28 Friday, July 8, 1983 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Bronfman Talks With Spain, Ivory Coast; Liberia Reconsiders Its Ties With Israel NEW YORK (JTA) — Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Con- gress, had private meetings M OF HARVARD ROW •• Designers of Fine Furs Complete Fur Service 11 MILE & LAHSER Phone: 358-0850 :•• ••• •• .• here with Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez of Spain and President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Ivory Coast. The subject of dip- lomatic relations with Is- rael figured prominently in both discussions, a WJC spokesman reported. . The spokesman said the meetings were "highly pos- itive" and reported that Gonzalez invited Bronfman to pay an official visit to Madrid next fall. Bronfman was accompanied at his meeting with Gonzalez by Howard Squadron, im- mediate past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Ameri- can Jewish Organizations. Meanwhile, the leader of Liberia, Commander-in- Chief Samuel Doe, is seek- ing agreement of the People's Redemption Coun- cil, the representative body in Liberia, to open talks with Israel on the resump- tion of diplomatic relations, according to a Radio Mon- rovia broadcast monitored here by the WJC. Doe spoke of the possible "role Liberia could play to help establish genuine peace in the Middle East" and indicated that if MISS YOUR CAMPER? given a mandate, he was prepared to talk with the Prime Minister of Israel. Doe noted, according to the broadcast, that in the 10 years since Liberia and other African na- tions severed relations with Israel in accordance with the decision of the Organization of African Unity (OUA) after the Oc- tober 1973 war, no satis- factory progress has been made toward peace in the Middle East. Doe said "This is because we avoided direct talks with Israel." Tell Them You Care By Sending Them A CUDDLY STUFFED ANIMAL Call 855-6577 and Let Us Do All The work VISA' master charge TME IM,AD•N. C•PC We ship anywhere in the U.S.A. EDGAR BRONFMAN 31065 Orchard Lake Rd. Farmington Hills, Mi. 48018 (313) 855-6577 -Temple Emanu-E1- IS A VIBRANT PROGRESSIVE CONGREGATION WHICH IS ACCEPTING MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS FOR THE COMING YEAR — 1983-1984 Attend Our Prospective Member Shabbot Aug. 5, 1:45 p.m. SYNAGOGUE COUNCIL OPEN HOUSE SUN., AUG. 7, 2-5 pm ONE DAY A WEEK INDEPENDENT HEBREW SCHOOL. RELIGIOUS SCHOOL • ACADEMY FOR ADULTS • SPEAKERS TORAH STUDY GROUPS • BOOK REVIEWS • CHOIR YOUTH GROUP • JUNIOR YOUTH GROUP • YOUTH CHOIR COUPLES CLUB • BROTHERHOOD a SISTERHOOD OUTDOOR SUMMER SERVICES • NURSERY SCHOOL 11•11111 ■ I CALL 967-4020 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION TEMPLE EMANU-EL 14450 W. 10 Mile Rd., Oak Park, Mi. Lane B. Steinger - Rabbi Norman Rose - Cantor Dr. Milton Rosenbaum - Rabbi Executive Dr. Abraham Anaroni - Director of Education & Youth Activities Stanley Finkelstein - President INNIIIIIIN He said Liberia firmly be- lieves in the settlement of disputes by negotiations and while it remains corn- mitted to the Arab cause, "the settlement in Lebanon and the return of all Arab lands and the Palestinian question would be more fruitfully resolved through negotiations." Doe said that if the Peoples Council responds positively to his proposal, "We will proceed in the spirit of the Camp David ac- cords and Liberia's tradi- tional belief in good will among nations, to give due consideration to the estab- lishment of relations with Israel." He urged other African leaders to act more con- structively toward the Mid- dle East because, "After 10 years, our isolation of Israel has only helped to an- tagonize the achievement of peace in that area." Dutch Force to Leave UNIFIL Boris Smolar's `Between You . . . and Me' Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 1983, JTA, Inc.) PRICELESS JUDIACA: Very few Jews in this coun- try — in fact, in the entire world — know about the Cairo Geniza, which is considered the most important collection of ancient fragments of Jewish literary remains and docu- ments written in Hebrew and Aramaic, most of them on vellum. Some of them are older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. "Geniza" is a Hebrew word. It means "hiding." Jewish tradition prohibits the destruction of books which by long use, or want of care, came to be in a defective state. These "invalid" books are disqualified for the common purpose of study; their fragments have to be out of sight to protect them from abuse. Hence, the tradition of geniza — hiding them in cellars or attics of synagogues — which