Dr. Avraham Biran Digs Israel's Past the Most

By CHARLOTTE HYAMS •
To take over Israel's favorite
sport, the manager had to have a
PhD in archeology.
So in 1961 they picked a May-
flower Israeli whose roots in the
soil of the Galilee went back three
generations — a lean, nice-looking
chap with a doctorate from Johns
Hopkins University.
Dr. Avraham Biran, director of
Israel's department of antiquities
and museums, was in Detroit last
week as Bnai Brith's 1965 visiting
lecturer, discussing "Israel, Land
of the Bible" at Shaarey Zedek
Synagogue. The day before, he had
been at Delta College, Saginaw;
tomorrow he would be in Chicago;
and on and on for a total of six
weeks. "But I haven't mixed up
my speeches yet," he said, with
obvious pride.
Youngsters with visions of arche-
ologists as bespectacled relics are
caught short
when 55-year-old
Dr. Biran breezes
into a room. "In
one city, I spoke
before some
boys in a Hebrew
school class. I
thought I'd put
them at ease,"
said the former
diplomat, "by de-
Dr. Biran scribing some of
my experiences in battle. Then I
would get into my talk on archeol-
ogy."
At the conclusion of his talk, it
was apparent the plans of one of
Israel's foremost archeologists had
gone awry among a group of fasci-
nated 10-year-olds. " 'What kind of
guns did you use? What kind of
bullets did you use?' they asked
me. Archeology? Uh, uh."
Such reactions are nothing
new to Dr. Biran. Married to a
former Baltimorian, he has three
children, of whom two say
"archeology, uh, uh." Although
"they're interested in what I'm
doing," a son, 25, and a daugh-
ter, 23, are concentrating on

ORT Overseas Leaders

See Greatest Needs in
Both Israel and France

NEW YORK (JTA) — Over-
seas leaders of ORT, addressing
the executive committee of the
American Ort Federation here
Nov. 6, presented perspectives for
increased vocational training, with
primary emphasis on the educa-
tional needs of youth in Israel and
equipping the more than 120,000
North African newcomers to
France with skill essential to their
economic integration.
Plans to enlarge such services
were reported by Dr. Vladimir
Halperin, director of the World
Ort Union of Geneva; Jacob Olei-
ski, director of Ort-Israel; and F.
Schrager, director of French Ort.
While the highest priority in
Israel over the next five years
must be the creation of a uni-
versal system of secondary ed-
ucation, Oleiski urged that the
pattern of secondary schooling
be such as to emphasize tech-
nical studies in line with the
country's industrial development.
He predicted a new era in
economic development.
"While the first period of the
State was characterized by an emp-
hasis on agriculture," Oleiski
stated, "Israel has now definitely
embarked on industrialization. The
new Israeli economy that is now
taking shape is based on the most
advanced technology, including
automation. This factor will require
changes in Israel's secondary ed-
ucation in order to give far greater
emphasis to technical and voca-
tional training."
He announced that ORT has
undertaken, in conjunction with
the ministry of education, to
double student enrollment in its
trade high schools in the next
five years.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
38—Friday, November 12, 1965

,147:47R,Irr " '

"Tkufat Tishre" (a ut umnal
equinox) is the Hebrew inscrip-
tion on this unique mosaic pave-
ment found in a 4th Century
synagogue at Hamat near Tiber-
ias. This was discovered on one
of the expeditions supervised by
Israel's department of antiqui-
ties and museums, headed by Dr.
Avraham Biran.
* * *

