54 Friday, August 1, 1975
Ray Raphael, 58
Ray Raphael, chairman of
the board since 1959 of En-
gineered Heat Treat, Inc., in
Madison Heights, died July
28 at age 58.
A native Detroiter, Mr.
Raphael was a World War II
U.S. Navy Lt. Commander-
Ordnance, a graduate of
Michigan Technological
University with a degree in
metallurgical engineering
and a member of Sholem
Aleichem Institute, Work-
men's Circle, Jewish Com-
munity Center, Oakland
Century Lodge of Bnai
Brith, Technion — Israel In-
stitute of Technology,
Knollwood Country Club
and Michigan Tech at
Houghton Alumni Associa-
tion. He resided at 28812
Rockledge Dr., Farmington
Hills.
He leaves his wife, Ettie;
three daughters, Mrs.
James (Susan) Rosenfeld,
Mrs. Michael (Sharon) Sil-
verton of Skokie, Ill., and
Mrs. Frederic (Marsha)
Newman of Ann Arbor; his
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Louis
(Esther) Raphael; two sis-
ters, Dr. Edna Raphael of
Boalsburg, Pa., and Mrs.
Leo (Alva) Dworkin; and
three grandchildren.
Arye Wallenstein,
Reuters Unit Chief
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Ayre
Wallenstein, chief of the
Reuters bureau in Israel for
25 years, died July 25 in Ge-
neva at age 55.
Mr. Wallenstein, known
to his friends as "Wally,"
was a fifth generation Jeru-
salemite. He graduated
from the Hebrew Gymna-
sium and went to Beirut to
study medicine. But he was
attracted to journalism and
joined Reuters there in
1944.
From 1945 to 1948 he cov-
ered the events leading to
the establishment of the
state of Israel. Mr. Wallen-
stein covered Israel's four
wars with the Arab states
and was the only foreign
correspondent to witness
the execution of Adolf Eich-
mann.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter Gets modern Restoration
its own plans with the aim
of giving back to Jerusa-
lem and the whole Jewish
nation a new Jewish
quarter in place of the old,
fuller of life and more at-
tractive than the old one
had been. In the wake of
Rav Bineh's courageous
action, plans for a magnif-
icent new building for the
Yeshivat Hakotel were
drawn up.
he drawn up. Some 150 fam-
ilies already live there now
and the reminder will come
within the next five years.
Four synagogues,
hundreds of years old —
Eliyahu Ha'navi's and
Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakai's
amongst them, were mag-
nificently restored. A super-
market has been opened, an
art exhibition and gallery is
being- operated, Bar-Ilan
Yeshivat Porat Yosef, the University is conducting
most famous Torah study cultural activities and re-
institution of the Sephardi search work from a branch
community the world-over, in the Old City, and the
completely destroyed by the Hebrew Writers Associa-
Jordanians, was to be re- tion carries out a rich pro-
built to answer the needs gram of cultural activities
for spiritual leaders of the for youth and adults from
community in Israel and the Jerusalem and the rest of
Diaspora.
the country.
Hundreds of applications
Yet, what must be con-
for housing in the Old City sidered the most challeng-
were coming in and the ing and the most delicate
master plan for some 600 object for planning has not
newly built or completely yet found an agreed solu-
renovated residences could tion — the Western Wall
An act of charity's of
greater worth than all the
sacrifical rites on earth.
, —The Talmud
via
The Wall now stands as
the conclusion of a wide
open space. We know that
some 14 tiers of huge Hero-
dian stones are still buried
underground. What is
done with all this — ret,
ing the Wall to its forrher
majestic height by a com-
plete return to Herodian
days, certainly a revolution-
ary solution, or to find some
other way to give the Wall
its proper setting as the ho-
liest monument of the Jew-
ish people, reminding us all
of the great past, and beck-
oning to what we believe
will be an even greater fu-
ture.
