The 6avid Sarnoff Story:

2----2THE"JEWISH NEWS

Friday, August 3, 1951

Rise to_,RCA Presidency Credited
To Five Years of Study of the Talmud Mothei Joins Son in

Israel; Stalin OKs Visa

NEW YORK (AJP)—The foun-
dations for the amazing rise of
David Sarnoff from an -East Side
tenement to the presidency of
the Radio Corporation of Amer-
ica was laid during five years of
childhood study of the Talmud.
Descendant of a-family of
traders through his father and
rabbis through his mother, Da-
vid was the oldest of a poverty-
stricken family in Uzlian, in the
Russian province of Minsk, ac-
cording to a cover story in Time.
When David was four, his fa,
ther went to America and his
mother sent him to her uncle, a
rabbi who lived in a hermitage
iri Korma, 150 miles away. The
only by in the hermitage, young
David studied for five lonely
years from six 'in the morning
until nine at night.
. Shortly before the boy's 10th
birthday, the father sent for his
family. When David,. , brother
and their mother arrived in New
.York, they found the father. se-
riously ill, and . David, became the
family breadWinner wit
h 'vari-
ety of jobs. He would arise at 4
a.m. to deliver the Jewish Morn-
ing Journal, then run errands,
for a butcher before school:
From his first full-time job at
$2 a 'week, he saved $1.50 for a
telegraph key, taught himself
the Morse Code and talked him-
self into a job with American
Marconi.
He worked his way up to cora-

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mercial manager of Marconi.
When RCA-was organized, in the
response to the determination of
the United States. Government to
break the British monopoly in
the field, it. took over American
Marconi and Sarnoff.
Owen D. Young, as RCA chair-
man, was so impressed by Sar-
noff that he made the 30-year-
old general manager. Under
Sarnoff, radio sets, which he
called "music boxes," were sold
to the tune of $3,000,000 in three
years.
Sarnoff's current battle, is on
color television, and -While the
Federal CommunicatiOns COm-
mission approved. • the Columbia
Broadcasting System method,
Sarnoff is far from finished.
RCA, has .produced a color pro-
gram which, unlike that of CBS,
needs no adapter for sets. _
. With his. mother and brother,
David had boarded a 'ship in a
Latvian port for the trip to the
United States...His Mother, afraid
of lorbidd9n food on the ship,
had cooked a tremendous hanip-
er of bread and pickled meats.
When David saw. the food being
loWered into the ship's hold, he
was seized with fear it would be
lost. He dived into the hold, a
50-foot drop, and scrambled
around until he found the
hamper.
-
He was rescued by a sailor,
who told him: "You'll do all
right in America." He. did.

TEL AVIV, (JTA) — A 76-
year-old woman landed at
Haifa from the Soviet Union
where she was issued an emi-
gration visa after making two
direct personal appeals to
Premier Joseph Stalin for per-
mission to join her son, who
has been living in this coun-
try for the - past 20 years.
The woman, Tova Lerner,
who was born in Czernowitz,
formerly Romanian territory
but now a pc-.11 of the U.S.S.R.
wrote her first letter to Stalin
in 1948. After a second letter
and a considerable wait, the
visa was issued. She arrived
in a party of 994 immigrants
from Romania.

Israel Consolidating
Its Position, British
Foreign Sec'y. States

LONDON, (JTA) Foreign
Secretary Herbert Morrison, ad-
dressing the House of Commons

