Favoritism at Conferences
Exposed by Israeli Writer

By ELIAHU SALPETER

(Copyright, 1957, JTA, Inc.)

JERUSALEM — You have to
attend some large-scale Zionist
conference to realize fully the
incredible miracle of the estab-
lishment of the State of Israel.
You have to see the mess and
confusion, the lack of organi-
zation and the carelessness
about details, to appreciate
fully the great wonder that the
Jewish State was born.
This time, it all started when
the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem
made a considerable, and suc-
cesIful, effort to interest the for-
' eign press in what is going to
; happen in the plenary meeting
of the Zionist General Council.
When, as a result of this effort,
a considerable part of the for-
eign press stationed in Israel
really did show up at the open-
' ing of the Council, there were
I simply no seats for them be-
cause wives of VIP's occupied
the press benches . . .

1

I

in some cases practically
amounted to misrepresentation
of the speaker's words. In one
case, at least, one important
speech was entirely left out of
the proceedings, apparently
more by mistake than by mal-
ice. Fortunately, there was
nothing world-shaking in what
was said inside the council hall
or in the cloakrooms.
The Council meeting itself
was neither better nor worse
than the average of recent
years, and about as dull. There
were very few,if any, new faces
to be seen and even fewer new
ideas to be heard. What novelty
was offered was more in the na-
ture of form than substance
with the old disputes and prob-
lems left unhealed and un-
solved. The perennial Ben-Gur-
ion-Goldmann controversy was
restated again from the speak-
er's platform, crystallizing
around the catchy but not too
revealing differentiation be-
tween "partners" (in building
the State of Israel) and just
"helpers."

While inside the council
hall there was talk of hun-
dreds of millions of dollars
Dr. Nahum Goldmann's re-
being spent or to be spent,
lentless indictment of the Is-
the closet-sized "press room"
rael government's unwilling-
was apparently chosen as the
ness to give the Zionists the
first place to introduce econo-
status of partners sounded
mies. A tiny 25-watt bulb cast
like pretty tough stuff; and
a gloomy semi-darkness over
Ben-Gurion's piercing sarcasm
correspondents straining their
branding much of Zionist ac-
eyes to write on expensive
tivities as mere "help" at
brand new typewriters placed
best a n d "shtadlanut" at
on wobbly desks.
worst, looked like rather far-
While the government ra-
reaching words.
dio and the Mapai-controlled
What the newcomer would
"Davar" received advance
not know is that these same
copies of Premier Ben-Gur-
words and statements were said
ion's speech, the other local
and made before, to the same
and foreign correspondents
audience and to others — but
had to wait practically till
they did not change the situa-
the "Old Man" started his ' tion. As with a love affair on
speech to get—page by page—
the rocks—or perhaps just melt-
their copies.
ed into the gray relationship of

The press department of the
Agency disclaimed all respon- '
sibility, saying that the organi-
zational department was re-
sponsible for all the technical
arrangements during the Coun-
cil meeting. A brief glance at
the Agency •budget confirmed
the existence of an organization-
al department. A brief glance
at the press room and the coun-
cil hall again raised the gravest
doubts about its existence.
But all these damaged "only"
the Jewish Agency's relations
with the press. What was much
more grave was that the offi-
cial summaries of the speeches
made bore only the vaguest of
resemblances to what the speak-
ers actually said at the meeting.
Incoherent and casual omission

every-day events — criticizing
each other did not help to find
out what went wrong and what

Russian Mother and Son
Reunited After 37 Years

Israel Shofar as Bond Gift

Hanna Feinstein, '77, born
in Bessarabia, was reunited
with her son in California,
through the assistance of
United Hias Service, the
global Jewish migration
agency. Mrs. Feinstein had
not seen her son for 37 years.
She emigrated from Russia in
a departure which had been
sought since 1946. She flew
from Bessarabia to Mocow-
a long and arduous journey
for a person so old—where
she received a passport and
an exit permit from the Rus-
sian government, and a visa
from the American consul.
She then flew from Moscow
to Riga, from Riga to Copen-
hagen, and then to New York.
Knowing no language but
Russian, the elderly woman
was met and assisted at each
port of landing by aides of
United Hias, who thus eased
her way on the next leg of her
journey. Her son, an Ameri-
can citizen, who lives in
Culver City, California met
her at the Los Angeles air-
port. She stated; "I am pen-
niless, but happy to see my
son and to be in the United
States."

