Friday, Oc tober 31, 1958-40
—
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
ground the World...
A Digest of World Jewish Happunings, from
Dispatches of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Other
News-Gathering Media.
Europe
PARIS—Jacques Soustelle, French Minister of Information,
speaking at the national conference of French Zionists-Revision-
ists, emphasized his friendship for Israel—in the past, present
and future—and declared that Israel and France "with courage
and perseverance will see the triumph of our common ideals,"
and compared Israel's present situation with that of France,
asserting that "we have gone through a painful period, but we
are now at the entrance to the promised land . . . our trials,
however, are not finished and we must make great efforts to
overcome the obstacles in our path" . . . The French Ministry of
Education has decreed that Jewish children in Algeria will no
longer be required to attend public school classes on Saturday
and Jewish holidays . . . It was reported here that three new
Jewish cultural centers will be opened in Algiers .. . James P.
Rice, executive director of United Hias, reported at the organi-
zation's annual immigration conference that 15,000 Jews in
Europe and elsewhere have registered for emigration to coun-
tries other than Israel.
VIENNA—A Warsaw Provincial Court, before which Erich
Koch, onetime Nazi Gauleiter of portions of Poland and the
Ukraine, is standing trial on charges of responsibility in the mur-
der of hundreds of thousands of Jews and non-Jews, has rejected
his latest attempts to postpone the trial. Dispatches received
here from the Polish capital report that Koch's plea that his in-
dictment violated a general amnesty decree of 1956 was rejected
by the court • . . The Austrian Ministry of the Interior an-
nounced the dissolution of the Social Regulation Movement
of Europe, a neo-Nazi movement with headquarters in Graz.
MUNICH—Wilhelm Reischenbeck, former commander of
the SS guards at the Auschwitz death camp, was sentenced to
ten years' imprisonment on charges of complicity in the murder
of 30 camp prisoners in January, 1945.
LONDON—Israel has received assurances from the British
Government that no British arms will be left behind in Jordan
when British troops are withdrawn from the Arab state, diplo-
matic circles reported here this week . . . A report from Cairo .
published in the London press said the reason Vice President
Abdel Hakim Amer of the United Arab Republic was visiting
Moscow, was to obtain from the Soviet Union a public warning
to the United States, Britain and France not to intervene in
Israel's behalf in the event the withdrawal of Western forces
from the Middle East precipitates an uprising in Jordan with
intervention by Israel.
AMSTERDAM—Three of Holland's highest seats of learning
—historic Leyden and Utrecht Universities and the Amsterdam
Municipal University—have announced that, for the first time,
they have scheduled courses in Hebrew language and literature.
Israel
JERUSALEM—William Haim, first Ambassador of Ghana to
Israel, presented his credentials to President Itzhak Ben-Zvi,
and both expressed confidence that the already close relations
between the two countries would grow still warmer .. . Dr. M.
Shulov, director of Jerusalem's world-famed Biblical Zoo, threat-
ened to disband the zoo and destroy those animals he cannot
sell or give to other zoological associations in order to prevent
the animals from starving, warned that unless funds are obtained
immediately, the zoo's supply of food for its hundreds of animals
will be exhausted within a fortnight and said he would destroy
the animals rather than let them go hungry. The zoo has 100
different kinds of animals, including 75 of the 85 mentioned
in the Bible ... The Knesset rejected a motion of non-confidence
proposed by the General Zionist and Herut Parties following
disclosure that Pinchas Sapir, thte Minister of Trade, had asked
Arieh Manor, head of the Israeli purchasing mission in New
York, to raise $10,000 for Mapai youth clubs ... The Israeli For-
eign Ministry has decided to add a political officer to the
Israeli purchasing Mission stationed at Cologne, West Germany,
following a further postponement of the establishment of
diplomatic relations between the two countries.
TEL AVIV—Twenty-five hundred Israeli diamond polishers
went on strike closing down production in polishing and cutting
shops in this city and nearby Natanya, due to the refusal of
the shopowners to pay a cost of living bonus . . . While a strike
of high school teachers entered its second week with little
hope of an early end, upper classmen at the Haifa Institute of
Technology went on a strike against an increase in tuition fees
and the president of the Institute threatened to keep the doors
of the Technion closed.
Haifa Technion students were protesting an increase in fees
from 250 Israeli pounds per year to 400. Lower classmen have
agreed to pay but students in the upper grades have said they
would not attend classes. Brig. Yacov Dori, Technion president,
said that unless all the students agreed to pay the higher tuition,
the Institute would not open this semester.
