•
Weekly Quiz
BY RABBI SAMUEL J. FOX
(Copyright, 1965, JTA, Inc.)
Who are the Yemenite Jews?
The Yemenite Jews are those
Jews, who until their recent (al-
most complete) immigration to
Israel lived in Yemen, an Arabian
Province located in the south
western part of the Arabian penin-
sula. What is most distinctive
about those Jews is the fact that
since their ancestors settled in
Yemen sometime during the an-
cient period there has been little
or no influence in their lives and
customs from any of the European
cultures or civilizations through
which most of the rest of Jewry
passed. Their mode of life has thus
been relatively original and more
or less unchanged from its original
oriental flavor. They did, however,
respect such later authorities as
Maimonides and Joseph Karo.
Abraham Rothberg's The Thousand
Those who are in search of
thrillers will surely find excite-
ment in an unusual "novel of in-
ternational intrigue," "The Thou-
sand Doors" by Abraham Roth-
berg, published by Holt, Rinehart
and Winston (383 Madison. NY 17).
A literary agent had gone to a
Balkan country to secure docu-
ments for publication in the
United States. He had gone after
a set of works by a former vice
Malben in Ramle
Marks Resident's
100th Birthday
Until recently Mrs. L. Schwartz
was part of everything in the com-
munity. A wedding, a brith milah,
a party—she was always there. She
knew everything that went on in
Ramle, a thriving
city of 25,000
southeast of Tel
Aviv. On her
daily morning
and afternoon
walks she would
stop and talk to
t h e storekeeper-
ers and acquaint-
ances and learn
all the news.
Then one day Mrs. Schwartz
her promenades ended. Leonora
Schwartz stayed home. Home for
Mrs. Schwartz was a special Mal-
ben home for the aged not far
from Ramle's business center. The
home takes care of 64 elderly new-
comers to Israel from 80 years of
age and over.
Malben is the welfare program
in Israel for aged, ill and handi-
capped newscomers, maintained by
the Joint Distribution Committee
with United Jewish Appeal funds.
The birthday was Mrs.
Schwartz's 100th and it was cele-
brated in due course with a
grand party, a large cake, many
presents and the merry clinking
of wine glasses.
Leonora Schwartz was decked
out in her finest. "It seems God is
pleaied with me and lets me live
long," she said quietly.
Mrs. Schwartz came from East-
ern Europe. Her father was a
rabbi who reached the venerable
Of what use is money in the age of 110. Her husband, an engi-
hand of a fool to buy wisdom, neer, died in 1909. Two of her
five children live in Israel, aged
when he has no sense?
and ailing. The other three died in
—Proverbs Hitler's death camps. Mrs.
Schwartz came to Israel in 1955
and was installed in the JDC—Mal-
FRI. - SAT. - SUNDAY
ben home for the aged in Ramle,
ONLY !
which specializes in care of the
infirm and the very old who need
JUST ARRIVED
special attention.
A SPECIAL GROUP
She may be very old but for the
OF ALL NEW SPRING SHADES
time being she does not need any
special attention. Tiny, thin and
FINE IMPORTED
slightly stooped, she nevertheless
SHARKSKIN
looks and acts two decades young-
er. And her appetite belies her
size and her age.
She is a fountain of good humor
and companionship in the home.
$95 to $115 Value
She holds court in her room where
Sat.: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
she entertains her many friends.
$6950
Sun.: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
HARRY THOMAS
Fine Clothes For Over 30 Years
15200 W. Seven Mile corner
Sussex 3 blocks E. of Greenfield
accompanied the chase after the
American, Warren Stone, a former
paratrooper, who risked his life
to make his contacts and who
finally succeeded in getting the
works of Konstantine Karst out of
Yugoslavia.
The book is a genuine thrill-
er and should make an excel-
lent movie. It is filled with ac-
tion, incorporates a good love
story and in a sense is a splen-
did commentary on the divisive
methods among communists, on
the manner in which former
Communists are hunted by cur-
rent agents of Moscow.
