Milk for Children: JDC Then and Now In a Sukkah With Afghan Jews: Rosanne Klass'
Remarkable Travelogue, `Land of the High Flags'

Rosanne Klass may well be call-
viet take - over in Bokhara and
glittered faintly, far away, and the
ed a pioneer. She is an adventurer
Tashkent, and during the Second chalky light of the pale full moon
to be admired for the courage she
World War there were even a i froze the streets and the high walls
displayed as a teacher in Aghanis-
few refugees from the Nazi ter- into a bista of ancient memory.
tan. From 1951 to 1954 she taught
ror who made their way across And I thought: I have seen Ur of
there and traveled through the
the Middle East to sanctuary the Chaldees, I have sat in the
land, becoming acquainted with the
here." tents of Abraham."
country's customs and traditions
She relates an interesting story
The entire Klass Afghan story is
and the people's way of life.
of her visit with the Afghan Jews
In "Land of the High Flags," on Sukkot in their Sukkah. "They1 enchanting. It is a glorious adven-
ture, well told, introducing the
published by Random House, Miss rarely entertained, and they seem- reader to interesting people_ "Land
Klass narrates a remarkable story ed almost surprised to have a ' of the 11 . h Flags" should be wide-
of her experiences. She travelled woman at their table again; they ! ly read.
P.S.
fearlessly, socialized freely with all but drowned me in solicitude."
the natives, learned their pecu-
Miss Klass describes the Suk-
liarities, came to love the land.
kah for years, although when I was
SAM ROSEN BLAT
She came to the Afghanistan small I always thought that they
Master of Ceremonies
time when women still were com- were very pretty . . ."
And His
pelled not to go into public places
In her account of the Sukkot
Dance
and Entertainment
unveiled. She had seen them eman- celebration. she tells about the
Band
cipated, rejoicing over their new queenly and tall hostess: "like the
freedom.
Party Arrangement Specialist
cfclars of Lebanon." It's a marve-
She was warned against the dan- lous story about a fine family, it's
UN 4-0237
KE 8-1291
gers of being in the role of a devotions, its family pride. And
teacher among strange people; she‘yiss Klass' Afghan-Jewish account,
took the risk and found it less as she left the Sukkah party, con-
MUSIC STUDY CLUB
risky.
eludes, thus:
The totality of her experience
CELEBRITY CONCERT
"Outside 'again. in the frost-
is evidenced by her having dis-
Sunday, November 29
touched midnight, the desert stars
covered also the Jews of Afghan-
Ford Auditorium
istan. It is said that there are
For Tickets:
UN 4-8925 or L: 3-4035
Oral Contraceptive Pill
4,000 Jews there, but estimates
have varied from 2,000 to 10,000.
Permit
Delayed
in
Israel
Miss Klass found that the
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Health
Afghan Jews live a Jewish life
officials intimated that delays in
and on her visit with a group
permitting manufacture of an oral
of them on Sukkot learned of
contraceptive pill stemmed from
their devotion.
Her Afghan Jewish story began considerations of a social and

ti

by relating that "an Afghan Jew,

In 1921 the war was over but hundreds of thousands of Jews

in Eastern Europe still faced hunger and disease. The Joint Dis-
tribution Committee rushed relief, medical supplies and rehabilita-
tion aid. Above is milk station No. 10 somewhere in Eastern Europe
"for children only." Below, in more recent years, a young Jewish
mother, holding her undernourished child, reports to a JDC milk
station in Casablanca for her quota of milk. JDC. which celebrates
its 50th anniversary Dec. 10-12, -receives the bulk of its funds from
the United Jewish Appeal.

•

Of Dybbuks and Stage Gonnifs

Stealing a scene is rather like
stealing an afikoman: if you can
get away with it. the end justifies
the means.
The role of Harris in "The Tenth
Man” is hardly more than a walk-
on part: he's .a deaf old gentleman
who braves winter winds to help
form a minyan at his little shul. He
says next to nothing, and his pres-
ence is barely acknowledged by

his cronies.