on ,the situation in the Middle
East, expressed regret over the
fact that there - has been no
progress toward permanent
peace between Israel and the
Atab countries. He emphasized
that the Jewish state had es-
tablished itself and was consol-
idating its position.
Declazing that the British
G-overriment had hoped event-
ually to bring about a settle-
ment acceptable to Jew and
Arab alike, Secretary Morrison
said. Britain "would have
brought peace and prosperity, to
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
the Holy Land," but other coun-
tries and the people of Palestine
Lowdermilk Jordan Valley Man: Boon for Arabs, Too •
A. E. Barrekette of Brooklyn, who was a member from its had their own ideas on the mar-
Very inception of the engineering staff of the Lowdermilk Jordan ten
Valley Authority project, took exception to the accusation by
Relations between Britain and
Prof. C. Bradford Welles, in a letter to the New York Times, that Israel were steadily improving,
the Lowdermilk plan "callously" contemplated replacement by salt he told Parliament. He added
water of losses caused by diversion of Jordan water for irrigation. that Britain does not consider
Actually, Mr. Barrekette states, also in the New York Times, its relations with the Arab
"the function of the salt water, which is to flow through a canal states in any way incompatible
parallel _to the Jordan and to enter the Dead Sea at its north- with its relations with the Jew-
western end, is completely different in nature. Its purpose is to ish state, despite the friction
develop badly needed power and to prevent the level of the Dead that exists between them.
Sea from being .lowered by the withdrawal of Jordan waters for
The Arab .states, he pointed
irrigation purposes."
out, still feel unprepared and
Defining the Huleh Basin' proposals, Mr. Barrekette throws unable to recognize the "plain
interesting light on the true Conditions in the recentlydisputed fact7 that Israel has come. to
area. He points out in his statement:
stay .as a national entity and
The "Huleh Basin"—as geographers and engineers use the '"cannot be swept away bag and
term--extends over a considerable area in northern Palestine baggage into the Mediterra,n-
..of approximately 27,000 acres, including an area of 11,000 acres ean.." The Israelis, for their
consisting of the Huleh Lake proper and the marshlands to the part, do not fully appreciate the
north of the lake. The demilitarized section under dispute is a strength of the Arab suspicion
very tiny fraction of this. The inclusion of the rest of the area of their expansion alms and the
in Israel has not been questioned.
importance of taking positive
Those of us who worked on the Jordan Valley Authority steps to allay the suspicion, he
plan, like its inspirer, Dr. Lowdermilk himself, never had any- asserted.

Purely Commentary

.

,

•

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thing in mind but the maximum good • of the entire region.
It is impossible for us to see how the execution of the Huleh
drainage project would have any other effect: After all, mos-
quitos have a travel range of several miles and plague Syrians
as well as Israelis, and swamps are hardly to be considered
military barriers in the days of mechanized warfare.
It would be well if, in an issue which is fundamentally sci-
entific and humanitarian, all of us would turn carefully to the
facts and avoid partisanship as much as possible. Can we not
try to think of the drainage project as the first step toward a
sane and expert exploitation of the Jordan and its tributaries
for the benefit of all the countries involved?

In the interest of truth, it is well to -indicate also the follow-
ing points from Mr. Barrakette's statement:

The drainage - project now being carried out by Israel in the
Huleh area follows the general lines of this plan. These have
been set forth in detail in "T. V. A. on the Jordan," a volume
published' 'by Public Affairs Press in 'Washington in 1948. Un-
fortunately,. Professor Welles has altogether. misinterpreted the
very basis of the Jordan Valley Authority project. Had he
understood it correctly he would never haye implied that the
benefit to Israel projected by the plan carries with it "an in-
tolerable injury and injustice to one or more of its Arab neigh-
bors." . Actually, the. plans for the Jordan Valley Authority take
into very careful consideration the needs of Israel's neighbors
and in every case set aside the amounts Of water necessary for
the irrigation of the landS 'across the. border.
A' typical case in point is precisely that mentioned by Pro-
fessor- Welles-: . the irrigation of the Arabowned lands in Jordan
Valley territory by water from the Jordan. and its tributaries....
This is the chief non-Israel section affected by the . 114e o€ . .
Jordan water, for the irrigable land above Lake TiberiaS is ex-
tremely limited in area.
•
Our plan deals with the utmost• fairness with the needs "of .
the Jordan-owned land between Lake Tiberias and the Dead
Sea—the area that includes "Jericho with its famed oranges."
Though the Clapp Commission, referred to by Professor Welles,
did say that there were obvious difficulties in securing Jordanian
agreement to the execution of the J. V. A., it never—as far as I
can see—even implied that Jordanian territory would be '"ren-
dered infertile" by the application of the project. No one who
has studied the J. V. A. plans would be able to say that.

