Purely Commentary International Israel Bond Conference Told of
Plans to Build Nuclear Power Station, Country's
Need for Defense Arms; B G Speaks in 3 Languages

THE DETROIT JEW ISH NEWS — Friday, Aug ust

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

'Only in America': The Best Seller and Its Author
The oldest English-Jewish newspaper in America is the
American Israelite of Cincinnati. It was established 102 years
ago by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the founder of Reform Judaism
in this country. It began as a newspaper and still is a newspaper.
It is a rather disappointing periodical from the point of view
of news value. A community has a right to expect more creative
results from a paper with more than a century of experience
back of it. But in all its limitations it is still a newspaper.
Another periodical with a related name, the Chicago Israel-
ite, was organized in 1884. We don't know how many people see
it. We haven't seen a copy of it in many years, but it is still
listed in the Jewish Year Book as circulating to this very
day. You surely would not call it a newspaper. It printed, and
reprinted, photographs, some very old, some a bit newer; it
printed and reprinted jokes. But it did not and as far as we
know does not print news.
There is a third Israelite published in Charlotte. N. C., and
called the Carolina Israelite. By the admission of the publisher,
it is not a newspaper, yet he calls himself a part of Anglo-Jewish
journalism. (Even the reference is no longer valid, since only
periodicals published in England can be called "Anglo." In this
country, we have an English-Jewish press).
Harry Golden, the very popular and able story-teller, is
the editor and publisher who admits that his Carolina Israelite
is not a newspaper. He has just published a book, "Only in
America," issued by World Publishing Co. (2231 W. 110th
St., Cleveland 2), which has attained the glory of the best-seller
list.
In his introduction to "Only in America," Golden says: "I
print no 'news,' personals, socials, or press releases. And my last
`obituary' was on the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C."
Therefore, to say that a "paper" with personal accounts,
with tales and episodes and semi-historical data, is an "Anglo-
Jewish periodical" is ai injustice to the English-Jewish press.
It misleads too many people who should be reading newspapers
and believe they, subscribe to a Jewish paper because they
receive a story-telling periodical seven or eight times a year.
So much in defense of the Southern English-Jewish period-
icals who may be harmed by notoriety received by the so-called
Carolina Israelite. Now, as to the book: that's a different story.
"Only in America" is an interesting compilation of tales and
historical incidents, of personal experiences by the author on
the East Side of New York where he was born and where,
many years ago, he went through the mill of Jewish experiences
as a Socialist.
Harry Golden, Jr., the author's son, who is now a member
of the editorial staff of the Detroit Free Press, selected his
father's essays and edited the "Only in Amrica" manuscript.
He did a commendable job in choosing the most interesting
and most appropriate stories for the book.
Golden has a fine sense of humor. He possesses the abiltiy
to apply the experiences of a lifetime to present-day events,
and the result is that he is able to impart to his readers the
knowledge he has accumulated in an interesting lifetime.
In the very opening one-page story, he tells "why I never
bawl out a waitress," and points out that in this turbulent time
"it's silly to worry whether the waitress brought you string
beans instead of limas."
Then there are the scores upon scores of Jewish stories
and episodes. Under the title "the history of the Jews in Amer-
ica," he expresses this "editorial" opinion:
"I remember a folk song on the East Side, `Sha sha der
rebbe gayt' (`Quiet, quiet, the rabbi is coming'). . . .
"And sometime ago I watched the folks dance the `cha
cha' in a Jewish country club in a Southern city, and I heard
them keeping time with the music, Tim cha, do-se-do, cha cha.'
"The history of the Jews in America: 'from sha sha to
cha cha.' "
It is- this type of homespun humor that has attracted so
Much attention to Golden's book and has elevated it to the best
seller class.
This interesting man acquired fame with his proferred solu-
tion of the integration problem in the South. In his book his
views appear in ,a part of the book called "The Vertical Negro."
This is where he shows that while Negroes are barred from
schools, where they must sit down at desks, the "tremendous
buying power of the 12 million Negroes in the South" is marked
by "the absence of racial segregation." He proceeds to state:
"The white and Negro stand at the same grocery and
supermarket counters; deposit money at the same bank teller's
window; pay phone and ilght bills to the same clerk; walk
through the same dime and department stores, and stand
at the same drugstore counters. It is only when the Negro
`sets' that the fur begins to fly."
From this, he developed his Golden Vertical Negro Plan
—suggesting that the Negro remain standing in the classroom
and wherever they are now discriminated against when they
sit down.
His other solutions are that Negro children should carry
the books for the whites, since _Negroes are not discriminated
against when they perform such chores in daily life; that Negroes
be accompanied by white children, since they are not discrimin-
ated against when they take white children to theaters—therfore
this might be applied to schools—and the use of "plastic dolls
in their arms" is proposed as a manufacturing project for this
purpose.
Thus, ad infinitum, Golden tells stories about the South
where he has lived and published his story-telling Carolina
Israelite for nearly two decades, and about his birthplace. There
is much about the New York East Side, and the reader will get
a liberal education in this book about New York politics.
-
Carl Sandburg wrote a laudatory preface to the book.
Adlai E. Stevenson, acknowledged it with appreciation. Book
reviewers and many prominent people have acclaimed the book.
"Only in America" has opinions and stories about religion,
about politics and sociology, about economics and sex. There is
enough humor in it to keep a family busy entertaining itself
for many days, and to create a desire to re-read some of the
stories and to recapture the principal laughs. That's why "Only
in America" is a best seller.

