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HAG HE-ASAR IN ISRAEL
Christians Join Minyans'
(This is another in a series of
special articles by Philip Slomo-
vitz, editor of The Jewish News,
who toured Israel. Here he re-
ports on plans for Israel's 10th
anniversary.)
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
REHOVOT, Israel—Israel's ma-
jor preparations are for the cele-
bration of the State's 10th anni-
versary, and the program calls for
an observance that is to last for 13
months, starting April 29, 1958.
It will be a Leap Year on the
Hebrew calendar, and Hebrew `
leap years have extra months to
account for the lunar calendar
changes. But that is not the chief
reason for a 13-month celebration.
According to Meyer W. Weisgal,
chairman of the executive coun-
cil of the Weizmann Institute of
Science, located here, whom Prime
Minister David Ben-Gurion has
named as chairman of the anni-
versary committee, preparations
are being made for 100,000 tour-
ists to visit Israel for the "Hag
He-Asar," which literally means
the "tenth holiday year."
* *
VISITS by such large numbers
will require the distribution of
arrivals over a long period of
time, and the committee's plans
are for such vast celebrations, for
nearly every day during the anni-
versary year, as to encourage.
visits during a 13-month period.
Weisgal has an interesting plan:
that every synagogue in the United
States should send a minimum of
10 guests .to Israel during the
anniversary year, the number 10,
representing a traditional "min-
yan" or the number required to
form a congregation for religious
services, having a magical attrac-
tion for religious Jews.
"There are approximately 50
synagogues in Detroit," Weisgal
pointed out.
"That would give us 500 guests
from the Motor City during our
forthcoming celebration. But there
also are scores of Zionist and pro-
Israel groups we hope to draw
upon. Besides, Detroit Jews are
so outstanding in their generosity
in all efforts to rescue Jews from
Iron Curtain and Moslem coun-
tries, whom we are settling in
Israel, that we believe many hun-
dreds more will share with us the
historic events of our anniversary
year.
"Already, many Detroiters —
Christians as well as Jews—are
making pilgrimages to Israel.
That is why we believe that 2,000
Detroiters will be here during our
`Hag He-Asar! "
Weisgal, one-time prominent
American Zionist leader and a
former theatrical producer who
brought "The Romance of a
People" for presentation at the
Detroiter David Idzal in Lounge
of Newest Theater in Tel Aviv
David Idzal, form-
er manager of the
Detroit Fox Theater,
is shown here in
the lounge of the
new theater in Tel
Aviv, construction
of which he super-
vised in the last six
months. Known as
Kolnoa Tel Aviv,
this theater has all
the modern Ameri-
can facilities. It is
the newest building
in Israel's major
city.
Idzal is staying on
in Tel Aviv and
hopes to manage
the construction of
more modern Am-
erican-style theaters
in Israel.
Olympia 20 years ago, said he
was heartened by a report that
Detroit's Congregation Shaarey
Zedek is leading the way for pil-
grimages to Israel from Detroit
with possible five "minyan"
groups. "Fifty visitors from
Shaarey Zedek should help boost
the total of Detroit visitors to
us," Weisgal said.
"Besides, there is an active
movement for large' delegations
from Detroit organizations, and
the report of large-scale activities
by Detroit Mizrachi, the religious
Zionist movement, under the lead-
ership of Zvi Tomkiewicz and
Phillip Stollman, points once again
to Detroit's 'leading the way' in
friendship for Israel."
* * *
WEISGAL'S associates on the
official Israel 10th anniversary
committee, Meir DeShalit and
Teddy Kollek, of Prime Minister
Ben-Gurion's office, said they ex-
pect tens of thousands of Chris-
tians to visit Israel during the
coming year. They pointed out
that the Lourdes Centenary, also
to be observed next year, is cer-
tain to bring hundreds of thou-
sands of Christians to Europe.
DeShalit said many of them are
expected to include Israel in their
itinerary and he added that there
is even the possibility that close
to 30 per cent of Israel's guests
next year will be Christians.
Hias Hostel Helps
Build Beersheba
By PHILLIP SLOMOVITZ
BEERSHEBA — Retracing our
steps in this historic spot, we
wish to report on a fine contribu-
tion made to this rising com-
munity by United Hias Service.
The impressive Hias Hostel was
established here to help solve the
inadequate hotel services for ex-
perts who come here from nearly
every part of the globe to parti-
cipate in research and industrial
planning. The Jewish Agency and
the Israel government urged Hias
to establish a hostel, and Beer-
sheba now has this imposing
building.
Menahem Kraucer is the direc-
tor of United Hias services in
Israel, where the popular Ameri-
can agency operates a chain of
shelters for people who have no
other accommodations.
Hias gets its aid from the
Allied Jewish Campaign. Our dol-
lars serve us well in Israel in
many ways—including the Hias
services.