12 Friday, October 10, 1980

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Pioneer Builds a Museum and Knowledge at Caesarea

When the tilling of the young people from all over
land brought to light the world the Hebrew lan-
further finds in coins, ar- guage and how to live the
chitectural fragments, in- communal life of the kibutz,
scriptions, mosaics, pottery free from the material ad-
of all kinds, including vantages or disadvantages
lamps, Aaron Wegman used of automobiles and televi-
each new find as an incen- sion.
The young students of the
tive to research the back-
ground of each piece, which Ulpan come as volunteers
he has carefully recorded, for six months. Presently
there are 65 young people,
restored, and studied.
He learned to clean coins, sponsored by the Jewish'
to date lamps, to read in- Agency. They work four
scriptions, to mend pottery, hours a day in the orange,
to rebed mosaics. avocado or banana fields, or
He now acts as direc- cultivating grain for the 300
The courtyard of the Sdot Yam museum with its
tor, restorer, cataloguer, cows which must be fed and sculpture niches.
custodian, guide, car- milked daily to supply milk
Center, for Sdot Yam is the archeology, had developed
penter, electrician and locally.
The land is poor, for it is kibutz of the Hungarian- his interest in the field. He
photographer of what
has become one of the full of ruins, and the decay- born Israeli heroine, who described the early years of
jewel museums of Israel. ing limestone from the city left the kibutz she loved to coming out to the site before
Its collection is priceless, that lies beneath it acts as a parachute into Yugoslavia the tent city was laid out
since each piece repre- deterrent, not a fertilizer. during the Second World and finding tombstones and
sents a contribution from The members of the kibutz War. Eventually joining the knowing how important
partisans, she returned to they were. He photographed
a member of the kibutz or now also grow cotton.
The young people are Hungary and worked for the the stones and sent them to
from the Joint Expedi-
enthusiastic campers resistance, trying to free the Prof. Schwabe of Hebrew
tion to Caesarea.
I asked if anyone from the and sailors. The kibutz Jews of Hungary. She was University, from whom he
kibutz ever kept a piece to has a large sports center, caught, imprisoned and learned how to read inscrip-
tions.
sell privately to an an- a basketball field and a executed.
The
library,
the
museum
sail
club,
newly
built
out-
tiquities dealer, and Weg-
His relationship with
man said that he doubted side the kibutz gate, be- and the assembly hall for Prof. Schwabe pushed him
that anyone would ever longing jointly to the lectures, concerts and into the past when life at the
want to enrich himself at kibutz, HaPoel and the movies are all part of the kibutz was most bleak,
the expense of the kibutz regional council. On the Hannah Sennesji Cultural when there was hardly a
museum from the finds at beach in front of the sail Center, name for the glimmer of hope. He looked
club I watched the young young woman who loved to the past and found a
Caesarea.
perspective and a strength.
The main industry on the teenagers from both the poetry and the arts.
I asked Aaron Wegman if
The exterior of the tile
kibutz is a large modern tile kibutz and the ulpan
factory, which supplies con- learning hte thrills of sail- the young people leave the factory says it all — in a
glomerate marble tiles for ing the surf standing on a kibutz. His answer was that high rounded niche on the
all kinds of private and pub- board with a lanteen sail. there are presently 300 contemporary facade sits,
lic flooring in Israel and The second half of the day families, about 800 people, honored and preserved, a
abroad. The handsome the students study in the all of whom live on the land, capital from one of the col-
squares of marble chips of ulpan language program worry about the planes umns that once lined a
all sizes, colors and textures where in six months their overhead, and try to cope Roman road at ancient
Caesarea.
decorate the air-conditioned skills are developed, de- with the growing inflation.
display lobby on the second pending on what skills they He told me that his own sons
Today, scholars from
floor of the factory. have brought, to being mod- are still there, as are his all over the world come to
grandchildren.
He
answers
Just as in antiquity, most erately or completely fluent
use the materials and the
of the marble is imported in Hebrew. I listened while questions simply, without collection of Caesarea
from other cities in the they read passages out of pretension.
Museum at Kibutz Sdot
More space is needed if
Mediterranean to be trans- the newspaper and dis-
Yam.
formed into black and cussed the plans for the af- the treasures of the
Aaron Wegman has been
museum
are
to
be
dis-
white, beige and brown, ternoon, all in Hebrew,
green and white, black and their only common lan- played adequately — the a part of all of the excava-
amphorae, the coin col- tions in the area. He has dug
brown, gray and white tiles. guage.
Only the black and brown of What is more important, lection, the glass, the in- in the Negev. He was pre-
the Arad marble is quarried they are comfortable with scriptional material, the sent in 1951 when the red
locally in Israel. the ethic of the kibutz. Life lamps and the molds porphyry statue that now
relaxed. I strolled pleas- from which the lamps sits beside the Byzantine
For 15 years Aaron is
ant bicycle or walking paths were made. The museum Esplanade was discovered.
Wegman, the young im- past modest cottages, each needs financial help, and He was present when the
migrant from Poland, surrounded by a well-kept anyone in the Detroit Italians excavated the thea-
worked in and eventually gard en of bloo
ter in 1959.
flowers. area wo
h wishes to
directed the tile factory, Open modernm in sculpture tribute i n any way can do
He was present when the
and his friendship with parks lie between the var- so by sending a donation, Crusader town was exca-
the workers is apparent ions areas of the school, the however small to: Aaron vated. In a country where
as we toured the build- nursery and the playg- Wegman, Archeologist archeology is a national
worker round, complete with an Is- and
each
ing,
The hobby, Aaron Wegman re-
Curator,
his
acknowledging
Museum, Kibutz Sdot presents the ideal worker
raeli plane to climb in.
presence with a warm
and teacher as he tried to
Meals are served in a Yam, Israel 38805.
gesture of friendship. beautiful contemporary
I asked Aaron Wegman fire the young people from
The the factory was dining hall-administration how he, who came from Po- the kibutz and from the
begun in 1944, and along building. The schools, even land at the age of six and ulpan with his enthusiasm
with the carpentry fac- during vacation, exhibited who had no experience in and respect for the past.
tory is greatly responsi- all kinds of creativeproj-
ble for whatever prosper- ects, both inside and out.
ity the kibutz may have
In a small summer
achieved, until the pre-
sent inflation has caused camping area next to the
severe financial strains. museum, the small chil-
in the tile dren had built a tiny vil-
After his Years
'
factory
Aaron
retired
to de- lage and play area —
The Tyche (good fortune) of Caesarea shown at
the museum of Kibutz Sdot Yam. Note the body of the vote himself to the ulpan, teepees with blankets,
the program of teaching tree houses made of sapl-
stevedore at the bottom right.
ings, picnic tables made
of logs, climbing and sw-
inging toys. I mentally
compared these make-
it-yourself toys with the
expensive, purchased
toys that are given to
youngsters in America,
played with for a few
minutes and abandoned.
The tip of the Caesarea obelisk
The museum is part of the
Hannah Sennesh Cultural the Sdot Yam museum.

