CURRENT INFORMATION ON SEFARAD ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH WORLD NUMBER 46 // NOVEMBER 2011 www.sefarad-israel.es
THE KIBBUTZ: HISTORY, REALITY AND CHANGE A little more than a hundred years following the foundation of the first Kibbutz, on 21 November Sefarad-Israel will present a book and host a discussion in which a number of Kibbutzniks will describe their experiences.
Degania, the veteran kibbutz, on its centenary.
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// Editorial
The 14th Samuel Toledano Awards The annual Samuel Toledano Awards are presented every autumn in Jerusalem. The purpose of these awards is to recognise the efforts of a Spanish researcher and an Israeli researcher in fields such as Jewish communities in Spain and countries of the Sephardic Diaspora; relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims in Spain; and relations between Spain and Israel. These awards pay homage to the memory of Samuel Toledano, a member of a generation of Jews with Spanish blood who are the living embodiment of the return to the Spain of their ancestors, and the foundation of a Jewish community which today is happily integrated into our society. The generous invitation of the Samuel Toledano Awards Commission assigned Álvaro Albacete, the Director of Sefarad-Israel and Ambassador on a Special Mission to the Kingdom of Spain for relations with the Jewish Community and Organisations, to give the address at the main conference of the 14th Award Ceremony. Álvaro Albacete gave a speech entitled “Public diplomacy in relations between Spain and Israel". In this address he discussed the entwined historic paths of Spain and the Jews; the Jewish identity of Spain; the foreign policy on Israel being independent of the party in government; the consolidation of public diplomacy; and the resources and influence of Sefarad-Israel. In this latter regard, he discussed the fraternal association with Jewish communities in Spain; the on-line work with other similar European initiatives; and education as a way of overcoming prejudices. The event was held in the Main Hall of the Bar Association, and demonstrated the strength of the bonds linking everything Spanish with everything Jewish. The winners of these Awards named after a prominent Spanish-Jew are Spanish and Israeli researchers who are chosen by a jury consisting mainly of Israeli professionals based in Israel. The College of Lawyers was a splendid setting in which these Awards reaffirmed the role of our institution as a bridge spanning Spain and the Jewish world.
Álvaro Albacete greets the President of the National Ladino Authority,
> GOVERNING COUNCIL PRESIDENT Trinidad Jiménez VICE-PRESIDENT Esperanza Aguirre Gil de Biedma VICE-PRESIDENT Alberto Ruíz Gallardón > SEFARAD-ISRAEL GENERAL DIRECTOR Álvaro Albacete GENERAL SECRETARY Miguel de Lucas HOLOCAUST AND ANTI-SEMITISM Henar Corbí CULTURE Esther Bendahan EDUCATION Sonia Sánchez MANAGER Ramón de Albert Meruéndano > ALEF MAGAZINE Coordinator of Culture and Opinion Fernando Martínez-Vara de Rey Contributors Esther Querub, Esther Bendahan and Rosa Méndez Photography Pepe Méndez, Samuel Grané, Andrés Lacko and Atlántida Comunicación (www.atlantidacdp.com) News and design Atlántida Comunicación (www.atlantidacdp.com)
Ytzhak Navon, at the College of Lawyers in Jerusalem.
Alef is a monthly periodical published by Sefarad-Israel and Sefarad Editores. All rights reserved. Sefarad-Israel is not responsible for the editorial content or opinions expressed by the authors.
// Agenda
3 >NOVEMBER
3 >NOVEMBER
La Clave Embassy (The Key Embassy): Franco's secret relation with the allies
Gerona's Museo de Historia de los Judíos hosts a debate on "Los Hispanojudíos de Marruecos y sus Diásporas"
A 7:30 p.m. S Palacio de Cañete (Mayor, 69) b Free admission
Patricia Martínez de Vicente is a social anthropologist and writer. Her book “La Clave Embassy” (The Embassy Key) uncovers the work of her father, Eduardo Martínez Alonso, who saved many captives from National Socialism in his works as a doctor at the British Embassy in Madrid during the 2nd World War. His dual role as a doctor and an SOE agent (Special Operations Executive, an organisation founded by Winston Churchill), and particularly his committed, humanitarian outlook, led him to help hundreds of people who had escaped from Poland and other countries invaded by the Nazi hordes. According to the writer, “this was not just about caring for the victims, it was about giving them back their dignity”. However, doctor Martínez Alonso's heroic work has been hidden for decades. He took a vow of silence under the Official Secrets Act he signed with the British state and crown in 1943. This episode invites us to reflect on the supposed neutrality of the Franco regime during the 2nd World War. Patricia Martínez de Vicente will be discussing these and other issues with the prestigious writer and journalist Diego Carcedo, who was recently awarded the Espasa Essay Award for his work “Entre bestias y héroes. Los españoles que plantaron cara al Holocausto” ("Between beasts and heroes: the Spaniards who stood up to the Holocaust").
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A 6 p.m. S Museu d’Història del Jueus, Girona
Since July, the Museu d’Història del Jueus has been hosting the exhibition “Los Hispanojudíos de Marruecos y sus Diásporas” (The Hispanic Jews of Morocco and their Diasporas), which was produced by Sefarad-Israel. To mark the end of the exhibition, the Museum is hosting a debate involving Esther Bendahan, Miguel de Lucas and Jacobo Israel. The first two of these will be representing Sefarad-Israel and were the curators of the exhibition, whilst Esther Bendahan and Jacobo Israel are Sephardic Jews from Tetuan who have experienced the return to Spain in person. The exhibition uses a number of panels and period photographs to explain the historic background to the Diaspora and the creation of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco; daily life in cities such as Tangiers and Tetuan; and unique aspects such as liturgy, language and cuisine. The Sephardic presence in North Africa resulted in a new Diaspora during the 20th century, with Jews journeying to Israel, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil, and even returning to Spain.
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4 >NOVEMBER S Seville
Sefarad-Israel at the 8th “Seville European Film Festival” Through its Andalusia office, Sefarad-Israel is taking part in the section
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dedicated to the Israeli director Amos Gitai at the “Seville European Film Festival 2011 (SEFF 2011)", which is taking place from 4 to 11 November 2011 in the capital of Andalusia. SEFF has developed into an unmissable event for European cinema and is a showcase for films of the highest quality. This year, around 150 films will be screened in a number of categories, including the Israeli productions "Infiltration” and "Policeman”; there will also be homages to the Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov; the Israeli director Amos Gitai; and the actress from Seville Maria Galiana, among others. The gala homage to the Israeli director Amos Gitai will take place on 9 November, and will feature the presentation of the Seville European Film Festival's “Giraldillo de Honor” award and a screening of his film “Esther”. The week-long festival will also feature special screenings of his films.
