Drew Pearson in Israel
Last Article in Series
Modern Miracle Develops on the Deserts; Jewish
Immigration Switches from Europe to Africa
Chicago Federation Head to Retire;
Hias' James Rice Succeeds Goldsmith
CHICAGO (JTA) — Samuel A.
Goldsmith, for 36 years executive
head of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Chicago, the Jewish
Jewish emigration, and a steady can't see the rocks for the trees. Welfare Fund and the Combined
By DREW PEARSON
I talked with Pinhas Sapir, who Jewish Appeal, will retire July 1.
BEERSHEBA—This is the city stream has been arriving.
where Abraham banished to the
desert his illigitimate son Ishmael
and the boy's mother, Hagar, hand-
maiden of Sarah, and where the
Lord saved them by leading them
to a well. It was Ishmael from
whom sprang the Moslem religion.
If Abraham or Hagar or Ishmael
should come back to Beersheba
today, they would never know the
place. It is a city
of modern apart-
ment houses, sky-
scrapers, broad
highways and a
motel with a Cal-
ifornia - type
The United Jewish Appeal, which
operates in Israel as "The Jewish
Agency," has done a remarkable
job of settling all these immigrants.
The man in charge, Kalman Levin,
has seen more than 1,000,000
immigrants enter Israeli ports, has
helped them find jobs, placed them
where they will get adjusted in a
strange land, and integrated with
other types of Jews with as little
friction as possible. This is not
easy. Most of these people have
only ane thing in common—their
religion.
Many of the immigrants have
been assigned jobs even before
they arrive. One Polish woman, an
accountant, was going to Nazareth
for six months to study. Hebrew
and accounting, then would take a
job in a local textile factory.
swimming pool.
About the only
thing around to
remind y o u of
Pearson
Ishmael is a lone
camel behind the motel on which Nation of Trees
you can get your picture taken for
thirty cents.
The camel market, where the
descendants of Ishmael once bar-
tered for the chief means of des-
ert locomotion, still operates on
Thursdays. But when I dropped by
not a single camel was for sale,
and there were more tourists snap-
ping pictures than Bedouins. Nine
years ago when I visited Beersheba,
the camel market was thriving and
Sheik Souleman was busy trying
to accomplish the near miracle of
squeezing eight camels into one
Ford truck.
In nine years Beersheba has
jumped from a country town of
12,000 to a city of 72,000, while
Israel has jumped from a nation
of 1,500,000 to 2,500,000.
Another amazing development
of Israel has been the planting of
trees. A dozen years ago the Jewish
National Fund started encouraging
American Jews to plant trees in
Israel, and this has now been car-
ried to a point where not only is
every highway lined with trees but
rocky hillsides where crops are
impossible have become forests.
Across the border in Jordan the
hills are rocky and barren. On the
Israeli side of the same hills you
as finance minister has the diffi-
cult jab of finding the money for
many of these projects. He carries
a little black book in which he has
the essential figures of Israeli
economics. Thumbing through it,
he told me that Israel had doubled
its industrial production and in-
creased its export of industrial
goods six times in the past 10
years. He predicted that by 1972
Israel would be self-supporting.
This is an amazing record for a
nation only 18 years old. And it
has been accomplished despite an
Arab boycott against every Israeli
product, every Israeli ship and
plane. plus threats against non-
Israeli companies which do busi-
ness with Israel. It has also been
accomplished despite Nasser's re-
fusal to let Israeli ships pass
through the Suez Canal and de-
spite the fact that Israel has to
spend far too much of its budget
on defenses against a well-armed
surrounding Arab population, some
of whose leaders have vowed the
destruction of Israel.
The precarious armed truce be-
tween Israel and the Arab states
remains the greatest danger to the
modern miracle that has been built
in this homeland of the Jews.
Should the truce come to an end,
all that an energetic people has
accomplished might be in vain.
Notables in Impromptu Performance
Such is the modern miracle
which the Jewish people have
wrought in their ancient homeland.
Below Beersheba in the Negev
Desert I visited a little army camp,
Hatzeva, where Israeli soldiers,
both men and women, are building
an agricultural settlement in lieu
of military training. They had
drilled a well, tapped enough water
for irrigation, and launched a truck
garden in the desert.
Further north, on the level lands
of Galilee, I saw acres and acres
of orange groves, sugar beets, al-
falfa and bananas, much of it ir-
rigated by overhead sprinklers.
At Ashdod, about 30 miles south
of Tel Aviv, a brand new seaport
has sprung up where five years
ago there was nothing but sand
dunes. A huge breakwater has been
built, warehouses constructed, and
the harbor had been dredged deep
enough to permit ships to unload
right alongside the seawall. No
docks are necessary. •
Integration in Israel
I talked with some of the steve-
dores unloading bags of Czech
sugar from a Polish steamer. They
came from Morocco, Iran, Algeria,
Tunisia, India, Egypt and Greece,
evidence of the current immigra-
tion of Jews from North Africa.
