paVe'3-^lh: NEWS—jiitie-July, 1979
News Watch
Edited by Marta Garelik
LIVERPOOL PAYING
200,000 LB FOR TA FOOT
BALL STAR: TEL AVIV. —
Avi Cohen, the Tel Aviv Mac-
- cabi footballer left for Liverpool
on May 20 to undergo medical
examinations prior to signing
with European champions
Liverpool, who are almost cer
tain to win the English cham
pionship this year.
Liverpool chairman John
Smith and club secretary Peter
Kobinson held talks with Tel
Aviv Maccabi last week to
finalize the details of Cohen’s
transfer to Liverpool.
The reported fee for the
transfer is 200,000 lb. Cohen, 22,
will join Liverpool next July for
training before the English
League season’s start at the end
of August.
Before leaving for Liverpool,
Cohen is expected to marry 18
year old Dorti Rosenbloom.
RUSSIA INVITES
ISRAEL AGAIN: TEL AVIV.
— Israel has accepted the invita
tion from Russia to participate
in the Moscow Book Fair in
September and is planning to
triple the space reserved in the
first book fair two years ago.
RAMAT GAN DIAMOND
CENTRE WILL BE
WORLD’S LARGEST:
Jerusalem Post - TEL AVIV. —
Intensive effort is being ex
panded to complete work on the
new Diamond Exchange
Building in Kamat Gan. With
the opening of the new building,
slated lor June 12, it will make
the local exchange the un
disputed largest diamond centre
in the world.
Moshe Schnitzer, president of
the Israel Diamond Exchange,
"**has just returned from a Euro
pean trip during which he in
vited the heads of the various
diamond houses to attend the
festive opening. He also related
that major diamond buyers,
from various parts of the world,
have already accepted in
vitations to be present at the
opening.
The new building is 28 stories
high and has been built by a
group of foreign investors. It is
reported to have the most up-to-
date surveillance equipment in
the world. Overseas diamond-
taires have bought space in the
building.
Schnitzer conceded that the
diamond industry worldwide is
currently suffering from a major
recession. He conceded that five
bankruptcies had taken place in
a single week this month. “Four
thousand employees have lost
their jobs, in the recent past,”
Schnitzer told The Jerusalem
Post.
He expressed confidence that
the local industry will overcome
the present difficulties.
KOLLEK PERSONIFIES
ISRAEL’S SPIRIT - San
Francisco - Teddy Kollek per
sonifies Israel’s indomitable
spirit. Finding himself in San
Francisco at midnight because
his plane was unable to land in
fogbound Los Angeles,
Jerusalem’s major rented a car
and, rounding up three travel
ling companions to “keep him
awake,” drove 400 miles
through the night to arrive in
time for an 8:00 a.m. campaign
breakfast meeting.
PROF. LEVICH LEAVES
ISRAEL: Jewish Post and Opi
nion • Tel Aviv University
which had already announced
that Veniamin G. Levich would
join its faculty will be disap
pointed in the announcement
that the foremost Jewish scien
tist to receive a Russian visa will
join the City College of City Uni
versity of New York. Just what
if any relationship Levich will
have with Tel Aviv University,
which as far back as 1973 nam
ed him to its faculty in absentia,
is unknown. Levich will be nam
ed an Einstein Professor.
THE SOUTH CAROLINA
MUSEUM: Two Jewish men
are responsible for a $4.5 million
collection of painting by An
drew Wyeth coming to a little-
known museum in Greenville,
S.C. Arthur Magill paid that
amount to Joseph E. Levine,
the motion picture executive,
and then donated the collection
to the Greenville County Art
Museum. Mr. Magill, a retired
manufacturer, lives in Green
ville. Besides the business he
built, Her Majesty, the largest
manufacturer of children’s
sleepwear in the world, he is an
art collector of note. Mr. Levine
announced that he would be
donating the proceeds from the
sale to a hospital to be named
soon.
GENIUSES BY THE
MILLION? Jerusalem Post
Reporter ■ TEL AVIV. Luis
Alberto Machado, Venezuelan
minister of state for the develop
ment of intelligence, has come to
Israel for help in an inter
national project which, he
believes, may eventually turn
ordinary citizens into
supergeniuses. He is here as a
guest of Education Minister
Zevulun Hammer.
