Edward C. Levy Sr. Marks 70th Birthday
With Pride in Having Helped Establish
Famous Israel Glass Manufacturing Plant

Edward C. Levy Sr. celebrated
his 70th birthday quietly. There
were his wife, the former Pauline
Berndorf to whom he was married
in 1929, his son, Edward C. Levy
Jr., his daughter, Mrs. Arnold
(Janet) Aronoff, and six grand-
children.
He could have boasted of many
accomplishments—in business, as
one of the community's most noted
philanthropists (this year he was
one of Detroit's six top contribu-
tors to the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign); his roll in establishing the
rock products industry in Israel,
his share in building some of the
leading religious institutions in
America.
His major pride is in having
created the glass industry in Is-
rael. The story is so fascinating,
it is so unique in pioneering and
in providing the skills of an ex-
pert in creating a new industry
for Israel that the name of Edward
C. Levy Sr. will be linked indeli-
bly with the builders of Israel.
This is the 20th anniversary
of the beginning of this creative
effort. Levy was in Israel, in
1950, in behalf of what later
developed into a great boon for
Israel — the rock products that
he established together with a
group of fellow-Detroiters. The
mayor of Beersheba told him of
a great need for Israel—the es-
tablishment of a glass industry.
He bemoaned the fact that the
small existing industry not only
was struggling but was suffering
for lack of silica sand.
Whatever glass Israel was mak-
ing was prohibitive in price. The
Beersheba official told Levy: "We
have no silica sand. We have only
ocean sand." He explained that all
the necessary products were be-
ing imported at a high price from
Belgium and he pleaded: "If we
could only get the raw products!"
Levy was the right man to be
-approached on the subject. For
six: years he had been associated
with Sand Products Corp. in De-
troit. He knew what was needed
and how to test the materials. The
company he was associated with
was supplying silica sand. to the
Ford Motor Co., to Pittsburgh
Plate and to many other leading
industrial firms.
It was thanks to his knowl-
edge and skill that,• soon after
speaking with the Beersheba of-
ficial, while in the process of
supervising the quarry where

Loading glass for export at
Israel Phoenicia Glass Works
in Haifa.

Edward C. Levy Sr., the discov-
erer of the silica sand dune in the
Negev' of Israel, was born in Big
Beaver, Mich., where Troy is now
developing in the 16 Mile Rd.-
Rochester area. Big Beaver as a
village no longer exists, but Levy
recalls his studies in the schools of
that community.
Now he says with pride:
"There is no greater glory in

my life's recollections than the
knowledge of my having done
this one thing: in behalf of what

