Old City Hides Italian Synagogue
(From the Jewish Digest)
One of the many contradic-
tions that strikes the visitor
in Jerusalem is that the Holy
City is completely lacking old
synagogues.
- It was only after 1857 that
buildings were erected out-
side the wall enclosing the
Old City, which accounts for
_the fact that in modern Jeru-
salem there is no synagogue
or prayer house more than
one century old.
Even the 27 houses of wor-
ship that previously existed
in the Old City, which were
sy atically destroyed by
Tne —cab Legion during 1948,
,)f relatively recent con-
1,v ,
on and almost none
st
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dated farther back than the
19th Century.
And yet, one such syna-
gogue exists, although it was
not built in Jerusalem, but
was "moved" there in 1952.
This is the Bene-Roma syna-
gogue, belonging to the Ital-
ian __Jewish __community „of
Jerusalem.
Occupying a space of 30
by 18 feet on the second floor
of an old school building near
the center of the city, is a
small synagogue, just as it
was originally built in 1701
in Conegliano Veneto, a small
village near Venice.
It is not only the oldest
synagogue, but also one of
Israel Discloses
Population Ratio
JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
A recent survey discloses
that the gap is narrowing in
the disproportionate ratio of
men to women in Israel.
In 1948 there were 1,069
men for every 1,000 women.
By 1955 1,031 males for every
.1,000 females; and by 1965
the ratio had declined to 1,019
for every 1,000 women. In
1974, there were 1,003 men
for every 1,000 women.
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BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.)
Yankee Doodle Year
The new year 1975 brings they appealed at the Con-
us within a year of the Bi- gress to the King to treat
centennial of American inde- them as such. The Congress
proposed to fight for this and
pendence.
1775 was no 1776 but it was they named Washington com-
a very important year. You mander of the army and also
might call it the Yankee named four major generals.
Doodle Year. The first fight- One of them must have been
ing occurred at Lexington a Zionist. At least, the name
and Concord in that year, General Israel Putnam sup-
and the British marching . ports the conjecture, and Put-
away played Yankee Doodle. nam sounds like one of those
That was the time when Israeli generals—all of them
Paul Revere, who was a farmers. Putnam was in the
dentist — he was working at middle of ploughing some
the time putting a bridge in corn when the call came. He
a man's mouth — heard the put his plow down and said,
tramp of their soldiers, and "Ma, I'll be back later to
looking out the window saw finish it." He kept his word.
them. Then he jumped on his At the end of the war, he
horse and cried out, "The came back and recognized
his old plow at once, al-
Arabs are coming."
The song made fun of though, of course, everyone
after seven years looks a lit-
Americans:
tle different.
"Yankee Doodle came to
town
No member of the Conti-
Riding on a pony.
nental Congress was a Jew.
With a feather in his cap
But Francis Salvador was a
And called it macaroni."
member of the Provincial
Macaroni meant swell, ele- Congress of South Carolina.
gant, and Americans were He was the first in that state
represented as simple people to die in the war.
who really didn't know what
There were only some 3,000
"class" mean s. But the Jews in the country at the
Americans liked it and it time. They were scattered all
must have sold a million about from Georgia to Rhode
records. Maybe the Ameri- Island. In Georgia, the first
cans liked it because they Jewish settlers coming in al
figured that riding on a pony, most with Oglethorpe had
at least, was cheaper than introduced the silk industry
buying gasoline.
from Spain and Portugal.
The picture of the simple Newport, Rhode Island had
American pleased the more the most thriving Jewish
democratic bosom of Amer- center of all.
ica.
The Jews there were chief-
It was America's first na-
tional anthem. You don't rise ly in the oil business. They
and stand up and salute when dealt in whale oil, which was
you hear Yankee Doodle like the chief illuminant of those
you do when the Star Span- days. One good thing about
gled Banner is played. But getting oil from whales is
it does make your feet move that they don't raise prices.
and turns on a smile. There There is no monopoly among
is the difference between it them. So there was no oil
and the Star Spangled Ban- crisis, but there was - an en-
ner as there is between Ha- ergy crisis. The British
sought a monopoly of Amer-
tikvah and Hava Nagila.