But, for the Center Theater
production of "The Tenth Man."
Gene Rosenberg turns every bit
of Harris' stage business into a
cameo performance. The old
man's continuous arrivals and
departures mean a continuous
round of donning and removing
hat, overcoat, jacket, sweater, 10-
foot-long red-striped scarf and a
loud varsity shirt with a ".29"
emblazoned -on the back. Every
time he appears, the audience is

distracted from the central ac-
tion. The charming old gonnif.
Despite his importance as one-
tenth of the quorum needed to
start, the service in our Long Island
shul, Harris is not "the tenth
man." This mitzvah belongs to an

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unwitting passerby. a suicidal
young attorney who thinks ."na-
chus" and "psychoanalysis" come
from the same root. Phil Lassiter
fills the role adequately. but his
cheerful acceptance of his neurosis
is almost too philosophical to be
convincing.
The spotlight of the play. of
course. falls on a young girl who
is possessed by a dybbuk, an evil
spirit left over from the Old Coun-
try and doomed to wander through
the years inhabiting other people's
bodies.
If, in this part. Susan Merson
is judged on the basis of her age
— 14 —• she rates 100 per cent.
Judged as an adult. she still comes
out very well. Dybbuk or no, the
18-year-old heroine Evelyn is se-
riously disturbed, indeed schizo-
phrenic. She is portrayed with sen-
sitivity beyond the actress' own
Years.

moral nature and from the govern-

an energetic young businessman ment's policy of encouraging large
who had handled some matter or families.
A local drug company said the
other for us, used to stop from
time to time to polish up his con- delay was endangering possibilities
versational English. He was plan- of establishing an export trade in
ning to emigrate soon to the such contraceptiVes. The company
United States. living meanwhile said it had already received large
with two uncles who had similar orders for the pill from a number
of Far Eastern countries.
plans."
She became acquainted with the
family and learned that his uncle
BERNARD H.
Abba had been for years "the
doyen of the Jewish community
in Afghanistan, respected alike
both in his own community and
in the wider circles of business and

WINER

government in which he moved."
Thereupon Miss Klass gave an ac-

HAL GORDON

UN 3-5730
UN 3-8982

Candid Photography

Bar Mitzvahs — Weddings

KE 1-8196

Kabul were ancient, and most
Afghan Jews were native-born,
as were their forefathers as far
back as they knew. Others had
fled to Afghanistan after the So-

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•

In The Heart of the City

ON CADILLAC SQUARE

Susan's father, Louis Merson.

• WEDDINGS
• BAR MITZVAHS
• SHOWERS, etc.

as the atheist Schlissel (would
he be in shul every day if he had

anything better to do? he ar-
gues). firt Gordon and Mark
gues), re an intriguing trio, all
accom lices in the conspiracy to
exorci the evil dybbuk.

4

Perhap more out of place in
this shul than his congregation is
the rabbi (Joe Cash); the play-
Abe Fortes. prominent 'Wash-
wright's treatment of him is devas-
tating. There must be some way ington attorney, is being considered
to get children into heder without for a post in the next Cabinet of
reducing oneself to a Little League President Johnson — possibly for
the U.S. attorney generalship.
umpire.
Rollon Parker is excellent as the
pious Hirschmann, the closest any- Break Ground for New
one comes to a voice of reason Virginia Home for Aged
in this madcap exorcism.
RICHMOND, Va. (JTA)—Lead-
Yet, despite everything, as Pad-
dy Chayefsky intended for his ing personalities of the Jewish and
play, all will emerge triumphant. general communities, headed by
All except Evelyn's dybbuk, of Gov. Albertis S. Harrison and Rep. *:
J. Caughan Gary, participated in
course.
—C.H.

g

ground-breaking ceremonies for a

A pseudo-sage is like a donkey new structure for the Beth Sholom
that carries a load of books.— Home, a home for the • aged or-
ganized in 1945. The principal ad-
Zohar Hadash, Tikkun.
dress was delivered by Dr. Wil-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Liam T. Sanger, president-emeritus

Friday, November 13, 1964-35

BY

1.11••••

count of what she had learned
about Afghanistan Jewry:
"There have been Jews in t
Afghanistan for centuries, for at
least the thousand years of its
Islamic history and — who
knows?—p e r h a p s long before !
that, perhaps since the days, of
Cyprus, or beyond. . . Certainly i
the communities of Herat and

LIU

and ENTERTAINMENT

of the Medical College of Virginia.

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The Grand Ballroom, with a
capacity of SOO persons for
a meeting. 450 persons for a
banquet or a wedding, or
400 persons for dinner and
dancing.
The Randolph Room, with a
capacity of up to 150 persons
for meetings or banquets.
The Cadillac Room, with a
capacity of up to 300 per-
sons.
The Ford Room with a capac-
ity of 75 persons.
The Jefferson Room with a
capacity of 25 persons.

Excellent catering by our chef
in our modern kitchen with
beverage service as required—
or your caterer.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION — WO 2-5900

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