Israel's Lachish District Developed Fa i-ber-Redlich
Eflgagemen t Told
from Barren Land to 25 Villages
Just over five years ago, one
had to be an expert on Israel's
geography to have heard of the
Lachish district. Then one was
told of official plans to take this
region out of the archaeologists'
hands and make it live.
Now take a look at the area.
There is K i r y a t Gat that
forms a crossroads for southern
traffic and the region contains
a settled population of 16,000.
There are 3,200 farm' units.
The district of Lachish oc-
cupies some 2 2 0, 0 0 0 acres
(900,000 dunams) in the heart
of the country and at the nar-
rows just below Jerusalem and
between the Jordan frontier and
the coast. Its southwest extrem-
ity lies close to the Gaza strip;
its northern tip juts out into
the Corridor. A battleground
through the ages, it was, in
October, 1948, the scene of
"Operation Ten Plagues", which
changed the course of the Arab-
Israel War.
A barren, open - territory
for centuries, Zionist coloni-
- zation experts had their eyes
on this expanse even in the
early thirties, and, starting
with Negha, kibbutzim - were
established at key points. In
1954, there were 36 villages
dotted over the region—each
of them a unit on its own,
each a lone guardian of its
environs, all of them a con-
stant security worry to the
Israel High Command.
The turning point was 1955.
A comprehensive plan was in-
troduced at a cost of 60 million
Israeli Pounds and this pro-
vided for the extension of the
irrigation network, road-build-
ing and -a railway halt at Kiryat
Gat, afforestation and reclama-
tion with the planting of field
crops and orchards. Most revo-
lutionary of all was the crea-
tion of_ the township of Kiryat
Gat as the 'capital' of the area.
This urban center concen-
trated all the major services of
the region, factories and work- .
shops for light engineering and
processing of agricultural pro-
duce. Here were located secon-
dary and vocational schools,
cold-storage facilities, a hospital
and administration off ices.
Skilled personnel of profes-
sional caliber had to be directed
to Kiryat Gat and given the
type of housing their special-
ized qualifications would earn
in the large cities.
The Jewish National Fund
assumed t h e responsibility
for the large-scale land rec-
lamation a n d afforestation.
Today, the 60 villages farm
between them 16,000 acres of
irrigated land, sustaining such
industrial crops as cotton,
sugar beet and ground nuts.
There is an immense output
of all kinds of vegetables, dairy
products and livestock. Cotton
production has multiplied seven
times since 1957 and sugar beet
has doubled.
Lachish has proved a pilot
plant in which the _vision and
energy of Israel's people, com-
bined with the generosity of
world Jewry, - have brought off
an economic and sociological
achievement.
JNF Afforestation
Program No Threat
to Israel Water Supply
A new graduate program in
Hebrew and Near Eastern
studies leading to a degree of
master of arts or doctor of
philosophy has been instituted
this semester at New York Uni-
versity's Graduate School of
Arts and Science.
Dean James M. Hester an-
nounced that the Graduate
School program is planned pri-
marily for scholars and re-
searchers in Hebrew language
and culture.
Since 1944, a graduate pro-
gram of Hebrew and Judaeo-
Arabic courses has been offered
in NYU's School of Education
for prospective teachers and
educational administrators.
Dr. Abraham I. Katsh, chair-
man of NYU's department of
Hebrew culture and education,
has been named director of
Hebrew and Near Eastern
Studies and director of Hebrew
Research, Hester said.
Jacob Tsur, world chairman
of the board of directors of
Keren Kayemeth Leisrael in
Jerusalem (J e wish National
Fund), issued a statement as-
serting that a committee of
government experts, headed by
the Deputy Director General of
the Ministry for Agriculture,
had approved the Keren Kaye-
meth's afforestation program
as posing no threat whatsoever
to Israel's water resources.
The declaration was made in
reply to critics who charged
that the water supply in certain
sections of Israel was being im-
paired by the planting of for-
ests.
The committee of experts,
referring to the criticism voiced
in some quarters, said "it can-
not accept the recommendation
to restrict afforestation in cer-
tain parts of the country, like
the Carmel, the Mountains of
Western Galilee, Hartuv, etc.",
but instead affirms the planting
by the Jewish National Fund of
six million trees annually within
the next five to six years, which
is far in excess of present plant-
ing and will require intensified
efforts.
'African Genesis'
Check Dr.'s Nazi Past
NYU Institutes Hebrew,
Near Eastern Studies
Graduate Program
"African Genesis," by Robert
Ardrey, "a personal investiga-
tion into the animal origins
and nature of man," published
by Atheneum (162 E. 38th, N.Y.