From time to time, new antagonists, who begrudge Israel her
right to live, appear on the scene with new attempts to undermine
the Jewish state's existence. Prof. Welles seems to have belonged
to that category of "haters" of Israel. But, fortunately, there are
always enough men, also in- Christian ranks, who know how to
propagate truth. Mr. Barrekette has served the cause Of justice
by presenting the facts as an engineer engaged in the Lowdermilk
plan knows them.

.

Keyserling to Address Knollivood
Israel Bond Dinner on Aug. 23

Israel Davidson, honorary
chair man of the Knollwood
Country Club million dollar Is-
rael bond dinner, to take place
Thursday, Aug. 23, announced
this week that Leon H. Key-
serling, a c t ing
chairman of the
Council of Eco-
nomic Advisors
to the President
of t h e United
States, will fly
in from Wash-
ington to speak
at the event.
Keyserling was
. Keyserling cons -u itant to
the special 'Senate Postwar .Com-
mittee which grappled with
problems of reconversion. He
directed studies of business reg-
ulations, banking, 'housing and
public works for the 'Senate Post
War • Committee and for the
Senate Committee on Banking
and Currency. He is an author-
ity on housing and on real estate
investment.
He served the National Hous-
ing Agency and the United States
Housing Authority in the posts
of general counsel and deputy
administrator from -1937-46. He
was legislative assistant to the

late Senator Robert Wagner of
New York in 1933-36.
Keyserlines attention wa s
first directed to Israel by his
study of American economic
history. "Isr4c1 is a frontier
state," he explains, "just as
this country was 1860. With
its untapped resources, its pi-
oneering population, it offers
fabulous returns to the invest,
or, as the American west did
in the '70s and '80s."

share with their menfolk ISM

respbnsibility for making

the

million dollar Israel bond din-
ner a success.
Mrs. Samuel M. Sofferin heads
a women's committee to work on
reservations and arrangements
and is assisted by Mesdames
Nathan Fishman, Harold G. GA..'
bert, Charles Lapides, James
Rossin, Abraham Rosenberg .and
Al C. Rosenberg. J. Isaacs and'
Ben Tolmich head the men's
committee on reservations.

`Smash Sea Walls, Give
Beaches to Gentiles„'
Fumes KKK Leader

TAMPA Fla., AJP) —
crowd of more than 300 perSons,

including 60 Ku Klux Klansrhen,
cheered the suggestion that the
sea walls be torn down and all

the beaches be taken away from
the Jews "and given back to the
Gentiles." " i "
The proposal was one of
Series which highlighted a KKK
open meeting. The "kike Jews-'•
were blamed by the Klan for the
spread of Communistn.
Claiming that the Jews of 3*
ami Beach usurped all the pub-
lic beaches and erected_ sea
walls, Bill Hendrix, Tallahassee
.
self-styled Grand Dragon of the
Southern Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan, said that if he were
successful in the gubernatorial
race he would "send every bull-
dozer in the State Road Depart-
ment down . . . to rip out the sea
walls and take away all the
beaches from the Jews and gilve
them back to the gentiles who
paid the taxes to build them.*
The. Tampa 'Tribune, coro
menting on the Klan meeting
pointed out that the majority of
the crowd was composed of cu-
riosity seekers. An earlier Klan
meeting designed to raise funds
for Hendrix proved a -flop with
only a small number of .persons
attending the rally.
The Tampa Klari rally was held
before a huge flaming cross 114a
a vacant field southeast of the
city.

