12 Friday, December 5, 1980

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Dead Sea Mineral Water Draws Visitors From Around the World

By JANET
MENDELSOHN

Israel Government
Tourist Office

JERUSALEM — The
Dead Sea is alive and well.
Israel's Dead Sea region has
come to life with expanding
tourist facilities that make
the many attractions of the
region well as its
health-giving properties
easily accessible.
Physically, the Dead Sea
area, extending from north
to south for 50 miles, has
changed little in 4,000
years.
Having only recently be-
come easily accessible, the
Dead Sea area has in the
past always been a refuge
for the persecuted, for dissi-
dents, for rebels and re-
cluses: Among them, King
David, the Essenes, King
Herod and Jewish insur-
gents against Roman rule.
On the northwestern
shore of the Dead Sea,
excavations have re-
vealed the ruins of Qum-
ran, the ancient town of
the Essenes. A sect of
ultra-religious Jews, they

lived in this isolated des-
ert area during the two
centuries BCE and wrote
the Dead Sea Scrolls.
These.- manuscripts, hid-
den for centuries in pottery
jars tucked in a cave above
Qumran, were found 2,000
years later by a young Be-
douin shepherd and created
a sensation in the world of
biblical scholars. They are
now housed in the dramatic
Shrine of the Book at
Jerusalem's Israel
Museum.
To the - south is another
momentous site: Masada.
Today, a cable car whisks
tourists up the bare slope in
minutes, where they view
Herod's palace and the
amazing water supply sys-
tem he constructed to make
life possible on this arid, iso-
lated mountain top.
Located 1,300 feet below
sea level, the Dead Sea is
the lowest point on the
earth. Its air is rich in oxy-
gen and free of pollution. In
addition to the hot, dry,
year-round climate, the
bright sun is at work more
than 300 days a year. Even

Visitors to Israel refresh themselves in the sparkl-
ing waters at Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea shore. Ein
Gedi offers tourists a kibutz guest house, Dead Sea
bathing beach, restaurant and natural rock
waterfalls.
during the winter months, its name, the Dead Sea
the temperature barely has been called by doc-
drops below 77. Sunburn is tors, a "fountain of life."
The unusually large con-
also a rarity, as the high
atmospheric pressure ab- centrations of minerals and
sorbs the damaging ultra- salt in the water allow the
body to float effortlessly.
violet rays of the sun.
Life cannot exist in the People come from far away
Dead Sea because of its to relax in one of the world's
high salt and mineral few bodies of water in which
content, but these very it is impossible to sink.
Few visitors to Israel fail
same elements provide
therapeutic treatment to visit the Dead Sea, either
and cure for thousands of on an excursion or for a
tourists a year. In spite of shorter or longer stay.

There are a variety of ac-
commodations and they are
clustered in three areas. Ein
Bokek, towards the south-
ern end of the sea, caters
mostly to psoriasis and ar-
thritis patients from Europe
and America with a number
of luxury hotels.
A few miles away, the
Newe Zohar area has a
youth hostel and camping
site. There is also a museum
here showing the history of
the Dead Sea region and the
uses of its minerals and
chemicals in such fields as
industry, agriculture and
medicine. There is another
youth hostel at the foot of
Masada.
At Ein Gedi, half way
up the shore, a variety of
popularly priced lodg-
ings is available from
which the nature re-
serves of the region can
be explored. Nearby,
Kibutz Ein Gedi has a 30-
room guest house.
Ein Gedi is known for its
natural oasis. Mentioned in
the Bible as a city of Judah,
Ein Gedi was famed for its
fruitful vineyards and

abundant wildlife. Its name
means "Fount of the Kid,"
probably referring to the
ibex, a variety of mountain
goat which is native to the
area and can still be seen
roaming today.
The Bible mentions that
Ein Gedi was a hiding place
for David, the future king,
who took shelter here from
the wrath of King Saul.
Today the venturesome vis-
itor can bathe in a beautiful
foaming waterfall bef -
the name of this shepht
turned king.
There is more unusual
bathing in the Dead Sea
area. Towards the northern
end, near Quamran, a park
has been planned around
several brooks ambling
down to the sea. There is
swimming in fresh water
pools and little waterfalls
and floating in the Dead
Sea. The name is Enot
Zuqim, and it attracts many
day trippers and wayfarers.
The road along the west-
ern shore of the Dead Sea
links up with those to
Jerusalem, Jericho, Arad,
Beersheba and Eilat.

