THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Arafat May Visit Egypt

CAIRO (JTA) — PLO
chief Yasir Arafat will visit
here next month, it was re-
ported in the Egyptian news
daily Al Gomhuriyya. But a
source at the Foreign Minis-
try said that no such visit
had been scheduled, but
added that the PLO chief
"would be welcome here at
any time."
The report cited a Pales-
tinian official' in Cairo as
saying that Arafat would
visit Cairo following the up-
coming meeting of the
Palestine National Council
scheduled for Feb. 14 in
Algeria.
Among the items on the
council's agenda is the re-
storation of PLO relations
with Egypt, the official re-
portedly said.
-
The PLO had an-
nounced during a recent
meeting of its council in
Damascus that resump-
tion of relations with
Egypt could be achieved
without Egypt's reneging

on the Camp David ac-
cords.
Rumors of a rapproche-
ment between Egypt and
the PLO have been rife over
the past few months, but
have generally come from
Palestinian sources.
In related news, Iraqi De-
puty Minister Tarez Aziz
was quoted as saying he was
prepared to discuss the re-
establishment of diplomatic
relations between his coun-
try and Egypt.
In an interview with the
semi-official news daily Al
Ahram, Aziz said: "I am
personally prepared to meet
(Foreign Minister) Kama
Hassan Ali or (Minister of
State for Foreign Affairs)
Boutros in Cairo or
Baghdad to hold direct talks
on this issue."

He added: "As an Arab, I
say _ the resumption of
Cairo-Baghdad diplomatic
relations should be made
now."

Canada Jewish Leaders Hit
Vatican's Stance ion Israel

,-„

MONTREAL (JTA) —
The Vatican's refusal to
recognize the State of Israel
has been disputed by two
Canadian Jewish leaders
with a ranking representa-
tive of the Holy See in
Canada.
McGill University Prof.
Irving Cotler, president of
the Canadian Jewish Con-
gress and Alan Rose, execu-
tive vice president of the
CJC, expressed their views
strongly at a meeting with
The Most Rev. Angelo Pal-
mas, the Vatican Ambas-
sador, at the Vatican Em-
bassy in Ottawa.
They met with Palmas to
reiterate Jewish protests
against the audience

Three Israeli
Soldiers Hit in
Lebanon Action

TEL AVIV (JTA) — An
Israeli soldier was wounded
when small arms fire hit a
bus he was riding in near
Sidon in south Lebanon
Monday.
Two other Israeli soldiers
were wounded in a similar
attack on a convoy in the
same area Sunday.
Israeli troops are patroll-
ing the area in and around
Khalde, a Lebanese seaside
resort where Israeli and
Lebanese negotiating
teams have been meeting on
the withdrawal of foreign
forces from Lebanon and
other matters. Fighting be-
tween Druze and Christian
Phalangists has spread in
recent days from the Shouf
mountains to the Khalde
area just south of Beirut.
Meanwhile, Defense
Minister Ariel Sharon
claimed that a road mine
which killed three Israeli
army officers and wounded
two others in eastern Leba-
non last week was "clearly
planted by Palestinian ter-
-7. rorists." He said Israel
would not tolerate such at-
tacks and would take action
to prevent their recurrence.

granted Palestine Libera-
tion Organization chief
Yasir Arafat by Pope John
Paul II last September. Ac-
cording to the CJC officials,
by its refusal to recognize
Israel, the Vatican was sig-
naling the PLO and the rest
of the Arab world that their
refusal to recognize Israel
was not an impediment to
their reception at the Vati-
can.
Palmas replied that the
reason the Vatican does not
recognize Israel is because
it is in a "conflict area." He
said that "As soon as there
is peace between Israel and
her neighbors, we shall rec-
ognize Israel."

Israel Holds 83
UN 'Employees'

GENEVA (JTA) — The
United Nations Relief and
Works Agency (UNRWA)
claims that the Israel army
is still holding 83 prisoners
out of 164 of its employees
captured during the war in
Lebanon last summer. The
detainees were identified as
Palestinian refugees in a
UNRWA communique dis-
tributed through the UN
Press Office here.
A UNRWA spokesman
based in Vienna said the
agency has asked Israel
several times for informa-
tion about the prisoners
who are believed to be con-
fined in the Ansar prison.
UNRWA announced at
the same time that it has
reopened 69 of its 84 schools
which were closed when Is-
rael invaded Lebanon last
June. The agency said that
26,078 children have re-
turned to their classes out of
an enrollment of 35,581.