—

Direct. JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News

JERUSALEM — Israel will
build its first nuclear power
station within the next five
years, Levi Eshkol, Israel's
Minister of Finance, told the
International Israel Bond Con-
ference being held here. The
350 delegates from the United
States, Canada and L- a t i n
America cheered his announce-
ment.
The Finance Minister, who
was outlining the principal tar-
gets of Israel's forthcoming
five-year plan still in the draft-
ing stage, reported that this
year for the first time Israel's
economic production covered
not only domestic needs but
also the cost of amortization
of production facilities. Thus,
he underlined, every dollar of
aid from abroad went into the
development program.
Israel has spent one billion
dollars in its ten years of
existence to build and equip
its armed services, Finance
Minister Eshkol told the con-
ference.
Eshkol said that in the ab-
sence of such sources of funds
as the bond organization, Israel
would not have been able to
push her economic develop-
ment at its present pace be-
cause of the tremendous needs
of the defense establishment.
"Israel bonds," he said "en-
abled us to press forward with
development while we used
our own resources for our
security."
After reviewing development
progress year by year, the Fi-
nance Minister said that the
crucial problems faced by
Israel in the past would be
overshadowed by even graver
problems in the near future.
He noted that the Egyptian-
dominated Arab alliance is in-
creasing in strength while arms
pour into the neighboring Arab
states in an unabated flow.
Eshkol told the Conference
that a law was urgently needed
to provide additional incentives
for direct private investments
in Israel industry.
The Finance Minister re-
ported that a panel of experts
was drafting Israel's first five-
year development plan of
which a principle goal will be
to boost export revenues to
$400,000,000 by 1964 — double
the current figure. He said half
of the hoped-for additional
$200,000,000 in such earnings
would be used for the purchase
of raw materials for industrial
exports. The remainder would
be net income to reduce the
annual foreign trade deficit.
Prime Minister David Ben-
Gurion, who was scheduled
to be the last speaker at the
opening session Monday
night, surprised the delegates
by not delivering the speech
he had drafted during the
afternoon. Standing up and
surveying the perspiring
delegates, each fighting the
suffocating heat by frantic-
ally fanning himself with
newspapers, the Prime
Minister greeted the dele-
gates briefly in Hebrew,
Spanish and English. He
said this was no 'time to
prolong their suffering with
a long speech and promised

Israel Closes Exhibition

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Some
600,000 persons visited the
Israel Tenth Anniversary ex-
hibition at the Binanei Hau-
mah buildings here during the
77 days it was open, officials
reported. Mayor Gershon Ag-
ron formally closed the ex-
hibition Monday.
to talk to them at the

closed session on foreign
policy and security issues.
David Horowitz, Governor of
the Israel State Bank, reported
on Israel's production and
exports, in a survey of ten
years of Statehood. Delegates
received a 25-page report pre-
pared by the Ministry of
Finance showing how Israel
Bond funds were invested dur-
ing the past seven years
through Israel development
budgets. A total of $395,000,000
was invested in budgets by
Aug. 15. According to the
report, Bonds provided about
30 per cent of the total capital
resources available for Israel's
development budgets.
Walter E y t a n, director
general of the Foreign
Ministry, told the delegates
that Israel needs arms more
today than ever before be-
cause of the unabated threat
of Nasserism. He expressed
the opinion that the march
of Cairo's dictator requires
more than the General As-
sembly resolution to halt it.
Nasserism, Dr. Eytan in-