Latin America
SAO PAULO, Brazil—Jacob Salvador Zveibel, a leading mem-
ber of the Jewish community of this city, has been elected to
the Sao Paulo provincial legislature. A member of the Republi-
can Party, Zveibel served as a member of the Sao Paulo City
Council before running for state office.
United States
NEW YORK—About 150,000 Jews are now serving in the
U.S. armed forces, it was reported by the National Jewish Wel-
fare Board at the opening of a series of conferences to map
the JWB program for religious and morale activities among
Jews in the armed services in 1959.
SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco's "flying watchmaker,"
Peter Gluckman, said this week he hopes to follow up on new
records he set spanning the Atlantic Ocean twice in a single-
engined plane with a non-stop flight from Tokyo to New York.
Reporting he had purchased a new plane, he said he was making
plans for the attempt next year, a flight he said had not yet
been attempted by a solo flier.
- Strictly Confidential
The Jewish Genius
The other evening, at the
home of Arthur B. Krim, the
young and dynamic president of
United Artists, we had the plea-
sure of meeting Dr. Ernest B.
Chain, the famous Nobel Lau-
reate . . . Dr. Chain, you may
remember, won the Nobel Prize
for his co-discovery with Dr.
Fleming and Dr. Florey of peni-
cillin ... He now lives in Rome,
where he is the director of the
Institute Superiore Di Sanita
He was in New York on a short
visit in connection with his work
. . . Since he is an Honorary
Fellow of the Weizmann Insti-
tute of Science, he was the guest
of Krim, who is a member of
the board of governors of the
Weizmann Institute , . . Dr.
Chain is a Russian Jew whose
family immigrated to Germany
at the beginning of the 20th
century . . . His father was a
chemist, who studied in Berlin
at the same time as Dr. Chaim
Weizmann . We had occasion
to ask Dr. Chain about his youth
and he told us a rather interest-
ing story.
Young Chain was not espe-
cially interested in science . . .
His passion was music and he
dreamt of becoming a piano vir-
tuoso ... While his father prac-
mr
Dr. . Chain
A, B. Krim
tined chemistry in Berlin, Ernst
studied music and developed
into a competent pianist . . .
There was no indication that he
would some day become one of
the foremost biologists of our
age ... He went to night classes
and attended lectures during the
day at the University of Berlin
. . . Not even his own family
took his scientific studies seri-
ously . . . Then came Hitler and
young Chain fled to England
where he suddenly changed .. .
He plunged into biology and be-
came a student at Cambridge
where his brilliant gifts were
soon recognized . . . A labora-
tory was placed at his disposal
. . . From then on things hap-
pened fast . . . Towards the end
of the third decade of the new
century, Chain became inter-
ested in a scientific paper by
Dr. Fleming . • . The author had
discarded it on the assumption
that he had reached a dead end
with his research on a potential
anti-biotic which, while it show-
ed possibilities, was too deadly
for medical use ... Other scien-
tists had probed the substance
and had gotten nowhere.
Dr. Chain, with the help of
Dr. Florey, also of Cambridge,
did not give up . . . One day he
felt that the problem was licked
and wired Fleming the result of
tests . . . Fleming got so ex-
cited that he came forthwith to
Cambridge and to his great joy
learned that his old discarded
paper had become the basis for
a wonder drug which was to
revolutionize modern medicine
. .. This was the only time, we
are told, that Chain and Flem-
ing met in a laboratory.
We asked Dr. Chain how come
that Jews apparently show a
special gift for basic scientific
research . . . Dr. Chain, who
incidentally looks like a young
Einstein, smiled with the same
childish innocence that charac-
terized the father of relativity
when he was in a happy frame
of mind . . . He explained that
he did not believe that Jews
were more gifted than any other
people, but he had observed, he
said, that pure research at-
tracted a great percentage of
Jewish students . . . The reason,
he speculated, might be that in
Europe Jewish students were
discriminated against in the pre-
Hitler and Hitler period . . .
"They found refuge in the libra-
ries and laboratories away from
the social life that passed them
by . . . Intellectual curiosity is
our heritage and perhaps that
might explain why so many of
By Phineas J.
Biron
our youth are attracted to pure
science, which by the way is the
most exciting of all activities."
