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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, April 12, 1963
Faff Sixteen
Glass Replacement
Call the
GLASS MAN
24-Hr. Service
7 Days a Week
876-6169
New Year in Jerusalem?
By IRUDE DIJB
Paris, like other cities, has many ganizations and of refugees.
faces. One for the Parisian, an
other for the tourist and yet an
other for the refugee.
The Rue de Roziers and its side
streets are not one of the tourist
attractions. The houses are high
and grimy, their facades peeling
and doorways gaping like dark
and mysterious caverns, smelling
of poverty and dispair.
This is the Jewish quarter. A
quarter of shabby shops, small
synagogues, Jewish charitable or-
Happy Holidays
HYDE INTERIORS
755-0062
1425 Venetian Dr., S.W.
Atlanta, Ga.
Upholstering - Draperies - Slipcovers and Cornices
GREETINGS OF THE SEASON
COOK TYPEWRITER SERVICE
• ADDING MACHINES
• TYPEWRITERS
132 Tenth St., N.E.
• RIBBONS
• CARBON
Atlanta, Ga.
TR. 5-2838
mHimiwimumiHiir
CORDIAL GREETINGS
Lenox Record Center
"Music Gift Headquarters”
LENOX SQUARE ON THE PLAZA
CEdar 3-7417 Atlanta, Ga.
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Passover Greetings
Betty Longley, Florist
1143 Ponce de Leon Ave., N.E.
ATLANTA, GA.
TR. 6-4321
GRACIOUS REGARDS
SCHEETZ MOTOR CO.
£30 Tenth St., N.W. Atlanta 18, Ga.
HOLIDAY GREETING
ECONOMY BINDER CO.
154 Piedmont Ave., N.E.
JA. 2-2818
Atlanta, Ga.
P.
adSover
Man's First Festival of Freedom
♦ ♦ ♦
General Service and Repair
Complete Auto and Truck Service
710 DeKalb Ave., N. E.
JA. 5-1161
Armies of them must have passed
through those cobbled streets
since the beginning of this cen
tury; victims of the Russian revo
lution, survivors of the pogroms,
fugitives from Hitler’s regime,
refugees from communist oppres
sion and now the Algerian Jews.
Most of Paris was still asleep
when we arrived there on that
Sunday morning last summer,
but in the synagogues worshippers
were gathering for the morning
prayers.
We slipped into a small syna
gogue, my husband joining the
men downstairs, my two daugh
ters and I climbing the rickety
stairs to the ladies’ gallery.
The place was shabby and held
an air of decay. The red plush
seats, faded and dusty, came
down with a creak that seemed
to reverberate through the whole
building.
Downstairs, the core of wor
shippers consisted mostly of pro
fessional minyan-men, augmented
by one or two people who came
to say Kaddish.
Upstairs, we were alone. Then,
suddenly, in the middle of the
Shemone Esre, the door flew open
and in stamped heavily a big, old
woman, breathing laborously, hair
disshevelled, eyes rolling wildly.
In a hoarse whisper she asked for
alms, conveying in gestures that
she was hungry. Then she passed
her finger over her throat with
much moaning and tears and we
gathered that someone near to
her had been killed. The only
words we could make out were
‘Algerie.’
The girls and I had only a few
small coins between us and I was
almost ashamed to offer them to
her but she grabbed my hand and
tore the money out of it. Then
she turned her back on us and
soon we heard her heavy steps
going down the wooden stairs
outside.
I picked up my prayer book
again. But not for long. This time
it was a little woman dressed in
black, her grey hair neatly comb
ed back and convered with a thin
shawl.
“Don’t waste your money on
the undeserving,” she whispered
in French, “that woman drinks."
She then told us her own story.
A rabbi’s daughter, she lost every
thing in the Algerian uprising,
barely saving her life. All her
family were killed.
I was not going to worry wheth
er her story was true or sit in
judgment over the drunken old
hag. A hand outstretched for alms,
whether for bread or for drink,
carries its own humiliation. But I
did not have any French money.
We were on the way to Spain and
1 get confused with too much
foreign currency. The woman was
willing to wait until the end of
the service when I promised to
ask my husband on her behalf.
He, however, had meanwhile
also distributed all his loose
change amongst the minyan-men.
“Wait,” we said to the woman,
“We shall get some change and
come back.”
There is a surprising number of
butchers’ shops in this district.
But they don’t sport the cuts of
succulent meat one sees else
where. A solitary piece of meat
or sausage would dangle discon
solately in the window behind
the kosher sign. None of these
shops could change our 5000 franc
note but eventually a passer-by
helped
Retracing our stops, we found
the rabbi’s daughter waiting for
us. But she was not alone. In a
second we were surrounded by
men, women and children, Al
gerian refugees, gabbling in a
language we did not understand,
imploring us with hands out
stretched, clinging to our clothes
■others just standing mutely,
their big eyes staring pitifully
One old woman was trying to kiss
my husband’s hand.
Not since visiting Poland before
the war, did I see such a scene.
Most of these' people looked quite
respectable. All were desperate.
With a sense of guilt we con
tinued on our journey, the mem
ory of that encounter imprinted
upon my consciousness. It stayed
there when we returned to that
other Paris, the city of beautiful
buildings, luxurious shops, tree-
lined boulevards and blossoming
gardens, a city of elegant cafes
and of happy, laughing people.
And it rose up before me again
this Pesaeh. But, suddenly, I feel
angry. For does not the Hagadah
contain the answer? Why should
Jews still want to wash with
their tears the stony pavements
of foreign towns? Why not go
and help to make the desert
bloom? Why not next year in
Jerusalem?
Cordial and Gracious Greetings
DANDY FOODS
1936 Piedmont Road. N.E. At Express Lanes
Atlanta, Ga.
Drop in for a Nosh-Kosher Style
FOODS AND PASTRIES
HELEN and GEORGE MANNAS
FULTON EQUIPMENT CO., INC.
Fork Lift Trucks and Government
Surplus Construction Equipment —
Come in and browse around!
2235 Stewart Ave., S.W.
PO. 7-8606
Atlanta 15, Ga.
J
J ^Jdappy ^.Holiday
Amos' Drug Store
“The Biggest Little Drug Store in Town”
Ashby Street at Hunter JA. 2-9533
Passover Greetings
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DRY CLEANERS
BLUNDERERS
“Heats the Dutch
CALI, ONE OF OUR LOCATIONS
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T T T
Shadco Advertising Specialties, Inc.
Jack Rosenberg Sidney Schacter
1079 Spring St., N. W. 873-3 731
ATLANTA 9, GA.
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