Ruth Zucker on her 90th birthday in Haifa, Israel. She is reading congratulations from all over the world, hand-bound into a large volume. The book was as large as a special edition of the Holy Bible.
Jerusalem/Berlin (bpb) The Israeli author Ruth Zucker received congratulations from all over the world in June, 2004 on the occasion of her 90th birthday. The Jewish lady, who was born in Bonn, Germany became strongly engaged after 1945 in promoting the reconciliation between Germans and Jews, and received much recognition for her work. The Chancellor of the International Alexander Order for Art and Science, Consul B. John Zavrel (New York) praised the celebrated lady as an "exemplary comsopolitan". She has made significant contributions „to the establishment of the new Israel, and has shown great courage through her active engagement for Israel already at a very young age, said Zavrel in a message of congratulations.
Ruth Zucker os one of the few "Lady Knights" in the Alexander Order, with the title Lady Alexandra. Another one, a co-founder of the society, modernized in 1990 by Roger Peyrefitte, is the prominent German theologian Prof. Dr. Uta Ranke-Heinemann.
John Gilbert Bodenstein, the President of the European Art Foundation Berlin (EKS) thanked Ruth Zucker for her loyalty and for her trust to Germany since the days of the first German post-war Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. "Just as Adenauer as a statesman was a great proponent of reconciliation with Israel, so Ruth Zucker has proved by her words and deeds that on the basis of mutual esteem and respect in a new start of the German-Jewish relations and friendship is possible and must succeed."
The German author Jutta Vogel (Berlin) led the delegation, which traveled for the 90th birthday of Ruth Zucker to Jerusalem. She brought along a thick album of messages of congratulations, written by her friends and acquaintances. "The volume looked like the Holy Bible. Mrs. Zucker was very touched by all the affection which she now receives as an elder lady", reported Jutta Vogel about the journey to the Holy Land.
From Germany into the world: USA, Asia and Europe
Ruth Zucker was born in 1914 as a child of Jewish parents in Bonn on the Rhein river. She grew up in a upper middle-class society. At the age of eight years, she went to study at an international school in Lausanne in Switzerland, and later in Geneva. She spent a part of her student years in USA. At the age of 14 years, she belonged to a circle of young people around the Mahatma Gandhi, and started to study Indian religion and philosophy.
Finally, she returned back to Geneva to her study of psychology. In 1993 her fiance, a physician, emigrated to Palestine. She followed him there illegally in 1934, since the English at that time did not want to allow any more Jewish immigrants into the area. From 1950 to 1951 she worked as a journalist in London for the "Jewish Chronicle". She has her journalist's ID card to this day.
In Palestine, as well as later in Israel, Ruth Zucker worked as a psychologist, graphologist and finally astrologer. She developed a special method for graphologic and psychologic analysis of the Hebrew script, and published her findings in the first textbook of its kind. Since the 1970s she has been regularly visiting Germany, where she gained growing fame as a grapholog and astrologer. She appreared often in radio and on television. Among others, she published in German an autobiography under the title "My Seven Lives".
In a book review in the prominent German newspaper „Süddeutschen Zeitung", the reviewer Birgit Weidinger was enchanted by Ruth Zucker's autobiography. She pointed out that the author reported also about her underground activities for the Israeli "Haganah". She is a pioneer on the establishment of the State of Israel. The descriptions of the author take in a wide time-span, and are "of great documentary value", wrote Weidinger in her review.
The young, attractive Ruth Zucker in 1940s, at the time of her secret and dangerous underground activity as a spy for the Haganah (1937-1948). Her code name was "Rinah" - Joy.
Copyright 2004 West Art, Prometheus 94/2004