physics and psychology, respec-
tively, at the Hebrew University.
But the third, age 16, already
likes to dig. Dr. Biran's teen-age
son has taken part in one of the
largest expeditions under way in
Israel, sponsored by the Corning
Glass Co.
Lest anyone think it would be a
great lark to go hunting for ancient
pieces of glass, it must be pointed
out that Dr. Biran's job is to see
that not just anyone goes hunting.
With a department of 60 per-
sons, he supervises the watchdog
operations over all expeditions,
from the first accrediting of their
leaders to the final interpreting of
their finds.
* * *
When the department of antiqui-
ties was established in 1948, "we
had nothing," Dr. Biran said. "Any-
thing found until that time had to
remain with the Arabs in the old
city of Jerusalem. We had to start
from scratch."
But even starting from scratch,
the department has amassed
such a great treasure house of
material, the problem has be-
come one of storage.
Fortunately, the new Israel Mu-
seum and its Samuel Bronfman
Biblical and Archeological Muse-
um, of which Dr. Biran is chair-
man of the board, has solved part
of the problem.
"We follow an old British law,"
Dr. Biran explained. "When an
expedition finishes its work, the
department takes first choice of
the unique objects. After that, we
divide half and half with the expe-
dition. It's really very fair, corn-
pared with other nations around
the Mediterranean."
Dr. Biran came to know "British
law" well during the years of the
Mandate. In fact, he was an official
of the British administration in
Jerusalem when the Dead Sea
Scrolls were brought out in 1947.
"And I was the one who gave
Prof. (E. L.) Sukenik the mili-
tary pass necessary to see the
scrolls. Just a lucky break that
I happened to be there," he
added. It was Sukenik who
acquired the scrolls for Israel.
Once the science of foreigners,
Israel archeology is now pretty
much home grown, a development
Dr. Biran has seen in the past two
decades. "Most archeologists at
work in Israel are trained locally,
at the Hebrew University, and a
good many are Israeli-born."
(Dr. Biran himself attended the
Hebrew University when it was
still Teachers College. A classmate
was Dr. Shlomo Marenof, dean of
the Midrasha here.)
Nevertheless, interest in the
Holy Land has not waned among
foreign groups.
One of the largest current exca-
vations, at the new port city of
Ashdod, is under the leadership
of the Pittsburgh Theological
Seminary and Carnegie Institute.

Many clergymen have attended his
lectures in this country, and a
good segment of his audiences is
non-Jewish.
The Ashdod expedition is one
of seven that have top priority
with the department of antiqui-
ties. Whereas most digs take
place in spring and summer, the
seven emergency excavations go
on regardless of weather.
Like Ashdod, each of these areas
is being commercially developed
to such an extent, that the founda-
tions of earlier periods are in
danger of obliteration.
At Hamat, near the hot springs
of Tiberias, an unusual synagogue
dating back to the 4th Century
was discovered, its mosaic pave-
ment nearly intact (see photo) and
showing both Hellenistic and
Orthodox symbols.
At Ramie, the department is
carefully excavating an ancient
Syrian town, capital of the Arab
administration from the _9th to the
11th Centuries. (Interesting that
Israel is trying to save from de-
struction the antiquities of a nation
that would like to destroy Israel.)
At Arad, it was a temple, with
the remains of an ancient sacri-
fice still on the altar stone. And
at Massada, where 962 Jews died
for their God 1,900 years ago,
it was the baths of King Herod.
Dr. Biran recalls such discoveries
with the enthusiasm of a football
hero describing his gridiron vic-
tories. And, indeed, it is a favorite
sport of Israelis; for them, ancient
history is often a daily news item.
"Now, why couldn't a commu-
nity like Detroit, using the re-
sources of Wayne and the Univer-
sity 'of Michigan, organize an arche-
ological expedition to Israel?" Dr.
Biran suggested.
The idea had just come to him,
and he liked it. "That would be
very good because it would help
uncover our common past. Here,
perhaps, is the link between Ameri-
can and Israel Jews." In archeol-
ogy and the Bible," Dr. Biran said,
"there is a universal meaning."

