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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)