Born in Russia, where secular
learning was closed to Jews;
stranded in Germany where a
regime threatened to extermi-
nate his people; landing in Eng-
land where the language was
alien to him and within a few
years rising to international
fame as an originator, a cre-
ative man of science, whose
name is already immortal . . .
Chain exemplifies the Jewish
genius at his best.
Midshipmen's Jewish Services in
Annapolis—Special Interests in
Academy—Michelson Episode
There are two statues by the
Every Sunday morning, as
part of the regulations of the well known Jewish sculptor, Er-
United States Naval Academy, nest W. Keyer, on and near
at Annapolis, Maryland, Jewish State House grounds—of Baron
midshipmen march in formation DeKalb and Admiral W. S.
to Congregation Kneseth Israel, Schley.
Many Jewish names are
on Prince George and East
among the noted Naval officers
Streets, in Annapolis.
There are 50 Jews at present who had won honors in active
among the 3600 midshipmen, all service or who had lost their
of whom attend services in the lives in the Wars of the Repub-
houses of worship of their re- lic.
In their account of the Jew-
spective faiths.
Kneseth Israel was organized ish interests in Annapolis, in
55 years ago and its services "A Jewish Tourist's Guide to
were held in homes of members the U. S.," Bernard Postal and
until 40 years ago when the Lionel Koppman tell the follow-
present site was acquired from ing about Dr. Michelson and his
the St. Ann Episcopalian appointment to the Naval Acad-
Church. The synagogue is lo- emy by President Grant:
"On the examination for the
cated two blocks from the State
Capitol and one corner of it ac- Congressional appointment to
tually faces the Capitol Build- the Academy, he tied with an-
ing, which is the oldest original other boy, who got the appoint-
State House in actual use in the ment while he, Michelson, was
made alternate. After he had
entire country.
Rabbi Morris D. Rosenblatt, a given up hope of a vacancy oc-
graduate of Rabbi Isaac Elcha- curring so that he could enter
nan Yeshiva, has been the con- the Academy, the commandant
gregation's rabbi for 13 years. sent him a message informing
He has been assigned officially him that President Grant had
by the Jewish Welfare Board given him 'an appointment at
as the chaplain of the Jewish large.' Since this was the 11th
such appointment — the Presi-
midshipmen at Annapolis.
dent had informed him that he
The president of the con- had already exhausted his 10
gregation is a retired Navy appointments at large—Michel-
officer, Rear Admiral Morris son used to joke that his career
Smelow.
was started by an illegal act. He
After Sunday morning religi- was graduated from the Acad-
ous services, the Jewish midship- emy, in 1873, and commissioned
men are served a bagel and lox a midshipman in the U. S. Navy.
breakfast at Kneseth Israel.
From 1875 to 1879, he was an
In addition to this synagogue, instructor in physics and chem-
a Jewish Center, on West Street, istry at the Academy. His im-
serves the needs of the 200 Jew- provements in methods of mea-
ish families in Annapolis. There suring the velocity of light cata-
are Bnai Brith. Council of Jew- pulted him into the internation-
ish Women, Hadassah and other al limelight at the age of 26. He
Jewish groups. They cooperate developed an interferometer,
well among themselves and they named for him; which was used
frequently call upon the large to test the relative velocity of
Jewish community of Baltimore, the earth and the ether, and
which is 25 miles distant, to was also applied to the measure-
assist them in their efforts. This ment of the diameter of the
week, as an example, all the stars. Michelson also developed
groups will hold a joint cultural the echelon spectroscope and, in
meeting to be addressed by Mrs. addition, produced more power-
Israel M. Goldman of Baltimore. ful instruments of diffraction
The Museum of the U. S. than had been developed up to
Naval Academy at Annapolis that time." —P. S.
holds scores of items of interest.
Chief among them are:
Soviet Conducts Its
The full length portrait of
Anti-Jewish
Line
the famous Jewish Navy of-
ficer, Commodore Uriah Phil- in Nine Languages
ip levy, whose efforts led to
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y.
the Navy; and the historic
(JTA) — The Soviet Union is
document announcing that continuing its anti-Israeli line
the world famous Jewish in propaganda issued in at
scientist, Dr. Albert Abra- least nine languages.
ham Michelson, had been
The latest anti-Israeli dia-
awarded the Nobel Prize in tribe appeared in "New Times,"
Physics, in 1907.
a journal published in Moscow
In the Annapolis Hall of Rec- in nine languages, circulated
ords there is a set of data about today by the Soviet delegation
I to the United Nations
early Maryland Jews.