9, when the village of Boiberke was proclaimed a township.
As a matter of fact, when I wrote The Odyssey of an American Zionist, several years ago, and since the story in the book begins with the town of my birth, I tried to emphasize the existence of Boiberke which is situated in Eastern Galicia, less than an hour's train ride from Lemberg (Lwow), the then capital of the Austrian Province of Galicia.
It isn't possible to evaluate one's good deeds until they are authenticaled by reliable and responsible sources. This happened at the funeral of my cousin Julius or Yidel Marcus, when the Reverend who euligized him told of how Julius, who was in the milk business, would instruct his drivers who served retail milk stores on the lower East Side, in New York to take along a dozen or more bottles of milk each morning and leave same at the doors of some Rabbis who could ill afford to purchase enough milk for their large families. While listening to the eulogy it reminded me of Julius' visit in 1934 to Palestine in company of his younger brother Sam and a friend, Morris Walter. At that time I was also in Palestine and arranged for the four of us to tour the country.
One day, on a Thursday two weeks before Rosh Hashanah, we visited the Kibbutz Beth Alpha where we expected to meet our Boiberker landsleit who took part in organizing the Kibbutz and were members of the place. We asked a young lady the whereabout of Beril Beker and she told us with a smile to go to look at the small little houses whose doors by the way, stood open, and where we would see a red blanket, that would be Beker's room. We found the red blanket, but not Beril. The secretary of the Kibbutz, Zvi Neumann, also a Galitzianer landsman, (I believe he comes from Tlumach) at first invited us to have a bite and then directed us to walk to Mount Gilboa, where Beril and the sheep were resting. As Sam Marcus and Morris Walter marched ahead of us, Julius began to relay to me what he learned in Boiberke at the Cheder of Efroyim Melamed (the teacher). Julius recalled that Efroyim was about only Melamed (teacher) in Boiberke who loved to teach his pupils the history of the Prophets, but many fanatics in Boiberke would never entrust their children to Efroyim, since they didn't want their young children at an early age to learn about the Prophets. Julius learned about the Prophets in Yiddish, and since he had a wonderfull memory, while we walked towards Mount Gilboa, he began to recite the lamentation of David when he was informed that his friend Jonathan and King Saul his father, were slain by the Philistines.
Reaching Mt. Gilboa, we met Beril and his flock of sheep, and in the course of one conversation, we discovered that Beril was in the process of compiling material for his book on sheep breeding, which today is the manual on the subject in Israel.Thy beauty, O Israel, upon thy high places is slain;
How are the mighty fallen;
Tell it not in Gath,
Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon;
Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice,
Lest the daughters of the uncircumsized triumph.
Ye mountains of Gilboa,
Let there be no dew nor rain upon you,
Neither fields of choice fruits;
For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away,
The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.
From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty,
The bow of Jonathan turned not back,
And the sword of Saul returned not empty.
Saul and Jonathan, the lovely and the pleasant
In their lives, even in their death they were not divided;
They were swifter than eagles,
They were stronger than lions,
Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,
Who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights,
Who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel.
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle;
Jonathan upon thy high place is slain;
I am distressed for thee, my brotherJonathan;
Very pleasant hast thou been unto me;
Wonderful was thy love to me Passing the love of women.
How are the mighty fallen,
and the weapons of war perished;
We returned to Beth Alpha to pick up our car and left for Tiberias. We stayed th