Purely Commentary

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Morris L. Schaver

—

Leader with Devotion and Vision

My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west—
How can I find savour in food? How shall it be sweet
to me?
How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet
Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edam, and I in Arab
chains?
—Yehadalt Helevi

This historic poem by the 12th century Spanish-Jewish poet,
Yehudah Halevi, is especially applicable to Morris L. Schaver,
whose passing all of us mourn, while recollecting. his many
generous deeds and his vision as a leader in our community-,-
and his interest in Zion.
He had so many remarkably good qualities that it may be
difficult to evaluate all of them.
Best known 'for his dedication to Israel's needs, he gained
status as a leader in the Labor Zionist Movement and in the
Histadrut.
He made large investments in Israel, thus measuring his
practical application of his Zionist dreams equally with, his spiritual
devotion.
The fact that he was so anxious to bring the remains of his
parents to Israel indicated a desire for . his family to remain
rooted in the Land of Israel.
The late Morris Schaver also had a deep interest in educational
projects, and he supported generously the work of the Farband
Shule as well as many literary projects in Yiddish and in English.
He had the soul of an artist. He loved music and himself was
a singer of folksongs,- and this interest accounts for the manner in
which he encouraged his wife, the eminent singer, Emma Lazaroff
Schaver, in her activities in the realm of music, in the making of
her records, in her worldwide travels for concert tours. He
accompanied her on the last tour during which she triumphed
on the concert stages in several cities. in Poland.
Similarly, he took a deep interest in the educational activities
of his son Isaac, and he gloried in Isaac's mastery of Hebrew.
There could not have been a prouder father than Morris L.
Schaver, in the sanctuary of Congregation Shaarey Zedek, when
Isaac read the Book of Jonah on Yom Kippur day in the Sephardic
Pronunciation.
Mr. Schaver . did much for the many facets in Zionism and
for numerous other causes. He leaves a fine heritage. Blessed
be his memory.

Israel Fornss New Coalition Government;
Ben-Garion Asks for Vote of Confidence

(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)

TEL AVIV — Israel's Knesset
was summoned for a meeting
Thursday morning to consider
Prime Minister David Ben-
Gurion's call for a vote of con-
fidence in a new coalition goy .-
ernment.
Finance Minister Levi Eshkol,
who has been negotiating with
Israel's leading political parties
in the formation of the new gov-
ernment, announced triumphant-
ly that the task has been com-
pleted.
Ben-Gurion will present a list
of 16 ministers who will form
the new cabinet. The Mapai's
new partners in the forthcoming
cabinet are the National Reli-
gious Party, Achdut Avodah and
the Agudah Laborite Party.
Mapai will have 11 of the

portfolios in the new cabinet.
These will include Ben-Gurion
as Premier; Mrs. Golda Meir as
Foreign Minister; as well as
Moshe Dayan, now Minister of
Agriculture; Bechor Shitrit, now
Minister of Police; Pinhas Sapir,
new Minister of Commerce and
Industry; - Yosef Almogi, Secre-
tary General of the Mapai Party;
Dov Joseph; Abba Eban, Minis-
ter of Education; and one more
representative of the Sephardi
community, in addition to Shitrit.
The National Religions Party's
ministers will be Zerach Warhaf-
tig, Yosef Burg, now Minister of
Social 'Welfare; and Moshe Sha-
pira, now Minister of the In-
terior.
Achdut Avodah will be repre-
sented in the cabinet by either
Yitzhak Ben Aharon, now Min-
ister of Transport and Com-

Max M. Shaye Elected President
of Service Group; Encouraging
Report Given on Drive Collections

munications; plus either Israel
Bar Yehudah or Yigal Alon, well
known former high army officer.
The Agudah Laborite Party
will have a deputy minister in
the Ministry of Education,- and
that post will go to Kalman
Kahana.
The door has been left open
for Mapam, which was in the
outgoing cabinet, to rejoin the
coalition if it wants to do so.
Achdut Avodah ha succeeded in
inserting a clause into the agree-
ment for the formation of the
new cabinet providing that Ma-
pam is to get back its old port-
folios if it rejoins the govern.
ment while the ministers holding
those posts will be considered as
having the portfolios on a tem-
porary basis. Mapam had two
portfolios in the oil cabinet—
Minister of Health Israel Bar-
zilai and Minister of Develop-
ment Mordechai Bentov.
The National Religious Party
obtained agreement that a reli-
gious education clause would be
adopted. This party had demand-
ed a Sabbath law which it did
not get. Achdut Avodah was
given permission in the coalition
agreement to abstain on such a
law.
"Under the present circum-
stances," Eshkol said in an-
nouncing the agreement, "it is
the -best government we could
form. I am happy that I saved
Mr. Ben-Gurion the immeasur-
able trouble and annoyance of
the tiring negotiations."

