The pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to the Holy Land will be the most heavily guarded visit in the history of the State of Israel. He will be accompanied by Vatican leaders and thousands of Christian pilgrims. Dozens of Israel's General Security Service agents and thousands of policemen will protect him on this trip. The Pope will conduct a mass on the Mt. of Beatitudes, and will visit Yad Vashem, the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Kessar Al Yahud baptism site near Jericho. The official p art of the Pope's visit will include meetings with Israel's Chief Rabbis, President Ezer Weizman and Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

The Italian Jewish community expressed mixed feelings following the Pope's request for forgiveness from various minorities, voiced this week. "We express deep sorrow for the behavior of those who, throughout history, have caused your children to suffer," said John Paul II in the fourth of seven pleas for forgiveness, which referred to persecution of the Jews. On the one hand the Italian community attributed considerable significance to these words, but on the other, they expressed their disappointment at the fact that the Pope had refrained from taking direct responsibility for the behavior of Pope Pius XII and the Church during World War II.

Nevertheless, the Italian media attributes considerable importance to the Pope's forthcoming visit. Italy's national TV has repeatedly broadcast pictures of the Pope's visit to Rome's Great Synagogue in 1986, which could be regarded as an initial gesture towards Judaism. The visit, which was initiated by the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Eliyahu Tuaf, became a historic event in the history of relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people.

"The Jewish community in Italy views the visit to Israel as an opportunity to improve its status and strengthen the ties between the Catholic Church and world Jewry," said Jewish Agency emissary to Italy, Tamar Milo. According to Milo, relations between the Jews and the Christian population in Italy are excellent and a number of organizations are dedicated to bringing these two groups closer together. Despite the close contacts, however, there have been manifestations of anti-Semitism in Italy.

Milo reported that recently there was a major demonstration of support in Rome for the right-wing national party "The National Alliance." The party which is extremely nationalistic, has an excellent chance of winning the regional elections which will be held in mid-April in the Lazio District, in which Rome is located.

The Italian Jewish community numbers some 35,000, of whom 18,000 reside in Rome, 10,000 in Milan and the rest in smaller communities throughout the country. The elections held at the beginning of the week for Jewish community institutions in Rome, were won by the "For Israel - Progress & Tradition" list, led by Ricardo Pacifici.

• 51,653 students attended 287 Jewish Agency ulpanim in 1999 in the FSU.

• 411 Jews from Yugoslavia participated in pilot trips in 1999, organized by the Aliyah Movement at the Jewish Agency. 137 made Aliyah.

• 1,000 Israeli youth visited Jewish communities around the world in 1999, as part of the Jewish Agency's Gesher leKesher (Connecting Bridges) program.

• $804,000 - Jewish Agency support for projects which promote unity, tolerance and mutual respect in Israeli society.

• $160,000 - Jewish Agency budget for the year 2000, for organizing Jewish festivals and events, and other community activities in the FSU, mainly in the large cities.

• $16,800 - Jewish Agency support for a project to prevent violence among youngsters who are Russian olim.

"On the eve of Passover - which is fast approaching, we say that each generation should see itself as the one that left Egypt," said the Chairman of the WZO and the Jewish Agency Sallai Meridor at the protest rally against Haiderism held in Jerusalem yesterday. "In this generation, we should feel as though each one of us had left Auschwitz or Treblinka," said Meridor.

This was the first mass protest against Haiderism to be held in the Israeli capital, following a wave of demonstrations in other capital cities around the world. Meridor praised the response of Israeli youth to the campaign against racism, and referred to the opposition to Haider in Europe in contrast to the silence that preceded the rise of Fascism in Europe on the eve of World War II.

WZO and Jewish Agency Treasurer, Chaim Chesler, said at the rally, "The same spirit that characterizes the Israeli coalition of youth movements, student and women's organizations, together with the free world which stands for freedom and liberty -is what led to the fall of the Iron Curtain, making it possible for hundreds and thousands of Jews to come to Israel, will bring Haider down. The struggle will be conducted from Jerusalem to the whole world.

The Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Rabbi Michael Melchior, quoted the famous church saying that teaches us that we cannot be apathetic to the atrocities that happen around us. Melchior emphasized that this is the real meaning of the protest rally.

The Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress, Israel Singer, praised Israeli youth, saying "Israeli youth live freely in their own country," and are still not apathetic to what is happening in Austria. Singer said that he will bring the message of Israeli youth to their counterparts in the USA.

3,000 youth, students, members of youth movements in Israel and around the world, and women's organizations participated in the rally. It included a performance on the dangers of racism by a youth group of 70 singers and dancers.

Prior to the rally, a memorial ceremony was held in the Valley of the Lost Communities at Yad Vashem, with the participation of 400 youth movement members who lit torches in memory of Holocaust victims, as well as red warning lights to point out the dangers of anti-Semitism and racism. Prof. Shevach Weiss, Chairman of Yad Vashem, Ephi Stanzler, Mayor of Givatayim, and Amos Hermon, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Education Committee participated in the ceremony.

The event was organized together with the Israel Council of Youth Movements, the World Council of Zionist Youth Movements, the National Union of Israeli Students, World Union of Jewish Students, Council of Students and Youth in Israel, Na'amat and other women's organizations, and volunteer organizations.

Left to Right : Chaim Chesler JAFI Treasurer, Sallai Meridor JAFI Chairman, Rabbi Michael Melchior Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Dr. Israel Singer WJC Secretary General

Last month's visit to Moscow by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is still generating an extensive reaction in the Russian press. In an Op-Ed piece published in one of Russia's leading papers, it was written that the meeting with government leaders focused on efforts by the Jewish delegates to counter the close relations between Russia and Iran.

Under the title - "What do American Jews fear", the paper writes that the members of the mission, who lobby on behalf of Jews the world over, are now trying their hand in the Russian Federation.

According to the paper, the visit was initiated by Russian Jewish Congress Chairman Vladimir Gusinski, against the background of his determination to succeed Edgar Bronfman, head of the World Jewish Congress. In view of the many meetings held by the Presidents' Conference leaders with the Russian opposition, the newspaper estimates that the main object of the visit was political, and the part of the visit which dealt with Jewish life in Russia was secondary. The article criticized Gusinski, who organized the visit, and who is presented as undermining the Russian administration in order to promote his personal agenda.

Amos Lahat, Director of the Jewish Agency's former Soviet Union Department, said that the importance of the visit to Moscow by the Presidents' Conference extended far beyond Jewish circles, and gained extensive coverage and a number of interpretations in the Russian media.

"Russian public opinion is not necessarily concerned with the activities of Jewish organizations," said Lahat. "But we realize that the press responds rapidly and takes a sharp stand wherever wealthy Jews are concerned, who are identified in Russia as being close to the government, dictating its activities and determining who will be part of the leadership."

"As some Russian citizens look negatively at the status of Jews, any Jewish bearing on diplomatic activity is interpreted as a further attempt to acquire power and money, even if in most cases this is unfounded", said Lahat.

"The government of Belarus is making every effort to counter and prevent any manifestation of anti-Semitism on its territory." This statement was made by Alexander Bilk, Minister for Minority Affairs in Belarus, at a ceremony held at the Yama Memorial, the burial site of 5,000 Jews from Minsk, who were slaughtered 58 years ago by the Nazis.

The ceremony, which was held at the beginning of the month, was attended by Chairman of the Belarus Jewish Congress, Leonard Levin; Israel's ambassador to Belarus, Martin Peled-Flax; US Ambassador Daniel Spekhart; Habad community leader in Minsk, Rabbi Joseph Grozman. Another ceremony held the same evening in the city theater was attended by most of the diplomatic corps in Belarus. During the evening, the play "Memorial Prayer", based on Shalom Aleichem's famous work "Tevye the Milkman", was performed.

Ayala Bukai, Jewish Agency representative in Minsk, reports that after the guests stood for a minute's silence in memory of the victims, all the speakers emphasized the obligation to remain vigilant so that anti-Semitism would not raise its head again anywhere in the world.

On March 2, 1942, the Nazis gathered all 5,000 Jews in Minsk, including 250 children and orphans, and concentrated them in the city center beside a pre-dug trench. Nazi soldiers shot all of them to death, pushed them into the trench and covered them with soil, even while some were still hovering between life and death or groaning in pain. Since then, the mass Jewish grave has been called "Yama" (Russian for "pit").

