14 Friday, February 25, 1977 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Syrian-Jordan Federation Due JERUSALEM (ZINS) "liberated - part of the — The Arab newspaper West Bank area will be Al Kuds, which appears in annexed to the East Jerusalem, reports Syrian — Jordanian fed- that the federation of eration and that the fu- Syria and Jordan will be tune Palestinian state proclaimed May 1. The will also be part of the report states that _each federation. -•••:••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• -- • 1*. • • • MORRY SCHLUSSEL • • • • • • • SAYS: WE'VE GOT WHAT YOU WANT! • .• • • • • • • • • • • • : • • • 1 863-2388 LIFETIME GUARANTEE ON. MUFFLERS & SHOCKS : As Long As You Own Your Car • • • • • • 10520 W. 7 Mile Rd. at Mendota 7..••.•••.4.5.•.•.•.••••••5•9.•...•••••••• Memories of Sammy Gronemann Israel Army Rabbi Honored NEW YORK — Mor- dehai Piron, chief rabbi of the Israeli Armed Forces, was honored Feb. 13 at a banquet held on behalf of Bnei Akiva of North America, and Camp Moshava of Los Angeles. The 600 people attend- ing, mostly parents of Bnei Akiva members and other friends of the movement, were on hand to help raise funds for the camp which was purch- ased two years ago by Bnei Akiva and is located in Big Bear Lake, Calif. CARS TO BE DRIVEN TO ANY STATE M C 125985 I.C.C. DRIVEAWAY SERVICE 4713 Horger at Michigan Ave. P.O. BOX 1264 Dearborn, Mich. 48126 Tel. 584-5000 WALL E Cx 6MINGS dicavetiors taadance A Division of Standard Detroit Paint Co. Commercial & Residential Cabin Craft Carpets & Area Rugs Wallcoverings In Stock Mon.-Fri. 9 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. 90 /--- EYE GLASSES . AND UP* • -%:: , • 'W . .i '.' ,:,:0604 . , . O''''' . t , 44,- 40 : ..- . ''''"' . "'",,,,,, .„.. ,,, . , . ■ • Doctor's prescriptions filled • PrescriptiOns duplicated from your glasses - ••Thousands of frames you can try on yourselt • Bifocals, tints, plastic lenses, photogray, designer frames • All our quality glasses at super low prices DISCOUNT OPTICAL -1..00 includes clear glass, impact resistant, single vision lenses and a wide selection cat frames. In his "Memoirs of a German Jew'', which ap- peared in Hebrew in 1946, he told the story of his en- rollment at the univer- sity which was to take place on a Shabat. His friend, the Count of Boer- ris of Munechhausen, (la- ter, a prominent non- Jewish pro-Zionist), the scion of ancient Prussian nobility acted as. a "Shabes Goy" ' and signed in the name of Gronemann. Sammy Gronemann was a jurist, Zionist and humorist; these three quite different aspects, elements and functions were harmoniously com- bined in his unique per- sonality. He was born on Purim 1875 at Strassburg (Eastern Prussia) and he died one day before Purim 1952 in Tel Aviv. Thus his life, as it were, stood in the sign of this gayest day In his "Havdala and of the calendar. It may be said that he con- Tattoo" he recalled, as he sciously cultivated the put it, "reminiscences on omen of the date of his Eastern Jews behind the birth. He wrote a charm- _frontline 1916-1918". To- ing play. of five scenes, day, this otherwise enter- "Raman's Flight," on the taining book leaves a bit- ter and tragic aftertaste Purim theme. _ Sammy Gronemann showing as it does that, in was aptly called the World War I, the German "Sholem Aleichem of the armies were welcomed by Yekkehs" depicting a the Jews of Russia and world which has com- Poland as liberators. pletely vanished, that of Furthermore, the Ger- German Jewry before man General Staff in- World War I. vited and employed ad- Gronemann grew up in visors on Jewish affairs. the north German city of Gronemann was one of Hanover where his father them. The recurrent was chief rabbi of that clashes between Prussian city and of the province of militarism and Jewish folkways and religious the same name. He received a: tradi- observance kindled the tional Jewish education spark of Gronemann's and without being humor and the book strictly Orthodox, re- abounds with comic situ- ations and episodes. mained faithful to He had not come to traditional Jewish way of Zionism the hard way, by life. However, Gronemann had a special sense