A Review of Dr. Nelson Glueck's "Rivers in the Desert:
A History of the Negev," Published by Farrar, Straus &
Cudahy and the Jewish Publication Society of America.

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By DR. RICHARD C. HERTZ
Senior Rabbi Temple Beth El •
The State of Israel's security
problem remains troublesome
in no small measure because of
the nature of international geo-
politics: Israel lies at the pas-
sageway of Near Eastern civil-
ization, where Asia and Africa
touch each other. That strategic .
point at Elath at the southern-
most tip of the 4,000 square
mile triangle of desert area
know as the Negev, is hemmed
in by strategic considerations as
well as historical memories.
The Negev is the passageway
over which the predecessors of
modern Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Jordan and Israel reached each
other.
In this sense the Negev is no
different today than it was in
Biblical times. It is and it was
highly strategic because it was
the Chicago of the Near East,
where caravan routes criss-
crossed the desert and con-
verged at Beersheba, capital of
the Negev. What kind of coun-
try was this land of extreme
dryness and great heat? Have
weather conditions changed over
the centuries? What brought
Abraham to those waterholes
and dry stream beds? Why did
David find it necessary to secure
this area with fortresses and
command position s? What
source of wealth did Solomon
draw from those hills?
These and many more ques-
tions are delved into with a
fresh approach by the world-
famous archaeologist, Nelson
Glueck, who now doubles in
brass as President of Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Insti-
tute of Religion. For upwards
of 6,000 years of known time,
trade routes
' ations
- and eh-Biz
have flourished lithe Negev.
Yet is has always remained
a mystery. History books
scarcely mention it. Maps
identify nothing but a bleak
Sahara-like desert, a wilder-
ness shaped like a flint-edge
stone wedged in between two
continents.

For the last six years archae-
ologist Glueck has spent every
summer in command of a large-
scale, well-equipped scientific
team of archaeologists exploring
the Negev. He discovered more
than 1.000 sites belonging to a
whole series of ancient civiliza-
tions. Ile mapped and located
over 400 proper places men-
tioned in the Biblical lands of
Edom, Moab and Ammon. He
analyzed the water problem and
for the first time figured out
how a semi-marginal area re-
ceiving only a couple of inches
of rainfall a year could exist,
much less thrive. He excavated
the villages and fortresses dat-
ing back to the tenth century
before the common era. He fol-
lowed the ancient trade routes
in the wadis, those dried up
river beds that served as high-
ways for ancient camel cara-
vans. He excavated and inspect-
ed the elaborate water cisterns
and flood control engineering
of the Nabataeans. concluding
that as many as 100.000 people
dwelt in the Negev for a period
of some 800 years extending
from the second century BCE
into the Byzantine period.
One key opened up all the
mysteries that previous explor-
ers like Lawrence of Arabia and
others had missed: pottery. The
science of pottery identifica-
tions has been developed by Dr.
Glueck to such a degree that
their marks are at once rec-
ognized and dated. Indeed, pot-
tery is perhaps the most durable
substance ever created by man.
Iron rusts, copper corrodes,
wood, leather, paper papy-

rus and such are all suscep-
tible to decomposition from
weather. Only pottery — clay
mixed with a binding material
of shells and baked in a kiln—
endures. "Man's discovery- of
how to make and bake earthen-
ware vessels in which water
could be carried and food pre-
pared and stored ranks in im-
portance not far behind his
learning the kindly uses of fire
for his internal and external
comfort." (p. 8) In every ex-
cavation, along every caravan
route, at every waterhole, tiny
pieces of ancient pottery re-
main, each with its story to re-
count, each giving away its age
by tell-tale marks. Potsherds
found on the top or along the
slopes of a "tell," an ancient
mound, instantly alerted Dr.
Glueck's team.
Perhaps most fascinating to
the reader will be the story
of King Solomon and his
famed copper mines, and how
Dr. Glueck discovered this
Pittsburgh of the Negev,
where Solomon mined and
smelted his ore. Glueck locat-
ed the copper mines (they are
being worked once again in
modern Israel) and unearthed
the smelting furnaces. He
showed that the Bible was
right when the Promised Land
was described as a land
"whose stones are iron and
out 6f whose hills thou canst
dig copper." (Dent. 8:9)
Likewise, the fantastic story
of the Nabataean engineering
of water controls will warm the
hearts of those who know that
today's Israel's chief national
problem is water. "The secret
of the ability of the Nabataeans
to live anti thrive there lay in
their mastery of the science
of soil and water conservation
. . . a framework of terraces,
dams, spillways and aquaducts.
Their cisterns and reservoirs
stored millions of gallons of
water ... In water engineering
and agriculture. the Nabataeans
have never been surpassed in
all the annals of history." (pp.
211-212)
"Rivers in the Desert" is more
than a romantic archaeological
story. It is a history, chronolo-
gically organized. which tells
the story of the Negev from the
Abrahamitic Perio d, when
Abraham sojourned in the
Negev around 2.000. BCE. down
through the Byzantine Period
in the seventh century, C. E.,
when the curtain was rung down
on the Negev. not to be raised
again until the modern Israeli
redevelopment of the area. Dr.
Glueck's discoveries and con-
clusions are a unique contribu-
tion to the knowledge of man-
kind. Fascinatingly told, the
book reads like a mystery story.
Indeed, the mysteries of ancient
time stand revealed. The jig-
saw puzzle of the Biblical Age
finds new pieces being dug up
by Nelson Glueck and put into
their proper place. The pat-
tern of the Jewish people and
their quest for God stands out
in bolder, clearer view because
of Nelson Glueck's discoveries.
This is a popular book, yet
told by a scientist and Bible
scholar. He takes you with him
and makes you feel that you
are there. You walk in the steps
of Abraham, in the caravans of
Solomon, in the travel and trade
routes of the ancient Hebrew
people. When you read "Rivers
In The Desert," you will under-
stand the Bible's fantastically
accurate memory of names and
places, for above all else, Nel-
son Glueck's archaeological ex-
cavations have demonstrated the
amazing historical memory of
the Bible.

