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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.