for the humoristic side of relig- ion. He exposed again and again the collision of the world of Jewish faith with the foreign environment and revealed the comic situations and coinci- dences which existed be- side the albeit more fre- quent, serious and tragic ones. 26106 Greenfield in the Lincoln Center, Oak Park phone 968-8855 In Home Design Consultations By SHALOM BEN-CHORIN World Zionist Organization Bloomfield Plaza Northgate Shopping Center Greenfield Rd. N. of 10 Mile Telegraph at Maple Birmingham Oak Park 399-9444 851-6121 Mon Tues Wed Fri 9:30 am -6 pm. Thursday 9:30 am-8:00 pm. Saturday 0 :30 am-5:00 pm. Monday-Saturday 9:30 am-6 pm. Thursday 9 :30 am-9:00 pm. trial and error, after inner struggles and doubts, like many of his contem- poraries from among the "post - assimilationist" Jewish intelligentsia of Germany. In the case of Gronemann, like that of many other young Jews, it was Herzl's appearance that awoke the political consciousness hidden in the depths of his Jewish soul. Gronemann im- mediately joined the Zionist movement, par- ticipated in Zionist con- gresses, and as one of the first Zionist propagan- dists, he travelled all over Germany. He filled with distinction, the, highest legal offices of the move- ment, being elected Chairman of the Con- gress Tribunal and Con- gress Attorney and he put his legal scholarship and experience into the service of the World Zionist Organization. He wasinstrumental in forming the constitutions of the World Zionist Or! ganization and elevated the Congress Tribunal tc the rank of a truly inde- pendent court of law. When the Nazis seized power in 1933, Gronemann left the Ger- man capital for Paris. In 1936 he moved to Eretz Yisrael, settling in Tel Aviv: It was only here that Gronemann really succeeded as a playw- right. Here he produced his famous comedies: "King Solomon & Shal- mai the Cobbler", and the "Trial about the Donkey's Shade". He wrote them in polished German verses, and through Altermann's masterly Hebrew trans- lation, they became real hits. The posthumous fame of Gronemann as a Hebrew Aristophanes surpassed by far the re- pute he had gained in his lifetime. If today, 25 years after Sammy Gronemann's death, we recall the mem- ory of this kind, wise and witty man, always brim- ming over with ideas and plans, never too busy for a friendly chat; his person- 'ality comes into clearer re- lief than during his lifetime. G•onemann's distinc- tive feature was the un- ique synthesis of ele-- ments which, in general, are not to be found corn- bined in one person: legal acumen and ability') Zionist • political ac- tivities, literary talent and productivity. School Principals Attend Classes NEW YORK — Princi- pals of Hebrew day schools in the New York metropolitan area are now attending classes themselves once a week, according to Rabbi Joel Kramer, president of the National Conference of Yeshiva Principals, an af- filiate of Torah Umesorah, the -national society for Hebrew day schools. The classes for princi- pals are part of a series of workshop practiciums, the first section of which is limited to 10 two-hour Sunday sessions to be held at different Hebrew day schools in Brooklyn. AJCommittee Head Named NEW YORK — Elmer L. Winter, president of the American Jewish Committee, has been named to the 11-member board of directors of the Alliance to Save Energy.. The alliance, whose creation was announced recently by Senators Charles H. Percy and Hubert H. Humphrey, is a nationwide movement of busineSs, labor, states, cities, universities, and owners to foster energy conservation. It aims to help stimulate legislative efforts for tax credits for energy-saving action by industry and homeow- ners. Jews, Catholics Taking Over? In answer to a reader's inquiry about a Jewish- Catholic "takeover" of Congress, nationally'` syndicated columnist— Ann Landers quoted the following statistics: The 371 Protestants in Congress hold 70 percent of the seats which is prop- ortional to their popula- tion. Some 129 Roman Catholics hold about 25 percent and 27 Jews about three percent of the seats, which represent their approximate prop- ortions to the general population of the U.S.