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7 Purely Commentary

`Kabaker Nahala' Will Be Established
in Israel with Family's Gift of $50,000

cn
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
.-,
A contribution to the Jewish barren. The settlers terraced
,-'1' A Yiddish Periodical Appears in Moscow
National Fund by a Detroit the denuded and rocky hillside JNF Gets $50,000
;..
Announcement of the appearance of a Yiddish language family provides for the estab- under guidance of Keren Kaye-
CI)
,
met
met LeIsrael (Jewish National Gift from Retired
periodical
Moscow, as a bimonthly literary review, under the
E a) title Sovietish in Heimland—Soviet
Homeland—is news of first-rank lishment of a "Kabaker Nahala Fund) experts. New orchards
.4 4
.) importance. It is the first time since 1948 that a Yiddish journal — a specially assigned settle- now grow and bear fruit where West Coast Chemist
u) 4
not even a blade of grass had LOS ANGELES, (JTA) — A
is seeing the light of day. It is being edited by Aaron Yergelis, a ment in Israel.
The gift, in the amount of grown previously. The Yemen- $50,000 gift to the Jewish Na-
Yiddish poet. The first issue covered the months of July and
cts ' August and the 25,000 copies were exhausted, almost immediately $50,000, will be in memory of ite settlers in Givat Yearim also tional Fund, and three "living
P°
T2.
legacy" contributions, totaling
David Kabaker and Jeanette developed poultry raising.
44 upon the journal's initial appearance.
The late David Kabaker had $128,000, to Histadrut Develop-
The story of the appearance of the first Yiddish magazine Kabaker by their sisters, Sally
I in 13 years, with the approval of the Soviet authorities, was Handleman of D e t r o i t and bequeathed $15,000 to the Jew- ment Corporation, were an-
told graphically in a special dispatch from Moscow to the New Esther Stralzer of New York, ish National Fund which was nounced here by West Coast
and their brother, Samuel Ka- supplemented to the extent of leaders of the two organiza-
4.1 York Times by Theodore Shabad.
It is recalled that all Yiddish cultural activities, including baker, and in memory also of $5,000 by Mrs. Handleman, tions.
4
The gift to the JNF, accord-
14 the press, were curtailed. A very small Yiddish newspaper ap- their parents, Jacob and Ida making possible the planting of
Kabaker.
the David Kabaker Forest in ing to Benjamin H. Swig, presi-
,_,
pears
three
times
weekly
in
Birobidjan,
where
only
about
30,000
cn
dent of the West Coast JNF,
The "Kabaker Nahala" of Israel.
of the USSR's officially registered 2,268,000 Jews reside. Now,
The late Jeanette Kabaker is the largest single contribu-
as part of the reversal of the Stalin policies of terroristic anti- 1,000 dunams 250 acres —
W
4.
will be located in Givat left $10,000 towards the estab- tion ever made in the history
Semitism, the long-promised Yiddish periodical is a reality.
More than 500,000 Russian Jews had given Yiddish as their Yearim, a rural community lishment of a synagogue in of the JNF on the West Coast.
area in the Jerusalem Corri- Ashkelon, Israel, in memory of It was made by Samuel A.
0 "mother tongue" in the 1959 census. Jewish theatrical functions
N
dor,
121 /2 kilometers west of her parents. She also left the Fryer, a retired biochemist, liv-
E'' attracted overflow crowds and there has been in evidence a
nostalgia for Yiddish even among young Russian Jews who do the Holy City. It was in this sum of $15,000 to Hadassah for ing near here, at Santa Monica.
vicinity that Israeli airmen a four-bed room and the addi- The $50,000 will be used to
A not know their parents' language.
•
into action in defense tional amount of $6,000, which establish a "Samuel A. Fryer
Vergelis told the New York Times correspondent that the went
of
Israel's
position, several was supplemented with funds Village" near Tel Aviv.
E-4 decision to publish the new journal was up to the Soviet Writers losing their
Fryer has contributed more
lives in the given by Mrs. Handleman and
Union. Witnessing the great response to Yiddish works that
Mrs Strelzer and another than $1.000,000 in the last five
appeared in Russian translation—including the writings of Men- battle.
