'9
I
I
I
I
S
L_ _J
= =
The Seiko Kinetic. It never needs a battery. It gets its
energy from the natural motion of your arm. Like when
you scratch your head to say "How'd they do that?"
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
L
SEIKO
I
n't tr tell
Fine jewelers
Est. 1919
Brilliance Since 1919
11...
30400 Telegraph Rd. Suite 134, Bingham Farms • 642-5575
THREE-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY ONLY FROM AUTHORIZED SEIKO DEALERS. © SEIKO TIME
FAC1DRY DIRECT
FORMICA FURNITURE
RADIANT CREDENZA
48x18x30
PANEL END COCKTAIL
24x48x16
HOURS:
Mon. & Tues. - CLOSED
Wed. - Sat.,10-6
Sun., 12-4
38
Why Music Lovers Everywhere
Hand It To This Performer
45" ROUND DINING TABLE
CLASSIC 6 DRW. DRESSER
72X18X30
* Prices reflect solid colors
FURNITURE OUTLET
2599 Crumb Rd., Commerce Twp. •
669-0066
A recent participant of queStionable ethnic Identity at the summer international hot
air balloon competition in Israel (and you thought everyone was either Jewish or
Arab?).
Q: Does Voltaire have any rele-
vance to Jewish history?
A: Voltaire, pen name of Fran-
smaller numbers of Russians
(mostly Orthodox priests at the
Russian church in Jerusalem),
cois Marie Arouet (1694-1778), Vietnamese (boat people from the
was the premier writer and 1970s) and European Christians
philosopher of the French En- from almost every country and
denomination.
lightenment.
For political reasons, Israel
With its attack on organized
religion and advocacy of ratio- sometimes counts its large Druze
nalism, the Enlightenment is population separately from the
considered the beginning of the Arabs. While maintaining a
modern, secular era. Voltaire, unique religion, the Druze are in
who was hostile to the church fact Arabs.
About 2,000 "Black Hebrews"
and the clergy, also was a vicious
from the United States reside in
anti-Semite.
Unlike his religious predeces- Israel, mostly in the Negev towns
sors, who accused the Jews of of Dimona and Arad.
Recently, Israel admitted sev-
being agents of the devil, Christ-
killers and filled with sin, eral Bosnian Muslims.
Voltaire attacked Jews as evil, ig-
Q: Have any strange Jewish arti-
norant, corrupt and misanthropic
because of their very nature. In facts been found in the United
this sense, Voltaire is regarded States?
A: Probably the most famous
the founder of racial anti-Semi-
Jewish
"artifact" (whether it's
tism.
real is in doubt) is
Q: Is everyone in Israel either Jew- the black-alabaster
Decalogue Stone, dis-
ish or Arab?
A: The composition of Israel's covered in 1860 by
population usually is stated as 85 amateur archaeolo-
percent Jewish and 15 percent gist David Wyrick.
Found outside
Arab. Yet Israel also is home to
several non-Arab ethnic minori- Newark, Ohio, it
bears a picture of a
ties.
Among the most prominent of priest, atop which is
these minorities are the some the name Moses and
2,000 Circassians, originally from an abbreviated ver-
the Caucasus, who fled their sion of the Ten Corn-
homeland when it was occupied mandments, all written in a
by Czarist Russia in the 1870s bizarre form of Hebrew.
Some experts at the time be-
(most Circassians stayed behind).
Although they are Sunni Mus- lieved the stone "proved" that
lims, the Circassians — at their members of the Ten Lost Tribes
insistence — are subject to the of Israel had been in the United
same military service as Jews. States, where they (for reasons
unknown) constructed a number
They live in northern Israel.
Israel also has a large com- of large, earthen mounds, where
munity of Armenians, mostly in the Decalogue Stone was un-
Jerusalem and Jaffa. There are earthed. Among subscribers to
the theory was the stone's dis-
coverer, David Wyrick, who ear-
lier produced a sandstone piece,
also bearing Hebrew, he claimed
to have found in the same area.
A number of modern scholars,
however, say both items are
fakes. "If ancient Hebrew were
present in the Americas, then we
should find evidence of their set-
tlements: towns, villages, trad-
ing camps, and so on," Newark
Earthworks curator Brad Lepper
told Jeffrey Heck in a recent is-
sue of Omni magazine.
The one Hebrew artifact not in
question as legitimate is the Bat
Creek Stone, discovered by offi-
cials of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion in the late 1800s in Loudon
County, Term.
Written in old Hebrew script,
from around 100 BCE, it com-
prises one long line of writing and
reads, "for Judea" or "for the
Judea(ns)."
Experts believe visitors from
Europe during the Roman era
brought the piece with them dur-
ing world travels.
The Bat Creek Stone is housed
at the Smithsonian Museum.
Q: Have there been any famous
one-armed Jewish pianists?
A:Paul Wittgenstein (1887-
1961) was born in Vienna, where
he made his debut in 1913.
Wittgenstein, who settled in
the United States in 1933, lost
his right arm while serving on
the Russian front in World War
I. After the war, he began his
career as a one-armed pianist,
performing music he had adapt-
ed or pieces written specifically
for him. Among the most famous
concertos written for Wittgen-
stein was Ravel's "Concerto for
Left Hand." ❑
Send questions to "Tell Me Why"
c I o The Jewish News, 27676
Franklin Rd., Southfield, MI
48034