Payne's 'Splendor of Israel'
Depicts New State's Glories
Travelogues can be meaning-
less — unless the narrator has
caught the spirit of the people
who inhabit the land he de-
scribes.
Robert Payne did just that
in "The Splendor of Israel,"
which has been issued by Har-
per & Row as a most attractive
and beautifully illustrated book.
The value of this impressive
story about Israel and Israelis
lies in the author's ability to
reach out to leaders and to
those who are involved in all
walks of life in Israel, to the
government officials as well as
to the workers in the fields and
in the factories. His descriptive
skill makes his readers feel as
if they were on the spot in the
areas described while reading
his valuation of the new life in
a new land.
By offering historical back-
grounds he enhances his tales,
and there is a realism in his
descriptions that will inspire in
his readers themselves to visit
Israel and to see the land for
themselves.
Payne begins with Jerusa-
lem and ends there. He limits
himelf to the New City in
Irsael because, as he states:
"I never went into the old
city, for the Jordanians in
their fury against the Jews
have barred the passage at
the Mandelbaum Gate, and
will let no one enter. Their
loss is Israel's gain, for while
the Church of the Holy Sepul-
cher, Gethsemane and the
Wailing Wall remain in for-
bidden territory, there are
more than enough holy sites
to visit on the Israeli side of
the frontier. Above all, there
is Mount Zion, clinging to the
corner of the old wall, and
after the sacred sites there is
the entire new city to explore,
spilling over the hills and
dramatically beautiful in its
own right, with its population
gathered from all the ends of
the earth, intoxicated with its
new freedom and the sense of
danger. There is almost no
part of the modern city which
is not within rifle range from
the Jordians on their ancient
walls."
After the introductory evalu-
ation of the Jerusalem area and
the people who inhabit the New
City, there are the concluding
descriptions of the Israel cap-
ital — with the Hebrew Uni-
versity, the Knesset, the Mea
Shearim district and the variety
of people who make up the
city's population. It is a story
of "the pagentry they brought to
DAYENU
Jerusalem" that "did no harm
by their eternal studying of the
Torah, and no doubt they did
some good." Then there is a
description of his last day in
Jerusalem:
"I wandered through all the
familiar places, to the university
and back again to Mount Zion,
and down by the Mandelbaum
Gate, where there was the sil-
ence of the grave. I went to
Ramat Rahel, and looked down
towards Bethlehem and the
ghostly ash-white Herodium ris-
ing out of the parched, eroded
land. Then I went to the De-
partment of Antiquities on King
Solomon Street, that small and
crowded museum where so many
of the great archaeological dis-
coveries of Israel are kept.
There, standing against a wall,
was a mosaic discovered near
Rehovoth, showing the seven-
branched candlestick and imple-
ments of Jewish worship. In
brilliant colors were depicted
the ram's horn, the snuffshovel,
the citron and the palm branch.
This fifth-century mosaic had a
life of its own, vigorous and
clean. The seven-branched can-
dlestick was depicted in little
lozenges of scarlet and yellow,
with red flames pouring from
the black candles: it resembled
a tree in flower, but even more
remarkable than the delicately
balanced design was the inscrip-
tion written in Greek. It read:
"May there be blessings upon
this people."
Such poetry animates the en-
tire volume — the interviews,
with Ben-Gurion and others, the
impressions Payne gathered in
Haifa and in Tel Aviv, in Cae-
saia, in Hazar, Tiberias, Beer-
sheba and at Lake Huleh, where
"a lake died," and the account
of it by the man who helped
it to die in order to make the
land blossom and to make an
end of malaria that once was
man's enemy there.
There is a fine tribute to
the Minister of Foreign Af-
fairs: "She was proud that
she had been one of the 37
signers of the Declaration of
Independence of the State of
Israel in 1948. She had signed
her name: Golda Meirsohn.
For brevity's sake she had
since lost the last syllable of
her name . . . She sat there
among the flowers with her
hands folded on her lap, and
one though of Deborah com-
manding the armies to vic-
tory."
Landmarks that date back
many centuries intermingle in
this book with the proof of an
BY HENRY LEONARD
indestructible life introduced by
people who have come from
many lands.
Payne has not ignored the re-
cent historical events, the at-
temps to keep alive the memory
of the holocaust, the kibbutz
that was founded under the
name Lohamei Haqeta'ot—"The
Fighters of the Ghettos" — and
the regret that the tragedy is
being forgotten so quickly. He
is told by a reminiscing settler:
"The trouble is that we have
already forgotten."
