Washington Jewish Film Festival VS The Yiddish Theater Film

A lot of people have been calling and emailing me why has my film on the Yiddish Theater not played in Washington DC. I tried to explain but you didn't believe me when I said It'll never play in Washington DC. NEVER!!! Please let it be. There's no point in continuing to do a follow up with me. Friends, it's not in my hands.
Yiddish Theater: A Love Story will never play in DC. There's no love for it there.
Some of you have been persistent emailing me every few month- still not believing that those who choose films in DC hate this one. I'm sorry to break the news to you guys who do care about Yiddish and live in Washington. You'll have to see this film somewhere else. The Jewish film festival in DC has rejected the film three times.
YES. You heard it right. THREE TIMES.
That's a strike out!!! So please don't contact me again. You can email me to : dan@newlovefilms.com and I'll update you where the film is playing. It's playing every month in many places around the country.

For those who liked my other films and don't know what this one's about - it's about the woman who single handedly kept Yiddish theater alive in the US and kept the last theater running and thanks to her the oldest Yiddish theater in the US is alive and kicking. She's a charming holocaust survivor that made it her mission to keep the culture Hitler wanted to kill alive in the US.
Guess there's no room in the Washington Jewish Film Festival for a film about that subject matter.

So sad that Washington Jewish Film Festival organizers and selection committee chose to ignore this film for so many years.

So why is Washington still off limit to the Yiddish theater film?
I don't have a clue why they don't want to show the film. I truly don't.
I don't live in Washington. I know very few people in Washington.
I guess they didn't trust the amazing reviews of the NY TIMES and the LA TIMES and every major newspaper in NY and LA.
I guess the fact the film succeeded so well in LA and NY wasn't a reason to give it a one time showing in Washington DC.

Friends, thanks for writing and calling me and asking me to bring the film to Washington. If it was up to me- I'd do it. But it's not. I'm grateful all of you thought about me.

I have no clue why they don't want to show this important human story that's also an important historical document about Jewish life in the US. Normally, I would say call the JCC and talk there to their programming director and tell them how much you enjoyed the film - but I don't think it'll help. I've been talking with various people in Washington now for three years. I think it's a done deal. This film is dead in Washington. There's no point in talking with anyone there. I think it's unanimous. They HATE the film!!!
It's OK. The film has had such a tremendous life- got so much press. Was loved by EVERYONE who saw it. Played in the top three Jewish Film Festivals in the world: San Francisco, Jerusalem and Toronto.
Played in endless other Jewish Film Festivals, JCC's, Synagogues and other locales.

This film will play in every major city in the world- except for Washington DC. The capital of the United States.

There's no point in fighting anymore friends. It seems that in this case, the good guys lost. The festival is run at the JCC and if they really wanted to show it, they could have found two hours to program it in their schedule. The festival is only a week, but the JCC shows programs all year.
3 years of rejecting this film is over 1000 days that would have been suitable for showing this film.
I live far away from the politics of Washington DC. I do not know why they don't want to help this documentary that has proven itself beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Something is going on over there in Washington and it's sad. Hopefully it's not politics cause politics in Jewish film festivals like politics in many other organizations can many times lead to stagnation, becoming irrelevant and eventually to dissappearing.
I'm sure some at the Washington Jewish Film Festival feel their festival will live forever cause it's Washington and there's a thriving Jewish community there.
But I say look at General Motors and Chrysler friends. They also thought they're invincible cause people will always drive car. But the fact people drive cars don't mean they'll always drive a Chevy...
The fact any organization makes a killing a few years in a row- don't mean it'll always be this way.
Festivals can also run dry very fast and just as fast disappear when they stop caring about their audience.

Not wanting to make a stand at keeping Yiddish Theater alive in the US is a statement.
I don't know what it says- but I hear it loud and clear!

I could just move on. Pretend I don't care. Say hopefully they'll show my future films, like they've shown my previous films.
But I am offended by this.
I am.
I am offended as a filmmaker.
I am offended as a person who cares.
I am offended as a Jew who's relatives escaped Nazi Germany and feels it's important to keep the Yiddish Theater alive.
I am offended as someone who did give his time to help keep this culture and the ONE woman who dedicated her life to keep it alive.