Youth's 'Abraham Lincoln Joke Book'
Shows Great Emancipator's Character

Abraham Lincoln became fatu- and stories is excellent, and it helps
ous for more than his valiant ef. explain the character of the Great
forts for the emancipation of the Emancipator.
75 ,-- -.757?,Negro es. He was
an orator and
a wit, and as a
story - teller he
was unexcelled.
A number of
books have been
published c o re-
taining his wise
sayings. The Lin-
coin Book Shelf
now is enriched
Lincoln by a book of
jokes gathered for young readers.
In "The Abraham Lincoln Joke
Book," published by Random
House, Beatrice Schenk de Reg-
niers explains that Lincoln re-
sorted to a story or an anecdote
"to prove a point, or help him
answer a question, or cheer up
the people around him."
The selections she made amply
prove this approach. Mrs. de Reg-
niers states that "Lincoln believed
that jokes are good for children,
Not a nice thing to think about,
too," that "he thought jokes and
but you could be doing just that
riddles were good fun and helped
if you don't have a regular savings
sharpen the wits." He even be-
program. Paychecks -have a way of
lieved in teaching jokes and rid-
disappearing into thin air. And
dles in schooL
your
best intentions to save often
In a sort of preface entitled
get postponed until the "next time
"School Days," the author ap-
around."
pended the following to her stories:
But there is an easy and sure
"Abraham Lincoln wrote that
way to save called the Payroll
he 'went to A. B. C. schools by
Savings Plan. And it works auto.
littles'—a few weeks or a few
matically.
months at a time. And all his
schooling added together did
You just ask your employer to
not amount to one year.'
set aside a small amount from
"The rest of Lincoln's educa-
your check each payday to be put
tion came from reading, reading,
toward the purchase of a U. S.
reading—and from listening and
Savings Bond.
from seeing and thinking about
For example, just $4.33 a week
what was going on around him.
adds up to the $18.75 you need to
"This is from one of Abraham
buy a $25 Bond every month. More
Lincoln's school notebooks. He
than likely you'll forget you even
may have been about 11 years
set it aside (a pretty painless way
old when he wrote this:
to feather your nest).
" 'Abraham Lincoln has hand
This way, those few dollars you
and pen; he will be good but
never see now will be keeping
God knows when'."
Junior in tuition and textbooks
The latter is reproduced in Lin-
later. What's more, they'll be work-
coln's own handwriting.
The de Regniers book is well
ing for Uncle Sam to keep the
illustrated by William Lahey Cum-
world strong and free for his
mings. The selection of anecdotes
generation.
So why don't you point your
Allen Fox, nationally ranked
will-power in the right direction I
tennis star from California, recent-
Join the Payroll Savings Plan, and
see how you, too, can be a reformed
Chairman Franklin D. Roosevelt ly completed a tour of Africa. He
gave clinics and played exhibi-
fritterer.
Jr. of the U.S. Equal Employment
tions in Liberia, Ghana, and Ni-
Opportunity Commission, an- geria.
Buy V.S. Savings Bonds
nounced that HERMAN EDELS-
BERG, former director of the
Who is in the right fears, who
Washington office of the Bnai is in the wrong hopes. — French
0 (4 1 .7.!
Brith Anti-Defamation League, has proverb.
been appointed executive director
of the federal commission. Edels-
berg is an authority on civil rights
and human relations work. In ad-
dition to his ADL service, he was
chairman of the National Civil
Liberties Clearing House f o r
several years. Prior to joining the
ADL, Edelsberg was counsel and
staff director of the Senate sub-
committee on foreign trade. He
was previously counsel of the
Senate _ Committee on War Con-
tracts.
* *
Abraham Segal of Philadelphia
has been named first director of
the new depart-
ment of teacher
■
education of the
Union of Amer-
ican Hebrew
Congregat i o n s,
central congrega-
tional body of
664 Reform Jew-
ish temples in
Segal
America and
Canada. According to UAHC presi-
dent, Rabbi Maurice N. Eisen-
Mercury is a frustrated mes-
drath, the department will provide
senger. He's been replaced by
for the education and prepara-
tion: of religious school teachers.
Mr. ZIP, symbol of the ZIP
*
Code
program to improve serv-
Dr. TOBY M. MINDEL, a post-
doctoral fellow in early childhood
ice. When you use ZIP Code
education and psychotherapy and
in your address, it assures
counseling, has been assigned to
speedier,
faster delivery.
Merrill Palmer Institute to write
a paper dealing with a program for
providing guidance through a spec-
ial resource in the elementary
school.

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