He chose Israel as the first
country to visit because of
studies and educational ex
periments done here which, he
said, prove his thesis. He also
believes that Jews have
developed a cultural superiority
based on systematic thought,
and that the techniques behind
this system can and should be
shared with the rest of the
world.
“If Jewish achievements -
such as the fact that one-third of
Nobel Prize winners are Jews -
were genetically determined,
the rest of us would have no
choice but to accept our inferiori
ty. However, we are against
racism, as you are, and we know
no race is superior to others.
Therefore, your advantage has
to be cultural, and it is the most
beautiful gift you could give to
the world if you could share the
techniques which have made
your achievements possible.”
EBAN TO WRITE
COLUMN FOR CAIRO
NEWSPAPER: Abba Eban,
Israel’s former Foreign
Minister, has agreed to write a
column for the Cairo
newspaper, Al-Ahram, and in
making the announcement dis
counted rumors that he might
become Israel’s first am
bassador to Egypt.
ISRAEL LEADS IN
SOLAR ENERGY: Well over
30% of all domestic hot water
heating in Israel is generated by
the sun. It is a growing business
in Israel, with four manufac
turers producing the rooftop
panels. One of them - Miromit -
has entered into an arrange
ment with a firm in Denver,
Colorado to produce the panels
for sale in the United States.
Turning to a wider applica
tion of solar energy, Israel’s
huge Tadiran Electronics has
developed a solar-powered ab
sorption chiller which can
provide air conditioning as well
as space heating and hot water.
Israel’s leadership in solar
energy research is all the more
startling when one considers its
budgetary restrictions - the
current solar energy research
and development budget in
Israel is some $2 million.
Jerusalem
How many ofyou reading this
I article can say, “I’ve been there”
and “I know what it means to us
Jews.”
I can say that I feel that I am
as much a Jerusalemite as I am
a Bostonian. It was my good for
tune to have lived a year in the
city of David and to revisit it
again.
Since the reunification of
Jerusalem June 7, 1967, Jews
have settled in the heart of 2^on
and have swelled her popula
tion. Rachel may dry some of
her tears as the streets become
full of streaming crowds of
Jewish people.
Its origins have been dated by
archaeologists backwards at
least to 2375 B.C. E. A focal point
of struggle for dominance over
the centuries, it is a symbol of
peace.
While other peoples relegated
her to be peripheral and provin-
cal, for the Jewish people
Jerusalem was, is, and will be
all important and unique.
Religion, culture, nationality
weave a beautiful matrix and
capture our Jewish soul never to
let go.
Although ancient in Origin
(587 B.C.E.) these same words
ring true in the Zionist heart of
today:
“How shall we sing the Lord’s
song in a foreign land?
If 1 forget thee o Jerusalem
Let my right hand forget her
cunning,
Let my tongue cleave to the roof
of my mouth, if I do not
remember you.
If I do not set Jerusalem above
my highest joy.”
While Jerusalem Day is
relatively new, try to remember
it some way. Be creative. Recite
verses about it or sing any song
mentioning the city. Kecite a
blessing over wine Boreh Pri
Hagafen. Say also
Shehecheyanu.
This year Jerusalem Day
Sivan Second Day fell on May
28, 1979. Many people have dis
played pictures of the sights. ^
Here are only a few that were
gazed at:
The Western Wall and Temple
Mount,
The Jewish Quarter, the
Gates of Jerusalem (Zion, Jaffa,
Damascus, Mower, Mercy, lion,
IXing, and New Gate);
The New City, Knesset,
Heichal Shlomo,
Hebrew University, Israel
Museum,
Yad Vashem, Mount Zion,
and Herzl’s Tomb.
l^t us all join and say:
LESHANAH HABAAH
BEYERUSHALAYIM NEW
YEAR IN JERUSALEMl
Sylvia D. Zippor
Acting Director of
Education & Youth
Temple Israel Charlotte
Always cheerful,
always bright -
That’s Mary Ho
gan, JCC’s delight!
