r w Purdy Commentary Z = 4 ra4 ,-, t €.4 P4 A w E.! = Friday, December 13, LeD By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ 'Not Once Have I Dripped' in Jerusalem: An incident in Non-Jewish Woman's Report One of the most charming books about Israel was written by a Christian lady, Mary Clawson, who was is Israel with her husband and their children while he held a post there as an adviser on farming po- tentials. Entitled "Letters from Jerusalem" ("A non-Jewish woman's love affair with Israel"), this volume (published by Abelard-Schuman, 404 4th, N. Y. 16) contains so many interesting comments, and relates so many interesting incidents, that it will undoubtedly call for many reviews. Preliminary to the review itself, there is one item that deserves special attention at this time. So many people ask about the most suitable time to visit Israel that Mrs. Clawson's opinion is worth quoting. Our own advice is: go to Israel whenever you can. Every time of the year has something valuable to offer in the land of manifold contrasts. Mrs. Clawson, having written under date of July 28, 1953, re- ported that "we have had the taste of the very worst summer weather Jerusalem can produce." Then she proceeds to write, to her mother: "It is a common belief here that Jerusalem is hot in the summer, and that during a hamsin, life barely verges on the bearable. All I can say is, try a summer in Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Little Rock, or any one of a dozen other places in the States. In Washington, I dripped, my clothes were soaking wet soon after I put them on, my hair was plastered to my head, perspiration would fall from my face on reports I was writing, on hapless ironing or on food I was preparing to cook. I would get up two or three times a night to dash cold water on my face and most of the summer slept naked, without even a sheet; many times our boys woke crying from the heat. In San Francisco, on the other hand, as you know well, It is actually cold most of the summer; you are apt to feel cheated, as if summer had passed you by. "Jerusalem has all the advantages of a summer hot enough to leave you in no doubt as to the season, but not once have I dripped, and never once have we slept without at least one blanket. "I had read and been told about the dreaded hamsins. They are not pleasant, but they rarely last more than a few days. `Hamsin' is an Arab word which has become part of the Hebrew language, despite valiant efforts on the part of newspapers and purists to have Israelis use instead the Hebrew word `sharay.' It is a hot, dry, southeasterly wind, supposedly blowing straight off the desert in Saudi Arabia. You cannot mention summer in Israel without highlighting the word hamsin; it would insult Israelis if you did. Any distressing break in a conversation can be enlivened by discussing the latest hamsin, or the worst hamsin in memory and so on and so on. . . . The hamsin's effects ion people's tempers is noticeable; it does have an influence on the nervous system . . . You become more and more susceptible to various illnesses during hamsins . . . I suspect it may be they bother you more the further away you are from the horrors of a Washington or New York summer . . ." True, the hamsin is uncomfortable. But, as Mrs. Clawson implies, it also is mighty uncomfortable in many parts of our own country. And you drip more in Washington than you do in Jerusalem. Natur- ally, it is preferable to visit Jerusalem in April or in October and November, but even in October we experienced hot days in Jerusalem. Like Mrs. Clawson, we did not drip. Perhaps this single experience will serve at once to call attention to an unusually fine description of Israel by this interesting Christian woman. Her book is eminently worth reading and having. More about It a bit later. * * * Cooperation Among Israel's Scientists A study of Israel's institutions of higher learning and research reveals a remarkable spirit of cooperation. Technion collaborated with other universities in studying methods of technology suitable for the country. The Hebrew University's great scholars work in cooperation with the scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in their research activities. Weizmann Institute scientists are active in various fields of activ- ity involving Israel's search for oil and experiments in agricultural endeavors. Two of the great scientsts at the Weizmann Institute — Dr. Israel. Dostrovsky and Isaac Berenblum- are engaged in isotope and cancer research, and the professors of the Hebrew' University always are available to them, and to other scientists at the Weizmann Insti- tute in Rehovot, in their research work. Two distinguished scientists at the Weizmann Institute, Dr. Leo Sachs and Dr. Mathilde Danon- the latter a Swiss non-Jewess- are at work in important research activities in the field of medicine. Exactly two years ago, an excit- ing bit of news came from Jerus- alem—about "the diagnosis of sex before birth, using cells from the amniotic fluid." Dr. David M. Serr, a young physician of the depart- ment of obstetrics and gynecology at the Rothschild-Hadassah Uni- versity Hospital in Jerusalem, did the clinical work in perfecting this diagnosis. The laboratory work was done at the Weizmann Institute by Drs. Danon and Sachs. The cases for this study were obtained through the World-famous Prof. B. Zondek. Dr. Serr pointed out in his re- port on this diagnosis: "It has been proved that the genetic sex of the fetus is demonstrable dur- ing the earliest stages of its de- velopment in spite of the apparent bi-sexuality of the fetus at this stage." The abstract of the report by Drs. Serr, Danon and Sachs stated: "It seems that the only possible error in the present method of diagnosis, and this can be ignored for practical purposes, is in the rare case of an intersex in which the sexual phenotype ap- pears to be in contradiction to the sex chromosome constitution." Young scientists are performing these great research tasks. Dr. Danon is under 30. The average age of the scientists at the Weiz- mann Institute is 31. Meyer W. Weisgal is the directorial genius of the Weizmann Institute. See Photographs - taken at Weizmann Institute) on, Page 43