Lev Reichman, Jewish Agency emissary for youth and students in Belarus, reports that there is widespread Jewish educational activity among the Jewish communities, aimed at inculcating the younger generation with the memory of the Holocaust. Recently, a group of students in Minsk, who are active in the Jewish Agency youth club, got together and decided to teach the youngsters about the Holocaust period in the community in which they live. Members of the group travel to different areas where Jews lived in t he past, and teach the subject of the destruction in Belarus Jewry during the Second World War.

Reichman also said that the group learned about the Minsk ghetto and the "Koidnovo" ghetto in Drezinsk, studied the remains of the great yeshivot which operated in Volozhin and Mir and visited Jewish sites in Vitebsk - birthplace of Marc Chagall. A large amount of documented material was collected during these visits which is used for a variety of activities for Jewish youth all over Belarus.

Following the group's success in Minsk similar groups have been formed in Vitebsk, Mogilev and Gomel. In addition, more than 2000 Jewish youngsters participate each year in lectures and hear first person testimonies from Holocaust survivors within the framework of the Jewish Agency's clubs and summer camps.

Fifty-seven years after the annihilation of the Jewish community in Macedonia during the Holocaust, the first synagogue has been consecrated in the capital, Skopje. The synagogue consecration, one of a series of events held in Macedonia last week, was dedicated to members of the community who perished in the Holocaust.

Uri Conforti, the Jewish Agency's emissary in Bulgaria and Macedonia reports that just 200 Jews remain in Macedonia, most of whom are the descendants of the Holocaust victims and survivors. The new synagogue, which was donated by Beth Israel in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Torah scrolls which were presented by Jewish communities in California and Bulgaria, will now enable them to maintain a full Jewish life.

In addition to the consecration of the synagogue, memorial ceremonies for the Holocaust victims were held in three cities - Skopje, Bitula and Shatif. Representatives of the Jewish Agency, JDC and the American Jewish Committee as well as representatives from Jewish communities in Salonika, Bulgaria, Belgrade, Novisd and Niche participated in the ceremonies.

The Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra also devoted a special evening to the memory of the Holocaust victims. During the performance, which was held in the presence of Macedonian Prime Minister, Lupaco Georgiski, the orchestra played traditional Jewish music.

Some 12,000 Jews, most of the Macedonian community, died in the gas chambers at Treblinka and Auschwitz during the Second World War. Only a few survived. Even the synagogues were destroyed or were turned into factories.

According to Conforti, the link between the Jewish community and the State of Israel was strengthened after the Kosovo crisis. This has been reflected in visits by most members of the community to Israel, applications for aliyah, and the number of immigrants who have already arrived in Israel.

The Jewish Agency is reviewing the possibility of offering its Na'aleh program -that brings Jewish youngsters to Israel as immigrants - to the Jewish communities from the former Soviet Union (FSU) who emigrated to Germany. This is part of an overall effort by the Jewish Agency to encourage aliyah among Jews from the FSU who emigrated to Germany during the last decade. This was the subject of a special meeting held by the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee.

Germany is the third choice of Jews who leave the FSU, after emigration to Israel and the United States. It is estimated that, over the last decade, 100,000 Jews left the FSU for Germany. The pace of emigration is approximately 8,000 persons per year, Jews from the FSU now form the majority in the German Jewish community.

German law treats Jews from the FSU as refugees, covered by a quota. Germany provides refugees with extensive assistance - from accommodation, health services, professional training through subsidies for food purchases. Although the established community has supported Jewish immigration from the FSU, it has declared that it is willing to assist in the Jewish Agency's efforts.

Despite the economic benefits offered by Germany, officials at the Jewish Agency believe that Israel has an added value with regard to a sense of belonging and identity. Leah Golan, who directs the Jewish Agency's Western Aliyah Division, has just returned from a working trip to Germany. She reported to the members of the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee on the expanding Jewish Agency operations to encourage aliyah from Germany.

She said that the Jewish Agency will concentrate on educational activity and will adapt its aliyah programs to defined target groups such as an Aliyah Hi-Tech Fair to be held in coming months. The Jewish Agency will also focus on youth and children, and will try to bring them to Israel within the framework of the Na'aleh program.

"It's quite shocking to think that the Jewish community in Germany has grown a hundred-fold due to the emigration of Jews from the FSU in recent years," said MK Naomi Blumenthal, chairman of the Knesset Immigration Committee. Blumenthal said that it is hard to imagine that just 50 years after the Holocaust Jews who left the FSU chose Germany as their new homeland.

