THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, February 27, 1981 23

The Midnight Fury' by Historian-Author Susan Gross
Exposes 'Lurid' Role of Queen Isabella in Inquisition

NEW YORK — Queen
Isabella is generally cre-
dited with sponsoring
Christopher Columbus's
voyage of discovery to the
New World and unifying
the feuding provinces of
Spain into a mighty empire.
Less known is the ruthless
monarch's role in master-
minding one of the most vic-

ious persecutions of Jews in
history, the Spanish Inquis-
ition — a role that is por-
trayed in careful detail in a
new novel by a Los Angeles
writer and artist.
"The Midnight Fury" by
Susan Ellen Gross (Faw-
cett) is an adventurous his-
torical romance about Vio-
lante de Pallars, daughter

Africans Detain Israeli General

- TEL AVIV (JTA) — Con-
- N __am is being expressed here
as to the well-being of Re-
serve Maj. Gen. Shmuel
Gonen (Gorodish), formerly
officer commanding Israel's
Southern Command, who is
reported to be held under
house arrest in the Central
African Republic.
Gonen has recently been
commuting between Israel
and the Central African Re-
public, where he obtained a
concession from the former
Emperor Bokassa to mine
for diamonds.
The C.A.R. government
now says that Gonen's
Sicamin Diamond Co. owes
it millions of dollars and is
reported to have placed him
under house arrest after
having barred him from
leaving the country.
His family has appealed
to the Foreign Ministry to
effect his release, and the

Soldiers Group
Leader in U.S.
Asking Funds

NEW YORK (JTA) —
Brig. Gen. Nathan Nir,
chairman of the Association
for the Welfare of Soldiers
in Israel, said that his
organization hopes to raise
$3.5 million in the United
States to meet its 1981-1982
budget of $18 million.
Speaking at a press con-
ference at the Israeli Consu-
late here last week, Nir said
that special fund-raising
dinners are scheduled to be
held in the next few weeks
in New York, Los Angeles
and Miami to raise that
sum. He said that the
Soldiers Association ob-
tains 60 percent of its
budget from contributions
outside of Israel.

Victim's Art
in Exhibition

AMSTERDAM (JTA) —
The late Charlotte Salo-
mon, a German-Jewish ar-
;st who died at Auschwitz
hile still in her 20s, is
being honored in Holland
with .an exhibition of her
water colors, painted when
she lived in the south of
France between 1940 and
1942, before her deporta-
tion.
The exhibit was opened at
the Jewish Historical
Museum here last Friday.
At the same time, a book
has been published contain-
ing reproductions of nearly
800 of her paintings and a
West German film on her
life will have its premiere in
Amsterdam next week.

Belgian Embassy in Israel
has been asked to make in-
quiries through its C.A.R.
consulate.

`Strongman' Poll
Worries Israelis

TEL AVIV (JTA) —
Labor Party chairman Shi-
mon Peres and other party
leaders have expressed
serious concern that a sub-
stantial number of Israelis
may have lost faith in the
democratic process because
of the severe economic and
social problems besetting
the country.
Their concern is shared
by many intellectuals and
commentators as a result of
a recent public opinion poll
which indicated that about
40 percent of the population
would be ready to forego
democracy and hand over
control to a "strongman," if
only temporarily. The poll
was published in the cur-
rent issue of Monitin, a
monthly magazine.
The poll also indicated
that 55 percent of the
populace favored curbs on
the communications media.

Canadian Doctor
Going to Israel

NEW YORK — Dr. Isa-
dore- M. Eisen, a noted
Canadian gynecologist and
obstetrician•will be going to
Israel to accept a position
while on Sabbatical leave as
Kiryat Sanz La'niado Hospi-
tal's senior gynecologist.
Dr. Eisen, of Toronto, is a
specialist in infertility and
sexual psychotherapy.
Located in Natanya and
founded only four years ago,
Kiryat Sanz Laniado Hospi-
tal has pioneered in such
areas as coronary and in-
tensive care and pediatrics
and, has developed rapidly
to become the area's only
full-service hospital.

of a rebel blron, and Isaac
Ravalya, a top-ranking
royal adviser whose Jewish
heritage repeatedly draws
him into danger.
At the same time, the
novel raises some serious
questions about 15th Cen-
tury Spain: Why were some
of Spain's most distin-
guished citizens — doctors,
lawyers, government offi-
cials, teachers — systemati-
cally exiled from a country
that had been their home for
over 500 years? Was it mere
coincidence that Columbus
began his great adventure
on the very day the Jews
were expelled from Spain?
Was the merciless priest,
Torquemada, really the ar-
chitect of the Inquisition, or
did the frenzied auto de fes
represent a part of the
Queen's political master
plan?
The announcement by
California's governor
Jerry Brown that April
22 would be observed as
Queen Isabella Day
caused Ms. Gross to react
with shock and horror.
"Has no one bothered to
do a few minutes of his-
torical research?" she
asked in a letter to the
Los Angeles Times.
"Queen Isabella super-
vised every lurid detail of
one of the most hideous
institutions ever inflicted
on mankind. With its ex-
quisitely refined tor-
tures, motivated strictly
by monetary gain, her
Holy Inquisition remains
ingrained in the hearts of
Jews as the worst disas-
ter to befall them until the
Nazi Holocaust. What's
next — Adolf Hitler
Day?"
Ms. Gross, a 1967
graduate of the University
of Southern California, has
taught classes at the Uni-
versity Synagogue in Los
Angeles and worked with
the Jewish Federation
Council there, in addition to
her fulltime job as a graphic
designer for CBS.
Her research for "The
Midnight Fury," her second
published book, took her to
Spain, where she spent
nearly a year studying orig-
inal documents that per-
tained to _Ferdinand and
Isabella's treatment of the
Jews.

"I uncovered some incred-
ible material about Queen
Isabella in the Barcelona
University Library," said
the author. "And later, I
found some new informa-
tion about Columbus that
supported my theories and I
rewrote several pages so it
could be included.
"Then I found some
obscure books from the
Canary Islands in
Spanish. But perhaps the
best manuscript was a
14th Century hunting
manual in French that
took me nearly two
weeks to translate — into
modern French — then
into English!
"It really pays off to know
other languages for an his-
torical work, and for 'The
Midnight Fury' I really
wanted to get my facts cor-
rect. Because when you look
closely at this tragic period,

Caricatures

for your party

you can't help wondering —
Can it happen ... is it all
happening again in
America today?"

By

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