Passover is soon here. The holiday celebrating independence. Leaving behind the idea of being a slave.
I am moving forward. But I will not forget that which I have left behind.

Here's an interview with me that appeared in a Long Beach newspaper and also in the Long Beach Art Blog.
Below is the article and the link to it's website. It relates to the screening of the film this month at the Film Festival there.

LONG BEACH ART BLOG

Dan Katzir, the director of “Yiddish Theatre: A Love Story” is a funny guy. He has a lot of things to say and laughs a lot. Even though he just turned forty years old, he undoubtedly has the soul of a 20-year-old. His film “Yiddish Theatre: A Love Story” is one of the four films being shown at the Long Beach Jewish Film Festival. He was the only director that I met with to interview for a story about the Festival, so I feel a little more strongly about this film than the others. It truly is beautiful. The film simultaneously warms and breaks your heart. Here are some things that he had to say about his experiences with dreaming, Yiddish theatre, filmmaking and Long Beach:

He said that the most important message of the movie is, “not to let go of your dream. Because too many times in our society we believe in instant gratification. If you don’t get immediately what you want-move on to the next dream. But that’s not the way. The whole thing with the dream is that you have to chase it. And the more elusive it is, the harder you have to chase it. Not give up. And I think that’s why this one woman (Zypora Spaisman, a Yiddish theater actress from Dan’s documentary, “Yiddish Theatre: A Love Story”)- she kept her theater running for 50 years. She was always on the verge of bankruptcy. But she continued with that crazy dream of teaching people about this old, forgotten language (Yiddish).”

“As a filmmaker, all of my documentaries…are all very emotional.” he said, “So I always go for emotion. I think today more and more filmmakers and artists in general are going more for color and pizzazz and fast edit. They’re trying to get pace but what it lacks is heartfelt. I personally like stuff that moves me emotionally.”

He also said that Long Beach is a very sleek, sophisticated city. But, he said, ““I’m sure that even the people who live in the brand new houses have some connection to very old history which is their own. Cause even if they live in a brand new city,” he giggles, ” their parents, and grandparents and great grandparents probably lived in a rotting and molding old city somewhere on the planet.”

http://longbeachartblog.wordpress.com/

Dad on Reuters :

Well, my dad's latest invention just appeared on Reuters which is published all over the world.
Very cool segment and very important breakthrough invention. Below are the segment from the original Reuters as well as the segment from Japanese TV.

Amy Kronish- on Out for love..be back shortly on her blog.
Israeli film & filmmakers - updates and analysis

http://israelfilm.blogspot.com/2008/12/personal-and-national.html

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2008
The Personal and the National
My recent postings have mentioned a number of films in the style of personal documentaries – My Terrorist by Yulie Cohen, Martin by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz and The Green Dumpster Mystery by Tal Yoffeh. Today, I have chosen another film in the personal documentary style – Out for Love – Be Back Soon by Dan Katzir (1997, 55 min.).
יצאתי לחפש אהבה – תכף אשוב

The film is particularly relevant during these days, when religious youth are killing Palestinians and rioting against Israeli security personnel in Hebron, refusing to be evacuated from a house in the center of the city, even after a Supreme Court decision has ordered their evacuation. At this time, we must strengthen our resolve to support the ideals and institutions of a pluralistic and tolerant democratic society; we must continue our struggle against violence in this society; and we must pledge to uphold the spirit of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's last words on that fateful night, Nov. 4, 1995, when he said: "I have always believed that the majority of the people want peace, are prepared to take risks for peace… and oppose violence." The spirit of these words was shattered by Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, a young man who did not want peace but embraced violence.

The film is an attempt to understand the Israeli psyche, issues of identity and the search for personal fulfillment by young people, against the background of the realities of army service, terrorist attacks, and the assassination of the prime minister.

