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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, November 17, 1988-Page 7
.7
DIARY
of a People
DAVID BIRKAN
Herod the Great died Kisley 7 (Nov. 16 this year) in 4 BGE — alone and reviled, despite the constructions that would have left other kings as; objects of much veneration.
Securing his rule by the murder of possible rivals from the Hasmonean dynasty alienated many Ju-deans. Herod's currying favor with Rome added to his unpopularity, particulariy when this involved the imposition of high taxes. His brutal suppression of the Sanhedrin alarmed the populace.
Herod sought to win popular favor by rebuilding the Temple and jts precincts. He called the existing structure small and primitive in comparison' to the size, relative affluence, and internationar prominence that the Judean community had attained since Ezra repaired what was left after the Babylonian devastation some 500 years earlier. Jeriisa-;lem's religious authorities tried to discourage Herod, His subjects suspected he would raze, it completely. To allay their fears, Herod maintained the corhplete operation of the existing facilities while building new ones,
The result was a magnificent structure that was the admiration and envy of the eastern Mediterranean. Herod surrounded the temple mount with a massive walli 913 X 1,515 X 1,586 X 1.050 ft. (Greece's Parthenon measured 101 X 228 ft.) Some 1,000 priests were trained ais masons to work in the inner precincts alone, where non-Cohsanim were forbidden entry. Stone was brought in a thousand wagons from quarries miles away. Halachic strictures were strictly observed in every, phase of construction, includdir^ the ban on using iron implements. The Temple was enlarged and rebuilt with white stone. Gold and silver were liberally applied to surface gates and doOrs. A bridge was built to connect the complex to the upper city. Work continued for 46 years on Herod's Temple, grudgingly recognized as more splendid than King Solomon's. "He who has not seen the Temple of Herod has never in his life seen a beautiful building," comments the Talmud.
Banditiy crushed
Herod launched extensive building projects to aid rural areas., and crushed the banditry plaguing: .the land. He built Caesarea. the country's largest port, and the maritime city of Anthedon; this allowed the Jews,; resentful at the Greek and Phoni-cian seatrade monopoly, the capability to sail out and market their own produce. Herod also built Antipatris, Geba. Cheshbon. Parashim. Phasaelis, Sebaste, Tiberias and other cities. Their breathtak"-. ing ruins suggest habitation an"3 commerce in the Holy. Land of unparalleled vigor.
Herod's irrepressible construction included viaducts, colonnades, theatres, andother public buildings in Syria, Asia Minor, the Aegean, and in Greece, whose culture he admired and propagaited. Herod maintained athletic schools in Greece, and contributed heavily to the Olympic games, earning the: title of the latter's president for life. Herod also built theatres and. hippodromes in the Holy Land. His adulation for Hellenism served to further alienate his own subjects, caught up in a passionate religious and nationalist revival.
Herod demonstrated his loyalty to Rome by imposing baths of loyalty to Augustus on a|l his subjects and. building temples to. the empei-or. He flaunted his Romari citizenship by adding the Julian family name to his p\yn. He sent his soils by Mairir amne to finishing school in Rome.Partieularly irksome to Judeahs was his affixing of a Roman eagle on the outside of the Temple.
The Jews of the Diaspora receivol some benefit. Herod intervened with the Roman auUiorities to restore their privileges in the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the right to collect the half shekel for the Temple. — Herc<l:S Temple complex also included the for-" tress of Antonia, housing a considerable military guard and a refuge for Herod in case of popular insurrection. Fear for his safety, as wieU as consideration of military security, led Herod to build a number of other fortresses across the country. These included Massada on the shores of the Dead Sea, Herodipn in the Transjordan, Gypros near Jericho, and Machaerus and Herpdium in Judea. . As he.wasdying, Herod's final act was to order the execution of the zealots who pulled the Temple eagie down; Ki^ev 7 was proclaimed a Jewish-holiday. .
Overshadows Kristallnacht ceremonies
over speech
BONN (jtA>-
The president of the West German parliament was forced to resign last week after making a speech in which he called the early years of the Third Reich a "glorious" time for many Germans.
Phillip Jenninger, in an address marking the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, said Hitler's "successes were perhaps even more fateful than his crimes and misdeeds" from 1933 to 1938.
He cited German territorial conquests, economic recovery and the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin as indicators of Ger-many's recovery under Nazi rule.
