American ffewish Periodical Cent

Page 16

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

Friday, May 4,1951

The Chronicle Was There

Jews in Race With Time — Myerson;
L Year 9 s b y 50%
ps ast
ii To
Campagn

By HAROLD S. COHEN
"If for 24 hours the Knesset
could pass bills which would
oblige American Jewry, all our
problems would be solved."
With this statement Golda
Myerson, Israeli minister of
labor and rehabilitation, un-
scored the fact that the solution
to Israel's financial problems lies
in the hands of American Jews.
She was addressing a report
meeting of the trades and pro-
fessions division of the .Allied
Jewish Campaign Sunday at the
Woodward Center.
Mrs. Myerson pointed out that
the Israelis have given more to
aiding refugees than all the rest
of world Jewry put together.
If the money raised in Israel
were in dollars, she said, all our
troubles would be over. But to-
day only dollars will buy any-
thing in world markets.
Israel's population has more
than doubled since 1948, but our
production has not doubled, she
went on. We have had to cut
. our consumption in half to share
what we have.
"But don't pity us," she
staled, " no one has died of
It yet."
Speaking of the new state,
she said that Jews everywhere
now enjoy the things that come
with a state. She described the
sensation which she receives each
time that she enters the Knes-
set. "It is still new to us."
"We are realistic enough to
know that the establishment of
the state is not a goal, it is
merely the instrument to a goal
I —the bringing to Israel of all
Jews who want to or have to,"
she went on.
Israel has brought more dig-
nity and security to Jews out-
side Israel, Mrs. Myerson said.
For the first time they have a
choice. That is the A and Z
of our entire philosophy.
"A state of Israel with a
quota would be the greatest
tragedy possible," she added.
Mrs. Myerson told the meet-
ing that we cannot afford to
wait. She pointed out that there
is a deadline on the immigra-
tion of Jews from Iraq and Ro-
mania.
"They will be in by the time
limit even if we have to cut
our rations in half again," she
stated.
She said that 12 planes a day
are bringing Iraqi Jews to Is-
rael and that 2,000 Romanian
Jews are entering the country
each week.
"These people are not beggars,
they are not lazy," she insisted,
"they want to go to work at
once. They cannot be blamed
if they are stripped of all their
possessions before they leave.
"These people are the com-
mon responsibility of all Jews,"
she continued.
Mrs. Myerson looked forward
to the day when she could meet
American Jewry on a different
basis. But she pointed out that
at least 600,000 more persons
would need to be brought to
Israel.
"Is this a calamity?" she
asked. "We have always given
money, but with a difference.
• Before we gave with no hope
for anything better, now we
are giving for constructive
purposes."
She said that before we gave
to bind up the wounds of po-
grom victims knowing that those
who had inflicted them were
standing by to repeat their at-
tacks, but today those we aid
r twill not face future assailants.
"If we should even have war,
she went on, we will not hide
under the beds or in attics, we
will fight as we did in 1948 for
our freedom," she emphasized.
"There is nothing to cry about
in Israel, there are difficulties
but they are full of joy. There
is not an hour when something
, new is not growing up there,"
she added.
"Time has been our greatest
enemy, she concluded. We lost

Life Tenure Offered Glazer
as Beth El Hails Anniversary

Civic and religious leaders
joined April 27 at the Friday
night service to pay tribute to
Temple Beth El's spiritual guide,
Dr. B. Benedict Glazer, on the
completion of 10 years of service
to the congregation and 25 years
in the rabbinate.
Temple Beth El, through its
president, Nate S. Shapero, ex-
pressed its gratefulness for Dr.
Glazer's devotion by offering
him a life tenure which, if ac-
cepted by Dr. Glazer, will be
formally ratified at the next
annual membership meeting.
Dr. Maurice N.• Eisendrath,
president of the Union of Ameri-
can He b r e w Congregations,
praised Dr. Glazer as one of the
most influential leaders in .this
community and described him as
a man who possessed- spiritual
valor and moral quality.
Ray R. Eppert, Detroit indus-
trialist and civic leader, summar-
ized his experiences in the col-
laboration with Dr. Glazer as
"practical leadership." Glazer is
always willing, he said, to serve
any cause that is righteous and
wherever his counsel is needed.
He especially mentioned Glazer's
initiative in the reform of the
state's mental hospitals and his
part in bringing this issue to the
people.
Warmth and generosity are
Glazer's characteristics, accord-
ing to Rabbi Leon I. Feuer of
Toledo, who, from many years
of intimate friendship, gave a
closeup of Glazer's personality.
The greetings of the Protes-
tant community were extended

