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COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AND STEVE STEIN

Up, Up And Away!

Ancient
Torah
Rescued
From
Dubrovnik

ere are some interesting
facts about the new Boe-
ing 747-400 aircraft being
operated by EL AL Israel Air-
lines for its United States-Israel
service:
— All seats in the first, busi-
ness and coach classes have a
personal TV monitor offering
passengers a choice of six movies
and an "Air Show" which dis-
plays the route map, altitude,
rate of progression and the out-
side temperature. First-class pas-
sengers also have personal VCRs
and a video library.
— The wing area of the plane
is 5,600 square feet, an area large
enough to hold 45 medium-sized

H

en an artillery
crashed
shell
through the roof of
the ancient synagogue in
Dubrovnik in the former Yu-
goslavia, the congregation
knew it was time to find a
safe refuge for its treasures.
They turned for help to
the president of the syna- "Yug oslavian Village" by William Lemke.
gogue, Dr. Michael Papo,
who had emigrated to the Unit- the cooperation of the Croatian
government.
ed States.
Last week, an exhibition of
In the two years that have
passed, more than 50 items, in- these historic objects opened to
cluding a 13th-century Torah the public. It will run through De-
scroll and a collection of silver or- cember.
The first documented Jewish
naments and textiles, have been
sent to the Yeshiva University residents came to Dubrovnik in
Museum for safekeeping, with 1324, when the government of
the city-state, then known as Ra-
gusa, decided to hire a Jewish
physician. The Jewish popula-
tion grew through the influx of
Sephardic, Italian, Ottoman and
Balkan Jews; today, it compris-
es about 15 individuals in a city
of 23,000.

The three Torah scrolls in the
Yeshiva University Museum ex-
hibition were written in the 13th
and 14th centuries and brought
to Dubrovnik in 1492, when King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
launched Christopher Columbus
on his voyage — and expelled all
the Jews from Spain.
Also included in the exhibit are
ark curtains, Torah mantles and
Torah bindings.
The museum is at 2520 Ams-
terdam Avenue at W. 185th St.
in Manhattan. For information,
call the museum at 1-212-960-
5390.

This (Arid) land
Is Your Land

m

ore than 40 per-
cent of the earth's
surface is covered
by arid lands, includ-
ing significant parts of
the United States and
virtually the entire
Middle East, where
4 water is the most pre-
) cious natural resource.
The Jewish Nation-
i
; al Fund of America
I will host, in Israel, the
first workshop of the
International Arid
Lands Consortium
June 19-24. The pro-
gram will be held at
the Laromme Hotel in
Jerusalem, and will
conclude with a field
trip to the Negev. Rep-
resented at the work-
i shop will be China,
' India, Egypt, Brazil,
Kazakhstan, Uzbek-
!I istan, Kenya, Ethiopia,
Eritrea and the Ivory
Coast.
Israel is the only
'‘ arid-land country in
which the desert is not .,
i,
r
expanding.

0

12

S C HOOL OA

U. 11001. OR

Mike Wallace

hey're rich, they're famous,
they're cool. But there was a
time when some big Holly-
wood stars were lowly college stu-
dents who brought their wash
home to Mom and swore they
would never work for a living. So
where did they go to school?
Check it out:
Woody Allen attended New

T

automobiles.
— The tail height of 63 feet,
8 inches is equivalent to a six-
story building.
— Of the more than six mil-
lion parts, half are rivets.
— The Wright brothers' first
flight at Kitty Hawk could have
been staged within the 150-foot
coach class section.
— There are 365 lights,
gauges and switches in the cock-
pit. That's nothing compared to
the 971. on earlier 747 models.
Improved technology is the rea-
son for the decrease.
— The first non-stop flight
from Seattle to Tel Aviv took 12
hours and 15 minutes.

The Boeing 747-400.

-

York University and the City Col-
lege of New York.
Herb Alpert went to the Uni-
versity of Southern California.
Leonard Bernstein went to
Harvard.
Neil Diamond attended New
York University.
Bob Dylan went to the Uni-
versity of Minnesota.
Art Garfunkel attended Co-
lumbia.
Charles Grodin went to the
University of Miami. -
Dustin Hoffman went to
Santa Monica College.
Leonard Nimoy went to
Boston College and Antioch.
Mandy Patinkin went to the
University of Kansas.
Gilda Radner went to the
University of Michigan.
Gene Shalit attended the
University of Illinois.
Steven Spielberg attended
California State College at Long
Beach.
Mike Wallace went to the
University of Michigan.
This information from The
Celebrity Almanac by Ed Lucaire.

Music To Our Ears

ttention, aspiring corn-
posers, arrangers, song
writers and musicians:
The non-profit Jewish Music
Commission is accepting entries
for its 1994 American Jewish
Song Festival contest.
In addition to $3,000 in
prize money, entrants will
compete to be one of 15
finalists
who will
have their
songs profes-
ar-
sionally
ranged and
performed at
the festival,
which will
be held at
several venues through- I.
out the Los Angeles area.
A group of vocalists
backed by a 10-piece orches-
tra and conducted by Sam
Glaser, executive director of the
festival, will perform the songs.
An album will be recorded at

the concerts and it will be sold in-
ternationally to benefit future
Jewish Music Commission ef-
forts. The 15 finalists each will
receive a copy of the album.
Entrants must submit a new,
never-before recorded or
published song on a Jew-
ish theme. It will be
judged by a panel of
music in-
dustry pro-
fessionals.
Songs must
be recorded on
a standard cas-
sette tape and
accompanied
by a lead
sheet. The
deadline is July 4.
For further informa-
tion, call Mr. Glaser at 1-
° 310-652-5294 or write to
the Jewish Music Commission
at 15739 Ventura Blvd., Encino,
CA 91436.

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