As part of his film studies, Katzir embarks on a unique film project – a personal diary which will help him to better understand himself, his surroundings, and to analyze why he can’t find love. He uses his camera to investigate both the personal and national -- he eventually finds love, but things are not so easy.

This quirky documentary includes home movie footage from his bar mitzvah and a visit to his grandmother who retells the incident in which his grandfather was killed in a terrorist attack at Lod Airport in 1972 by a Japanese terrorist. Katzir documents demonstrations and terrorist attacks. He shows a rightwing demonstration in which the faces of the demonstrators are filled with hate, Rabin is compared to Hitler, and a sign reads: “This peace is killing us.” At the same time, he is documenting developments in his own life.

The Individual vs. the Collective
The lives of these young people are seen against the wider tapestry of national events. Can the individual in Israel live his own life? Or must he always live bouncing off the emotional roller coaster of the events and crises happening around him? During the pioneering period, it was generally accepted that you must sacrifice your own needs and desires for the greater good of the collective. This type of thinking is no longer accepted. Rather, the needs of the individual are considered to be most important today. But, in actuality, things have not changed completely and sacrifices are still required.

Israelis grow up looking forward to serving in the military. Youngsters watch proudly as their older brothers and sisters wear neatly pressed uniforms and come home carrying a rifle. They watch their fathers and uncle go to reserve duty. They accept this as part of their lives. But it isn’t so simple. It requires maturity, dealing with life and death situations, and a willingness to put your life on the line for what you believe.

Grappling with Loss and showing emotions
Katzir realizes that he is hiding behind his camera and that he has difficulty in expressing his feelings. Using the camera, he documents his first kiss with his girlfriend. But he is unable to tell her that he loves her. He seems to be saying that you need to talk about your pain in order to cope and you must struggle with sorrow and loss in order to feel love.

Israelis are particularly good at showing anger and hatred in public. The film shows the anger of bereaved families at an outdoor rally as an example of this. Why is it easier to express anger than love? Why is it easier to express emotions in public rather than in private?

Katzir recalls that when he was a little boy and he cried at the gate to the kindergarten, his mother would say, “Wipe your tears Dan. What will you do when you’re a soldier?” In this way, little boys were taught to be strong, not to cry, and never to expose their own vulnerability. However, this has changed in Israel and during the 1990s, an increased awareness developed that men were permitted and capable of expressing emotion.

The Assassination of a Prime Minister
The film shows that Rabin was hated by the rightwing and was compared to Hitler because he was making peace with the Palestinians and negotiating to give back territory, all at the same time that there were ongoing incidents of terrorism against Jews in Israel.

Yet, the people of Israel mourned Rabin so strongly! They waited on line all night to pay last respects when his coffin was lying in state by the Knesset in Jerusalem! In addition to respect, this was also an expression of the shock that our society could breed such intolerance and hatred! In fact, the shock and grief unified the country. During this intense period of mourning and public emotion, Katzir realizes that he was still incapable of expressing personal emotion and saying “I love you.” As part of the collective, he could mourn; but as an individual, he was incapable of expressing emotion and was hiding behind his camera.

Taking responsibility as part of the collective in contemporary Israel, we must resolve to defy the forces of evil that support those who throw acid in the faces of soldiers of Israel, those who do not respect the decisions of our Supreme Court, and those who condone the assassination of leadership who are prepared to make the sacrifices needed for peace.

Out for Love – Be Back Soon was produced, directed, photographed and written by Dan Katzir. The film is available from his company http://www.newlovefilms.com/ or directly from him at dan@newlovefilms.com .

http://www.jewcy.com/post/women_wall_twenty_years

FROM JEWCY.COM

The Women of the Wall, Twenty Years On
Feminists challenge the Israeli ultra-Orthodox
by Phyllis Chesler, November 30, 2008

Twenty years ago today, on December 1, 1988, for the first time in history, 70 Jewish women prayed together out loud as a group at the Western Wall (or "Kotel") in Jerusalem. Women have always prayed at the Kotel, often silently, and alone. What made this service radically different, certainly transcendent, was that we not only prayed aloud but we also chanted from the Torah.