Twins John and George Newmark
Write Very Humorous Zoo Story
John and George Newmark are
identical twins. They not only
look alike. They think alike, act
in similar fashion, are interested
in the same things—especially in
their major hobby of collecting
insects for the London Zoo—and
they write alike.
That is why their book, "To the
When did the Jews first come Zoo in a Plastic Box," published
to Yemen, thus beginning the by Random House, written for
development of Yemenite Jewry? young readers, is a most entertain-
Some traditions claim that Jews ing — and instructive — work for
first came to Yemen in the days old as well as young.
The tales they relate are full
of King Solomon, either as com-
mercial voyagers in his fleet, or as of humor, whether it is about
followers of the Queen of Sheba. their experiences in the army, as
75,000 pious Jews left Israel upon
hearing the warning of the pro-
phet Jeremiah 42 years before
the destruction of the first temple.
When Ezra later requested them
to return, they refused and thus
were cursed by Ezra. Because
of this tradition no Yemenite Jew
gives the name Ezra to his child.
Historical evidence assures us
that certainly there were Jews in
Yemen in the Second Common-
wealth, probably arriving there
because of the deterioration and
eventual destruction of the Second
Commonwealth.
* * *
Is it true that Yemenite Jews
exercise some sort of a caste
system?
Since these Jews grew up in the
midst of a civilization where a
caste system was stressed it would
appear as no surprise that they
would have one among themselves.
There is evidence of wrangles over
geneologies in the course of which
certain families will not inter-
marry with others who cannot
trace back their lineage to noble
descent. Interesting was the case
of an Egyptian Jew who had ar-
rived in Yemen and sought to get
a wife for his son from the Yeme-
nite Jews. When he was asked for
his lineage, he asked the Jews of
the community to show their's
first, whereupon he seized them
and had them burned, claiming
that all Jews are noble and that
there must be no distinctions
among them. No doubt that along
with the integration of the Yeme-
nite community into the life and
culture of the new State of Israel
even those Yemenite families who
still cling to their social status on
the basis of their genealogy will
come to broaden out their perspec-
tives and accept all Jews as their
social equals.
Doors' Filled With Thrills Intrigues
president of Yugoslavia who had
been a columnist, who had devi-
ated and was under attack and
suspicion, and against whom was
set up an intrigue to prevent his
works from seeing light of day.
The remarkable set of circum-
stances that are depicted here
make "The Thousand Doors"
truly a tale about the many doors
that had to be opened, the spying
and intriguing, the murders that
prisoners-of-war, or the scares of
incidents they relate about their
hobby.
It is not a zoological work. It
is not intended to instruct about
animals. Yet, even as an adven-
ture story, it contains enough
information to instruct the read-
er about zoos and animals.
Perhaps the most amusing inci-
dent relates to the war and to
John's and George's experiences
in German prison camps. They not
only are alike, but during the war
they were both on an even scale
also to be captured by the enemy.
And their activities as war prison
ers also were alike.
To harass the enemy, George
emptied lice he had collected into
beds in German barracks. The
brothers relate in their joint liter-
ary venture:
"There is no record of the num-
ber of lice which, in this manner,
were transferred to enemy lines,
nor is there any means of estimat-
ing the acute discomfort caused
to the occupants of those beds;
but if only one of those lice irri-
tated only one German soldier to
such an extent that he shouted,
"To Hell with Hitler!' instead of
`Heil, Hitler!' then it was a blow
struck in the defense of freedom."
But the interesting part of the
story is that John also was an en-
listee. At Malta he was captured.
He turned his attention to the
study of fleas and bedbugs. The
two brothers report in their book:
"George was hi one prisoner-of-
war camp, John was in another.
George disposed of his lice by
presenting them to the e n e m y.
John did precisely the same with
his bedbugs . . . ."
John's method was different. He
sealed his specimens in envelopes
and addressed them to officers and
guards.
After the war they learned of
their identical methods of harass-
ing the enemy.
Throughout the book they relate
incidents that amuse, entertain,
delight, instruct, making their
"To the Zoo in a Plastic Box" a
most delightful work.
