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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, November 28, 1985-Page 7
World-Nfltioiifll
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DAVID BIRKAN
On■ Dec.. 1, 1742. the Damascus^based Pasha Suleiman withdrew his army from its encampment aroiind Tiberias. An. 85-day siege oj" the Lake Kin; neret town was ended, one in which faith, diplomacy, and sheer stubbornness, triumphed against a would-be conquerer's force of arms.
Tib.eriaswas built between the years 14 and 18 CE by Judean. ruler Herod, the Gredt, who named it after his patron, the Roman.emperor Tiberias.^ Settlement got off to a rocky start. Neither Herod nor his gesture of tribute to the occupiers of Judea was liked. Jews also believed Tiberias to be an impure site because it was built on graves.
.Its strategic commercial location, fertile lands, hot springs and beautiful environs began drawing Jews among the.ru.sh of Saniaritans. pagans and pcnsioned-off Romari soldiers. Cohanim. menibcrs of the.priestly, Jewish caste forbidden contact with the dead., stayed, away until the city was ritually purified by Shiniion Bar Yochai iibout 120 years later.. The Jewish mystic, according to one version, blanketed the area with lupine plants;.where they died, graves were found and rcmcned. ■
. With the ploughing-under of Jewish Jerusalem by the emperor Hadrian after the massive Bar ■ Kochba revolt. Tiberias became Israel's educa-. tional and reHgious centre. It hosted tht Sanhedrin, Jewi.sh supreme court. The Palestinian Talmud was written there., the correct reading of the Torah and the system of vowel pointing and cantillalion were also, established in Tiberias.
Jews were allowed back into Jerusalem with the Arab conqueist. Tiberias declined into a backwater.
Tiberias" tlrst revival took place in the 16th cen^ tury under Portuguese refugee Don Joseph Na.si and his aide Joseph Adret; who came into the goixl grace.s.of the Turkish sultan.
In the mid-18th century, a powerful Arab sheikh. Dakhar al-Umar. gained control of the Galil \'wm troubled Ottoman rule. He restored a measure of law and order to the area. Appreciative of the value of Jewish settlement for liK-alprosperity; he invited Smyrna Chief Rabbi Chaim Abulafia to restore Tiberias" community, The latter eagerly agreed.
In the late summer of 1742, rumors gathered about an impending invasion by the pa.sha of Damascus with "artillery which fired shells capable of killing 20 nien at a distance of six miles." Sheikh Dakhar fortified a tower a milie from Tiberias. Abulafia urged the townspeople to stay and: rely on the Almighty's protection. Their flight would insult the sheikh and incur his hatred, demoralize theother townspeople, and leave their h()mes and property open to plunder, he warned,
Suleiman's army encamped within .Mght of Tiberias.,,Dakhar\)rgani/ed its defeiulers-.. and'ui-strucled his hroiher Said ic.i stand b\ with a large ■ force of bedouin. The local Ottoman.head gave his official approval — biil.no material assistance — lor the detence. . ■
Suleiman attacked on Saturday. Sept. 8. Some 14 of his tr(.)ops were killed.by a cannonball, a propitious beginning that lifted the spirits of the besieged.
; Suleiman withdrew, and opened fire. Miraculously, there were no casualties or damage in the city after .two weeks. Dakhar attempted a conciliation; he sent a fine horse to Suleiman as a token of submission: The latter accepted the gift but con-;, tinued the siege;.
Some 1,500.shells and no damage later..the. sheikh sent.a second hor.se. Suleiman took it. and again rejected overtures of peace.
Dakhar, trusting .to his defences and hesitant about attacking an Ottoman ruler, considered calling in his brother's troops too drastic a step. Suleiman changed to a tactic of blockade, hoping to -Starve Tiberia.-^ into submission; this was frustrated by Dakhar's local allies.
Dakhar made another attempt to break the deadlock with a third horse. When Suleiman insisted on the destruction of the town and allowing his troops to march throiigh the rubble, Dakhar offered to demolish a few stones and allow. 10 of Suleiman's soldiers to walk through symbolicaly. Suleiman was adamant.
Now Suleiman tried scaling ladders and diversionary tactics, but these efforts, too, were repulsed. He tried to tunnel under, but went offcourse. On the occasion of the Moslem feast marking the fasting rnonth of Ramadan, the sheikh sent another gift-to Suleiman. He accepted and left to lead a pilgrimage to Mecca on Dec. 1.
Abylafia led the Tiberias Jew.s' rejoicing at what was considered a miracle; their confinement also spared them from art epidemic of the plague that had been ravagirig other parts of the country.
Canadian session at GA
JOE POLAKOFF
WASHINGTON -
. Canadian Jewish communal leaders urged their country's delegates to. the 54th General Assembly of the' Council of Jewish Fcderationsof Canada and the United States here to broaden their programs fo include issues of general concern and to wicli^n their .spheres of advocacy to strengthen their political .standing as Jews and;, Canadians.
Speaking at a session on the Jewish Role in the Changing Canadian Political Process- attended by some. 150 . Canadians were McGill University law profcssor Ir\vin Cotler; Jack Silyerst'one, e,\ecuti\ e . director of the Canadian Jewish Congress; and Shira Herzog. Bessin. naliona] executive director of the Canada-Israel Committee.
