She taught Franz Kafka Hebrew in Prague, and founded Israel's first comprehensive high school in Be'er Sheva. Who was she?

AyatollahK

Puah Ben-Tovim. The link is worth reading, for her visions of a "drowning" Kafka and for the quote below: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01EEDC153BF935A2575BC0A967948260 "Where had her own way taken her? 'In Berlin, I met my future husband, Joseph Menczel, a Labor Zionist from Bukovina who wanted to get his doctorate in history before going on to Palestine. I had switched to botany and biology; I got my Ph.D. in 1934 with a thesis on the ecological role of mollusks. 'Eventually we settled in Beersheba and started Israel's first comprehensive high school. We believed in ideals rather than ideologies; that's why we tried to reach out to all the children of the Negev, Bedouins and Arabs as well as Jews, and not only give them a decent education but also teach them how to live together. But by the time my husband died, in 1953, ideology had become more important than ideals. My views were no longer fashionable, I didn't belong to any party or faction, and a bureaucracy has no room for outsiders with minds of their own. My opinions today are more out of step than ever, but that is no reason for me to change them.' Feb 19 08, 11:09 AM