34—Friday, March 17, 1967
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Shaarit Haplaytah Sets
Purim Ball-Anniversary
' r y
s Auxiliary
Detroit . J
Ila
Com, ended for F-i
P roject
in Gonen
CT
Shaarit Haplaytah will hold a
"Blue-White Gala Purim Ball" din-
ner-dance 8:30 p.m. March 25 at
Bnai David Synagogue.
The gathering, marking the
group's sixth anniversary, will fea-
ture Cantor Joseph Birnholtz and
television entertainer, comedian
and violinist Harvey Fine. Sammy
Woolf and his orchestra will pro-
vide the music for dancing. Prizes
will be awarded.
Chairman of the dinner-dance is
Dr. John J. Mames. Max Friedman
is co-chairman.
For reservations, call Friedman,
VE 5-2521, or Mrs. Phillip Roemer-
field, 545-1020.
•
,ko.s.
Bird's-eye view of Gonen settlement in Israel. The Syrian border
is visible in the background.
When Mrs. Werner Freuden-
berg, wife of the former captain
of the S/S Shalom, was told that
the Women's Auxiliary of the Jew-
ish National Fund of Detroit was
making Gonen, the Israel settle-
ment on the Syrian border, its
project for the next three years,
she waxed enthusiastic.
"Our daughter, her husband and
our grandchildren live and work
there," she said, and she related:
I spoke to knowledgeable people
in Israel about that settlement,
and the moment I mentioned
Gonen they said: 'The Hevra there
are ahad v'ahad.' (It could be
translated as "handpicked.")
Mrs. Pearl Nosan, president of
the JNF Women's Auxiliary, re-
ported this week that the Detroit
women had undertaken projects
totalling $250,000, towards which
approximately $70,000 was raised
this year.
She reported that the tasks to
be undertaken at Gonen, which is
located almost immediatey on the
Syrian border and is 12 kilometers
from Gadot, the location of the
previous project of the Detroit
women in Israel, include:
Reclamation of '750 dunams
of land and participants in the
local project will be able to re-
deem dunams at $150 each; the
planting of 30,000 trees, drain-
age, clearing terrains of rocks
and road building.
"A special volume dedicated to
this project will contain the names
of donors to this project," Mrs.
Nosan said.
The Gonen activities and the
settlement's objectives are de-
scribed in the following article
written by an Israeli from Gonen:
It Is Dangerous to Be
In the Open at Gonen
By YEHUDA HANEGBI
In the center of Israel's most
uneasy frontier, beneath an over-
towering wall of stone bristling
with Syrian gun implacements, a
youthful kibbutz stands guard over
the fertile valley of the Huleh.
The settlement, aptly called Gonen
(Defender) beat its swords into
plowshares 13 years ago, when it
was changed from a Nahal outpost
into a kibbutz, and today its front-
line is the orchards and the fields
of cotton and potatoes. In order
to be safe from occasional bursts
of firing, either intentional or un-
intentional, from the guns above
them, the kibbutz has built its
homes, dining room and children's
houses as close as possible to the
mountain, so that the settlement
hugs the wall, clinging to it in an
attitude of "taking cover."
Only a few of the first settlers
have remained, those whose ideals
survived the tension and the isola-
tion. The ones who left were soon
replaced by other graduates of the
Israel Scout Movement, Hazofim,
and a natural process of "selec-
tion" has taken place over the
years. Today, Gonen is considered
one of the best of the younger
settlements of the Ichud Hakib-
butzim, the Mapai-oriented kibbutz
movement.
Mike, the tall, blond administra-
tive secretary, is one of the vet-
erans. "We are trying to create
a special kind of community," he
says, "that's why we put a lot of
emphasis on our social and cul-
tural life. We send people to study
and at the same time we don't hire
outside labour. We do everything
ourselves. And in order to avoid
a long feud on the subject, we
started off by having the children
sleep in the homes of the parents."
Characteristically, Gonen h a s
transformed i t s disadvantaged
inability to sprawl into an excuse
for original architecture. The
dwellings are concrete squares
melting into one another in an
agreeable pattern of trees, with
lawns between and a broad view
of the valley below. A large, ugly
gash on the slope nearby is the
site of the new dining room to
replace the shabby wooden shack
now being used for this purpose.
Its construction, however, has
been postponed in favor of an im-
pressive cultural center. Only the
first building of the future culture
complex is now being built, in
memory of one of the group who
was killed. And everywhere, one
sees openings to underground shel-
ters—by the classrooms of the
Youth Aliya group being educated
at Gonen, by the kindergarten,
by the tractor sheds • . On one
of the black tarred walls of a more
obtrusive shelter, a girl with long
brown hair bound at the nape of
her neck, was painting a sort of a
mural.
There was something extraordi-
nary in the way Gonen put em-
phasis on cultural and intellectual
life. Was it to counteract the • awe-
some terror of their geographical
position? Or was it simply the
natural desire of a young Sabra
population, almost all of them
well-educated and city-bred, to
create a richness from within?
