411=111.11
HAPPY, HEALTHY &
PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
■ 11 ■ 111111 ■ 11...
"Where You Come First"
Kosins
DAVID BIBER
CRISSMAN CADILLAC
Uptown
Southfield Rd. at
11 1/2 Mile • 559-3900
1350 N. Woodward Birmingham, Mich.
Big & Tall
Southfield at
101 /2 Mile • 569-6930
644-1930
•Bloom 06 Bloom •
Increase
your interest
in Israel
• Registered Electrologists •
Come and let us remove your unwanted hair problem and improve your appearance.
11 0/ 0 Z F I E F R T O E E CN O TORN
Near 12 Mile Rd. bet. Evergreen & Southfield
559-1969
Appt. Only. Ask For Shirlee or Debby
1*TABLE.
• $10,000 yields $47,847 in 15 years
• Non callable
• May be put after 5 years at a 10% yield to
early maturity
• Also available for IRA's and Keogh's
1 0%)
Ze'ev Revach plays Salah Shabbati, a Yemeni immigrant who succeeds
through shrewdness.
• $100,000 + discounted to 97%
•
•
•
•
AFFORDABLE PRICES
The simplest cube to the most
intricate wall unit built to your
specifications by meticulous craftsmen.
Selections for every room in your
home or office in fine woods, laminates,
marble, glass and specializing in...
OUTSTANDING LUCITE DESIGNS
c ent
cF uX RE RD ERNATT E
I NCOME
• $10,000 minimum
For those who
want the finest custom
furniture at...
Ulei,a,o, 661-3838
$500-$9,500 yields 9% per annum
Interest paid semi-annually
Redeemable after 5 years at 100%
Non callable for 5 years
For 46 years a driving financial force,
Ampal-American Israel Corporation,
an American corporation, enables Israel to
grow productively.
For more information and a prospectus for any of
the securities described above, call:
Al Schonwetter
Representative, Ampal Securities Corporation
(313) 547-7056 or
1-800-445-6508 Operator
903
Member NASD and SIPC
This is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an
offer to buy securities. The otter is made only by the
prospectus which may be obtained in any state wherein
the underwriter may lawfully offer the securities.
FIRMLY ROOTED IN ISRAEL,
BRANCHING OUT IN NEW DIRECTIONS
1EMPAL
AMERICAN ISRAEL CORPORATION
C
NEW BUICKS
JUST $ 99
OVER FACTORY INVOICE
ONLY THRU
JOHN ROCHE at SUPERIOR BUICK
15101 Michigan Avenue. - 1 Mile East of Fairlane
SHOP BY PHONE
L
28
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1988
I ISRAEL I
846-0040
ASK FOR
JOHN ROCHE
Old/New Comedy Goes
'Back To The Basics'
CAROL NOVIS
Special to The Jewish News
erusalem — When
Israel's national thea-
ter company, Habimah,
decided to stage a play that
would suitably commemorate
Israel's 40th anniversary,
they turned to the history of
the recent past. Salah Shab-
bati, a musical comedy writ-
ten and directed by Ephraim
Kishon, with songs by Nurit
Hirsch and Haim Hefer,
utilizes some of the country's
finest talents to tell the story
of immigrants from Middle
Eastern countries who came
to Israel in the late 1940s and
early 1950s and humorously
shows how they adjusted to
the ways of the country.
In one of the play's early
scenes, Zeev Revach, who
plays the lead role of Salah
Shabbati, arrives in Israel
and falls to his knees on the
holy ground. "It's an
unbelievably moving moment
for Salah," Revah says. In his
emotion, he can only utter
the "Shehechiyanu" prayer of
thanksgiving. Then a
bureaucratic functionary
comes in and sprays him with
DDT.
That wryly bittersweet
comic passage typifies the ups
and downs of the wave of
eastern aliyah of the period,
which the play recalls.
Salah Shabbati has proved
to be one of Habimah's
greatest hits. The play has
been sold out every night
since it opened and plans are
to continue the run "as long
as my health holds out," ac-
cording to Revach. Crowds are
more than responsive; they
enthusiastically clap, cheer
and sing along. One reason, of
course, is that many in the
audience either experienced
j
the trauma of that aliyah or
are the children of those who
did.
In the period from 1948 to
1958, some one million im-
migrants from Yemen, Moroc-
co, Iraq and other Arab coun-
tries arrived in Israel un-
prepared for such an
onslaught. To provide instant
housing, ma'abarot, or transit
camps, were established by
the predominantly Ashkenazi
government, which
sometimes showed little
respect or tolerance for the
customs of the new arrivals.
Salah Shabbati is one of
these immigrants; a devout,
unworldly, naive head of a
large family who learns very
quickly through native
shrewdness how to operate in
this new world. He bears
more than a passing
resemblance to Tevye the
milkman, if you can imagine
Fiddler on the Roof with a
Yemenite in the leading role!
In fact, Chaim 'Ibpol, who
played the film Tevye, also
portrayed Salah in a film
made some years back.
Among those Salah has to
deal with are people from the
nearby kibbutz, who, wrapped
up in their own idealism, are
intolerant of ways other than
theirs, and tactlessly consider
the newcomers barbarians.
There are the clerks and ad-
ministrator who apportions
houses and jobs and the par-
ty apparachiks of various
political persuasions, who can
pay good money for a vote.
The play even pokes fun at
Americans who donate
money to build forests in
Israel. In one mocking sketch,
Salah earns money by posing
in front of a forest as a tree
planter. The forest bears the
sign of an overseas donor
while the picture is taken.