THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, September 8, 196 1 — 64
History of Jewry in the Year 5721
By HARVEY ZUCKERBERG
World Jewry outside the United States fought the
same battles, suffered the same humiliations and de-
feats, underwent the same struggles for dignity and
equal rights in the year 5721 (Sept. 23, 1960 - Sept.
11, 1961) as in previous years of the decade.
The number and degree of problems and threats
to the harmonious existence of Jews in their native
countries remained the same. Only the names of
people and places changed, as was reported in the
pages of The Jewish News.
The year began with a solemn appeal to Soviet
authorities to re-examine the situation of Jews in the
U.S.S.R. and to grant them equal rights with other
Russian minority groups. The plea was issued in Paris
by the Conference on Soviet Jewry which brought
together world-famous intellectuals from 14 countries.
The resolution asked the Soviet government
to re-establish Jewish organizations and cultural
and religious organizations and to permit Soviet
Jewry to contact Jewish religious centers in other
countries. "We especially ask," the resolution
stated, "that the Soviet Union. permit Jews living
in its realm who' have been separated from their
families during the last war to rejoin them." The
request has been repeatedly issued and ignored
by the U.S.S.R.
Early in the year, at the request of a delegation
led by Bnai Brith President Label Katz, Rabbi Irving
Miller, president of the American Zionist Council;
Rabbi Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jew-
ish Congress; and .Moses Feurerstein, president of the
Union of Orthodox Congregations of America; Presi-
dent Eisenhower indicated he would use his influence
to remedy Suez Canal restrictions during the visit of
President Nasser of the United Arab Republic.
The following week, headlines declared, "Nasser
Raises 'Palestine Issue' at UN; Meeting with Eisen-
hower on Suez Considered as Fruitless". .
The crux of Nasser's address to the UN Gen-
eral Assembly was that the Arabs do not accept
"the loss of Palestine." He told the UN body that
the League of Nations Palestine Mandate was an
"imperialist conspiracy." Nasser insisted that the
only solution to the Palestine problem is that the
land "should return to the condition prevailing
before the error was committed."
(Eisenhower, however, reportedly told his associates
he-had achieved "excellent rapport" with Nasser.)
Israel Foreign Minister Mrs. Golda Meir also ad-
dressed the UN and said Nasser, talking "in terms,_
of boycott and threats of war," refused to meet with
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion despite repeated
invitations to do so. The United- Arab Republic chief
rejected Israel's demands -for a peace conference as
"a proposalaime-r only at deceiving world opinion."
King Hussein of Jordan also told the UN General
Assembly that Nasser is following the CoMmunist line
in the Middle East and that his,aim is the destruction
of Jordan, as well as Israel.
But Jordan, herself; surprised the world when
two weeks later the news was reported that Jor-
danian guardsmen had kidnaped in Israel the
niece of Henry Cabot Lodge, then Republican
candidate for U.S. vice president.
Dolores Anne Baker, 25, and a friend, Tony Falco,
were seized on their return from ,a picnic within
Israel's borders, blindfolded and taken to Jordan.
They said they were interrogated, "molested" and
held captive for 10 days. The young people were
in Israel attending a Hebrew Ulpan course.
. The world report concerning Jews during the last
week in October told of the fear of the 2,200 Jews
remaining in the Congo as violence mounted daily
on the African continent. Another front page item
was that of the 80th anniversary ORT Congress held
in London, attended by representatives of 30 nations.
Jewish News readers learned with dismay on Nov.
11 that Russian Communists had revived the anti-
Semitic "blood libel" of the Middle Ages in an effort
to destroy the last refuge of the 11,000 mountain
Jews in the Soviet Caucasus. The official organ of
the Buinaksk Communist Party, "Kommunist," accused
Jews in the area of drinking the blood of Moslems
in fulfillment of their, religious rites.
On Nov. 25,- Foreign Minister Mrs. Meir reiterated
Israel's "peace challenge" to Nasser, and Nasser, in
the meanwhile, was said to be "irked" over a Leb-
anese government statement to the effect that Leb-
anon would not abide by the United Arab Republic's
boycott rules against Israel, "if such regulations are
against Lebanese interests."
It was reported the following week, on Dec. 2,
that four American ships were to be removed
from the Arab blacklist after their owners pre-
sented guarantees against resuming trade with
Israel. The ships, the Exchester, the Exporter, the
Exbrook and the Montego Sea are part of the
merchant fleet belonging to the American Export
Lines, Inc., with headquarters in New York.
Hanukah fell on Tuesday, Dec. 13, and it was a
week before the holiday that Prime Minister Ben-
Gurion renewed his attack on the World Zionist
Movement. Ben-Gurion said that "real Zionism" meant
settling in Israel and that increased emigration from
the United States to Israel could be expected if the
"so-called Zionist Organization"' would not interfere.
He said the Zionist Organization's insistence that
Zionism need not entail settlement in Israel was
disturbing Aliyah.