What we did was the equivalent to nuns conducting an all-female prayer service--but at the Vatican. As important: The participants came from Israel, the United States, Europe, South America, and Australia; represented every religious denomination of Jewry, (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, meta-denominational); and every political persuasion (left-wing, centrist, right-wing). Some of us donned tallesim (prayer shawls) and head coverings, many of us did not. We were radiant, overwhelmed, humbled, united.

However, once the ultra-orthodox men and women understood that Jewish women were chanting from a Torah, they began hurling unholy and terrifying curses at us which fouled the very air. Threats of physical violence quickly followed. We made it out safely: this time, the first time.

That is where I first met the woman whose idea this all was: Over an open Torah, under the early morning skies. Rivka Haut, who has since become my beloved chevrutah, or Torah study partner, was, at the time, already a long-time Orthodox feminist pioneer of womens' halachic prayer groups. After the service had started, Rivka turned to me, and offered me the honor of opening the Torah for the women. This single, "accidental" honor wedded me most fatefully to the struggle that was to come.

For years, I did not know why Rivka, with whom I would go on to co-author a book about this struggle, Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site, had picked me. There were so many scholars and rabbis amongst us. Only recently, Rivka told me that she chose me because I had "an otherworldly look on my face" while I was praying.

We left Israel, high as kites.

The Jerusalem-based women, initially led by Bonna Haberman, Miriam Benson, Shulamit Magnus and Anat Hoffman, a.k.a. the Women of the Wall (WOW). continued to pray. They were mainly "nice Jewish girls." With one exception, the group was not involved with politics of any kind.

Nevertheless, beginning early in 1989, WOW was met with serious and continuous violence. Ultra-orthodox (haredi) men threw heavy metal chairs at them over the high barrier that separated men from women. One young girl was hit and had to be hospitalized. Canisters of tear gas were thrown into the womens' section.

Ultra-orthodox women, often following male orders, sometimes on their own, uttered terrible curses, and tried to silence the quietly praying women in every way possible. They shrieked, circled, raged, and made awful faces. They pushed and shoved a pregnant Bonna Haberman who was holding onto the Torah with all her might. At one point, the government of Israel actually hired women to physically remove the women-- not for disturbing the peace but for praying.

At first, we organized solidarity prayer services for the women under siege in America. We were on the phone to Jerusalem almost constantly. We founded a not-for-profit International Committee for the Women of the Wall (ICWOW). At the time, there was no law which prohibited what the women were doing. But the violence escalated and the women decided to go to the Israeli Supreme Court to demand protection for their peaceful, religiously lawful prayer services. The Court took the case but prohibited the women from praying at the Kotel with a Torah until the court rendered its decision. The women continued to pray at the Kotel but went to the Archeological Gardens, Hulda's Gate, or to a site overlooking the Kotel plaza, for their Torah service.

And so, we decided to raise the money, acquire a Torah, dedicate it in the streets of Jerusalem, donate it to the women of Jerusalem, and pray with it at the Kotel, according to our custom, as we had done the previous year and as many of us routinely do in our synagogues all across America. We were prevented from doing so--and were thus able to join WOW's lawsuit in the Israeli Supreme Court.

After much discussion and many disagreements, we petitioned the court for only eleven hours a year, on Rosh Chodesh, the new month, a holiday expressly given to Jewish women. (In the month of Tishrei, Rosh Chodesh is actually Rosh HaShanah). On other holidays, where non-Torah scrolls are read, (as on Purim or Shavuot), WOW continued to pray there, reading aloud from the megilla of Esther and Ruth.

We understood that even a modest demand was revolutionary. The opposition saw us coming, they saw the future in us, and they knew that if they yielded even a little, that the future would instantly be upon them. In upholding tradition, they not only continued to uphold misogyny, they also sought to hold back and sully the inevitable tradition-honoring changes that Jewish women, (and men), living in a feminist era, were obligated to bring to our tradition.