The Shas Movement, an ultra orthodox party which was founded 17 years ago, is considering the possibility of officially joining the Zionist Movement and the Jewish Agency. This requires approval of the higher board of rallies of the movement the Council of Torah Sages, and the Zionist congress which will convene in two years time.

The opponents of Shas, which is the third largest party in the Knesset and the second in the coalition (17 members), pleaded that its intention to join the National, institutions is not for ideological reasons, but a share of the financial pie and official positions.

In response, Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor said that the motive for joining the Agency and the Zionist Movement must not be to receive a slice of the cake. Meridor said that the key condition for any movement to join the Zionist organizations is its commitment to act on behalf of the national Zionist agenda: to guarantee the unity of the Jewish people based on the centrality of the State of Israel as a Jewish, democratic state; to intensify Jewish identity in the younger generation; and dedication to the continuation of aliyah and the "ingathering of the exiles".

Meridor added that the key issue in joining the World Zionist Organization must be a willingness to accept the principles of Zionism, to be part of the "greenhouse" in which Israel and the Diaspora, left and right, and Jews of all streams live together.

Jewish Agency Treasurer, Chaim Chesler, said that any movement or party which seeks to join the Zionist movement must first and foremost accept the principles of Zionism. Only then can we adopt it, and welcome it into our home with open arms, he said.
Shinui party chairman, MK Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, said that Shas must become Zionist before it joins the Zionist Organization. He is of the opinion that this is another of Shas' efforts to take over budgets which it has not yet managed to obtain.
MK Avraham Ravitz of UTJ, which is also an ultra-orthodox movement, disqualified the possibility that his party would take similar action to that of Shas since in his opinion, "The Jewish Agency is currently controlled by the Reform movement".

One hundred mostly young people gathered earlier this month in Johannesburg to usher in the Hebrew month of Adar with a special evening that combined the study of Hebrew texts with socializing, reports Yaron Te'ena, the B'nei Akiva emissary to Johannesburg.

The evening was organized under the aegis of the Zionist "kollel," a unique program run by the Jerusalem-based Torah Mitzion organization and supported by the Jewish Agency, designed to encourage the study Judaism and Zionism. It was one of many activities implemented within the framework of the program that range from organizing study in hevrutut or couples, lectures, holiday activities, weekend and seminars to outreach to smaller communities. Last year, the program's first year in Johannesburg, one of t he emissaries was Yair Taleh, a young man of Ethiopian origin. "He was accepted marvelously in the community," says Te'ena.

Although the vast majority of Johannesburg's Jews are Orthodox or traditional, their knowledge of Judaism is often superficial, Te'ena notes. Today 200 hevrutot of all ages are studying Torah at the kollel. Similar activities are held in Capetown, which pioneered the Zionist kollel in 1994.

"They are doing sacred work," says Tal Glazer, the Jewish Agency emissary to South Africa. "There isn't a segment of the Jewish community that isn't affected by them."

A historic wrong was corrected last week when forty rabbis, members of the North American Boards of Rabbis, unveiled a set of explanatory plaques next to a statue of the crucifix on the historic bridge over the Charles River in Prague. Affixation of the plaques was designed to rectify a three-century old affront to the Jewish community; the offensive inscription "Holy Holy Holy . . ." from the kedusha prayer was placed on the crucifix in 1696 by Prague officials, allegedly as retaliation against the Jewish community when one of their number, Elias Backhoffen, refused to remove his hat when he passed the statue, out of a sense of Jewish pride.

The plaques, written in Czech, English, and Hebrew, are seen as a gesture of reconciliation between Jews and Christians. They state that the inscription was placed on the statue "as the result of improper court proceedings against Elias Backoffen" and notes that it was "intended to humiliate the Jewish community.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of the city'\s Jewish and Catholic communities, as well as Prague Mayor, Jan Kasl and the US Ambassador to the Czech Republic, John Shattuck. The plaque followed an agreement between Mayor Kasl, the Prague Jewish community, and the North American Boards of Rabbis that deals with reconciliation, and which was in Prague for its annual convention

The Jewish community of the Czech Republic includes ten official Jewish Communities, totaling approximately 3,000 registered members, about 1,600 of whom live in Prague. The Federation of Jewish Communities is an umbrella organization for Jewish institutions in the Czech Republic. It encompasses another 2,000 people affiliated with various secular bodies such as the Union of Jewish Youth, the World Union of Jewish Students, Maccabi and Hakoach sports clubs, WIZO and the Terezin Initiative - a group of Cz ech Holocaust survivors. The Franz Kafka Society promotes Jewish culture, and the Czech-Israel Friendship Society acts to improve relations between the two countries. It is estimated that an additional ten to fifteen thousand unregistered Jews live in the country.

