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PAGE 16 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE September 19, 1986 Meet A Real Jewish Hero You are cordially invited to hear IOSEF MENDELEVICH Former refusnik and prisoner of Zion at a fundraising brunch reception on behalf of the Soviet Jewry Education and Information Center Jerusalem, Israel Mr. Mendelevich, a prisoner in Soviet Russia for eleven pears made Alipah in 1981 and has been chairman of the Center since its inception in 1983. Sunday, September 21, 1986 10:00 a.m. Congregation Beth Jacob 1855 LaVista Rd., N.E. Atlanta, GA 30329 $3.00 at the door Rabbi Steven Lebow takes pulpit at Temple Kol Emeth Rabbi Steven Jay Lebow is the new spiritual leader of Temple Kol Emeth. He comes to Kol Emeth from New Orleans, where he served as assistant rabbi of Temple Sinai. Originally from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Rabbi Lebow received his undergraduate degree from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he graduated with honors. While at Kenyon College, he helped found the Union of Jewish Students and edited the college newspaper and magazine. Rabbi Lebow recieved his M.A. degree from the Hebrew Union College in 1982 and served as president of the senior class of the seminary. He is married to Madeline Sable, an expressive ther apist, and he is an accomplished 12 string guitarist and a published Steven Lebow poet. The rabbi has initiated several new programs at Kol Emeth: an Introduction to Judaism course for Jews and non-Jews, Tot Shab- bat services, and a guest speakers program called “The Other Voices.” Rabbi Lebow strongly believes in helping Jews find something deeper. “Judaism has flourished for 2,000 years,” he says, “and I intend to see that it continues. I really love America and I love serving the Jews of America.” Temple Kol Emeth is a tradi tional Reform congregation serv ing East Cobb and North Fulton counties. The congregation of over 120 families holds regular Friday night services at the DeKalb Fed eral Community Room, Johnson Ferry and Upper Roswell Road in Marietta. For further information, call the Temple office at (404) 973-3533. A mirage becomes a reality by David Landau JERUSALEM (JTA)—“Making the desert bloom” has apparently become too jaded a challenge for the Jewish National Fund. Now the JNF has made a reality of an even more far-fetched mirage: a swimming and boating lake in the torrid and once-desolate Arava desert. To the visitor coming upon the lake in the Timna Valley park after driving for sweltering miles on the ruler-straight Arava road, a sense of the ultimate fata morgana is almost inescapable. The 17-dunam kidney-shaped lake blends into the surrounding rocky landscape dotted with acacia trees, all in the middle of literally nowhere. The lake was formally pro NOW ON ATLANTA TV the SHALOM SHOW . . Shalom Show Host We Bring the Best of Israel to You!” Richard Peritz WATL-TV-CH. 36 Sunday 7 a.m. • Monday 12:30 a.m. ENTERTAINMENT • TRAVEL • DISCUSSIONS • RELIGION For local advertising information call (404) 455-1493 nounced open July 29, in a water side ceremony attended by JNF officials, parents and children from the settlements of the local Eilat region, and Avram Chudnow of Milwaukee, who has pledged $1 million dollars, the largest contri bution made by an individual in the history of the JNF, to make the lake a reality. Chudnow summed up his commitment to developing the lake and the Timna park with the words: “I am a man of the Arava.” World JNF chairman Moshe Rivlin, speaking at the ceremony, told Chudnow, who has already paid $350,000 and plans to com plete the rest of his pledge within two years, that the JNF would do all it can to turn the Negev into a Garden of Eden. Rivlin recalled David Be Gurion’s vision of a blooming des ert, which Israel’s first prime min ister considered essential to the survival of the state. “We can do the unbelievable,” he said. The JNF excavated the land, lined the bottom of the hollow with polyurethane to prevent the water from seeping into the soil, and piped in brackish water that is plentifully present under the ground. Estimates put the total amount of brackish water under the arid ground of the Negev as high as some 70 billion cubic meters, says Menahem Perlmutter, director of the Jewish Agency's Negev engi neering department, the man who first fired Chudnow’s love for the Arava in 1983. Perlmutter, who works in close cooperation with the JNF, told the JTA that as a result of research by Israel Prize winner Yoel de Malach of Kibbutz Reviv, local settlements use the high salinity brackish water to irrigate such crops as grapes, peanuts and cotton. One of the local settlements. Kibbutz Eliphaz, also operates the Timna park in addition to its gruel ing agricultural work under the fierce Arava sun. Chudnow, in addition to donat ing money himself, also travels all over the United States, attracting other donors “like a missionary,” in the words of JNF U.S. executive vice president Rabbi Samuel Cohen, to raise the $3.5 million needed to complete the park’s development. A land developer and president of a construction company back in Milwaukee, Chudnow said: “I have a developer’s eye and can see the potential of raw land.” He believes that the park will help strengthen the local economy, providing jobs, attracting more settlement and tourism, and “making it possible for people in the area to live hap pily.” The JNF created the park in the Timna Valley some 30 kilometers north of Eilat to encompass the majestic King Solomon Pillars— towering natural columns formed by wind erosion over the millen nia—and the ancient Timna copper mines which date back to prehis toric times. The area also boasts serious archaeological sites—an intact copper smelting furnace, the oldest one ever found, and ancient Egyp tian wall drawings depicting the goddess Hathor, chariots and men hunting the local wildlife. All the evidence points to the fact that Timna was a busy industrial area 4,000 years ago. So far, 11 kilometers of road have been built by the JNF throughout the park since 1977 to enable the 130,000 annual visitors to Timna to reach all the interest ing sites. The JNF hopes to build a further four kilometers as well as a visitors center and camping site at the lakeside when the funds can be found. The lake is divided into two sec tions, with two dunams set aside for swimming, and a larger section, with its own wooden jetty, offering boating and fishing facilities. The Timna lake, which had only been a dusty plan till Chudnow pressed for its construction in 1983, was full of young, splashing child ren when the guests arrived for the opening ceremony. After the local Kibbutz Yotvata children’s choir had performed an elegant undulat ing dance entitled “Water.” they, too, plunged in to cool off. ■hbhhi■mhhmhuh MMMBMMai