Robert St. John's 'Roll Jordan Roll" Embraces
Geography, Biblical Lore, Zionism, Personalities
Robert St. John, who has
authored 15 books, who for a
number of years centered his
major interest in the Middle East
and has become a great admirer
of Israel, once
again turned his
attention to that
ea to writ e!. : ,
he life story of
river and its
people," which
Doubleday has
published under
the title "Roll
Jordan Roll."
Once again, St. St. John
John emerges as an authority on
that part of the world in which
the Jordan flows—and his au-
thoritativeness is the result of his
skill as a researcher.
He has gone to many quarters,
has covered large areas, has
traveled through several lands, to
gather- the facts for another great
work.
. Many are the distinctions of
the River Jordan traced by St.
John. It is a place of "fierce
individualism." It has great im-
portance for the three major
- faiths. It has its importance as
the river the Israelites crossed
to get to the Promised Land.
How has it been viewed through
history? St. John explains: "Down
through the ages, men writing in
many languages have . disagreed.
They have conflictingly called
It a stream fierce and _sullen in
its isolation; a beautiful river of
SAVE
sweet water; a river fickle in its
turbulence; the River of Wrath,
the great Holy River, the Fateful
River, the Great Divider. Men who
have actually seen the river have
variously described the flow as
lazy, turbid, swirling, t u r g i d,
ragging, impetuous, flashing . .
its water has been described as
clear, limpid, blue, muddy, slimy,
green turquoise, colorless."
St. John has covered the route
of the Jordan, through the sev-
eral countries, from Mt. 'Hermon
down to the Dead Sea. He has
traveled the entire way, covered
most of the route on foot, and he
chose the title for his story from
the spiritual, arranged and adapted
by C. Everest in 1862, the chorus
of which is:
"Roll, Jordan, roll; Roll, Jor-
dan, roll. I want -to go to
Heaven when I die, To hear
Jordan roll."
"The word Jordan," St. John
explains, "is a transcription into
Greek of the Hebrew name of the
river, Ha'Yarden. Same Hebrew
scholars contend that Ha' Yarden
means 'the Descende,' returning to
the steep graduation of the river,
while others argue that it desig-
nates 'the river to which people
went down.' . . . The Arabs call
the river Esh-Sheria, meaning
`the watering place.' Often the
words El Kebir are added, making
it 'the great watering plaee'."
St. John's developing theme em-
braces many factors. It deals with
history, literature, • science, com-
merce and great personalities—in
their relationships to the Jordan.
It is not intended such, yet
"Roll. Jordan, Roll" contains a
great deal of material that intro-
duces Zionist history and the
emergence of the State of Israel.
St. John's is a story that draws
in incidents at the Jordan not
only about Saul and the Philis:
tines, David and his Psalms,
Solomon and the Song of Songs,
Zedekiah and Nebuhadnezzar
and scores of other Biblical
characters, but also some of
the world's most notable non-
Jewish personalities. Napoleon
and his campaign to capture the
Holy Land is represented here.
So is Cleopatra.
And because it is part of Jew-
ish history, St. John links to the
Jordan the major Jewish per-
sonalities.
Scriptural selections are abun-
dant in this splendid work, and
many Jewish historical incidents
are recorded in the course of the
stream of tales that form this
history of a river.
St. John draws upon Josephus.
Quoting Josephus St. John makes
these interesting observations in
reference to Lake Galilee:
"If Josephus is to be believed,
204 cities and towns lined the
shores of the lake, the smallest
GI them having a population of
15,000. Even if there were no
large cities—and we know there
were—and even if all 204 towns
were of that minimal size,
Josephus was telling us there
were more than three million
people living at that time around
the edge of the Sea of Galilee,
which has a perimeter of 33
and a third miles. If three mil-
lion people were to stand close,
shoulder to shoulder, on the
shoreline of the Sea of Galilee,
they would form more than 30
concentric 33 and a third mile
circles of tightly packed human-
ity. Josephus obviously was
exaggerating—as he was wont
to do—yet from other sources
and from archaeological find-
ings it is confirmed that the
lake region in the time of Christ
was more heavily populated than
ever before—or since."
It is in this fashion that the
St. John book becomes an his-
torical analysis not of the Jordan
alone but of the countries in which
it flows. Thus his account of the
Hileh Region, which was drained
by the Jewish National Fund-and
made fertile a decade ago, becomes
historically valuable. His archaeo-
logical accounts are interesting.
His descriptions of Herzl's visit in
Palestine is important, especially
ih relation to his meeting there
with Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany
and his description of it later to
King Victor Emmanuel of Italy.
The Herzl theme as covered by
St. John is fascinating.
And there is, of course, the ref-
erence to the Balfour Declaration,
to the major Zionist leaders, to
Israel's statehood.
St. John's story concludes ap-
propriately with the role of Eric
Johnston in the effort on behalf
of the U.S. to secure cooperation
of the Arab states and Israel to
harness the Jordan—in accord-
ance with a plan originally de
veloped by Dr. Walter Lowder-
milk. The manner in which this
proposal was stymied' is now a
matter of record. St. John relates
it and while his story is objective
in its entirety one senses regret
that unity could not be enforced
for the benefit of all peoples in
the Jordan area.
Such is the St. John "Roll Jor-
dan Roll" account about an his-
to•ic river—a tale that emerge ,
equally valuable as history ana
^o ,?rnphy as well as sociology.
—P. S.
-
Water for New Settlements in Negev
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OF THE
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an elegant and notable attendance*
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Detroit Businessmen's Group
7.1 6;
CITY OF HOPE
53rd Annual
Champagne
Dinner Dance
Saturday, Nov. 20, 1965
Grand Ballroom
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eART014IY
BOB
MELVIN
NEW YORK • LUGANO, SWITZERLAND
TOP TV Comic
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OPEN EYES. AND SUNDAYS
Israel's National Water Carrier, completed recently with the
assistance of Israel Bond funds, is bringing new life to settlements
in the Besor region of the Negev, located northwest of Beersheba.
Here we see a work crew putting down an irrigation pipeline in one
of the peanut plantations of a collective farm settlement, Kibbutz
Shoval, which also grows green fodder, cotton and fruit. The tall
pipe in the background is part of the plantation's sprinkler system.
The new pipeline will increase the kibbutz's water supply from
1,000,000 cubic meters to more than 3,000,000 cubic meters a year.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
4A,
Friday, October 29, 1965-9
4 ;
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