The Detroit Service Group, or- its help to grants and technical
ganization of Allied Jewish Cam- ' assistance to communal institu-
paign workers in trades and pro- tions, which assume a sizeable
fessions, elected a new presi- share of responsibility in their
dent, heard an encouraging re- respective communities. In West-
port on campaign collections, and ern Europe, JDC - assisted pro-
listened -to an address by Louis grams are functioning in Italy,
D. Horwitz, Joint Distribution Austria, Switzerland, Germany,
Committee director for Israel, at France, Holland, Belgium, Nor-
way, Sweden, Portugal, Spain,
its biannual meeting Sunday.
More than 100 leaders of the Greece and Yugoslavia.
campaign's seven trade and pro-
■
■1
■
■ ■
■
fessional divisions, and its Metro-
politan and Junior Division unan-
Boris Smolar's
imously named Max M. _Shaye to
*
succeed Jack 0. Lefton as Service
The Russian Purging Tradition
Group president. Shaye is former
First it was a campaign of purging the Trotskyites in Russia, chairman of the campaign's foods
then there were several other areas of eliminating opposition by division and is president of the
newly-emerging regimes. Khrushchev's aim is to rid himself of Jewish Family and Children
the Stalinites, and a new threat is being waged against his Service, a campaign beneficiary
(Copyright 1961,
opponents, among whom are Communist leaders who :dominated agency.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
in the Soviet Union only a few years ago.
The campaigners were told
Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich and a few other prominent that $452,000 of the million dol- Washington Moods
Communists are under threat from Khrushchev. All of which is lars that must be collected by
What is the attitude of the American Government toward
reminiscent of the warning in Pirke Abot—the Sayings of the Dec. 10 has been received. Ar- the Arab refugee issue? . . . This question is being asked by
Fathers—in the seventh verse of Chapter II of which we read:
thur Howard, chairman of the leaders of American Jewish organizations in connection with
campaign's real estate and build- the forthcoming debate on this issue at the United Nations- -
"Seeing a skull floating on the war, Hillel said to
ing division, reporting for cash Assembly . . . One of the high-ranking non-Jewish ,members of
it: 'Because you did drown others, they have drowned
collection chairman, Leonard N. the American delegation to the UN has agreed to outline the
you, and in turn they who drowned you shall themselves
Simons, said there is every ex- U.S. views on this subject . . . - He will shortly present-to them a
be drowned.'"
pectation of exceeding the mil- clear picture. of the American efforts to see the Arab refugee
lion dollar goal. Howard pointed problem solved . . . The mood in Washington, as summarized
But Khrushchev doesn't read the Pirke Abot, and therefore out that $800,000 was collected to me by a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee,
doesn't see the handwriting on the wall.
between Oct. 4 and Dec. 10, 1960, is to see the problem solved through the three-pronged way. of
and the million dollar goal will repatriation, compensation and resettlement .- . . The United
When an Historic Dateline Was Advanced -
make $200,000 available to the States would like to -see Israel readmit about 10 per cent of the
United
Jewish Appeal in advance Arab refugees . . . The others should receive compensation for
The 120th anniversary of the London Jewish Chronicle, the
their property and should be resettled permanently in Arab
oldest English-Jewish publication in the world, which is to be of the normal time of payment. countries . . . This, it is said, was indicated by President
Howard invited each campaign
marked on Nov. 12, revives interest in many historic occurrences
Kennedy to Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion when
which took place since the founding of that splendid newspaper. worker to be a committee of one
they met early this year for a brief talk in New York . .
to
see
that
his
own
pledge
was
When the Chronicle was created in 1841, Benjamin Disraeli
Israel has-already readmitted 48,500 of the Arab refugees under
paid
in
full
before
Dec.
10.
had just begun to gain attention in Tory circles. The impact of
a plan of reunion of Arab families and by permitting souse
"It is the unpredictable,
the famous speech by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, de-
illegally entered refugees to remain in the country . . . The
man-made crises that erupt in
livered 11 years earlier, in support of Sir Robert Grant's Bill
Israel government has indicated its readiness to consider the
various parts of the world, payment of compensation under certain conditions . . . As to
for the Removal of Jewish Disabilities, had begun to be felt.
more
than
the
periodic
'natur-
and the movement was afoot to _rernove restrictions on the seat-
the resettlement of the Arab refugees, there exists the 14 billion
al' disasters that tax the re- dollar proposal for such resettlement made by the late UN
ing of professing Jews as Members of Parliament. Disraeli was
