4 One Jewish Family Remains in Small Town in South Morocco JERUSALEM — Tiznit, a small town in the Berber country of South Morocco at the edge of the Sahara Desert, is one of many small communities in which there has been a Jewish presence for hundreds of years. There are stones in the village, en- graved in Hebrew, dating from the 15th Century. As late as 1965, there were still 100 Jewish families in Tiznit. The old mellah (quar- ter) constituted at least a quarter of the town and there were three synagogues and a Jewish school to ser- vice the population. Some three-quarters of a mile out- side the ancient walls is the Jewish cemetery. Now, in common with scores of other similar corn- munities in the area, the Jewish presence in Tiznit is coming to an end. The only Jews remaining in Tiznit are the Soussan family. The oldest son, Al- bert, 29, came to ORT in Casablanca, saying' that his young brother, Haim, 14, was interested in learning a trade. A sister, Rachel, 17, is finishing sewing training at ORT's Val d'Anfa school. The father of the family,, David, 66, the mother, Sarah, 43, Albert and two younger children, Meyer, 10, and Simy, 8, still live in Tiznit. The younger children have never been to school and can neither read nor write. They speak only the Berber dialect of the region. Does the family plan to leave the village? No, say Albert and his father. They have good relations with their neighbors and want to remain. And the children? - "Well, perhaps we can send them to Inezgane 'about 50 miles from here where there are still a few Jewish families and a rabbi who can teach them a little Hebrew. When they get a little older we maybe will be able to turn them over to ORT as we did with our oldest, Simon, who graduated from the ORT school in Ain Sebaa, and Rachel and Haim. For the moment we have one major problem — that's the syna- gogue," said Soussan. He was worried because the synagogue was sold, and the future of the six sefarim and the 30 or so books of the Zohar which made up the synagogue library was un- known. Once, when a fire broke out in the synagogue, the younger Soussan asked ORT to come to Tiznit and take possession of the sefa- rim and the other books. In making the trip to re- cover the Books of the Law, ORT officials met a former officer of the French army who has been living in Tiznit since 1930 and has never left the village. Married to a local Berber woman, this man fell in love with the region and with its history. He set about writing down everything he could find about the Jewish com- munities of South Morocco and over the years produced a series of monographs on celebrations, community events, costumes and cus- toms of the region. Along with the writings are a small museum of religious and day-to-day objects, stone lamps and fragments of en- graved stones. This work re- mains in Tiznit. Meanwhile, the old scrolls are now safe in ORT's Ain Sebaa school. The books of Zohar have been entrusted to a yeshiva in Casablanca. A FEATURE SUPPLEMENT sponsored by _ FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF HEBREW CULTURE You don't have to be a Catholic to be exorcised, de- spite the impression left by the popular film, 'Encyclo- pedia Judaica states. "Ex- orcism" means the expulsion of evil spirits by spells. The melancholia of King Saul was from an evil spirit which David's harp-playing drove away. •hi the "Testament of Solomon," a pseudoepigraph- ic work of uncertain date, the narrator states that dur- ing the construction of the Temple, King Solomon's overseer was plagued by a demon; the angel Michael gave Solomon a ring with which he exorcised the de- mon. The belief in evil spirits entering into living persons, causing mental illness, talk- ing through the !possessed's mouth and representing a separate and alien personal- ity, has existed up to the present time. While originally evil spir- its were considered devils or demons which entered the body of a sick person, at a later period they are thought to be the spirits of dead persons who have become demons. Since the 17th Cen- tury the term "dybuk" for these spirits was introduced into literature from the spoken language of German and polish Jews. 40—Friday, My 5, 1974 According to the EJ, the historian Flavius Josephus mentions a certain plant called Ba'aras winch was used "by the exorcists to drive out the demons from sick persons possessed by spirits of 'wicked persons that enter living men." As a