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KABAKOFF / INTRODUCTION
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ern Hebrew writing and points to the role o f the Jewish writer in
combatting the disintegration o f the family framework.
Roger S. Kohn’s survey o f Jewish publishing in France presents
recent data on the extent o f French Jewish literary productivity.
At the same time, it points up the problem o f identifying its spe
cific Jewish character. Lothar Kahn has provided a valuable p e r
spective for considering the relationship o f Jewish writers to gen
eral literature. He has utilized the anniversaries o f Lion
Feuchtwanger, Max Brod and Jakob Wasserman to evaluate their
contributions to German letters and to indicate the marked dif
ferences in the ir responses to the ir Jewishness and the Jewish des
tiny.
Joseph Lowin has dealt with George Steiner’s novel,
The Portage
o San Cristobal ofA.H
. , and its dramatic version. In analyzing this
work, which has aroused controversy on both sides o f the
Atlantic, he considers the question whether it can be considered a
faithful response to the Holocaust. An overview o f the literary
career o f Elie Wiesel, whose many works are seen as stages in his
development as a witness to the events o f the Holocaust, is p re
sented by Ellen S. Fine.
Sholom J. Kahn’s discussion o f Bialik’s poetry, occasioned by a
recent bilingual edition o f some o f the poet’s work, takes into
account the new literary criticism which has served to highlight
the au tho r ’s continuing presence in Hebrew letters.
In his Hebrew article, devoted to Izhak Ben-Zvi on the occasion
f the hund re th anniversary o f his birth, G. Kressel has described
he blending o f interests represen ted by the career o f the second
president o f Israel, who combined a lifetime o f communal activity
ith research into the history o f the Yishuv and its various ethnic
roups. Israel Knox offers in his Yiddish article an appreciation
f the role o f the late Chaim Grade not only as a poet but also as a
ortrayer in prose o f the Mussar movement.
l l
T he centenaries o f the birth o f Zevi Scharfstein and David
ergelson serve as the occasion for special articles by Meir Ben-
orin and Susan A. Slotnick respectively. Ben-Horin has encom
assed Scharfstein’s work not only as educator and historian o f
ewish education but also as Hebrew lexicographer and essayist.
lotnick has presented an analysis o f Bergelson’s artistry as a nov