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b Information and registration: astronomia@ procivel.es. Registration: 80 euros
Astrophysics workshop: The Challenge of the Universe Sefarad-Israel is hosting a workshop for people interested in science; no
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prior knowledge is required. The workshop programme features six sessions that will discuss the history of astronomy and the definition and properties of key elements such as black holes, neutron stars, white dwarves and dark matter. Films will be shown in all of these sessions to make these celestial phenomena more comprehensible. The course will be managed and led by Telmo Fernández (an astrophysicist and Sub-director of the Madrid planetarium) and Benjamin Montesinos (an astrophysicist), both of whom are highly regarded and work regularly with Sefarad-Israel. The programme includes a special session dedicated to the major contributions made by Jewish scientists to astrophysics, including the work of Abraham Zacuto, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan and Brian Green.
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A 5 p.m. S The Mudéjar Room at the Municipal Palace of Culture of Jaen Council b Free admission
Conference programme on “The Jews in Spain: history and culture” The Andalusia Branch of Sefarad-Israel is organising a conference programme entitled “The Jews in Spain: History and culture” at its headquarters in Jaen on 10, 15, 22 and 24 November. The course will feature internationally renowned teachers from Andalusia who will provide an overview of Jewish history, culture and traditions, together with analysis of the presence and legacy of Jewish communities in Sefarad.
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// Agenda
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A 8 p.m. S Jewish Quarter Education Centre, Segovia
Activities in the Jewish Quarter of Segovia: “El Hecho de la Comprensión: Vida y obra de Hannah Arendt” (The Act of Understanding: the Life and work of Hannah Arendt) The author of this essay, Teresa Gutiérrez de Cabiedes, is a journalist, Doctor in Public Communication from the University of Navarre and a Visiting Scholar at the Catholic University of America; she also has a Master's degree in Literary Creation from Madrid's Contemporary Humanities School. She has worked for a number of cultural newspapers and magazines in Spain and abroad.
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Concerts", the longest running classical music programme on commercial television in the USA. He was a particularly active member of the sizeable JewishNorth American community, and was chosen in 1957 to open the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, a city whose Philharmonic orchestra he had directed before the proclamation of the Jewish State. The strength of his identification with Judaism is demonstrated by the frequency with which he performed in Israel and the large number of recordings and courses he was involved in there. In the first half of this session of “El Concierto”, Jorge Aráoz Badí will describe Leonard Bernstein's life and work, whilst the second half will be dedicated to a brief showing of a full audiovisual performance of a full work conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
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A 7:30 p.m. S Palacio de Cañete (Mayor, 69). b Free admission
The concert Series: Leonard Bernstein. The third session in the “El Concierto” concert programme is dedicated to the North American composer, director and pianist Leonard Bernstein, one of the most popular figures in the history of music in the USA, on a par with Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. His artistic fame is based, among other things, on his musical “West Side Story”; his position as the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra during almost all of his life (from 1958 to just five days before his death); and on having dedicated his free time to accessible music teaching through his "Young People's
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Leonard Bernstein.
15 >NOVEMBER A 7 p.m. S Avenida Manoteras 38, apartment 408 D b Reserve by phone: 606370035. Price per session: 35 euros
L'Atelier MCH: Jewish cookery classes Mercedes Chocron, who has taught a range of cookery courses, and who graduated in patisserie from the prestigious Cordon Bleu school, has created a modern cookery school where she teaches unique international dishes in her own entertaining way. In November and December she will be working with
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Sefarad-Israel to teach special courses for anybody interested in learning the secrets of traditional Jewish-Sephardic dishes, and in getting to know this culture better through its cooking. You will be able to try the dishes at the end of the class. In addition to learning a number of traditional Jewish dishes, you will also find out about customs and traditions and the basis of Kosher cuisine.
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A 7:30 p.m. S Palacio de Cañete (Mayor, 69). b Free admission
The Tetuan of the Sephardic Jews Estrella Jalfón de Bentolila is a Sephardic Jew who was born in Tetuan in 1935. She taught for many years at schools in Tetuan, Yussufia and Malaga, before finally ending up in Israel. In this wonderful work, Estrella rediscovers some of the historic and folkloric aspects of Sephardic Tetuan. Tetuan was home to a healthy Jewish population from the Iberian Peninsula for many centuries, during which time it preserved both its Hispanic and Jewish identity, embellished with some local characteristics. This mixture resulted, among other things, in the Haketia language, a mainly oral language with a surprising richness and sonority. “The Tetuan of the Sephardic Jews” includes, among other historic information, a basic Haketia dictionary, a description of the Jewish main festivals; and a list of blessings and curses. During her appearance at SefaradIsrael, accompanied by other leading Sephardic Jews from Tetuan, Estrella Jalfón de Bentolila will be recreating some of the customs and habits of the city nicknamed “The White” and “Little Jerusalem”, and she will be reciting ballads such as the famous “Fray Pero”. “No sea
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guestra falta” (in Haketía meaning “that you are here”).
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A 7 p.m. S Provincial Public Library of Jaen b Free admission
The Debt: Israeli cinema in Jaen The new Andalusia branch of Sefarad-Israel, which is based in Jaen, will be offering a programme of the best contemporary Israeli films every month, in collaboration with the Embassy of Israel in Spain. This programme will be opened by a screening of “The Debt” (Ha-Hov, 113´, VOSE), an Israeli film from 2007 directed by Assaf Bernstein, the US remake of which (directed by John Madden) is currently in cinemas. In 1965 three young Mossad agents capture and kill a major Nazi war criminal in a secret mission. Thirty years later, they discover that he is still alive.
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21 >NOVEMBER
A 7:30 p.m. S Palacio de Cañete (Mayor, 69) b Free admission
Presentation of: El Kibutz. Historia, realidad, y cambio (The Kibbutz: History, reality and change) A little over one hundred years after the founding of the Degania Kibbutz, Riopiedra has published a splendid work entitled “El Kibutz”. The book describes the historic background which led to the creation of the Kibbutz and the unusual nature of the way in which it worked; it also contains some of the 36 interviews which the author held with people who lived there. Leonardo Rosenberg, a graduate in journalism from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and doctor “cum Laude” of Psychology from the University
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of Barcelona, has contributed an essay with sociological insights which describes one of the most important driving factors behind the development of Israel. The Kibbutz - which means "group" in Hebrew - is a system of collective organisation inspired by principles of equality and mutual aid. Leonardo Rosenberg will be taking part in the event, when we will also hear testimonies from some people who have lived on a Kibbutz, who will be describing their customs and methods.
