Hebrew Without Tears — Ulpan Akiba an Israeli Melting Pot

(Editor's Note: The Shulamith tugese, French, Yiddish, Japanese,
referred to in the article is Shula- Polish, Russian, German and even
mith Katznelson, ulpan director,' —Hebrew.
After the first week or two the
who attended the University of
Michigan and Wayne State Univer- .mixture starts bubbling, islands
disintegrate,
Hebrew emerges
sty. Another Ulpan Akiva staff
member is Asher Tarmon, former triumphant.
The motives for coming to
head of the Hebrew department at
learn Hebrew at Ulpan Akiba
Detroit's Jewish Center).
• • •
are as varied as the pupils. Not
all, by any means, are new im-
By SONJA OSTER
migrants. Some are, some plan
"It's sad to admit, but Israel is
full of little ghettos. We must to be some day, maybe. Some
are just tourists, somi are stu-
break them up!" The women who
dents, some profess rs. Some
has been running Ulpan Akiba in
have lived in Israel for 30 years
Natanya according to her own
and want to learn spelling. Some
principles for the last 18 years is
can read the Talmud but can't
a rare character: a dreamer-real-
talk to the cleaning woman.
ist. She knows what she wants and
how to get it, without sacrificing Some want to find a husband,
some want to start a new life.
her dream: to run a truly Inter-
national Hebrew Study Center, tE Some want to prepare for a new
blend in her pressure-cooker a career, and some come at the
end of theirs, after being pen-
rich Jewish-Israeli "cholent," with
the ingredients even more motley. sioned off.
They meet in class and in the
queerly assorted and varied than
is usual for the Jewish Agency- intervals, during meals, on the
sponsored ulpanim for new immi beach, and in small groups bent
over their homework in the eve-
grants.
Before the heat of the study nings. They share rooms. They are
course is turned on, pupils aged caught up in the swift current of
18-88 turn the peacefully remote communal studies and living, and
outskirts of Natanya into a modern almost visibly barriers fall, pre-
Babel, misunderstanding each judices dissolve, friendships are
other in more than a dozen lan- struck up.
Of the approximately 12,700
guages with accents ranging from
30 to 40 countries. For a short pupils who have passed through
while, at the beginning of each Ulpan Akiba, more than 7,000 have
new study course, English rules eventually settled in Israel.
Shulamith, the woman who put
the waves, flowing around hapless
islands of Spanish, Swedish, Por- the stamp of her personality on

this not so small little world, is
proud of two unique achievements:
of admitting Arab students to the
Hebrew Ulpan, and initiating
courses in Arabic for Israeli stu-
dents; and of introducing a special
advanced Hebrew course for vet-
eran Israelis whose presence, she
thinks, adds special Israeli flavor ;
to her stew.
"Absorption," she says, "means
meeting local people, liking them,
liking their homes. We must break
down the walls of prejudice, divid-
ing clique from clique, if we want
to be a nation!
Her own house is open to stu-
dents and visitors from all over
the world. Singularly devoid of
luxuries, it is filled with mate-
rial evidence of a life and a
spirit devoted to meeting, under-
the
standing and absorbing
manifold streams of culture,
naionalities and epochs which go
to make up what is manifestly a
specifically Israeli home: anti-
que Arabic copper vessels, in-
laid chairs, handwoven rugs,
naghilas, Yemenite silverware,
bamboo curtains, a nostalgic
Bible landscape, some abstracts,
old Jerusalem etchings, latest
Maskit handicraft, tinkling shep-
herd-bells, African wood-carv-
ings, Druse basketwork, old Ger-
man Meerschaum pipes, lots of
books—and dolls. Dozens and
dozens of dolls in national cos-
tumes from all over the globe.
Shulamith smiles when we ask