WOW has never stopped. WOW has prayed at the worst moments of this most recent, endless Intifada. According to Rivka Haut, "WOW has maintained a group presence that is welcoming to every Jewish woman, teaching bat mitzvah girls as well as elderly women who never heard women leading prayers and never saw women reading from a Torah scroll, that they can actively participate in prayer. The women have persevered despite the rocks thrown over the mehitsa at them by haredim, despite the rocks raining down upon the Kotel area from the mosque above."

WOW became "legendary" and was written up everywhere--and uproariously misunderstood by almost everyone. Some reporters thought we wanted to pray on the men's side of the mehitza or together with men. Others thought that we had "feminized" the prayer service and were counting ourselves as a minyan (Prayer quorum). None of this was true. It took us awhile to understand that people visited their own longings upon us; we were a "projective" test.

Artists created tallesim (prayer shawls) and tambourines in our honor. We were included in feminist Passover Hagadot. Two films have already been made about this struggle. The most recent film, by Yael Katzir, a secular Tel Avivian and a professor of film, is a powerful, haunting, soulful, heartbreaking, and enraging film. It is called "Praying in her own Voice." You may both read about it and order it here and see clips of it here.

This film shows WOW's inspiring and steadfast women, both at home and under siege. It is a searing film. It cries out to heaven for justice. It also shows WOW's last visit to the Israeli Supreme Court; hope dashed; and it shows the archeological dig/prayer site the government has prepared for them.

Katzir, whose film was recently showcased at the Israeli Film Festival, managed to catch on film a great deal of WOW's hope and joy, as well as several particularly ugly instances in which ultra-orthodox women, led by one Shira Leibowitz Schmidt, may be seen cursing, surrounding, and creating a riot against WOW. Schmidt is seen on camera trying to steal their Torah away. (I have been told that Schmidt has begun to tell people that she had been "paid to be an actor in the film." This is a bald-faced lie.)

Katzir's film now includes opening comments from prominent American woman rabbis but it also includes deeper portraits of WOW's core of long-timers: Danielle Bernstein, Batya Cohn-Kallus, Anat Hoffman, Rahel Jaskow, Haviva Ner-David, Peggy Sidor, and lawyer Frances Raday at their most heroic.

How ironic! All over the world, including in Israel, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Jewish women are rabbis and lead their congregations, both male and female, in prayer. Orthodox women in Israel, the United States, Europe, and Australia, pray together in women's prayer groups in which they chant from the Torah. More recently, orthodox women began to pray together with orthodox men in partnership minyanim (prayer quorums). This has included both women and men chanting from the Torah and receiving previously male-only honors.

Only in Israel, and at the site most holy to Jews, at a site where soldiers are sworn in, and national celebrations are held--at that place, Jewish women were, (and still are), prohibited from praying aloud in a group with a Torah.

Although I care deeply about Jewish womens' religious rights in Israel and of course, about all womens' right to both practice their religion--and to not be coerced into doing so--the struggle in Jerusalem is an intra-tribal matter and important in its own right.

However, as the Intifada of 2000 continued to rage against Israel, as did the United Nations, Muslim terrorists, and Western academics everywhere, I did not have the heart to join the jackal chorus against the Jewish state. Rivka and I decided to dedicate our book to the state of Israel and to refrain from writing articles or giving interviews to the non-Jewish media on this subject.

But such silence is not possible forever. Is Israel head and shoulders above Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia in terms of womens' rights? Absolutely. But our struggle also proves that justice for Jewish women is quite imperfect in the only Western-style democracy in the Middle East.

The Israeli Supreme Court would ultimately render three decisions. The first decision, in 1994, sent us to the Knesset where, I kid you not, the guys tried to banish our prayer group to rubble-strewn Arab areas of Jerusalem. We returned to court and, in 2000, rejoiced over a unanimous three judge decision in our favor. The state immediately appealed this decision. We then faced nine judges. In 2002, four judges were in our favor, four opposed us--and the fifth and decisive vote against us was cast by none other than the great liberal and humanitarian, Chief Justice Aharon Barak, a man who has been able to find justice for Palestinian Arabs, both Christians and Muslims but not for Jewish women.