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A 7:30 p.m. S Palacio de Cañete (Mayor, 69). b Free admission
Sedom. Wrongfully yours: homosexuality in times of hate Warsaw, 1940. The plans for the ghetto wall were being drawn up, and the voices of intolerance were being raised. Everybody would be touched by them. Whilst the bricks piled up in the walls which would close off the "epidemic area", events began to happen ceaselessly, destroying the lives of thousands of people. Two of those affected were Yoel Bilak and Andrzej Püschel. "It is not as compromising to be just Jewish as it is to be Jewish, homosexual and the boyfriend
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of a Polish German. You are being crazy flirting with all the risks that you can take in life”, his friend Gaddith said to Yoel. Despite everything, Andrzej and Yoel experience the intensity of an inconvenient hidden relationship in the wrong place at the wrong time.” This is the synopsis of a book which describes homosexual love in the dramatic context of the 2nd World War. The author, Marisa Rubio, has revealed that her books were directly inspired by a trip to Israel: her title (“Sedom”) is the Hebrew name of the Biblical Sodom. This is a Sodom revived through the near 15,000 homosexuals who were confined and killed in the camps, with a pink triangle sewn on their chests. The author will be accompanied by Antonio Poveda, President of FELGTB (the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals)
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A 7:30 p.m. S Palacio de Cañete (Mayor, 69) b Free admission
100 claves para un liderazgo femenino eficiente (100 keys to effective female leadership)
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Sefarad-Israel is combining its interests
in civil society and the economy through the presentation of the book “100 claves para un liderazgo femenino eficiente”. The book is by the Jewish-Spanish author Sara Majarín, and focuses on 100 questions which describe the female management style relating to issues such as communication, conversation, language, decision making, negotiating, handling conflicts and handling stress. In the modern age men and women work together, and the author offers her ingenious observations on the differing ways in which both lead. Majarín examines all the areas where such differences arise, examining her conviction that masculine and feminine qualities are complementary. Sara Majarín is an Industrial Chemical Engineer, and has worked in consultancy, auditing and training; her experience in these fields provided the source for the observations behind the main conclusions in the book. She will be accompanied by Eva Levy (Managing Partner of Eva Levy & Partners) and Inmaculada Álvarez Morillas (President of OMEGA - the Organisation of Business Women and Active Management - and
ASEME - the Association of Businesswomen of Madrid).
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A 12 p.m. S Jewish Quarter Education Centre, Segovia
Activities in the Jewish Quarter of Segovia "An adventure in the Jewish Quarter". This is a dramatised trip around the Jewish Quarter with musical accompaniment from the group La imaginación. For children.Bimba has come back to Segovia after many years looking for "something" left behind when she was forced to go to another country. She accompanies the children on this enjoyable adventure with a musician, visiting various places in the Jewish Quarter.
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30 >NOVEMBER
S Caja Navarra Foundation, Juan Bravo 3 - Madrid
4th International Seminar on AntiSemitism in Spain Spanish and international experts will be debating anti-Semitism in Spain. Next programme full. Further information: fcje@ fcje.org
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ADVERTISING
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// Activities in pictures 2
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1A packed crowd of people linked to the history of Tangiers enjoyed an evening led by the multi-faceted Alberto Pimienta.
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2Sefarad-Israel pays homage to Professor Ivan Schuller, a leading physics professor at the University of California. 3 Manuel Mira and Carlos Malamud take part in a literary roundtable based on his novel “Madre Tierra” (Mother Earth). 4 Sefarad-Israel gets involved in the festival of Sukkot with the screening of the Israeli feature film “Ushpizin”. 5 Family, friends and public figures attend the award of the Grand Cross of Civil Merit to Jacobo Israel at the Palacio de Cañete. 6 On the 25th anniversary of Raíces magazine, some of its main contributors from various periods met at the Palacio de Cañete. Jacobo Israel, Arnoldo Liberman, Horacio Kohan, Lili Kohan, Jaime Vandor and Uriel Macías shared their experiences at a roundtable chaired by Esther Bendahan.
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// Cultural promotion The 4th International Congress on Anti-Semitism organised by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain with the support of various other bodies and organisations will take place from 30 November to 1 December. Why a fourth seminar? Why in Spain? discussion of the achievements and challenges in education relating to the Holocaust in Spain, together with a presentation of educational materials for use in the fight against anti-Semitism produced by the OSCE; these will reflect on actions in the classroom, and on communication between educators, and between educators and institutions and NGOs.
4TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON ANTI-SEMITISM BY ALEJANDRO BAER Spain is unique in a number of ways when it comes to this issue: 1. In Spain, Jews make up only 0.1% of the population. 2. However, sociological studies have found that it has high levels of anti-Semitism (among the highest in Europe) 3. Meanwhile, most politicians, social leaders and the media seem to consider that there is no anti-Jewish prejudice. Spain is therefore in the unusual position of having “antiSemitism without (almost) any Jews and no anti-Semites”. These seminars, which have been held in Madrid every November since 2008, aim to decipher this paradox. On the one hand, this phenomenon is due to anti-Semitism (in individuals or cultural or religious communities) being independent of what Jews do or stop doing. The philosopher Theodor Adorno wrote that for
anti-Semites, the Jews are not a minority, but the worst evil that exists. Jean Paul Sartre went further and said that if there were no Jews, the anti-Semite would invent them. AntiSemitism is therefore a space for projection. On the other hand, antiSemitism is erroneously perceived as being a "nonproblem" in Spain, and for this reason it does not feature on public or political agendas. The main objective of the seminar is to reverse this invisibility and denial of the problem of anti-Semitism in Spain, and to contribute to its analysis wherever it occurs. This fourth seminar will be focusing on anti-Semitism in three main areas: the cultural, legal and educational aspects. The first of these involves the analysis and definition of the particular nature of the Spanish case. The second
and third aspects relate to the active fight against antiSemitism in Spain, which these international seminars have aimed to promote since the outset. Hispanicness and national and Catholic puritanism and its hostility to Jewishness on both sides of the Atlantic will be addressed by the Argentine psychoanalyst Arnoldo Liberman, the Spanish writer Jon Juaristi and the Puerto Rican sociologist Luis Perez. Progress in legislation against anti-Semitism and what are termed “hate crimes”, together with the official barriers that still remain, will be the subjects of debate at roundtables featuring Miguel Ángel Aguilar, the Fiscal Coordinator of the Hate Crimes and Discrimination Service in Barcelona, Luis Martí Mingarro, ex-Dean of the Bar Association of Madrid, and Esteban Ibarra, President of the Movement Against Intolerance. There will also be a roundtable
“I am not anti-Semitic, I am anti-Israeli” is the title of a roundtable discussion in which the British historian Phillip Spencer, the Israeli sociologist Natan Sznaider and the Spanish writer Adolfo García Ortega will debate the emergence of what has been termed the “new anti-Semitism”, the new feature of which is those who promote it (who, unlike those in the past, do not consider themselves to be anti-Semitic) and the veiled nature in which it is presented as political criticism (of Israel). Criticising Israel is of course not in itself anti-Semitic; however, criticism of the Jewish state often recurs to the worst stereotypes (religious and racial) of traditional anti-Semitism. “There must be, there is: anti-Semitism in today's Spain” is the title of the last roundtable, which will address the complexity of this issue. Ranging from hysterical alarmism to denial of the problem, there is a whole range of degrees to this issue which must be explored on a case-by-case basis. This panel will examine: the persistent rejection of Chueta Jews in Mallorca (Miquel Segura); Islamist anti-Semitism (Justo Lacunza); and essential reflections on the relevance or irrelevance of accusations of anti-Semitism (Uriel Macías).
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// Cultural promotion The centenary of the founding of the Degania Kibbutz was celebrated just over a year ago; this was the start of a new economic model and a new social structure. The background to the creation of the Kibbutz includes the arid and barren nature of the land; the inexperience of the returning Jewish population in agricultural work, having specialised for generations in less manual occupations; and the Zionist and socialist values which fed the ideology of Jews arriving from pre-Revolutionary Russia. The Kibbutz (“congregation”, in Hebrew) was a revolutionary way of administering assets and working which would develop into a driver of progress for what was to become Israel.
THE KIBBUTZ, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF A UTOPIA BY FERNANDO MTEZ-VARA DE REY The Kibbutz, according to the Mexican sociologist Leonardo Rosenberg, is “a direct democracy based on a minimum of written regulations but based on strict and voluntary participation by each member of the community in decision making processes”. The Kibbutz's governing body is its General Assembly, which consists of a number of members who rotate so that all members are at some stage involved in management duties. The General Assembly is public and in general meets every week. It makes its decisions by simple majority and is assisted by a number of committees that deal with different aspects of the Kibbutz.
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One of the key features of the Kibbutz is that it is based on voluntary participation. It therefore involves a system of free relationships in which every member voluntarily joins in, subject also to voluntary acceptance by the community. A second key feature is collectivism: ownership, production, consumption and education are all organised into a structure that prioritises the community over the individual, in accordance with the Marxist ideal of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs”. As a result, in the Kibbutz everybody works for the good of all, resources are distributed in accordance with the principles of equality and personal need, and there are no expressions of private property. The life of the Kibbutzim has
always been governed by these principles. One example of this is education: this is regarded as a socialisation process that is not limited just to the classroom. Initially, children did not spend the night with their parents; instead, they lived in groups by age and only took part in conventional family life at certain times of the day. Despite agriculture and manufacturing being essential functions of the Kibbutz, it also has a strong focus on intellectual development: the Kibbutz's thirst for knowledge is manifested in dance, singing, theatre, study programmes and conferences, etc. There are often a number of artists living on the Kibbutz - for example, Amos Oz himself has been living on the Julda Kibbutz for several decades; these artists are periodically released from
their regular tasks in order to focus on their creative work. The book “El Kibutz: historia, realidad y cambio” (The Kibbutz: history, reality and change) on which this article is based gives a detailed explanation of the historic background and current functioning of this phenomenon. The book also contains a large number of case studies in which Kibbutzniks of various ages and nationalities describe their experiences. Editorial Riopiedras has brought out a timely new edition of this book, which Sefarad-Israel will present in Madrid on 21 November. Reflecting the case studies in the book, Sefarad-Israel has invited a number of people to tell us about their experiences of living together and personal development in the very real utopia of a Kibbutz.
Main photo, the Degania kibbutz. Below, Beit Keshet.
TESTIMONIES DAVID HAYÓN
DÉBORA MÚGICA
I was 18 when I went to Maagan Michael, a Kibbutz on the north coast, below Carmel. The verdant vegetation of the fields and the nearby beach made for a very welcoming landscape.
For me, the Kibbutz represented the step from the unconsciousness of adolescence to my first adult consciousness. I was eighteen in August 1987 - a time of apparent calm a few months before the first Intifada broke out - with voracious curiosity about Israel; following the path trodden by my brothers and cousins, I went to Kiriat Anavim, twelve kilometres from Jerusalem.
In addition to Hebrew, I learnt a lot about living with others, both with members of the Kibbutz and with people from all over the world who had made their way there. The atmosphere created by so many young and varied people was very enriching. During my time there, I combined classes in Hebrew with work on the Kibbutz, such as agriculture and industry. Then they let me stay on as a volunteer; later when I was doing my military service, I had my own place there and everything I needed to live. I experienced at first hand a system with an ideology which is sometimes difficult to understand from outside, where all the resources, duties and assets in general are all shared.
