The Spice Box
THE SPICE BOX The mailbag At full moon time, we get strange letters. Excerpts from some relatively recent ones: "A copy of moment fell into my hands quite inadvertently. My curiosity was aroused...
...No, no, no...
...But everyone calls me Sandy...
...Meyer Levin arrived, unannounced and unexpected, together with his wife, novelist Tereska Torres, and a sizeable mound of cameras and equipment...
...I dialed the number and, sure enough, Singer answered...
...Our boss, the late Haim Yahil (then Hoffman), was not thrilled with the notion, but it was part of my job to convince him and the Bricha executive committee that such a film could win us friends and money for more Haganah ships...
...Recently, a commentator on TV stated that if one buys gold stock directly of African companies he can buy it for 25-30 percent less than the quoted price...
...He did not seem especially impressed...
...and stretched out behind us, about 30 trucks with nearly 40 Jews in each, plus a small piece of luggage for each person...
...Whenever we met, in New York then or over the past SO years in Washington or in Israel, we saw another Meyer Levin...
...That's your poem...
...Here trouble was not possible...
...Include SASE...
...For Singer, poets came in only one condition— old...
...I next saw Meyer Levin in New York in the early fifties...
...That request has been denied on the basis of the tenth criterion, the refusal of Israel to adopt one of the three recognized IRC symbols—the Red Cross, the Lion and Sun, or the Red Crescent...
...The Settlers and The Harvest were his love offerings to Israel and to the Jewish people...
...he and the French cameraman would go along and shoot the whole transport...
...An hour passed...
...We reserve the right to edit all submissions...
...The passion that ignited The Old-Bunch and Citizens flared when Meyer talked about My Father's House and The Illegals— because Jews were the subject and the Holocaust was the scenario...
...Ernst and I in the lead car...
...Zone and the French Zone of Germany, so our chances of crossing the border undetected were better...
...Please send us ideas, notes, curiosities—anything you'd like to share with our subscribers...
...He had no money...
...Here are some things you can do: 1. Write to Mr...
...That was all...
...They even checked a few of the trucks...
...Fewer American soldiers were on guard duty at the border between the U.S...
...He laughed a lot and he told funny, almost zany stories...
...Under the leadership of Rabbi Rubin R. Dobin, Operation Recognition has been working to marshal support for the admission of Magen David Adorn at that meeting...
...A couple of months ago I saw a wonderful poem written about me by Pinsker, the Poet...
...As soon as we arrived at the old German army barracks, the Kaserne that was our staging area, Tereska, properly dressed, assumed her new identity...
...Prom a limited fund earmarked for such purposes, we've extended Mrs...
...Their filmed adventure continued...
...You're Pinsker the Poet...
...Meyer Levin was an extremely talented journalist, a fine novelist...
...Meyer Levin had secured his place in his world...
...I think so," Singer replied...
...Meyer was proud of the roots he and Tereska and the kids had sunk into Israel's soil...
...It was the worst time of his life...
...Invitation Readers are invited—and encouraged—to submit material for The Spice Box...
...Would you happen to know a stockbroker in Durban or elsewhere in South Africa that I could contact regarding this...
...Yitzchak, a DP, on his motorcycle...
...We were lucky that night...
...See moment, September 1977).Immediately after gaining independence, Israel began requesting acceptance of the Magen David Adorn Society into the IRC...
...But how can this be...
...Yes, that's it...
...our part was finished...
...Here is mine...
...On we went, around Freiburg, and then down to the Army-built pontoon bridge across the Rhine River at Pontrde-Seize...
...Often they rode behind the truck in which Tereska was seated strategically so she could be seen, crowded in with the others...
...there was no trouble at the U.S...
...evidently the meeting was even more uneventful than I had imagined...
...But we agreed that Meyer's discipline and restraint had been admirable...
...When I saw you, I wondered if you might perhaps be the son of Pinsker, the Poet...
...Answer...
...And besides," the New York professor added, "he's a great charmer...
...When I mentioned this last fact to an older and wiser academic friend, he urged me to give Singer a buzz and make a lunch date...
...My curiosity was aroused by the name of your magazine since my maiden name was Moment...
...The "right" people in New York (probably I.F...
...In 1974, Israel was urged to withdraw a similar amendment by friendly nations on the grounds that such a resolution would disrupt the conference...
...After all," he said with impressive authority, "Singer is always interested in meeting his reviewers...
...In fact, a week after our first meeting, he told a book reviewer friend of mine that he had met the son of Pinsker the Poet...
...And The Illegals proved as useful as we had hoped...
...We were luckier...
...it is important to keep the issue alive so that the Manila report will be a positive one...
...But during this time I learned that Meyer Levin argued Levin well, heatedly—and a lot...
