Josephus Invented Masada Suicides, Scholar Insists THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Historian Flavius Josephus in-1 vented the suicide of 960 Judeans on Masada, Dr. Trude Weiss-Ros- ' 'Darin, of New York University's Institute of Hebrew Studies, told the American Academy of Religion at the annual meeting in Newton, Mass. According to Josephus, one- time commander of the Judean forces in Galilee who, after being defeated by the Romans at Jota- pata had joined them as a "Quis- ling," the last defenders of Masada died by their own hands after the Romans had breached and burned one of the fortress' walls. Interest in Masada has been stimulated by expositions of some of the findings on the site at major museums and by Dr. Yigael Ya- din's, the excavator, publications. As against the accepted version of the end of the Masada defend- ers by suicide, Dr. Weiss-Rosmarin argued that several hundred de- 15,000-Volume Library Donated to Hebrew U. Monument Unveilings Unveiling announcements may be In- . erted by mail or by calling The Jewish News office, 17100 W. 7 Mile Rd., De- roil 48235, VE 8-9364. Written an- nouncements must be accompanied by he name and address of the person making the Insertion. There is a stand- ng charge of $4.00 for an unveiling notice, measuring an inch in depth, and $7.50 for one two Inches deep with a black border. ■ s 4, The family of the late Harry N. Gantz announces the unveiling of a monument in his memory at 12.30 p.m., Nov. 2, at Oakview Cemetery. Rabbi I. Halpern and Cantor Ackerman will- officiate. Relatives and friends are asked to attend. The Family of the Late BELLA KOM INARS Announces the unveiling of a monument in her memory 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, at Turover Farein Cemetery, 14 Mile and Gratiot. Rabbi Frankel and Cantor Wetzler of Lansing will officiate. Re- latives and friends are asked to attend. The Family of the Late MANUEL BARRIS Announces the unveiling of a monument in his memory 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, at Clover Hill Memorial Park. Rabbi Gorrelick will officiate. Relatives and friends are asked to attend. The Family of the Late LEON JAY SIMON Announces the unveiling of a monument in his memory 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, at Clover Hill Memorial Park. Rabbi Woheelernter will offici- ate. Relatives and friends are asked to attend. The Family of the Late LENA MORRITZ Announces the unveiling of a monument in her memory 1 p.m. Nov. 2, at Clover Hill Memorial Park. Rabbi Gruskin will officiate. Relatives and friends are asked to attend. termined guerillas will not kill themselves rather than fight to the end and inflict losses upon the enemy. She pointed out that the situation of the Masada guerillas, although precarious, was far from being hopeless. They had a unique strategic advantage over the Ro- man attackers whose assault ramp did not reach the fortress walls breached in one place only. It was possible to defend Masada for a time. Unlike the Jerusalem de- fenders, enfeebled by famine, the Masada fighters had food and water in abundance. Dr. Weiss-Rosmarin said the Masada finds had been wrongly identified as relics of the Masada defenders. She singled out the 20-odd skeletons, claimed as proof of the reliability of Jo- sephus' account, as the most glaring example of spurious identification. Josephus' story of the end of Masada is presented in the literary device of a double-speech put into the mouth of Eleazar Ben-Ya'ir, commander of the Masada gueril- las. Josephus, however, was in Rome when Masada fell (73 C.E.) and students of Josephus have dis- missed the Eleazar speeches as invented. Dr. Weiss-Rosmarin said that Josephus ascribed suicide to the Masada guerillas so as to in- gratiate himself with his Roman masters. He knew that, as they would see it, when hundreds of fully armed soldiers, entrenched in a position of strategic superi- ority commit suicide rather than fight, it is cowardice. Josephus wanted to convey that the Judeans were heroes only when protected by the inaccessibility of their mountain-top fortress. But when challenged to meet the enemy in hand-to-hand battle, they chick- ened out. Still another motivation of Jo- sephus' Masada fiction