The author of Yankee Doo- ican trade and manufactures
dle was a Dr. Shuckleberg,
a surgeon attached to the
British army. It has been
said he was a Jew. The name
Black Clergyman
Shuckleberg is obviously not
English, and Jews were
Backs Soviet Jews
WASHINGTON (JTA) — prominent in medicine even
"Everybody must be con- in those days. Even Queen
cerned" about the Soviet Elizabeth had a Jewish doc-
Jewry situation, the Rev. tor. Jews have to sing to
Jesse Jackson, the prominent forget their tzores. Not so
Chicago black civil rights many years later, an Ameri-
leader recently told repre- can wrote another song
sentatives of the Washington which almost rivals Yankee
Doodle in popularity. The
Jewish community.
The meeting coincided with mother of John Howard
the vigil opposite the Soviet Payne, author of Home
Embassy for Dr. Mikhail Sweet Home, was a Jew
Stern, who has been sen- named Isaacs.
Yankee Doodle showed
tenced to eight years in pri-
son by a Ukrainian court on the emergency of a national
charges of bribe taking and feeling but the United States
swindling. Dr. Stern had was not even thought of in
sought to emigrate to Israel 1775. There was a meeting
of the Continental Congress
when he was accused.
and it was decided to raise
an army, but the Congress
Bernstein to Be
only spoke of defending their
at Edinburgh Event rights as Englishmen and
the
most beautiful, and is
dominated by the holy ark,
which is encased in a mag-
nificent wood sculpture of
leaves, grapes and flowers in
the Baroque style of the late
17th Century.
The Torah s c r o 11 s con-
tained in this ark are also
of great artistic value; one
being decorated with an ex-
quisite pair of Rimonim and
a finely wrought crown, both
the work of a silversmith
from Modena, while the
other is a masterpiece from
Bologna.
A second older "Aron Ko-
desh" (Holy Ark) from. Italy
was installed in the same
synagogue. Built in 1543, and
belonging originally to the
Jewish community of Man-
tua, it shows a pure Renais-
sance style.
It is carefully preserved at
the little Jerusalem syna-
gogue, part of the treasured
relics and religious objects
rescued from Europe after
the Nazi Holocaust, and is
used to hold several addi-
tional Torah scrolls owned
by the synagogue.
According to Italian cus-
tom, it is not unusual for one
synagogue to have several
arks. This particular ark is
a masterpiece of artistic
craftsmanship and beauty,
and thanks to these treas-
ures, the Italian synagogue
is considered a showplace
and a principal tourist at-
traction.
The Italian synagogue is
also unique in its liturgy and
ritual. While the liturgies
("Nusachot") of the Ash-
kenazim and the Sephardim
are usually based on texts
whose final versions were
completed in Babylonia, the
Italian text dates from a pe-
riod prior to the Exile.
The exceptional "nigunim"
(melodies) chanted here pre-
serve the original character
of the liturgical melodies of
Eretz Israel.
and one that hit everyone
was the attempt to keep the
American tea market for the
British East Indian Tea Com-
pany, a giant corporation in
its day, which probably made
many contributions to the
election of King George. It
was so powerful that it even
had its own army.
When you get up in the
morning and can't have your
cup of tea, how can you have
energy?
But the Americans would
not take it sitting down, and
they made the English wish
they had not tried to inter-
fere with their tea drinking.
But that didn't take place
until a year later.
Israel Completes
Town in Sinai
YAMIT (ZINS) — Israel's
newest city of the future,
the seaside town of Yamit
in the Sinai is swiftly becom-
ing a reality.
The first 185 dwelling units
will soon be ready for occu-
pancy by the pioneering set-
tlers, including 15 families
from America. BY spring,
Yamit will have two kinder-
gartens, an elementary school
and a clinic.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, January 24, 1975-43
C 31 Loicul-
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WE ARE HAVING
OUR ANNUAL
JANUARY
FUR
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SALE
NEW YORK — Conductor
and composer, Leonard Bern-
stein, will participate with
performers from 19 countries
in the 1975 Edinburgh, Scot-
land, Festival of m u s i c,
opera, ballet and drama Aug.
24-Sept. 15.
Organizers said they will
include Bernstein conducting
the Orchestra National of
Paris, the New York Phil-
harmonic under Pierre Bou-
lez, the London Symphony
under Andre iPrevin with his
wife, Mia Farrow, as narra-
tor, and Rudolph Nureyev
with the Royal Ballet.
Arabs to Obstruct
Israeli Tourism
TEL AVIV — Mohammed
Mahjoub, the director of the
Arab League's boycott of Is-
rael, called a meeting for
Feb. 23 to study ways of pre-
venting Israeli tourism from
benefitting from a reopened
Suez Canal, according to
news sources.
The project would require
examining the status of all
passenger vessels which may
use the waterway after it
opens again.
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