O PINION
‘Maus’ Is Not ‘Auschwitz for Beginners’ — and That’s Why it
Needs to be Taught
BY ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
ART SPIEGELMAN once
complained that “Maus,”
his classic memoir about his
father’s experiences in the
Holocaust, was assumed to
be intended for young adults
because it took the form of a
comic book.

“I have since come to
terms with the fact that
comics are an incredible
democratic medium,” he told
an interviewer.

“Adults” seemed to agree:
“Maus” won a Pulitzer Prize
citation and an American
Book Award and remains 36
years aft er its fi rst appearance
in hardcover one of the most
searing accounts ever written
of the Shoah and its impact on
the children of survivors.

I remembered Spiegelman’s
concern aft er a Tennessee
school board voted last month
to remove
“Maus” from
middle-school classrooms,
citing its use of profanity,
nudity and depictions of
“killing kids.” Th e reaction to
the ban from outside McMinn
County was swift and angry.

Booksellers off ered to give
copies away. A professor off ered
local students a free online
course about the book. Sales
soared. Th e fantasy writer and
graphic novelist Neil Gaiman
tweeted, “Th ere’s only one kind
of people who would vote to
ban Maus, whatever they are
calling themselves these days.”
But the debate over “Maus”
has in many ways done a
disservice to Spiegelman and
his epic project. Because to read
some of the comments from
defenders of the book, you’d
think “Maus” is a challenging
but ultimately tween-friendly
introduction to the horrors of
the Nazi years — a sort of
Shoah textbook with mouse
illustrations. However, “Maus” is not, as
Spiegelman once pointed out,
“Auschwitz for Beginners.” It
is not — or not just — a book
about “man’s inhumanity to
man,” the phrase that actor
Whoopi Goldberg got in
trouble for using to explain the
Holocaust. It is infi nitely wilder
and woolier and more unset-
tling than that. It is about the
complex relationship between
a father who has experienced
the worst a person can experi-
ence, and a son raised in
relative middle-class comfort.

It is about mental illness and
how a mother’s suicide haunts
the child who survives her. It
is about guilt in many forms,
and how it can be transmitted
through generations.

I hadn’t looked at a copy
of the book in years before
the current controversy, yet I
could still recount by memory
its opening almost frame by
frame. A 10- or 11-year-old
Artie is playing with friends in
his neighborhood in Queens,
when they abandon him on the
way to the playground. Artie
comes home to fi nd his father
Vladek in their driveway and
explains through tears that
his friends had skated away
without him.

“Friends? Your friends ...,”
says Vladek. “If you lock them
together in a room with no
food for a week… THEN you
could see what it is, friends!”
With this little slice of
childhood trauma, we are
suddenly deep into the world
of “Maus,” where, as the fi rst
chapter proclaims, Vladek
Spiegelman “bleeds history.”
Art Spiegelman does not deliver
saintly characters oppressed by
cartoon villains. His father,
like his son, is deeply human
and anguished, buff eted by
his time in the camps and his
wife’s suicide and consumed
by his own ingrained if under-
standable prejudices.

At one point in the second
volume, Vladek complains to
Spiegelman and his wife about
the “coloreds” who he says used
to steal from their co-workers
in the Garment District. It’s
an unfl attering version of his
survivor father that Spiegelman
could easily have left out of the
book, but there is nothing easy
about “Maus.”
Th is week a writer asked
me to consider publishing his
essay about “Maus,” in which
he objects to the portrayal of
Vladek’s miserliness, both
Spiegelman’s “narcissism” and
the book’s examples of “Jewish
self-loathing.” He’s not wrong, exactly.

But the triumph and tragedy
of “Maus” is its veracity —
a commitment to the facts
of Auschwitz matched by its
honesty about the complexities
and ambiguities of its victims
and survivors. In an interview
for the book “MetaMaus,”
Spiegelman explains that his
book “seems to have found
itself useful to other people
in my situation, meaning
children of survivors. … Th e
mere idea of a child of survi-
vors resenting and resisting his
parents was breaking a taboo
that I hadn’t expected.”
I for one don’t see the harm
in exposing children to books
that may be beyond their years.

And given the fl ood of content
that comes the way of any child
with a cell phone, laptop or
television set, I fi nd the idea of
“protecting” kids from violent
and sexual imagery in the
name of education incredibly
quaint. But let’s not pretend that
“Maus” is ready-made for the
teen market. “Maus” is “adult”
not because of its depiction
of corpses, its nudity and the
acknowledgment that people
have sex. It is adult in that it
refuses to sugarcoat not just
the horrors of the Holocaust,
but the personalities of its
victims. It is not, in short, a book I’d
give to a tween without hoping
to discuss it, before and aft er
— to help them understand
not only what they might not
understand, but to confront
the things that none of us
understand. In short, it is a book that
should be taught, and taught
well. ●
Andrew Silow-Carroll is the editor-
in-chief of The New York Jewish
Week and senior editor of the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Be heard.

Email your letters to the editor.

letters@jewishexponent.com 14
FEBRUARY 10, 2022
JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



O pinion
Coming Home to the Kaiserman JCC
BY DAN HOROWITZ
AT FIRST GLANCE, my
decision to become a member
of the board of directors of
the Kaiserman JCC may seem
odd. After all, I am raising my
family in Wilmington, where
we are active members of the
Siegel JCC. When I shared this
news with Siegel JCC CEO Ivy
Harlev, she gave me a puzzled
look and said, “But you still live
and work here?”
As I explained, the
Kaiserman JCC is where my
passion is and where I can do
the most good. I basically grew
up there: I went to Kaiserman’s
preschool and camp as a child,
and they gave me my first job
as a seventh-grader when I
JCC, and joining the board
feels like a homecoming. I also
believe that serving on the
board embraces the concept of
philanthropy, which is defined
as, “the desire to promote the
welfare of others, expressed
especially by the generous
donation of money to good
causes.” My knowledge of the
Kaiserman JCC’s history runs
deep, and having another
community as a basis for
comparison has been helpful.

