Friday, October 25, 1957—THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS-38
▪
Rocket-Age Jewish Genius
to Help Launch U.S. Sputnik
By MILTON FRIEDMAN
(Copyright, 1957, JTA, Inc.)
WASHINGTON — America's
rocket and space satellite po-
tentialities have been aided by
Jewish philanthropy and scien-
tific genius. -
In 1926, the Guggenheim
Fund for the promotion of aero-
nautics brought Dr. Theodore
von Karman to the United
States. With him came the
rocket age.
The Hungarian-born scientist
provided America with its first
jet propulsion laboratory, the
first U.S. rocket manufacturing
company, and the advisory rec-
ommendations that shaped the
U.S. Air Force's long-range
planning. His aerodynamics re-
search role did much to enable
U.S. jets to break the sound'
barrier
The h ead of the U.S. program
to launch a space satellite is,
Dr. Joseph Kaplan. The Ameri-
can "Sputnik" leader is a tall,
witty 56-year-old physicist. He
also finds time to serve as presi-
dent of the Southern California
Chapter of the American
Friends of Hebrew University.
Last year Dr. Kaplan re-
c e i v e d the Astronautical
Award of the American
Rocket . Society. The society
includes more than three
times as many Jewish rocket_
experts than the proportion
of Jews in the general popu-
lation would indicate.
Dr. Milton Rosen, a leading
naval rocket expert, is on the
rocket group's board of direc-
tors.
The many Jews in U.S. rocket
research sometimes find them-
selves working together with
German scientists who devel-
oped Hitler'S "V" rockets. But
rocket men look to the future
rather than the past.
As chairman of the U.S. Na-
tional Committee for the Inter-
national Geophysical Year, Dr.
Kaplan is busy with plans for
launching an American earth
satellite in December.
Dr. Kaplan thinks in terms
of exploring man's relationship
to his cosmic environment as a
phase of international coopera-
tion. He hopes the Soviet Union
entertains similar peaceful ob-
jectives. He visualizes the na-
tions of the earth sharing the
scientific benefits of new knowl-
edge rather than plotting mu-
tual destruction.
However, Dr. Kaplan recog-
nizes the importance to Amer-
ica, of the outer space race
launched by the Russians. Dr.
Kaplan holds an Air Force deco-
ration for "exceptional civilian
service" awarded for his work
as chief of the Operations Anal-
ysis Section of the Air Weather
Service. He has served as chair-
man of the Mixed Com- mittee
on the Upper Atmosphere of
the International Union of Ge-
odesy and Geophysics and is
president of the International
Association of Geomagnetism
and Aeronomy.
The Talmudic roots of Dr.
Kaplan's personal philosophy
are . evident. This can be seen
in his idea that man might not
answer all questions in his
search for knowledge, but that
he is not free to desist from
that pursuit.
Dr. von Karman is responsible
more than any other scientist
for development of American
rocket and jet potentialities.
When he celebrated his 75th
birthday last year, von Karman
was dubbed "Mr. Aviation" and
honored by the Air Force.
In 1941 Dr. von Karman
tried without success to per-
suade American businessmen
to go into rocket manufac-
turing.- When corporations
refused to enter what they
considered a risky venture,
Dr. von Karman invested his
own money. He got univers-
ity colleagues to join with
him.
They founded the Aerojet
Corp. which today employs 10,-
000 people in three California
plants building engines for the
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vanguard earth satellite project
and the intercontinental and
intermediate-range ballistic
missiles.
Dr. von Karman in 1945 re-
sponded to the personal request
of Gen. H. H. Arnold to determ-
ine what airpower could do to
prevent World War III. His
report, issued in late 1945, be-
came the Bible for Air Force
planning.
It included visionary assess-
ments of a "Sputnik" earth
satellite, automatic celestial
nevigation, nuclear bombs using
reactions other than fission, sup-
ersonic planes, and interconti-
nental missiles and other
rockets.
Swiss to Consider
Asylum Pleas
of Refugee Jews
BERNE — the Swiss Jewish
community has received assur-
ances from the Swiss govern-
ment that authorities will give
"sympathetic consideration" to
pleas for asylum and work per-
mits for Jewish refugees.