WANTED:
llgpori#^
pboto«r«p^r*
Cartooni*t ^
ChwlotU
REWARD:
other*
Feast of Weeks
After the fifty days, or seven weeks, of counting the Omer comes
Shavuoth, the Feast of Weeks. It is chiefly a festival of the syn
agogue where special services are held for two days. In the home it is
sometimes celebrated by serving dairy foods, as milk is especially
plentiful in Israel at that season of the year. Honey is also eaten to
remind us of the sweetness of the Torah given to Israel on that day.
At one time a Sinai cake was served, made to represent a ladder with
seven rungs for the seven spheres through which (Jod passed when
He descended to give the law to Moses.
This day was especially interesting to school children in the Mid
dle Ages as many of them were taken to the Hebrew school for the
first time on Shavuoth. It has been told that when God wanted a
pledge that Israel would always keep His commandments, Moses
promised that the little children would be true to the Law, and it was
bestowed upon the people. •
Shavuoth is one of the three great pilgrim feasts like Passover
and Succoth. It is sometimes called the Festival of the First
Fruits, because after the counting of the Omer an offering of first
fruits was brought to the Temple of Jerusalem. This offering was
arranged in a special way, with barley at the bottom of the basket
and wheat above; over the wheat they placed olives, then dates and
finally figs; this was beautifully decorated with leaves. Another
offering was the twin loaves made out of the new grain.
Later when there was no Temple to which to bring offerings, the
synagogues were decorated with flowers and fresh grass was
spread upon the floor to celebrate the Giving of the Law.
Shavuoth is another farmer or nature holiday, but it is also con
sidered by many as the greatest day in the national history of
Israel. On Passover the people became a free nation, but on
Shavuoth, they received the Ten Commandments.
a^^knj9>v^th^f^Qry Q{|^uth»^ecavM«^uUic^ loyal to the
LaW, her story in the Bookof ttut ms read in th*2 synagogue services ~
at Shavuoth. 'I'here is also a legend that King David was born and
also died on Shavuoth; so it is appropriate to read Ruth’s story at
this time as she was given the honor of becoming the ancestress of
this most loved of J'ewish kings. /
ii -R.M.
Recommended Reading
Contemporary perceptions of anti-Semitism in America have
been influenced as much by the fears as by the facts of history. In A
PROMISE TO KEEP, a Narrative of the American Encounter
with Anti-Semitism, Nathan C. Belth sharpens the focus of these
perceptions through an eloquent and eminently readable account of
anti-Semitism in America from its earliest days to the present.
Because it had few ideological roots, anti-Semitism in America
rarely expressed itself in outbursts of physical violence.
Keligiously-based antipathy to Jews, cruelly expressed in all of Eu
ropean history, remained muted and was felt by Jews here primari
ly in their social and economic lives, sometimes in the curtailment
of civil rights, but infrequently in violence.
The special circumstances of American Jewry dictated the un
usual course of its struggle against anti-Semitism. Throughout the
nineteenth century, American Jews, small in numbers and showing
only modest growth, felt little need for organizing self-protective ef
forts. They were concerned about anti-semitism as it threatened
fellow Jews in Europe' but felt secure among themselves in
American commitment to freedom of conscience. Jewish communal
organizations were principally involved with religion, charity, and
internal social and cultural affairs. Not until well past the turn of
the twentieth century did an organization appear specifically form
ed to counter the impact of anti-Semitism at home and to protect the
civil rights of all citizens in the nation. That organization was the
Anti-Defamation League formed by the leadership of B’nai B’rith in
1913.
Mr. Belth, for many years Public Relations Director of ADL,
traces the parallel history of American anti-Semitism and ADL’s ef
forts to combat it with compelling immediacy and breadth of
perspective. He begins his narrative with the dawn of the Jewish
odyssey in America in 1654 and recounts in vivid terms the high
and the low moments in the history of anti-Semitism in this country
since that time and of the first organization formed by American
Jews specifically to deal with the problem.
The book may be ordered from ADL, 823 United Nations Plaza,
New York, N.Y. 1(X)17 - Hardcover; $7.50 (list price: $11.95) - Soft-
cover: $3.^ (list price: $4.95).
All orders must be prepaid and if under $5.00 must include 509 for
shipping and handling.