THE DETROIT IEW1SH NEWS

20 Friday, July 7,15111

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A Gypsy Immigrant in the State of Israel

HARRY ABRAM
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By BURT RELMACH

World Zionist Organization

Because He Gives

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- - Harry Abram

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JERUSALEM — "I felt
small in Hungary — almost
as if I wasn't even a person.
Here I am free, and I must
say it's a lot better."
Not an unusual state-
ment perhaps from a re-
fugee from Central Europe
— and to make such a
statement in Israel is still
not so unusual. But this
speaker is a Gypsy, an ac-
tress, and a new immigrant
as well.
Ona Saloman, married to
a famous Hungarian Jewish
playwright, left her native
country when her husband
was blacklisted for "politi-
cal" reasons. She made her
own claim to the blacklist
when refusing to act in a
Russian play which she con-
sidered bad, artistically and
ideologically. That was in
1974.
In Israel for a year, the
intervening times were
hard for her and her hus-
band Paul. Virtually
without income, the two
had to spend their for-
tunes just to get to Israel.
Ona reflects that most of
her life has been spent in
putting the lie to
stereotypes about her
people, and about the
Jewish people of her hus-
band too. She came from an
exceptional family.
"My grandfather was a
Gypsy par excellance," she
recalls. Continuing in near
perfect Hebrew, Ona re-
lates, "Nature and the real
world, not the laws of men
— they were what mattered
for him." Ona's mother
achieved national fame
through her opera singing,

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and the name of Mogda
Varga even became popular
in Italy after performances
there.
As a young Gypsy girl
Ona had a comfortable
childhood replete with a
normal Hungarian upbr-
inging in a large city that
did not include caravans or
fortune telling; but it was a
tense time because she
never felt at home.
"I especially remember
feeling like the Jews —
without a home. You see,
Hungary, and especially
ONA SALOMAN
Debrecen, was world
famous as -a center for By the late 1930's, in spite of
anti-Semitism. As a girl I not paying taxes to local
remember all the horri- governments and living
ble stories about the mostly by suffrance, they
Nazis which later turned did manage to_front a king
out to be doubly true be- to the world and put their
cause they applied to the case before the League of
Gypsies as well."
Nations.
But King Janusz Kiviek
But Ona remembers bet-
fighting the tide of
was
ter stories. She relates
Gypsy history and lore as if Nazism. His idea to shift a
nation
of jugglers, horse
it was a part of her own life
story! "We started out at the traders, tinsmiths, and a
bottom in life. No one is few score lawyers to an is-
quite sure how or when, but land somewhere in
we were probably a low In- Polynesia, was stillborn.
dian caste related to the Tens of thousands of Gyp-
Doms, the tribe of musi- sies were exterminated by
cians and ropemakers. The Hitler.
The few thousand who
group began wandering
westward, and by 1500 or so survived Auschwitz and
had spread to just about other German horrors
soon abandoned the idea
every corner in Europe."
Like the Jews, the Gyp- of a Romany state, but
sies at times during their not their notions of free-
history yearned for a home- dom and the belief in the
land, but their economic sanctity of nature. "I
base was unsound, being es- suppose very few Gyp-
sentially a nation of small sies have taken the
craftsmen and wanderers. course I have chosen, al-

though many have found
freedom in Western
'Europe and even in
America," Ona says. "But
here in Israel it's very
special. The Israelis have
a lot of understanding,
but not by any means in a
patronizing way. They
take things and people
purely on face value."

Ona has been intensively
studying Hebrew since the
day of her arrival. She has
reached a point now where
she has begun acting with
the Beersheva Theater. In
Hungary she acted in
Shakespeare, Chekhov,
Brecht, and Genet. Here in
Israel she will soon be doing
much the same, but in Heb-
rew. The people in
Beersheba were so impre-
ssed that they are anxious
for her to do a series of
poetry readings and songs
in both Hebrew and Hunga-
rian.
Israel's former President
Ephraim Katzir recently
saw a presentation of "Peter
and Charles," one of Paul
Saloman's plays about an
early Russian-Swedish war
that was featured on Hun-
garian television before life
turned sour for the couple.
"I hope he and others in
Israel like my work as much
as they like Paul's," Ona
says. "Throughout history
Gypsies have been a symbol
of freedom. I feel that Israel
is giving us back something
that Europe stole and
nearly destroyed — ourse-
lves."

Recogntion—lst Stepin Battle
Against Israel Organized Crime

By JANET MENDELSOHN
JERUSALEM — The
long-awaited Shimron Re-
-port has uncovered the mas-
sive extent to which crime
exists in Israel. The 228-
page report submitted to the
Israeli Cabinet calls for an
alloput war against crime.
Since 1971, a barrage of
newspaper charges have al-
luded to the co-operation of
criminal elements in Israel.
This prompted the creation
of the Shamgar Commission
to study the issue. Led by
former Attorney General
Meir Shamgar, the commis-
sion said that the "God-
father" image of U.S. or-
ganized crime did not exist
in Israel.
The Israeli police have
also denied that organized
crime existed in Israel.
However, according to
Jerusalem attorney
Erwin Shimron, chair-
man of the committee, an
underworld subculture
has grown up parallel to
normal society. Also a
'black money' economy
exists side-by-side with
the normal economy.
"Crime per capita has in-
creased fivefold since
1948," says Shimron.
"We must conclude in sor-
row, looking back at the
first 30 years of the state
that the heavy burdens the
state took upon itself— par-
ticularly security and im-

migration — have led to
overlooking, in the heat of
the work, the grave results
stemming from disregard of
or disrespect for the law."
Slowly but surely, says
the report, the public has
become accustomed to this
disrespect for the law at all
levels. The leniency of the
courts has also helped to
perpetuate this lack of re-
spect for the law while in-
creasing the Israeli rate of
crime. -
"Severity of punishment
is important — but the cer-
tainty of it is the issue," ac-
cording to Hannah Hirsch,
legal adviser to the police
and Israel's highest-
ranking female police of-
ficer. She also is in firm ag-
reement with the section of
the Shimron Report which
says that one of the charac-
teristics of organized crime
is the existence of criminals
of highest rank who imitate
the life-style and economic
activity of law-abiding citi-
zens.
According to the re-
port, there is a mixing of
legitimate and illegiti-
mate businesses as well
as money. "This leads to
the social mixing of own-
ers of wealth whose
source we do not know
and the elite in the popu-
lation."
It was generally thought
that millions of dollars of

'black' money originated
from income tax evasion,
but the committee.members
were reportedly shocked to
learn that there are addi-
tional billions coming from
drugs, extortion and
smuggling.
Plans are under way .to
set up a staff to fight crime
using all the available re-
sources from the ministries
of Interior, Justice and Fi-
nance. An additional
budget of IL60 million has
already been appropriated
to the police this year, and
350 more policemen will be
added to the force, primarily
to work in investigations.

Palestine and the —Jew
can never be separated. No
power on earth can take
from this land its magic at-
tractions for its people. I
have seen the living, the
youth, the believers, plan-
ting the waste places- and
adorning the land as a
bride is adorned by gifts for
the bridegroom. These
things are evidence th5t in
the heart of Judaism there
is love, and that in the
Jew's mind there is a quest
which he will pursue in the
face of all obstacles, and
through wearily long gener-
ations, until the prophecies
of his ancient teachers and
his own heart have been ful-
filled.
—J. Ramsay -MacDonald