ridgy, April 8, 1977

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

almud Fragments Published

(Continued from Page 1)

and distinguished research
professor at Dropsie Univer-
sity, is important to Hebr-
aica and Talmudic scholars
the world over. The new
`Ginze Talmud Bavli" will
be a companion work to Dr.
Katsch's earlier "Ginze Mis-
hna": 159 fragments from
the Cairo Genizah in the Le-
ningrad Library, which was
published in Jerusalem in
1970 by Mossad - Harav
Kook.
Late in the last century,
nearly 250,000 fragmented
documents were unearthed
after having • been stored
since the Seventh Century
in a concealed chamber at
the Forstat (old Cairo)
Synagogue in Egypt. This
trove of Judaica became
known as the Cairo Genizah
("Genizah" in Hebrew
. means "stored away".)
The Genizah Talmudic
fragments were among the
1,200 choice documents ac-
quired by Archmandrite An-
tonin Kapustin, a Russian
monk and archeologist dur-
ing a visit to Cairo. He had
served in Jerusalem in 1865
until his death in 1894.
Since the material in this
"Ginze. Talmud" contains
many variants from the gen-
erally available Talmudic
texts, this version from the
Cairo Genizah, Dr. Katsch
said, "will have to be reck-
oned with 'in the future Tal-
mudic scholarship." He
pointed out that the Cairo
Genizah fragments are
very close to the original
sources because they have

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never been subjected to the
censorship and error that
came with the introduction
of printing.
The Genizah material,
Dr. Katsch added, "ap-
pears to have been written
in a very early period when
it was studied by oral trans-
mission and not from writ-
ten books." Many of the
variants in the Talmud, Dr.
Katsch said, are traceable
to deletions caused by gov-
ernment censors in Europe
and in the East who remov-
ed names and other mate-
rial from the text.
"We must remember,"
Dr. Katsch added, "that the
Talmud survived official
burning no fewer than six
times in a single century
and has been a constant ob-
ject of attack and was mis-
quoted for several cen-
turies."
There are "significant
variants" pertaining to le-
gal and ritual matters in
the "Ginze Talmud.'.' Some
of the variants help clarify
obscure and difficult Tal-
mudic passages, Dr. Katsh

said, and others reflect the
conditions under which the
Jews lived in the different
places and times in which
the different Talmudic texts
were written down.

It was not until Dr.
Katsch became the first
scholar to receive official
permission from the Soviet
governments to microfilm
the Genizah fragments
from the Leningrad Library
that the material became
available for the first time
to scholars in the Western
world.
During his six visits to
the Soviet Union, starting
in 1956, Dr. Katsch was
able to microfilm and cata-
logue the entire Antonin
Genizah Collection in the
Saltyko-v-Shechedrin Li-
brary. All the material is
now part of the Abraham I.
Katsch Microfilm Collection
of Rare Hebraica in the
Manuscript Center at Drop-
sie University. The mate-
rial is now being utilized by
scholars and researchers
the world over.

Moslem Ambassadors Thanked
for Freeing Hanafi Hostages

WASHINGTON (JTA)—
Iran's Ambassador Arde-
shir Zahedi finds himself
"literally overwhelmed by
expressions of appreciation
and gratitude" for his par-
ticipation in the negotia-
tions that led to the release
of 134 hostages recently
held by Hanafi Moslems for
39 hours in three Washing-
ton buildings.
Zahedi, Pakistani Am-
bassador Sahabzada Yaqub-
Khan and Egyptian Am-
bassador Ashraf Ghorbal
joined in meeting with the
Hanafi leadership at the
Bnai Brith building which
was used as the friain base
of the terrorist operation
and where about 107 hos-
tages were held.
Hundreds of letters and
other communications have
been received by the three
envoys, many of them, per-
haps the majority, from
Jews. David Blumberg,
Bnai Brith president., was
among the first to commu-
nicate with the envoys and
expressed his thanks.
Zahedi made his com-
ment in response to a letter
from Hyman Bookbinder,
the American Jewish Com-
mittee's Washington repre-
sentative. In his response,
Yaqub-Khan thanked Book-
binder for "the touching
and generous sentiments ex-

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pressed in it." No response
has been received yet from
Ghorbal.
Meanwhile, at a reception
in Washington on Monday
attended by about 300 diplo-
mats, Washington socialites
and members of Congress,
the three Moslem ambassa-
dors were toasted with
champagne and presented
with "peace" roses. How-
ever, none of the people
held as hostages by Hanafi
terrorists were invited.