Leaving history to one side, I still have enjoyable memories of it which no doubt have been idealised over the years by the invisible bonds that tie me to that land and the camaraderie among the volunteers from various countries - mostly non-Jews - I met there and who I am still in contact with. I was assigned three jobs: the main job was collecting plums from dawn to midday; some days I would make beds in the hotel run by the Kibbutz or work as a kitchen hand. Hard work was never so easy. In exchange, the Kibbutz gave us food and met our basic needs - food and Time cigarettes
- whilst also allowing free relations between the summer volunteers and those who lived there permanently. We had most contact in the communal canteen, where we all sat down to eat together once a day and talked to the Kibbutzniks, especially the oldest and most patient ones. DIEGO BAUZÁ REY
We had left a whole life behind. I went there with my wife and two children and, exceptionally, two suitcases per person. Israel was the option that enabled us to keep the family together. Covered by the “Law of Return” we travelled together without anybody getting in the way or any worries about being reunited. Our first home in Israel was a Kibbutz called Beit Keshet. We lived there for almost three years and learnt our first words of Hebrew there. We celebrated Hanukkah, Purim, Shavuot, Pesach, Rosh Hashanah; we remembered those who had died in the 2nd World War at the hands of the Nazis; and those who had died
in the defence of Israel; and we celebrated Independence Day. Our third daughter was born on the Kibbutz; she was the first girl to be born in more than one hundred families who had come to the Lower Galilee region from South America that year. The Mayor came to see her, as did the press and a load of neighbours; they even planted a tree with her name. A Kibbutz is not a Kibbutz unless it has a swimming pool, cows, hens, a factory, a carpenter, kitchens, a dining room, a grocer's, a laundry, a story about the war of liberation and at least one survivor of the Shoah. A Kibbutz is a family - for good and for bad: you have friends, neighbours, workmates, the parents of other children. It is a difficult place to be alone; it is a place where you find an adoptive family - ours was Violeta and Hugo. A Kibbutz is a good place for all family members, who in other times might have emigrated, and who live close by, or perhaps not so close by, to come to visit and spend the weekend.
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OPINION
// Guest opinion
The beaches of Tel Aviv BY ESTHER BENDAHAN Tel Aviv has just turned one hundred years old; it is a youthful city, and this is something that jumps out at you: it is impulsive, creative and sometimes chaotic; it is a central city to Israel and the freest in the Middle East. This summer, a sea of tents has been erected in Tel Aviv by people protesting about housing prices. These events were sparked by the price of cottage cheese, which is a basic food product. Its price multiplied four-fold over a very short period, making it a symbol of other price rises. The beaches For the last few years, I have been going to Tel Aviv every summer; I want it to belong more to me - we all need a beach to which we can return to paddle in the sea. However, I must confess
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that Tel Aviv's shoreline is dangerous: nobody plays beach sports with such furious enthusiasm. And you can choose: there are beaches for gays; Topsea beach; beaches for the religious, where men and women take turns; beaches for bathing with dogs; for surfing.... Like other Mediterranean beaches they have white sand and are perfect for sunbathing, for children, for families... who often meet up at night for barbecues; other beaches are frequented by the young and fashionable. I remember a summer during the Lebanon War when it gave me peace of mind to know that people were still holding parties on the beach, and this everyday part of life saved us from the fear of the missiles that were said to be falling increasingly far away, but which, in other words, were getting ever closer. In Tel Aviv, as throughout Israel, the East and West live together
in a perfect balance which has created the mixture of origins of the "Sabras" (as the Israelis describe themselves: the sabra is the fruit of the cactus, it is rough and spiky on the outside, but sweet on the inside). From Germans, Poles, Russians (there is a new and large wave of Russian emigration) to Indians, Ethiopians and Moroccans... all living together and creating a common culture together. The street is where these worlds mix in a fervour of creative tension. It is a European Mediterranean that also simultaneously has a touch of the Orient; it is a spring of many exciting artistic movements, particularly in dance. This ranges from Mayumana, which has its own theatre and is a centre for unique creations, to the Suzanne Dellal Centre. Spanish is loved and spoken by many in a range of accents: from South American Hispanics to Sephardic Jews
from Turkey, Bulgaria and Morocco speaking JewishSpanish (15th century Spanish). And then there are even some people who have not inherited Spanish but who speak it anyway thanks to the soap operas. Streets I discovered its first streets in a shop selling antique photos at 30 Allenby Street. The shop window displayed the work of a photographer who had recorded the growth of the city; the shop is still run by his widow and grandson. In the shop I bought a photo of Ben Gurion on the day that the United Nations declared the independence of Israel, and a black and white closeup photo of a young-looking Kafka, who, if it were not for his furrowed brow, would have looked like a happy man. And this negative held a secret. The young sales assistant pointed to an old lady sat in the shadows at the back of the shop; he asked me if I would
like his grandmother to sign my copy, and after the initial surprise I said yes. She was the widow of the photographer, Rudi Wissenstein, the first photographer of Tel Aviv; the young man proudly told me that he was the grandson. Continuing along the same street, I then came to a local market where they were selling a wide range of jewellery - earrings, necklaces, hands to ward off the evil eye, golden bracelets for the same purpose - together with liturgical items, clothes, Arab sweets... followed by another street with a craft market. Here I found the exact location of the first street: the corner of Hertzl Street with Rothschild Street. The city was originally just a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Jaffa - one of the oldest ports in the world - but it has grown into a modern city; the two cities merged in the 1950s and now form a single entity. Rudi's photos show young excited
people with a whole desert to populate. There is one area you must visit: the Bauhaus neighbourhood. Many architects belonging to the Bauhaus movement founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 and dramatically closed by the Nazis in 1933 settled in Tel Aviv, where they developed their theories about cities and housing. As a result, Tel Aviv has one of the largest concentrations of Bauhaus buildings anywhere in the world; for this reason it is often called the "White City", and it has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can appreciate its beauty at sunset from the terrace of the home of the writer Rina Frank who lives in the neighbourhood (her book “Every Home Needs a Balcony” has been published in Spain by Lumen). The city has to maintain this balance of rational lines which make every house a singular sculptural game; if it were not
for the fact that it needs a lick of paint, it really would be "the White City". This is precisely where those who have set up protest camps this summer first established themselves - at the beginning of the city in Rothschild Street. Now the protest has spread to the whole city, and I chatted to a woman originally from Belgium - a decorator - over a cup of tea in Dalmau Street. Here is something I found interesting. Unlike their Spanish counterparts, the campers have marked out the limits of their areas with coloured rugs; the conversation was in Spanish with an Argentine accent. I spent the morning of my last day at the Tel Aviv Museum. It was showing a photographic exhibition of the rooms of Israeli writers, allowing me to enter the home of Amos Oz. All of them had disordered book shelves. Then, as a final farewell, I went to see
a painting that I always visit in the museum; it is called Kippur and was painted in Poland by a romantic painter who committed suicide for love when we was still very young. This is an intimate meeting with the painter Maurycy Gottlieb. In the afternoon, as my own personal homage to the hundredth anniversary of the first Kibbutz, I visited the poet Shlomo Aviyu at the Gash Kibbutz. The Kibbutz concept still seems to me to be an interesting humanitarian idea. Tel Aviv enables you to take a journey to the roots of our European soul, and also to the roots of modernity. And it also allows you to visit the rest of the country in just a few hours: from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea, through the Negev Desert… Its shoreline is a street running through a universal Mediterranean, a sea which becomes an open ocean in this city.