No longer do Jews come from the
former concentration camps of
Central Europe. They are chiefly
from North Africa and Eastern
Europe.
This creates a problem, for there
is almost as much difference be-
tween the North African Jew and
the Central European Jew as be-
tween the American Indian and a
Manhattan citizen. The North Afri-
can Jews usually speaks Arabic,
the Central European. Jew speaks
German and Yiddish; and some of
the latter have felt the same way
about their children sitting beside
North African children as the peo-
ple of Little Rock felt about Ne-
groes.
At another seaport, Haifa, I in-
terviewed immigrants arriving
from Russia, Poland, Romania and
Hungary. It isn't generally known,
but these Communist countries
have lifted previous restrictions on
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
6—Friday, March 4, 1966
A joint statement by A. D.
Davis, president of the federa-
tion, and Morris Glasser, presi-
Agencies for Foreign Service and
the American Immigration and
Citizenship Conference.
The Chicago Jewish community
is one of the largest in the world,
and the Jewish Federation and its
institutions have a budget of $38,-
500,000 for 1966. Since its estab,-
lishment by Goldsmith in 1936;,
years, attained national promin-
the Jewish Welfare Fund and,.(
ence and has been a key figure
subsequently, the Combined Jew-
in the community service field in
ish Appeal, have raised in excess
Chicago.
of $138,000,000 in addition to the
Rice, executive director of the operating and building funds
United Hias Service since 1956, raised by the Jewish Federation.
has had more than 30 year's ex-
perience in the social welfare
field, including 11 years in various
capacities directing relief, rehabi-
Prof. Benjamin Akzin
Warns of Danger to
Democracy in Israel
JERUSALEM (ZINS )— Dr.
Benjamin Akzin, professor of in-
ternational rela-
tions in the He-
brew University
of Jerusalem, as-
serted here that
Israel is con-
fronted by t h e
danger of having
its democratic
regime convert-
ed into a dicta-
torship not only
because of the
stubborn refusal
of individuals
and groups to
check their insa-
Akzin
tiable demands.
ISRAEL-15 DAYS
Complete from Detroit
IT'S A FACT
YOUR
YOUR
YOUR
Gift of trees
Coins in blue and white box
Contributions to
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND
has accomplished all this .. .
'PLANT A TREE IN ISRAEL
Geneva and an officer of the Am-
erican Council of Voluntary
dent of the welfare fund, an-
nounced the designation of
James P. Rice, of New York, as
executive director of the two
agencies.
Goldsmith, active in the social
welfare field for more than 52
"It is a fact," Professor Akzin
added, "that the Israel population
refuses to check its pursuit of lux-
uries which the state is not in a po-
sition to satisfy. This situation can
lead to a state of affairs where
the appetites of the masses will
have to be controlled with the aid
of force, and this can be attained
only by dictatorial power."
Isaac Stern, the violinist, Israel Supreme Court Justice Moshe
Landau and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas (from left)
collaborate in a trio. The three gave an impromptu performance
following a dinner in honor of Justice Landau held at the America-
Israel Cultural Foundation's Culture House, 4 E. 54th St., New
York. Justice Landau, chairman of the foundation's Israel advisory
board, came to New York to participate in the dedication of the
America-Israel Culture House which was opened officially in Febru-
ary. Justice Fortas was host at the dinner. Stern is president of
the foundation.
litation and resettlement activities
of the Joint Distribution Commit-
tee overseas.
He is a member of the govern-
ing board of the International
Council of Voluntary Agencies in
Appointment of Gaynor Jacob-
son, director of United Hias Ac-
tivities in Europe, North Africa
and Latin America, as executive
director of United Bias Service,
was announced by Murray I.
Gurfein, United Hias president.
Jacobson will succeed Rice.
Jacobson will be succeeded as
United Hias director for Europe
and North Africa by Henry Levy,
an expert in the rehabilitation
and resettlement of refugees, who
worked with the Joint Distribution
Committee for more than 20 years.
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IN THE SYNAGOGUE
THIS PURIM
Sat. Eve., Mar. 5 and Sun. Morn., Mar. 6
Respond to the appeal of Keren Kayemeth! In the
Synagogue, in your organization, in your home.
Help the JNF carry out its great and sacred task
of bringing the land of Israel back to life by turning
deserts and desolations into fields and farms, forests,
and highways, thus changing the map of our ancient
homeland which is the map of Jewish destiny.
MO 111. MS
--
III NM WM ME NO MN ME MO MB-
Phone UN 4-2161
For Your TREE ORDERS
Q Redeemed over 5 million dunams
of land
• Established over 600 settlements
• Planted more than 60,000,000 Trees
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND
18414 WYOMING, DETROIT 21, MICHIGAN
ME IN
Mil NI ii RI MIN MI NI MI MI NE BM MN
GIVE TREES
FOR ALL OCCASIONS
Plant trees in the John F. Kennedy Peace Forest, which will
be dedicated in Israel on July 4th, 1966.
Why not join the Pilgrimage to Israel this summer and join
in the ceremonies. Call the JNF office for information.