Brill's optical museum

What do Napoleon Bonaparte, Benjamin Franklin and Eliezer Ben-Yehuda have in common? Their glasses are part of a unique optical accessories collection held by the Israeli optician David Brill.

In Brill's collection, exhibited at his optic store in Givatayim, one can find a selection of rare eyeglass frames from the 15th century to the 20th century; a selection of old cameras including a Box system camera – among the first cameras ever produced; theatre binoculars of the Renaissance; an old Nelson telescope; and an old microscope from the beginning of the scientific microscopes era.

photos: Hans Engelsman

These rare items, picked by David Brill for decades in Israel and abroad, also include spectacles which were used by the father of modern Hebrew, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, spectacles and telescopes which were used by Napoleon Bonaparte in the 18th century, and bifocal lenses which were produced by Benjamin Franklin.

The canary bird from Aspö

Last week a very dear friend of Israel passed away in Sweden.

Ralph Haglund, another friend of Israel in Sweden,

wrote a necrology for her, whose English translation is brought below

 

Karin Rebel, from Aspö in Blekinge, southeastern Sweden, her decease occurred very suddenly and unexpectedly on the 16th of July 2011, at an age approaching 80, and I experienced the chock wave from the news a few hours later.

I met Karin maybe a decade ago in Stockholm at a pro-Israeli meeting and we were soon in deep conversation, as we were both engaged in the discussions about promoting information about Israel. After that we only met once, on her little island in the archipelago, where I saw the small romantic yellow cottage situated as a perfect work place for an author.

We have brought upon us the duty to inform about Israel as this information is very limited in Swedish media except as reflections in joking mirrors. Known spokesmen for Israel have compared Israel's role as the canary bird for the West, with the canaries of mines, warning for poison gases. With today's attacks on the land and people of Israel for no discernible reasons, the canary of Israel gives very strong Danger signals. Karin has written and given information to high and low, the radio program Call P1 was more and more often contacting her in Israel-related questions. She was also monitoring the local media where some local anti-democracy spokesmen got free rein.

We discussed many of the hard facts and showed how the local media had no knowledge at all about international laws and negotiation results, or alternatively did not care.

Karin loved to make long distance exploratory travels, everything from art tours to museums in Mexico to safaris in Africa.  During her marriage she also lived an international life in a few different countries and got much linguistic knowledge and experience.

One of our latest subjects of discussion was her memories from her childhood on the island of Aspö, how people lived far from shops, on their own farming and fishing. I have often speculated over such things as my mother was also born in a small cottage far into the forest of central Sweden - a life not possible to grasp for us with no experience of it, only stories.

The knowledgeable voice and sharp pen of Karin will be remembered by the emptiness, missed by family and friends and many of the pro-Israeli information groups of Sweden.

The funeral has occurred with the nearest of the family members.

Ralph Haglund, Lund

The Galilee Subbotniks

 Dubrovin farm in Yesud Hama'ala (photo: Yehudit Garinkol)

The Galilee converts are the families of Russians who converted to Judaism from 18th century on. Among them there were peasants and landowners, commoners and nobles such as Alexander Volnitzin and Prince Valentine Potocki. According to one opinion, the converted Abraham Ben-Avraham Kurakin's father is mentioned in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy as Anatoly Kuragin or Prince Kurakin.
 

The first reports on the Subbotnik movement, the converted Russians, appear in an official document from 1770, about 400 Subbotniks in the province of Saratov. In 1823 the Russian Interior Ministry counted about 20 thousand Subbotniks in various areas of the empire, and at its peak, in 1912, the movement numbered about 100 thousand members.

Excluding the period from 1912 to 1905, the Subbotnik movement was illegal. In 1825 the "Holy Synod" of Russia enacted a law dealing with "ways of stopping the spread of Jewish sect called Subbotniks". All "heresy distributors" being rejected for military service, were exiled to Siberia, where they founded "Subbotnik villages" while maintaining their uniqueness. Children under the age of seven were taken from them and given to "governmental education houses". Jews who lived in areas where Subbotniks were reported to live were expelled from their villages as well and were not allowed back.

Dr. Yuval Dror, a descendant of Kurakin family, who deals with the study of the Subbotnik movement, writes about the destiny of converted Evdokimov family: "The family father was arrested and was jailed for two years and the rest of the movement members were harassed as well. More than a thousand families were dispossessed from their homes, deported and exiled to the Caucasus ... At their new residence they suffered as well... there were attempts to reconvert their many children to Christianity by force. They were forced to carry stones to the village Pravoslav church and were chased at the rural community meetings".

