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XHjLJLj=Lu thern Israelite
7
\tlanta Visitor Honored By Professor Einstein
''Z ?*• » her sister in Atlanta,
whde a student .» Tel-Aviv, Palestine, received
Emstems personal reward for proficiency in mathematics.
By JOSEPH A. LOEWINSOHN
A it of romance and enchantment of the
Holy .and is wafted across the seas to Atlanta
in tht delightful personality of Miss Alisa Abou
lafia 1 ho was born in Jaffa, reared in Jerusalem
and educated in Tel-Aviv, Palestine.
This young lady in whose veins flows the
blood of the ancient Hebrews and whose ances
try dates back to immemorial times of Abraham,
is visiting in Atlanta. Her sister is the wife of
Dr. David Beth-Lahmy, principal of the United
Hebrew School of Atlanta.
Miss Aboulafia is a graduate of the “Gymnasia
Hertzlia" of Tel-Aviv, Palestine, the school be
ing similar to our Junior College and named
after Theodore Hertzl, the founder of Zionism.
When Professor Albert Einstein, foremost
scientist of the world, was visiting Palestine a
few years ago, Miss Aboulafia was still a pupil
of the Gymnasia in Tel-Aviv. She was at that
time in the sixth grade where, besides the reg
ular academic course, which included four lan
guages—Hebrew, Arabic, French and English,
she took especial interest in mathematics in
which subject she excelled.
Professor Einstein, accompanied by the prin
cipal of the school, came in the class room
during the lesson in algebra. The teacher, quite
naturally, called to the black board the best pupil
to solve a certain problem. Miss Aboulafia mod
estly admitted she was the one called to work
out the theorem in algebra in the presence of
the author of the theory of relativity.
Baking chalk in her hand, and feeling a little
nervous before the great man, Miss Aboulafia,
her mind working with an accelerated speed
and exhilarating keenness, swiftly and unerr
ingly solved the difficult problem.
Einstein, who attentively watched the girl as
she went through the complicated series of alge-
PROFESSOR EINSTEIN
spirit of Renaissance in Eretz Israel, she im
presses one with an air of self-reliance and is
well acquainted with the classic literature as
well as the modern authors. Her intelligent con
ception of the world history and the lugubrious
history of her people, her interest in art, music
and current events, her compassion for those
less fortunate and the lofty ideas of life, reveals
the cultural background in which she spent her
girlhood before coming to America.
During the savage Arab outbreaks in August
1929 and barbaric attacks on Jews in Palestine,
Miss Abolafia was in Tel-Aviv, a city of fifty
thousand, and the only city in the world that
has a hundred percent Jewish population.
“Fortunately for us, the Jews of Tel-Aviv
were spared the horrors of the murderous on
slaught by the Arabs. We were well organized
and the Halutzim (pioneers) were ready to
defend themselves against a possible attack
on the city and the Arabs were shrewd enough
not to take a chance," narrated Miss Aboulafia,
visibly saddened at the thought of those who
had been slain in that uneven combat, for the
Jews in Palestine are outnumbered by the Arabs
six to one, “but many of my friends were bru
tally killed in Safed and especially in Hebron,
the latter city having borne the brunt of the
bestial attack."
Her cousin, one of the best known civil engi
neers in Palestine, was killed in Jerusalem dur
ing the massacre. He was stabbed with a poi
soned dagger and died within a short time.
It is Miss Aboulafia’s opinion, an opinion
based on the intimate knowledge of the condi
tions in Palestine, that the recent hostilities
toward the Jews were the result of the malicious
underhand propaganda of the present sovereign
bureaucracy.
Ibraic calculations, applauded Miss Aboulafia with a delightful Both the Jews and the Arabs are of Semitic origin and the
spontaneity. Showing his pleasure in witnessing this perform- two peoples had been getting along with a remarkable cordiality,
am e. he warmly shook hands with the girl and expressed his for the bulk o the Arabic*" , a ^ P»yer^
dv ire that a Drize known as the Einstein reward, be given to and unbelie\able misery, appicciated tht humanitarian work of
\boulafta ’ the Jews and their efforts to raise the standard of living in
as xr— ». —-yryc sss.’sa
course, while I was a little
>us—and who would not be
place—I carried away a defi-
impression of the great man.
seemed that a great light of
im was emanating from his
forehead," continued the girl,
niay have been my youthful
Hnation, but I thought I saw
t of aura above his fine head,
lead of a thinker and a musi-
His manners were so gentle
‘is brown eyes were kind as he
in a mild tone of voice."
iss Aboulafia speaks English,
c ‘h, Arabic and Hebrew, the
being her native tongue. Her
ish is all but impeccable and
'peaks it with that delightful
of continental accent that
} rs of the melodious gallicism.
; ng a striking product of the
in
a
th
Ci:
ai
sp
F:
la
E.
sh
ti.
STREET IN MODERN TEL-AVIV
desert and swamps that bred ma
laria. At that time, the Halutzim,
approaching Jerusalem, saw a des
olate plateau with no wells, no
green things, no birds. Here and
there an olive thrust its twisted
silhouette against the blazing blue
of the sky.
The Arabs, whose once glorious
culture was felt throughout the
East, had fallen into decadance
and had become indolent slaves of
a few unscrupulous and avari
cious effendis.
In a comparatively short time
the Jewish pioneers, the immi
grants from the crowded ghettos
of the Eastern Europe where they
lived in oppression, through hard,
unselfish and often extenuating
work, built (Please turn to Page 17)