Dr. Glueck's
Field Lecture
onWednesday

Dr. Nelson Glueck, president
of Hebrew Union College-Jew-
ish Institute of Religion, will
be the third speaker in the cur-
rent series of Walter and Lea
Field Semitic Lectures at Wayne
State University.
He will speak on "Opening
the Doors of the Biblical Past,"
at 8 p.m., Wed-
nesday, in the
Rackham Mem
orial Auditori-
um. His movie,
"Wilderness of
Zin," will be
shown.
D r . Glueck
ranks as one
of the leading
Biblical ar-
chaeologistE
and a leading
authority on
t h e archaeol-
ogy of eastern
a n d southern
Dr. Glueck
Palestine. Nu-
merous books and articles have
resulted from his lifetime of
investigation and discovery.
For the past 10 years Dr.
Glueck has been spending ev-
ery summer doing further ex-
plorations in the Middle East.
His latest book, "Rivers in the
Desert," is a dramatic account
of these explorations.
Dr. Glueck spoke during last
spring's Field lecture series.
His appearance drew an audi-
ence so large that it could not
be accommodated. As a result
he agreed to speak again at the
suggestion of Dr. Abram Spiro.
chairman of the university's
Semitic languages and lite..a-
tures department.
Admission is free and the
public is invited.

Migration Crisis Spurs UJA Effort

Confronted with a mounting bassador Abba Eban as prin-
immigration crisis brought on cipal speaker.
2—A nationwide telephone
by the sudden release of huge
numbers of the Jews from East- hookup, Feb. 9, with 80 com-
ern Europe—immigrants who munities participating and 10,000
can find a haven only in Israel Jewish leaders listening in.
A highlight of the Feb. 7 inau-
—leaders of the United Jewish
Appeal have set a succession gural dinner in Miami Beach
of dynamic actions designed to will be an address by Israel's
cope with the vast new needs Ambassador Eban.
Another guest of distinction
by speedily moving the 1959
twofold UJA campaign into high at that event will be Jack
gear. These include: Benny, whose effective efforts
1—The UJA National Inaugu- in behalf of UJA and Israel will
ral Conference, Feb. 7, in receive national recognition
Miami Beach, with Israel Am- from the UJA.

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Egypt Closes
Jesuit Schools

Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News

LONDON — Three Jesuit
schools in Cairo have been
closed by the government for
having used a geography text-
book which reportedly com-
pared the Arab states unfavor-
ably in some respects with Is-
rael, the official newspaper
Al Ahram reported Monday.
The newspaper reported that
all copies of the offending
textbook were confiscated and
burned about a month ago and
that the schools would "con-
tinue functioning" when they
have been supplied with new
textbooks "in line with the
national Arab sentiment."
The affected schools have a
high academic reputation. Some
of the Ministers of the present
United Arab Republic gov-
ernment are among their
graduates.
Monseigneur Oddi. the Papal
Nuncio in Cairo, called at the
UAR Foreign Ministry Monday
morning to protest the govern-
ment action, first of its kind
against Christian mission
schools in Egypt.
There are some 180 Roman
Catholic mission schools in
Egypt, but only four belong
to the Jesuits—the three closed
in Cairo and one in Minia
which is still open.

Social Welfare Post Goes
to Peretz Naphtali

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The
Israel Cabinet appointed Peretz
Naphtali, Mapai minister with-
out portfolio, Minister of Social
Welfare, a portfolio held tem-
porarily by Premier David Ben-
Gurion since last June when the
National Religious Party walk-
ed out of the coalition govern-
ment. Moshe Shapira was the
last Religious Bloc representa-
tive to hold the portfolio.

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Dr. Glueck's 'Rivers in the Desert':
Great Gift to Science of Archaeology