16% of Jewry in Israel
Current World Jewish
Population Is Reported
Now Totaling 13,121,000
Terrorism
in L. A.
End to
National Shame
HE JEWISH NEWS
M OI r
Echoes of Tragic
Era of Nazism
Editorials
Page 4 -
:■611.11.3
VOLUME XLVII—NO. 26
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The number of Jews in the world at the end
of 1964 was 13,121,000, according to figures released here by Israel's Cen-
tral Bureau of Statistics. Of the total Jewish population, 16 per cent, or
2,239,000, live in Israel, which had a total population of 2,525,600 at the
end of last year, the figures showed. The report also showed that one-third
of the Jewish population of Israel was under 14 years of age.
(In 1939, just before the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis began, the
total world Jewish population was listed in the American Jewish Year
Book of the Jewish Publication Society as 16,180,000. In the interim
between 1939 and 1964, the Jewish population in the U.S. and other lands
made marked gains, thus accounting for the growth of the world Jewish
population from the 10,500,000 to which it was reduced after the Nazi
murder of 6,000,000, to the present 13,121,000).
A Weekly Review
The Sabras: Need
for Derekh Eretz
['VI M l GA.. IN
Rothschild's
The Gold Myths
of Jewish Events
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper —Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
Printed in a
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Commentary
Page 2
$6.00 Per Year; This Issue 20c
L.
Jews Suffered Heavy Losses;
lots Called nti-White, Charge
Of Anti-Se itism Is Repudiated
New Syrian Attacks on Israel
Triticier Plans for Protection
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel's Cabinet Sunday discussed steps
to protect the lives of border dwellers, in the wake of Syria's latest
attack which resulted in the deaths of five Israelis. A full report
of the latest border clash was given-to the full Cabinet here at its
regular Sunday meeting by Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, chief of staff of
Israel's defense forces. One of the steps considered by the Cabinet
was the construction of more shelters for civilians on the frontiers.
The five Israeli victims were Aryeh Orenstein, a 21-year-old
sergeant, who was wounded in the three-hour battle last Thursday,
• and died a few hours later; and four Bedouins, who died when
Syrian shells hit Zangariah, a B e d o u i n village northeast of
Almagor. Almagor is near the site of a Syrian project to divert the
headwaters of the Jordan River and has frequently suffered Syrian
attacks in the last two years. The Bedouin victims were a pregnant
30-year-old woman, two of her daughters, aged 5 and 2, and a 10-
year-old girl relative. They were members of a tribe which fought
with the Israeli forces during Israel's War of Independence.
Israel lodged a sharp protest wih the Israeli-Syrian Mixed Armis-
flee- Commission after United Nations observers brought about a
cease-fire in the battle, which followed a Syrian attack on an Israeli
tractor team.
Continued on Page 5
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — While many Jewish store owners have suffered tremendous
losses here during the six days and nights of rioting in the Negro Watts area, the actions
were not anti-Semitic in character, Charles Posner, associate director of the Community Re-
lations Committee of the Jewish Federation-Council of Ls Angeles, stated here Tuesday.
Posner was asked to comment on some press reports emanating from this city, con-
tending that the rioting was "anti-Jewish." He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that
such reports were "not accurate."
"To the best of our knowledge," he declared, "we cannot find any anti-Semitism in
these riots — but only anti-white feelings, although a number of the stores destroyed in
the fires were owned and operated by Jews. Some of the stores burned out in the fires
had employed Negroes, others had not. But the actions were not a n t i-Jewish. The losses
have been tremendous, running fantastically into hundreds of millions of dollars, affecting
not only small stores but also the chains, some of which have Jews among their owners.
But, I repeat, the occurrences were anti-white, and not anti-Jewish."
An accusation against store owners in the Watts district, to the effect that they "take
money out of the community and live elsewhere," was made in a radio broadcast here Sun-
day night by a Black Muslim leader. But even this speaker did not mention Jews as such,
Posner said. Some of the press reports from the scene of the rioting stated that, among
the hardest hit, were Jewish merchants in the area who live outside the Watts district.
