Mr. Goldberg’s criticism are of the former kind. His articles. “The Poesy of the Bible”, “Ahad Ha’am, and Dubnow,” “Life and Literature,” and “Nahum Sokolow” are not to be taken as scholarly researches into any of these
subjects. But they reveal, as do nearly all of his writings, clear and unmistakable insight of the part they play in Jewish life and literature.
As a critic, appreciative of all that is promising of Jewish life and literature Mr. Goldberg has proven himself of great service to the movement in Jewish life that seeks to embrace all that is vital and progressive in Jewish life. In his essays on the big figures in the literature and politics of the Jewish People—a truly Jewish spirit pervades.
Mr. Goldberg's style is smooth and fluent. With only an exception here and there his book is an uninterrupted flow of fine language and noble sentiment. In this he suffers from the fault of many Yiddish essayists— the lack of concentration. In this connection I think our Yiddish stylists would do well to study Ahad Ha’am. But. nevertheless, Mr. Goldberg’s book is an excellent contribution to the fine body of Yiddish literature which has grown up with the Zionist Movement.
NEW SONGS OF ZION
The Judaean Press has just issued the first volume of its Zionist Classics, containing a collection of "New Songs of Zion" and edited by Samuel Roth. Mr. Roth is also responsible for a number of excellent translations of poems by C. N. Byalik, S. Frug and Jehudah Halevy. Jehudah Halevy's poems are hardly "new songs" but the modern singers gladly acknowledge their master, and the inclusion of these songs it not inappropriate. His "Ode to Zoin" is a conspicious omission. Others represented are Imber, Rosenfeld, Yahoash, Zangwill, Sillman, and the Americans, Emma Lazarus, Segal, Goldberg, Snowman, Jessie E. Sampter and the editor of the volume.
The English poems are on the whole not equal to the translations from the Hebrew and Yiddish with two or three notable exceptions, particularly Miss Sampter's very beautiful "Friday Evening." The poems of Mr. Segal are uneven in quality, but on the whole very strong and noble in spirit.