Discrimination Question
Raised Against Relative
of Sen. Robert Kennedy
NEW YORK (JTA) -- Stephen
E. Smith, brother-in-law of Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy, New York
Democrat, was criticized by one of
the Senator's own backers during
the election campaign last fall,
for staying at an upstate resort
that has been accused of discrimi-
nating against Jews.
The Kennedy backer, R. Peter
Straus, president of Radio Station
WMCA of New York, said that it
was "incredible" that Smith who
is married to Sen. Kennedy's sis-
ter, Jean, and who acted as an un-
official campaign manager for the
Senator, stayed at the Lake Pla-
cid Club.
Although the club is not a place.
of public accommodation and may
legally bar Jews, the issue of
anti-Semitism has repeatedly been
raised in connection with various
conventions held at the resort. In
1958, the New York State Confer-
ence of Mayors was moved away
from the club after New York's
Mayor Robert F. Wagner had said
he could not attend.
A glad heart makes a bright face;
Reached by telephone at the
But through sadness of heart the club, Smith said he had never
spirit is broken. —Proverbs heard that the club barred Jews,
and indicated that he would at-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS tempt to arrange other accommo-
Friday, February 26, 1965-15 dations.
The methods the intriguers use
is finely illustrated in the fol-
lowing excerpts from the novel:
as Karst was leading Stone
through his home, on Stone's first
visit there, before Karst was ar-
rested in an effort to prevent his
manuscripts from leaving his
country, the novelist relates:
"Karst touched a second switch
below the light switch and the
wall moved silently closed behind
them. The corridor they found
themselves in dropped steeply
down so that Stone had to keep
himself from running, until they
came to a very small room with
'Capital Formation
in West Germany'
paillasses neatly piled in diagon-
ally opposite corners. Karst took
two of them, dropped them in the
center of the room, and squatted
an one. Stone sat on the other.
`This was built before the war,'
Karst explained. 'During the war
the man who owned the villa used
it to help Jews and Partisans es-
cape from the Germans. He was
very brave and cool, and he saved
hundreds of lives by himself.'
" 'What happened to him?'
" 'We shot him.'
' why? ,
" 'Only Mirko and I knew about
his services. The third man in our
cell was killed. Then Mirko.
Those he helped never came back.
The man was a bourgeois, a law-
yer, and of course he was friendly
to the Germans to divert suspi-
cion. We shot him for collabora-
tion.' "
But life generally has its low
price in the occurrences in this
novel, and the reader will be in-
troduced to conditions which
lower human values.
The novelist Abraham Roth-
berg, a foreign correspondent,
distinguished himself also as as a
teacher and journalist, in addition
to having made his mark in liter-
ary efforts.
A GOOD MAN TO KNOW !
The role of market forces in
Germany's new growth is decribed
in "Capital Formation in West
Germany," by Karl W. Roskamp,
associate professor of economics
For Some
of the
best buys
on new
Pontiacs
and
for Wayne State University Press.
Scores of explanatory tables ex-
plain the author's findings on
German economic conditions,
sources of savings, equity and
capital formation and other re-
lated facts.
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UN 3-9300
©©oaxx)occxxx:xxnooacyDc
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The © PASSOVER
PRODUCTS DIRECTORY
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8
Favorite Passover Recipes; Guide for
Preparation of your Home for Passover
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WRITE TO:
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OLD FAVORITE
Man,
that's
a
dish!
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• -•••••••-••••••••••
• .
••••••••••••• .
Treat your family to a good Jewish meal!
Kasha makes the difference—real traditional ta'am. Hearty
Kasha Soup. Or Kasha instead of potatoes or rice. How
good it smells and tastes with pot roast, chicken or fish!
And as easy to make as chopping an onion and beating an
egg. So nutritious and economical, too.
..
em A
od,_,
,K orA
rms
C OO KB OO K —
to Phyllis Wolff, Penn Yan, New York.;
See
traditional
recipes on
New Wolff's
Package
ese snrueg icu ie ea ss t
es A a d n.d d rm