was that he had lured 39 Judeans to com- mit suicide, after the Jotapata de- feat, so as to be able to go over to the Romans. Dr. Weiss-Rosmarin suggested that Josephus glorified suicide, inventing it for the Masada defenders, so as to convince him- self that when causing his fellow- Judeans to end their lives he be- Dayan Says El Fatah Leader No Great Shakes TE AVIV (ZINNS) — Yassir M Arafat, so-called commander of the terrorist El Fatah, is hardly a seri- ous political leader and there is some question as to his military leadership, said Moshe Dayan in an interview. Dayan characterizes Al Arafat as a product of special historical circumstances, which he exploits to gain attention. According to Dayan, he is a far cry from such men as Ho Chi Minh, Tito, or even Nasser. Having no ambition to supplant Hussein, with little interest in either the incursion of Soviet influ- ence in the area or the perpetua- tion of feudal systems, Al Arafat does not constitute a weighty poli- tical factor, nor does he pretend to speak for the Palestinian Arabs, said Dayan. Paper Denounces Head of Jewish Defense League stowed upon them the laurels of heroism. Dr. Weiss Rosmarin concluded that in the absence of proof that the Masada guerillas committed suicide, one cannot but infer that, as seasoned and determined gueril- las, they fought to the end and died as soldiers in battle. Friday, Ocotber 31, 1969-35 Mr. Rabinowicz. a banker, au- JERUSALEM (JTA) — A 15,- 000 volume library considered to thor and life - long Zionist, was born be one of the most extensive col- in Austria and held a doctorate lections on Zionism and Jewish from the University of Prague, history will be moved shortly from lie had been a member of the Scarsdale, N.Y. to the Hebrew board and library committee of University library here. The donor the Jewish Theological Seminary was the late Oskar K. Rabinowicz of America, the board of the Jew- Scarsdale, whose father, Yehuda ish Publication Society of America Israeli Ships Arriving of Arye Rabinowicz, started the col- and a member of the council of the American-Israel Cultural, Founda- in Britain Searched for lection. A room at the library that will Y ear s of Zionism," "Winston Bomb Following Tip house the collection was dedicated Churchill on Jewish Problems" and LONDON (JTA) — Israeli ships here Sunday in the presence of "llerzl, Architect of the Balfour arriving at British ports were or- Hebrew University president Av- Declaration." dered searched by police and cus- raham Harman and the donor's Maurice Samuel Gives toms officials as a result of a widow. Research Data to HUC-JIR report to Scotland Yard and the home office that a timebomb was NEW YORK — Maurice Samuel, Handicaped to Operate secreted aboard one of them by whose "Blood Accusation, the an Ethiopean sailor in the employ Newsstand in Project Strange Case of Mendel Beiliss" of an Arab terrorist organization. NEW YORK (JTA)—The Jewish received wide critical acclaim for (In Haifa, Israeli police branded Occupational Council has received, its painstaking and intricate re- the reports a "hoax" after search- a grant to plan a program to train search, has given all of his re- ing vessels bound for Britain. The physically and mentally handi- search material, much of it unique, authorities said there was no Ethio- caped persons to manage vending to the library of the Hebrew Union pian aboard any Israeli ships sail- stands for newspapers and paper- College-Jewish Institute of Reli- ing to or from Britain.) back books and thus become self- gion. Port of London police boarded supporting, the agency announced. Among the data are photostats of the Israeli freighter Kineret of the The grant was allocated by the the original stenographic report in Zim Lines on her arrival here Periodical and Book Association of Russian of the infamous ritual from Ashdod and every other America, the Magazine Publishers murder trial, its translation into major port has been alerted. Association and the Council of English, secret reports of spies, Zim's "Rachel" was searched at Periodical Distributors Associa- testimonies of participants in the sea. The tip came from Israeli in- tions. trial before revolutionary tribunals telligence agents. Officials of the JOC, the coordin- and