NEW YORK (JTA) — Israel's
efforts to stabilize its economy
and improve its competitive po-
sition in trading with the Euro-
pean Common Market will receive
a major boost later this year with
the establishment of a joint gov-
ernmental - labor - industry body
designed to keep track of
changes in the nation's produc-
tivity and which will furnish
data to serve as a basis for the
future wage and price negotia-
tions.
Ben-Zion Ilan, newly appointed
American representative of the
executive board of the Histadrut,
the Israel Labor Federation, dis-
closed these plans. The new
agency will be called the Israel
Institute for the Determination
of Increases in the Gross Na-
tional Product.
Ilan, who succeeds Isaiah Av-
rech in the Histadrut post here,
told the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency that the Institute would
include representatives of the
government, Histadrut, major co-
operatives and private industry,
as well as leading independent
economists.
Ilan painted to the need for
all sectors of Israel's economy to
stabilize the cost of living "to
enable Israeli industry and agri-
culture to successfully compete
with those of other countries, and
to meet the challenge of signifi-
cant changes in the economy of
Western Europe and elsewhere."
He noted that the new agency
Would contribute towards such
stability.
He cited recent statements by
Aharon Becker, secretary-general
of the Histadrut, in support of
the agreements worked out be-
tween the government, Histadrut

Missouri Invalidates
Sunday Closing Law,
N. Y. Delays Action

ALBANY, N.Y., (JTA)—New

YOTIc state government leaders

were reported to have decided
against any action in the cur-
rent • legislative session in the
field of changing the state's
Sunday-closing laws.
Jewish leaders in the state
had been optimistic that the
legislature this year would act
to allow Orthodox Jews,
Seventh-Day Adventists and
others who do not engage in
business activities on Saturday
to keep their shops open on
Sunday.
The last time the legislators
acted on the controversial issue
was in 1958 when the assembly
voted down a bill to permit
Sunday store hours in New
York City. This year, Jewish
organizations, such as the Am-
erican Jewish Congress, were
hopeful of passage of a measure
permitting municipalities to
each decide how to handle the
issue in their areas. The meas-
ure was backed by Assembly
Speaker Joseph F. Carlo.
Background of the legislative
reluctance is a sharp conflict
between sponsors of such legis-
lation and church groups, par-
ticularly Roman Catholics. Gov .
Rockefeller referred to this
clash when he said at a news
conference that his support
would depend on the settlement
of the issue by religious leaders.
* * *
JEFFERSON C I T Y, Mo.,
(JTA)—The Missouri Supreme
Court held -that the state's SIM-
day closing laws, which have
been in effect for 138 yearS,
Were invalid.
The court ruled unanimously
that the Sunday laws were "in-
capable of rational enforce-
ment," as well as vague and
indefinite. The ruling cited a
phrase in one of the laws which
exempted "articles of medi-
ate necessity" from the ban on
Sunday sales. The court held
that the wording made it im-
possible to determine which
sales were permitted and which
prohibited.

and the Israeli manufacturers,
aimed at freezing prices, taxes,
wages and fringe benefits for a
period of one year. He noted
that Becker had expressed the
hope that the wage-price-tax
freeze would serve to improve
the nation's productivity to the
point where it would be possible
to further raise the standard of
living of the worker, while main-
taining Israel's competitive posi-
tion in world trade.
Extracts of a radio interview
he recorded in Tel Aviv, which
were made available to the JTA
and published in the Daily News
Bulletin on March 5, gave
Becker's views out of context and
did not make it clear that the
Histadrut leader spoke of a
period of one year for a wage,
tax and price freeze.)
Ilan announced that Becker,
who has not been in the United
States for several years, had
accepted an invitation by George
Meant', president of the AFL-
CIO, to attend the American
labor organization's convention
in this country next November.

Orthodox Grocer Found in Violation of Sunday Blue Law

NEW YORK, (JTA)—Charies
Para, the Orthodox Jew _ ish .gro-
cex in Brooklyn who is challeng-
ing the New York state Sunday
closing law, was found gnilty
this week by Judge Herman
Weinkrantz, in Brooklyn Crirai 7 ,
nal Court, of selling a tan of
tuna and a jar of baby food on
a. Sunday during prohibited -
hours. He was fined $5 and
given a suspended sentence.
The American Jewish Con-
gress, which is providing free
legal counsel to the grocer in
testing the constitutionality of
the state law, anounced immedi-
ately it would appeal the deci-
sion:, to the U. S. Supreme Court .
if necessary. It was the grocer's
11th appearance in court in his
battle against the law which, he
contends, violates his religious
freedom.
Testifying in his own behalf
while wearing a skullcap, Pam`
said he was an Orthodox Jew
who closed his grocery store
from Friday evening to Sunday
morning, in observance of the
Jewish Sabbath.
A defense witness, Rabbi Sid-
ney Hoenig, professor at Yeshiva

