THE JEWISH NEWS
A Weekly Review
of Jewish Events
VOLUME 16—No. 16 708-10 David Stott Bldg.—Phone WO. 5-1155 Detroit 26, Michigan, Dec. 30, 1949
7
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Israel Pledged to Aid Investors;
Urge Citizens House DP Children
The First 50 Years
Direct JTA Teletype Wires to The Jewish News
JERUSALEM—Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan Mon..
day night vigorously denied rumors and allegations that
the government of Israel intends to expropriate business
enterprises in this country after they have been established.
Introducing a bill in the Knesset, which reconvened on
Dec. 26, henceforth to meet in Jerusalem, to encourage pri-
vate initiative and foreign capital investment in Israel, Mr.
Kaplan disclosed Israel's expenditures during the past 11
months totalled 80,000,000 pounds of which 90 percent was
spent for imports.
Income during the same period, he added, was also
80,000,000 pounds of which approximately half was derived
from national funds, private enterprises and other sources.
Delroiters Mark Half Century
Of United Social Service Work
By RUTH L. CASSEL
Detroit's city-wide Torch Fund campaign, which ;let with much success last fall,
was applauded by civic groups throughout the country as an innovation in charitable
fund-raising.. To the Jewish community, however, united fund-raising is an old story.
Consolidated social service began, among Detroit Jewry, in the closing months of
the last century.
It was in November, 1899, when Detroit's Jewish population was in the neighbor-
hood of 5,000, that the late Rabbi Leo M. Franklin of Temple
Beth El called together representatives of four local Jewish
Organizations to form a central body for relief and charitable
work—the United Jewish Charities. Those organizations—
the Beth El Hebrew Relief Society, Hebrew Ladies Sewing
Society, Self-Help Circle and Jewish Relief Society—were
then engaged primarily in giving aid to immigrants,
Strangers and transients.
-
First president of the UJC . was David W. Simons, gone
of Detroit's most distinguished Jewish`' citizens. Simons not
only occupied a prominent position in Jewish communal ac-
tivity, but was a member of the city's first nine-man Com-
`mon Council, In directing the UJC he was assisted by a
series of volunteer committees—relief, education, house and
finance, collection and medical.
As the community expanded, the work . of the United
Jewish Charities grew in scope. In December, 1901, the first
professional superintendent was employed. Two years later,
that post was filled by the late Blanche Hart, who was an
important figure among Detroit Jewry for 20 years.
By 1903 it became necessary to find a permanent home
for UJC activity. Generous contributions . from Seligman
Schloss and Bernard Ginsburg made possible the erection of
the Hannah Schloss Memorial, which was dedicated in
DAVID W. SIMONS
September, 1903.
Through voluntary contributions, the UJC itself raised
$5;,400 toward the building, whereupon, Schloss agreed to
donate sufficient funds to complete the structure, provided
that $1,000 of the UJC funds be used to set up a manual
training school for boys and to maintain a sinking fund to
keep the building in good repair. That fund is still active;
its most recent function was to outfit the USO lounge at the
Jewish Community Center during World War II.
Located on High Street (now Vernor Highway) in what
was then the heart of the Jewish neighborhood, the Hannah
Schloss Bldg. was truly the center of Jewish communal
activity.
In defining the purpose of the United Jewish Charities,
the board had declared "The giving of dollars and the doling
out of clothes is not the prime object of the organization.
It is to make men and women of our dependent classes. It
is to build character. It is to arouse a sense of manhood and
DR. LEO. M. FRANKLIN womanhood among the poor. That can be done only as stress
is laid increasingly upon the educational side of our work,
Nazi Victims Ashes
and as the gradual growth of each beneficiary from a state
To Be Buried Jan. 1 of dependency to self-dependency is carefully fostered."
This statement was the theme of all functions at the
JERUSALEM, (JTA)
Hannah Schloss Memorial. Its physical facilities and pro-
1, 1950, has been pro-
gram included a library, sewing rooms, model kitchen and
claimed the "Day of Dis-
dining room, educational and holiday programs, social eve-
aster" in Israel by t h e
Ministry of Religion. On
nings, classes where immigrants learned English, home-
that day the ashes, brought
making and were helped to prepare for trades, and countless
here six months ago, of
clubs where Jewish boys and girls learned the bases of good
200,000_ Jews murdered by
citizenship. The Hannah Schloss also was famous for its
the NgZis will be reburied
public
baths—bathing facilities were few in homes in that
here. A day of fasting will
area—and its day nursery, where children were cared for 12
be observed a n d special
hours at a time, at a charge of five cents a day, to avoid the
services will be held in
stigma of charity.
synagogues in memory of
the Nazi victims.
(Continued on Page 2)
Encourage investment of Foreign Capital
The Israel Finance Minister Added : "Our pound's real
value increased in this period and signs of deflation were
observed." Mr. Kaplan also outlined a series of measures
aimed at encouraging foreign capital investment in the
Jewish state including reduction of various taxes.
The judicial committee of the Knesset considered the
United Nations Genocide Convention on prevention of crime
which earlier was given a first reading in the Israel parlia-
ment.
Tel Aviv Residents Get Urgent Appeal
In Tel Aviv, the Jewish Agency made a dramatic
appeal to Citizens of Tel Aviv to receive in their homes for
one or two months the children of immigrants who are still
in the tent shelters of the reception camps which have been
suffering in the torrential rains. (Four sisters died in a
house in Jaffa that collapsed during the rains.)
The Agency warned that the dampness prevailing in
the tents might lead to epidemics of illness. It proposes to
pay the host families six pounds ($16.80) a month for the
care of each guest child, the equavalent of the cost of
maintenance in the camps. Each child will undergo medical
examination prior to leaving camp.
Educational bodies agreed to take all such transferred
children. The Kupat Holim undertook to provide free medi-
cal service. The Rationing ministry assumed responsibility
for additional distribution of food supplies for the billeted
children.
.
Simon Defends Histadrut,
Denies Anti-Israel Charges
NEW YORK—"Talk about the Israeli government na-
tionalizing basic industries is nothing but tommyrot," said
Julius Simon, American president of the Palestine Economic
Corp., on his retuni from Israel.
"The very opposite is true," Simon said. "In fact, the
government is about to pass a law aimed at the encourage-
ment of foreign investments. Exemptions from import
duties by allowing liberal rates for amortization of the
plant, which practically amounts to freedom from taxation
during a considerable period of time, is to be part of the
bill. Permission to transfer interest and dividends in dol-
lars is another part of the bill.
"As President of the oldest American enterprise oper-
ating in Israel, the Palestine Economic Corporation, I can
say that I have had nothing but encouragement from the
government and from the Association of Israel Manufact-
urers. The PEC has gone into a joint enterprise with the
government for the construction of factory buildings."
2 MAJOR REACTIONS
Mr. Simon said after his four-month stay in Israel he
returns with two major reactions : first, that he had never
seen people anywhere more joyful and willing to dedicate
themselves to the job before them, and secondly, that
economic expansion is proceeding with tremendous rapidity.
Mr. Simon pointed out:
Continued on Page 5