For Openers...

Jewry's Role in
Human Advancement

• It's A Crime

SY MANELLO
Editorial Assistant

hen you think of the
criminal mind, you
think of one that is sly,
calculating and devious.
Well, haven't you seen too many
movies! Here are some crimes which
ought to have been included in one of
- the Naked Gun films; it's hard to
believe that they are true.
* Ohio police arrested a teen-ager
and charged him with breaking into a
local florist, where he made off with
seven hanging plants. Detectives
tracked down the suspect by following
a trail of petals to his nearby home.
* Miami police charged three teen-
agers with robbing a local grocery
• store after the inept felons ended up
shooting each other.

•

Eon By You

0.K.,Lers BRING OUT THE
HEAVY EQUIPMENT! MAKE ROOM
FOR THOSE E3OLGI7oZERS!

HI FRANK, PRETTY GOOD,
ALTHOUGH THE
GOING? CARPENTRY TEAM

How' (T

FRANK, CAN
a K, NOW 1-014ER
WE TALK AFOOT THE "S'CI-IRCI-1"
THIS LITTLE
SLOGJLy,„
SUKKAH OF OOR,S? SI-OtOLY

•%.

Here is where the problem began:
Instead of walking around the counter,
the nervous Caty decided to lean
across the checkout stand to retrieve
the money from the drawer. In doing
so, he accidentally fired his gun, strik-
ing Steny in the thigh.
Reeling from the pain, Steny fell to
the ground, inadvertently squeezing
the trigger on his own handgun in the
process. The shot somehow managed
to pierce both of Caty's hands and his
leg.
While the third suspect did all he
could to maintain his composure, the
injured teens grabbed about $200
from the cash registers. Then they
limped out the door, leaving a trail of
blood behind them.
According to a detective, the cul-
prits were not hard to track down:
Police simply drove to the nearest hos-
pital. ❑

The above were all found in
Knuckleheads In The News by John
Machay.

GLASS THROUGH THE AGES
While mystery shrouds their origins,
archeological findings suggest that objects of
glass, such as beads, were fabricated in
Egypt from about 2500 B.C.E. And glass
largely remained an artistic medium for
the next 2,000 years. The industry
eventually spread throughout Mesopotamia
and centered in the Syrian cities of Tyre and
Sidon where epoch-making glassblowing
was invented in the 1st century B.C.E.

Also murky are the precise dates when Jewish craftsman
adopted the art under regional influence, although the Old
Testament (Job) asserts that neither gold nor glass can equal
wisdom--implying it was then known and prized by the people of
Canaan. Other texts mentioning glassmaking were the Mishna and
Kelim. From these references, and glass bottles excavated from
Jewish cemeteries, it appears that the art emerged in Palestine by the
1st or 2nd centuries C.E. Other early evidence:
❑ Fragments of glass bowls from those times were found
in Jerusalem, Ashod and Samaria, possibly manufactured in
factories along the coast.
❑ Talmudic literature records that Jewish artisans in the
sandy Belus area practiced glassblowing.
❑ Third and 4th century plates, bowls, drinking glasses and
beakers inlaid with gold foil images of the Ark, menorah, shofar,
lulav and etrog have been discovered--together with vestiges of a
glass workshop at Beth She'arim traced to Byzantine times.

A quickee...

Friddel was cleaning her attic and
found a beautiful old lamp.
As she rubbed off the dust, a genie
popped out.
"Thank you for releasing me from
this prison," the genie said.
"To show my gratitude, I will grant
you one wish."
"Wonderful," Friddel said. She
reached for her atlas and pointed to a
map of the Middle East. "The people
here have been fighting for as long as I
can remember. My one wish is to
bring peace to this land."
"Um, that's a little too..." he stam-
mered. "These people, they've been, it
goes way back. I'm afraid you're going
to have to make another wish."
"Too bad," the woman said.
"Could you at least help the Lions
with the Super Bowl this year?"
The genie thought for a moment.
"Let's see those maps again."

PHRASEOLOGY

(A taste of Hebrew,
Yiddish, or Ladino)

Er hot a kop vi a ferd.
He has a head like a horse.

With all due respect to the big,
elegant, lovable creatures, this is
not a good thing to have if you
are a human being.

Rare antique pendant
cast with menorah
and shofar

Elegant hevra
kaddisha glass,
circa 1690 C.E.

Accounts of Jewish glass craftsmanship span
the ages. Ornamental 4th and 5th century
bracelets, pendants and medallions were
locally manufactured, and the medieval
period saw the art reach its regional peak. In
1770, a commercial visitor to Palestine
observed: "Jews (are) makers of good glass
which is called Tyria.n glass and is famous in
all countries." Fame was also attached to the
well-known Islamic glass weights thought to
be produced by Jews--perhaps at a major
glass works in Hebron.
It is also believed that Jewish
craftsmen came to Spain, Italy and France at
the time of the Crusades. By the 15th
century, Jewish glassmakers and glaziers
settled in Bohemia and Moravia. Within the
next 300 years, their fellow craftsmen helped
stimulate Hungary's burgeoning glass
industry. During that period, Hungarian
Meyer Oppenheim invented and popular-
ized ruby flint glass.

By the 19th century, many prominent Jewish glassmakers emerged
in England--one of them winning a royal appointment to the court
of George III. Not to be outdone, a New York-based contemporary,
Lazarus Straus and Sons, spearheaded the manufacture and sales of
quality cut glass to the U.S. and Europe.

Other footnotes on the Jew's historical romance with glass:
Jews were among the leaders in producing and marketing
Czechoslovakian glass before World War I. Between the great
wars, many Jewish-owned European facilities manufactured plate
and sheet glass, and mirrors. And to replant the industry's roots,
Baron de Rothschild built a factory near an ancient Phoenician
harbor to provide wine bottles for his great vineyards.

-- Saul Stadtmauer

COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF
JEWISH HISTORY
Harold Berry & Irwin S. Field, Co-chairmen
Harriet F. Siden, Secretary
Founders/Sponsors: Walter & Lea Field

10/17

1997

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