Painting Donated

NEW YORK — A Jack
Levine painting entitled
"Maimonides" has been do-
nated to the Jewish
Theological Seminary of
America by George
Strichman, chairman of the
board of Colt Industries.

Friday, December 31, 1982 33

A Torah Sage's Life and Death in Nurmberg

.

By ALLAN BLUSTEIN

Chaplain, Sinai Hospital

In Nurmberg, Germany
there is ,a quaint mar-
ketplace surrounded by
magnificant examples of
medieval architecture. The
Frauenkirche (Church of
Our Lady), the St. Sebaul-
duskirche and the gleaming
Schoener Brunnen (Beauti-
ful Fountain) ring the
square where the people
come to buy and sell their
produce and wares. Exquis-
ite cafes and shops lend-
their luster to the area — a
veritable tourists' paradise.
Since the end of World
War II, countless American
soldiers stationed there as
part of the NATO forces
have trod those cobbles-
tones, admiring the splen-
dor of medieval Nurmberg.
Very few, if any, were and
are aware that this self-
same marketplace was the
site of the 13th Century
Jewish ghetto. Even fewer
would even guess that the
medieval synagogue stood
where now stands the im-
posing Frauenkirche, and
somewhere lost beneath the
cobblestoned square lies the
vestige of the medieval
"Juddishe Friedhof" (the
Jewish cemetery).
This marketplace tes-
tifies to both the zenith
and the nadir of Jewish
life in the Bavarian jewel
called Nurmberg. The
nadir occurred in the
early 1930s as the first
Nazi rallies were staged
in this very market-
square.
The zenith came about in
that medieval period when
one of the truly great sages
of our people flourished here
— Rabbi Mordehai ben
Hillel, renowned in Torah
circles simply as the "Mor-
dehai."NAmong the works of
this brilliant Talmudist is
his magnum opus ("Sefer -
HaMordechai") in which no
less than some 350
authorities are cited.
So far as his sacred works
were concerned, he lived at
precisely the correct mo-
ment in history. Tragically,
however, he also happened
to live at one of the most
perilous. Together with his
beloved wife Zelda and their
five children, he was mar-
tyred on Aug. 1, 1298 as the
Jew-hatred spawned by the
evil Rindfleisch pogroms
swept across 140 Jewish
communities in Franconia
and central Germany. A few
survivors managed to bury
the family in the friedhof
next to the synagogue.
Rabbi Mordehai was
hardly. your typical
Tal-
.
mudic scholar. He was, in-
stead, a vibrant link be-
tween the giants of the To-

saphist School (as per-
sonified by his revered
teacher and mentor, Rabbi
Meir of Rothenburg and the
later generation of Torah
scholars of 15th Century
Germany led by Jacob ben
Moses ha-Levi, Israel of
Krems, Isserlein, Jacob
Weil, Israel of Brunn and
Joseph Colon of Italy.)
The great Halakhic an-
notator of the Shulhan
Arukh, Moses Isserles,
devoted countless lec-
tures in his yeshiva to the
works of the Mordehai.
We know further that the
very first edition of the
Talmud ever printed (by
Soncino in 1482 some 28
years after the invention
the printing press) con-
tained in additions to
Rashi, the Tosaphot and
Maimonides, the glosses
of "The Mordehai."
He was a prolific writer
producing numerous re-
sponsa and poems as well.
This work served as a basis
for study and precedent by
hundreds of sages who came
after him and who tried to
emulate his example of
Torah learning.
Unfortunately, little is
known of his early life. We
do know that about 1291, he
seems to have journeyed to
Goslar where his right to re-
sidence was disputed by a
certain Moses Tako. "The
Mordehai" won the case but
chose to settle in Nurmberg
anyway because of residual
bitterness in Goslar.
Rabbi Mordehai was
blessed with some of the
greatest Torah luminaries
in history as his teachers:
the illustrious Meir ben
Baruch of Rothenburg al-
ready cited, Perez ben
Elijah of Corbeille, Ep-
hraim ben Nathan and
Jacob ha-Levi of Speyer
were among the outstand-
ing mentors of this saint.
We know too that this
particular area of Fran-

conia was a foundationstone
in the preservation of Torah
scholarship and prod-
uctivity in central Europe,
thanks to men of the caliber
of Rabbi Mordehai. It is
heart-rending to con-

S..

template the unfiniAed
works of this man which
would have constituted a
treasure-house of Torah had
he not been struck down
cruelly by the rampaging
pogromigts of Rindfleisch.

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Demographics

As of December 1978, Is-
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cluded 3,141,200 Jews,
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