by Dr. Herbert B. Iludnut,
minister of the Woodward
avenue Presbyterian Church,
who emphasized that Dr. Gla-
zer's opinions are respected
everywhere and that he has
done much to further under-
standing among the various
faiths.
Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson, rabbi
emeritus of New York's Temple
Emanu-El, expressed his grate-
fulness for the opportunity to
congratulate Dr. Glazer, with
whom in the past He officiated
together for 16 years in Pitts-
burgh and New York, prior: to
Dr. Glazer's coming to Detroit.
Shapero, in his speech, pointed
to the fact that under Dr. Glazer's
leadership Temple Beth El has
grown in all its branches and
made a great contribution to the
progress in the life of Detroit's
Jewish community.
A large audience, composed not
only of members of the Temple
but of representatives of all
faiths and races, had gathered
to honor the rabbi. In the course
of his response, in which he
thanked all speakers for their
generosity, Glazer indicated that
he intended to accept the offer
of a life tenure, "because there
are so many things which still
have to be done."
Rabbi Sidney Akselrad deliv-
ered the invocation and read the
service. Jason H Tickton, music
director of Beth El, composed a
special liturgical music for a
double quartet. A reception in
the Franklin Memorial Hall con-
cluded the evening. G. N.

Ben Gurion, Now in U. S.
Scholar, Statesman, Soldier

600,000 immigrants into Israel's
economy. This three-year plan,
which requires one and a half bil-
lion dollars, provides that $1,000,-
000,000 be raised in the United
States through philanthrophy,
grants-in-aid, private investments
and through the State of Israel
Bond Issue to be launched here
in conjunction with the celebra-
tion of the third anniversary of
its independence.
Ben Gurion, who is now 65, still
leads the life of the average Is-
rael worker. Except for the armed
guards before the door, his twa:
story house in a workers' hous-
ing section of Tel Aviv is indis-
tinguishable from those around it.
The rooms are small and the li-
brary is mainly composed of
books on military history and
tactics and the writings of the
Greek philosophers.
He is a man who does not waste
words, but who has spoken often
for Israel in the words which Is-
rael understands best. On fore-
ign policy he said:
"Our foreign policy shall he
the passage from Isaiah, 'And
the nations shall not lift sword
against nation and they shall
not war against each other'."
Delighted Israelis have in re-
cent months been treated to news
photos of their prime minister
seated on a white horse, his aure-
ole of white hair flattened by a
summer breeze at an Israel vaca-
tion spot and to lengthy descrip-
tions of the skill with which Ben
Gurion handled the infant son of
an Iraqi family, which had vowed
that no one but the prime min-
ister would hold the child at the
ceremonial circumcision.
He wears the insignia of the
defense army of Israel in his lapel
with great pride, was visibly
touched when the Jerusalem mu-
nicipality gave him the freedom
of the city.
Ben Gurion's Greek scholar-
ship, which dates back some 16
years — he also speaks English,
Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish, Turk-
ish, French and Arabic—resulted
in a typical gesture last year. Pre-
sented with a $1,500 award by
the Hebrew University as "the
person who has done the most
for Israel in the last two years,"
he turned the check over to the
student who wrote the best essay
on the influence of Plato's philos-
ophy on Jewish literature and
thought.

GOLDA MYERSON AND ABE KASLE
• • •
•
the race for time in 1939, will chairman, asked for the reports
of the individual trades and pro-
we lose this race, too?"
Abe Kasle, campaign chair- fessions. Their total was $2,822,-
man, announced that the drive 829 to date which is 61 per cent
has reached 50 per cent of the of the 1950 total, although only
1950 total in its first three 7,000 slips have been covered
weeks. He emphasized, how- out of 27,000.
Charles Rubiner, president of
ever, that the dollar will not
buy in 1951 what it would in the Jewish Welfare Federation,
served as brunch chairman and
1950.
Louis Berry, pre - campaign introduced Mrs. Myerson.

