Hadassah Builds for Health
at Mammoth Meatcal Center

7-e

BY ELIAHU SALPETER

(Copyright, 1957, JTA, Inc-)

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=1M110=111=1_
Friday, September 27, 1957—THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS-30

Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England,
Features Rare Antique Jewish Wedding Rings

Three Antique Jewish Wedding Rings in Victoria and Albert Museum, London

By RUTH MORRIS

(Standard Feature Syndicate)

A ring has customarily been
the symbol of an important
event or personage in Jewish
life for many centuries. Usage
of rings has been recorded even
in the books of the Old Testa-
ment.
"Tabba-at," the Hebrew for
"ring," appears in chapter 41,
verse 42 of Genesis. The word
occurs in the 30th chapter of
Exodus, verse 22; in Numbers,
chapter 30, verse 50, and in
Cantcles, chapter five, verse 14,
where it might also be rendered
as "rods."
The finest ancient Hebrew
signet ring is said to be one of
the time of King Jerobeam II
(790 to '749 B.C.E.) found at

Maggidi. It was the seal of
Shammai, the King's Minister
of State. It is of jasper and
bears the finely engraved figure
of a lion. The form is oval and
the seal measures 3.7 by 2.7
centimeters.
Wedding rings have been an
integral part of Jewish marriage
custom and ritual for centuries.
A great number of old wedding
bands have been preserved in
the Jewish Museum in New
York City, but the world's
greatest collection is in the
Victoria and Albert Museum in
London.
Three. of the rare old rings
are pictured above. Shown at
the far left is a gold ring, the
bezel in the form of a gabled
building, which is frequently

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used and represents either the
beautiful old Temple of Jerusa-
lem during King Solomon's time
or one of its modern counter-
parts—the synagogue. The mid-
dle ring is made of bronze, rich-
ly chiselled. The third, made of
gold, is a wide hoop with two
rows of filagree bosses . Its
bezel is square with applied
foliage and bears the often
used inscription "M.T.," an ab-
breviation for "Mazel Tov."
A very rare ring is now being
exhibited at the Victoria and
Albert Museum, London. The
gold depicts the creation of Eve,
Man's Downfall and The Expul-
sion from the Garden of Eden.
Such a ring exemplifies the
highest craftsmanship and is
unequalled in artistry.

The Jewish Year in Art

By ALFRED WERNER

(Copyright, 1957, JTA, Inc.)

The year 5717 was highlighted
by two important events: The
opening of an art gallery at the
Theodor Herzl Institute, New
York, and the 10th anniversary
celebrations of New York's
Jewish Museum. Putting its wall
space and other facilities to use
for periodic exhibitions of Is-
raeli arts and craftS, the Herzl
Institute hopes to help the art
and artists of Israel in two
ways:
By making available to Israeli
artists space that, in a commer-
cial gallery, would be prohibi-
tive in cost; and by accepting
for display only those works
which meet a professional
standard.
Lovely Israeli stamps, artistic
book plates pertaining to Zion-
ist history and the aesthetic
gropings of Israeli children as
well as four one-man • shows
were on view. Joel Rohr, who
after 23 years in the United
States migrated to Palestine in
1946, showed delicately bal-
anced, rhythmically alive pic-
tures of Kibbutz activities, an-
cient sites, trees and flowers in
bloom.
Ruth Levin, wife of Harry
Levin, counsellor at the Is-
rael Embassy, proved her good
taste and versatility in draw-
ings and paintings, her sub-
ject matter ranging from por-
traits to large Victorian inte-
riors, and her landscapes
shifting from Israeli vistas to
sun-drenched villages in New
Mexico.
There w e r e spontaneously
painted flower pieces and freely
conceived still lifes by Jenny
Maiselis. A series of tempera
panels, "The Ten Plagues," a
Passover decoration used in the
Kibbutz Hatzor, was the center
of young Judith Oren's show:
her offerings revealed sensitiv-
ity, and her strong color the

and the 10th Anniversary Show.
The former acquainted us with
the talents of 23 very young
men and women. No restrictions
as to style and subject matter
were imposed on these artists
by the enthusiastic curator, Dr.
Stephen S. Kayser.

For the anniversary celebra-
tion, about a hundred priceless
ceremonial objects had been
loaned by the Cluny Museum in
Paris—the bulk of the famous
Strauss - Rothschild Collection.
Some items were four and even
five hundred years old, and the
show included unusual Hanukah
lamps and spice boxes as well
as elaborately wrought golden
marriage rings of Italian crafts-
manship. Some 50 works of
classic and modern art were
loaned by friends of the Mu-
seum. Among those treasures
was a lovely small Rembrandt,
seen in New York for the first
time. Titled "The Biblical High
Priest," it shows the sorrow-
wracked features of the aging
artist, and the rich impasto
color characteristic of his late
work.
In 5717 architects were still
wrestling with the two prob-
lems confronting them when the
building boom began after V-J
Day. Whereas the Christian
house of worship gradually and
logically developed from the
medieval cathedral towards the
light and simple 20th century
church building, architects had
had to create the modern syna-
gogue out of a void, as it were.
In many cases, an edifice, built
in, say, 1946, within ten years
proved to be too small for the
rapidly expanding congregation,
and a new architect had to solve
the difficult task of blending his
own creation (the additional
structures) with the older
building, sometimes still a bit
"conservative" in its aesthetic
expression.
On the whole, our architects
yearning for joyful expressive-
have managed to solve these
Only a decade has passed problems ingeniously. Between
since-the opening of the Jew- Massachusetts and California,
ish Museum in a Gothic-style dozens of excellent temples
mansion at Fifth Avenue and have sprung up during the last
92nd Street donated by Felix year, synagogues expressing the

day, three American publish-
ers have brought out books
on Marc Chagall. One of them
is a biography, written by the
artist's life-long friend, Lio-
nello Venturi. The professor
is not sufficiently informed
about the Jewish sources of
Chagall's art, and sometimes,
in an effort to understand and
describe Jewish life and lore,
makes curious mistakes. But
he compensates by his bril-
liant delineation of Chagall's
main characteristics: the po-
etic intermingling of dream
and reality, the conversion • of
the static into the dynamic,
and the hegemony of com-
pletely free imagination over
intellectual abstraction.