Turkish Republicans
Urge Minority Rights

Minister from Israel last
autumn after Israel launched
the Sinai operation against
Egypt, came under sharp attack
at the Republican Party con-
vention.
The Democratic Party's news-
paper, Yeni Gan, commenting
on the Democratic-regime gov-
ernment's position to compen-
sate those suffering losses in
anti-Greek riots of September,
1955, among whom many were
Jews, said that every effort
should be made to make minori-
ties feel at home and secure in
Turkey.
The Republicans, who held
office until 1950, are the prin-
cipal opposition to the present
Democratic Party regime.

New Bridge. Finished
on River Near Tel Aviv

TEL AVIV, (JTA) — A new
bridge over the Yarkon River
in northern Tel Aviv on the

Tel Aviv-Haifa road was swung
into position in one of the big-
gest operations of its type seen
in Israel.
The bridge weighing 360 tons,
was erected in one unit under
supervision of Mrs. Shoshanah
Shaham, an engineer for the
department of public works.

A Shofar made in the State of Israel will be presented to
each synagogue which achieves a high level of participation in
the High Holiday Israel Bond effort during the services usher-
ing in the New Year 5718. Shown above, sounding one of the
Shofars from Israel in preparation for the services, is J. Fred
Rothschild of Young Israel of Flatbush in Brooklyn, N. Y. Each
Shofar will be contained in an inscribed, velvet-lined case made
especially for the synagogue presentation.

I Knew Sholen Asch—B. C. E.

I knew Sholem Asch when he
came to the United States for
the second time in 1914. I met
him on different oocasions at
public gatherings, at meetings
held in aid of the European
sufferers, at conferences of the
People's Relief Committee, and
also in the cafes and restaurants
wherein the East Side literati
would foregather, and which
the famous Jewish writer loved
to frequent.
One of the meetings which I

ISTANBUL, (JTA) — Equal
rights for all national minorities
could yet be repaired.
There were some smaller in Turkey were advocated at
things, less apt to offer mate- ' the annual convention of the
rial for headlines, that were ' Republican Party here by Kasim
perhaps no less important than Gulik, secretary general of the
the spectacular controversies on party.
The action of the Turkish
which attention was focused. If
its
one found among the partici- government in recalling

pants some people who, for the i
first time in their lives, under-
stood (more or less) a speaker
holding forth in Hebrew, if —
despite much watering down
and emasculation — some pro-
gress was made in committee
on the question of "territorial
organization" of the Zionist
movement in each country,
these sounded like good things
of the most important part of giving hope that perhaps some-
speeches sometimes resulted thing new and young can still
only in incomprehensibility, but grow from the old roots.

B. C. R. Says:

had with Asch was devoted to

an interview which I wrote for
the New York Globe, published
in that paper Nov. 30, 1914. This
article voiced Asch's fervent en-
thusiasm for all Jewish things,
especially the progress of Jew-
ish labor, of Jews returning to
the soil, both in Palestine and
other lands, and the picture of
the youthful idealist, which
looks out from the page—all this
is so different from the man
he came to be in later years,
though his gifts and wonderful
powers of expression were al-
ways the same and fully ac-
knowledged.
Asch was then especially elo-
quent in his exultation of the
growth and advancement of
Jewish labor in the United
States, which among other
things he described to me as
"Ein grosse moralische kraft"
(a great moral force). It was
Sholem Asch who, as I then said,
"'spoke these words, and his
tall figure grew taller than ever,
and his long, waving arms al-
most reached the ceiling as he
referred to t • crowds of Jew-
ish laborers scending the ele-
vators. His • autiful head was
thrown backw rd, and as he ex-
pressed his st ng feeling of af-
fection for th' Jewish working-
man, a sudde moisture seemed
to glisten in his large, limpid
eyes—eyes w ich the beholder
will never fo et."
"I am not Zionist," he then

explained, ' t when there is
a celebratio going on among
my people I eel entitled to be
one of the j ous guests. When
the celebratt n happens to be
the event resettlement of
Jews in thei ancient homeland,
it is a matter of great concern
to Inc. Palestiine is the cradle
of the Jewish people, and it is
sacred to us 'all. I went there
because I wanted to see with
my own eyes the beginning of
the new Jewish life there. There
is a great deal that has yet to
be improved, but I can tell you
that things are beginning to stir.
I found great changes for the
better on my second visit, and
I am not yet satisfied."
This Sholet Asch who was
welcomed he in those days
with so much fervor and adu-
lation was man who came
lation
to us with he reputation of
having written a story like "The
Little Town," a play like "The
Dream of My People" and, of
course, a number of notable
books like "Reb Schlomo No-
gid," "The Mother," "Kidush
Hashem," "Der Thilim Jid" and
other books and plays—all au-
thentic and characteristic pre-
sentations of Jewish life.
Then came a different time
with new impulses and per-
haps temptations which led to
certain deviations and depar-
tures, and which involved a
more controversial theme of
discussion. Asch's deviations
of later years were antici-
pated in one of his earlier
short stories called "'A Car-
nival Night," permeated by
the romance of an alien faith
and alien conditions of life.
It was then that the great
Jehudah Loeb Peretz, who had
at first welcomed and encou-