...In short, our dutiful lunch became a long, exciting afternoon, one of many I spent with Singer in the years since he "discovered" Pinsker the Poet...
...No doubt dozens upon dozens of people could tell fascinating stories about what these calls were like...
...And Philadelphia We know that Philadel-phians must be weary of Philadelphia jokes...
...Zone border with either American or French troops...
...Perhaps that was enough...
...Why Saturday night...
...Meyer was intensely involved in the film, which made it tough to put limits on him and the cameraman—and relatively easy to persuade him that some of his filming ideas were dangerous...
...Is it possible that your magazine was begun by a relative of mine...
...He was still, however, bitter...
...It had been a most peculiar transport...
...It must have been brutally hard for Meyer not to shout as a movie director apparently must...
...At this point my heart sank a notch lower...
...A combination of factors landed me in New York City during the summer of 1966:1 had a job at a school not far away, I had a summer research grant to foot the bills and, most important of all, I had a dissertation to revise for publication as a book...
...As happens often, the actuality fell short of the expectation...
...Ernst and I were enormously relieved...
...I shouted, without the slightest interest in disguising my excitement...
...That was not unusual...
...I shall reread them many times— May you continue to publish for many years...
...All" they wanted was to make Tereska, who was playing the lead role, into a Displaced Person and send her off on one of the Bricha's underground transports to a French port and onto an underground ship to Eretz Israel...
...I've learned to cherish them...
...What was it now...
...3. Have your own Red Cross Society pass a resolution on behalf of Magen David Adorn recognition...
...He interrupted: "Tell me, what is your name again...
...Yet he had added new and great dimensions to his life...
...Since 1948, Israel has filled nine of them...
...Sanford Pinsker Followup There are 10 criteria that must be met for a society to gain recognition by the International Red Cross...
...We desperately needed both in 1947: For several weeks, Tereska and Meyer lived at our house as we plotted, first how to get permission, and then how to film an underground transport from Germany to Marseilles without endangering the more than 1000 Jews involved...
...The Singer who used to quip that he wrote "between interruptions" is now such a celebrity that without an unlisted number and a secretary, he wouldn't be able to write at all...
...Over the past three years, I've read reports about a rejuvenative European beauty regimen called__Holistic in approach, this facial remodeling program is the secret ritual of many of the most photographed and sought after over-achievers in America...
...On the appointed day everything went off like clockwork: I arrived at Singer's apartment shortly before one o'clock and we chatted our way to Steinberg's Dairy Restaurant, a favorite Singer hangout around the corner...
...The all-important call from Paris finally came and the transport was laid on...
...He was a passionate man and a uniquely earing Jew...
...Answers...
...The work of Isaac Bashevis Singer comprised one chapter...
...N: "I regret that I am not able to continue to subscribe to your wonderful magazine, due to financial difficulties...
...However, I have enjoyed reading all the beautiful articles, and shall treasure the copies I have in my possession...
...And then he proceeded to describe me...
...He felt abandoned by many in the Jewish community and he was profoundly angry...
...Depending on length, we'll pay from $5 to $50 for material that is accepted...
...Pinsker...
...Pinsker, the poet...
...Displaced Persons, Haganah people, JDC workers, an occasional Army friend-all came and went constantly...
...He was a gopd friend...
...Isaac Bashevis Singer and Pinsker, tlie poet's son There was a time when Isaac Bashevis Singer's telephone number was listed in the Manhattan directory and the man himself would pick up the phone...
...I read your article on the condition of Jews in South Africa...
...energetic young DPs getting assignments from several uniformed members of the Bricha mission...
...Our subscribers, the Shaws, assure us that their license plate was selected before they decided to move from the Green Mountain State to the City of Brotherly Love...
...That's my poem...
...Then a few hours of travel across flat Alsatian countryside to Mulhous, the exciting transfer of all our passengers to a wait-ing train, a quick farewell to Tereska and Meyer, and the train was off to the Marseilles area...
...My name is Sanford Pinsker...
...To think," he went on, "that Pinsker the Poet should be in New York City and I should miss the chance to thank him for such a lovely poem...
...The doorbell of our house in Heidelberg rang...
...But "oy vey" does rhyme with PA...
...Whispered shouts and wild gestures had to suffice...
...And I said to my wife: "See, poems they write about me now...
...On April IS, 1949, at the Diplomatic Conference in Stockholm, Israel officially introduced the following amendment: "In the case of countries which already use as a distinctive sign, in place of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent or the Red Lion and Sun on a white background, or also the Red Shield of David on a white ground, those emblems are also recognized by the terms of the present Convention...
...Singer listened politely, took my name and we agreed on a time to meet later in the month...
...How could it be otherwise...
...Alexandre Hay, President, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, CH 1211, Switzerland...