A synagogue, a nursery brother, Nathan Kobaker, for years to Israeli institutions of
dele Mokher Seforim, I. L. Peretz and Sholem Aleichem—the
and
kindergarten in Givat a waiting room in the Hadassah higher learning. Among his
Writers Union finally gave its consent to the realization of a
Yearim
will bear the names Medical Center in memory of beneficiaries have been the
pledge for the restoration of the Yiddish press, made as far back
Weizmann Institute or Science,
of the Kabakers to be me- their brother, David
as 1956. Ilya Ehrenburg and Konstantin Fedin were among those
at Rehovot, and the Technion
morialized
in
consequense
of
National
and
local
JNF
ement
to
the
Yiddish
publishing
effort.
who gave encoura g
at Haifa. Last year, he made
the
$50,000
gift
—
the
most
leaders
welcoming
the
Kabaker
Shabad quotes Vergelis, who listed the names of an editorial
the largest single purchase of
rec-
on
generous
to
the
JNF
family
gift
expressed
gratitude
board for Sovietish Heimland, as telling him that the publication
Israel bonds ever recorded on
ord
in
Detroit.
for
a
lifetime
of
interest
in
the
of the new journals means the beginning of the publishing of
West Coast.
The population of the Givat Israel cause by the entire fam- the The
more Yiddish-language books, that articles by "progressive for-
"living legacy" contribu-
ily
and
the
continuing
interest
Yearim
community
consists
of
eign writers," defining them as being "not anti-Soviet reaction-
tions to. the Histadrut Develop-
by
the
donors
of
the
present
Yemenites
who
settled
there
in
ary." Pointing to the new journal its editor said:
ment Foundation w e r e an-
1950 when the entire area was $50,000 gift.
in
the
nounced by Israel I. Blumen-
is
often
said
abroad
that
Yiddish
literature
"It
thal, West Coast director of the
Soviet Union has ceased to exist. Here on the last page of the
organization. The gifts consist
journal appears a list of 100 persons who are now writing in Maccabiah Games Open in Israel;
of one contribution of $65,000
Yiddish in this country—novelists, short story writers, poets
by Ben Sapkin; another of over
and playwrights."
1,300 Jewish Athletes Participate
$45,000 by Abe L. Plotkin; and
Yet, until the restoration of a basic right to publish Yiddish,
Adrianne Ayares of Baltimore a third, of $18,000, by Mrs.
(Direct JTA Te letype Wire
there was a discrimination of the worst type in the USSR. In
The Jewi sh News)
TEL to AVIV—The
sixth Mac- scored the first victory of the Minna Sherman. The funds. said
his new book, "House Without a Roof" (Doubleday), Maurice
cabiah
Games
were
opened
sixth Maccabiah Games for the Blumenthal, will be used for
Hindus wrote:
expansion of an agricultural
"Up in Northern Siberia lives the Mongol tribe of Chukchi, Tuesday
afternoon
with
impres-
Americans
Tuesday
by
defeating
trade school conducted in Is-
hil- live ceremonies attended by Tova Epstein, the Israeli Worn- rael by Histadrut, the Israel
of whom there are no more than 12,000 men, women and c
tennis champion, 6-3 and
en's
presi.
Federation of Labor.
dren. In 1930 the Soviet government gave them a written 1,300 Jewish athletes,
language, opened public schools, a pedegogical college, a dent Ben-Zvi, foreign diplomats 64
medical and a musical institute, all in their native tongue. and more than 40,000 spectators
Since then the publishing house of Magadan in northern Si- in the Ramat Gan Stadium.
beria has been bringing out the literary works of Chukchi
The flag-decked stadium was
authors in their native language. But the 2,268,000 Jews (cen- filled with Israelis and tourists
sus of January 1959), over one fifth of whom give Yiddish as who came to watch the athletic
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
. their mother tongue, have since 1948 been deprived of all competition. Army buglers
Editor, , Seven Arts Feature Syndicate
sounded the arrival of the Presi-
. publishing facilities."
.
In the recent issue of Survey—A Journal of Soviet and East dent. Then came the march into Midrash David . . .
For the past 25 years David Schwartz has been writing a
European Studies, published in London, appeared an article on the arena of 26 contingents
"Soviet Jewish Literature by C. Szmeruk, who analyzed the headed by eight fencers with
tion of
the brilliant
of another
day. Now
has
developments that had led to the purge of Jewish writers, the drawn sabers forming a flag weekly
column
for the feuilletonists
Jewish Telegraphic
Agency
in the he tradi-
collected his sheaves into book form under the modest title
brutal elimination of Yiddish culture and the imposition of guard d unit.
The Maccabi World Union "Haman Taschen and Rothschild's Millions" when a more fitting
prejudices that belied all Soviet claims to justice to its Jewish
citizens. "Conditions under the Soviet regime," Szmeruk wrote, leaders marched into the sta-
The have
publishers
(Twayne) David."
describe the book as a collection
"hampered the growth of Yiddish publishing in its last years. dium followed by the contin- one would
been "Midrash
of Jewish wit and humor, but it is more than that description
Apparently the authorities saw no other course open to them gents, each of which marched
for the suppression of this Jewish national awakening than to past the reviewing stand encompasses, for it derives its roots not alone from folk wisdom.
