Aid for Handicapped Children

Wayne County Training Schoo
Praised by Israeli Educator;
Tells of Help Given Retarded

Mrs. Sarah Smilansky. a teacher of mentally retarded chil-
dren in Tel Aviv for five years, came to this country to study
methods of special education for mentally retarded children at
Ohio University on a scholarship awarded by the National Coun-
cil of Jewish Women. As part of the Council's Overseas Program,
students of social work and related subjects are offered scholar-
ships for advance study in leading American universities.
With an eye to gaining as much practical information which
will be applied to her work when she returns to Israel, Mrs.
Smilansky was at the Wayne County Training School, Northville,
Mich., to observe the administration and curriculum construction
of the School. She also studied the organization of special edu-
catibn of the School. She. also studied the organization of special
education in Detroit.
A native of Poland. Mrs. Smilansky migrated to Palestine in
1935.
COM 711Claing on her experiences at the Wayne County Train-
ing School, Mrs. Smilansky praised the work of the school's
medical director, Dr. Robert H. Haskell, and made this statement
to The Jewish News:
"The visit to the Wayne County Training School was one of
the most positive experiences 1 have had during my study in the
United States. It is the first program of training that promises
to the retarded child a future in this community. Seeing the
administrative organization. the division of responsibility between
all those working to better the lives of these children and the
richness of the curriculum, gave me the proof I was looking for:
that we can help the retarded child to become responsible. I
believe that this model institution will be one of the experiments
in the United States that I can present before my fellow-
educators in Israel as a solution to our similar problems."
The following article was written by Mrs. Smilansky at the
request of The Jewish News. Mrs. Smilansky states that "part

of the information included in the article is taken front a survey
of this field made by my husband for the Henrietta Szold Foun-
dation."

Mentally Handicapped
Children in Israel

-3.

capacity: a child with an I.Q.
of 55 may, in certain subjects,
achieve more than another with
By SARAH SMILANSKY
an I.Q. of 75, provided that the
In the absence of a compre- teacher succeeds in developing
hensive network of special desirable character traits and
schools, classes and institutions. habits such as patience, regu-
larity and perseverance. It is
almost most important for the
teacher to help the child to an
objective evaluation of his own
achievements without compari-
son with those of his class-
mates. All this means that a
maximum of individualization
is required if the teacher is to
bring the backward child to his
individual optimum.
It is evident that the teach-
ers engaaed in this field of
education must be highly 4
trained specialists. Most of
those at present employed in
the Tel-Aviv special schools
have received their training in
Europe, and efforts are made
to send at least some of the
teachers to post- graduate
training centers in Europe or
in the United States in order
that they may upon their re-
turn help improve the pro-
MRS. SARAH SMILANSKY
many mentally retarded chil- fessional standard of the staff.
The addition of an eighth
dren are likely to be kept in .reg-
ular schools, often for years, grade to the existing seven is a
need
insisted upon by the teach-
until it is too late to make more
suitable arrangements for their ers in the field of special edu-
education. This is particularly cation and an experiment is
true of the quiet, passive type about to be made along these
pi backward children who, al- lines. Before being upgraded,
though not participating in the the adolescent will have to pass
activities of the class, do not a psychotechnical test. In ac-
disturb the teacher oc the other cordance with the results to this
pupils. The aggressive type usL. test, the youth will be trained
ually is removed earlier, even if during the eighth year in those
the specific nature of his dis- subjects which he will use after
turbance is not always under- graduation when he goes out to
stood or correctly diagnosed. The work. In the morning hours he
contin ed presence of the re- will review the varicus theore-
tarded children in the normal tical knowledges he acquired
over-crowded classes not only is during the previous years. at-
a heavy burden on the teacher. tempting to coordinate them
Pia the class and on themselves, and recognize their practical ap-
but constitutes one of the plication in his visits. accom-
major causes of truancy. early panied by the teacher, to em-
school leaving and social malad- ployment office s, factories,
workshops, and other places of
justment.
It is only now, after the en- work. The teacher will discuss
actment of the Compulsory with him conditions and rela-
Education Law, that plans are tionships in work and social
being worked out for the groups; will dire,ct him in the
establishment of an adequate efficient use of leisure time, in
system of special classes, thrift and careful buying: and
will advise and help him to meet
schools and institutions, and
for the training of the educa- the personal problems concomit-
ant with adolescence. In • the
tional personnel it requires.
The small size of the class is afternoon hours, he will study in
essential to meet the need for small groups organized by sub-
highly individualized treatment ject, in accordance with t h e
as these children should have. fields to which he was assigned
Not only must the teacher be as a result of his psychotech-
careful not to use competition nical tests, his desire, his par-
as motivation, he can not even ents point of view etc. Such
rely on comparing the achieve- specialization is mainly carpen-
ment of his individual pupils. t r y, shoemaking, engraving.
Differences in I.Q., ranging from barbering, cooking, baking, sew-
55 to 75, make the class non- ing etc.
The child population of Is-
homogeneous. The degree of
achievement, moreover, depends •rael is growing rapidly. The
present number cf children of
on the character and -the total
personality of t h e backward school age is about 250,000. In
child no less than on his mental the absence of properly