Dr. Georges Brunshwig, pres-
ident of the Jewish community,
told a local Jewish committee
that after meeting with Swiss
Federal ' Counsellor Marcus
Feldman, he was assured by
proper authorities that a num-
ber of "hardcore" Jewish refu-
gees would be admitted . and
that Swiss authorities would re-
consider their entire attitude
should there be fresh outbursts
of anti - Jewish measures in
Egypt.
- This announcement came in
the wage of the Ludwig Re-
port, which, with its disclosure
of anti-Jewish measures taken
by the Swiss government dur-
ing World War II, caused con-
siderable comment here. While
some Swiss newspapers glossed
over the report, others were
sharply critical of the attitude
of Swiss officials during the
war.
The report, published by the
Swiss Federal Council, was pre-
pared by Prof. Carl Ludwig, of
the University of Basle. He said
that thousands of refugees, par-
ticularly Jews, were doomed
between 1933 and the end of
the war by Swiss enforcement
of over-rigid rules of asylum.
The report sharply criticized
this attitude, and stressed that
Swiss asylum is a "leading
principle of the Swiss state's
policy, and forms part of the
Swiss conception of freedom
and independence." National
policy, therefore, must take
into account asylum for people
whose lives are endangered.
Kasper Gets
Year in Jail
WASHINGTON (JTA)—John
Kasper, anti-Jewish, anti-Negro
agitator, must go to jail as a
result of the U.S. Supreme
Court's refusal to review his
criminal contempt conviction.
He will serve a one-year peni-
tentiary sentence.
The sentence was imposed on
Kasper for interfering with the
integration of students at the
Clinton, Tenn., High School in
1956. Last June a U.S. Court of
Appeals upheld the sentence.
He then demanded that the
Supreme Court review the case
and remained free on a $10,000
bond. He used his freedom on
bond, terminated by the court
action, to carry on incitement
against Negroes and Jews.
The government urged the
Supreme Court to send Kasper
to jail. In a brief filed by
Solicitor General J. Lee Ran-
kin, the government main-
tained that Kasper's behavior
went beyond "the limits of
free speech" protections. The
government said the Constitu-
tional safeguards did not in-
clude a right to exhort mobs
in the manner performed by
Kasper.
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Krupp Cancels
Contested Visit
WASHINGTON (JTA) —
Official U.S. sources received
word this week from Essen,
Germany, that ex-Nazi in-
dustrialist Alfred Krupp has
cancelled his trip to t h e
United States to address an
international industrial con-
ference in San Francisco.
Krupp's visit had been
protested owing to his con-
victions by a U.S. war crimes
court. The State Department
had received a number of
complaints.
To avoid possible embar-
rassment, the German indus-
trialist used the excuse that
he could not come because
he was still in mourning for
his mother who died last
month. The State Depart-
ment issued a visa to Herr
Krupp in August for t h e
visit. Previously, owing to
his record as a leading Nazi,
he had been refused admis-
sion to the U.S.
Tribunal Rejects
Jews' Exclusion
from Aid Benefits
KARLSRUHE (JTA) — West
Germany's highest tribunal, the
Federal Supreme Court here,
has rejected persistent efforts
to exclude the survivors of
such concentration camps as
Theresienstadt and Auschwitz
from the benefits of the "im-
mediate-aid" section for indi-
vidual Nazi victims in the Fed-
eral Indemnification Law.
The court turned down an
appeal for the State -of Rhine-
land-Palatinate against a test
case decision of the Neustadt
Superior Court, which ruled
that Erna Vogler, a Jewess de-
ported from Neustadt to There-
sienstadt, was eligible for the
$1,425 "immediate-aid" com-
pensation payment.
The Neustadt court ruling
upset a decision of the indem-
nification chamber of the dis-
trict court at Frankenthal last
year denying Mrs. Vogler's
claim by use of what critics
called strained legalisms and
tortuous reasoning.
At stake is the 1956 amend-
ment to the Federal law, apply-
ing only to former residents of
Germany. The clause provides
that if they emigrated because
of Nazi persecution, were de-
ported or expelled, they are
entitled to the $1,425 allowance
if they return to West Ger-
many for permanent settle-
ment.
The provision was adopted
to put victims of Nazism on
an indemnification f o o t i n g
comparable at least to that of
returned Nazi prisoners-of-war
and of ethnic German expellees
or refugees.
