Friday, September 12, 1947
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
American Student Depicts
life at the Haifa fechnion
Institute Head
Yanks Make New FrionthiltipsiFsast,
Learn to Speak Langtmge iFinontly
(Editor's Note: Fifty American veterans are studying .at the
Hebrew' Institute of Technology in ,Baifa wider (the,provisiens
of the GI Bill of Rights. The Technion, as the.146tjtute is. popu-
larly known, has an enrollment .pf close to 1000. students—It
comprises an engineering college, a nautical aeliovl, teehnioal
high school, and a graduate schopl..la the following KO*, one
of the students gives his impression of the Institute and of Pal-
estine for the benefit of an American friend.)
Dear Penyna:
As you may know, there are liar to the position of • foreign
now 50 of us American students students in any country. Firs\
here at the Technion in Haifa. and f.pretnost, they must become
We've been here for various accustomed to a new country,
R. SHLOMO ,APLANSKY
K
periods of time, some as long as new surroundings, new ways of
eight months, others, still "green- life, and all the details which '14 ead .of the Idebgew :Institute
of .Technology ip li•ita.
horns", having arrived only six these imply.
Second, they must master a party, movie, concert. or play.
or seven weeks ago.
During the holidays and
From a language point of view new, and to some, a strange,
everyone, with few exceptions, language, to read and speak it breaks in the semester people
struggled along in the first days fluently, which is in itself a usually travel, some to relatives,
of his "aliya". Some knew more job of no mean proportion.
Pfinally, they must accustom some to friends in various ,parts
Hebrew when they came, some
themselves
to a different educa- of the country, mostly to the
less, some ,picked up the lan-
tional
system—and
different it is. "kibbutzim." * • *
guage quickly, while the pace of
.• • .•
;Alters was *Wen
MUCH STUDYING
REQUIREMENTS HIGH
Most of the time at home is
From the beginning of the
THE ACADEMIC LEVEL Of
"American Project" .there have the school is higher than the of course spent in studying. Our
been speeial ,Hebrew classes at level of an engineering college participation in political groups
the Technion. The chief factor, in America. More courses are is also limited, although there
in learning the language is us- given, they proceed at a faster are reasons for this in addi-
age, and in this respect it is up pace than that to which we are tion to lack of time.
to the individual to "practice" accustomed, the examinations
The political situation in the
the language.
are more difficult, and entrarice. country is a complicated and
Qf course, all the courses are' requirements are higher.
confused one, not as clear-cut
in Hebrew, and on this score
Al this together, has made and elementary as the two-party
we've had our difficulties, though school no easy matter. However, American system; not knowing
gradually everyone overcomes since "time solves all problems", the language, not •being closely-
them. In the beginning, it real; everyone is plugging away,
acquainted with the various
ly sounded strange to hear phys- . little more than the average stu- groups and ideologies, there is
ics, chemistry, and mathematics dent, and it is expected that in a problem.
lectures in Hebrew, but now, I the near future we will be "in
Naturally, all of us have made
think it would probably sound order".
friends here, and as was to be
strange to us to hear these lec-
In general we are quite well expected, Jews were—and are--
tpres ip
arranged And life is pleasant for happy to receive new "olim"—
• e •
us here. We could hope for a especially from America—ipto
FINE BUILDING
little more free time in which the country. The luckiest ones,
THE TECHNIQN•itself is on to visit the country and partic- though, have been those among
of the finest quildings in Haifa. , ipate je the general cultural us who have relatives here in;
It is located on "Hadar Hacar- and social life of the "Yishuv", the country.
Today, large Jewish familiee
mel", a little taller than most of but that too will come in time.
Most of us are living in one are an exception, and wben ∎
the buildings on its own level,
people here meet relatives wbol
so that when we docked we large building in "Kiryat
were able to see it from the about half-hour's ride from .came "all the way from Ameri-'
school. The house is only a year ea", they are extremely happy
harbor.
to receive them.
Most of us were taken on a old; pleasant, comfortable (al-
Not the least important part
though
one
could
ask
more
of
tour through the Various de-.
of our education has been our
Palestinian
architecture).
partments and, although much
Some of the fellows' wives introduction to Palestine, learn-
equipment and facilities are still
ing the geographical and histori-
required, we were very sur- came with them from America; cal high spots in the country.
one
or
two
have
married
Pales-
prised at the amount and scope
Already, at various holiday
of the equipment available for tinian girls. Social life, because
of the lack of free time, is rather periods, there have been a num-
students' use.
limited, and what there is of it ber of liyulim" (tours through
The staff of the Technion is a consists of an occasional house- the country) in which we par-
really unusual group of people
I'm sure that yokt will find iq-,
formation on many of them in a
"Who's Who in Engineering".
Some of the professors have
world-wide reputations for out-
standing work in their respective
— from —
fields, while others are recent
graduates of the Technion itself.
The position of the American
students in the Technion is sim-
,
,
Page Seven
ticipated, which were arranged Just solid, barren rock, with
kiy the Jewish Agency's youth treacherous cliffs. crevices,opreci-
department and the
vices, etc.
(Aside from ;these conducted
On the way, we saw some of
tours, of course, each individual the war-limo projects of "Solel-
travels •where, .And sees what, he ,Zoneh" (the op-operative build-
likes, and there has , been a con- ing company)—;Tank-traps, em-
siderable amount of this.)
, placements, and the underground
Ore - trip was down to the hospitals. which were in- prepa-
Dead Sea, Jericho, the'Palestine ration for a German attack at
potash Works, and the only the time when they were in
Jewish settlement in that neigh- I:Egypt. All, Of course, cut. out of
borhood the kibbutz "Beth Ha- solid. rock. and supposed to have
arava". Abut this particular ; been a .terrific engineering feat.
After an hour and a half of
trip I will give you, in brief, a
summary, since a detailed report riding, we arrived in Jericho—
today, an all-Arab city. Some of
would require more time.
the historical points of the vicin-
•
ity were pointed out to us--the
JUDEAN DESEP,T
old wall, Eliyalm's Well, •Mt.
FIRST OF ALL, leaving Jeru- Nebo (where Moses is supposed
salem, you pass through some to have died) and the trek of
of the most desolate country in our ancestors when they first
the world—the Judean Wilder- reached this land "flowing with
ness, or Desert Except along a milk and honey".) From -Jericho
narrow pass, where there is a we traveled to.Beth lia-arava, a
controlled stream of water run- seven year old kibbutz, which
ning to Jericho, literally not a settled the land against all warn-
blade of grass is to be seen.
(Continued on Page M.
,
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