From the Lampert Library

Today, March 2, is the 112th anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s birth and in many schools children will participate in Read across America, a day to celebrate reading especially Dr. Seuss books.

It’s fun. Seussian rhymes are clever, catchy, and original. Children never get bored with hearing the stories over and over and over-although those who read to them may.

However, when one looks at Seuss unclouded by the repetition of reading to a child, the reader discovers the exceedingly unchildlike depths of this writer.

Before he was Dr. Seuss, the children’s author, Theodor Seuss Geisel was Dr. Seuss, a cartoonist for the left-leaning PM. daily newspaper. He produced hundreds of political cartoons including many excoriating Fascism and Nazism like the one below showing Hitler and French Vichy collaborator Pierre Laval in a parody of American poet Joyce Kilmer’s poem Trees.

Seuss was himself a victim of anti-Semitism because of his German surname. He was initially denied entrance to a fraternity at Dartmouth College because it was thought that he was Jewish. It took a year and a half for him to be accepted as the Lutheran that he was.

As he transitioned into children’s books, Seuss still dealt with many of the topics of his earlier work. The environment, totalitarianism, prejudice were all themes of his beloved books. And characters from the political cartoons reappeared in books for children. Children may have just heard the silliness of the rhymes and the energy of the illustrations. Perceptive adults knew that there was more to Seuss than what appealed to a five year old.

Like the best literature and creative productions, Seuss’s books can be read on more than one level. It is perhaps this quality that has helped his books like The Sneetches survive generation after generation. In fact, the stars that the Sneetches wear were inspired by the yellow stars forced on Jews by the Nazis.

In addition, it’s also often the best and most influential literature that gets parodied as Seuss has been so often, even being used as a way to teach how to build a sukkah. (http://aish.com/h/su/mm/Dr-Seusss-Sukkah.html)

Eileen Rosenbloom, a columnist for Aish.com, calls Seuss a Righteous Gentile for his powerful cartoons. He was made an Honorary Jew in 1969 by Jerusalem major Teddy Kollek.

It behooves us to remember that even if Seuss ostensibly wrote for children, the ideas in his books are for everyone. He devoted much of his considerable talent and influence to advocating political and social change. From condemning isolationism and attacking anti-Semitism to his later works for literacy, the environment, and against the arms race, Dr. Seuss’s most popular works reflect his passion for fairness, democracy and tolerance.

In Seuss’s own words we should remember that “unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

NOTE: The Lampert Library has several Seuss books in Hebrew translation.