Paul Zuckerman will serve as
co-chairman of Knollwood Coun-
try Club's bond dinner. Knoll-
wood President -- ,
James I. Ellman
is chairman.
Reports comin
coming to din-
ner planners
from' other sec-
tions of the
country indicate
that many ,
country clubs
are watching Zuckerman.
Knollwood's lead and are plan-
ning Israel bond programs for Reforrn Jewry Increases
their members.
National Maintenance Fund
In 1942, Knollwood became-the
Reporting an upward trend in
first club in the United States
to set a goal of a million dollars maintenance income for the na-
in war bond sales. Sparked by tional religious institutions of
practically the same committee Reform Judaism, Dr. Samuel &
which is directing the current Hollender, general campaign
Bond affair, Knollwood over- chairman, announced that $1,*
133,122 has been raised in the
subscribed its goal 50%.
Knollwood members received 1950-51 'combined campaign of
a citation from Secretary of the the Union of American Hebrew
Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Congregations and the Hebrew
- president of the American Union College - Jewish Institute
To Louis J. Rosenberg now
of Religion. This is $119,824
corporation for Israel Bonds.
On His.• 75th Birthday
.
_
more
than was -collected during
The
Jewish
News
-
Served
as
of-
By NOAH E. ARONSTAM, M.D.
ficial publication of the Knoll- the previous fiscal year and rep-
Five years ago I told thee wood bond drive in 1942 and was resents the largest amount rais-
friend:
given credit kir much of the ed to date for the annual main-
"Come grow old with me
success that ensued.
tenance fund of the parent
The best is yet to be."
Select WOmen's Committee
bodies of the Reform wing of
'My prophecy came true:
Women of Knollwood will American Judaism, he said.
For, as_ the years advanced
YOu climbed the steps of schol-
arship
In resolute a pace. to achieve
Still greater insight in affairs
of .man;
..
By BORIS SMOLAR .
You" fathorried, as often as we
(Copyright, 1951, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, JAW
h a,d converse,
The vanities of things, and with March of Tillie
-
a smile,
This is vacation time, and. many readers ask me to recorn-
Disdained,to 'dwell on the trivi- mend reading matter fbr their free weeks . They display-no
alities' of life.
interest in fiction, but are interested in makingiip for lost thaw
"It's a spiritual world," you and "neglected edUcation" On world affairs and' on matters' af-
once remarked—
fecting jewS . . First on my list of books which satisfy these re-
Age; I remember well these quirements Is Prof. - J. 'Seiwyri „Schapiro's "The World in Crisis,"
weighty words:
published recently . This volume is actually my most favored
Potulate of philosophy, to which book of this year .. . It contains excellent hackgrourid and pro•
E'en stern science bows.
fOund analyses of all major *odd events that took place during
Onward, thy friend, proceed the Twentieth CentUry ....Furthermore, it brings out 'very clearly
lioin strength to strength
why the 20th century is not just another century 'in hiStorY; . but
As the days and years roll by— a new era in civilization as were the . 13th and the 18th centuries
For the Best is Yet to Come.
. . . And it shoWs what our present Century; so different frOth an
previous periods df history; has inherited from the 19th century
Charge Visa Discrimination
.. . Thus, the reader gets a wonderfully . clear picture - - in the
Against Brazilian Jews-
proper perspective:--of the developments' that led to . the - present
,
RIO: RE JANEIRO (JTA)—Sr. division of* the • World into two . hostile * camps.
Sampaio, a Brazilian oil engi-
neer, returning home from Paris, The jeWish Scene •
has charged that the Brazilian
"Contemporary Jewry" by Israel Cohen is another boo_k I
consulate in Paris has refused would recommend . . In it the author surveys Jewish life and
visas to oil technicians, who problems throughout the world up to the present day against
could have helped speed the de- a background of three decades . . . It is. the most thorough study
velopment of the Brazilian oil available in one volume of 'all aspects of Jewish life . . The'
industry, only because the tech- reader will find a basic evaluation of the activities of Jewish corn:-
nicians were Jews.
munities in all parts of the world, all substantiated by the lates#
Sr. Sampa.o's charges and a available data . . . The author has done a tremendous amount oS
subsequent denial of them by research on both pre-war and post-war changes in Jewish life -
Foreign Minister Jo? o Neves da . . No development of importance has been overlooked . • .
Fontoura were published in the the book is full of figures which make the information therein'
Brazilian press.
most authentic.

Between You and Me