cure, Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai recommends : "Take roots of herbs, burn them under him and surround him with water, whereupon the spirit will flee." The litera- ture of the disciples of the famous 16th Century kabalist Isaac ben Solomon Luria contains many stories and "protocols" about the exor- cism of dybukim. N urn é r o u s manuscripts present 'detailed instructions on how to exorcise them. The power to exorcise was given to "ba'alei shem" or accomplished hasidim. In one spectacular case, Judah Moses Fetja ,af Baghdad ex- orcised Shabbatai Zevi and his prophet Nathan of Gaza who had appeared as dybu- kim in the bodies of men and women in Baghdad in 1903. The last protocol of this kind was published in Jeru- salem in 1904. INFLATED TIMES The cost of making history has always been terrific, but never quite what it is now. THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 0 0 _ c ", Artists Raise Funds and Morale Danny Kay Was There To Conduct a Concert .rplin - ma3•nin irrunrria ti I ' To Comfort the Wounded 1111 1 .1:31 ,a 1973 12,32131 2 1i5v7i• ilivria it 11 ,)313 ottirm, y”51121 survrot B430 rosiva in v n truni p 1215 , m51 ■■ •• MI IN ■ ■ UPI 1111011 viv25 17 3 tWn n•inirtarmn nlinInn poem inIsm nvoin tol= n11v5 not infs crin5 vp=in 111 ,sn .n ,3, rpvya :Imm" rrym Visiting a wounded soldier in Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Hospital.. A Cultural Chronology Of Israel :1948-1973 1948: First Israel money issued Department of Antiquities created by Govern- , ment 1949: Compulsory Education Law passed by Knesset Weizmann Institute of Science opened 1950: Haifa City Symphony founded Jewish View of Exorcism I TARBUTH FOUNDATION Tribes of Israel, dedicated at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center Oldest Hebrew inscription of "Jerusalem" dat- ing to 700 BCE discovered at wall of burial cave near Lachish in northern Negev S. Y. Agnon becomes freeman "Honorary Citizen of Jerusalem" 1951: School of Adult Education established at He- brew University upon initiative of Martin Buber 1963: First International Musicological Congress in Jerusalem Zalman Shazar's autobiographical "Kokhve Bo- ker" (Stars of the Morning) published 1964: Jewish Music Research Center at Hebrew U 1- versity established 1952: Israel's first Doctors of Medicine graduate at Hebrew University 1953: Hebrew Language Academy established by Gov- ernment Hebrew University dedicates New Campus at Givat Ram in Jerusalem 1954: Cornerstone of Yad Va'shem Memorial to vic- tims of Holocaust opened in Jerusalem 1955: Bar Ilan University opens first term Israel acquires four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 1956: Tel Aviv University founded 24th Zionist Congress opens in Jerusalem 1957: Arid Zone Research Institute opens in Beer- sheba 1958: "Hechal Shlomo" dedicated in Jerusalem First International Bible Contest in Jerusalem Joseph Klausner, famous scholar died 1959: Chief Rabbi Dr. Isaac Herzog died 1960: Yigael Yadin announces "Letters of Bar Koch- ba" discovered in Judean desert cave International Conference on Role of Science in the Advancement of New States opens at Weiz- mann Institute 1961: Remains of Bar Kochba fighters and 70 papyrus documents found in caves on Dead Sea shore First Israel Music Festival in Jerusalem Haifa Municipal Theatre opens 1962: Chagall Windows, representing the Twelve Israel National Museum opened in Jerusalem "Midrashan" in Sde Boker, educational institu- tion in the Negev established upon initiative of Ben-Gurion Martin Buber died in Jerusalem 1966: S. Y. Agnon receives Nobel Prize for Literature 1967: Hebrew University returns to its home on Mt. Scopus Yitzhak Don Berkovitz, prominent Hebrew writer and translator of Scholem Aleichem's works into Hebrew died "Khan," first permanent theatre in Jerui,' since King Herod opens Israel's TV begins to operate 1968: Groundbreaking for Harry S. Truman Center for Advancement of Peace Centre of Israel's Music established by Public Council for Culture and Art 1969: "Illegal Immigration" Museum opens in Haifa Yehuda Burla, Hebrew novelist, died 1970: Died: S. Y. Agnon Nathan Alterman, Hebrew playwright and poet Avigdor Hameiri, Hebrew poet and novel- ist 1971: Large parapet stone discovered on Temple Mount New Tel Aviv Museum inaugurated George Wise Astronomical Observatory near Mizpeh Ramon in Negev established 1972: Universities of Haifa and Beersheba receive rec- ognition as independent institutions