This 2002 decision ordered the government to build a prayer site for us at Robinson's Arch which is mainly an archeological and tourist site. They have done so, at great cost. You may see it all in Katzir's moving film.
When I asked Rivka for her comments, here is what she said:
"Looking back 20 years after having organized the first halakhic women's group prayer at the Kotel, complete with prayer leader singing aloud and Torah reading, I have mixed emotions. I was 20 years younger, my husband was alive and with me then, and I felt exhilarated and proud at having begun a great spiritual adventure. Since then, however, the brave and pious Israeli women who have doggedly continued, coming every month, despite the narrowness and hatred they experienced emanating from our own tribe, have endured much, and have not succeeded in the Israeli Court. They have been banished, exiled, to Robinson's Arch, an archeological site they do not want and did not choose as a place of group prayer. What we all wanted to accomplish has not happened. We are still journeying towards our dream, towards women's freedom to pray, halakhically, and read torah, at our holy site."

This struggle empowered me to study Torah something which gives me much joy. It taught me that one should not try to change tradition if you have no intention of practicing it and without re-interpreting it smartly, humbly, carefully. WOW symbolizes the extraordinary learning in which Jewish women have been engaged and, as important, prides itself on finding ways to include all Jewish women in its prayer service. WOW does not separate from women of any denomination and is willing to sacrifice in order to do this.

From the outside, it may appear that our struggle has been legally defeated by ultra-orthodox fanatics. To some extent that is true--but we have also had orthodox supporters, both male and female, as well as orthodox detractors; feminist supporters as well as feminist detractors; Israeli supporters and Israelis who have such negative views of the Orthodox rabbinate that they will have nothing to do with religion--and they have viewed WOW negatively, as yet another religious group. Please remember that, as I've noted, it was a liberal, progressive, highly esteemed man, the President of the Israeli Supreme Court, who refused to grant justice to Jewish women in this era.

To WOW: Happy 20th Anniversary! We only have 20 more years to go before we reach the Promised Land in the promised land.

To Jewcy's readers: Please see Katzir's film, read our book, and go and pray with WOW when you are in Jerusalem.

A little break from reviews from various press resources about film to an interesting article about another family member. This one's from this week's Jerusalem Post:

Nov 29, 2008 18:29
A life full of days
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

Many people can't remember where they left their car keys or whom they met last week. Yet Prof. Ephraim Katzir, one of Israel's greatest living scientists, at 92 has written an autobiography packed with a mind-boggling cornucopia of people, dates, places, events and facts from as long as eight decades ago. Only once or twice does the author concede: "I am sorry I don't remember" someone's name. As Katzir found himself at key intersections in modern history, his story of a life well (but often-painfully) lived is intertwined with some of the most memorable events of the Jewish State and the Jewish People.

The 362-page hardcover Hebrew volume, just published by Carmel in Jerusalem, is simply titled Sipur Haim (A Life's Tale) - an apt reflection of his modest manner. Most Israelis, I presume, don't even recognize Katzir's name, or remember that he was a founding faculty member of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, a pathfinding biochemist and biophysicist, and the fourth president of the State, between 1973 and 1978.

Even if they did, many would be surprised to hear that he is still around, living on the Weizmann Institute campus.

But I recall him well. As a new Jerusalem Post reporter, I was assigned to cover Beit Hanassi (among other things) and the presidency when Katzir was inaugurated. I watched and listened to him at Beit Hanassi receptions, interviewed him in his private office and tagged along as he toured the country and - in perhaps his most momentous meeting - welcomed Egypt's president Anwar Sadat to Israel and Jerusalem.