There was also wide speculation here about whether those who had suffered loss or
damage in the area would be compensated by insurance. A number of insurance com-
panies have indicated that the looting and burning of the stores and homes in Watts are
not covered by their policies because they specifically exclude compensation in cases of
"insurrection."
U. S. Rabbi Says USSR Government Officials
Pledged Concessions to Meet Jewry's Needs
Israel Envoy Arrives in Bonn;
Protest Marches in Jerusalem
NEW YORK (JTA) — A New York Orthodox rabbi disclosed that he met recently in Mos-
cow with two officials of the Soviet government department in charge of religious affairs, and that
*they had promised him certain consessions to meet the religious needs of Russian Jewry.
Rabbi David B. Hollander of the Mount Eden Center in the Bronx, president of the New York
opolitan Board of Orthodox Rabbis, reported in a letter to the Herald Tribune about a meet-
with Boyan Rezanov and Alexander Bukarin, of the Soviet Council of Cults. He said that
_le meeting occurred on his fourth visit to the Soviet Union last March. He made his first visit in
June 1956 as president of the Rabbinical Council of America, when he headed the first Jewish dele-
gation to the Soviet Union.
Rabbi Hollander cited reports from Russia last month that Moscow's Chief Rabbi Yehuda
Leib Levin had told a Rabbinical Council delegation which visited his synagogue then that Soviet
authorities had made such promises. They included arrangements to permit Soviet Jewish students
to enroll at the seminary conducted by Rabbi Levin, provision of facilities for the manufacture
of Jewish prayer shawls and approval for issuance of a new Jewish prayerbook.
Rabbi Hollander reported that the two Soviet officials had given him specific assurances on those
points and that he felt that the statement by Rabbi Levin indicated that the promises were being
carried out. However, one promise Rabbi Hollander reported made to him by the Council of Cults
officials apparently is not being implemented. He said the two officials had assured him that, while
Moscow Jews would not get a sanctified cemetery for Jewish burials to cope with the overcrowded
condition of the existing Jewish cemetery, "religious differences would be respected" in a proposed
new . cemetery "by dividing it into sections separated by plantings."
Rabbi Hollander also reported that, during his three-hour meeting with the Council of Cults
officials, they "indignantly denied" any government approval of anti-Semitism, and that they were
"most disappointed" by the emphasis that the American press gave "to every anti-Semitic incident in
Russia." Rabbi Hollander declared that he was told by "a well known lay leader" of a Moscow synagogue
that the "Russian press deliberately played down certain anti-Jewish incidents in the United States, lest
Russian anti-Semites derive any strength from them."
He said he left the session with the two officials feeling that the promises made to him would
be carried out. He added that if, "as it seems, they will be," there was hope for a better climate for re-
ligious freedom in the Soviet Union.
BONN—Asher Ben-Nathan, former director-general of Israel's
ministry of defense, arrived at the Bonn-Cologne Airport Monday
to take up his duties as Israel's first ambassador to West Germany.-
In a brief statement—read first in German, than repeated in English
and in French—he declared he saw his mission here as "a further
milestone on the road toward a better future which will bring last-
ing peace and a better understanding between our two people." He
added that, "deeply aware" of the significance of his mission on
German soil, he looked forward to his tasks here "with great
expectation."
Ben-Nathan noted also in his airport statement that he realized
lie was carrying a heavy responsibility and that Israel could not
forget "the past." However, he expressed the hope that the rela-
tions between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany would
insure that "the past" would not be repeated.
Ehrenfried von Holleben, chief of protocol of the German
foreign ministry, formally greeted Israel's envoy. Several leaders
of the German Jewish community were present to receive him. A
few dozen spectators watched the brief ceremany from an airport
balcony, since, as a matter of security, police allowed no one but
government officials, invited guests and journalists on the field.
Karl-Guenther von Hase, chief spokesman for the government,
issued a statement later saying that, with the arrival of Ben-Nathan
here and last week's arrival in Israel of Dr. Rolf Pau's, Boffin's am-
bassador to Israel, "preconditions have been created for good and
objective cooperation" between the two governments.
Ben-Nathan was accompanied by his wife and their two children,
Amnon, 17, and Miriam, 10. He was driven to a hotel in Cologne 20
miles north of this city, where he will work and make his home
Continued on Page 7
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