THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Gardening. Volume Aids Jerusalemites

By ELLEN DAVIDSON

Israel Govt. Press

Service

JERUSALEM
—
Jerusalem, the Holy City, is
shimmering with the reds,
corals and silvery greens of
new gardens these days,
and inhabitants are dis-
covering the joys of planting
pomegranates, olives and
grapes on even the tiniest
plots.
Many new gardeners are
ing inspired by a
ently-published, bright
g-f'een volume called "Israel
Gardening Encyclopedia
Month by Month." It is the
first gardening guide in
English to be devoted to the
varying climatic and soil
conditions in Israel and it
vas written by Viennese-
orn Walter Frankl, a 75-
y ear-old former Olympic
track star, who has lived
most of his adult life in
Jerusalem.
Enthusiasm for garden-
ing is new in this water-
Scarce, centuries-old city.
Even the public gardens
which now grace the capital
are a sight that had not been
seen in Jerusalem since bi-
blical times. Fifteenth Cen-
tury etchings of Jerusalem
show desert settings and
only a few trees in protected
courtyards. "Life was so
hard here," says one town
planner, "that no thought
was given to landscaping. It
is a luxury that we are only
beginning to enjoy today in
a reunified city."
The blossoming inter-
est of Jerusalemites in
growing things has been
reflected in the fast-
paced sales of Frankl's
gardening encyclopedia.
The people of the Holy
Land are not only learn-
ing how to grow the
tamarisk tree, which was
first planted here by Ab-
raham, but ordinary
chrysanthemums, which
thrive here, says Frankl,
due to "the relatively cool
and dewy nights of the
hilly regions (Jerusalem
is located about 2,500 feet
high in the Judean Hills)
which permits the plants
> to refresh themselves
after the heat of hot
summer days."

C

In the introduction to his
encyclopedia, Frankl
chooses an appropriate
quote from the Bible to ex-
plain why he has organized
his book by months: "For
everything there is a season
and a time for every matter
under heaven, a time to
plant and a time to pluck up
what is planted."
Fittingly, in this Jewish
4 -^te, the book begins in
( tember, the month of the
ewish New Year, and the
author immediately gets
down to practical work with
instructions for dealing
with the various challenges
of the Israeli terrain: the
sandy soil of the coastal
plain, the lime rich earth of
the Judean Hills, the stony
clay soil of Jerusalem.
The reader is given a
Q table of English, botanical
and Hebrew names for an-
nuals, biennials and peren-
nials, including the African
daisy, phlox, marigold and

Walter Frankl in his
carnation, all of which grow
well here.
The book is a practical
manual and yet it is laCed
with facts an inhabitant
of the Holy Land can
truly appreciate: There
are seven species of wild
carrots grown here,
many of which were cul-
tivated by the ancients.
The potato, which origi-
nated in South America,
arrived in British Man-
date Palestine in 1940
along with the British
forces, who instructed
Jewish and Arab farmers
how to cultivate them in
order to supply the
potato-loving troops.
Garlic, says Frankl, was
probably brought to Eretz -
Yisrael by Jewish slaves on
their exodus from Egypt.
Titus Marcius Plautus, a
Second Century BCE poet,
wrote about Roman soldiers
eating garlic to increase

Jerusalem garden.
their courage.
We learn that roses have
grown in Israel since bibli-
cal times, as, obviously,
have grapes, which the Is-
raelites and other Semitic
tribes brought as wild
plants into the valley of the
Euphrates and later to Ca-
naan, where they cultivated
them for fruit and wine
production.
If there's a connection
with the Holy Land, Frankl
informs us of it, but, more
importantly, he instructs
the reader in the fine points
of how to successfully grow
the plant month by month,
as he reminds us of the es-
sentials of sowing, irrigat-
ing, pruning, weeding, pro-
tecting from insects, and,
hopefully, harvesting.
The gardening volume is
just the latest in a long
string of accomplishments
in the rich life of Walter
Frankl.

