FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
Education minister Prof. Ben Zion Dinsburg said in the Knesset that he was against organized pressure to “Hebraize” names. He said he would change his own name if the Knesset passed a law in the matter, but he would take no initiative to introduce such legislation.
Remains of the town of Bet Yerah (House of the Moon [god]), ranging from the early to the middle Bronze Ages, 2900-1900 B.C.E., were unearthed at the Khirbet Kerak mound on the southern shore of Lake Kinneret during excavations.
Army cooking was gradually becoming Sephardi in style, according to the Chef Army Cooking Instructor. The Sephardi method of preparing fish and vegetables was found to be more suitable to this climate than the prevalent Eastern European method.
An unidentified deaf mute, about 25, dressed in torn clothes, with a long flowing beard, was returned at Mandelbaum Gate [the crossing point between east and west Jerusalem until 1967] in Jerusalem by the Arab Legion. The Legion officer who accompanied him could give no particulars as to his name or when he crossed the lines. Attempts to identify him were fruitless.
Tel Aviv started a public hygiene campaign against dysentery.
50 YEARS AGO
Defense minister Moshe Dayan and his family were hosts at their home in Zahala to 3,000 guests who attended the double wedding of their children, Yael and Assaf. A Greek band played the traditional Yiddish melody “Hosen, Kala, Mazeltov,” and followed it up with “Jerusalem of Gold.” Among the guests were Danny Kaye and Isaac Stern. The music had a distinctly Greek flavor and the food was described as “Salonika-type.”
The extreme right-wing weekly National Zeitung, which was seized in Germany because it printed a portrait of Hitler, was back on sale minus the portrait. The newspaper was reprinted and issued with the same headline that compared defense minister Moshe Dayan with the Nazi dictator, and read: “Israel’s Auschwitz in the desert – mass murder of the Arabs – Dayan in Hitler’s footsteps.”
Naomi Shemer, the composer-songwriter, was taking legal action against a young paratrooper who wrote his own version of her song “Jerusalem of Gold.” The soldier, Meir Ariel, was in the unit that liberated the Old City. On the spot, he made up a verse of “Jerusalem of Iron”. This version gained popularity among many army units. Before departing for Europe and the US, Shemer asked the Association of Composers and Songwriters to protect her copyright, though the soldier had made no commercial use of his version of the lyrics.
25 YEARS AGO
A mezuza that was taken on a US space flight by Jewish astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman was affixed to the doorpost of the new Bernard Bloomfield Science Museum. The museum, had its origins as a modest hands-on science exhibit at the nearby Givat Ram campus of Hebrew University.
Women MKs would begin receiving stationery referring to their specific gender according to correct Hebrew grammar. A number of female MKs had complained about the official Knesset writing paper and envelopes which were emblazoned with the words Haver Knesset. As a result of Knesset Speaker Shevah Weiss’s decision, the female MKs’ stationery would carry the words Haverat Knesset.