Prague boasts an ancient Jewish community dating back over 1,000 years with many Jewish sites. These include the famous Altneushul, built around 1270, the oldest functioning synagogue in Europe and the Old Jewish Cemetery; where the famed Rabbi Yehua Low, the Maharal, the legendary creator of the "Golem," is buried.
The Jewish Museum has one of the most extensive collections of Jewish artwork in the world - some 40,000 exhibits and 100,000 books from the territory of Bohemia and Moravia.

Eighty five percent of the community -- about 80,000 people- were killed in the Holocaust. Under Communist rule, the atmosphere was increasingly uncomfortable for Jews, with communal life subject to strict control. In the infamous Slansky trial in 1952, a number of Communist Jews were charged various "crimes" such as Zionism. The 1989 Velvet Revolution, however, led to a bettering of conditions accompanied by a reawakening of Jewish identity.

Today, there are three synagogues in Prague as well as a kosher restaurant, two homes for the elderly, a kindergarten sponsored by the Lauder Foundation, an elementary school, and a high school.

Mira Naveh, head of the Eastern European Desk at the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem, travels to the Czech Republic once every six weeks or so to interview potential immigrants from the region as well as participants in various touring and volunteering programs in Israel. The Jewish Agency runs an ulpan in Prague. Twelve classes attended by 200 students meet three times a week to study Hebrew. The Agency also conducts an ulpan in Brno with three classes attended by 40 students

Many people - both potential immigrants and returning Israelis alike - contemplate moving to Israel but are apprehensive about how will make a living here. Addressing this real need, the Jewish Agency Israel Aliyah Center in Los Angeles sponsored a well-attended Business Seminar this week held at the Jewish Federation. Two leading businessmen from Israel addressed the 60 participants, all of whom were accountants, economists, financial consultants, business executives or entrepreneurs exploring the possibility of setting up businesses in Israel.

Zvi Chalamish, CPA, Finance Manager of Israel's National Lands Authority, spoke about the great demand in Israel today for financial, economic and business leaders who are native English speakers. He also presented the group with recent economic developments in Israel and changes in the tax structure.

Avi Faigenbaum, Managing Director of the Small Business Development Center in Haifa - and past Jewish Agency aliyah emissary in Los Angeles - spoke about the process of setting up small and medium size businesses in Israel. He described the types of assistance available through such centers, known by the acronym MATI in Israel. Faigenbaum remained in Los Angeles to conduct personal follow-up interviews with individuals who attended the event.

Larry Tishkoff, the Jewish Agency emissary in Los Angeles and organizer of the event, said that Israel needs energetic, qualified native English speakers to fill innumerable positions in a wide variety of business related fields. Tishkoff would like to see future business seminars addressed by immigrants who have succeeded in the Israeli business arena - in addition to high-caliber professionals. "The added value that former immigrants can bring to the table," he says, "is that they can present themselves as role models for success."

Twenty doctors who are preparing for aliyah this week completed preparatory courses in computers at the Jewish Agency Center for Technology in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The doctors have undergone a three-month intensive training program in computer applications, basic English and professional Hebrew terminology designed to ease their integration in the Israel work-place.

“It will be much easier for me to settle in Israel now,” says Vladimir Sosnovski, a 32-year old gynecologist who has just completed the course and intends to make aliyah at the end of the month.
“In Russia, technology does not play as an important role in medicine as it does in Israel. This course has helped me learn how to use the computer for my daily work, which I was previously unfamiliar with.”
Valerie Meldin, a 35-year old vascular specialist, also feels much more confident after completing the course. “The course opened up possibilities of Internet communications and I hope that my familiarity with the computer and the programs used in Israel will make it easier for me to find work there.”