David Ben Gurion, prime minister and minister of defense of Israel, symbolizes for the citizens of
his country the vigor and determination which brought Israel statehood and independence.
Ben Gurion, who arrived
New York Thursday in conjunc- Party journal "Haachdut"—The
tion with Israel's third Indepen- Union—and, in 1913, he went to
dence Day to launch his country's the University of Constantinople
$500,000,000 bond issue in the to study Turkish law.
United States, has for almost half
On, his return, he was exiled
a century paced modern Zionism from Palestine by the Turks be-
through the stages which culmin- cause of his activities in favor of
ated in the establishment of the the Allied cause. In 1915, he came
Jewish state.
to the United States and helped
Ben Gurion's Zionist history in the organization of the Hech-
in
dates back to his childhood
alutz (pioneer) movement which
Plonsk, Poland—then a part of stressed immigration to Palestine
Russia. He was born in 1886, the plus work on the land.
fourth of 11 children in a deep-
In America, Ben Gurion met
ly religious family. His father. and married Paula Moonvess, a
Avigdor Grin, was a lawyer and student nurse at a Jewish train-
a member of the Chovevei-Zion ing school In Brooklyn who had
(Lovers of Zion) movement.
been sent to America from her
Young David Grin's formal edu- native Minsk when she was 13.
cation was short. He attended an Their first child, Geula, was
BEN GURION
orthodox Hebrew school and, at born in New York in 1921.
• • •
home, received a thorough-going
During his stay in America, Ben of defense, from 5 up to mid-
education in the writings of Theo- Gurion busied himself in the or- night as premier. During that
dor Herzl, thefather of modern ganization of the U. S. branch of period he toured hospitals, ral-
Zionism. By the time he was 14 the Jewish Legion, which saw lied the people of Israel to great
he was presiding over Zionist action under General Allenby in sacrifice and, as one observer
meetings in nearby Warsaw and, the Palestine campaign.
put it, became "Mr. Israel."
some years later, his Zionist and
He served with the Legion as a
Ben Gurion is above all a "man
Socialist activities in anti-Semitic corporal and, after his discharge,
and politically disturbed Poland traveled to London, Vienna and of action and decision." Time and
ended in a jail sentence. ..:
Warsaw with his family on mis- again, when others have faltered,
On his release, it) 1906, David sions for the Zionist Labor Party. he has emphasized the need for
sailed for Palestine. His visa In 1921 the family settled in Pal- decisive action. His will and per-
suasiveness led his colleagues to
expired in three months, but estine.
David Grin became David Ben
After the war, In 1946, the Zion- declare the state of Israel despite
Gurion, working as a farm la- ist General Council decided not threats from many powerful quar-
borer and watchman in Jewish to elect a president—Dr. Chaim ters. He took personal command
settlements in the Galilee and Weizmann had held the post— of the forces of Israel against the
Judea. He was one of the first and Ben Gurion became the most 4rab invaders, and was respon-
settlers in the plain of Esdrae- important Zionist official in the sible for most of his country's ma-
jor military decisions.
ion, in northern Palestine.
world.
Israel's Prime Minister has re-
In 1947, he presented to the
Ben Gurion organized the
watchmen of the Jewish settle- United Nations Special Committee peatedly shown his decisiveness
ments into a defense force which on Palestine a plea for "a viable and effectiveness in the military
was to become the Hagana, the Jewist state in an adequate area and political fields. In the past
few months, he has revealed the
Jewish underground army which of Palestine."
It was this statement which la- same capacity for action in the
beat back six invading Arab
states and gained for Israel its ter formed the nucleus of the economic field, having assumed
present boundaries.
United Nations resolution on par- key leadership in the promulga-
tion of the three-year economic
He played an important role in tition of Nov. 29, 1947.
Ben Gurion has been com- development plan and the Israel
the organization of the General
Labor Party from which came pared to Winston Churchill as bond issue.
In September, 1950, Ben Gu-
Israel's largest single party with a war leader. During the bit-
strong leanings toward the west. ter fighting which broke out af- rion presented to a group of 50
Four years after his arrival in ter the partition decision, Is- American leaders meeting in Je-
Palestine. Ben Gurion was chos- rael's first prime minister rusalem his plan to make possible
en to edit the Palestine Labor worked from 9 to 5 as minister the integration of an additional