JERUSALEM — We were invited to lunch by Mr. Harris,
the public relations director of Hadassah in Israel. We dined in
the doctors' and nurses' cafeteria in Ziv hospital, one of the
many buildings occupied by Hadassah institutions in Jerusalem
since 1948, when the Mt. Scopus Medical
Center became a small Israel enclave behind
the Arab lines, and since then unaccessible
except for a fortnightly convoy of police-
men and maintenance personnel passing
under United Nations auspices through the
Jordan-held parts of Jerusalem.
While we tried to keep up a cheerful
appearance eating the meatloaf-and-potatoes
served in a very clean but depressing hospital atmosphere, Mr.
Harris briefed us on the present state of housing affairs c
Hadassah.
The institutions are now very centrally located, in over
dozen buildings made available in 1948 to Hadassah by the kind-
ness of various non-Jewish bodies.
The English Mission Hospital, for example, was made
available to Hadassah's maternity, children's, skin and radium
departments; the Hadassah Nursing School was accommodated
within the precincts of St. Joseph's Convent; and Hadassah's
TB hospital washoused in buildings belonging to the Ethiopian
Consulate.
Harris- suggested that we inspect the progress of the building
work at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in
Ein Karem, west of Jerusalem, which will be the largest medical
institution in the Middle East after completion, some time in 1960.
We were advised that the buildings for the University
Medical School are also under construction., and were asked to
make sure, if by any chance We thought of writing something
on this subject, to say always "Hadassash-Hebrew University"
Medical Center, but stick to the "Hebrew University-Hadassah
order of words when speaking of the Medical School.
As a matter of fact, Harris explained, the total budget of the
School and the Medical Center is about $15,000,000, of which
$10,000,000 have already been collected, seven entirely by Hadas-
sah, and three jointly by Hadassah and the Friends of the Hebrew
University.
When we reached the top of rock hill, we were immediately
surrounded by the bustle of construction work. The highest
crane we ever saw ( imported especially for this construction)
was swinging in the sky, hoisting concrete blocks to the top
of one of the scaffolded steel-and-concrete skeleton&
We were advised that this is the skeleton of the Medical
School, six floors of it already constructed. It is hoped that the
skeleton will be completed this summer, but it will take two
more years before the entire building is completely furnished.
The skeleton of the Henrietta Szold Hadassah School of
Nursing is already erected. Excavations have been completed
for the foundations of the Outpatients Department of the Uni-
versity Hospital and a "considerable part of the foundationfi
has already been poured," we were informed.
The Medical Center's architect is Joseph Neufeld, a member
Of the American I'nstiute of Architects. and American H-ospitai

Association.
Among his other tasks, positions and memberships, Neufeld
is also visiting professor in community health planning at

Yale, special consultant to the American Psychiatric Associa-
tion and to the Rockefeller Foundation in the field of mentat
health planning.
The first five units now being built comprise clinical labors.
tories, research laboratories, students' laboratories, lecture halls
and an auditorium.
Shortly going into construction are four more building units,
namely the Rosensohn Out-patient Department, nursing units,
special diagnostic., treatment and operative departments and
Possibly the most •beaUtiful. main dining halls.
Medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing and Ph.D research schooli
book of the year was "Marc
Chagall: Illustrations for the will have their home' in the Medical Center, too..
Bible." Commissioned by the
dealer Vollard more than a
quarter of a century ago, Cha-
gall made a first version, then
abandoned it and went to the
Middle East to study the actual
landscape and people of the He-
brew Bible. Back in Paris he
began a new set of etchings,
and had finished 105 plates by
the time of Vollard's death in
1939. Now the whole set, plus a
few additional lithographs and
drawings, is available to Cha-
gall's numerous admirers., From
ancient Israel the artist selected
three kinds of super - human
people to celebrate: the great
pathfinders, starting with Noah
and ending with Moses; the
leaders of the nation; and the
reformers. One is struck by
Chagall's lyricism (see his de-
lightful treatment of animals),
by the superabundance of his
fantasy (especially in the picto-
rialization of prophesies), and
by the naive blending of village
Yiddish culture with the monu-
mentality of archaic and almost
barbaric figures.
There is, finally, "Chagall:
His Graphic Work," in which
the artist once more reveals
himself as an Oriental story-
teller who considers the ele-
ments of everyday reality as so
many building stones. out a
unobtrusive dignity, the sooth- which to erect fanciful houses
M. Warburg's widow. -
Two exhibitions of the first ing quietness so appealing • to of dreams. The etchings, wood-
cuts, and lithographs were se-
half of 1957 are memorable: the man of today.

•

"Artists et the New York

ii hook •oso-a i Geshersiion,"

As if to boner Mot it the
ewe se his sweetie&

lected from more thee 20 books

sad samosa.

ENS AT AN MAW HADASSAK HOSPITAL