Mike himself grew up in Haifa,
an ardent boy-scout in a well-to-do
middle class home. Today, when
he is not secretary of Gonen, he
is an ordinary cowman, caring
for the 170 head of beef cattle on
the 4,000 dunams of grazing land
along the slopes of the mountain.
Ile is also the father of two daugh-
ORT Allegheny Sector
to Gather in Detroit
GROUP OF GONEN CHILDREN
ters, one a baby of six months.
Gonen is a substantial agricul-
tural enterprise, therefore, and it
would be hard to believe that the
area was a forsaken wasteland
only a few years ago. The Keren
Kayemeth opened up the region
by draining the Hulah swamps and
building the border road from
Notera, adding the 31/2 km of ap-
proach road to the kibbutz. Also
750 dunams of land were reclaimed
and 6.7 km of drainage canal
constructed. A woodland of 31,000
trees was planted along the canals
some years ago.
As in every kibbutz, no matter
how deeply attached to boy-scout
ideals or to culture, the main
spring of life at Gonen is work.
The farm has ample fields in the
drained bed of the Hulah and on
the reclaimed lands along the foot-
hills. There are 230 dunams of
orchard — apple and pear trees;
1,200 dunams of cotton, 1,000 dun-
ams of alfalfa, 300 dunams of
potatoes and another 500 dunams
of grain. In addition the kibbutz
breeds fish in over 550 dunams
of artificial ponds, exploiting the
abundance of water here.
At present the Keren Kayemuth
is continuing to clear land adja-
cent to the 67 dunams provided
for the kibbutz structures and is
endeavoring to give the settlement
some "breathing space" in order
to expand. Expansion, however,
can only be along the mountain,
and not out into the sunlight. It
is dangerous to be in the open at
Gonen.
Dr. Moses Shulvass mill Address
Sholem Aleichem I nstitute Gathering
Dr. Moses Shulvass, professor of
history and chairman of the depart-
ment of graduate studies at the
College of Jewish Studies in Chi-
cago, will speak on "The Jewish
People and the Western World"
8:45 p.m. March 24 at Sholem Alei-
chem Institute.
Shulvass' career as educator,
speaker and author in Jewish cul-
tural and social history has won
him listings in "Who's Who in
World Jewry" and "Who's Who in
American Education."
A native of Poland, Shulvass
was ordained a rabbi in 1930 and
received his PhD at the Univer-
sity of Berlin in 1934. His next
12 years were spent in Israel as
lecturer, author and editor.
From 1948 to 1951 he was pro-
fessor of Jewish history at the
Baltimore Hebrew College and has
since been associated with the Col-
lege of Jewish Studies in Chicago.
He is the author of many important
books, among which are: "Chapters
from the Life of Samuel David
Luzatto." "Jewish Life in Renais-
sance Italy," "In the Grip of Cen-
turies," "Between the Rhine and
the Bosporus" and a bibliographi-
cal guide to Jewish knowledge.
The oneg, Shabat is open to the
public. Community singing, read-
ings and refreshments will follow
the talk.
DR. MOSES SHULVASS
Two days of meetings devoted
to ORT's achievements and future
plans will concern the women of
the Allegheny Sector of Women's
American ORT Sunday and Mon-
day at Northland Inn.
Delegates to the spring meeting
of ORT (Organization for Rehabili-
tation Through Training) will rep-
resent the state and 14 cities out-
side Michigan.
The national president, M r s.
Max M. Rosenberg, will be present
along With other national officers.
Helpful tip from Bill McIntosh:
"Bright eyes indicate curiousity.•
Black eyes indicate too much
curiosity
League Will Install
Officers, Announce
Exhibit Winners
Michigan members of the na-
tional board who will attend
include Mesdames William Wets-
man, Max Beal, N. H. Schlafer,
Lawrence Levi, Irvin Kurtz,
Harry Becker, Daniel Siegel,
Henry Pariser and Bernard Col-
ton.
The League of Jewish Women's
Organizations will hold its 40th
annual installation of officers
luncheon April 20 at Beth Abra-
ham Synagogue. Chairmen are
Mesdames Ben J. Feldstein, How-
ard S. Appelman and Irving Pal-
man.
Winners of the - exhibit awards
of the February meeting will re-
ceive their certificates. The fol-
lowing organizations were winners:
Originality — first prize, Sister-
hood of Adas Shalom Synagogue;
second prize, Infant's Service
Group.
Content—first prize, Woman's
Auxiliary Maimonides Medical
Society; second prize, Detroit
Council of Pioneer Women.
Artistic Quality—first prize, Sis
terhood of Temple Beth El; second
prize, Primrose Benevolent Club.
Popular Vote—first prize, Sis-
terhood of Temple Beth El; second
prize, Women's Auxiliary Maimo-
nides Medical Society; Sisterhood
of Adas Shalom Synagogue and
Infants Service Group.
Delegates will study ways to
broaden the base of Women's
American ORT to meet the in-
creasing demands for admission
to ORT training schools.
Sessions will be held 10 a.m. to
10 p.m.
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