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...and we're not lion. Bear with us as we look into Hebrew names.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
0405S
STEM
EI1TER TA
28
You'll Bee Happy
To Hear This...
-
Marc Schechter
Renee Cherrin Erlich
Q: Like any other thinking per-
son, I have spent many hours won-
dering about the identity of the first
Jewish male to appear on the cov-
er of Playboy. What's the naked
truth on this?
A: Here are the bare facts: It
was actor Peter Sellers.
The late British actor was, in
fact, the first man ever to ap-
pear on the cover of that mag-
azine which so, so many
subscribe to because they "like
to read the articles." He graced
the cover in 1964.
•
-
Q: I recently read a very inter-
esting quote, and I would like to
know who said it: "The upbuilding
of a Jewish national home in Pales-
tine is one great, urgent, and his-
torically inescapable task of Jewry.
The upbuilding of Jewish religious
life in America and elsewhere
throughout the world, inclusive of
Israel, is another. One is no sub-
stitute for the other. One is not op-
posed to the other." From the
sounds of it, whoever said this
must have been not only a
fervent Zionist but
FOR
someone pretty right-
wing religiously,
right?
A: Wrong. This
famous remark
was made by the
late Reform leader
Rabbi Abba Hillel Sil-
ver (1893-1963).
Born in Lithuania, Rabbi Sil-
ver came with his family in
1902 to the United States. He
was ordained at Hebrew Union
College in 1915.
Rabbi Silver was a liberal,
without a doubt. But unlike
some other Reform leaders of
the time, who did not support
Zionism, Rabbi Silver was a
Zionist from the day he was
born. And just before the state
was established, he became one
of the leading voices worldwide
on behalf of Israel, mustering
American support both from
Jews and gentiles.
At the same time, Rabbi Sil-
ver was dedicated to Jewish ed-
ucation and religion. He held a
lifelong interest in the concept
of Messianism and always ad-
vocated the importance of Klal
Yisrael, the entire Jewish peo-
ple.
Q: My grandmother often spoke later became rabbi of the Great
of how appropriate it was that her Synagogue. In addition to
being a rabbi, he ap-
brother's name was Dov (He-
parently was a
brew for bear) be-
skilled politician,
cause, she said, he
who in 1956 man-
was always so
- aged to secure
grumpy and growly in the
permission from
Soviet authorities
morning and loved to
to produce 3,000
sleep all through the win-
copies of a Siddur
ter. That got me wondering
(which essentially
about other Hebrew
were reprinted from
names that trans-
prayer books available
aefore the Revolution).
late into animal
Additionally, Rabbi
words. Can Tell Me Why help out?
A: In fact, there are a num- Schliefer helped establish Kol
ber of traditional names that
are words for animals — and
in modern Israel, many names
(especially for girls) have been
derived from bird names.
The most common tradi-
tional names derived from an-
imals are:
Aryeh — lion; Calev or
Caleb — dog; Devorah or Deb-
orah — bee; Dov — bear; Tzi-
pora — bird; Tzvi or Zvi —
deer; Yona or Jonah — dove;
Ze'ev — wolf.
A tradition among
Yiddish-speaking
THE BIRDS/ Jews was to
pair the He-
) brew name
- EE0110" with the
Yiddish
form, creat-
ing such
names as
Aryeh Layb,
Dov Ber, Tzvi
Hirsh, Ze'ev Volf, and
Tzipora Faygl.
Q: I know the Soviets were al-
ways anti-religion, but it seems I
remember once hearing that they
allowed for the publication of a
Jewish prayer book, sometime in
the 1950s. Can you tell me more?
A: The man behind the pub-
lication of the prayer book was
Rabbi Solomon Schliefer.
He was born in 1889 in
Aleksandrovka, Ukraine. His
father was a rabbi, but
Solomon Schliefer began his
life as an accountant. Follow-
ing the 1917 Bolshevik Revo-
lution, his wife and son starved
to death and his mother and
brothers were killed by
Ukrainian nationalists.
In 1922 ; Rabbi Schliefer
moved to Moscow, where he
Ya'akov at the synagogue,
which became the only legal
yeshivah in the Soviet Union.
Rabbi Schliefer died in 1957.
Q: I once heard someone say
that the world owes a great debt to
a Jewish scientist. Otherwise peo-
ple would be dying of infections
every day. It couldn't be the dis-
coverer of penicillin because he
wasn't Jewish. So who was it?
A: The words of admiration
must have been for Selman
Abraham Waksman, who dis-
covered streptomycin.
Born in 1888 in Priluki,
Ukraine (northeast of Kiev),
Waksman immigrated to the
United States in 1910. He
earned degrees from Rutgers
University, where he would do
almost all of his teaching and
research, and the University of
California.
Trained as a soil biologist,
Waksman began research into
how microorganisms produce
substances that kill other mi-
croorganisms. He coined the
term "antibiotics" to describe
the toxic substances.
Waksman began searching
for antibiotics, and in 1944 de-
scribed streptomycin. Although
streptomycin was useful
against many kinds of bacte-
ria, it is most famous as the
wonder drug used to treat tu-
berculosis.
Waksman and his colleagues
went on to discover other an-
tibiotics. In 1952, Waksman re-
ceived the Nobel Prize for
medicine. He died in 1973.
Send questions to "Tell Me Why"
I o The Jewish News, 27676
Franklin Rd., Southfield, MI
48034 or send fax to 354-6069.