Wipe out all vestiges of Yiddish publishing and other Jewish saluting Israel's president. An
a sad
person,
likes to rock himself
activities in the USSR that were still permitted till the end of all military detachment with but from Essentially
sacred tome,
history
and Schwartz
human experience.
army colors headed the large
-
1948."
Nevertheless, interest in Jewish matters, in Israel and in Israeli contingent, which in- into security to the tune of wit. Chochma, wisdom, through the
Yiddish prevailed in Russia. Now the clamor for a return to eluded all the Israeli sports ages has been a weapon of Jewish survival, and it is brilliantly
Yiddish publishing has borne fruit. It remains to be seen organizations — Maccabi, Ha- reflected in every page of the 206-page volume. There is no
After in the
Maccabiah
flag was
appropriate
anecdote
or adage.
Nor
is there does
a theme
touches
whether it really will be the beginning of a new era of justice
poel
and Betar.
theme
he touches
to which
the
author
not he
bring
an .
that stands by itself. Always he finds strikingly original rela-
Russia. It is to be hoped that this Khrushchev beginning of
Wiping out a remnant of Stalinist bigotry will lead to other hoisted, a six-gun salute was tionships to other events and persons. The volume essentially
roads of humane considerations in his dealing with Jewish mat- fired and hundreds of doves savors of folk wisdom, lore, legend and Jewish tale, yet it is
ters, with the desire of many Russian Jews to emigrate, with were released in the style of the replete with erudition and history, not in the textbook but in.
sense.
the genuine interest in Israel and the hopes for peace based on Olympics. The president then the human
In a column on Purim, he remarks that the Book of Esther
declared the opening of the
democratic principles.
affected American history. For a moment the reader pauses in
Maccablah Games.
* * *
At that moment, Yohanan surprise, in disbelief. But Schwartz quickly brings him out of
Message of Faith on an Israeli Stamp
Lahav an Israeli athlete, en-
A First Day mailing of the new Israel stamp issued in tered the stadium bearing a the daze with a brilliant exulanation. When ratification of the
objected
its adoption
on the ground
it did not a
tribute to Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Toy, the founder of Hasidism, Maccabiah torch which had been preacher
Constitution
was to
before
the Massachusetts
state that
convention,
lit earlier in the day near the mention God. One of the delegates, a young lawyer, retorted
is accompanied by a message of faith.
"Emunah hee ye-sohd kol davar" is the text of the message. grave side of the Maccabeans in that the omission was not fatal since some of the biblical books
the Judean Hills. The torch will had not mentioned God either. When the stunned preacher de-
"Faith is the foundation of all things."
It means:
Israel's philately is one of the artistic achievements of the be kept burning throughout the manded proof, the young lawyer produced the Book of Esther
young state. Its utilization for high spiritual. motives and to Games which will begin Wednes- and the Constitution was of course ratified. The men of the
he ruminates elsewhere, "seemed to like their heroes
inspire faith is- to be credit of the Israeli postal authorities day Fourteen huge torches were a little earthy," and he treats us to a salty story about a rabbi
who are thus displaying commendable vision.
lit- towards dark and a me- in the days of the Talmud who was so delighted at couples
_ :k
*
*
morial praier for the 14 - Jew- being married that he would seek out weddings and dance with
•sh
communities destroyed by . the bride in his arms to exhaustion. When one of his pupils
Exposing USSR Bluff with Humor
asked him whether he might not emulate his teacher in that
The following exchange of letters has been brought back the Nazis was read against a respect, the rabbi replied yes, but only if there were no sinful
background
of
memorial
songs
from Russia by Carl Mydans, Life photographer:
played- by the army band. All intentions.
One of the finest pieces in the book is on humility. A Jew
in the stadium stood at atten-
Dear Armenian Radio Station:
who
had sought to impress the Chasam Sofer with his erudition
tion
during
the
listing
of
the
Can you tell me the difference between capitalism and
14 Maccabi b r a n c h e s de- kept on professing , lack of claim to learning. Whereupon the
communism?
not
stroyed in the Nazi holocaust. venerable sage reminded him: "Listen, my friend, you are
Comrade
At
the
close
of
the
memorial
so
'great
a
man
as
to
have
to
be
humble."
Dear Comrade:
There isn't a facet of human interest that Schwartz over-
ceremony, s e v e r a 1 thousand
Under capitalism, man exploits man.
young Maccabi members in blue looks, and he brings to every theme a refreshing angle.
•artz
Under communism, it is just the reverse.
The volume is replete with gems on ever - - - -
white uniforms performed
Armenian Radio Station and
mass gymnastics for the specta- has no literary pretensions.
Man's path to man is through the won./
It's a good sign—that the expose of the Russian bluffs tors. The performance con- And Schwartz has told the story exceedingly %.
chided
the
opening
ceremony.
should be accompanied by good humor.

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