The front page of The Jewish News on Dec. 16
reported that many Algerian Jews fled their homes
after clashes with Moslem rebels in the Casbah. The
Moslems sacked Jewish homes and shops, wreadeci
.
the Old Synagogue on the Place Rondon and abducted
two girls after slaying their escorts.
Shortly afterward, the world learned a new respect
for Israel with the report that the small nation had
developed a nuclear reactor in the Negev. The news
flashed around the globe that Israel now has the
potential to build an atomic bomb within a period of
five years, which would make her the fifth atomic
power in the world, in addition to the U.S., the Soviet
Union, Great Britain and France.
• Alarm subsided, nevertheless, after Israel gave
assurance that her efforts -in the atomic field are
directed exclusively for peaceful purposes.
On Dec. 19, Israel cast the decisive vote in the
UN to defeat a Soviet bloc resolution against
France. The resolution called for the UN to
give support to the anti-French Liberation
• Front, the leading rebel organization fighting the
French in Algeria.
Other news in that eventful week included reports
that President Eisenhower was presented the first
"Judaism-World Peace Award" of the Synagogue Coun-
cil of America, and that an allocation of $2.6 million
in United States and Israeli local currencies had been
made to help finance the modernization of Lydda
International Airport, putting Lydda on a par with
the world's great airports. The arrangement called
for $1.5 million of dollar costs by the U.S. Export--
Import Bank and the Development Loan Fund, with
the remainder of the cost to be assumed by Israel.
The following week, on Dec. 30, Philip Slomovitz,
editor and publisher of The Jewish News, reported
from the scene of the 25th World Zionist Congress
in Jerusalem that Nahum Goldmann had elevated the
historic event to a new role as an Aliyah Congress
of Mass Immigration. Goldmann called for the mass
emigration of Jews to Israel out of conviction, not
compulsion, assuaging many fears stemming from
Ben-Gurion's criticism of the Zionist Movement.
Ben-Gurion addressed the Congress and
appealed to American Jews to send 100,000
Jewish youths to study in Israel . . . "every son-
- and daughter of parents who speak in the name
of Zionism should be sent for a year's study in
Israel." He added, "Two hundred thousand such
students, spending a year here, will change the
face of both this country and of world Jewry."
That same week, few believed the report that
Ben-Gurion would carry out his threat to resign should
his efforts . fail to force still another investigation of
the ouster in 1955 of former defense minister Pinhas
Lavon over a security mishap at that time. Lavon then
had claimed he had not ordered troops into an Arab
village, which proved to be highly embarrassing to
Israel. Lavon.said he was accused falsely by a military
officer.
In subsequent weeks of 1961, after an investigative
body did indeed review the case against Lavon, who
had become head of Israel's Histadrut (Labor Feder-
ation), Ben-Gurion refused to accept the ministerial
committee decision that Lavon was innocent. The-
angered - Old Lion later quit his post, despite cajoling
from his Mapai Party, and Finance Minister Levi
Eshkol became acting head of the government. Ben-
Gurion's obstinacy won satisfaction, however, in that
Lavon was forced to resign as chief of Histadrut.
On Jan. 20, the front page of The Jewish News
reported that the main synagogue of Johannesburg,
South Africa, was dynamited . . . the fourth bombing
of a religious building in that city in a period of
three days.
The crises in Algeria was intensified following
the African summit conference in Casablanca
with President Nasser of the United Arab
Republic. Many Moroccan Jews attempted to flee
the country after numerous acts - of terrorism, in-
cluding bombings, abductions and pillaging.
Caught in the. pincer of rioting rebels and hun-
dreds of police arrests, the Jews were 'denied
the right to emigration.
The course of events was symbolized by the sink-
ing of a small boat, the "Price," in which all pas-
sengers aboard except the crew were drowned in
the Mediterranean Sea. Forty - three Jewish men,
women and children lost their lives after the craft
capsized en route from Melilla, Spanish Morocco, to
Gibraltar, from where they had hoped to proceed
to Israel.
It was on Jan. 31 that Ben-Gurion finally resigned
as Prime Minister and his inability to form a new
government by negotiation made necessary new gen-
eral elections (held Aug. 15).
Early in February, the government radio in Mo-
rocco suggested that Arab countries take up arms
against "Israeli colonialists and world Zionism."
In the midst of the worsening relations between
Moslems and Jews in Morocco, David Azoulay was
forced to resign his post as secretary of the Chamber
of Commerce and Industry in Casablanca because he
is a Jew.
On Feb. 21, report came from Rabat that King
Mohammed V of Morocco, pressured from pro
tests around the world, had agreed to - lift all
restrictions against the emigration of Jews from
that country. The Moroccan ruler said, "All our
Jewish subjects who want to leave the country
will be allowed to do so without any restrictions."
There was one qualification, however. "Foreign"
organizations would not be allowed to work in
• Morocco either to assist the emigrants or to
propagandize emigration, thus excluding aid from
Jewish welfare organizations.
