Ida Nasatir writings List of honorees Louis Rose Society Jewishsightseeing home
Book Review by Ida Nasatir
Letters to My Son by Dagobert D. Runes
April 14, 1950—Ida Nasatir book reviews—Letters
to My Son by Dagobert
D. Runes—Southwestern Jewish Press, page 5: It has become a current
practice to give this excellent, rather small book as a gift to the young Bar-Mitzva
boy. However, the contents of the volume can be read to advantage by any adult.
The best kind of advice any father can give his son is, after all, concerned
with the eternal verities: truth, justice, fair play. Taht is the kind Dr. Runes
gives to his son in this moving and valuable book. He does not tell his
boy how to make money, or how to "get ahead" in the world, or even how
to match his ties with his socks. He tells him his own philosophy of life, and
urges the boy to interest himself in it. It is a good philosophy. It is not
expressed in the same old trite terms of "doing good," but in the
quiet discussion of vital human issues. The first letter in the book, is on the
People of the Book. He tells why Jews earned that title and why others
would do well to merit it, too. He writes on friendship, on the reaction of
whites to negroes, on God, and on religion as he sees those subjects, on mental
and moral courage, on aspects of wealth and success, on having a social
conscience, on living in an "ivory tower," on love and books—and, as
if this were not enough, he also writes on other subjects. His chapter, or
rather, his letter, on Jesus the Jew and the crime of modern anti-Semitism is a
stirring one. It is good that Dr. Runes has, in this volume, shared his advice
to his son with other fathers and sons. It is advice worth pondering. Did I say
it will interest grown-ups? It decidedly will.