Sosnovski, Meldin and many other doctors and academics began studying at the Jewish Agency Center for Technology when it first opened in December 1999. Asher Oliamperl, head of the Jewish Agency delegation in Yekaterinburg, said that in addition to doctors, the Center also provides courses for 40 engineers, economists and those engaged in the free professions who are being trained in computer applications relevant to their fields. The Center also runs an Internet cafe. According to Oliamperl more than 100 Jewish youngsters attend the Center each week to learn about the various possibilities of using computers and to contact their contemporaries all over the world via the Internet.

In addition to the Technology Center in Yekaterinburg, the Jewish Agency, together with the Mortimer Herisson Trust and the ORT chain, has opened 2 similar centers at Dnieperprtrovsk in the Ukraine and in Minsk in Belarus. “We are trying to ensure that new immigrants will learn to apply advanced technology and will know the technical terms of their professions in Hebrew and English, prior to their arrival in Israel. This will ease their absorption process,” says Oliamperl.

Yeketarinburg (formerly Sverdlosk), the hometown of Boris Yeltzin, is in the central Urals on the Europe-Asia border. According to Jewish Agency estimates, there are some 20,000 Jews in Yeketarinburg. Community life in the town is well developed, with more than 10 Jewish organizations in addition to the Jewish Agency, the JDC, Habad, Hillel, the Russian Jewish Congress, Vaad, and Menorah. The Jewish Agency has three Hebrew-learning centers (ulpanim) in Yekaterinbug, with more than 360 students, the technology center, a youth club and winter and summer camps.

Thousands of inhabitants were left without basic foodstuffs and hundreds of homes were ruined last week in the floods of the South African Black Township of Alexandra near Johannesburg.

Tal Glazer, head of the Jewish Agency's emissaries in South Africa, spearheaded a relief effort to the area, carried out together with heads of Zionist youth movements, student organizations and the Jewish community, who gathered six tons of equipment for the victims.

Amos Hermon, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Education Committee, granted the Agency's permission for the aid mission, contingent upon having Johannesburg municipal authorities accompany the relief convey into the township which is known as a dangerous area.

When the trucks entered the township, they bore signs with the message: "Do not hijack the trucks. They are bringing equipment and food to help us."

A winter holiday with a difference awaits a group of European Jewish singles who have chosen to spend six days in Arosa, Switzerland next week. Aside from taking a winter break in a place that offers everything from skiing and snowboarding to saunas and a fitness center - participants will make new friends and contacts with other singles ages 28 to 48.

They will be able to choose from a wide variety of activities offered both by the four-star hotel reserved for them as well as by idyllic winter wonderland setting. This winter break, a social meeting organized by YACHAD, the European Jewish Singles Network, offers a chance to relax, exchange views, and learn about other Jewish communities.

This Monday night, Jews will gather in synagogues around the world to read the Megillah and start the celebration of Purim. The day-long holiday, which is marked by a festive meal, merrymaking, the exchange of delicacies, and gifts to the needy, is celebrated on the Hebrew date of the fourteenth of Adar. In leap years, like this year, when an additional month is added to the Jewish calendar, Purim is celebrated in that month, Adar II. In walled cities such as Jerusalem, Purim is celebrated on the fifteent h of Adar, on what is called Shushan Purim.

Below is a sampling of customs that developed in different Jewish communities to mark Purim courtesy of the Pedagogic Center of the Jewish Agency's Education Department. Many of these communities have disappeared as the younger generation immigrated to Israel.

In Persia, where, according to tradition, the Jews celebrated their victory resulting from the lot (pur in Persian) cast by Haman, which determined that they would be destroyed on the 13th day of Adar, the children would prepare a large effigy of Haman, and fill its clothes with gunpowder. They would set up a large stick in the middle of the courtyard, from which they would hang the effigy They would then pour oil over the effigy and which they would burn.

In Afghanistan, the children drew pictures of Haman on planks or cardboard. During the Megillah reading, the planks were thrown to the ground and trampled on. Wooden sandals were clapped together, too, also making much noise.

In Bukhara, the ground would usually be covered with snow at Purim time. A large snow-Haman was built next to the synagogue. This Haman had a funny-shaped torso, long thick legs, like an elephant's, a large head, eyes of charcoal, a carrot for a nose, and a piece of beetroot for the mouth. A "gold chain" made out of water melon peels was hung over the stomach as a symbol of office, and a broken pot was placed on the head. After the meal, the whole community gathered round the Haman. A large would be built, and the congregation would watch and sing until Haman completely disappeared.

