Newspaper Page Text
Wd«y, Dec. 15, 1967
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
m
Carl Alpert
Floor in Jericho
JERICHO — OnMhe northern
outskirts of this hiswyic old city
is a large and today almost des
erted Arab refugee camp. Across
the road, hidden I
in the dusters ofl
tall palm trees,|
are numer o u i
private hous
most of them |
homes of weal
thy Arabs. Ini
one of the set
buildings, prac-j
tieally unknown,!
is an historic!
site which most Alpert
tourist cars 'and buses pass by.
In the sixth century Palestine
was under Byzantine rule. Em
peror J u sltinian repressed the
Jewish population, which was
concentrated largely in the Gal
ilee and around Tiberias. A small
community existed in Jericho,
and built a modest synagogue,
careful not to compete in grand
eur or size with the numerous
Christian churches which flour
ished at the time. Members of
the congregation gave of their
means and their skills to fashion
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a beautiful mosaic floor of the
synagogue. In the center they cre
ated a seven-branched candela
brum, flanked as was usual in
those days, by am inlaid Shotfar
and reproduction of a Lulav.
Below, they repeated in mosaic
the slogan which appears again
and again in the synagogues of
the period: Shaken al Yisrae’—
Peace on Israel. It was combina
tion prayer, wish, hope, and as
pertinent to our own times as it
was 1400 years ago.
History records that twice in
that century bubonic plague laid
waste the country. Those who
survived faced the great Persian
invasion of the year 611. Persian
rule lasted only fifteen years, and
in the massacres that followed
eviction of the conquerors, the
tiny Jewish community of Jer
icho disappeared. “Peaoe on Is
rael” was covered with debris
and dust.
Fifty years ago a wealthy Jer
usalem landowner, Husni Shah-
wan, excavating for construction
of a winter home in Jericho,
oame across the old mosaic floor.
Reverently, carefully, he cleared
the soil, and built his home in
such way that the building strad
dled high above the entire mosaic
floor.
For fifty years the family care
fully guarded the site against cu
riosity seekers or hostile Arabs,
the present occupant, Mohammed
Shahwan, told me. He kept faith
with his father’s respect for those
who once lived and worshipped
on the site. As a result, this is
peril ape one of the best preserved
of all the synagogue mosaics un
covered in the entire country.
Visiting the Shahwan home sev
eral months ago, General Moshe
Dayan paid tribute to the care
which they had exercised as un
official custodians of the place.
Mr. Shahwan had been a bank
manager until the Six-Day War,
but his bank was now dosed, all
its assets in Jordan. He has
placed a guard over the old floor,
and collects a modest fee from
those who wish to see it.
At the entrance, spelled out in
mosaic stone, is the original
Aramaic inscription crediting
“the holy community, its elders
and its youth, whom the King of
the world helped and Who exert
ed themselves and made the mos
aic .... May they be well re
membered, may their memory be
for good.”
There are no names, but the
donors were devoutly confident
that immortality would be theirs.
The inscription is unique among
all such plaques through all the
ages in its faith and belief. It
goes on: “He who knows their
names and the names of their
children and the names of the
people of their households, He
shall write them in the Book of
Life together with the just.”
As we walked slowly atyay
through the garden, Mohammed
Shahwan called out his farewell,
based on the mosaic in his base
ment: “Peace, peace on Israel and
on all of us.”
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Voice of America
Asked to Aid Plea
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
international president of B’nai
B’rith Women has called on the
Voice of America to inform its
listeners in Communist countries
of the Soviet Union’s discrim
inatory practices against its Jew
ish citizens.
Mrs. Arthur G. Rosenbluth of
Hewlett, N. Y., said that such
broadcasts could help remove
current restrictive measures im-
px>sed on Soviet Jewry “by
making Russians of good will
aware that Jews reoeive unequal,
unfair and unconstitutional treat
ment comp>ared with other na
tional groups in the USSR.”
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