Jenninger's remarks overshadowed ceremonies held throughout West and East Germany to commemorate Kristallnacht -— which foreshadowed the Holocaust.
address heckled
; In Frankfurt. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, addressing a large gathering in the Frankfurt synagogue and on national television, was heckled and interrupted twice by young Jews as he tried to express the nation's repentance for the Nazis' deeds.
■ The protesters wanted to draw attention' to Kohl's participation in a ceremony at the cemetery at Bithbur« in 1985.
Later. West Germany's first Jewish museum was opened in Frankfurt with a
. ceremony also attended by Kohl.
In West Berlin, which has long held a special relationship with the Jew--isTLstate^-SCveral thoiisand-
Honecker's speech was .translated instantly into Hebrew by a translator from Humboldt University in Eakt Berlin, marking the flrst time the language was heard at a meeting of the East German political body.
The ceremony included the presentation by Honecker of state medals to a large number of Jewish activists from East Germany, as we|l as to West German Jewish leader Heinz Galinski, whom Honegker had invited for the first time to participate in Kristallnacht observances.
Later in the day, another commemoration took place in the Volkskammer, East .Germany's parliament, which was also attended by a number of Israelis who attended in an unofficial capacity.
Volkskammer chairman . Horst Sinderman dwelt at lengtKon the contributjbn Jews have made to Germany's political, social and cultural heritage. , The chairman of the East German Jewish community, SigmundRoitstein, also
addressed the meeting.
The event's program was printed in both German and Hebrew, and the speeches were simultneously translated into Hebrew. English. French^and Spanish.
Observers here noted particularly the prominent role given the Hebrew language at both events, saying it implied a high level of recognition. "
There are no diplomatic relations between Israel and East Germany, which ruptured ties with Israel following the Six Day War.
In symposia, documentary films, newspaper stories and exhibition, Austrians remembered Kristallnacht.
Austriar».s. however, are calling the night the "NOvefnber Pogrom," following Austrian historians' recommendations.
the sheer volume of pro-.grams and commemorative ceremonies did not alloNV the often evasive Austrians to circumvent the subject.
•Vienna did not escape v protests, however. Rabbi Avi Weiss and Glenn Richter of New York,
joined by others In the Coalition of Concern, demonstrated against Austrian president Kurt Waldhelni in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral, writing his name on the sidewalk and then erasing it with a giant toothbrush.
The coalition was fpund-ed.in 1986 when Waldheim, suspected of wartime atrocities and with having lied about his past, was elected president of Austria. ■ . .
Waldheim issued a short statement saying "hb cover of silence" should be drawn over Austrian involvement in Nazi atrocities. He made no mention of his own wartime activities.
The city of Vjenna ' opened an exhibition: on Kristallnacht in its historic museurn. The Jewish community held a memorial service in Vienna's niain synagogue, with Chancellor Frank- Vranitzky present.
Various symposia were held, organized by Viennese university students, with representatives of
different schools mounting different but complementary programs.
Throughout Austria, almost all of the country's nevMspapers played up Kristallnacht prominently. All regional papers ranarticlcs ori local events.
Austria's influential news magazine, Profil. published ' a 10-page cover story about the "November Pogrom."
In Washington, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the Nationaf Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said that Blacks and Jews must work together for socialjustice as they .did during the 1960s civil rights movement.
The two spoke ata Kir-stallnacht commemoration at the Union of American Hebrew Congregation's V Religious Acfipn Center here.
"This occasion. 50 years after Hitler. . ; gives those of us who fought for jiistice in this nation and peace in this world. Blacks and Jews, a unique opportunity to come together, to share together," Jackson said! ;
people participated in a silent march to commemorate the bloody pogrom against the Jews.
Eberhardt Diepgen, West Berlin's mayor, said that most G erm a ns preferred to look the other way when their Jewish fellow citizens were stripped of their rights and later sent to concentration camps.
In East Berlin, Communist Party leader Erich Honecker convened a special session of the state supreme political body of the German Democratic Republic, attended by guests from Israel and the World Jewish Congress.
Before the assembled dignitaries and statesmen, Honecker, who is chairman of the state council, spoke about the plight of the Jews under the Nazis and on the obligation to draw lessons from the past.
Saying his country was founded by people who fought the Nazis, Honecker .said, "There is noflight from hisloryhere, no suppressing or forgetting historical facts.'': V He promised that East Germany'.s children would be taught to reject anti-.semitism. ;
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