ROUND UP

Expedition Delivers 6,000
Yiddish Books To Baltic Jews

Amherst, Mass. — Three
American Jews have just
returned from the Soviet
Union, where they travelled
1,200 miles in a rented truck
to deliver 6,000 previously
forbidden Yiddish books to
Jewish groups in Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia.
Sponsored by the National
Yiddish Book Center in
Amherst, Ma., the expedi-
tion brought Yiddish
primers, classroom texts and
library volumes to new Jew-
ish schools, libraries and
cultural centers in Tallinn,
Tartu, Riga and Vilnius.
Transshipments also are
planned to Kaunas, Vitbesk
and Bobruisk. Most books
have been unavailable to
Baltic Jews since the region

They met the ship
from Helsinki,
loaded the books
onto their truck,
and delivered them
to recipients.

was occupied by the Soviet
Union 50 years ago.
Planning for the expedi-
tion began in 1989, when the
National Yiddish Book
Center, a non-profit organ-
ization specializing in used
and out-of-print Yiddish
books, began receiving re-
quests for books from scat-
tered groups and individuals
in the Soviet Union.
The center has collected
almost 1 million Yiddish
books during the past 10
years.
In December 1989, book
center President Aaron Lan-
sky and board member
Kenneth Turan travelled to
the Soviet Union to explore
the situation first hand and
-establish shipping methods.
The center already had sent
numerous Yiddish books to
Soviet Jews, but they never
arrived.
With the help of Jewish
leaders in the Soviet Union,
the United States and Israel,
Mr. Lansky and Mr. Turan
conceived a plan to use a
truck to deliver the books.
The center's 9,000 members
agreed to underwrite the
cost of the expedition.
On July 14, Mr. Lansky,
Mr. Turan and Janice
Rubin, a photographer, flew
to Stockholm where they
rented a Japanese truck.

Then they proceeded by
ferry to Tallinn, the capital
of Estonia. In the meantime,
their co-workers in the
United States had shipped
6,000 Yiddish books by
freighter to Helsinki, where
they were loaded onto a
truck and forwarded, under
the auspices of the Estonian
Cultural Foundation, to
Tallinn.
Mr. Lansky, Mr. Turan
and Ms. Rubin met the ship
from Helsinki, loaded the
books onto their truck, and
delivered them to recipients
including the National
Library of Estonia, Jewish
cultural centers in Tartu,
Riga and Vilnius, and the
Riga Mitlshul, a new Jewish
day school sponsored by the
Latvian government, where
more than 400 students aged
6-16 are learning Hebrew,
Yiddish, Jewish history,
holidays and customs.
"I have a lump in my heart
and my eyes want to cry in
happiness" said Sema Gasel,
a teacher at the Riga school,
as she watched students un-
pack boxes. "Perhaps you .
don't understand: we are
hungry in our hearts for
Yiddish books! Seeing all
this reminds us of our
childhood, of our Jewish
teachers, our Jewish
homes."
The National Yiddish
Book Center is ready to
supply Yiddish books to Jew-
ish groups elsewhere in the
Soviet Union. Those travel-
ing to the Soviet Union who
are interested in bringing
books to Soviet Jews should
contact the center, Old East
Street School, Amherst,
MA., 01002, or call (413) 256-
1241.

O-U
Kosher Brew

Golden, Colo. — Coors
Brewing Company, the
third-largest brewer in the
United States, has gone

Coors Beer:
Receives kosher certification.

kosher, marking the first
time American malt
beverages have received

kosher certification from the
Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations of America.
The Orthodox Union's cer-
tification, a circled U, will
appear on packages of Coors,
Coors Light and Coors Extra
Gold by December 1990.

