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 • • I I 4 • 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. f 4 • 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. • Your Newspaper Guardian ti of Your Freedoms Whatever your interests, whatever your age, you'll find good reading, information and entertainment in the pages of THE " DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Keep abreast of this ever changing world. GET THE NEWSPAPER HABIT EVERY FRIDAY! Sid Shmarak's 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. • • • • h 0.4 4 • • • ♦. At 44 4.11,4 4.4 • • REAL THE JEWISH NEWS .