Scholem's Memoirs Are Published in New Schocken Volume

By ALLEN A. WARSEN

Gershom Scholem, the
foremost historian and in-
terpreter of Jewish mysti-
cism, and author of
"Kabala," "Sabbatai Sevi,"
"Major Trends in Jewish
Mysticism," has recently
published his memoirs
From Berlin to Jerusalem:
Memories of My Youth"
(Schocken Books).
The surname Scholem,
writes the author, was
adopted by one of his ances-
tors "in accordance with a
government edict of 1812
ordering the Prussian -Jews
to acquire family names."
Scholem's father, Arthur,
though completely assimi-
lated and who would not
even allow to use at his
home Jewish idiomatic ex-
pressions, such as "neb-
bish," vehemently rejected
baptism as an "unprincipled
and servile act" and was
similarly opposed to mixed
marriages. When his son,
Werner, a Communist de-
puty to the Reichstag, mar-
ried a non-Jewish woman
also a Reichstag Com-
munist deputy, he refused
to have any contact with
them.
Years later, when Hit-
ler came to power,
Werner was arrested,
kept seven years in con-
centration camps and
murdered at Buchen-
wald in 1940. His wife, a
few years before her
death, converted to
Judaism because she
wanted to be buried
among Jews.

Incisive is Scholem's de-
scription of his Jewish
awakening and the factors
contributing to it:
Heinrich Graetz's 11-
volume "Geschichte der Ju-
den" aroused in him a desire
to learn Hebrew.
The works of Jewish
writers, such as Else
Lasker-Schuler, instilled in
him a love for Jewish litera-
ture.
The writings of Moses
Hess, Leon Pinsker,
Theodor Herzl, Max Nor-
dau and Nathan
Birnbaum contributed to
his becoming an active
Zionist.
Dr. Isaac Bleichrode
(1867-1954), a rabbi of a
small Orthodox private
synagogue, exerted a pow-
erful influence on him by in-
troducing him to Talmud -
"learning." ("One did not
study the Talmud, one
`learned' it.") Eventually,
Scholem, the learner, be-
came a researcher and
thinker.
At the same time his
interest in mysticism man-
ifested itself. "Perhaps," he
reasons, "I was endowed
with an affinity for this area
from the 'root of my soul,' as
the kabalists would have
put it, or maybe my desire to
understand the enigma of
Jewish history was also in-
volved."
Scholem portrays vividly
the men he met during his
student years in Berlin and
elsewhere. They included:
Georg Simmel, whom
Scholem befriended at

the home of the Bubers,
was an eminent teacher
of philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Berlin and a
descendant of converted
Jews. Once, he headed a
list of candidates for a
professorship at the Uni-
versity of Heidelberg.
But a well-known Berlin
historian "urged the wife
of the Grand Duke of
Baden (a man regarded
as liberal) to make sure
that the prestigious
Heidelberg chair was not
disgraced by _such an
out-and-out Jewish
spirit."

Hermann Cohen, founder
of the Marburg School of
neo-Kantianism, Scholem
characterizes as an awe-
inspiring individual.
Though they differed on
Zionism, still Scholem re-
garded Cohen as a great
man and a major Jewish
figure.
When lecturing, Scholem
relates, only Cohen's
forehead "protruded from
the lectern" (he was very
short). "But from time to
time, when he uttered cer-
tain words relating to good
or evil, such as prophecy
and pantheism his enor-
mous head would suddenly
appear above the lectern for
the duration of a sentence."
Martin Buber, the great
Jewish philosopher, in-
terpreter of Hasidism, and
editor of "Der Jude," be-
came a close friend of
Scholem. The latter pub-
lished in "Der Jude" his first

