Gamal Abdel Nasser, Alexei Kosygin and Charles de Gaulle were burned in effigy tonight as Israeli youngsters danced around bonfires in celebration of Lag B’Omer. Festivities took place at Meron, near Safad, at the grave of Shimon Bar Yohai; in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities. Some teachers reportedly frowned on the symbolic burning of foreign political figures as a form of diversion but the “straw men” of Russia, Egypt and France went up in smoke nevertheless. An admonition by Orthodox rabbis against wearing miniskirts was equally ineffective.
According to legend, an outbreak of plague among the pupils of Rabbi Akiba in the Second Century ended on Iyar 18. The holiday is known thus as the “scholars’ feast.” Rabbi Ben Yohai, a mystic, was said to have died on this day.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
