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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE February 14, 1986
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspoper For Southern Jewry
Since 1925
Vida Goldgar
Editor and Publisher
Leonard Goldstein
Advertising Director
Luna Levy
Associate Editor
Eschol A. Harrell
Production Manager
Lutz Baum
Business Manager
Published every Friday by The Southern Israelite, Inc
Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta, Ga tISSN 00388) (UPS 776060/
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Location: 188 15th St., N.W., Atl., Ga. 30318 Phone (404)376-8248
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Make a miracle happen
It's that time of year when volunteers from every facet of the
community gather before banks of telephones to solicit contribu
tions tor the Atlanta Jewish Federation's Super Sunday facet of
the 1986 Campaign.
This Sunday, Feb. 16, efforts will be made to reach thousands
of Atlanta's Jewish households. Super Sundays take place in
communities all over the country. Last year almost 40,000 volun
teers nationwide raised close to S38 million. The national goal this
year is $40 million
Only in Israel
by C arl Alpert
HAIFA
There is no one Israel. 1 he coun
try is a polymorphous, hetero
geneous land ofdiversified peoples
who frequently have less, rather
than more, in common with each
other, vet they are all Israelis. I he
clashes and conflicts of many cul
tures often result in flying sparks.
The experiences ot daily lite run
the gamut from humor to tragedy,
from absurdity to sophistication in
a rough and tumble kaleidoscope
of the unexpected and the improb
able. Else, how to explain the cra/y
quilt pattern of events'.’
Feminism in reverse. A plan to
train newly arrived Ethiopian girls
as seamstresses has failed com
pletely. Not one girl turned up at
the first class session. It appears
that in Ethiopia dressmaking is
considered a male occupation, and
the girls would have none of it.
Intermarriage opposed. Haifa's
chief rabbi. Shear-Yashuv Cohen,
has been asked to use his influence
to prevent a grow ing trend of inter
marriage between Druze boys and
Jewish girls. The complaint came
from Druze elders, who held this
was contrary to Druze tradition.
The rabbi promised to help.
Exercise is good for you. Break
down of the elevators at the Finn
Clinic of Kupat Cholim in Haifa
made it necessary for mothers
bringing infants for examination
to climb seven flights by foot. “1
came to get an EKG test to deter
mine it 1 have a heart problem,
one man said, "and I II probably
have a heart attack before I finish
the last flight."
You don't have to be Jewish.
Detention of the Lebanese Shiite
prisoners in Atlit prison coincided
with the Passover holiday, and
critics of Israel made much of the
fact that during that week the pri
soners were given no bread, only
matzo. to eat It turned out, how-
e\er. that the prisoners acquired a
taste for the Jewish “delicacy” and
continued to ask (or it long after
the holiday.
f athers and sons. When Israel's
Minister of Labor Moshe Katzav
paid an official v is it to the Marbek
industrial plant near kiryat Mala-
chi. the company watchman who
opened the gate for him was his
father. Shmuel.
Qualification or embarrassment?.
The new national prison commis
sioner is Rafi Suissa. Aside from
having been the mayor of Maz-
keret Batya. he has previously been
in the news as the father of David
Suissa, who is at present serving a
prison sentence in France for drug
offenses.
Kibbutz life. A reader observes
with some interest the advertise
ments appearing in the special
supplement of A! Hamishmar,
which circulates among the kib
butzim. There are ads for trips to
the Far East, South Africa and the
U.S.; ads for stereos, videos.
sophisticated telephones, satin
bridal gowns; ads for purple porno
cassettes, which promise "daring"
and specific entertainment.
The human spark. Residents of
the home for aged in Rishon l.ez-
lon were filled uuth praise for the
"wonderf ul boys” who visited them
cleaned up. painted, repaired and
engaged the old folks in warm and
friendly conversation. A similar
report was received from the home
for retarded children, which was
also visited by teams of 10 or 15
composed of hardened criminals
and long-timers, sent on their mis
sions of mercy from the local prison.
An Israeli epidemic • Barents in
the Gilo suburb of Jerusalem com
plain that their young children
have been doing extremely poorly
in the first three years of their
schooling. For the past three years
each of the main teachers in their
school was pregnant, and adequate
replacement could not be found.
The principal's only hope: a search
for middle-aged teachers.
Join the U.N. and see the world.