Katzir never had the charisma or gift for gab that some Israelis prefer in a leader; at dull ceremonial events, he was probably dreaming of his lab, microscopes and test tubes. He always smiled shyly and looked people in the eye when he shook their hand, but a veil of sadness seemed to hang in the background. Many of his relatives perished in the Holocaust; his only sibling, best friend and world-renowned scientist Prof. Aharon Katchalski was murdered by the Japanese Red Army terror attack at Lod Airport on May 30, 1972; his daughter Nurit died of carbon dioxide asphyxiation at 23 when she fell asleep at home without being aware of a burning kerosene stove and sealed windows; daughter Irit, a "sensitive poet," died at 43 in "tragic circumstances"; and Katzir's wife Nina died of cancer 22 years ago. Only their son Meir and his family are left.

KATZIR WAS born in 1916 with the name Ephraim Katchalski, which he hebraicized only when elected president of Israel. His father, Yehuda, was an accountant with fiercely Zionist ideals. He and his wife Tzila lived in Lodj in Poland, where Aharon was born, but the family moved to Kiev in the Ukraine because of World War I. After migrating on to Bialystock, economic problems in the country and ideology induced the Katchalskis to make aliya to Eretz Yisrael in 1925.

Living with an uncle who came here previously as a pioneer, Aharon and Ephraim attended the Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv, riding their bicycles on the sandy paths. But when their parents failed to make a decent living, they moved to Jerusalem, where they rented an apartment in Rehov David Yellin. Yehuda didn't settle easily into an occupation and served as a synagogue beadle; Tzila excelled in running a clothing shop. The boys attended the Rehavia Gymnasia, which was then located in the Bokharian quarter where the family moved; Ephraim still recalls sharing a room with Aharon where the table was covered by a green velvet cloth. Ephraim joined the Haganah (which later became the Israel Defense Forces) at 16, like many of his peers, and learned to take apart and put together guns. Yehoshua Aluf, his physical education teacher, was a Hagana commander in Jerusalem (as president in 1974, Katzir presented him with an Israel Prize for his life's work). With over half of its small population of 70,000 being Jews, everybody seemed to know everybody. King George Street had become the first paved road in 1924.

Although his father wanted his younger son to go into business because Aharon was on a scientific path into biophysics at the budding Hebrew University, Katzir followed him to the new Mount Scopus campus, swerving from pure biology to chemistry. The brothers used their scientific knowledge to help the Haganah, and regretting that it was too late to save European Jewry. When a young Jew named Abba Kovner - a Lithuanian Jewish partisan leader who became a famous Hebrew poet and writer - arrived at the campus at the end of the war in Europe, he told the brothers what had happened to the Jews. He vowed to take toxin from the university, return to Europe and symbolically poison Nazi soldiers' bread in their barracks. On the boat to Europe, Kovner's plan was discovered and the poison from the HU storeroom was tossed into the sea.

FOR THE Haganah, the brothers developed new types of explosives to supplement the Jewish paramilitary organization's precious store. But, Katzir recalls in his book, the product was so malodorous that they had to do their lab work in a cave in Jerusalem's Sanhedria quarter. "When I entered a bus, people used to run away because of the stinky smell. Only years later did we learn how to eliminate the smell from that material."

One funny incident in the volume is Katzir's recollection of Amos Horev (who later became president of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa) working with former Palmahniks on thermal bombs that exploded with a delay. As they had to be ignited with sulphuric acid, Horev suggested keeping them in latex condoms that would gradually be eaten away by the acid. "For his first experiments," Katzir recalls, "we depended on Amos's private stock, but when we needed serious supplies," a colleague went to buy them from a retailer in King George Street who "didn't hide his admiration for what seemed to be his customer's impressive sexual activity."

Before the establishment of the state, Katzir went to New York for post-doctorate study in New York and to raise funds for the Rehovot institute among friends at the Brooklyn Polytechnic. He also worked with future Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek to smuggle weaponry for the expected war.


The author recalls personal details about his esteemed teachers and fellow students and how they influenced him along his academic path. As HU did not then have the necessary equipment and funds for their research, the Katchalski brothers eagerly accepted an offer from the new Weizmann Institute, named for Chaim Weizmann, the chemist who developed a process for producing acetone, that enabled the manufacture of explosive propellants critical to the Allied effort in World War I. Rewarded by Britain with the Balfour Declaration, Weizmann served as a Zionist leader, president of the World Zionist Organization and - in 1949 - the first president of Israel. Katzir knew the esteemed scientist when he was sickly and chose the legendary Meyer Weisgal to run and promote the Rehovot institute. "I never dreamed for a moment that a quarter of a century later, I would find myself in Weizmann's seat as president of the State," Katzir writes.

