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Boris Smolar's
'Between You
. . and Me'
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Copyright, 1966, JTA, Inc.)
MISSION TO ISRAEL: Very hard times are facing Israel now; times
of severe unemployment and of tightening the belt, not because of
shortage of food but because of lack of earnings to buy the food .. .
Jews in the United States ought to know it, in order to realize that
increased obligations are awaiting them when the United Jewish Appeal
opens its 1967 campaign . . . No more has Israel any reparations
payments from Germany to buttress its economy . . . Nor is the
export situation rosy in Israel because of the threat of limitations by
the European Common Market . . . And U.S. aid to Israel today is by
far not the same as in the early years of the establishment of the
Jewish State . . . Thus, increased contributions to UJA by American
Jewry is something on which great hope is laid by Israel in the
economic crisis which is now developing . .. The Israel government
is seriously worried over this creeping crisis, and so is Israel's
organized labor and the middle class in the country . . . Serious
concern was also felt among the approximately 200 leaders of the
American Jewish community who comprised the UJA Study Mission,
which has just visited Israel . . . The scenes which members of the
Mission witnessed—especially in the homes of large families of
already unemployed, unskilled workers—left no doubt that bread,
mere bread, may not always be plentiful in those homes in the very
near future . . . Especially in the families of immigrants from North
African and Asian countries where one can find as many as 10 chil-
dren, with the head of the family having no outlook to find any kind
of work . . . Members of the UJA Mission left Israel with findings that
the country is now undergoing a very serious turning point in its
economic life, and that the welfare of the people in Israel requires
the deepest concern and support of American Jewry.
CLOUDS OF DEPRESSION: If one should ask whether the Israelites
are more afraid of war with Syria or of the economic depression which
is enveloping the country, the answer would be that the economic
crisis is much more on their minds than the possibility of war with
the Arabs . . . The average Israeli does not think in war terms—he
knows that Israel can easily stand its own with Syria, if there were
no pressure on the part of some powers to "go easy" . . . However,
no Israeli foresees what the near future may bring him under the
growing economic difficulties in the country . . . Not only is the
specter of severe unemployment worrying him, but he is also worried
about the stagnation that lies ahead of him in various fields of com-
merce and industry . . . Only two years ago people were choosy in
their jobs; workers in the building trade and in other trades could
dictate their own conditions and prices for their labor . . . Today, one
is far from being choosy; one clings to his job today and is happy
that he has something to cling to . . . Building work, one of the largest
sources of earning for skilled and unskilled workers, has completely
ceased .. . Prices on land, which were so high two years ago, have
dropped to a third, or even lower . . . A dunam of land for which
15,000 Israeli pounds were offered in 1964, can now be bought for
5,000 pounds; and there are no buyers even for that sum . . . Apart-
ments in new buildings for which hundreds of pounds were paid only
two years ago as "key money" to be able to move in there, are now
empty in the hundreds . . . Nobody wants to leave his old dwelling
and move to a new and better one because he is not certain of his
economic future . . . The building boom came to a zero, and with it
also the industries that provide homes with new furniture, new home
decorations, new luxurious appliances . . . People who in the good
years of economic prosperity were lavish in their spending, are now
very economical because of the fear that their income will shrink .. .
Banks are not eager to give credit to clients as they did two or three
years ago, with the result that business people who are in need of
loans must seek them from private lenders . . . And they must pay
interest as high as 10 per cent a month, which means 120 per cent
interest a year . . . How this affects the average small trader is easy
to imagine, but even established firms do not find it easy now to secure
credit . . . Israel newspapers are now being paid for advertisements
mostly with notes due six or nine months later, and in many cases
these notes will probably have to be prolonged . . .
DANGER SIGNALS: The danger of the present crisis lies in the pos-
sibility that the unemployment problem may create a situation of dem-
onstrations of unemployed similar to Negro demonstrations in he
United States . .. Unskilled workers, mostly immigrants from North
African and Asian countries, having no outlook to find work in devel-
opment towns and other areas, may leave these places and come to
the big cities to demonstrate . . . Danger also exists that Israelis of
skilled professions, like hundreds of engineers and others hit by the
depression, may consider the possibility of leaving the country and
finding their way to countries where their professions are sought .. .
A third danger is the possibility of juvenile delinquency growth among
the children of unemployed families, even though the Jewish Agency
or Government agencies ,will come to the aid of immigrant families ..
The burden of the Jewish Agency, which is engaged in making the
life of the newcomers easier, becomes all the more heavy this year,
especially since there are still 21.'0,000 "unabsorbed" immigrants in
the country—most of them in frontier towns and practically all of them
unskilled workers . . . The present economic recession exposes these
"unabsorbed" immigrants to even lower living standards and greater
sufferings, unless more is done for them . . . And who can help the
Jewish Agency to bring them the proper aid if not American Jewry
through the United Jewish Appeal? . . . A year for "greater giving" to
the UJA is therefore the command of the time for every Jew in the
United States interested in Israel and in the welfare of the people there.
Playwriting Contest
Manuscripts are now being ac-
cepted for the National Jewish
Welfare Board Playwriting Con-
test, a project marking the obser-
vance of JWB's 50th anniversary
and designed to foster the creation
of original one-act plays in English
depicting any aspect of Jewish
life, history or folklore.
All inquiries and manuscripts
should be addressed to the Golden
Jubilee Playwriting Contest, Na-
tional Jewish Welfare Board, 145
E. 32nd St., New York, N.Y. 10016.
QUALIFIED
EXPERIENCED
Friday, November 4, 1966-37
ACLU Sees No Violation THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
of Civil Liberties if Water
Gen. S. L. A. Marshall Salutes State of Israel
Supply Is Fluoridated
The American Civil Liberties
Union of Michigan announced that
its board Of directors, following a
consideration of several months,
has concluded that the fluoridation
of the public water supply by due
process of law does not constitute
a violation of civil liberties.
The board concluded that fluori-
dation of the public water supply
did not constitute compulsory mass
medication since alternatives to
fluoridated water are available on
a reasonably accessable basis.
Chemical filters which remove
the fluoride and, alternatively,
bottled non-fluoridated water are
available at reasonable cost.
"The state of Israel is not just
another new nation that has em-
erged on the face of the world—
it is a new idea, a new ideal— and
it is the dedication to that ideal
that makes Israel unique among
the nations of the world." These
words were spoken by Brig. Gen.
S. L. A. Marshall, guest of honor
at a dinner of Rassco Israel Corp.,
Monday evening at the Sheraton-
Cadillac Hotel.
Gen. Marshall, who has just re-
turned from a trip to the Far East,
said, "No one can underestimate
the great need that America has
for the state of Israel and the type
of government that it represents in
the Middle East. Every American—
Jew or non-Jew — should exert
every effort to lend financial aid
and moral support to the economic
development and enhancement of
this great human experiment that
was begun by the founding of the
state of Israel in 1948."
Jacob M. Snyder, general man-
ager of the Rassco Israel Corp. for
the Western Hemisphere, drew a
picture of the early development of
Israel from a single-product econo-
my—the citrus industry—to the
rise of a highly mechanized, urban-
ized society in modern-day Israel.
There is no cosmetic for beauty
like happiness. — Lady Blessing-
ton.
Re-elect
Justice Thomas M. Kavanagh
Justice Otis M. Smith
MICHIGAN SUPREME COURT
Vote the separate non-partisan
Judicial ballot in the Nov. 8 election.
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Pol.
FOR CIRCUIT COURT