FM« 11’THE NEWS-Augutt. 1i83
Jewish Books in Review
is a service of the IWB lewish Book Council,
15 East 26th St., New York, N.Y. 10010
Yiddish Institute Has Fifth
Successful Year
The Palestine Question. By
Raymond Carroll. Franklin
Watts Inc., 387 Park Avenue
South, New York, N.Y.
10016. Impact Series. 1980.90
pp. $8.90.
Golda Meir. By Mollie
Keller. Franklin Watts, Inc.,
387 Park Avenue South, New
York, N.Y. 10016. Impact
Biography Series. 1983 119
pp. $8.90.
Reviewed by Marcia Posner
An understanding of Mid
dle East affairs is difficult
enough for adults. Books
which can help young adults
gain an understanding are
especially valuable. Two
new titles in the Impact
Series .from Franklin Watts
are both good, in differing
ways — one a broad, histor*
ical study, the other a per*
sonal, even intimate
biography.
Carroll begins his discus
sion of The Palestine Ques
tion with an excellent, con
cise history of the region and
the Jewish people up to 1897.
In it he justifies the Jewish
claim to the lantt. He shows
that there were always Jews
in the area, Jews who never
left during the dispersions
and whose descendants
populated the area along
with the Arab population un
til modern times.
By giving a thorough
history of the area and the
worldwide factors acting
upon the participants Car
roll clears up many puzzles
and shows the British par
ticipation as glaringly at
fault. The British promised
the Arabs a land of their own
if they helped the British to
overthrow Turkey. They pro
mised the French to divide
up the territories of the Mid
dle East if they joined the
Allies in World War I. They
wooed Jewish opinion in
Europe and the United
States with promises of a
Jewish homeland, and
rewarded the brilliant inven
tor of an explosive, Chaim
Weizman, with the promise
of a Jewish homeland. The
result was that everyone had
a legitimate claim and reason
to believe that Palestine was
theirs.
With the Holocaust,
British insistence on mollify
ing the Arabs (who had sided
with the Axis powers during
World War II), as opposed to
the Yishuv whose soldiers
fought alongside the British)
because of their dependence
on Arab oil, was unfor
givable. Carroll tells how
ships full of Jewish refugees
were turned back to certain
death by the British and how
British soldiers clubbed men
and women trying to enter
Palestine illegally.
Carroll also recounts the
massacre of Deir Yasin by
the Irgun under Menachem
Begin on April 9, 1943; a
move he says, calculated to
make the Arab population
flee. However, Carroll says,
the Jewish leadership at the
time and the International
Red Cross confirm that the
Irgun **had committed a
repugnant atrocity." It was
these and other acts of
violence against Arab
villages which sent some
300,000 arabs into flight
across the borders to neigh
boring Arab states. By the
time the Arab effort to
“drive Israel into the sea,”
failed, Palestine was parti
tioned — but between the
Israelis and the Jordanians.
The Palestinian Arabs had
nothing. From that time to
the present, Carroll traces
the development of the PLO,
the increasing hostilities of
both sides, the Kissinger-
Sadat peace negotiations and
the current debacle in
Lebanon.
Mollie Keller’s biography
of Golda Meir is personal
and Jewish in outlook and
tone. Beginning with the im
pression left upon Golda, the
young child, by a pogrom in
her native Russia; and con
tinuing to her girlhood in
America, where her talent
for organization and speech-
making was discovered;
through to the socialistic in
fluence of her sister Sheyna
and Golda’s certain realiza
tion that she must be a factor
in the establishment of a
homeland for her people, the
book sparkles.
Dr. Marcia Posner is a
library consultant and
librarian, Jewish Center
Library, Roslyn, NY.
YIDDISH INSTITUTE COMMITTEE, From left to ri^t, front row: lUixolLuski. SMrmh
Goldman, Lyba Pollard, Sarab Ackermmn, Moiabe Bienatock, Baila Prmnaky. Second row:
AvramLuaki, Yebudab Goldman, Yaynab Pranaky, Gedalia Ackerman.
There was cause for
celebration at the annual
Charlotte Yiddish Institute,
held in mid-May at
Wildacres, Little
Switzerland, N.C. It was the
Institute’s fifth successful
year under the sponsorship
of the Charlotte Jewish Com
munity Center, with par
ticipating Yiddishists com
ing from diverse areas of the
country (Calif., Mo., N.Y.,
Mass., Fla., etc.). The de
mand for reservations far ex
ceeded the available number
of accommodations.
This spirited response was
a further indication of the
renaissance of the Yiddish
language and a source of
gratification to those who
have become identified with
the Yiddish culture move
ment in Charlotte. The
Charlotte Yiddish Institute
Committee (pictured above)
created a vibrant Yiddish en
vironment at Wildacres and
were heartily commended by
those attending for this un
forgettable experience.
Featured at this year’s In
stitute were Diane Cypkin,
lecturer, actress, singer; and
S.L. Shneiderman, author,
lecturer and editor for the
Forward newspaper. Mr.
COME IN AND
COMPARE OUR
NEW PRICING POLICY
(G^ecklenbupq
DESIGN CETfTERO'
• S20 ProvklMiM Road * ChariMt«. NC • S7f*8401
Mon. thru Frl. M:90
Sat.%OS
Shneiderman is writing a Institute experiences,
series of articles, now ap- Plans are under way for
pearing in the Forward, the 1984 Yiddish Institute at
elaborating on his Yiddish Wildacres.
TSap
ene’s
SPECIALIZING l!S ITALIAN CIJISINE
f
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
* 542-8541
1
OPEN FOR
LUNCH t DINNER
ALL ABC
PERMITS
I ]
I J
(LUNCN)
MONDAY TNRU FRIOAy
11:30 TO 2:30
(OINNEM
HONDAYTHHUTHUIISOAY
5:00 TO 11.00
FRIDAY « SATUROAY
TILL 12:00
LOCATED IN
CARMEL COMMONS SHOPPING CENTER
7629-A HWY 51
FOR RESERVATIONS CALL