i

Israel Registers Decline in
Polio; Helped by Salk Vaccine
TEL AVIV, (JTA) — The
month of July, the most dan-
gerous in the Israeli calendar
for polio, this year passed with
only eight recorded cases, corn- Rabbi Kirsh lum Honored
pared with 125 last year, the in Israel wit Planted Wood
TEL AVI (JTA) — Rabbi
Ministry of Health reported.
The improvement was attrib- Mordecai lc shblum, member
uted to a nation-wide innocula- of the Jewis Agency executive
tion of infants and youth with and former
erican Mizrachi
s honored by a
Salk Vaccine carried out last president,
fall by the Health Ministry. wood plant' g in his name in
Seven of the eight who were ceremonies attended by relig-
stricken had not been innocu- ious leaders. The planting took
lated and the eighth victim was place on Jei. ish National Fund
an infant who had ' a mild attack. land in G. ee.

raged Sholem Aleichem, too,
according to reports, felt un-
easy about the further course
of the young writer of ex-
traordinary talent.
Asch was a prolific contribu-
tor to the pages of the Jewish

Daily Forward. He became the
protege and friend of Abraham

Cahan, the dynamic editor of
that paper and pioneer Jewish
labor leader in the United
States. Asch was also the col-
league and associate of a whole
galaxy of outstanding Jewish
writers in the United States,
just as he was before then an
important figure in the Jewish
literary circles of Warsaw.
Then, after contributing a
number of his novels which
were published as serials in
this daily and writing a large
number of short stories, he
offered Cahan the manuscript
of "The Nazarene." Here the
celebrated editor not only
drew the line, but grew furi-
ous. He refused to publish
Asch's presentation of. Jesus.
In keeping with a contract,
Asch for a considerable time
remained on the payroll of the
Forward without any of his
writings appearing in the pa-
per. This and the subsequent
books, permeated by the ro-
mance of the early Christians
and the spirit of that evolving
faith, elicited even more criti-
cism from Jewish circles and
led to intense controversy'.
Cahan himself felt so outraged
that he wrote a Yiddish book
against Asch and his new type
of work, disputing the hiss
tonic premises of "The Naze;
rene" and other books an
their basis of the New Testa
ment accounts.
Then came Chaim Liebe
man, long a leading membe
of the staff of the Forw
who wrote in severe criticis
of Asch's attitude toward
Christianity, publishing two
books against him, one in Yhil-
dish and one in English. Left
without an outlet for his Yid-
dish writing, Asch for a time
contributed to the communist
Yiddish daily, the Freiheit.
Perhaps the most penetrating
analysis and most severe criti-
cism of Asch's new work came
from a great Hebrew scholar,
Prof. Chaim Tschernovitz, wide-
ly known under his pen name
of Rav Tzair, who was for many
years associated with the Jew-
ish Institute of Religion, now
merged with Hebrew Union
College. Rav Tzair practically
accused Asch of apostasy.
Though the resentment felt by
Jews everywhere in time sub-
sided, and Asch's assurances
his loyalty and (attempts to coh-

ciliate our people by his settle-
ment and associtytion with Israel

served to alleviate the prevail-
ing feelings, a residue of resent-
ment persisted. His passing,
therefore, left mingled feelings
in various circles. Perhaps the
ultimate verdict as to the posi-
tion of the man, not as a writer,
but as an expon t of ideas, will
be given by his ory.
—Be d G. Richards
'

Recover Testament
of Rebecca Gratz

PHILADELPHIA, (JTA) --
The last will and testament of
Rebecca Gratz, leading person-
ality of one of America's great
Jewish families and original of
the heroine of Sir Walter Scott's
"Ivanhoe," which was stolen
from a collection housed in Phil-
adelphia City Hall, has been
recovered.
The theft was unknown until
an advertisement appeared in a
New York newspaper offering
the will for sale. The offer was
made by a well-known collector.
Edwin Wolf, 2nd, historian of
Philadelphia Jewry and him-
self member of a famous Phila- '
delphia family, saw the advier-
tisement and notified the Am-
erican Philosophical Association
and the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania. Officials of the
two groups asked city action. A
police intelligence unit recov-
ered the will.

