THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS - •
18 Friday, February-5, 1982
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Record Cucumber in a Jerusalem Backyard
By FERN ALLEN
World Zionist Press Service
JERUSALEM — The
roots of Walter Frankl's two
meter high cucumber,
which may get into the Gui-
ness Book of Records, can be
traced to his trip three years
ago to a seed market in
Germany. As he scanned
the rows of seeds, a sales-
woman approached and
asked the horticulturist if
she could assist him. Noting
his accent, she inquired
where he was from. When
he replied "Israel" she
began to tremble and spoke
of the Holocaust.
"We will never forget,"
replied Frankl, who was
born and raised in Austria.
"I lost my only brother and
his pregnant wife in the
Holocaust. Bilt we do not
hate the young people like
you."
Extremely touched, the
woman filled his hat with
seed packages. "This seed,"
END OF SEASON
CLEMANCE.
up to
50;
the Following Item:
That was last April. By
August his gigantic
cucumber, weighing al-
most 20 pounds, was
making headlines
around the country.
The 75-year-old horticul-
turist is now drying the -
cucumber for its seeds.
"This cucumber could bring
a revolution in Israeli ag-
riculture," said the white
haired Frankl during an
interview in his Jerusalem
apartment.
However, cucumbers, or
agriculture for that matter,
are not his only interest. In
fact, before he came to Israel
in 1931, Frankl was known
throughout Austria as that
country's leading long-
distance runner. He even
represented his country in
the 1928 Amsterdam
Olympics.
Born into a cosmopolitan,
non-religious yet tradi-
tional family, Frankl's
father was a director of a
Viennese bank-credit firm
owned by the Rothschild
family. During the Nazi
persecutions the elder
Frankl was arrested and
forced to clean streets.
Frankl, then settled in
Eretz Yisrael, was finally
able to send for his parents
in 1938.
Frankl always main-
tained his two loves:
sports and agriculture.
He originally came to Is-
rael in 1931, at the invita-
tion of the World Madca-
bia Union, to help build
the first running track in
Tel Aviv. Friends and
family -thought he was
crazy when he decided to
remain, he recalled. "I
didn't know the language
and I had no profession. I
ended up loading camel
caravans, filling boxes
and paving city streets,"
he said.
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she pointed out, "is the Her-
cules Club which has been
cultivated in Italy. I hope it
will give you wonderful
cucumbers in your coun-
try." It was three years be-
fore Frankl finally planted
the Hercules Club seed,
since he was busy complet-
ing his recently published
book "Israel Gardening
Encyclopedia, Month by
Month."
Eventually he began
teaching sports and agricul-
ture in a school in
Jerusalem, a job that lasted
30 years, even though he
and his wife had originally
intended to join a kibutz.
Teaching at the
Jerusalem school held
many ironies for Frankl
throughout the many years.
"When I was a scout leader
in Vienna for a Jewish
youth movement, one of my
scouts was little Teddy Kol-
lek (Jerusalem's mayor),
who was no more than 10
years old at the time. Later,
when I was teaching in
Jerusalem, I had his son as a
student," he said.
Frankl continued run-
ning until four years ago
when he fell and hurt his
leg. He now keeps himself
occupied by writing a gar-
dening column for the
Jerusalem Post and by
working on his next book, a
book for children about a
garden in the kindergarten.
But Frank! is also
engrossed in his own
wonderful garden, nes-
tled into his sloping
Jerusalem backyard.
There he lovingly attends
not only to his record
cucumber, but also to the
hundreds of flowers and
vegetables sprouting in
everything from plastic
containers to old leather
shoes.
Walter Frankl's record-
breaking cucumber is only
the latest and most remark-
able achievement of this
unusual man. The results of
his advice to Israel's gar-
deners are to be seen in
flourishing flowers and
lawns and plants from Dan
to Eilat. There can surely be
no greater tribute to his
special contribution to -
beautifying Israel.
PLO Infighting
Kills Two
BEIRUT — Two persons
were killed and several
were injured Monday as
rival factions of the Pales-
tine Liberation Organiza-
tion clashed in Chatilla, a
town on the outskirts of
West Beirut.
An argument between
two terrorists resulted in an
exchange of rocket and ar-
tillery fire between Yasir
Arafat's Fatah faction and
Saiqa, a Syrian-backed PLO
faction, killing one of the
terrorists and a bystander,
according to police.
Israel Approves
Europe MFO Aid
JERUSALEM (JTA) ---
The Cabinet formally ap-
proved the participation of
Britain, France, Italy and
Holland in the Sinai
peacekeeping force.
It acted apparently on as-
surances from Secretary of
State Alexander Haig that
the four European power-
would contribute to thc,
Multinational Force and
Observers (MFO) within
the framework of the Camp
David accords and no other
political formula.
Bi-National State
TEL AVIV (ZINS) — The
newspaper Haaretz re-
cently editorialized that
annexation of Judea and
Samaria would eventually
lead to a bi-national state
for Israel and end up as a
tragedy similar to Northern
Ireland and Lebanon.