More that 40 girls from Israel's
northern town of Nahariya. which
has been a popular hangout for
U.N. troops in Lebanon, have
married U.N. soldiers, attracted in
large part by a desire to "see the
world." Most of the marriages
ended on the rocks, and the girls
came back home alone or with
babies.
Shalom, Sholom!
To be sure Atlanta does its part. Super Sunday will be fol
lowed by Super Week, through Feb. 23. for follow-up calls.
Federation has set a goal for this year's campaign of S8.5
million, with another S4 million sought to complete our commit
ment to Project Renewal in Israel.
With the growth of Atlanta’s Jewish population, more and
more services are required in social service, educational and cultu
ral agencies. We take pride in our community and what it offers.
That doesn't happen by accident. It takes dollars. And we hardly
need point out how much our help is needed in Israel.
The campaign slogan this year is Miracles Can Happen.
Indeed they can. if each of us says “Yes, I’ll help."
by Stanley VI. I.efco
Of Sholom. Frume the Maid
said. “Just mark my word, no
thing good will come of him. He's
growing up to be a nobody, a
nothing, the devil knows what!
He's going to be an outcast, a
drunkard, a glutton, an apostate, a
scoundrel, a kna\e, the worst you
can imagine!"
Frume was the pockmarked and
one-eyed maid to the Rabinowitz
family, which counted a dozen
children, including Sholom. who
lived in kasrilev ke. w hich was really
Qiusstfs —Believe Jt or
Else/
ONLY OUT OF me
GOODNESS Of ALL OUR.
cooeonue swier hlerts,
MJ/SH TWUBL&WHER,
mrocY SHCH/RANSKY.
(Jf\s GIVEN PERMISSION
TO 60 TO me UJEST...
eeuevE it or Else, comrades ?
called Voronko, which is in Little
R ussia. in the prov ince of Poltava,
near the town of Pereyaslav.
Frume was a devoted servant.
Of her. Sholom wrote. "She woke
them (i.e. the children), bathed
them, gave them breakfast, brought
them to and from school, beat
them, gave them supper, said the
nighttime She-ma with them,
whacked them again and bedded
all o t them down (including
herself don't think it a shame!) in
one bed. the children next to each
other while she slept across the
foot of the bed."
Liberation came for the children
the day that Ideleh the Ganev fell
in love with Frume and took her as
his bride. Ideleh had a "wild shock
of hair greased down with goose
fat and a flat nose with fused nos
trils w hich he could never properly
blow even if he had 18 heads.”
I he Rabinowitz children partied
happily on the wedding dav, for
they were "celebrating not so much
because a horse thief took a blind
maid in marriage but because they
were getting rid ot Frume forever
and ever." Sholom. who featured
himself the rascal, described how
the children laughed at the way he
mimicked the groom whistling
through his nose and the way the
bride looked at the groom with one
eye. licking her chops like a cat
who had swiped some sour cream.”
Of course. Sholom is the re
know e d humorist Sholom
Aieichem. I he story of Frume is in
the opening chapters of his autobi-
ographv. "From the Fair." Born in
1859 as Sholom Rabinowitz. he
grew up to become one of the grea
test writers in the Yiddish lang
uage. He began his autobiography
in 1908 and continued writing it
until his death in 1916. He is cre
dited with giving the world lev ye
the Dairyman and Mot tel the Can
tor's Son.
Curt Levaint edited and trans
lated the autobiography and in the
introduction noted that Sholom
Aieichem suffered from tuberculo
sis. He was a “living legend, a cul
ture hero among Jews, (who)could
not even afford to go to Arizona
for the winter. Ill, forlon. and in
poor financial circumstances, he
was nevertheless able to look back
in time, to his memories of Eastern
Europe, and re-create his youth at
the bitterest period of his life. At
his death on May 13, 1916. 150,000
people attended his funeral.
He titled his book "From the
Fair,” for, as he wrote, it "impliesa
return trip.... A man heading tor a
fair is full of hope. He has no idea
what bargains he will find and
what he will accomplish. He flies
toward the fair swift as an arrow,
at full speed. Don’t bother him. he
has no time. But on the way back
he knows what deals he has made
and what he has accomplished.
He's no longer in a hurry. He s got
plenty of time. No need to rush. He
can assess the results of his \en
ture. He can tell everyone about
the trip at his leisure whom he
has met and what he has seen and
heard at the fair.”