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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE March 26, 1982
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper lor Southern Jewry
(uabhshed 1925
Vida Goldgar
Lditor and Publisher
Bambi Jo Eaton
Assistant Lditor
Leonard Goldstein
Advertising Duel tor
Luna Levy
Copy Editor
Esc hoi A. Harrell
Production Manager
Published every Friday by Ike Sonther■ Israelite. Inc
Set and Class Postage paid at Atlanta. Ga (ISSN 003881 (UPS 770060)
Mailing Address P O Bo* 77388. Atlanta. Georgia 30357
location 188 15th St.. N.W. Phone (404) 876 82 48
Advertising rates available upon request.
Subscriptions $20.00, 1 year; $35.00, 2 years
Member ot Jewish Telegraph* Agency, Religious News Service
''Athene an Jewish Press Assn Georgia Press Assn , National Newspaper Assn
The
Southern Israelite
A Prire Wmning
Newspaper
1980
1981
Better Newspaper
Contests
No to PLO
The violent outbreak on the West Bank is bad forthe Jews and
bad for the Arabs who live there. The only beneficiary is the PLO,
who must be smirking up their gun barrels. A few more dead here
and there are of little consequence to an organization ruled by
terrorism. Remember, 17 Arabs have already been murdered in
the last year because they showed signs of cooperating with Israel
in the peace effort.
Just a short time ago, Jordan declared that any Palestinians
who cooperate with Israel in any way would be considered traitors
and would be executed if found guilty.
Whether it was wise for Israel to permit free elections on the
West Bank back in 1976 is beside the point. What must be dealt
with now is the fact that a number of these mayors are staunchly
nationalistic and committed to the PLO.
The civil administration with which Israel replaced military
authority last year, under the leadership of Arabic scholar
Professor Menachem Milson, was unable to secure the slightest
cooperation from the PLO sympathizing mayor and town council
of El Bireh, so they removed him from office. It was felt the
mayor’s refusal to cooperate was adversely affecting the citizens of
El Bireh.
Now. we have five dead, many injured and the PLO hoping
that somehow all this will somehow, in a last ditch effort, disrupt
the peace process, and cause Israel and/or Egypt to pull back
from Camp David and the Sinai withdrawal.
It must not be allowed to happen.
Vida Goldgar
The search goes on
The Washington Post calls us “rooties." Our
families and friends probably call us by a variety of
names—but not to our faces.
"Rooties” are the mass of people
who have lately taken to exploring
dusty archives and yellowing
records to track down their
ancestors. Alex Haley, what have
you started?
Starting in this issue, on page
22, is a new monthly column, “In
Search of Mishpacha,” by Dr.
Lloyd Mendelson. In the column.
Dr. Mendelson will offer tips and advice gleaned
from his own genealogical research. This first column
has already given me some ideas for pursuing my own
search although 1 doubt I can find anything on ship
passenger lists since our family always understood
that Grandpa Schein was a stowaway.
The idea of trying to trace our story stayed lodged
in the back of my mind for several years. It was one of
those “I’ll get around to it someday" things. Then, last
fall, when I visited an elderly cousin back in Illinois I
started asking questions. “You’re asking the same
things Rick asked when he was here last summer," Ida
told me. Rick? Rick Schein? We’d been out of touch
since we were teen-agers, though he was one of my
favorite cousins then.
Rick, Ida told me, is a professor at Penn State.
She gave me his phone number. What must have been
a two-hour phone conversation not only caught us up
to date on living family but set us on a joint effort to
explore the past.
All we’d known was that Grandpa came from
Alsace-Lorraine in the mid- 19th century. In January I
had wanted to use the computer at Israel’s Museum of
the Diaspora to try to learn more but without a town,
of origin, it wasn’t possible. Now, thanks to Rick, I
have a town.
Rick and one of his sons have just come back from
a concentrated search of old records in Illinois. An
1894 volume of biographical material on leading
citizens of four Illinois counties was a gem.
Not only did this book tell us ihat David Schein
was “the popular and efficient postmaster of
Burksville” but that he was born in Germany on Feb.