is now Phoenicia glass in Is-
rael."
And he has one wish: that Amer-
icans, whose philanthropic dollars
are so urgently needed, also will
give their knowhow, their skills,
their knowledge of industry and
science, and in many other fields,
in Israel's behalf.
"Thank God, there are hundreds
of thousands of tourists," he said.
"May there be many more. And I
hope that many, many of them will
contribute their knowledge, their
EDWARD C. LEVY SR.
experience to Israel. What I did
can be multiplied. I hope and pray
the rock products industry was it will."
being developed, that Levy dis-
covered, a short distance from
Beersheba, a vast dune, a Rabbi Urges Support
mountain of sand, sufficient, he
states, to provide the necessary for Jews in Portugal
silica sand product for glass-
NEW YORK (JTA) — A New
making for more than 100 years. York rabbi urged the Jewish com-
He took samples to the Weiz- munities of the United States,
mann Institute and his belief Israel and Western Europe to help
that it was silica, the right preserve the tiny Jewish commun-
product for glass-making was ity in Portugal by ending its isola-
confirmed.
tion.
"It was the most glorious hour
Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park
of my life," Levy now states.
Synagogue
said that the Jewish
"What was needed for glass-mak-
ing was limestone, salt and sand. community in Portugal now num-
bers
700
including
every man,
Israel has them all. I found silica!
The industry began to develop. woman and child. While it posses-
Now it functions as Israel Phoen- ses all of the necessary facilities to
icia Glass Works in Haifa. It now conduct a Jewish religious life, its
employs 3,500 workers. It is numbers have been diminished by
building another plant in the south assimilation and the exodus of its
and will employ from 500 to 700 youth to Israel and other countries
more. What greater satisfaction to live and study.
Rabbi Schneier recently spent
can a man have in having helped
seven weeks in Portugal in his-
create something, what greater joy
capacity as president of the Ap-
in having helped Israel?"
peal of Conscience Foundation,
Levy recalls with additional
an inter-faith group concerned
pride that the then treasurer of
the Jewish Agency, Israel's fi- with religious freedom for all
denominations. He met with
nance minister, the late Eliezer
Kaplan, said to him in Yiddish:
leaders of the Catholic, Protes-
"God sent you here to us to give tant and Jewish communities
and had an audience with the
us this help, to guide us towards
a path for a great industry."
pimate of Portugal, Cardinal
Now, Levy states with joy, the
Cerejera.
Phoenicia Glass Works export
He said there were no social re-
$1,000,000 worth of glass to the strictions imposed on Portuguese
United .States every year. The Jews who are to be found in busi-
small nation that 20 years ago ness, banking, law, medicine and
was buying plate glass from the the academic community. But the
United States and was paying Jewish population itself generally
exorbitant prices for European desires to remain inconspicuous, he
products now provides the said. With the exception of 50 who
United States with a much- live in Oporto, the second largest
needed product.
city, the Jews live in Lisbon, the
Levy recalls that when he first capital.
proposed the creation of the large
He said they are mostly of
glass factory Israelis had no
means to create the industry. He Sephardic origin who came to Por-
suggested that a 99 year lease be tugal from North Africa and Gib-
secured from the government on raltar only 150 years ago. During
the large mountain of silica sand World War II, Portugal was the
with an option to buy, and he point of exit from Europe for tens
went to Bruce McDaniels, the U.S. of thousands of European Jewish
official who was then in Israel in refugees.
behalf of the Point Four Program,
and urged help from this country Poverty
to the new industry. He feels cer-
"I. can recall the moment when
tain that McDaniels aided im- I shed poverty like an infected
measurably in this undertaking.
cloak. I had a speaking engage-
Levy spoke with emotion about ment and as usual dashed after a

the need to encourage Israelis bus only to see it go off. I began
in the construction of new plants. to walk to save money and sud-
He called it a duty for American denly stopped short. I realized that
Jews to go to Israel, to give I did not need to save twopence. I
courage to the Israelis, to assist could now afford half a crown for
them in establishing new indus- a taxi. I jumped into a taxi and
tries. "There is a great need for arrived in style ...
a soda ash plant," he said. "It is
"The evil to be attacked is not
made out of burnt limestone
melted together with salt and sin, suffering, greed, priestcraft,
is needed to enlarge upon the kingcraft, demagogy, monopoly,
glass-making industry. If I were ignorance, drink, war, pestilence,
younger I'd be there to help nor any of the other scapegoats
establish It. I hope young men which reformers sacrifice, but
will go there and fulfill this simply poverty."—George Bernard
Shaw.
need."

Friday, December 26, 1969-1S

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Mid East Peace Advocates Lost
in BBC 'Game' — a Simulated Crisis

LONDON (JTA) — Arab war-
hawks won over the doves in a
simulated Middle East crisis aired
by the British Broadcasting Corp.
Monday.
The program brought together 40
experts on the Middle East to take
the roles of the various political
interests in the Arab - Israeli
struggle.
Each country was represented
by a team that included some of
its own nationals who, the Times
commented Tuesday, "were too
deeply committed to the realities
of the situation to play it dispas-
sionately as a game."
The simulated exercise in diplo
macy postulated a situation in
which Palestinian guerrilla groups
were sufficiently powerful to edge-
the Arab states into renewed war-
fare against Israel.
The players took the view that
President Gamal Abdel Nasser of
Egypt was determined to avoid fur-
ther warfare but was pushed into
a new conflict by his bellicose
officers.
The Israeli team included Ter-
ence Prittie, diplomatic corres-
pondent of the Guardian, in the

role of the prime minister, and
Hagai Eshed, the former Dever
correspondent in London as Is-
rael's defense minister.

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