ARRIVING BACK with the birth of the state - prevented for days from reaching his wife and small children in besieged Jerusalem - Katzir was named head of the IDF science corps. Later, he focused at Weizmann on polymers (large molecules composed of repeating structural units connected by covalent chemical bonds), specifically on immobilized enzymes and polyamino acids, which led to the development of synthetic antigens and the production of synthetic vaccines. One practical application of his work was his development of a synthetic fiber used to sew up internal wounds that dissolves in bodily enzymes. For his varied work, he received many awards, including the Israel Prize in Life Sciences and the Japan Prize. He also served as chief scientist of the Defense Ministry.

A long-time socialist, Katzir supported the Labor Party and was urged by prime minister Golda Meir to present his candidacy for the presidency to succeed Zalman Shazar. He relates that he didn't really know what a president is supposed to do, but did recall that the post had in 1952, when Weizmann died, been offered to Albert Einstein (who turned it down). Powerful Labor Party finance minister Pinhas Sapir told the reluctant Katzir he would build him a lab at Beit Hanassi so he would not be separated from his beloved science during the five-year-term, but this never happened. MK Yitzhak Navon, David Ben-Gurion's right-hand man (and Katzir's Haganah colleague) whom Meir opposed due to unpleasant memories of Labor's rift with the Rafi Party that Navon had joined with B_G, was proposed in the party's central committee due to his charm, intellect and Sephardi background. But Katzir won 56 percent of the vote and then defeated the great HU Jewish studies scholar Prof. Ephraim Urbach, nominated by the National Religious Party. In the secret vote, Katzir won with 66 ballots.

About four months later, Katzir symbolically led the nation through the Yom Kippur War, with its horrific death toll, anti-government demonstrations, Meir's resignation and the appointment of Yitzhak Rabin to replace her. Katzir was well received at the White House by Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. In 1977, the Likud's Menachem Begin defeated Labor and a new bipartisan era began. Beit Hanassi was the scene of talks with party heads and the president's symbolic request to try to establish a coalition.

But it wasn't long before Egyptian president Anwar Sadat shook the country with the first official visit of an Arab leader. Katzir stood with Begin as they greeted the Egyptian at the airport and sat with them on the Knesset podium.

Katzir did much during his presidency to promote science education and research, continuing to boost biotechnology. After leaving office and returning to academia, he established a biotechnology department at Tel Aviv University while continuing his research at Weizmann and serving as world president of World ORT (the educational network).

"I believed with all my heart that science will bring peace to this country, renew its youthful vigor and create the sources for new life, both spiritually and materially," he wrote in a biological chemistry journal in 2005. "I have been lucky enough to spend my life in pursuit of my goals, with some success and considerable satisfaction."

Katzir, wheelchair bound but with a mind as clear as ever, was happy to give a telephone interview to mark the publication of his book to this reporter (who he said he remembered). He doesn't get to his lab, he said, but his former students - leading professors themselves - come to his home and bring their scientific articles before publication so he can comment on them. His son, a mathematics professor at the Technion, has three adult children, and some are engaged in science but not biology ("even though I tried to persuade them").

He spent six years working on the book, two of them reminiscing with his former biology student Amos Carmel, a journalist at Yedioth Aharonot.
"I told him he was better at writing than biology," Katzir jokes. "He did a wonderful job helping me. I didn't take notes during my long career, and didn't save any documents. Everything came from memory, with Amos's help. I felt that before I meet the Almighty, I wanted to write a book my son and grandchildren could read, and so that scientists will see that they can accomplish things outside scientific life as well.

Praying in her own voice interview on KRON-4 San Francisco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uaOmRc4V0o