(Continued from Page 1)
here at Caesarea the mes-
sage is eloquent in the fig-
ure of the Tyche and the
humble hauler.
The Tyche looks out
over a pleasant court-
yard of marble columns
with restored capitals,
several bearing inscrip-
tions with the names of
the procurators from
Rome sent out by the em-
perors to supervise
Roman interests in the
area.
The museum consists of
three rooms around the
courtyard, one serving as
the office, restoration and
conservation studio for
Aaron Wegman, and the
other two serving as exhibi-
tion galleries. The Joint
Expedition to Caesarea
under Dr. Bull has been
digging at Caesarea each
summer since 1971, but
archeology at Caesarea has
been a continuing passion of
the director of the museum,
Aaron Wegman, ever since
the beginning of Sdot Yam
as a kibutz in 1940.
In May of 1940, the kibutz
was settled by 30 charter
members, among them
Aaron Wegman. Caesarea
at that time was Jewish
property, having been pur-
chased by the PJCA (Pales-
tine Jewish Colonization
Association) in 1917. To a
great extent this group had
been supported by Count
Edmond de Rothschild,
grandfather of the present

Edmond Rothschild, who is
still one of the supporting
forces at Caesarea.
When the kibutz was first
settled, there was still liv-
ing within the Crusader
Fortress a small group of
Bosnian villagers, who were
handsomely paid for the
land which they eventually
sold to the association. At
that time there were no
roads, no electricity, no
fresh water, and the
pioneers were faced with an
expanse of sand without the
lush greenery which pre-
sently is a feature of the
countryside.
The kibutz was
founded as a fishing
community (Fields of the
Sea, Sdot Yam), and ag-
riculture was only begun
after water had been
provided by drilling 40-50
meters down to fresh
water for irrigation.
Immediately all sorts of
amphora and pottery from
shipwrecks along the shore
began to appear in the nets
of the fishermen, along with
the fruits of the sea. These
first finds supplied Aaron
Wegman with the material
and the impetus to restore
and to research the different
kinds of amphora, the clay
containers which were used
to store and to transport the
foods of the ancient world.
This research opened
doors of inquiry into the na-
ture and the size of the great
harbor city on which the
present kibutz is located.