IBA Establishes
Olim Network

Tel Aviv (JTA) — The
Israel Broadcasting Au-
thority plans to establish a
new radio network to help
o/im, immigrants, from the
Soviet Union and Ethiopia
integrate more quickly into
Israeli life.
It will broadcast in Rus-
sian and Amharic, the lang-
uage of Ethiopia.
The MA is acting on the
recommendation of Minister
of Education and Culture
Zevulun Hammer, who pro-
posed the broadcast of Heb-
rew lessons, lectures on Jew-
ish festivals, values, tradi-
tions and Israel's geography
for the benefit of new immi-
grants.
At present, radio programs
for immigrants consist of
news bulletins aired three
times a day in five to 15-
minute segments.
The new network could
provide jobs for immigrant
journalists, producers and
other professionals, Mr.
Hammer suggested.

Albert Einstein:
Get A Hair Cut

The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem has for the first
time opened to the public a
portion of the Albert Eins-
tein Archives at the Jewish
National and University
Library.
The exhibit, "Reflections
from Einstein's Archives,"
opened last spring with a
display of letters, photos and
documents relating to the
life of the scientist.
The archives comprise
some 45,000 items, in-
cluding books and records
from his library, which Eins-
tein willed to the Hebrew
University.
Among the objects on
display was a letter, written
by a child in 1951, reading,
"Dear Mr. Einstein. I am a
little girl of six. I saw your
picture in the paper. I think
you ought to have your hair
cut so you can look better."
Also on display: letters ad-

Aaron Lansky of the National Yiddish Book Center with students at the
Jewish Mitlshul in Riga.

dressed, "Einstein, U.S.A,"
and "Dr. Albert Einstein,
chief engineer of the uni-
verse."

Agudath Publishes
Daf Yomi List

New York — The Agudath
Israel of America has
published the third edition
of the International Daf
Yomi Directory, listing loca-
tions throughout the world
where classes are held in the
worldwide folio-a-day
Talmud study program.
Tens of thousands of Jews
participate in the Daf Yomi
program, in which they
study the prescribed daf,
page, of the day.
Rabbi Meir Shapiro, the
Lubliner Rav and Agudath
Israel leader, introduced Daf
Yomi as means of promoting
knowledge of the Talmud
and uniting Jews
throughout the world
through Torah study.
For a copy of the directory,
send $1 for postage and
handling to Agudath Israel,
84 William St., New York,
N.Y., 10038.

A Fast Way To Help
The Hungry

Los Angeles — Mazon, the
Jewish Response to Hunger,
is asking Jews to use money
they would have spent on
food for Yom Kippur to help
feed the hungry instead.
Founded in 1985, Mazon
(the Hebrew word for food),
raises funds in the Jewish
community to support
emergency food assistance
programs, food banks, ad-
vocacy groups for the poor,
international hunger relief
projects and multiservice
agencies that provide food,
shelter and counseling.
Among the 117 organiza-
tions that received Mazon
grants in 1990 were
Forgotten Harvest of Farm-

ington Hills, which picks up
donations of surplus
prepared food and delivers it
to a network of local feeding
programs, and the North
American Conference on E-
thiopian Jewry, which helps
feed thousands of Ethiopian
Jews driven from their
homes by war and famine.

Student Develops
Heart Machine

Jerusalem (JTA) — A Boys
Town Jerusalem student has
developed a heart massaging
machine able to save the
lives of cardiac failure vic-
tims.
Avraham Zarug, a student
of the mechanical engineer-
ing faculty, created the
machine as part of his
graduation thesis, following
a request from Magen David
Adorn.
The machine is able to
carry out 40 to 80 strokes a
minute. It may be attached
to a bed or stretcher and will
massage the chest until
disconnected.

Vets Sought
For New Group

New York — The Ameri-
can Veterans of Israel is
seeking all U.S. and Cana-
dian vets who have vol-
unteered with Israel's armed
forces and are interested in
forming an organization to
continue work on behalf of
Israel.
The American Veterans of
Israel comprises Americans
who manned the rescue
ships of Aliya Bet and served
in the Mahal armed forces
during the War of In-
dependence.
For information, contact
the American Veterans of
Israel, 136 E. 39th St., New
York, N.Y. 10016.

Compiled by
Elizabeth Applebaum

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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