JERUSALEM AND ROME.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 308, 30 December 1929, Page 9

JERUSALEM AND ROME.

The Hebrew editor in Jerusalem who published his newspaper in defiance of the Palestine Government's suppression of the newspapers of the country following the-Arab attacks on Jewish worshippers and settlers, is Ittamar ben Avi, son of the savant, Eliezar ben Jehuda, the compiler .of the modern Hebrew lexicon. As renowned a . scholar as Father La Grange, head of the Dominican monastery in Jerusalem, who is considered one of the foremost authorities on Palestine, is reported to have said two years ago that, in his estimation, Ben jehuda was one of the discriminating scientists of our age. "The son, too, is a man of remarkable ability and imagination," said Dr.' La Grange. "He conceived the idea of. introducing Hsbrew in Latin characters. The .family of Ben Jehuda spoke Hebrew in"Jerusalem, when to do so was fraught with great danger.' For old pious Jews were of the opinion that the language of the Bible should not be put to profane use. The Ben Jehudas persisted and won out. All Jewish Palestine talks Hebrew today," added the Catholic divine." Curiously enough, Signor Mussolini, when lr heard reports on Palestine, at once thought of Ittamar ben Avi. "A.man with a great imagination,"'said the Duce. "He visited me several times and he is always the guest of the Italian Government when he' comes to Rome. Ben Avi once told me that it was time we Italians pulled down the arch of Titus, the symbol of Judea's political destruction/' went on the Duee. "I told him we might take it down and ship it to Jerusalem." And imagine," added Signor Mussolini, "that man Ben Avi telegraphs in Hebrew; in that language of' which Renftn said that it was beaten out upon an anvil and never could be vulgarised."