sources and drain the finances
not affected by the disabilities, having been converted to Chris-
Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold ... And the U.S. Govern-
of the Joint Distribution Corn- ment is willing to participate generously in this plan aimed
tianity by his father in his 13th year.
mitiee,
major
American
agency
The battle for emancipation continued, the Chronicle play-
at the integration of the Arab refugees in the economy of the
aiding distressed Jews abroad,"
Arab lands . . . Busy as President Kennedy is now with the
ing its part in the struggle, and the removal of disabilities waS
Horowitz,
who
has
served
with
Berlin crisis and other urgent world affairs, he nevertheless does
ordered in 1953. The first Jew to take his seat in the House of
JDC for 15 years in Europe, not lose sight of the Arab-Israel situation and considers the
Commons was Baron Lionel de Rothschild, in 1958.
North -Africa and Israel, told solution of the Arab refugee question of prime importance . .
These and other events occurred during the early years of
the gathering.
However, his present policy is to have the U.S. back the recom-
the London Chronicle's existence. It was through the pages of
As examples of the kind of mendation of the UN Palestine Conciliation Commission which
the Chronicle that Dr. Theodor Herzl was able to gain a hearing
in behalf of Zionism among British Jewry. The Chronicle's dis- man-made crises to which Ameri- is composed of France, the U.S. and Turkey . . . All indications
tinguished editor during the last years of the last century and can Jews respond through the are that the recommendations of this commission will not reach
the early years of the 20th century, Leopold Greenberg, was an JDC, Horwitz cited the situations their final formulation this * year.
associate of Herzl. It was with the aid of Greenberg that Herzl in Hungary and Egypt in 1956
had met Arthur James Balfour, Joseph Chamberlain, leading and 1957. A wave of emigration Communal Affairs
from both countries brought
Christian and Jewish figures. _--
What role should Jewish federations play in stimulating
Of special interest in relation to the Chronicle's role in about a return of conditions rem- social welfare legislation on federal, state and city levels? . . .
iniscent
of
the
old
DP
days,
he
This is one of the major questions to which the Council of
world Jewish affairs is the interesting fact that. when the Bal-
. four Declaration was issued its release was held up so that it said. The refugees were cared Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds is now paying special
could coincide with the publication date of the London Jewish for by the JDC until they found attention . . . The stake of Jewish federations and welfare funds
Chronicle, on Friday, Nov. 2, 1917. This was a great gesture of new havens in Israel or other in public welfare programs is basically a financial one . . . To
the extent that governmental bodies fail to meet public re-
recognition to the organ of British Jewry. One must wonder free countries.
Turning to Western Europe, sponsibility for child welfare, health, needs for the aged and
whether anything like it would have happened in this country.
Here, our national organizations are so anxious for a few lines Horwitz explained that those other welfare programs, a substantial part of these burdens
—for space of any length—in the New York Times, that no Jews who remained there, wish- falls upon the voluntary agencies . . . The diversion of voluntary
other newspaper matters and the Jewish press often gets ing to re-establish themselves on philanthropic contributions to meet governmental responsibility
secondary treatment. But in England the government took a firm and healthy basis, were deprives other voluntary programs of support . . Moreover,
into consideration the Jewish press and treated it as the organ given a helping hand by JDC. Of differences among state and - communities in compensating volun-
the 550,000 who have remained tary agencies for meeting public responsibilities—hospitals,
of British Jewry deserved.
The London Jewish Chronicle's anniversary has earned general there still are 67,000 in need of homes for aged, child welfare institutions—result in some Jew-
Jewish attention. This newspaper has set tho pace for a world- relief of some kind. However, the ish agencies spending large sums from private philanthropy for
wide English-Jewish press which now functions in many lands. new communities are gradually services which are tax-supported in other areas . . . The Council
It is heartening to know that the paper has -not only retained becoming self-sustaining and tak- of Jewish Federations will, therefore, devote much time at its
its vitality but is gaining in strength. We heartily commend it ing over their own relief load. General Assembly—which opens Nov. 17 in Dallas—to this
Thus, JDC is now able to restrict problem.
on its success and wish it well in the years to come.

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'Between You

...and Me'

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