It was obvious that the Moroccan king banked on
the fact that despite his permission, the poor Jews
of the city mellahs would not have the financial
means to leave the country, while the rich Jews
would emigrate only in small numbers. Five days
later, on Feb. 26, the King of Morocco died, leaving
the throne to Hassan II,
On March 6, the United States representative on
the Human Rights Commission reminded that the
Soviet government still had not replied in the
United Nations to charges of discrimination against
Soviet Jewry. UN Soviet delegate V. I. Sapohznikov
retorted angrily: "Raising of charges concerning
Soviet Jews is an attempt on behalf of the United
States Government and of American Zionist organi-
zations to distract attention'from neo-Nazism in West
Germany. It is nothing.. but a smokescreen since
everybody knows that Jews enjoy equal treatment
in Russia."
The Passover edition of The Jewish News
reported that panic among Algerian Jews was
rising after five Jews were killed -and 20 wounded
by a terrorist grenade and machine gun attack on
a wedding celebration in Sebdou.
All other news of Jewish interest was relegated
to the inside pages on April 7 when across the front
page of The Jewish News was emblazoned: "Eyes of
Entire World on Jerusalem Courthouse."
Adolf Eichmann, who masterminded the exter-
mination of 6,000,000 Jews, was called to justice by
the people he oppressed. Everywhere Eichmann turned
on that first day of his trial on Tuesday, April 11, was
evidence of the sovereignty of the race he had sought to
destroy ... from the Israel flag to the gilded menorah
hanging behind the judges' bench, the Hebrew tags on
the shoulders of -his guards in the prisoner's . dock and
the words of the indictment in the tongue of the
-Hebrew prophets.
Ironically, Israel recessed trial sessions for two
days, once for Israel's celebration of her independ-
ence, and the other for the observance of "Holocaust
Day," in memory of those who died under the Nazi
boot.
Slomovitz, representing The Jewish News
and The Detroit Free Press, reported froM the
courthouse: "Mingled feelings of anguish and
nausea were aroused by the longest (nine hours
and 35 minutes) opening statement in legal
history given by Israel Attorney General Gideon
Hausner in the second week of the trial of
Adolf Eichmann.
"Scenes too terrible for even the hardest of men
to bear were described by the chief prosecutor. Haus-
ner's description of the plight of children was espe-
cially so terrifying that even the most toughened
correspondents wiped their eyes upon hearing of
the mass tragedy."
Headlines read. "Emotions Raw at. Tales of
Horror;" "Israel Tries Hate of Ages in Person of
Nazi;" "Eichmann Says He Was 'Disturbed' by
Shrieks of Jews in Death Throes;" "Red Cross, Switz-
erland, England, United States May Be Linked
Among Guilty in Failing to Rescue Jews from Nazis;"
"Horrors RoCk Eichmann Trial;" "58 Members of
1 Family Murdered in a Day;" "Bullet Ended Child's
Screams, `Tateh, Tateh';" "Father Forced to Throw
Daughters into Fire;" "Systematic Slaughter Chron-
icled." We will know in the year 5722 the fate of
Adolf Eichmann.
It was reported on April 15 that Dr. Israel Beer,
Israeli military analyst and friend of high Israeli
officials, had been arrested on charges of spying for
a Communist country.
Following his coverage of the early weeks of
the Eichmann trial, Slomovitz went to West Ger-
many at the invitation of that government to
report on conditions there as they exist today.
A consensus of that visit was expressed in the
headline: "Germany . . . A Land Committed
Against Nazism but Unable to Uproot Nazis".
High among the key events of the year was Israel's
successful firing of a weather rocket probe 52 miles
into space on July 6. This extraordinary scientific
achievement for so small a country was followed by
the disclosure that Israel had been forced to develop
a rocket technology because the U.S. Department of
State rejected repeated Israel requests for such a
rocket, which the U.S. provided to other countries,
including the United Arab Republic. Israel's was the
first rocket to map the stratosphere and ionesphere
in her part of the world. .
On July 28 The Jewish News reported the ap-
pointment of Louis Rasminsky, 53, as Governor of
the Bank of Canada, the highest government post
ever held by a Jew in that country.
Israel retained her political status quo in the
Aug. 15 general elections, made necessary by Ben-
Gurion's earlier resignation, but the Prime Minis-
ter's Mapai Party lost five seats in the fifth Knesset
(Israel's Parliament). An additional three seats were
won by the General Zionist and Progressive parties
resulting from their merger as the new Liberal Party.
The Communists picked up two more seats in the
Knesset, also.
The year 5721 drew to a close with other
events like those mentioned above . . . the fears,
struggles, triumphs and failures of the Jewish
people on the earth remained basicely the same.
Significant, however, is that the position of the
Jew in the diaspora—his identity and status—becomes
increasingly enhanced with the growth in stature
of Israel as a nation.