1st Jewish Sunday School in U. S.
Celebrates 125th Anniversary

"Who formed you child and made English - language version
available to American Jews
you live?
God did my life and spirit give." for several years—until Isaac
On a Sunday morning in Leeser's translation of the
March 1838, those who had Hebrew Bible replaced it in
passed near the corner of WA- 1854. Next to the Bible were
nut and Fourth Streets, in Phil- a hand bell, the Watts Hym-
adelphia, might have heard the nal, and a "penny contribu-
sound of children's voices recit- tion box for the poor of Jeru-
ing the above lines in unison. salem . . . Here Miss Gratz
The children would have been presided ... even in her most
attending America's first "He- advanced years . . . her eyes
brew Sunday School," founded would pierce every part of
and presided over by Rebecca the hall and often detect mis-
Gratz. chief which escaped the no-
Miss Gratz, a deeply religious tice of the teachers ... The
woman, was the outstanding only punishment was for the
Jewess of her time. She num- delinquent to be marched
bered Washington Irving among through the school and seated
her friends, and tradition has upon the little platform un-
it that she was the original of der the table. Sometimes this
"Rebecca" in Sir Walter Scott's stand would be quite full."
Not only did Rebecca Gratz
"Ivanhoe—though there is no
evidence to substantiate this prepare lessons for her own
school, she also sent them to .
claim.
Hundreds of copies of her Miss Sally Lopez of Charleston,
letters, written to her family S. C., who had also established
and friends, can be found in the a Sunday School there in 1838.
files of the American Jewish Carefully writing out the les-
Archives, on the Cincinnati sons in a copy book, she posted
campus of the Hebrew Union them every week to Miss Lopez,
College-Jewish Institute of Re- who in turn made copies of the
ligion. lessons and distributed them to
Strongly i n f l u enced by her teachers.
"Rabbi" Isaac Leeser and real- Each year, around Purim,
izing the great need for religi- Miss Gratz held an annual exam-
ous instruction and Jewish edu- ination at the Old Cherry Street
cation, Rebecca Gratz decided Synagogue in Philadelphia. Miss
to found her school. She was Mordecaibrought up in a time
57 years old when she under- when nearly all synagogues
were Orthodox and restricted
took this project.
- The school began with 50 the fair sex to women's galleries
children and seven teachers. —reports that "it was (with)
Most of the children were re- something like awe that on
cruited from Miss Gratz's own these anniversaries, women
family and the families of Phila. took possession of the ground
delphia's Congregation Mikveh floor." A teacher stood in the
Israel. The children, grouped center of each children's group
according to age, sat on bright asking questians. The first prize
yellow benches whose backs for excellence was • always a
were painted with "beautiful Bible; other prizes were books
medallions of • mills, streams, selected by Rebecca Gratz.
In 1854, the Sunday School,
farmhouses, etc." Since there
were no textbooks, all the les- which had now come to number
sons were written by Rebecca 200 pupils from congregations
Gratz for her teachers, and the all over the city, was removed
instruction was principally oral. to the lower floor of a building
Opening and closing exercises awned by the Hebrew Educa-
were always the same. Rebecca tion Society.
The American Jewish Ar-
Gratz began each school with a
prayer of her own composition chives, at the Hebrew Union
which the children repeated College-Jewish Institute of Re-
after her, and then read a chap- ligion in Cincinnati, has an ex-
ter of the Bible. After the tensive collection of material
school instruction, school closed documenting the Jewish experi-
with a Hebrew hymn and then ence in 19th-century America.
an English hymn from the Pro- The Archives is under the di-
testant hymnal of Isaac Watts. rection of Prof. Jacob R. Mar-
Rosa Mordecai, a great- cue.
niece of Rebecca Gratz and
Indian Hebraist
later a teacher in the school,
Joseph Ezekiel, a 19th century
tells us that the Sunday
School room contained a rais- Indian Hebraist, pioneered in
ed platform with a smaller the study and teaching of Jew-
one on it, on which stood Miss ish subjects among the Bene
Gratz's table and chair. On Israel Jews of India. He trans-
the table was a worn Bible, lated the entire Sephardic lit-
the Protestant King James urgy and. Pirke Aboth into the
version. This was the only Bene Israel vernacular, Marathi.

University, testified that, in Jew-
ish tradition, the seventh - day
Sabbath was regarded as the
central point in Jewish life. .
Rabbi Shabtai Rubel of Cong.

Hapoel Hamizrachi of Brooklyn,
testified that the defendant was
president of the congregation
and attended services every
Saturday.

LAST CALL FOR THE BEE MET
ORIENT or AROUND THE WORLD
DELUXE ADVENTURE TOUR* VISITING:

Honolulu Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong and
Bangkok. 28 Fabulous Days in the Orient
ALL INCLUSIVE
_
Detroit, Bangkok, Detroit _

$2 3 5 0

India, Israel, Istanbul, Athens, Rome, and
Paris. 54 Fascinating Days Around The
World. ALL INCLUSIVE
$3 a
Detroit, Paris, Detroit

1 50

PERSONALLY ESCORTED BY BEE KALT

LEAVING DETROIT SATURDAY, APRIL 2Q

.3 RESERVATIONS:. AVAI:L.A131LE:.

FOR INFORMATION, RESERVATIONS OR BROCHURES
PLEASE CALL BEE or HAROLD KALT

BEE KALT TRAVEL SERVICE

296 Na. 14urrter Blvd., Birmingham, Mich.
DETROIT PHONE:
BIRMINGHAM PHONE:
JO 6-1490
MI 6-2170

the taste that's
out of this world

9 - THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, March 1 5, 19 63

Government-Labor-Industry Body
to. Keep Track of Israel Economy