/ NOVEMBER 2011 /
11
OPINION
// Views of Israel
// Literary opinion
From Babel to Eroféiev, or creation as resistance BY FERNANDO MTEZ-VARA DE REY wfernando.mvaraderey@ sefarad-israel.es
Whether by chance or by good taste, this season Madrid's cultural programme includes events focusing on two major creative talents both of whom are writers and Russian Jews, and both of whom suffered under the hammer and sickle of the Soviet establishment. Isaak Babel was born in the Odessa ghetto and tortured and executed by Stalin in the Great Purge of 1940, despite his literary prestige and services to the Communist cause; now, an exhibition is being held over the next few months at the La Casa Encendida under the title of his most famous work, “The Red Cavalry”. The exhibition provides an illustrated tour of artistic creation in the USSR from 1917 to 1945. It features photographs, paintings, illustrations and scripts to show the talents of painters such as Chupiatov and Stepanova; the film director Eisenstein; the musician Shostakovich; and the writers Zoschenko and Pilniak. Despite their immense artistic quality, many of these, like Babel, suffered an unfortunate end under a totalitarian regime which equated creativity with dissent. The decades of Stalinism opportunely documented in "The Red Cavalry" reveal the servitude of art to the cause of the
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Bolshevik revolution and its propaganda needs. The most subtle forms of expression give way to a gallery of posters with sober lines and dogmatic messages that seem to pay homage to the maxim of Aleksei Gan, the father of the Constructivist manifesto: “Art is dead! Work, technique and organisation!”. Venedikt Erofeev was born in Kandalaksha in 1940 and was closely affected by Stalinist repression, as his father suffered sixteen years confinement in the Gulags. His most famous work is “Moscow Stations”, a long poem recounting the experiences of a drunk traveller as a train progresses towards Petushkí station. The Teatro Español theatre is staging a dramatic adaptation of “Moscow Stations” that is reawakening critical interest in a work which was censored in the USSR until 1979 but had been published years earlier in Jerusalem. On the stage of the Español Theatre, magnificent performances by Alfonso Delgado and Sergio Macías bring to life pathetic, marginalised characters who are suffering from a thirst that neither vodka nor words can quench: “our national vocation comes from Peter the Great: it is the hiccups”. Exodus and alcohol, two ways of fleeing, and two almost infallible ways of becoming someone else. “The revolution is a lie," Erofeev said, "revolution can only explode in our hearts”.
‘Mi abuelo llegó esquiando’ (My granddad arrived on skis) • Daniel Katz • Libros del Asteroide Spain's literary scene has had much to thank the editorial approach of Libros del Asteroide for over the last few years as it searches out previously unpublished but highly valued 20th century European authors. One of its most surprising finds is Daniel Katz, a Finnish Jew born in 1938 and who won his country's National Literature Prize. “Mi abuelo llegó esquiando” combines intertwined episodes of family memory against the background of tumultuous historic events. Katz recreates both worlds with astonishing irony that is reflected in the descriptions of the characters (“If only I were taller… even the shortest man grows when he is lying down”) and context (“The border crossed our garden; I lived in Russia but when I went to the toilet I had to cross the border as that was on the Polish side”). The central character is the lovable Benno, the author's grandfather. He was born in Belarus and enlisted in the Russian army, travelled through the snows of Finland in search of love, played the bugle in the trenches of the 1st World War and was a contemporary of the Russo-Japanese War and the 2nd World War. In addition to this mixture of identities, he was also Jewish and this gives rise to some of the most brilliant moments in the book, such as the conversations about animals with and without hooves, family dinners which of course included Ashkenazi dishes (stuffed fish, kneidlech, etc.), and the fateful accident that Benno manages to avoid when a bomb explodes just as the Mohel is practising his craft…
‘Sefarad de ayer, oy i mañana: presencia sefardí en México’ (The Sefarad of yesterday, today and tomorrow: the Sephardic presence in Mexico) • Simonette Levy de Behar, Rosalynda Pérez de Cohen and Sophie Bejarano de Goldberg • Comunidad Sefardí de México Over a decade of work has gone into the compilation and editing of this major work describing the history of Mexico's Jewish community. This genesis of Jewish communities in Veracruz, Tijuana and Monterrey reveals a largely unknown, Jewish Mexico. Simonette Levy de Behar, Rosalynda Pérez de Cohen and Sophie Bejarano de Goldberg are the co-authors of a work that, as it says in its prologue, aims to "vibrate with the memories, evocations and presences of the identity which defines us”. The format of the book which resembles a family album - features a host of photographs mostly of people and day-to-day scenes, and a multitude of everyday elements, ranging from recipes to musical scores, which stop the book from becoming academic and makes it accessible to the sensitive reader. The personal experiences recorded in the book give us a valuable collective diary of one of the most prosperous Jewish communities in Latin America. w Fernando Mtez. Vara de Rey
NEWS
// news IN SPAIN Conference/workshop: Theatre for peace. The Israeli theatre director Eduardo Kofman has presented a multicultural drama project from Israel in Barcelona. Eduardo Kofman described his experiences in the theatre to groups of young Jews, Muslims and Christians. The director also presented the project throughout the month in other Spanish cities, such as Seville, Huelva and Pamplona. Seminar on Abraham Abulafia An intensive seminar led by Mario Sabán was held on 15 October on the biography, thought and mystic system of the Rabbi Abraham Abulafia. The seminar was titled "The secrets of Abulafia". BARCELONA The “Mexican Suitcase” arrives in Spain For the first time in Spain, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya is displaying photographs taken by the Jewish photographers Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David “Chim” Seymour during the Spanish Civil War that were lost in 1939 and only rediscovered in 2007. These negatives include previously unknown portraits of Federico García Lorca, Dolores "La Pasionaria" Ibárruri, Rafael Alberti, André Malraux and Ernest Hemingway. There are also images from decisive battles,
such as those at Teruel, Segre and Brunete. BILBAO Works by Agam and Rothko at the Guggenheim The Israeli artist Yaacov Agam is exhibiting his work at Bilbao's Guggenheim gallery as part of the temporary group exhibition ‘Pictorial Abstraction, 19491969’. The exhibition also features work by the Jewish North American artist Mark Rothko. GIJON Israeli Video Art at Óptica 2011 The Óptica 2011 International Video Art Festival screened the work “Homemade 4”, consisting of 24 pieces by 24 Israeli artists. HARO The photographs of Nicolás Muller in La Rioja A photographic exhibition entitled “Maridajes 9” featuring the work of Juan Manuel Castro Prieto and Nicolás Muller will be on display at the Bodegas Roda until 31 March 2012. Nicolás Muller was a Jewish photographer who was born in Oroshaza (Hungary) in 1913, and who died in Asturias in 2000. JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA 1st Israeli Film and Intercultural Dialogue Season Tarbut Jerez de la Frontera and the Embassy of Israel have
The "Mexican suitcase" exhibition in Barcelona.