The two Jewish communi-
ties are extremely different:
Wilmington has a small but
close-knit Jewish community
with only a few synagogues
and a single fledgling day
school, but the thriving
Siegel JCC feels like the true
center of the Jewish commu-
nity. The Kaiserman JCC is
part of a community that
has a plethora of specialized
Jewish institutions that take
on many functions that are
often handled by the JCC in
smaller communities like
Wilmington. This has required the
Kaiserman JCC to reinvent
place to swim, but partnering
with the JCC would.

The abundance of special-
ized Jewish institutions
arguably makes the traditional
“town square” function of a
JCC even more important:
Without a common gathering
place, there’s a risk that too
much of a silo effect will set in,
and people at different points
on the Jewish communal
spectrum won’t have the
opportunity to get to know
each other and appreciate each
other’s perspectives.

Before joining the board,
my knowledge of the happen-
ings at the Kaiserman JCC
consisted mostly of Exponent
headlines that most of you are
familiar with. Now that I have
gotten a deeper understanding
of the current state of the insti-
tution, I am optimistic about
its future. As difficult as it was
to read about the layoffs at the
beginning of the pandemic, I
now see that as the turning
point that will result in the JCC
emerging from the pandemic
stronger than it went into it.

There is still much work to
be done, but I’m encouraged by
This has required the Kaiserman JCC to reinvent itself to demonstrate
its continued relevance to both the surrounding community and its
institutions. became scorekeeper for the
basketball leagues. In high
school, I went on to work at the
control desk, front office, camp
and the afterschool program.

I learned all kinds of life
lessons, such as the importance
of treating the maintenance
staff with dignity and respect
and how to get along with
a difficult boss. I also felt a
huge sense of accomplish-
ment when I was able to earn
enough money to pay for a
foreign exchange trip to France
entirely on my own.

In short, I wouldn’t be the
person I am today without the
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM itself to demonstrate its
continued relevance to both
the surrounding community
and its institutions. A good
way to do that is to approach
the other organizations in the
community as collaborators
rather than competitors and
help them fulfill functions
that would not be possible or
practicable for them to fulfill
on their own.

For example, it wouldn’t
make sense for an Orthodox
shul to build a swimming
pool so that congregants that
cannot swim with members of
the opposite sex can have a
what I’ve seen so far and look
forward to charting the path
forward along with my fellow
board members and new CEO
Alan Scher.

We still have some open
seats at the table, though, and
I’d love nothing more than for
some of my fellow “alumni”
to join us. As we celebrate the
Kaiserman JCC’s 50th anniver-
sary, to all those that were once
a part of this great institution
and to those that never have
been, I say, “Welcome home.” l
Dan Horowitz is an attorney in
Delaware. JEWISH EXPONENT
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Thanks to the Exponent
I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS my appreciation for the coverage
by the Jewish Exponent of developments within the community.

The selection of Michael Balaban and Jeffrey Lasday to
positions of high responsibility in the Jewish community bodes
well for the future of our communal life. Both bring consider-
able professional skill and experience, together with deep Jewish
commitments to their service.

It is also heartening to see the serious attention paid by the
Exponent to transitional moments in professional Jewish leader-
ship. The death of Hazzan Joseph Levine was marked in a way
that does justice to a life of scholarship and clinical excellence.

On a happier note, the articles about the appointment of
Zev Eleff as president of Gratz College, the retirements of two
distinguished educators, Sharon Levin and Judy Groner, and
the engagement of their successors, Rabbi Marshall Lesack and
Mitchell Daar, pay appropriate tribute to dedicated communal
servants. As an educative media organ, the Exponent mirrors the
respect deserved by those who labor to enhance the quality of
Jewish life.

Saul P. Wachs | Rosalyn B. Feinstein Emeritus
Professor of Education and Liturgy, Gratz College
‘Maus’ Controversial in Past, Too
I believe that I was fired from teaching a course on the Holocaust
to seventh graders because I wanted to use Art Spiegelman’s
“Maus” (“The Meaning of the ‘Maus’ Removal,” Feb. 3) instead
of an “X-Men” comic book used in the past.

Robert Shapiro | Maple Shade, New Jersey
More on Henry Ford
At 91, and having worked and contributed to Jewish Federation
and all Philadelphia Jewish charities for 65 years, I am appalled
and dismayed and disheartened about your Exponent article
about two of the greatest antisemites in American history
(“Edison-Ford Winter Gardens,” Jan. 27).

Despite their wonderful business and inventive genius, they
were two evil men. In their beautiful garden and cottage, they
probably were talking about the Jewish bankers and publishers
“taking over the world.”
Why would you glamorize them and invite Jewish tourists to
visit? In their time, there was probably not one Jew in a Fortune 400
corporation. l
Robert B. Golder | Boca Raton, Florida
STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and let-
ters to the editor published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing
Group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Exponent. Send
letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to 215-569-3389. Letters should be a
maximum of 200 words and may be edited for clarity and brevity. Unsigned letters will not be
published. FEBRUARY 10, 2022
15