Friday, November 1, 1957—THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS-46

—,.. 22

Report from the Holy Land

(Editor's Note: The following reports from
Israel, published simultaneously with the De-
troit Free Press, contain the impressions
gathered by Mr: and Mrs. Philip Slomovitz
during their visit in Israel).

Life on the Frontier

BEERSHEBA---IAmericans who wish to recon-
struct the history of our pioneers, 300 years ago,
and to have a vision of the life of "frontiersmen,"
will do well to come here and to see how Israelis
virtually pattern their lives on frontiers after those
of the Pilgrims oh the American continent.
Indeed, Uncle Sam has a big share in the fan-
tastic accomplishments that are being recorded here.
Through the U.S. Point Four Program, many experi-
ments are being conducted here, and former De-
troiters are playing an important role in one of the
most interesting scientific projects at work here.
At the Agricultural Research Station for the
Negev of the Israel Department of Agriculture, in
this ancient city whose- name means "Seven Wells"
—from the term applied to the wells dug here
3,500 years ago by the Patriarch Abraham—there
is a sign which reads: "Joint Project of the U.S.
and Israel."
The director of this station is Gershon Segel-
man, former Detroiter who has studied at the
University of Michigan and later gained additional
knowledge about latest agricultural methods at the
University of California. He lived for several, years
at a collective settlement—Kibutz Ein Dor—before
making his specialized studies, and returned here '
from Detroit last February, with his wife and three
sons? to assume his present post with the Israeli
government.
In addition to -directing the Negev research sta-
tion, he is also on the research staff of the Institute
for Desert Research, a hobby of Israel's Prime Min-
ister David Ben-Guron, where he is conducting studies
to solve the problem of salt water utilization in the
Negev.
Segelman, whose studies are in connection with
his work for a doctorate at the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem, under the university's vice-president,
Prof. Michael Even-Art, one of the world's botanical
authorities, explained that one of the aims of the
research is to find ways of making salt water useful
for plant life and to make plants, grow in salt water
areas. While ways have been found to desalt the
Negev water, he said that the process is too expen-
sive and Israeli needs call for utilization of the
salt water that is available in unlimited quantities.
"We are crossing desert plants from California
and Australia with Israeli plants for the feeding
of sheep," Segelman said. "We are doing research
in the growing of cotton, corn, sugar beets, peanuts,
grain crops, grapes and a dozen varieties of fruits,
on 600 acres of experimental farms. Furthermore,
we are Utilizing rain water. When the first rain fell
here, we accumulated, during the 40 minutes of
rainfall, enough water to fill three small dams with
7,500,000 gallons of water—enough to irrigate 250
acres of land for a full year. And similar efforts are
continuing uninterruptedly."
This is being accomplished in this city which,
only nine years ago, when Israel first became an
independent State, was a desert. At that time, Bed-
ouins came here with their camels and sheep to
conduct markets, and there were less than 300 Jew-
ish settlers here. Today, the Bedouins still conduct
their fantasic market, but there are 40,000 Jewish
settlers here now. They have built a flourishing city
with schools, museums, theaters, a night club, the
most modern hostel built by United Hias Service,
and the vision is for a city of 150,000 in 1965. In
1949, Beersheba was a plot of 600 dunams — 150
acres. Earlier this year the municipality was 27,000
dunams in size, and this month it was enlarged to

40,000. dunams. There is a•flourishing flour mill here,
a ceramics factory, and many plants are applying
for licenses to operate here.
Segelman pointed to a most interesting experi-
ment in connection with his research activities—the
planting of Japanese baMboo for eventual furniture-
making. In addition, the Jewish National Fund, the
Zionist land-reclamation agency, one of whose most
effective councils functions in Detroit, is experiment-
ing with the hemp-like plant called sesile in the
hope of producing rope and sacks in Israel, thereby
eventually producing another product for export and
eliminating the present import needs for rope and
related articles. Segelman assists in experiments on
3,000 dunams of land for this JNF project. Israel
Bond investments assist in the production ends of
these industrial efforts.
Israel's new peanuts and cotton products,
which were entirely unknown here only five years
ago, are now being viewed as the best on the
world's market, Segelman stated. He alSo said that
California farmers are , watching with keen inter-
est his experiments for the production of cactus
without thorns to serve as food for cattle.
This is a poor country, and we are utilizing every
available means to advance Israel's economy at the
lowest possible cost," Segelman said. "We have begun
to irrigate in ditches instead of using metal pipes.
We are heartened by the progress we have made
in this and in many other areas."
BeerSheba is not the only spot where 'Detroiters
are pioneering as frontiersmen. At Urim, in. the
Negev area, four Detroiters are participating in the
expansion of newly-reclaimed areas. It is an isolated
settlement, close to the Egyptian border, but its
settlers are continuously planting gardens, tilling
the soil, they care for their sheep and chickens and
are gaining a livelihood from farming. The De-
troiters here include Rena Silver Schwartzberg,
Wessel Goldberg Lipshitz, Marilyn Becker Sidewater
and Morrey Silver.
Mrs. Lipshitz has a sister, Judy Jacobs, in the
settlement of Gesher Haziv in Western Galilee.
Eleanor Wesley
is another De-
troiter at this
settlement.
There are 14
Detroiters in an-
other settlement
in Galilee, Ein
Dor. Three De-
troiters, Marshall
Rubin, Lionel
Maslowski a n d
Norman Shiff-
man, are at Kfar
Blum.
Jews are not
the o n1 y ones
who have come
here to partici-
pate in the fron-
tiersmen's thrill
of defending and
building a new
land for refugees
from 70 coun-
tries. Gr a h am
Hanna, who has
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
adopted the He-
brew name of Giora, has been here for five years
and is now working as a truck driver in Kibutz
Mishmar Haemek. This Christian Detroiter, son of
Mr. and Mrs. James Hanna, holds two degrees from
the University of Chicago. But he loves life in
Israel and is willing to do menial work to help build
this land. He is married to a settler from Cairo and
they are expecting their first child in November.