essays on the Kabala and a
number of translations of
Hebrew poetry and prose.
A similar friendship
developed between
Agnon and Scholem. In
Agnon, writes Scholem,
he found "a new and al-
together original incar-
nation of the Jewish
spirit and of Jewish tra-
dition." Many of Agnon's
short stories Scholem
translated and published
in "Der Jude."
Franz
However,
Rosenzweig and Scholem
never became close friends.
Rosenzweig, the great reli-
gious philosopher, and
author of the classic "Der
Stern der Erosung" ("The
Star of Redemption"), dif-
fered with Scholem on mat-
ters that pertained to
"German Jewishness."
While Rosenzweig advo-
cated "A great Jewish com-
munity that considered it-
self German," Scholem fa-
vored "A renewal of Jewry
from its rebirth in Eretz
Yisrael."
tells
Rosenzweig,
Scholem, at age 40 de-
veloped lateral sclerosis,
became paralyzed and un-
able to talk. "He could move
only one finger and with it
directed a specially con-
structed needle over an al-
phabet board, while his wife
translated his motions into
sentences Yet
Rosenzweig produced very
impressive work even in
those years, participated in
the Bible translation project
inaugurated by Buber, and
corresponded copiously
with many."
Gershom's father, who
disapproved of his son's
Zionist activities, de-
manded that he leave his
house and shift for himself.
This unusual act soon be-
came known in the Berlin
Zionist circles and reached
Scholem's friend, Zalman

Rubashov, who years later
became the third president
of Israel as Zalman Shazar.
Rubashov, who re-
ferred to Gershom as "A
Martyr of Zionism,"
found for him living
quarters and work that
consisted of translating a
Yiddish book into Ger-
man. The volume com-
memorated "those who
fell in Palestine before
the war while keeping
watch over the Jewish
settlements." The Yid-
dish book that was first
published in New York
was edited by David
Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak
Ben-Zvi.
Interesting is this story:
Scholem relates that once
he exposed as fraudulent a

French translation of the
Zohar in six-volumes in-
cluding one that consisted of
fictitious quotations from
beginning to end.
The volumes, Scholem
notes, were printed "on
paper made expressly for
this one book which bore the
Hebrew name of God as a
watermark."
In 1923, Scholem emi-
grated to Palestine. There
he settled in Jerusalem
where at first he worked as
the librarian of the Hebrew
Section of the National Li-
brary. Two years later he
was appointed professor of
Kabala by Dr. Judah Leon
(Leibush) Magnes, first
chancellor of the newly es-
tablished Hebrew Univer-
sity.

Deprived Israeli Youngsters
Get Chance at Youth Center

By ANITA LEBOWITZ

United Jewish Appeal

KIRYAT MENAHEM —
Max Wiesel is a stubborn
man. "I don't ask what they
want to learn. I already
know, far better than they,
what they need to learn. I
ask them how they want to
learn. That's the biggest dif-
ference between this kind of
school and the others they
have attended."
Wiesel needs to be stub-
born. As the director of the
Faye Shenk Youth Aliya
Center, - in Kiryat
Menahem, Jerusalem, he is
responsible for 82
youngsters, age 13 through
16, enrolled in a program
that offers what may well be
their last chance for a full
life as productive members
of Israeli soci - ty.
Wiesel directs the learn-
ing process for troubled stu-
dents. They have come to
Fay Schenk from Katamon
Het, Tet, Shmuel, Hanavi,

Musrara and other distres-
sed neighborhoods in Jeru-
salem.
It's not an easy task for
the youngsters; their
commitment must be to-
tal. Students attend
classes six days a week,
from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
They learn basic e.
tional skills — rear
math, language —
supplemented by an in-
tensive study plan that
includes vocational and
social skills such as metal
carpentry,
work,
training,
secretarial
salesmanship, public re-
lations, advertising, and
hairdressing. After a
break for the evening
meal, they return for cul-
tural programs in music,
dance, art, and history.
The students take or-
ganized tours throughout
the country in order to study
archeology, agriculture, in-
dustry, and to learn about
life. ,