JE USALEM DA

(1)

THE ZIO. IS'f RECORD, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1946

JE USALEM DA ^y

CJ3y:' CDavid Dainow

• A Principal

S

^OME folk ' ere strolling . slowly into the Hebrew Gymnasmm on a recent evening in Tel Aviv. I fol- l wed and found the ce~tral hall ~f the old building filled With an audience which had come to honour a teacher of the institution ' ho had passed away that day te~ years ago.

The addre ses on the subJec:t of _Jew- ish education were of a hlgh mtel- l~ctual order and couched in superb Hebrew.

What interested me a good deal was the head of a gentleman who sat at the speakers' table. It was a head that appeared to be he :\'n out of rock. He, too, spoke a few words in eulogy of an old colleague.

A few mornings later I heard the man I so greatly admired-he "'as tall and gracious and carried the air of a prince about him-deliver an add~es ~ t~ a thousand people. He gave an illuminating review of the present political situation. For nearly two hours the flow of Jiving Hebrew cam.

from his lips. When he sat do ·n, 1t emed as if he had just been speak- ink quietly to a friend. There ''as not the slightest sign of tiredne

It was for thi r ason I learn d ith some surprise tliat Dr. Bugrn- chov had just turned seventy. H

JOlll quite a prominent group of

'~·oung" Jtuag narians in Ere~z I - rae! who 1 efuse to allow age to mte ·- fere with their public duties, and they r ent being honoured because of the movement of time.

Bugrachov, who has a good brain and a magnetic personality, could have become a great political leader in the Yishuv. He delibe1·ately chose, · however, to devote himself to teach- ing. Bugrachov considered that _by moulding the character of Jew1sh youth he was best serving the in-

t of th growin y· huv. 'l,hou- d of stu ents h e passed o gh his h nds and th honour nrl reve h · . He t ·u carries on 'ly his h. ghly re on ible ta k f principal f the fine Hebrew Gymna-

·u l (high s hool) of Tel viv, and grn hov is name to njure ·ith.

"To ca"

E norm 1 life proceeding he e in spite of turmoil an teno · is ontinuous onder. On Saturday ening I 'las present at the first performance of "Tosca" by the Palestine

olk Opera Company.

The theatre \Vas crowded and ple stood in every aisle. Ther s a distinguished audience of local otables and the guest prima d nna d an enthusastic r ce tion. The rformance ... as go and the players

· layed a high stand d of op ra- . art. fine orch a under an able conductor further enhance the occasion.

At midnigh orne t ree undred folk gather at the famous Ginati cafe, near the theatre, and ve the visit- ing "Tosca" a warm reception. She

· a striking personality, tall in ta- re, the pos e s r of a rf v ice

a high acting ability-a t get r the ideal prima donna.

It was pleasant for me who had admired throughout her performance the rare nuance of her Italian, to

hear the healthy tone of the vibrant Yiddish she speaks ordinarily. The delight which Emilica Vera felt at the cordiality of hel· reception in Eretz Israel was shown in her smiling and happy features. She appeared ready to take the \vhole of the Yishuv into her arms and hug it.

All this ''normality" 'vhilst grave danger hovers over the land. There is an unspoken philisophy permeating all sections of the Yishuv. It says:

"Carry on!"

Branches

1

OBSERVED a small announcement hidden away in my daily news- paper. It indicated that a few even- ings hence a general meeting would take place of the Association of Lithu- anian Jews in Palestine. As I had lived for a number of years in South Africa, the Jewish community of vhich is made up considerably of Jews from Lithuania, I decided to tra- vel to Tel Aviv to attend the gather-

~~ ,

On looking about me, I felt as if I rnight be in Johannesburg or Cape To vn, attending a Jewish function.

'J'h re is something individual about the Lithuanian Je ' everywhere. His disposition is not an unhappy one.

Hi outlook on life appears to be un- complicated. rtain it is that he faces problem squarely and sets about ove ·coming th m. The n en and '·omen about m_ seemed to be in comfortable circum tance . Even the names of the speakers indicated they came from families of which branches had been planted in far-away South Africa.

A Desire

Q F particular interest was the easy use of colloquial Hebrew. Yid- dish ha been for generations the mother tongue of Lithuanian Jews and had become with them a language of hoary tradition. In Eretz Israel, however, they had come easily under the s ay of the living Hebrew tongue.

~urvivors of the calamity ' hich had Deeply concerned with the fate of the b fallen their brethren in Lithuania, the "landsleit" here have raised funds to help them. Thousands of food and clothinrr parcels have been sent to sur- vivors still in camps abroad.