is observed by Orthodox Jews. The oldest geniza fragments — hundreds of thousands of them — were discovered at the end of the last century in the building of the more than 1,000-year-old Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo. There is hardly a branch of Jewish learning that has not been revolutionized and enriched by the discovery of these fragments. Collections of the Cairo fragments can now be found in many major libraries in the world, including the British Museum, the French Academy, the large and famous li- brary in Leningrad, the Hungarian Academy of Science in Budapest, major libraries in Germany, Holland and other countries, and, of course, Israel. Also in libraries of some American universities. The Jewish Theological Seminary of New York, the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and the Dropsie University in Philadelphia are among the Jewish institutions of higher learning in the U.S. that have substantial collections of the Geniza fragments. U.S. FUNDS SOUGHT: The largest collection of Geniza fragments and texts recovered from the Cairo synagogue is now in the Cambridge University Library, in England. It numbers about 140,000 fragments, mainly in manuscripts. The American Friends of Cambridge University — with an office in Washington, D.C. — is now seeking con- tributions from foundations and interested individuals for various projects for the Geniza Collection. The AFCU is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax- deductible organization, and has been receiving for some years contributions from American donors. The funds are needed by the university to complete the conservation and classification of the thousands of yet unclassified frag- ments; to produce several volumes of catalogues listing and describing each of the fragments; and to develop a new comprehensive program designed to serve the require- ments of geniza scholars all over the world. Also, to bring the results of its geniza research to the layman. The accumulation of the centuries-old priceless geniza material from the Cairo synagogue is housed in the Cam- bridge University Library as "The Taylor-Schechter Geniza Collection." It was Prof. Solomon Schechter, when he was a reader in talriludic literature at Cambridge at the end of the last century, prior to his becoming the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, who had con- ceived the idea of bringing to the university the precious manuscript material he suspected could be found in the depository of worn-out sacred Jewish writings in the Cairo synagogue. The Cambridge University sent him 1897 to Cairo at the request of his friend and patron Dr. Charles Taylor, pastor of St. John's. College in Cambridge, a noted mathematician and an enthusiastic student of He- brew who made Schechter's effort possible out of his own means. In Cairo, Dr. Schechter secured the approval of the synagogue authorities to "empty" the geniza. He chose the most promising material and presented it to the Cambridge University Library. When he later came to the U.S. to head the Jewish Theological Seminary, he brought with him a large collection of fragments. AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Parliament has decided al- most unanimously to com- ply with a government recommendation that the U.S. REFLECTIONS: The geniza collection in Cam- Dutch contingent in the bridge, has, in addition to fragments of sacred books, also a United Nations Interim considerable quantity of mundane legal papers, business Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) be withdrawn from Leba- correspondence and individual pieces of secular nature that give eye-witness accounts of the social, economic and reli- non Oct. 19. The Parliament agreed gious activity of the vibrant Near Eastern Jewish com- with the foreign and de- munities of more than 1,000 years ago: Some relate to the fense ministers who stated Crusaders' conquest of the Holy Land. Others confirm the in a recent letter that since Eighth Century conversion of ie Khazars to Judaism. present the oldest known piece of Yiddish literature, the Israeli invasion of Some written in 1382. Lebanon in June 1982, the Dutch battalion assigned to The latest article in Biblical Archeology Review, a non- UNIFIL has been unable to profit journal published every other month in Washington, carry out its mission. features an article on biblical treasures in the Near East by Tikvah Frymer-Kensky. The author of the piece is an asso- ' Woody Allen was born ciate professor of Near Eastern Studies at Wayne State Allen Konigsberg. Uni iersity.