Prior to passage of the am-
endment, Germans in those
categories could get help more
quickly for a new start than
were the German Jews who
returned to Germany for re-
settlement.
People Make News
WASHINGTON — Dr. Simon
Ramo, a developer of the Air
Force's inter-continental ballis-
tic missile pro-
gram and an
active member
of Bnai Brith's
Aleph Z a d ik
youth move-
ment in his
boyhood, was
named winner
of the teen-ag-
ers' 1957 dis-
ti ngu ishe d
alumnus
award. The 44-
year-old physi-
cist, one of the
nation's lead-
ing guided
missile ex-
Dr. Ramo
perts was honored by the Bnai
Brith youth group "for notable
contributions to American life."
The annual award is presented
in the name of Samuel Beber,
of Park Forest, Ill., who
founded the youth movement
in 1924. Dr. Ramo, a native of
Salt Lake City, Utah, is co-de-
veloper of the Air Force's
guided rocket Falcon, a defense
weapon used for tracking and
bringing down enemy aircraft.
* * *
A Chicago home builder is
winner for the second time in
four years of Bnai Brith's na-
tional award for membership
enrollment. HERMAN J. NU-
DELMAN, recently elected
president of the Greater Chica-
go Bnai Brith Council, took
first honors. He enrolled 152
members during the past year.
He also won in 1954 with 102
enrollees.
* * *
Over 2,000 Chicago leaders
will join in honoring PHILIP M.
KLUTZNICK, international
president of Bnai Brith who
was chosen Chicago's "Man of
the Year," at a dinner Nov. 2,
at the Morrison Hotel, under
sponsorship of the Chicago com-
mittee for State of Israel Bonds.
* * *
PARIS—The appointment of
HAROLD TROBE as director
for Europe and North Africa of
United Hias Service, the Ameri-
can-supported worldwide Jew-
ish migration agency, was an-
flounced by James P. Rice,
executive director of United
Hias. Trobe, who has been di-
rector in Italy for the Joint
Distribution Committee, suc-
ceeds Louis D. Horwitz, who
is joining the JDC overseas
staff.
* * *
Dr. J. EDWARD BERK, chief
of medicine at Sinai Hospital,
has returned from a tour of the
South, where he served during
the month of September as vis-
iting chief of medicine at six
hospitals, including University
of Tennessee, Memphis; Veter-
ans Administration Teaching
Group Hospital, Memphis; and
four United Mine Workers' hos-
pitals in Kentucky and Virginia.
• * *
Mrs. DAVID KLIGER, a cor-
respondent for Detroit Subur-
ban Newspapers, was last week
awarded a trophy and certifi-
cate "in appreciation of her
work in writing a weekly
column in the Redford Record"
at a staff luncheon at the Red-
ford War Memorial. Jack Mc-
Griff, editor, made the award.
Mrs. BESSE KRANZ of Bos-
ton, a former official of the Girl
Scouts of America, this week
was named
national direc-
totr of Bnai
Brith Women.
H e r appoint-
ment to suc-
ceed the retir-
n g Mrs.
Arthur G.
Laufman of
Chicago w a s
announced to
t h e organiza-
tion's 135,000
members by
Mrs. Hy Korn-
bleet, presi-
dent of the
Women's o r -
Mrs. Kranz ganiza-
tion. Mrs. Kranz assumes her
new duties simultaneously with
the transfer of Bnai Brith head-
quarters from Chicago to Wash-
ington. The new director and
her staff will be located in the
Bnai Brith Building which
opened last week in the nation's
capital.
•
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Business Briefs
Jerry L. Blanc, formerly lo-
cated on Schaefer and 7 Mile
Rd., is now associated with the
MORRIS BARBER SHOP, lo-
cated at 13901 W. 9 Mile Rd.,
in Oak Park. Specialty of the
shop is hair cutting for men,
children and women.
Jewish Girl Wins Mexican
National Essay Contest
MEXICO CITY (JTA) —
Raisel Corona, 11-year-old stu-
dent at the Hatikvah Jewish
school in Monterey, has won a
national contest for the best
student composition on the
subject of the Mexican Consti-
tution. The girl is a niece of
the Y i d di s h writer, Meyer
Corona.
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