Foreign Aid Bill Addition
Provides Boost for Israel

WASHINGOTN (JTA) —
The House-Senate Budget
Conference has inserted a
proviso in the foreign assis-
tance appropriations bill
which will allow Israel to
receive all of its Economic
Support Funds (ESF)
money "no later than 30
days" after the bill is
enacted.
This 30-day proviso was
inserted at the insistence of
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)
who argued that Israel's
foreign currency reserves
are low, a situation which
could affect Israel's ability
to borrow.
Without this stipulation,
Israel would receive its
$806 million in ESF on a
quarterly basis during the
next year. This could make
it necessary for Israel to in-
crease its short-term bor-
rowing at prohibitively
high interest rates, costing
Israel as much as $30 mill-
ion.
The Foreign Assistance -
Appropriations bill will not
be voted upon until Con-
gress reconvenes Jan. 24. It
is not certain at this time

A scholar should be like a
bottle that lets in no wind;
like a deep garden bed
which retains its moisture;
like a pitch-coated jug
which preserves its wine;
and like a sponge which ab-
sorbs everything.
— Talmud

how any U.S. sanctions im-
posed against Israel might
relate to this legislation.

Besides his teaching
career in Israeli high
schools and as head of
the Hebrew University
Physical Education De-
partment until he retired
in 1965, Frankl also co-
founded the Jerusalem
Horticulture Society, was
a pioneer in the use of
hydroponics (growing
plants in water and
nutrients), fought for
Jerusalem in the 1948
War of Independence
and helped build the first
sports track in Israel. (He
transported cinders on
camelback from a rail-
road station miles away.)
For seven years, until he
came to the Holy Land in
1931, Frankl was a major
figure in Austrian athletics
and he represented his
country in the 1928 Olym-
pics in Amsterdam. But he
longed to be in the Jewish
homeland. At the age of 20
he joined a group studying
applied agriculture in prep-
aration for the time they
would establish their own
kibutz.
In the end, however, it
was athletics that brought
Frankl to Israel. In 1931, he
was asked to go to Tel Aviv
to help prepare the first
sports competition — the
Maccabia — to be held in
what is now Israel. Frankl
was taken aback by the con-
ditions in the country and
decided to stay and help im-
prove them.
Over the next few years
he taught athletics at a
number of high schools es-
tablished the first summer
camp in Israel. In the eve-
nings he helped bring in il-
legal refugees fleeing the
Nazi menace in Europe;
eventually he was caught
by the British and served a
four-month jail sentence.

Friday, January 1, 1982 13

Anti-Semitism in Writing
of Some Christian Feminists

NEW YORK — A "dis-
concerting trend toward
anti-Semitism" in the writ-
ings of some Christian
feminists was the focus of
attention at a recent confer-
ence of 175 lay and ordained
Catholic, Jewish and Pro-
testant feminists.
Annette Daum, coor-
dinator of the department of
interreligious affairs of the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, asserted
that "by seeking to prove
that Christianity is not in-
herently anti-feminist,"
some scholars have unin-
tentionally incorporated
past anti-Semitic prejudices
"by attributing anti-
feminist elements of Christ-
ianity to Judaic heritage."
Daum spoke at the second
annual convention of
Feminists of Faith, a na-
tional network of feminists
of various faiths formed 18
months ago to combat
sexism in religion. Its major
aim is "to transform pat-
riarchal religions into
egalitarian systems that
will permit women to enter
more fully into religious life
and enable them to serve
God and humanity more
completely."

Daum said "a tendency
to interpret Judaism in
the worst possible light
and Christianity in the
best has led some Christ-
ian writers to see Jesus,
alone in his culture, as a
feminist." After citing
examples of feminist
ideas in early Jewish
tradition to counter that
notion, she concluded:
"Neither the Christian
nor Judaic tradition has
lived up to its ideals in the
treatment of women."
She told the conference,
titled "Moving Beyond
Blame," that "this is the
first generation of women
that can band together to
challenge the second-class
status of women" in both
Judaism and Christianity.

There is always time for
courtesy.

COMING JAN. 17!

c.,

k)PER so
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