Hollywood Studio Films .'rocs-Section,
`Salome' in Israel

Direct JTA Teletype Wire t•
The Jewish News

TEL AVIV—A Columbia pic-
tures production unit headed by
director William Dieterle has
completed shooting of , scenes
here for the Hollywood produc-
tion "Salome" which will star
Rita Hayworth.
Dieterle's staff was attacked
the day before completion by
a band of Arabs in the Upper
Galilee village of Yessif. An Is-
rael police guard was forced to
fire into the air to compel the
Arabs to retreat.
More than 2,000 Israelis in-
cluding Arabs, Druzes and Ye-
menites were used in scenes
filmed here. Two Israeli actors
were given parts as John the
Baptist and Pontius Pilate.
Diertle told the press he had
been pleased to find spots in
Israel "unspoiled by civilization"
and expressed thanks to the Is-
rael government and people for
faciliating the production.

adapted tests (It goes without
s.- .ying that an adequate serv-
ice for the mentally handicap-
ped child depends on the
availability of properly evali-
dated and adapted tests, and
it is hoped that comprehen-
sive research work will be car-
ried out, with the help of the
University, to provide t h e
necessary tools.) it is yet im -
possible to estimate the per-
centage of backward children
in need of special education.
particularly in view of the
fact that culturally condition-
ed differences of mentality re-
quire not only adapted test
methods b u t also adapted
methods of instruction. There
is no apparent reason for this
percentage to be lower in Is-
rael than in countries where
evaluation studies have been
made and where no less than
2e;-, of the school population
were found to be in need of
special education. This would
mean that w,-; would here to
plan for the establishment of
schools for at least 5,000 back-
ward children.
Such a program first a n d
foremost implies training of
more than two hundred addi-
tional teachers. Moreover. text-
books and visual and manual
aids must be prepared to permit
of ac1::quate instruction. Chil-
dren should be tested as early
as possible in order to prevent
their remaining in regular class-
es for years before being recog-
nized as backward. Special class-
es for advanced occupational
training should be established to
help the backward child in his
most difficult transition from
school work. Councellors must be
available for placing backward
adolescents in suitable employ-
ment and for following up on
their adjustment. Cooperative
workshops should be established
where the backward adolescent
is much more likely to achieve
his individual maximum of oc-
cupational proficiency than in
the competitive environment of
an ordinary' workship.
Even after adequate arrange-
ments will have been made for
the special education of back-
ward children (including the en-
largement of boarding school
facilities ► , there will still remain
the problem of the less seriously
retarc:ed child. for whom ar-
rangements can be made in the
regular schools by means of a
specially adapted curriculum.
One of the greatest needs in
this field is to establish a
model institution for trainable
retarded children, in line with
the example of similar institu-
tions in. the U.S. the good ex-
ample of which is the Wayne
County Training School. I
have mentioned already the
need for a center where teach-
ers can be trained, as also the
need for a research laboratory

to study the different mental-
ity of the various elements of
immigrants, a n d experiment
i n constructing curriculum -
outlines for their s p e c i al
needs. Such an institution if
organized properly would
serve" the needs of parents
and ' Children, teachers and
research workers, and add to
the educational system of the
state of Israel the missing
cornerstone for sound scien-
tic development.

ZOA 'Dark Horse' Forecast
Anti-Semite Kamp Exposed

- By ALLEN LESSER

An American Jewish Press Feature

KAMP'S SMEAR: Pro-Fascist
propagandist Joseph P. Kamp is
the newest mudslinger in the
"Smear Eisenhower" drive being
conducted by bigots. Karnp•won
praise • from the Nazis during
World War II, later won a
four-months' jail term here
for contempt of Congress.
Last week he issued a 16-page
pamphlet called "Headlines and
What's Behind Them" in which
he calls General Eisenhower a
Communist bed-fellow whose
candidacy was first inspired
allegedly by the late Sidney
Hillman, Anna M. Rosenberg
(U: S. Assistant Secretary of
Defense). and other Jewish per-
sonalities.
Kamp digs up all the old re-
futed smears against Mrs.
Rosenberg and Sidney Hillman.
calls them both communists,
wad includes a vicious attack
upon the Anti- Defamation
League. Kamp also makes a
veritable bogeyman out of
American Jewish Committee
stalwart Arthur J. Goldsmith,
whom he erroneously associates
with the ADL: and with equal
disregard for fact describes for-
mer newspaper publisher and
industrialist Leonard V. Finder
as the "Director and Secretary
of the New York headquarters"
of the ADL.
Communist-smear and anti-
S e m i t i c attack on General
Eisenhower first came out into
the open during the New Hamp-
shire primary campaign.
FORECAST: According to

