Rabbi Goren and soldiers at the Wall in 1967 are attended to by Yehuda Bohana.

Stu di
I n
Wax

Israel's Wax Museum compiles
100 years of history.

EDGAR ASHER

Special to The Jewish News

Edgar Asher

he Israel Wax Mu-
seum is a small,
specialty museum lo-
cated on the second
floor of the Shalom
Mayer Tower in Tel Aviv.
Established in 1973, it was
conceived by the Mayer
brothers to show 100 years of
Jewish and Israeli history.

Visitors walk along a win-
ding, darkened corridor that
has 36 tableaux. The first
shows Herzl standing on a
balcony in Basle, as he ap-
pears in the famous
photograph. Another tableau
shows Chaim Weizmann be-
ing sworn in as Israel's first
presiddnt. Rabbi Shlomo
Goren, then chief army
chaplain, is blowing the shofar
at the Western Wall after the
liberation of the Old City of
Jerusalem in 1967. Behind
him are three soldiers who
took part in freeing the city.
The soldiers are accurate
life-size models of the soldiers
who witnessed the historic
event.
The wax museum reflects
the drama and sadness of 100
years. One scene depicts the
Attorney General Gideon
Hausner at the trial of Adolf

Eichmann. The three judges
sit behind Hausner, while to
the left sits Eichmann in his
bullet-proof dock.
Another scene shows the ar-
rest of Eli Cohen in 1965 in
Damascus. This arrest
resulted in Cohen's public
hanging following his trial in
Syria as an Israeli spy.
For two years prior to the
museum's opening, intensive
research was carried out to en-
sure that the scenes were
authentic. Whenever possible,
the clothes worn by the
various characters were ob-
tained for the exhibit.
Sound effects also help to
create the right atmosphere.
We are able to hear the voice
of Ben-Gurion as, with the
clever use of mirrors, we see
the highlight's in his life, in-
cluding his proclamation of
the State of Israel in 1948.
It was necessary to bring to
Israel for two years a master
craftsman to lead a team of
assistants to create the
figures. This job fell to a
sculptress from Hong Kong,
Vivian Sun. She taught
Yehuda Bohana the art of
making wax figures. lbday he
is responsible for their
technical maintenance of 100

figures — and the creation of
new ones.
From time to time a com-
mittee reviews the exhibits
and decides if changes should
be made in the galleries.
When a new personality is to
be added, a sculptor has to
prepare a life size head in clay.
Then the mold for the wax
head. Hair is sunk into the
wax head one at a time. The
eye color is matched exactly,
as is the shape of the teeth,
nose, etc.
Artist Yaacov Agam ap-
pears, in one tableau, at work
against the background of a
huge color photograph of his
new fountain "Fire and
Water," situated at Dizengoff
Circle in Tel Aviv. Another
tableau shows Anwar Sadat
being greeted at Ben-Gurion
Airport by Menachem Begin
at the start of the Egyptian
president's historic 1977 visit
to Israel.
Apart from the main exhibi-
tion theme are topical groups
of well-known Israel sport-
smen and entertainers as well
as the ever-popular horror
tableaux that seem to appear
in all the famous wax
museums the world over. 0

World Zionist Press Service