...Rabbi Eugene Lipman...
...Singer repeated in amazement...
...Meyer staged some good scenes there...
...He could be very quiet...
...But in 1966, Singer was both an author and a man who answered his telephone...
...But then there's Mrs...
...I don't understand...
...N.'s subscription—with pleasure...
...The transport stopped only occasionally during the night...
...I explained my project as best I could, quickly adding that I would be in the City all summer and available for lunch anytime...
...The final vote, taken secretly, rejected the amendment 22 to SI with 7 abstentions (there were 60 delegations represented...
...And the Yiddishist in him treated "poets" with utmost respect...
...an old couple sitting passively, waiting...
...Stone, who sent reliable journalists to us) had told them we could help...
...You're so young to be a poet...
...Meyer was directing...
...Sanford Pinsker...
...Singer," I began...
...his war with the world over Anne Frank had left deep, unhealed scars...
...Material cannot be returned...
...we loaded the trucks and moved out of the Kaserne and out of Neu-Ulm by small back roads...
...He was trying to work on Compulsion, but was impeded by the necessity to run around lecturing to anyone who would pay him $85...
...Be sure to include your name, address and telephone number...
...more than one of the douanes was our "friend," well-paid to believe that our documents, those precious 90-day transit visas through France, were real...
...About 11 p.m...
...Meyer and the cameraman got some of the other shots they needed—a young boy studying his new identity card, fake but vital...
...Fortunately for Meyer, however, the douanes went through the motions of examining documents...
...Ernst, the other transport leader, and I conferring about whatever...
...He's got a regular stable...
...I tell you, it would have been terrible, a shunda...
...Blessings for a happy and peaceful year...
...The response of the world leaders in many fields of endeavor has been heartening...
...2. Send letters to the editors of your local newspapers...
...Understandably enough, his Nobel Prize has changed all that...
...I heard about it the next morning...
...Of course, Singer refused to believe that Pinsker the Poet and Pinsker the Professor were one-and-the-same...
...4. Contact Operation Recognition care of Rabbi Dobin, at P.O.B.6194, Miami Beach, Florida 33154, for information, petition forms, fact sheets...
...When you told me your name over the telephone," Singer continued, "I reminded myself to ask you something...
...It would leave, as usual, late on Saturday night from the Kaseme in Neu-Ulm...
...Another side of Meyer It was in the fall of 1947...
...But when Singer and I got together at the end of that summer in 1966,1 was too thrilled to correct him...
...Meyer and the cameraman sneaked behind a truck in order to film the negotiations" with the French douanes (customs guards) about our entrance into France...
...Well, thank you very much for your time, Mr...
...There have been repeated efforts since that time, none successful...
...As the camera followed her and Meyer directed, she talked with some of the other people waiting for the transport to get started...
...His death diminishes our lives...
...It was pleasant enough, rather perfunctory, but at least I could always say that I had met an important Yiddish writer named Isaac Bashevis Singer...
...my wife moving around the barracks, helping with babies and little kids and the aged and the pregnant...
...They were filming The Illegals...
...Singer ordered a salad...
...And although I see Singer less than I used to, occasionally I get abetter, in his child-like scrawl, addressed to: "My Dear Friend, the Son of Pinsker the Poet...
...After dawn there was one long rest stop, deep in the Black Forest...
...The time had come to call it quits...
...As we headed through the blackness, Meyer and his cameraman would pull ahead of the transport at times, then swing back to the end for other shots...
...Was it in The Recon-structionist...
...Now, a Quadrennial International Red Cross Conference is being planned to take place next month in Manila...
...This was by far the wildest public relations undertaking in the wild, crazy history of Haganah activity in postrHolocaust Europe...
...I would be forever grateful to anyone who could put me in contact with this nomadic Canadian...
...But this time it was a name we had known, though we had never met...
...It took me a full week to work up enough courage to put my friend's advice to the test...
...Equally serious, the nightmare over his dramatization of The Diary of Anne Frank was in its full ugliness, and it controlled his mood and his moves...
...I told him about my project—a book with the unlikely title, The Schle-miel as Metaphor—and we talked about "Gimpel the Fool...
...W.R., the Toronto-based artist who codeveloped_, is presently residing somewhere on the Eastern seaboard...
...In fact, when he spoke several times at our synagogue, he spoke so quietly that it was difficult to hear him...
...That picture of Meyer Levin, angry, was etched into many people's minds during those years—and remained as their indelible picture of him...
...For the remainder of the afternoon, I spent my time conjuring up terrific questions and imagining his witty responses...
...He beamed when he learned we were using the books in our school as texts in Zionist history...
...By him I was always the Son of Pinsker the Poet...
Vol. 6 • October 1981 • No. 9