Despite persecutions the Subbotnik movement expanded and during the 19th its leaders got into close contacts with the rabbinical Judaism. In the beginning of the 20th century, emissaries of the Zionist movement appeared in its villages. Some of the Subbotniks sold their possessions, immigrated to Eretz-Israel and joined the pioneers of the Third Aliyah. The Subbotnik movement also sent delegates to the all-Russia Zionist Congress in 1917.

Since they were farmers and outstanding peasants, when they moved to Eretz-Israel they contributed a great deal to the development of agriculture in the Galilee. Yoav Dubrovin imported from Russia plows and modern agricultural equipment, introduced at his farm elaborated crop rotation and applied new methods of cattle raising.

The enormous power and body structure of Dubrovin family members triggered the Galileans to call them by the nickname "Moskobians" or "Goliathians". "Fever is not a disease", the old Dubrovin used to encourage his family in times they had fallen ill. During the Malaria period the family horses were galloping without guidance, right to the doctor in Yesud HaMa'ala. "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away", Dubrovin said after the Shiv'a following the death of his 22 years old son Abraham. In the fall of 1918 the second son, aged 37, was depeated. "Do not cry for the dead, one should not doubt the actions of God. During all those years passed, I have never heard from you a thought to leave the country", he encouraged his sons after the death of his son in law. When he was about 100 years old, sick and lying on his bed, he got the last blow, from which he never got up: "My Hero", the old man lamented his youngest son Ephraim, "How did you fall, Froyke, how the mighty have fallen!"

Over the years the Galilee Subbotniks were thoroughly assimilated between the Israelis and nowadays one can get to know their origin only by their surnames. Amog the Israelis who could credit themselves for a "Subbotnik" origin one can mention Ephraim Avidan - Yoav Dubrovin's grandson - who served as commander of Northern Region in Border Police; Abraham Avigdorov - Abraham Kurakin's great grandson - who earned the medal of valor in the War of Independence, Menachem Kurakin - Abraham's grandson – who was among the twenty-three missing commandos at Operation Boatswain.

Behind each donation lies a life story

Every year there are strange donations and estates being transferred to Israel, finding their way to the administrator general in the Israel ministry of justice. For example, one American farmer donated a pair of stallions, a European donor set up a fund to bestow awards to soldiers serving at the IDF as dog trainers, another person's donation for the country was a rare violin, provided to be played by new immigrants only, and there was even a person who donated money provided it will be used to establish the Third Temple.

Some 50 years ago the Israeli government imposed the Administrator General to handle the estates and donations donated to the state. According to estimates, each year the state is endowed by individuals worldwide  amounts and items whose total value is about 200 million Shekel.

For example, a Jew of Russian origin died childless in his poor Paris apartment. After the Paris municipality workers cleared the pile of junk that filled the apartment, they found a small box. When they opened it, they found a handwritten will, in which he wrote: "I bequeath my property to the State of Israel". It turned out that the amount the man had in his bank account was a quarter million Shkalim.

However, in London one day a non-Jewish man, in a wheelchair, appeared  at the entrance of the Israeli Embassy. He took out of his pocket a bank check and wrote in it the amount of  2.1 million dollars. He handed the check to the surprised consul, and asked to spend the money to rehabilitate the disabled in Israel. The donor asked to maintain his anonymity and the only thing he was willing to say is, that being a child he had been adopted by a Jewish family.

Following the sheep

photo: Revital Kagan Ben-adar

When the jouvenille Moshe Kagan, a native of the Polish city Kremenets, wanted to immigrate to Eretz-Israel, though painting was his great love - Hashomer Hatzair activists encouraged him to acquire a profession before he arrives in Israel. So, when a relative of him came to Kremenets from another city, Moshe learned from him his profession - a dental technician.

In 1948, while a soldier in the Polish army led by Władysław Anders, Moshe came with his division to the devastated Warsaw and burning Berlin, and discovered that his parents and sister had been murdered by the Nazis. He made Aliyah to Israel, and settled in kibbutz Shamir, where he worked as a shepherd for ten years. He would go out to pasture with fabrics, papers, pencils and brushes, and paint the landscapes, and of course - lots of sheep.

Following the sheep he found in the area ancient pottery, tools, coins and flintsones - which he passed to the Israel Antiquities Authority - where they learned that those archeological findings testified of some twenty pre-historical settlements in the area. The archaeological hobby became "half a profession" when Moshe helped the American team digging in Tel-Anafa located beneath kibbutz Shamir. He also set up a small archaeological museum in the kibbutz, and became an expert of dolmens.

Today, the 89-year-old Kagan collects stamps, coins, antiques and drawings. He handles his garden, and of course - paints.