NM Witt
These homes in the Old City of Jerusalem were re-
built in the massive government rebuilding program in-
stituted immediately after the Six-Day War. Rather
than mourn the loss of century-old synagogues and
homes, the Jerusalem municipality and the Israeli gov-
ernment set about restoring the Jewish quarter making
it fuller of life than before and more attractive to pros-
pective residents.
* * *
By JOSEPH
GOLDSCHMIDT
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem
When Israeli soldiers
rushed to the Kotel Hama'-
aravi (Western Wall) on
June 7, 1967, they found the
old stones lying in the tiers
as of old. The emotions of
these youngsters, many of
whom had never seen the
Wall before, were those of
finding an old friend, lost
long ago and missed ever
since.
But when they walked up
the steep hill to the Jewish
quarter of the Old City, a
very different picture
awaited them. Destruction
everywhere, heeps of rub-
bish, where world famous
synagogues, like the Huva,
had stood. No sign of the
hundreds of Torah scrolls
that have served tens of syn-
Mildred Gerstman
agogues, nothing of their
Mildred Gerstman, wife hallowed interior equip-
of the retired advertising ment.
director of The Detroit
Wherever residential
News, died July 28 in West buildings had been usable
Palm Beach, Fla.
after the war, the Arab pop-
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., ulation of the Old City had
Mrs. Gerstman lived in De- taken possession. Yet a few
troit for several years and landmarks had withstood
was a resident of Florida at the savage onslaught of the
the time of her death. She Jordanian army. Notable
was a life member of the among them, part of the Ba-
Brandeis University Na- tei Mahse, an example of a
tional Women's Committee, 19th Century housing pro-
Temple Beth El in Birming- ject built around a central
ham and Temple Israel in square known then as the
Palm Beach.
Deutsche Platz — because
She leaves her husband, the whole project had been
Max. J., a daughter, Mrs. sponsored by the German-
George C. Galanty of South- Dutch organization for the
field; a sister, Mrs. Joseph poor of Eretz Yisrael.
Blumenthal; and two grand-
The scene that unfolded
sons.
Worth of Charity
and its environs. The sce-
nery has changed radi-
cally since the Wall area
was freed from all the ugly
and historically worthless
buildings that crowded in
on the Wall and made it
accessible only by a nar-
row lane of a few yards.
itself could have inspired
another Tisha b'Av—a day
of weeping and mourning
for what had been lost.
But the Israel of 1967
reacted differently. Within
24 hours, literally, the
head of the Netiv Meir
Yeshiva' (Bnei Akiva) in
Jerusalem, Ray Arieh Bi-
neh, had recruited a group
of his senior students, a
number of camp beds and
the most necessary books
and established in the
ruins of Batei Mahse, a
new Bnei Akiva Yeshiva
— Yeshivat Hakotel.
This was the spontaneous
answer of this generation of
the builders of the new Is-
rael to the challenge of de-
struction: no weeping, no
mourning, but to build for a
new, better, stronger, more
beautiful life on the old holy
ground.
The government soon took
matters in hand by invest-
ing the authority for re-
building the Jewish Quarter
in a prestigious ministerial
committee headed by the
prime minister. This com-
mittee was to ensure proper
planning and procedure
and, no less, to protect the
interests of the Arab invad-
ers, or let us call them Arab
squatters, of Jewish houses.
The whole of the Jewish
quarter was expropriated
and a government company
was founded to deal with
the planning of the rebuild-
ing of the quarter, the reset-
tling of Arab residents who
had no title to live there and
with the claims for compen-
sation to owners of prop-
erty.
At first the going was
hard and there were few
families who could afford
the large investment needed
for making a new home for
themselves in the Old City,
strong and compelling as
was the lure and the charm
of a life in sight of the Tem-
ple Mount, being a daily
witness to the pilgrimage of
thousands and tens of thou-
sands to the Wailing Wall.
The company for the re-
building of the Jewish
quarter set about -Taking
,
a subscription to
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