•• • COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM Zionist Group Launches Campaign For Release Of Israeli MIAs T he American Zionist The ad appears 11 years Movement (AZM) has after the capture of Zachary launched a major cam- Baumel, Zvi Feldman and paign to press for the Yehuda Katz, all of whom release of four were taken ,/- Israeli soldiers following a missing in tank battle • action, some with Syrian /J for as long as forces in \ 11 years. Lebanon in In a full- June 1982. adver- The fourth • page . tisement last MIA, Air Force Ron Arad, Zachary Baumel week in the Capt. Ron New York Arad, has been Times, the missing for AZM, a na- seven years. tional um- He parachut- brella organi- ed from his jet zation repre- over Lebanon senting 22 in October Zionist organi- 1986, and was Zvi Feld man, Yehuda Katz N _ zations with 1 later handed million members, called on over to the Iranian Iran, Syria and Lebanon to Revolutionary Guards. "use their influence" in With the exception of bringing about the release these four men, all other of the four members of the Western hostages in Israel Defense Forces. Lebanon were freed in 1991. ' Thar's Gold In Them Thar Digs T el Aviv (JTA) — A group of American student volunteers from Minnesota have unearthed a rare and priceless archaeological treasure of 99 ancient gold coins at a dig in the ancient port city of Caesaria. The coins, dating back some 1,500 years to the Byzantine period, are known as solidi, the cash currency of the time. Found under the floor of a home of an affluent family of the era, the coins shed light on the economic and commercial life of ancient Caesaria and the standard of living of the people. The total weight of the coins amounts to about 16 ounces. The find, the first of its kind in Caesaria and one extremely rare anywhere in the world, was uncov- ered as part of a large- scale archaeological dig being undertaken by the Combined Caesaria Expedition, sponsored by the University of Haifa's Recanati Center for Maritime Studies and the University of Maryland. The coins were found in a kind of safe made from a broken basalt flour mill uncovered by the student volunteers. Deciphered by the expedition's numisma- tist, the coins are in an excellent state of preserva- tion. They were minted in the second half of the 4th cen- tury C.E. One side bears the likeness of the head of an emperor; the other is a figure of a victory goddess with military insignia. The coins probably were minted in Antioch or Constantinople, where the period's two primary mints, out of seven, were located. ; Fun Facts For Fun Folks O kay everybody, it's time to put away Thomas Mann (you know you don't really understand The Magic Mountain) and turn off "Law & Order" (deep inside, it's "Unsolved Mysteries" that you love) and get ready for the summer with some really intellectual stuff. Here are some fun facts to get you started. Did you know: * Petroleum was discov- ered by amateur scientist Abraham Schreiner. (So why is it all the oil is in Arab nations?) * Film producer Samuel Goldwyn's original name was Samuel Goldfish. Glub glub. * Israel's former chief rabbi Shlomo Goren served in the Haganah. * Read all about it: A Hebrew newspaper, HaMelitz (The Advocate), was published from 1860- 1904, first weekly then daily, in Russia. * Russian-Jewish novel- ist and poet Peretz Markish, who died on the Night of the Murdered Poets, bore a striking resemblance to Lord Byron. * Halachah, Jewish law, does not obligate witnesses to swear to tell the truth. The rabbis hold that any kind of oath should be avoided, and false vows are considered a descreation of God's name. * One of the first presi- dents of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and the man cred- ited with making the store into a major conglomerate, was Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) of Chicago. Rosenwald gave away some $70 million in his lifetime and created the Julius Rosenwald Fund (which functioned for 25 years after his death), to be used for establishing schools for blacks. Disabled Atheletes Join Maccabiah D on't talk to these four athletes about disabilities. Talk to them about tennis, swimming and running. Among the 650 Americans entering Ramat Gan Stadium in Israel last week were Judy Goldberg, Ryan Martin, Marc Nadel and Brenda Smith -- all dis- abled, all topnotch ath- letes representing the United States for the 14th World Maccabiah Games. It is the first time the disabled competition will be included as part of the World Maccabiah Games. rend. Smith, of t*ith will us ‘nd e marathon while in Israel. Judy Goldberg of New York, born with the brit- tle bone disorder osteoge- nesis imperfect, always wanted to swim competi- tively. It was in water that she initially learned to walk. A National Wheelchair Association competitor, she holds a national record in the 100-meter butterfly event. Ryan Martin of Washington, D.C., began playing wheelchair ten- nis six months after he was paralyzed by a bullet wound. He is a University of Miami freshman and the top- ranked disabled tennis player in the United States. Marc Nadel of Duluth, Ga., was 20 when he was paralyzed in a shooting:, incident. Toda y, --he' team captain of the Atlanta n Tennis. Associati This month he wboth the singles and doubles events at the ALTA Wheelchair League city championships. Dr. Leo and Joan Koven present a Sefer Torah to the leaders of Beersheva's Ethiopian synagogue. Synagogue Receives Torah I srael's first Ethiopian synagogue has just wel- comed a Sefer Torah from Brooklyn. Dr. and Mrs. Leo Koven of New York donated the Torah. They brought it from the old Brooklyn Jewish Hospital where Dr. Koven, now retired, had served. Dr. Koven's late parents donat- ed the Sefer Torah to the hospital more than 50 years ago. As leaders of the Ethiopian synagogue, locat- ed in Beersheva, accepted the Torah from the Kovens, a choir of Ethiopian and Russian children from a nearby school joined the dancing and singing.