Summarizing the session's di$cu.ssion of such topics as mental receptivity to overtures bv the
Jewish community and methods of strengthening relationships with various potiticai constituencies, the chairman, Ronald Appleby, president of .Toronto Jewish Congress, said "we must understand strategic planning as proud jews, proud Canadians enhancing the quality of Jewish life" and to ''understand the political process."
The week-long asseitib-Iv, which attracted a record l.'^OO delegates., had The Coming of Age of North American Jewry for its theme. The Canadian anir bassador to the- United States Allan Gotlicband his wife Sondra entertained, the Canadian delegation with a reception at the am-' bassasdorial residence.
Cotler. a former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, suggested that the Jewish political agenda must include.concerns '.'expressly Jewish" and (if "direct and' speciiil. interest" such as Israel and anti-semitisni.
The Name Game
There's a story in almost every Jewish surname and Toronto lawyer FRED M. CATZ-MAN has been researching their origin over the past few years.
In this regular series, Mr. Catzman reports on his research. If ybu have any information relating to the origin and meaning of your surname, please pass it along to Fred M. Catzman, c/o The Canadian Jewish News, 562 Eglinton Ave. E., Toronto .M4P IPI.
DEUTSCH
The readers of this column willhave noted that the preponderance 'of Jewish .-surnames with uhich we are familiar are of German or Slavonic origin. This phenomcnori is'not a coincidence when wc roi-ili-'O thai appro'xiniately one-half of all Je\^s. reside in N(>rth America and 'thut.85.'T ot l.hc'\*.()'rkrs Jews have their roots :n Easiern Huropc-.■
. l.iltie uondcr that v'.e .has c. names like:.;. DoutsL'h.— German, and.t'rom the provinces.' • Franconia'— Frank. Frankel. . .-Swabia —. Schuab
Silesia—.Schlessinger ' . . ."and from.:the cities .Auer.bacli. Eisenberg. Guchzburg, Gordberg. Rosenberg. Rothenberg. Silverberg. Weinberg .to mention (inly a few.
The Officers and Staff of Canadian Friends of Tel Aviv University
mourn with deep regret the untimely pcissin)> of
Dr. Leon Kronitz
Albert J. Lamer National Prcsidenl
Aloshe Zarmi National Executive Director
• But. he said, it may also include subjects "not specificaliy Jewish" such as apartheid and arms control. ;
Cotler suggested four themes: What is the Canadian Jewish political agenda; whom Jews should seek to influence; how to enagage in political advocacy, and w:hat remains to be done, individually and collectively, to effect the process;
He pointed to the recent disclo.sure that the Canadian government was told; by an advisor in 1962 not to bring suspected. Nazi criminals tO'justice because. .that.would be pandering to Jewish rc'venge. The issue, he said, was not seen in a Canadian . context but obscenely . as a Jewish issue.
C(itler also notetl there; is no statement on record of the Trudeau gcnerhment ever making a response to
suggestions for a Canadian remembrance of the Holocaust; This was not because Trudcau is insensitive to the Holocaust or Jews, he said, but because the former prime minister had asked, in effect, "why is this agony any different than, any other historical agony? The Holocaust Was not seen In terms of ''universal significance," Cotler .said.-
In noting elements with which Jewry should have contact. Cotler urged involvement in the p()litical process "on the inside t(V ..make decisions" and. "not only try to influence policy, from the outside." Emphasizing "rnost important is the psychological princi-. pie." Cotter said "we have to be scc'ure as Jews and Canadians. Our cause is not simply a Jewish cause but a joint'cause for all Canadians."
Speaking of political
outlook, Silverstone pointed out that the Canadian government took 40 years
after World War II to establish a commission of inquiry oh suspected Nazi war criminals living in Canada. Silverstone rioted a ''pervasive niindr set" within his experience in Canadian officialdom that he said was "not necessarily anti-Jewish" but which had its own agenda of issues and seeks to avoid others.
Bessin advised the dekgates that ""believing in a principle is not sufficient; you ha\'e to work organizationally and effectively." .She noted that 10 years iigo a Jewish lobbyist. encountered niore difficulty within the-Jewish community than outside.
"It'shiuch better now in both.'; she said. "We've come of age in the Canadian p()liticaf community.".
JERUSALEM (JTA) -The foreign ministry said Sunday it has launched a thorough investigation into allegations that a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy has provided secret defence documents to Israel.
The suspect, Jonathan Pollard, 31, of Washington, was arrested by the FBI last Thur.sday near the Israel embassy. He was a counterintelligence analyst for the Naval Investigative Service. His
wife, Anne Henderson Pollard, 25, vyas arrested Friday. Both are being hield without bail.
The foreign ministry statement .stressed that it is not the policy of Israel to spy in the U.S. The policy i.s to refrain from any intelligence/ action against the U.S. because of the traditional and specialfriendlj relations between the two countries, the statement said. It added that if the investigation showed there was a deviation from this
policy, the "necessary conclu.sions Would be drawn."
There has long been a tacit understanding between the.U.S. and Israel not to engage in mutual espionage. It was underscored in the 1981 strategic cooperation agreement between the two countries which precludes espionage activities of any kind. The agreement actually grants Israel a wide range of information under an intelligence sharing clause.
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