sisted, differs from Arab
nationalism in that it is
nationalism running wild
and fueled by the ambitions
of a single man with a lust
for power.
He warned against the "illu-
sion" that the United Nations
could or would defend Israel
against aggression. The coun-
try's security depends on its
readiness and abilities to de-
fend itself, he said, and par-
ticularly on the knowledge of
other countries that it is
prepared to defend its sov-
ereignty "in the fullest sense."
Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz,
executive vice president of the
Israel Bond Organization, re-
ported that in its seven years
of existence the bond drive
had netted Israel $347,640,000
—one-third of the total Israel
budget for development pur-
poses during that period. Ira
Guilden, New York Jewish
leader who presided over the
opening session, reported that
$24,000,000 worth of bonds had
already been sold this year
toward a goal of $75,000,000.

Boris Smolar's

`Between You
. and Me'

Washington Views

(Copyright, 1958,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)

The decision on the Middle East situation taken by the
emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly is
being considered by some State Department officials as nothing
but a temporary pain killer . . . Actually, there is little belief in
Washington that Jordan will exist long as an independent coun-
try . . . There is also the fear of a revival of Arab-Israel war-
fare, should Jordan collapse and Israel become surrounded by
Nasserite forces . . . The U. S. will seek to gain time in Jordan
by continuing to call for establishment of a: United Nations force
there and also by pouring in large sums of money to support
economically the present regime there . . . However, the general
feeling in State Departmnt circles is that these moves are, at
best, only temporary stopgaps . . . Within the State Department
the question is now being diScussed whether it is worthwhile to
go on supporting the present feeble regime in Jordan indefinitely
. . . Some officials suggest letting Jordan slip into a merger
with Iraq, while others advocate the idea of a Jordan merger
with Nasser's United Arab Republic . . . Anticipating new
difficulties, Middle East planners in Washington are working
hard to hammer out details for action . . . Also taken into con-
sideration is the possibility of a renewal of full-scale Arab-Israel
fighting should Nasser rebels seize power in Jordan and take
the nation into the United Arab Republic . . . Supporters in the
State Department of the idea of a merger between Jordan and
Iraq or the United Arab Republic argue that no matter what its
political status, Jordan can never be economically independent .
The United States ; they point out, is now supporting Jordan at
a rate of up to $50,000,000 a year, and will have to increase its
financial support . . . Opponents of a merger, on the other hand,
claim that Jordan can be made economically self-sufficient . .
They discuss dramatic American-financed plans for compensat-
ing the Palestinian refugees now in Jordan, developing Jordan's
water resources, increasing ber potash output and helping her
export . . . They seem to draw support for their views from
British officials, most of whom prefer an independent Jordan.
*
*

Information Please

The National Council of Churches is continuing this year to
make its usual mistake about the number of Jews in this country
affiliated with synagogues ... Its yearbook of American Churches,
to be published Sept. 2, claims that 5,500,000 Jews in the United
States are members of Jewish congregations . . . This information
—given also in previous editions of the Year Book—is misleading
inasmuch as there are only 5,255,000 Jews in this country, ac-
cording to the American Jewish Year Book, which is the most
reliable source of Jewish data in this country . . . It is even
more misleading, because it is a well known fact that a substan-
tial percent of American Jews are not affiliated with synagogues,
just as a substantial percent of Christians are not members of
churches . . . Even the Jewish congregations themselves—of all
denominations—do not claim a membership of 5,500,000 as
attributed by the National Council of Churches yearbook . . .
The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, representing the
Reform movement. claims 200,000 families as members of its
congregations . . . The Conservative synagogues claim 1,000,000
adherents and the Orthodox synagogues similarly assert that
they aheve about 1,000,000 members . . . The American Jewish
Year Book believes that 60 percent of American Jewry—or about
3,000,000 Jews—were affiliated with the synagogue last year .. .
This estimate seems to be closer to the factual situation than the
figures cited by the Year Book of American Churches ... It also
is consistent with the statement of the National Council of
Churches that 61 percent of the American people are members
of churches or synagogues.