Jewish Defense League Petitions Justice Dept. to Oust Arab Students

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Jew-
ish group which has proclaimed it-
self the defender of Jewish lives
and property in urban ghetto areas
has petitioned the Department of
Justice to oust Arab cultural ex-
change students for allegedly vio-
lating laws pertaining to resident
aliens.
A five-member delegation repre-
senting the Jewish Defense League
of New York presented the petition
to J. Walter Yeagley of the inter-
nal security division of the attor-
ney general's office. They said the
petition contained 18,000 signatures
which they claimed to have gath-
ered during the preceding 10 days.
The delegation was headed by
Meir Kahane, an Orthodox rabbi
who identifies himself as JDL na-
tional director. Presented with the
petition was "documentary evi-
dence" purporting to expose close
ties between Arab students, Trot-
skyites, Cuban revolutionaries,
pro-Peking and Black militant
groups who allegedly want to over-
throw the U.S. government.
According to the petitioners, the
Arab students "have violated the
statutes that regulate their condi-
tions of entry, and we respectfully
call upon the Department of Jus-
tice to begin the legal moves nec-
essary for deportation of these
dangerous students from these
shores."
Announcement of plans for
creation of a Cleveland area
chapter of the Jewish Defense
League was denounced by the
community relations committee
of the Cleveland Jewish Com-
munity Federation as a "mis-
guided" and unneeded "intrusion
into the community by outside
forces."
The editorial said the "respec-
table Jewish organizations" assail-
ed by the JDL "have unanimously
rejected and repudiated the League
and its hyperthyroid raison d'etre -
not because they love the Jewish
people less, but because they know
human relations more. •
"In Cleveland. the community
relations experience has been an
intimate, intensive and highly ef-
fective story going hack at least
a quarter of a century." In dealing
with the Negro community, the
editorial said, "we need no coach
ing from musclemen; the Jewish
person who sits down with a Negro
youth to teach him of his skills,
to impart knowledge, does not need

10. .Friday, October .17, 1969

-

to be fortified by expertise in ka-
rate."
The JDL plans to set up a chap-
ter in Montreal, according to Ka-
hane. Speaking at Waterloo, Ont..
he said that he--pliips to discuss
formation of the chapter with
some 25 interested potential mem-
bers after he speaks at McGill
University in a few weeks.

The league, which has inaug-
urated a campaign to defeat
incumbent Mayor John V. Lind-
say in this year's mayoralty
campaign, drew a terse criti-
cism from Lindsay campaign
headquarters.

In the wake of a press confer-
ence in which the JDL told why
it opposed the mayor and how it
sought to get him defeated, and
an anti-Lindsay advertisement it
placed in the New York Times,
Lindsay headquarters said that
"the JDL has been denounced by
nearly every responsibile organi-
zation. They are unworthy of an
answer."
A representative cross-section of
the New' York City Jewish com-
munity, led by Arthur J. Gold-
berg, resoundingly denounced the
Jewish Defense League. The cen-
sures were voiced by religious and
secular Jews at a press conference
called by an ad hoc group of
leaders opposed to the self-defense
group.
Stanley Lowell, a vice chairman
of the National Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council, pre-
sented a position of his organiza-
tion which rejected the "paramili-
tary operations" of the JDL as
"destructive of public order and

Argentine Jews Protest
Arab Propaganda Tour

BUENOS AIRES (JTA)—Argen-
tine Jews have protested to the
government over an anti-Israel
propaganda tour by the Syrian
ambassador, Cot Jawdat Atassi.
w h o visited several provincial
cities which have large populations
of Arab origin.
The DAIA, central representa-
tive body of Argentine Jewry.
lodged a protest with Alvarez de
Toledo, undersecretary of the for-
eign ministry. They charged that
Col. Atassi exceeded his diplomatic!
prerogatives and was attempting
to divide communities in which
Jews and Arabs lived in harmony.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

contributory to divisiveness and
terror."
The NJCRAC, composed of nine
national and 82 local Jewish com-
munity relations agencies, asserted
that "Jewish security,--,..indeed, the
security of any ethnic or racial
group—does not lie in taking the
law into one's own hands. That
kind of simplistic approach to the'
complicated problems of our time
can only produce warring groups,
not solutions."

how the collection got started.
"The first home I was invited to,
when studying in the States," she
tells us, "was that of a Presby-
terian family. My host was charm-
ing, but when I entered the house
I was suddenly overcome by that
intense Jewish consciousness
which all of us, I think, have felt
at times. I braced myself for a
showdown. I would not quietly re-
ject pork, I decided. I would assert
my Jewishness and my right to
observe my traditions, even as
their guest. When we were seated
round the table my host introduced
me to his children, pointing out
that this was the first time they
had a Jewish guest from Israel.
Then he turned to me.
"Will you do us the honor of
saying grace in your way, the Jew
ish way, and in your language, in
Hebrew, before we eat?"
When I left the States, my host
who had meanwhile become a
close friend, had a small request.
An Israeli doll, to add to his inter-
national collection of which each
piece was a tribute from a visitor
he had entertained.
She smiled ruefully: "I'm afraid
I still owe it to him. But I owe

To

him far more than that. He taught
me to be truly tolerant, bread-
minded and humble, too. These,"
and she points at her dolls, mare
•
the evidence of my attempt, at
least, to emulate him!"
Ulpan Akiba is evidence that the
spirit of the lesson is being passed
on to thousands of newcomers
from almost every country under
the sun, from all walks of life, of
all creeds, races and religions.

MILT LEVIN

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