Flight from the Depressing Mahale of Teheran By ABRAHAM PENN (Copyright 1968, JTA Inc.) The Mahale, or Jewish Quarter of Teheran, used to be one contin- uous pesthole. Then a road was cut through its heart and now it is divided in two. Like all the main avenues of Teheran, this one, too, is a swirling chaos of every kind of transport from mandrawn carts' to huge, big city buses. The sidewalks on both sides re-; sound to the cries of street hawk•1 ers and peddlers. Road and market are separated by narrow culverts which carry the runoff from the snow capped Tabriz peaks to the north, mud brown rivulets floating refuse southward. Such is the approach to the labyrinth of twisting streets and alleyways which is home to some 1,200 Iranian Jewish families. When ORT and JDC first came to Iran 15 years ago, there were perhaps 13,000 to 15,000 Jews in the mahale. Today, the number is closer to 8,000 and the major- ity of these are newcomers. No one who can possibly get out chooses to stay voluntarily. Some have gone to Israel. Quite a few have managed to move to other parts of the city, which, if not exactly the acme of comfort, are at least a few notches above the unrelieved filth and claustrophobic overcrowding of the mahale. Their places have been taken by Jews from the Mahales OR provincial towns. To pass through the entrance is to leave behind in one step all that connects with the present age. Slop grits underfoot. Hunks of fly- covered meat exude the smell of rot. The floor slants downward, and the homes. when one reaches them. I are indeed below street level. Fam- , ilies are packed into dark cubi- cles, walled with grimy plaster and built. oriental style, around a central court which serves as liv- ing room. playground for the chil- dren and public meeting place. It is difficult to imagine that conditions could be worse, and yet changes for the better have been introduced. Some three years ago, water was piped into the area. Many families have been too poor to afford the con- nection to the main, but others have managed and have clean running water. There is even electricity in many homes. The greatest improvements have been in health and education. 15 years ago, the infant mortality rate was 50 to 60 per cent. Today, every mahale child is born in the immaculate, modern hospital op- erated jointly by the community and the JDC. Result: survival is assured to 997 of every thousand, as good as anywhere in the West. There are day care centers for children from age three, and sev- eral community primary schools. There is little indication, how- ever, that life in the mahale can be made habitable by and reason- able standards. Teheran is evolv- ing with the emergence of industry and introduction of technology. Among those who stay on and study are those who qualify for the ORT school. Once admitted to ORT, they are on the way. All ORT graduates find good em- ployment in the modern sector. They never return to the ghetto. ORT is regarded as one of the leading technical schools in the country. Its students are in great demand by industry and govern- ment. But its capacity is limited to 750 of whom a great many are drawn from distant places. To qualify, the applicant must pass minimal examinations, which often excludes those in the mahale who are at the bottom of the ladder. To admit them, regardless of examinations, would not do, because they lack the requisites for higher study. Now, a plan has been formulated to reach these children of the lowest depths. The community council of the mahale itself has joined with ORT to establish within the ORT vocational center a pre- apprentice school for those who are otherwise unqualified, the illit- erate and semi-literate. Land for the buildings has been granted by the Teheran Jewish community. Candidates will be chosen by the mahale council from among its own. from DETROIT CHAPTER E IC N TECHL ION SOCIETY We Thank All Our Friends, Members, Supporters and Well Wishers ROBERT BRODY, President 24525 Southfield Rd., Room 204 Southfield, Mich. 358-3070 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Bonds Spur Book Publishing Dr. Belkin Marks 25th Anniversary as Yeshiva U. Head Celebrating his 25th year as president of Yeshiva University, Dr. Samuel Belkin has the distinc- tion of having built a nationally recognized institution of higher learning that is now not only the oldest but the largest American university under Jewish auspices. Born in Swislicz, Poland, Dec. 12, 1911, Dr. Belkin had a tragic life as a child and as a young The translation and publication of important foreign books on law, science, education and many other subjects have become a major activity in Israel with the aid of Israel Bond dollars. The Israel Program for Scientific Translation utilizes the wide variety of language skills which immigrants have brought into the country. A large proportion of the books published by the Program are exported, constituting an important example of the way in which the special skills of Israelis are helping build the country's foreign trade. Above, a technician studies a tape which is used to print photographically. WHITE STAR DAIRY Manufacturers of Kosher Dairy Products extend greetings to our customers , PASSOVER BEST WISHES I The program itself is a bold piece of social engineering. After six months, the students will be placed on jobs with the dual aim of learning by doing and earning a wage. They will remain at the school for two years in all, the last 18 months of which will be a work- study combination. Participants in the project es- timate that this approach could be the lever that will finally propel those youngsters in the mahale who have until now been consid- ered beyond the reach of other efforts. The community is banking on it as the most constructive hope yet devised for a lasting solution for those at the bottom. 20—Friday, April 12, 1968 for Passover 593 Kenilworth TO 8-8655 DR. SAMUEL BELKIN adult. As a child of 6 he watched his father, a noted scholar, being dragged away by police on a trumped-up anti-Semitic charge, never to return. All, of Dr. Belkin's 11 brothers and sisters perished in World War II. In modern terminology, he was an "early bloomer," attaining or- dination as a rabbi at Radin when he was only 17 years old. Soon afterward, in 1928, he came to America, an immigrant who spoke Polish, Yiddish and ,Hebrew, but no English. With distant relatives scraping together the money for tuition, he was able to continue studying at Harvard and Brown universities. In 1935 he won a PhD from Brown. That year, too, he joined the staff of the school that was to become under his direction Ye- shiva University. His first assign- ment was as an instructor in Greek. He became a full professor in 1940, and in 1943, when he was not yet 32 years old, he was elected president. Students today enter an institu tion vastly different from the one Dr. Belkin took over in 1943. Then it enrolled only 850 young scholars and had a 94-member faculty. To day it has over 7,500 students and a faculty of some 2,200, including many educators prominent in the physical, social and life sciences as well as in the field of Jewish religion, culture and history. Dr. Belkin has been accorded many honors and tributes. In 1959 he received an honorary degree from Brown University. In 1963 Mayor Robert F. Wagner awarded him the Bronze Medal of the City of New York for his service to higher education. In 1964 Dropsie College of Philadelphia conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor of humane letters. In 1965 the board of overseers of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University presented him with a gold medal honoring him on its 10th anniversary as founder and leader in its growth and de- velopment. • The Exodus from Egypt, portrayed here pictorially according to tradi- tion, is a sacred reminder of the historic era of the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian bondage. It is on unending admonition of the need to strive for freedom of oll peoples and all faiths, and for the retention of the Jewish spiritual values. Passover admonishes us to hold fast to the values of the Passover lessons gleaned from our history. May This Passover Prove a Blessing For the Entire World BILTMORE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY Builders and Developers of Somerset Park Apartments and Fashion Center 2900 W. Maple, Troy, Mich.