SHAZAR (RUBASHOV), SHNEUR ZALMAN

Zalman Shazar (1889-1974), third president of the State of Israel, began his literary career at the tender age of fourteen. In this issue of the monthly he edited and hand-wrote, Shazar - or Rubashov as he was then known - tells of the destruction of his hometown of Stolbtsy (Minsk Province) by fire. He portrays the Chassidic prayerhouse and its congregants where he was raised. In his autobiography, Kochvei Shachar, he relates that at the time of their parting, his grandfather sang for him the song of the Alter Rebbe, Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Shazar's namesake, explaining "there are tunes one never forgets as they are of the essence of the soul." From the Collection of the late Prof. Abraham Katsh, President Dropsie College, whose father, Rabbi Reuven Katsh (later Chief Rabbi Petach Tikvah, Israel) instructed the youthful Shazar in Talmud