Page 8 - The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, May 9, 1975
Oi^anizations and People
into
in
IS
visiting sdentists at the Weizinann
REHOVOT —
**A guest comes for a whileand sees for a mile.'' goes the old Yiddish saying that describes a visitor's perspicacity. This year oyer 100 guests — visiting scientists from 19 different countries — are spending a 'while', usually the academic year, at the Weizmann Institute, on sabbaticals, fellowships, and special leaves. Through their wholehearted participation, not only in scientific endeavors, but also in the spirit and activities of the country, they are gaining an insight into Israeli life
during a difficult period.
The. iiitegration of the scientists and their families into the local scene is fostered by Hebrew classes and other extracurricular activities, including trips to archaeological and historical sites accompanied by experts in. the field, lectures highlighting aspects of the area's history, small gatherings to introduce the visitors to one another and to their Israeli counterparts, and celebrations for visiting families — many of whom are not Jewish — to mark the Jewish holidays. These
must be revived by young people'
By CYNTHIA RUBIN
MONTREAL-
The Zionist movement is tired and not functioning as it should, in the opinion of Uri Gordon, the 38-year-old head of the newly-formed Younger Leadership Department of the World Zionist Organization.
"The younger generation must revive the Zionist movement, otherwise Zionism will disappear from Jewish life in the . Diaspora. The Zionist movement can't live on past glories," he added.
Zionist federations are led by professional Zionists who don't make ali-yah. What is the signi' ficance of being in the Zionist movement today and not making aliyah when there are other organizations which do just as much for Israel, asks Gordon.
The Zionist Jew must carrv- out his Zionism, emphasizes Israel-bom Gordon. There must be a re-thinking of the ideological concept not of Zionism but of the Zionist movement, he adds.
Visiting North America on what he calls "my Jewish trip," Gordon hopes to meet young Zionist leaders, the 25-to-45-year-olds, and learn what their feelings are about the future of the movement and how they see co-operation between leaders in the Diaspora and Israel.
He wants to understand "what it means to be Jewish in the Diaspora. This is something our parents understood. We don't."
Gordon blames the faulty Jewish education in Israel for the lack of knowledge the young Is-
raeli has about his counterpart in the Diaspora.
This poses a problem for the young leaders in Israel today who, unlike the older leadership, have no close bonds with Zionist leaders outside the country, he said. Israel must retain an essentially Jewish character, if it is to maintain its position of centrality for world Jewry, he believes.
"Thie Diaspora cannot identify for long with a country which countinual-ly tries to be like all the others," he continued.
Gordon considers the problem of the Israel-Diaspora relationship second to that of security in Israel's survival.
Gordon's program for revitalizing the Zionist movement calls for involving Israeli youth in the social integration of new immigrants in Israel. He hopes to establish absorption groups, "havurot", in each town that will co-ordinate activities with immigrant associations.
At the universities, Jewish clubs should be established for the visiting Jewish student. "This is necessary for a meaningful exchange of ideas between Israelis and Diaspora Jewry." he explains.
organized activities bring the guests in frequent contact both with one another and with their Israeli hosts and lead to: many impromptu social occasions and close friendships — ties that extend beyond the visitor's professional contacts and last beyond their stay in Israel.
"Before I came. I pic-t\ired myself sitting home night after night with no social life belcause of the language barrier,^' recalls 17-year-old Faye Dresner, one of the four teenage children of Prof, and Mrs. Lawrence Dresner. Prof. Dresner of the Oak Ridge National Laboratories, is spending the year in the Institute's department of polymer research.
"The hardest part is breaking the language barrier." admits David, a handsome, athletic-looking teenager, "but with only a little Hebrew you can make friends quickly, start going to soccer games, and you're in."
Nothing in his cultural background, prepared Dr. Ichiro Nakamuro for life in Israel, but he is here now for his second stay with his wife and two children, one a sabra (native-bom) Hebrew-speaking daughter, and has recently extended his fellowship for another year. v
"It's -a good place to work." says the young Japanese cell biologist who first came to Israel and the Institute in September 1969 for two years, followed by two years in Finland at the University of Helsinki, and a return to: the Institute in January 1973 to pursue further research in immunology.
"1 found Israel and the Institute so peaceful in 1969." he says, stressing that he arrived knowing little about the country, since Japanese newspapers in normal times don't give much coverage to Israel. The first air-raid alert of the October war came as a "total shock" to the Nakamuras. but Dr. Nakamura was full of praise for the superintendent of the Institute's Lun^feld-Kunin Housing for Visiting Scientists who guided the family to the complex's well-equpped shelter and anticipated ail their needs;. The Nakamura family find their
Each year, over 100 visiting scientists ^nd extended periods at the Weizmann Institute. Dr. Lawrence Dresner of the Oak Ridges National Laboratories in the U.S. delves into archeology books along with his daughter Eva. (Weizmann)
living conditions here "very comfortable." If there is anything at all they miss.it is Japanese food. Now and then. Dr. Nakamura goes to Jaffa and sometimes even to the Gaza Strip to hunt down the kind of fish used in Japanese cooking.
Out of the ordinary, at least, in Israel, is Ichiro Nakamu.ra's hobby— he collects butterflies. "Most visitors here" seek out historical and archaeological sites. I look for butterfly sites." Ichiro has written a paper about a butterfly he discovered in ithe Sinai desert. "The. species Euchloe falloni Alard was thought to exist only in Africa." he explains. In 1904, a German scientist reported its existence in the Sinai desert, but the observation was discounted until Naka-mura's "rediscovery".
Through Ichiro's hobby, the Nakamuras have widened their social circle beyong the close friends and colleagues at the Institute to people from all walks of Israeli life; A
teacher, an aircraft engineer, the manager of an insurance company, are among^the butterfly collectors with whom Nakamura goes out "almost every weekend. When I leave Israel. I am going to miss them."
An involvement with people — new immigrants, soldiers, school children, as well as colleagues and fellow visitors — has characterized Laura and Martin Kruskal's year at the Weizmann Institute. Prof. Kruskal is spending his sabbatical from Princeton University rin the Institute's Applied Mathematics Department where he is doing "viery exciting" work with Israeli colleagues. With three children awiay at college in the States — they have all been in Israel for a short stay during their parents' sabbatical — the Kruskals have enthusiastically undertaken many projects, involving themselves in Israeli life and gathering new people around them on the way:
The measure of Laura's
success in attracting people is evident in the story she tells of her trip with a group of women delivering cakes to the soldiers stationed on the Golan Heights. "I went into a hut the boys were using as protection against the cold, and noticed that some had even taken to doing needlework to fill the empty hours^ so I
started showing them how to. make things by folding paper. When we ran out of paper, they even took down the pin-ups from their > walls and folded them!"
Wherever they go, the Kruskals pick up soldiers in their five-passenger car, marked with a symbol designating them as vol-unteer drivers. Sometimes they even squeeze in an extra passenger and Laura Kruskal shs pressed against the door "wit^ three Uzis pointing straight &t me. Now where else would I find myself in ^uch a situation?"
One special project of Laura Kruskal's is helping Russian immigrants. "Practically every day now I visit a Russian family," she says, and at their request she has helped them learn English, using her crafts as a teaching media.
Both Kruskals have found the intimacy of Israel most attractive. "When I met President Katzir again at a gathering recently, I asked him: 'Where else in the world can a visitor be in a country three months and
already have seen its president four times'?," Laura says. "The country is so small — famous names become human. You feel part of everything that is going on and everything in Israel acquires a personal meaning."
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