16), is the result of a long study
and of a six-year visit by the
author to South Africa.
The au t h or, a dramatist,
nevertheless found a source for
study of a scientific subject and
became evident of how man
evolved on the African conti-
nent from predatory carnivor-
ous stock.
His "African Genesis" is the
brilliant result of his experi-
ences. It is a classic in study
of human behavior and en-
vironment.
KIEL, (JTA)—A new inves-
tigation of the Nazi career of
Prof. Werner Catel, suspected
of participation in the "mercy
killing" under the Nazi regime
of 56 children in the Hamburg-,
Rothenburgsort Hospital, h a s
been opened, the Kiel Prosecu-
tion Office disclosed.
Investigations against Catel,
a doctor, and 17 other physi-
cians were closed in Hamburg
in 1949 after the examining
magistrate found that the killing
of the children could not be
prosecuted because the doctors
had been "unaware of doing
wrong."
Catel resigned under fire at
the start of this year as head
of the pediatric department of
the Kiel University Clinic. His
resignation followed new
charges made against him by
Dr. Rudolf Degwitz of New
York.
1,000,000 Contributors
More than 1,000,000 contribu-
tors support Jewish federations
and welfare funds throughout
the United States, which con-
duct their activities in commu-
nities inhabited by over 90 per
It's no use making haste: the
cent of America's five and a thing to do is to set out in time.
half million Jews.
—Jean de la Fontaine.
Jews in Oran Retaliate Against
Anti-Jewish Algerian Terrorism
PARIS, (JTA)—Jewish youths here from that city.
Two Jews were wounded in
in Oran seized a Moslem terrorist
who threw a grenade into a cafe the cafe bombing by the Moslem
in Oran's Jewish quarter and in the latest of a series of at-
tried to lynch him but were stop- tacks by the Algerian under-
ped by police, it was reported ground movement against Jews
in the French colony.
Later, other Oran Jews ran-
French Jews Are
sacked Moslem shops in the Jew-
ish quarter in protest against the
Eligible for War
anti-Jewish outfages.
Claims Under Pact
MISS MARILYNN FARBER
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Farber of
Seneca Ave., Oak Park, announce
the engagement of their daugh-
ter, Marilynn Ilene, to Robert
Aaron Redlich, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Raymond Redlich of Ken-
tucky Ave.
The bride-elect attends Wayne
State University, where she is
majoring in music education. A
June 19 wedding at Adas Shalom
Synagogue is planned.
Third Amateur Bomb
Attack Made Against
Manhattan Synagogue
NEW YORK, (JTA)—Police
are hunting the perpetrators of
a crude bomb attack on a Man-
hattan synagogue, the third in
two months.
The bomb, a Molotov cocktail,
was thrown at the window of
Congregation Ahavath Chesed.
The jar of flammable liquid
with a smoldering wick, broke
the window before it fell to the
pavement without detonating.
The bombers, believed to be
several youths, fled.
Police reported finding a note
fastened to the door which
read: "Achtung Juden, Death
to the Jewish Parasites of the
Word." The last word appare
ly was a mispelling for "wor
A second .-
without a wick,
by. Mrs. Alta s t a ,
widow of Rabbi Benjamin Hal-
berstam, who died last Febru-
ary, said a brick had been
thrown through a window two
months ago and t
had been fired thro
window a week a
WASHINGTON, (JTA)
Thousands of French
survived the
be among
a French-
pay war clai s to French citizens
on a more liberal basis than
before.
According to the report, France
will pay such claims to French
citizens who were living in
France wh,r.a recel
gated Fre
treaty t ect.
n
restrictin uch claims only to
those who were citizens at the
time of loss. Claimants will be
indemnified from a 400,000,000-
mark ($100,000,000) fund
vided in the dement be
the two co
The agree
Fr
the eighth na vid
damage pa ents for present
citizens as well as those who
were citizens at the time of loss.
The others are Britain, Switzer-
land, Belgium, Hungary, Poland,
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
The United State policy still
restricts pay i -nt- o
Ise
were Ameri ,
s at
time of los
50,000 Govern • nt mployees
Some 50,000 Israelis are gov-
ernment employees, nearly one-
third of them working in the
field of transport and communi-
cations. While the number of
Israel's civil servants • has grown
over the past decade, their pro-
portion to the general population
has remained a constant three
per cent.
ack after two successful years
in Europe
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'right 'ere ?
• in Detroit
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