6, 1850. His father—and this was the exciting part —
was a machinist of Kempen. Now, at last 1 had a
name—a town to research Referring to my great-
grandparents in Kempen, the book noted that they
“were members of the Hebrew church" and “have now
(in 1894) departed this life.” There were 13 children
and as far as we’ve been able to determine, only
Joseph, Salo and Grandpa David came to this
country.
Kempen—I didn’t have much hope of learning
anything about Kempen easily. Not so. The
Encyclopedia Judaica says the first Jews settled in
Kempen before 1288. The small Jewish population
varied according to whatever persecution was going
on at any given time, but “a synagogue was^ x
consecrated in 1849” (the year before Grandpa's birth)
and in 1854, 26 families in Kempen were affiliated with
it, along with 99 families from the surrounding area.
It was the last few lines that got to me. The
synagogue was destroyed in 1938. On July 25. 1942,
about 200 Jews were deported from Kempen mainly
to Theresienstadl."
Were there still Scheins in Kempen then? I want to
know and somehow I’ll find out.
Han is a robot
by Carl Alpert
HAIFA—Immigration to Israel
has fallen off in recent years, but
those who do come to make their
home here are almost consistently
of a high quality. We had an
opportunity not long ago to
interview one of the recent arrivals
from the United States. He had not
yet been to Ulpan, and our
language of communication was
English, but he is expected to
master Hebrew in a relatively short
period
He has not yet adopted a
Hebrew name, but on the spot we
familarly decided to call him by a
typical Hebrew name—Ilan. We
met him in the Robotics
Laboratory of the Technion on
Mount Carmel. Ilan is a robot.
Those in the field maintain that
mankind is about to enter the
robotic age, marking a major
industrial revolution Japan leads
the world, having some 10,000
robots already in use in industry.
The U.S. is far behind. Countries
like France, Finland, Norway,
Sweden, Germany, Italy, Poland
and Great Britain have already
made a start. Israel is about tojoin
the club.
We had been warned in advance,
so when we first met Ilan we did
not expect to see the kind of
creature described in science
fiction, with metal muscles and
electronic brain, in which lights
flash and bells ring as the creature
lumbers its way menacingly across
the floor. Yet, Ilan does have a
body and a shoulder, and a supple
arm and hand which by command
can perform more than 250,000
different combinations of
movement.
The robot is not intended to
replace labor. Rather, he can be
used to do work which human
labor is unable to peform because
of conditions of intense heat,
presence of poisonous gases, or
requiring infinite delicacy—or
which human labor is unwilling to
do, because of noise, danger,
monotony, strain or “dirty”
conditions. In addition to these
factors, Technion's Prof Roland
Weill cites economy. A “trained"
robot costs less than hired hands.
In recent years skilled labor costs
some $ 15 an hour, whereas a robot
can perform the same job for about
$4
In his present state. Ilan has the
intelligence of a child of 2. More
advanced models can match the
intelligence of a child of 5 or 6, wit h
all its abilities, and that is a lot of
action and motion as an parent of a
5-year-old can attest. Ilan is going
to be taught not only to
understand Hebrew, but also to
use his Jewish brain, and to
undertake more sophisticated
assignments. The more intelligent
the robot, the more economical he
is in operation. At the Technion,
Prof. Ehud l.enz is planning a
project with graduate students to
provide robots with three-
dimensional vision.
Israel’s military industries plan
to put into operation some 30 or 40
robots, all new immigrants,
though perhaps not yet as
advanced as Ilan. and eventually
hope to produce a sabra, prototype
of a new generation of robots
native to the country. At least
they’ll know Hebrew from birth.
Great interest has also been
expressed by kibbutz industries,
which are among some of the most
advanced in the country.
When Ilan put on a
demonstration for us, he was
carefully and painstakingly
inserting steel pegs into their
proper holes, all as per instruction
from the console of the computer.
If an Israel-produced computer
can succeed in putting round pegs
into square holes he will really
cause a sensation.
Today the great race in the
world is to be among the nuclear
powers. The application of science
to industry is now creating a new
class, perhaps to be known as the
robot powers. Considering how
many Jews have won the Nobel
prize, among other achievements,
we may expect that Israel's
contribution in this field too, will
not be small
Welcome to Israel, Ilan!