Report Israelioyighter Planes
Bought for Air Force in Paris

Direct JTA Teletype Wire to
The Jewish News

LONDON—A twin engine mos-
quito fighter plane bearing Is-
raeli markings landed on the
island of Cyprus for refueling on
its delivery flight to Lydda Air-
port in Israel. The London Daily
Express reported. The paper says
the plane was one of several
bought in Paris from undisclosed
sources for the Israeli air force.

Dov Joseph Sailing to America
To Buy Foodstuffs for Israel

TEL AVIV. (JTA ► —Dov Jo-
seph, Israel's Minister of Trade
and Industry, left for New York
to purchase foodstuffs in the
United States. He will utilize
American aid funds for this
purpose. S. S. Hoofien. manager
of the National Bank of Israel,
left for the United States on
another mission for the Min-
istry.

Auerbach Enters Plea
`Not Guilty of Fraud'

MUNICH, (JTA) —Philip
Auerbach, former head of the
Bavarian Restitution Office
who is being tried by a Ger-
man court here, pleaded not
guilty to charges of having
illegally paid out some 5714,-
000 in false claims to Jewish
victims of the Nazis. How-
ever, he admitted that he had
unlawfully assumed the title
of "doctor." The court is
composed of three judges, all
former members of the Nazi
Party, and two laymen.

Ross Group a

certain inner Zionist circles,
the next president of the ZOA
will not be Rabbi Irving Miller
or Abraham A. Redelheim,
currently the two leading can- •
didates. These circles assert
that if talks now going on can
be 'concluded successfully, the
next ZOA president will be a
mid - Western "dark horse."
His name is well-known, but
is being withheld pending the
outcome of present negotia-
tions.
SHORT SHORTS: Next presi-

dent of the Rabbinical Assembly
of America will be Rabbi Ira
Eisenstein, leader of the Society
for the Advancement of Judaism
(Reconstructionist) . . . First
woman to get an honorary de-
gree from Yeshiva U. in New
York is Dr. Martha M. Eliot,
chief of U. S. Children's Bureau
. . With the addition of the
High School of Music and Art,
and the Bronx High School of
Science, there are now 27 high
schools in New York City which
offer courses in Hebrew for for-
eign language credit ... Accord-
ing to a release from the Union
of Orthodox Jewish Congrega-
tions, "the major distinguishing
feature of the Orthodox syna-
gogue . . . is the separate seat-
ing of men and women during
services".
At its Paris meeting last
month, the World ORT Union
adopted a budget of $2.467.000,
of which about $800,000 will be
provided by JDC . . . Another
effort to iron out differences
between UJA and Israel bonds is
scheduled for the Zionist
Actions Committee meeting - in
Jerusalem, May 7 . . . Israeli
skepticism of Egyptian peace-
feelers, first reported by Cross-
Section on March 21, is con-
firmed by a Jerusalem dispatch
in the current Hadassah News-
letter. But watch for possible
positive developments toward
peace between Egypt and Israel
as - the result of talks now going
on in London between Egyptian
Ambassador Amr Pasha and
British Foreign Secretary An-
thony Eden.

New Soviet philosophical
famed
dictionary describes
author of relativity theory
Albert Einstein as an obscur-
antist and a reactionary
whose theory distorts the
truth.

New books scheduled for May
include "Joshua the Redeemer."
a biography for young teen-
agers, by Arthur Weyne, execu-
tive editor of the JWB Circle
(Behrman House): and "Be-
tween Two Worlds," the auto-
biography of Benjamin L. Gor-
don, noted physician and one of
the 'organizers of the Zionist
movement in America (Book-
man Associates).
Note the provocative 'Blood.
Oil and Sand," by Ray Brock,
foreign correspondent who
spent year touring Middle East
(World Publishers). Brock claims
U.S. is being robbed by irrespon-
sible Arab leaders. sees Turkey
as only trustworthy ally with
Israel.

20

—

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, April 25, 1952

. Division Leader

.

Sam Ross, section chairman of A-75, still has the leading sec-
tion in general solicitation for the Junior Division. His group has
brought in over $1,300 toward the $35,000 that the division has

raised to date for the Allied Jewish Campaign. With Ross are his
captains (seated, left to right) MARIAN FREEDMAN, BETH LAI-
KIN, ESTHER MIRSKY, FREDA FRAZER, (standing) . -LORRAINE
SHLPKO and ELEANOR YARROWS.
•