excerpts from the newspapers They reportedly warned that the ating agency for 25 Jewish voca- of the period. Ethiopian had smuggled aboard tional service organizations, said an explosive device powerful that the plan calls for a three-year enough to destroy the ship and evaluation demonstration in 10 to severely damage the port at which 15 cties sampling all geographical it berth • Photographers areas. The proposal is scheduled to be For Bar Mitzvahs Rabin Rumored in Line ready by early 1970 when it will he UN 4-8785 for Education Ministry presented for funding to private foundations and the federal govern- JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rumors ment. The JOC will develop the have cropped up again in Israel service model and the organiza- newspapers that Israel's ambassa- tional plan to be implemented by dor to the United States, Gen. member agencies in cities selected Yitzhak Rabin, will be named min- by the Publishers Advisory Com- ister of education and culture in mittee. the new cabinet. There was no con- firmation from any official sources. Have An Affair to Remember Asher Ben-Natan, retiring as ambassador to West Germany, was said to be considered as Rabin's successor in the U.S. And Orchestra Gen. Rabin, former chief of staff of Israel's armed forces, was KE 4-5980 not a candidate for election. But 5.* Expectation Israeli law does not require a cab- Shop inc. I' inet minister to be a member of PHOTOGRAPHY Parliament. The incumbent min- 141 West Maple Rd. ister of education, Zalman Aranne, Birmingham announced some time ago that he Midwest 6-1440 would retire from public office. 547-4805 Sufr_A 3.tupu • =4/ 4 6° 1/4: t0 res_ C- 7 .004eist '11 MORI LITTLE CARSON ZELTZER German Peasant Families Get Yad Vashem Medals BONN (JTA)—Four West Ger- man peasant families received medals and citations from the Israeli ambassador recnt fyel Israeli ambassador recently for having saved the lives of a Jew- ish family hunted by Nazis during World War II. The citations were authorized by the Yad Vashem, the martyrs documentation center in Jerusalem which has also - planted trees in Israel in the names of the Ger- mans. The peasants sheltered the Jewish family between February 1943 and the end of the war in 1945. In a related development, a former guard in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Heinz Zim- merman, was sentenced to one year in prison by a Cologne court for complicity in the shooting of Russian prisoners of war and Jews during World War II. NEW YORK (JTA)—Rabbi Meir Kahane, national chairman of the self-styled Jewish Defense League, has been denounced by the weekly Jewish newspaper he formerly edited. Rabbi Sholom Klass, pub- NY Youth Demonstrate lisher of the Jewish Press, an Or- at Soviet UN Mission thodox-oriented tabloid published NEW YORK (JTA)—The Soviet in Brooklyn, Tuesday dissociated United Nations mission was taunt- the paper from Rabbi Kahane and ed by Jewish youth groups Mon- other leaders of the JDL. day. The youngsters danced to He accused Rabbi Kahane of Israeli tunes and sang Hebrew making the JDL a "personal politi. songs outside the building in a cal club" and waging "a cam- demonstration on behalf of Jewish paign of vilification" against youth in Leningrad whose Simhat Mayor John V. Lindsay. Torah celebrations last month were According to Rabbi Klass, Rabbi suppressed by Soviet police. Kahane was asked to resign as Participants were high school editor of the Jewish Press because and college students of Hashahar JDL affairs and Betar, Jewish youth move- he gave more time to ments. than to his duties on the paper. Daily 10.5:30 Thom., Fri. 6! 9 p.m. WEDDINGS — BAR MITZVAS SPECIAL OCCASIONS 00 IPF Bloomfield Nursery School is now taking enrollments for the 1969-70 school year Gary B. Moss M.A., B.S. Shelly Moss B.S. • • Hot Lunches Ages 3 through 5 • Transportation Call 851-4666 4230 Middlebelt Rd. West Bloomfield Township YOUTH CENTER DEPARTMENT STORE FOR CHILDREN TEL-TWELVE MALL 72 MILE AT TELEGRAPH Open Daily 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Open Sunday 2-5 353-1040 Also NORTHLAND SHOPPING CENTER 13 Mile at Woodward Phone 549-1999 OPEN EVERY EVENING UNTIL 9 Visit Our Children's Shoe Department NAME BRANDS—EXPERTLY FITTED