19 —
By Philip Slomovitz
Mack and others) — all of whom, except
only Theodor Herzl, had participated in
• sessions in that room. We were in the
Nordau Room. We visited the headquarters
of the Jewish National Fund and had the
satisfaction of planting trees from there in
Israel in honor of Grandson Randy David
and other members of the family. We
chatted with Barnett Litvinof, whose bi-
ography of Ben-Gurion we reviewed a year
ago and with other Zionist leaders.
It was a joy to meet with Rabbi Dr. Joseph
Litwin, the editor of Gates of Zion, a very
scholarly monthly magazine. Dr. Litwin, who
has semicha from world famous rabbis, was
professor of history at Moscow University
from 1925 to 1931. He is the editor of the
Zionist Year Book and he is now working on
a new Hebrew book.
One of the highlights of the London visit
was our seeing the workroom and the historic
cameo shop of Moyshe Oyved. He is a sick
man now, and we met his brother. Moyshe
Oyved himself can no longer be seen. But he
will be remembered in history as the King of
Gems—gems in poetry and short story writing
and in jewels. Queens and Kings had come
to watch him at work on the jewels he
molded, on the sculptures he carved, the pic-
tures he had drawn and painted, the Hebrew
alphabet he illustrated.
What a pity that most of his works could
not be retained in museums in Israel. A few
years ago, however Moyshe Oyved did present
to the Tel Aviv Museum about 30 of his best
art works.
Josef Fraenkel related to us an interest-
ing true story about his friend Moyshe
Oyved. A Christian minister brought a
watch to him for repairs. Oyved looked at
it and commented: "This is a Jewish
watch." The man asked: "What makes you
say that?" and Oyved replied:. "Es krechtzt!
It shakes, the time hands are bent and they
wobble." Whereupon the owner of the
watch said: "It is true. This watch was
given to me by Nahum Sokolow. My name
is Reverend H.echler." He was none other
than the Rev. William H. Hechler who
played an important role as an associate of
Theodor Herzl in the latter's quest for pub-
lic recognition of his Zionist ideals.
Josef Fraenkel had a number of distin-
guished scholars as his teachers, among them
the famous Viennese Zionist leader, Dr. Zvi
Peretz Chajes.
One of Fraenkel's tasks is the preparation
of a Press Survey for the World Jewish Con-
gress: Last week he was congratulated on the
2,000th issue of these surveys.
In London, too, the synagogues were of
major interest to us. We were reminded that
Nazi bombs had destroyed the Great Syna-
gogue in`-Duke's Place. The destroyed house
of worship was built in 1772, and the con-
gregation's history dated back to 1690. Most
of the important events of English Jewry took
place in that synagogue. Now the historic
house of worship is but a memory. But the
name and the existence of the synagogue will
be perpetuated: plans already are under foot
to reconstruct this synagogue.
We did have the satisfactiOn of seeing
the famous 257-year-old Congregation Saar
Asamaim Bevis Marks. It is situated in the
Whitechapel District—the first and the last
areas to be bombed by the Nazis. But the
Bevis Marks Synagogue survived and was
unaffected by - the blitz onslaught. Isaac
Duque, the synagogue's secretary, super-
visor, Hazan, Baal Koreh—he did not object
to be called "Kol Bo" by your Commenta-
tor's wife: in fact, he welcomed it—Isaac
Duque who has been honored with the title
"Hamsabil v'Navon—another way of saying
"Kol Bo"—commented, when asked whethb- .
er this historic synagogue was damaged in
any way in the war: "No! Else I would not
be here. I never left this place."
There are seven large chandeliers, sym-
bolizing the seven days of the week, in the
Bevis Marks. There are four candelabra on
the Almemar and six at the Oren Kodesh,
totalizing the Ten Commandments. Every-
thing in that synagogue is 257 years old, ex-
cept the c e n t r al chandelier, which was
brought from Amsterdam 30, years earlier.
The entire synagogue
a
is a replica of the fa-
mous Amsterdam Synagogue: Duque appeared
very proud of this fact.
Isaac Duque explained the position of the
Haham when he speaks to the congregation:
objecting to anyone's sitting backwards to the
Oren Kodesh or to the congregation, the
Haham is so situated that he always faces
them. For that reason the seats of the con-
gregants are so located that many of them sit
sideways when praying or listening to a ser-
mon, but their backs are never to the Torahs.
In the House of Lords, we had just missed.
hearing an address by Lord Samuel, who was
the first High Commissioner of Palestine in
the days of British Mandatory rule. We saw
Clement Attlee, and we listened to several
scholarly addresses on finance problems. We
also were witnesses to the drooping eyelids of
a number of the aged Lords who alternated
between good snoozes and hearty "hear!,
hear!" comments on their colleagues' ad-
dresses.
It is worth reporting that the immense
shopping that goes on here — the English
people should love the Americans! — is not
limited to_ sweaters and shoes and other good
Friday, November 15, 1957—THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS -2
Purely C OM mentary. •
The Jewries of Italy and Great Brit-
ain . . .Israel's indestructibility in
Evidence Everywhere . .. Addenda
to Reports on Israel