Hebrew U. Cites
Nobel Laureate

JERUSALEM—American
molecular biologist and
Nobel Prize winner Dr. Ger-
ald M. Edelman has been
presented the Hebrew Uni-
versity's Rabbi Shai
Shacknai Memorial Prize
in Immunology and Cancer
Research for 1977.

Reconstructionists
Pick Parley Head

NEW YORK—Dr. Aaron
Rosenthal, of Skokie Ill.,
has been appointed chair-
man of the 17th annual con-
vention of the Reconstruc-
tionist Federation of Congre-
gations and Havurot, to be
held from May 25 to 29 in
Skokie. The theme of the
convention will be "Ritual
and Celebration—New Di-
rections in Reconstruction-
ist Judaism."

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TUNISIA (ZINS)—An
anonymous report in a
Lebanese newspaper says
that millions of Americans
have converted to Islam.
The report says the con-
verts are not well versed in
the religion because of a
lack of trained teachers,
but the new Moslems could
be a great help to the Arab
countries.

Israel Druze Candidates Jockey
for Positions Before Elections

By MOSHE RON

The Jewish News
Special Israel
Correspondent

TEL AVIV—A total of
22,000 Druze have the right
to vote in the next Knesset
elections. Were they to
unite on one Druze party
list, they would have one
representative in the Knes-
set. But the Druze are not
united, for their support is
divided among the many po-
litical parties in Israel.
Young Druze intellectuals
wish to free themselves
from the influence of the
old Druze leaders, who pre-
serve and guard the ancient
Druze tradition and reli-
gion. They maintain that
the old leaders do not let
the young leaders get in-
volved in political and so-
cial activity._
All political parties in Is-
rael wish to get the Druze
vote. Each party has its
own Druze functionaries,
who promise the parties
votes. However, in return
for the votes a safe place
on the election lists for
Druze candidates is de-
manded.
The Labor Party has four
Druze candidates, each of
whom jealously guards his
position. The party estab-
lished one united Arab list
headed by Knesset mem-
bers Seif Edin Zuabi,
Hamed Abu Rabia and
Sheikh Jabar Muadi, who is
a Druze. But there are
three other Druze function-
aries, who demand safe
places on the party list: the
adviser to the Ministry of
Commerce and Industry for
Arab Affairs, Kemal Kas-
sem, - and adviser to the
President of Israel, Kemal
Mansur.
Mans& informed Pre-
mier Rabin, Golda Meir,
Defense Minister Shimon
Peres, and General Secre-
tary of the Labor Party
Meir Zarmi, that after faith-
fully serving Israel for 25
years, if he, as a Druze
delegate is put in an unsure
third place on the list, then
the Druze Community
would have no Druze repre-
sentative in the Knesset. It
is the third time, Mansur
said, that he has been put
in an unsafe place on the
Labor Party list. Mansur
maintained that he and 28
Druze delegates to the
Labor Party conference
voted for Yitzhak Rabin
and by their votes secured
his election.
Druze lawyer Kemal Kas-
sem says that he was the
first Druze student in the
Hebrew University in Je-
rusalem and the first Druze
lawyer in the country. He
has fulfilled several mis-
sions abroad for the Israeli
government. He is the pub-
lisher of a Druze news-
paper and has been the an
viser to the Minister for
Commerce and Industry,
Hayim Barley.
The Druze candidate of
the Likud list is Kamel Nas-
ser Edin, who became a
Knesset member a month
ago, after two deputies of
the Free Center Party (for-
merly allied with Likud)
left the Kneset, When that

party joined the Democrat- has been during the last
ic Movement for Change of few years Israeli Consul in
Prof. Yigael Yadin. He has the U.S. dealing with infor-
been active for years in the mation and public affairs,
Labor Party, but has joined and has been a member of
the Herut group of Likud Likud and later of the
after differences of opinion Labor Party.
with Labor. He has a good
chance to secure a safe
• You cannot judge of a
place on the Likud list.
man 'till you hear his whole
The Mdscow-oriented Ra- story.
kakh Communist Party has
tried to draw the Druze
vote. Rakakh is helped by
the young Druze writer,
Maja Kassem, from the vil-
lage Rami, who is an ar-
dent Communist. He at-
tempts to incite the Druze
against Israeli authorities
with claims that the Druze
12711 W. 7 MILE RD.
are discriminated against.
Yadin's Democratic Move-
ment has accepted two
FREE ESTIMATES
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