The ·e was, of course, much liveli- ness at the meeting and evidence of bitterness betwee11 various factions.

There was an air of restlessness and of "machlokes." Behind it all, however, the South African visitor, quietly observing the scene, knew that the hearts of these folks were :filled with a sense of pain at the·

mem ry of the past glories of the great Lithuanian Jewry. 'fhe rest- lessn s was but an expression of a passing desire to enlarge substanti- ally the help to those stricken brethren who had not yet been fortunate enou h to reach the shores of the homeland.

magination

EC USE one is "at home" here, a fee · g is engendered that each visitor to Eretz Israel has somehow ente1·tained one's house. This may have been the cause which led me re- cently to take up the house phone at the Eden Hotel in Jerusalem and talk

to Arthur Koestler, who had a ' ed thcit morning. I aid: "I don't know you, hut wish to greet you and say 'Shalom' on your arrival."

"Do come up!" was the response.

For an hour I tall·ed to one of the world's most brilliant analytical l'O-

mancers. Koestler, who is still young, was a working journalist in Palestine some fifteen years ago. He had come to renew acquaintance with the country and to write a novel on his experience. He refused to be lionised here and went about his work unobtrusively. He visited many kibbutzim and lived in some of them. On one occasion he helped in establi hing a new agricultural settlement. It was all done in the early hours of a given morning.

The book he ~Tote during his visit has now been published. It is not Koestler's best work, but it gives an illuminating picture, in the form of first-class fiction, of an experiment in the establishing of a collective Je, ish settlement in Galilee. There is evidence of deep observation, and the characters in the book live. What is of interest is that the hard, unselfish but constructive lives of our pioneers should have caught the imagination of a novelist of so high a rank and reputation in the literary world.

Filming

I

LUNCHED th other· day rilh the proudest boy in Bretz lstael. ut of hundreds of children throughout the land, little Honnie Cohen a chosen for the I ~ading role in Pales- tine', first full l ngth featur film.

His mother old m that Ronni ha 1 taken no notice of the urgent requPsts b ing broad ast f(>r a boy to act as the he o in the first film story t be produced here. He had gone one day to have his hair cut and the bm- ber had fired him with the id.ea of sending in his photograph. He was se n by the American producers and immediately given the role.

"Shots" of many kibbutzim have been taken by the film-makers. The story is that of a child refugee, who finally comes to Eretz Israel to search for his parents. It is a poignant tale of suffering, ending up joyfully in the homeland. Besides the American cameraman and the English sound en- gineer who came out with the producers, a number of resident tech- nicians are assisting.

Ronnie Cohen eats hi lunch quietly.

The prominence being given to him as child film prodigy appears in no way to affect his behaviour. His mother says that Ronnie does not quite see what all the fuss is about.

The beauty of this little lad and his superb natural acting will, however, bring tear's to millions of eyes in months to come.

Bung.o

AT

last the children who visit the growing zoological gardens of Tel Aviv have obtained their hearts' desire. Bungo has arrived all the way from the wide forest areas of the Belgian Congo. No attempt was made by the naval authorities to strap him up and ship him off to Cyprus to join the other refugees there. As a matter of fact, this fine young elephant- captured in 1945-is a truly legal immigrant. He came here from the Khartoum game reserve, accompanied by two Sudanese game wardens.

The director of the Tel Aviv Zoo went to meet Bungo on his arrival at Haifa a few days ago and extended a welcome to him on behalf of the thousands of children who will soon

PAGE FIFTEEN

be taking short rides on his back.

Bt ngo did not utter a word, but sub- mitted in docile ma,mcr to being taken to his new home -a white con- crete sper.iall y built house, containing also a swimming pool. No need for hi ¹ to worry about rental or key mone. . His vegetarian diet wi11 cost two l':!l stine po mds per day.

Thousand of children enjoyed looking at Bungo on th first Sab- bath after his n.rriv., 1. I looked at the happy faces of the kids around me and felt that Bungo was not dis- pleased with his admireTs- except, perha s, that he could not quite understand their Hebrew ej culations! He

vi11, how ver, be trained shortly to understand a few Hebre ^!V directions.

What is impol'tant for Bungo-al- though he is not a'"are of it-is that a famous international game "shad- chan" is at present engaged on the task of finding a suitable mate for him. In due course the first baby elephant born on the soil of Pales- tine will arouse further international interest in this young-old land.

Fzgure Flattery in sutnmer Flora ls by·

Filnoma

^Original^models

with the superb styling you've learned to expect from Filnoma.

Flattering and youthful-looking. Look for the Filnoma label at smart shops throughout the Union - and look your best.

TAILORED AND SPORTSWEAR