COM . PILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Was Nevis Home
To An Ancient Synagogue?
New Studies
On Infertility
D
The Shock Of 1973
ntire units of the
Israeli army suffered
E from shell shock dur-
ing the 1973 Yom Kippur
War, rendering them unable
to carry on fighting, accord-
ing to the army's former
chief psychologist Col.
Reuven Gal.
Shell shock accounted for
23 percent of the injuries
during the war and affected
thousands of soldiers, Col.
Gal said in a recent speech
at Tel Aviv University. The
ailment had touched soldiers
in earlier wars, but the Yom
Kippur War was the first in
which "complete units sus-
tained shell shock. These
weren't necessarily units
decimated in battle, but
companies, battalions and
even brigades."
These units were kept
from advancing toward
Cairo, he added, and some-
times even pulled from the
battle zone.
r. Boris Tartakovsky,
a scientist with the
Weizmann Institute
in Israel, is conducting
research that could bring
good news to. couples
plagued by infertility.
Dr. Tartakovsky found
that injecting particular
natural growth factors,
called cytokines, into preg-
nant mice greatly reduces
their number of miscar-
riages. This holds true both
for mice naturally prone to
abort and for mice injected
with an abortion-inducing
substance.
Researchers hope this dis-
covery will be able one day
For All Your Moshiach Needs
T
hey accept Visa and
MasterCard and ship
worldwide. But this is
no ordinary merchandise
they're selling.
The International Mosh-
iach Center of Brooklyn,
N.Y., offers a two-page list
of supplies "For All Your
Moshiach Needs."
"But exactly what are my
Moshiach needs?" I hear
you ask.
Wonder no further.
Among the organization's
audio tapes:
• Moshiach in the Air
(copies of a weekly radio
program aired in New York)
• Moshiach — Gone With
The Wind?
• Mr. Moshiach, Please
Books available include:
• L'Chaim Moshiach
• Let's Get Ready
But wait. There's more.
How about Moshiach, in
Persian, Italian or Portu-
gese; and Imagine in Dutch,
Russian and French.
There are bumper stick-
ers, too, and paintings,
games, clothing, coloring
books and a 10 oz. drinking
bottle with, "Moshiach: We
are Ready!" Business cards
announce, "Discover
Moshiach."
For information, contact
the International Moshiach
Center at 355 Kingston
Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11213,
or call (718) 604-2000.
F
or generations, resi-
dents of the Caribbean
island of Nevis have
wondered about the origin
of an ancient stone struc-
ture in the capital city of
Charlestown.
Last spring, they enlisted
the aid of Brandeis
University archaeologist
Robert Zeitlin and his wife,
Judith, in a quest to solve
the mystery of that tiny
building.
When first approached by
the Nevis Historical and
Conservation Society, Mr.
Zeitlin, whose principal
research interest is the pre-
Hispanic archaeology of
Mexico and Central Amer-
ica, was reluctant to take on
the project. But ultimately
he became intrigued by the
possibility of learning more
about what could be one of
the Caribbean's earliest
Jewish settlements.
Some believe the mysteri-
ous tiny building is part of a
17th-century synagogue
built by Sephardic emi-
grants.
The idea that a syna-
gogue existed on Nevis is
"quite plausible," said Mr.
Zeitlin, associate professor
of anthropology at Brandeis.
Together with his wife,
an archaeologist at Brown
University, Mr. Zeitlin com-
pleted his first excavation
on the structure last sum-
mer. The results were
inconclusive, but the
Zeitlins hope a full-scale
excavation, planned for next
summer, will yield more
information.
Contact Mr. Zeitlin at
(617) 736-2210.
A Good Boychik Is Hard To Find
h
to help explain why some
women are infertile or prone
to miscarriage. It also could
eventually lead to improving
the success rate of in-vitro
and test-tube pregnancies,
according to Interface, the
newsletter of the Weizmann
Institute of Science.
Dr. Tartakovsky's most
recent studies follow his
earlier work that led to the
discovery of a growth factor,
CSF-1, that prevents fertil-
ity in mice.
ome (JTA) — Italy's
first Jewish match-
making agency had to
postpone a planned gala sin-
gles weekend marking its
first year of operation
because too
many women
answered its
advertisements.
"At the last
minute, we re-
ceived a lot of
reservations
from women,"
said David Dello
Strologo, director
of the agency,
called Armonia
(Harmony). "It
completely upset
the balance and
meant that we
would have had only one
man for every four women.
We thought it was better to
postpone it."
The festivities were sched-
uled to take place this
month in Florence, but have
now been postponed until
March 18 and will be held in
Milan, the head-
quarters of the
organization.
David Dello
Strologo said
that many of the
last-minute calls
had come from
women
in
England.
"There was a
story about the
gala in the
(London) Jewish
Chronicle, and
then BBC Radio
called to inter-
view me about it after seeing
the article," he said. ❑