organised the 1st Israeli Film and Intercultural Dialogue Season, which took place from 19 to 21 October. This cultural programme featured film, literature, history and music. MADRID Café Concert at the Jewish Community of Madrid The Café Concert “Cus Cus rhymes with bus bus” will take place at the Jewish Community of Madrid on 12 November. The presentation will be given by Ariel Liberman, with texts read by Arnoldo Liberman. It will feature Sephardic song from Karin Rosenfeld Mordó, Jewish humour from Gustavo Dessal, and fusion music from Federico Lechner: jazz mixed with klezmer and traditional tangos with Graciela Giordano and Marcelo Raigal. Lady Macbeth of Murmansk Lady Macbeth of Murmansk is a an opera in four acts with music by Dmitri Shostakovich; the libretto in Russian was written by Shostakovich and Alexander Preis, and was inspired by the famous story of the same name by Nikolai Leskov. The prestigious psychoanalyst and writer Arnoldo Líberman will use this as the basis for a conference on 28 November as part of the 2011-2012 Opera Conference Season at the Teatro Real theatre. ‘Philosophy after the Holocaust’ seminar A new Plenary Session of the “Philosophy after the Holocaust: the validity of perverse logics” Seminar will be held on 25 November. The theme of this session will be "Post-memory". Presentation of the CD “Songs of Tetuan” Joaquín Díaz and the Quarteto de Urueña presented their new CD "Songs of Tetuan" at the Guitarte Hall of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando on 26 October. This is a collection
of Sephardic songs from the north of Morocco which have been collected and transcribed by Arcadio de Larrea. Hebrew Courses at Davar The Davar Cultural Centre has organised a Hebrew Ulpan (course) with weekly sessions at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. The programme is being taught by a qualified teacher of modern Hebrew with over 20 years experience; the classes will have no more than seven students. UNCASTILLO Reopening of a restored synagogue The restored remains of an old synagogue were reopened on Monday 17 October at a ceremony attended by the President of the Provincial Council of Zaragoza and the Uncastillo Foundation, the body which owns the building and is responsible for its restoration. Uncastillo's Jewish Quarter is one of the best preserved in Aragon. ABROAD ARGENTINA 9th Jewish Film Festival in Buenos Aires The 9th International Jewish Film Festival will take place from 17 to 23 November. Some of the films which have already been announced include “Strangers No More” by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon; “Summer story” by Shmuel Haimovich; and “Eli and Ben” by Ori Ravid. UNITED STATES Exhibition on Ezra Jack Keats The Jewish Museum of New York is holding the first major exhibition in the United States on this artist, the son of Jewish immigrants, who has had a brilliant career as an author and illustrator of children's books. Inspired by Asian art and Haiku poetry, Keats works with drawings in bright colours and collage, employing simple and direct text.
/ NOVEMBER 2011 / 13
NEWS
// interview
Diego Carcedo has just been awarded by 2011 Espasa Essay Prize. He is a journalist who graduated in history, and is well known in Spain having worked as the correspondent in Lisbon and New York for Televisión Española (Spanish television corporation); he has also been the news director for the TVE station (1989) and the director of Radio Nacional de España (Spanish national radio) (1991). However, for those of us interested in education and projects which promote knowledge of the Shoah, he is also one of the first Spaniards to have taken an interest in describing our recent history and taking an active part in seminars and other such projects.
DIEGO CARCEDO, the writer of the righteous BY ESTHER BENDAHAN I first met him several years ago when some fellow enthusiasts (including some members of Sefarad-Israel: Henar Corbi and Chela Kohan) and I wanted to set up a foundation: The Memoria Foundation, to develop projects to deepen knowledge about the Shoah. Diego was the Honorary
14 / NOVEMBER 2011 /
President, working voluntarily on conferences and seminars. A TV film has recently been made based on his book about the diplomat Ángel Sanz Briz. The book formed the basis for the film script, but it is also a reference book on the role of Spanish diplomats in those dramatic times that shattered our idea of humanist progress
throughout Europe and also left a deep wound which remains open in our unconscious in one way or another to this day. Diego Carcedo held a press conference at SefaradIsrael for the media who wanted to interview him about his prize; obviously, it is no coincidence that he chose Sefarad-Israel for this, as it is a way of demonstrating his
commitment. Before he began the interviews, he told us more about his new book. He told us that he “wanted to reflect the content in the subtitle. Some Spaniards - between the beasts and the heroes - defied the Holocaust. At first I thought about calling it "Imprisoned between Hitler and Franco", as Hitler was trying to herd the Jews into concentration camps, and they had nowhere to escape to, as there were no open borders. The only exit was to Spain, but they were taken prisoner as soon as they arrived.” Whilst it is true that many Spanish diplomats helped the Jews, this was not exactly what
the government wanted. In this regard Diego, commented that: “I think there were a number of stages. The first of these was persecution, collaborating in some way with the Nazis and with their propaganda; we should not forget that Ramón Serrano Suñer, who was both proNazi and anti-Jewish, was a minister, and this made it difficult for embassies to protect them. However, when this minister left, Franco's government saw that Hitler was starting to lose the war, and it then started to allow the arrival of Jews in transit. There were a number of camps, particularly that in Miranda del Ebro. There were English Jews - aviators who had been shot down, escapees, exiles - and three or four thousand Jews from Poland.” I would be interested in information on the names of these people, but: “There isn't any. Not from the Miranda del Ebro camp at any rate. However, we do know about some individuals, such as two Nobel Prize Winners. They were got out using a number of procedures, enabling them to reach Portugal and, from there, America. The main route was a visa to enter Portugal, from where the ships left… Sometimes they also left to the south to Palestine, but they particularly went to Portugal and then America. They were permitted to enter these countries. In the Protectorate the authorities were more tolerant, and there was less vigilance during the latter stages of the war.” And there were also some heroes… “They took action in a number of embassies: in Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece… They were able to help based on a decree by General Primo de Rivera,
deceived by some young men who asked him for help to convert and to go to the Basque Country, when he got there, they tricked him into crossing the border... The Gestapo were waiting for him.”
