Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1992-11-05

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THE
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The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
Serving Columbus and the Central Ohio
Jewish Community since 1922
VOLUME 70
NUMBER 46
NOVEMBER 5, 1992
9 CHESHVAN 5753
'   DEVOTED TO AMERICAN AND JEWISH IDEALS
Grass roots campaign building
to commute Pollard's sentence
page 2
The appeal of Christian
New Thought Churches
page 3
Temple Israel program
to focus on Judaism-
in Israel
fK      «f      W—   «*«~
page 4,
ttospeciive members invited
to learn more about Hadassah
., . page"5
Righteous gentile to speak
at*Year of Woman'Dinner
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„        ,  ,       I   ,    page 9
In The Chronicle
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VIEWS AND REVIEWS
Amos Cte at home in the Negev
By Joseph Cohen
In recent years, the gifted
Israeli novelist Amos Oz has
come to the United States
each November for a three
week whirlwind lecture tour.
In 1991, he did 20 talks in 21
days, crossing and recrossing
the continent. His stamina
and composure are as astonishing as his luck has been
with the airlines' on time arrival. This November he's
back again, enchanting American Jewish audiences with his
sparkling, incisive commentaries on contemporary Israeli
life, literature and politics.
During his two past visits to
New Orleans, he and I became
good friends — how many he
must have, everywhere! —
and on both of those occasions, he insisted in his genuinely warm and engaging manner that my wife Ruth and I
visit him and his family at his
home in Arad in the Negev
Desert. We had to come, he
said, and he meant it. The
same day he got my letter in
November 1991 telling him
we would be in Israel in December, he telephoned to set a
date for our get-together.
At our earlier meetings, he
had told us about his life and
family and the great joy he has
in living in Arad, a still new
town — started in 1941, current population 14,000 —
built on a mountain top, with
the Dead Sea in view not far
below and behind it the Edom
Mountains of Jordan. It was,
he said, a place with a lure and
a pull like no other place in
which he had ever lived. It was
not only a matter of the past
— Abraham had walked its
hills, Masada was hardly a
stone's throw away — it was
equally a matter ofthe future,
for the people of Arad with
their upbeat vitality and their
vision have set out to prove
Ben Gurion right when he predicted years ago that Israel's
destiny would be realized in
the Negev Desert.
station. It was a wonderful
day, the temperature was in
the sixties, with a bright sun
shining. There, we boarded a
bus for Be'er Sheva, where we
stopped long enough to buy an
armful of flowers. Then we
caught a "combey" to Arad.
By 10:30 a.m. we were
knocking on Amos Oz's door.
He greeted us warmly, got the
coffee going and took us into
his study. What a joy, I
thought, to be with him in his
home, and how rare a treat,
like family coming together after a long parting. Amos' wife
Oz to appear in Columbus
Amos Oz will be the featured speaker at the Israel Open
University on Monday. Nov. 9. at the Leo Yassenoff
Jewish Community Center in conjunction with its annual
lewish Bookfair, which runt from Nov. 7-22. He will
discuss "Israel through its Literature."
02 is the author of the Black Box, the winner of
Prance's top literary award, Prix Femina, for the best
foreign novel of 1988; A Perfect Peace, winner of Israeli
Bialik Prize; In the Land of Israel; My Michael mi To
Know a Woman.
The lecture, beginning at 7:30 p.m.. is open to the entire
community free of charge.
The Israel Open Univeisity, ehaircd by Adriennc Chafetz, is a program of the Columubs Jewish tedetanon's
Israel Department in cooperation with the Federation's
Community Relations Council and in conjunction with
the Centers Community College for Adult Jewish Studies.
Ruth and I left the Windmill Hotel in Jerusalem early
Sunday morning on Dec. 22,
1991, and headed for the bus
Nili was at work and would
join us at lunch. She had established Arad's historical and
cultural archives and contin
ues to develop them, gathering
memoirs, taping reminiscences
by the town's first settlers and
obtaining documents relating
to the city and its growth. Additionally, she is heavily engaged in helping settle the
large influx into the city of
Russian and Ethiopian Olim.
Amos beamed as he told us
about her.
We fell into a torrent of talk,
with ideas, observations and
verbal gems swirling around
so rapidly it was impossible to
pluck all of them out ofthe air
and tuck them into our memory. Here are a couple of representative items:
The Olim: In Arad over
1,000 prefabricated homes
have been built for the Russian Jews, with more arrivals
expected. The city has all but
been overwhelmed by the influx, but it is proud of its capacity for absorbing all newcomers. The second most
frequently heard language
these days is not Russian, it's
Hebrew, The most comfortable of the olim are the old
people, all of whom are pensioners of the government.
They get enough support to
pay for an apartment and their
upkeep, which is more than
they got in the Soviet Union.
The least comfortable are the
people in the 40 to 60 age
group, most of whom are intellectuals, many of them academics, for there are no jobs
see OZ pg. 7