In the Caucasus, women would blacken wood by the kitchen fire. When the men came home after the Megillah reading, they would ask, "What's this?" "The women would reply, "Haman." The men would say, "burn him," and the wood was immediately thrown into the fire.

In Egypt, the young men would ride through the Jewish section on horsebacks, camels and asses, in memory of the verse "and they brought him on horseback through the streets of the city".

In Libya, the youngsters also threw an effigy of Haman into the fire. They would jump over the fire competing to see who could jump highest.

In Tunisia, the children participated in burning an effigy of Haman. The younger children made small Hamans out of paper, while the older children made large Hamans out of rags, old clothes, and straw. All the townspeople gathered near the school. A large bonfire was prepared; the children would toss their Hamans into the fire. They would then beat the burning Haman with special sticks that they had prepared for Purim. After all the Hamans had been thrown on the fire, salt and sulfur were added. The youngs ters would stand around the fire, hitting the burning Haman with sticks and shout "Long live Mordechai," "Cursed be Haman," "Blessed be Esther," "Cursed be Zeresh."

In Algeria, children would light wax candles for the Purim meal.

In Yemen, before Purim, the children would set up two crossed sticks, cover them and declare in a loud voice: "Haman the wicked." This is the source of the Yemenite Jewish saying: "In Adar - we put up Haman crosses".

In the Yemenite town of Asaddeh, it was customary to make a large effigy of Haman out of rags. It was placed on a donkey and led by the children from house to house. Each householder gave the children sweetmeats, and beat, spat and threw dirty water over the Haman on the donkey.

In some places in Yemen, the children used to put a kind of scarecrow in a wooden cart with a horse. Two beads were stuck into its head for eyes, a beard was attached and it was dressed in colorful tattered clothes. The children placed the scarecrow on a wooden horse and walked before it calling out: "Thus shall be done to the wicked Haman."

On the eve of Purim, they dragged the cart through the streets dancing and singing: and shouting "Here comes Haman riding a lame horse." The "Haman" was then hung from a high tree in the courtyard of the synagogue, where it was taunted. Stones were hurled at it until it was torn to shreds. In some places Haman's cross was left until the end of Purim, and then taken down and burnt. The participants departed only when nothing was left but dust and ashes.

In Salonika, Haman-shaped" cakes were baked on the eve of "Shabbat Zakhor," and placed on the window ledges until the festive Purim meal. During the meal, the cakes were sliced to represent devouring wicked Haman.

In France, children used to take smooth stones, write or engrave Haman's name on them, and strike them together during the Megillah reading whenever Haman's name was mentioned, in compliance with the verse: "I shall surely wipe out the memory of Amalek".

In Italy, youngsters would separate into two groups and throw nuts at each other. Adults would ride through the streets of the town on horseback, with cypress branches in their' hands; they would place an effigy of Haman in a high place, and encircle it, to the sound of trumpets.

In Germany, on Purim eve, torches containing gunpowder would be ignited. During the Megillah reading, the gunpowder exploded with a deafening noise. In one town in Germany, two candles would be lit in the synagogue. One was called "Haman" and the other "Zeresh" (Haman's wife). The candles were allowed to burn down completely, and were not extinguished: "Thus should the haters of Israel be burnt." Doll-shaped cakes, called "Haman," were also prepared. The children would cut off the doll's head and eat it with great glee.

The dough:
3 cups of flour
200 gm. margarine
4 egg yolks
½ cup of milk
¼ cup of icing sugar

Nut filling:
150 gm. coarsely broken walnuts
50 gm. pine nuts
½ egg yolk
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons honey
Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve

Date filling:
250 gm. pitted dates
¼ cup water
cinnamon
50 gm. coarsely broken walnuts

Preparation:
Knead the dough ingredients until a smooth, pleasant dough is obtained. To prepare the nut filling, mix all the ingredients together. To prepare the date filling, cook the ingredients, without the eggs, on a low flame. Remove from heat, add nuts and cool.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 3 mm. Cut 6-8 cm. rounds with a cup. Place a teaspoon of filling at the center of each round and close to create the hamantasch. Bake for 25-30 minutes in a ready heated oven on medium - 1700. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with icing sugar. Cool and keep in a sealed container.

Bon appetit - B'teavon!