"The truth is," comments the
author, "that a new generation
is springing up which has almost
forgotten the massacres: they
seem to have happened long
ago, in another age, on another
earth. The young workers on
the kibbutzim, brimming with
health, have little time or in-
clination to think of the wounds
suffered by the Jews in their
long history. Their thoughts are
of the future."
And so we have a mixture of
great accomplishments mingled
with problems — and both are
touched up. About the ineffec-
tiveness of establishing a neces-
sary memorial to the victims of
the Nazis, the author comments:
"Perhaps the scale of the Ger ;
man massacres was so great that
it will be forever impossible to
erect a monument which will
suggest the immensity of the
tragedy."
"The Splendor of Israel" is
immense in its approach. Its
contents and fine style are part
of the splendor of an able trav-
eler's impressions --of a remark-
able people in an ancient but
newly-revived land.
Moscow Reports
Defection of U.S.
Intelligence Expert
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
Soviet government newspaper
"Izvestia" reported that an Arab-
born former employe of the U.S.
National Security Agency in
Washington, who specialized in
the Arab-Israel area, has de-
fected to Russia and asked politi-
cal asylum because he was "out-
/Agee" by American polities in
the Near EasE.
He was identified as Victor
Norris Hamilton (born "Hin-
dala"), 44-years-old, and a gradu-
ate of the American University
of Beirut. He was said to be an
expert in the U.S.A. Near East-
ern Intelligence Section known
as "Allo," and his responsibilities
were said to have included the
United Arab Republic, Syria,
Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen,
and other regional countries.
Yemenite Rabbi-Author Makes Contribution
to Scanty Literature, Stirs Controversy
By I. KAMAI
A few weeks ago Israel's most
coveted literary award, the Bia-
lik Prize, was given to Rabbi
Joseph Kapheh, a Yemenite
scholar whose book, "Halikhot
Teman," has become a cause for
sharp dissension within Israel's
Yemenite community.
Notwithstanding the fact that
Rabbi Kapheh is the first Yemen-
ite to be given the Bialik Prize,
many Yemenites in Israel pro-
tested against this step, main-
taining that "Halikhot Teman"
should not have been published
in the first place.
Their bitterness reminded one
of earlier religious dissensions
in Jewish history, such as those
which occurred during the period
of Shabbatai Zevi, and subse-
quently, during the past century
when the Hassidim and their
opponents were at loggerheads.
Two generations ago, the
grandfather of Rabbi Joseph
Kapheh, Rabbi Yahya, initiated
a Yemenite "enlightenment"
movement called "Dor Deah."
Rabbi Yahya and his group in
San'a, Yemen, fought for the
abolition of the study of Kabba-
lab, and specifically the Zohar,
and advocated school reform and
the teaching of trades to chil-
dren.
They were also against many
superstitutions which were wide-
ly held among Yemenites at that
time. However, the reformers
remained a minority in the
Yemenite community, and when
they reached Israel the struggle
between the opposing groups
continued.
The ultra-orthodox Yemenite
group now charges that Rabbi
Joseph Kapheh disregards in his
new work a large part of the
Yemenite Jewish community and
its sacred traditions, and asserts
that the "Dor Deah" group won
out in the struggle. However that
may be, there is no denying that
the book is a veritable treasure
house of Yemenite Jewish life,
lore, education, tradition, cus-
toms and superstitions. It also
contains a thorough description
of family life, of the Jewish-
Yemenite house and utensils,
school and play, society and
public life.
Rabbi Kapheh never intended
to give a comprehensive descrip-
tion of life and customs of all
Jewish communities in Yemen.
The book is written with real
literary talent and is a con-
tribution to the still scanty
literature about the many tribes
of Israel now gathered in the
Jewish land.
3 Arrested in Rabat
CASABLANCA, (JTA) — The
court in Rabat sentenced three
Jews to varying terms of impris-
onment on charges of using false
passports with the intention of
leaving the country. Joseph Har-
rar was sentenced to 18 months'
imprisonment, while Baba Cohen
and Chava Barchechat were each
given one-year prison terms.
Twelve other Jews involved in
the case were acquitted.
Why Not Inhale?
In a foxhole in World War H
a couple of American Indians
were talking. "Why is there an-
other war?" asked one. "Why
didn't they establish lasting
peace after World War I?" The
other replied, 'When white
men gathered around con-
ference table to smoke peace
pipe, nobody inhaled."
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