Spain's dictator for seven years, who granted a Spanish passport to Sephardic Jews descended from those expelled in 1492. Initially, few people took advantage of this decree, as some Embassies did not tell them about it. Others, concerned about instability in Spain, preferred not to take Spanish nationality, as they were afraid of being mobilised in the armed forces. The decree expired in 1931, but some diplomats - such as Sanz Briz - used the text and registered people as though they had taken nationality earlier. Primo de Rivera had no interest in the Sephardic Jews. However, during the African War, some generals told him about a group of people who spoke a strange form of Spanish and who welcomed Spanish soldiers despite the general hostility of the rest of the populace; the soldiers were moved by this affection, and the dictator was moved to reward these Sephardic Jews.” Diego Carcedo is an excellent story teller; his novels take the reader on a journey into the past making it seem not so remote in time. This is an Essay Prize, but I asked him if he uses the type of literary descriptions he is so skilled at in this book. “I wrote the book as a historical essay and, although there are some situations for which there is no accurate data, and I have dramatised some conversations, most of the
book is based on information about the actions of people in Bucharest, Salonika, Sofia and France... There are also other Spaniards who helped the Jews, and I give some information about them in the book, these were Spanish refugees, whilst others also helped in the camps. One example was a footballer who had played for Betis and who took in a boy and taught him Spanish…” I asked him whether that boy was the Polish Jew about whom Moustaki, a friend of his, wrote a short but moving book. He replied: “Exactly, the child is Siegfried Meir. He now lives in Ibiza and became friends with Moustaki when he grew up. There is another story about some sisters from Ribadavia in Galicia who took people in and hid them when they arrived on goods trains... I recount many varied and moving cases such as the death of Walter Benjamin - but I feel that one of the most interesting parts is the epilogue where I describe what happened to these heroes.” There is always someone who you admire, or who moves you particularly. “A Hungarian priest who came to Spain to escape his country because he had attacked the Nazis in his sermons. He ended up in Valencia in a religious community where they help anyone who asks for assistance. He was
It is painful to think about the lengths they went to to kill someone who had escaped them… “That's true, the story is there in all its details. There are others, such as the anarchist from Asturias/Aragon who set up a network, or the father of Patricia Martínez de Vicente, from the Clave Embassy, who worked as a doctor for the British Embassy. They gave false certificates to some Jews, and got them out of there secretly...” When I asked him about how some people become heroes, he replied: “Heroes have a well-developed humanitarian side, such as the Portuguese consul and aristocrat Aristides de Sousa Mendez… Basically, they were just people with a humanitarian side.” At a time of war, amidst all the suffering, there are also examples of the greatness of humanity, as we see in this very necessary book: “Against the background of the bloodiest battlefield of all time, at the same time as three poor women in Ribadavia with no other reason for their behaviour than human kindness risked their freedom trying to help people they didn't know fleeing a tragic fate thousands of miles to the east, some civil servants with stiff-upper lips and suits and ties, some of them titled members of the aristocracy, risked their future careers -all for the same humanitarian motives.” (Between beasts and heroes)
/ NOVEMBER 2011 / 15
CURRENT INFORMATION ON SEFARAD ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH WORLD NOVEMBER 2011 www.casasefarad-israel.es
// the quo-
The path is never-ending. The horizon stretches into the distance Tomas Tranströmer (Nobel Prize for Literature 2011)
// The profile
DANIEL SHECHTMAN REDISCOVERS THE GOLDEN RATIO BY ROSA MÉNDEZ The golden ratio is an infinite, irrational algebraic number discovered by mathematicians in Ancient Greece and which is found throughout art and architecture. And we find this golden ratio in the essence of the recent discovery by the Nobel Laureate for Chemistry Daniel Shechtman, an Israeli researcher at the Technology Institute in Haifa. This tenacious scientific researcher fought a long-running battle to convince his colleagues of the truth of his original discovery, quasicrystals. Until recently, it had been believed that in all solids atoms are organised to form crystals following periodically repeating geometric patterns. However,
Shechtman managed to identify a structure which did not have this configuration, and where the pattern did not repeat. The origins of this surprising discovery go back to 1982 when this Israeli scientist was working among the microscopes of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology during a sabbatical year. It was in his laboratory there that he first observed quasicrystals in the form of beautiful Arab mosaics reproduced in the structure of atoms. He reported his discovery to his colleagues. However, the scientific community was initially very sceptical about his findings, and even asked him to leave a research group to which he belonged. They
considered the configuration of atoms he had found to be impossible. But as time passed, these scientists had to accept the weight of scientific evidence behind the discovery, and accept it as a significant advance that would revolutionise the world of chemical research. Shechtman's scientific advances have resulted in the creation of crystals of very different types. A Swedish company has used them in a type of steel, reinforcing their structures as if it were a form of armour. Quasicrystals are very poor conductors of electricity and are very hard and resistant to bending, resulting in them being used as non-stick protectors. It is not surprising that it should be an Israeli at the forefront of this research,
coming as he does from a country where investment in R&D&I is a priority for growth and development. Today, Israel is one of the world leaders in high technology and other scientific areas, spending some 4.8% of its GDP on R&D, the highest level internationally, and having the largest number of science graduates per head of population, at 135 scientists for every 10,000 inhabitants. Through his quasicrystals, Daniel Shechtman has used his stubbornness and bravery to reformulate the golden ratio, the same ratio that the Greek mathematician and philosopher Euclid offered as one of his precious gifts to scientists of future generations in the 3rd century BC.
About us.Sefarad-Israel is a Spanish institution established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, the Community of Madrid and Madrid City Council. Our objectives: To promote relationships of friendship and cooperation between Spain, Israel and Jewish communities all over the world by carrying out activities in the political, economic, social, scientific and cultural fields.Where to find us? C/ Mayor, 69. Madrid / Tel.: + 34 91 391 10 02. www.sefarad-israel.es E-mail: casa@sefarad-israel.es -).)34%2)/ $% !35.4/3 %84%2)/2%3 9 $% #//0%2!#) .
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