Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre Jewish Communities Hard-Hit by Flooding
NEW YORK (JTA)—Jewish or- , and was seeking a federal or local
ganizations, centers and individ- governmental helicopter to fly a ;
uals were reported rallying Wed- ! delegation to the stricken area.
nesday to aid synagogues and Jew-
Wilkes-Barre's Temple Israel
ish businesses "wiped out" in Har- has been "entirely washed out"
risburg a n d Wilkes-Barre. Pa., with its possessions ''just about
by the floods in the wake of tropi- entirely destroyed. – it was re-
cal storm Agnes.
ported separately by Dr. Morton
Telephone lines to those cities Siegel. executive director of the
were still down Wednesday but ' United Synagogue of America.
reports reaching Jewish leaders
He said he had learned "in a
and the Jewish Telegraphic Agen- ' roundabout way" that most syna-
ey here by other means told of gogues in the area had been I
considerable damage to Jewish
spared, but that many Jewish
facilities not known outside those homes were "washed out," in-
areas until now. A JTA telephone cluding that of Rabbi Joshua Adler
survey made Tuesday was unable of Cong. Chizuk Emuna. Similarly .
to reach the hardest-hit sections struck. said Dr. Siegel, was the
because communications were out. Solomon Schechter Day School in
One synagogue said to have had Chevy Chase, Md.
most or all of its possessions
In Pittsburgh and upstate New
washed away is Kesher Israel York, he added, no serious dam-
Congregation in Harrisburg. led age to Jewish property has been
by Rabbi David Silver, uncle of reported.
Judy Silver Shapiro. the Cincin-
Rabbi Wolfe Kehl-Ian, executive
nati social worker who recently vice president of the Rabbinical
married activist Gavriel Shapiro in Assembly of America, said Rabbi
Moscow.
Adler had turned his temple into
Other synagogues seriously da- a temporary home for homeless
maged, according to Rabbi henry Jewish families and has been feed-
Siegman, executive vice president ing hundreds of evacuees with Bar
of the Synagogue Council of Amer- Mitzva supplies. Possessions are
ica, are (Orthodox) Cong. Ohav floating away, and there is no
Zedek in Wilkes-Barre, led by flood insurance, Rabbi Kelman
Rabbi Jerome Kerzner, (Conser- added
vative) Temple Israel in Wilkes-
He reported that Dr. Herbert
Barre, led by Rabbi Abraham Bar- Seltzer, head of the Daughters of
ras. and (Conservative) Temple Jacob Geriatric Center in the
Beth-El in Harrisburg, headed by Bronx, was offering a Torah to
Rabbi Jeffrey Wohlberg.
any flood•stricken synagogue that
Rabbi Siegman said the SCA
requested it. Dr. Seltzer, who is
was asking synagogues across
chairman of the Rabbinical As-
the country to send prayer books
sembly's assistance fund, has been
and artifacts to these and other
receiving unsolicited checks from
badly hit Orthodox and Con-
RAA members for aid to victims.
servative temples. There has
The Council of Jewish Fed-
been no serious damage to Re-
erations and Welfare Funds is
form temples, be said.
"in touch" with its Philadelphia
Rabbi Siegman added that "very
federation, which is "giving di-
extensive damage" had been
rect help" to victimized tem-
ples in the form of talleisim,
caused to the Jewish cemetery
sidorim, bus transportation and
and to the United Hebrew Insti-
clean-up aid, according to
tute Ben Zion Academy in Wilkes-
Charles libell, associate CJI ,
Barre Ile said the SCA was in
executive director. "Long-range"
contact with the Office of Emer-
gency Planning in Washington,
aid is not yet possible, he said.
He reported that many Jewish
businesses had suffered "terrible
damage" and had been "wiped
out." but 'he did not immediately
•know their names. CJI , Executive
Director Philip Bernstein said the
communal aid to victims was "a
marvelous example of people pitch-
ing in."
"The response was one of the
most beautiful things we have
ever encountered," it was asserted
separately by Seymour Brotman,
executive director of the Scranton
(Pa.) Jewish Community Center.
"People immediately began call-
ing to volunteer their services,
homes for sleeping, food, clothing,
medical supplies and whatever
other necessities might be needed
to make the evacuees more com-
fortable." The center accommo-
dated some eider residents of the
Boni Brith apartment house in
Wilkes-Barre. The Allentown. Phil-
adelphia and Essex County (N.J.)
JCC's worked around the clock
rushing supplies and medicines to
Wilkes-Barre and other flooded
a reas
Arthur Brodkin community con-
-
THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS
Friday, Jana 30, 1972-1
sultant to the Middle Atlantic
area Council of the PAIL said
in Harrisburg and
the JCC's
Wilkes-Barre and in Elmira, N.Y.,
had been inundated and made'
temporarily unusable, while the
centers in Reading and York. Pa..
had discontinued sen ices follow-
ing alert warnings
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Moroccan Locusts
ow good it is
on Increase in Israel
JERUSALEM — Large popula-
tions of the Moroccan locust have
been found for the first time in
Israel-administered areas by He
brew University scientists.
The situation is under surveil.
lance and, if necessary, steps v.ill
be taken to prevent the grass-
hoppers from multiplying to swarm
proportions and endangering arable
land.
According to zoologist Prof.
Aharon Shulov, head of the uni-
versity's department of ento-
mology. only solitary specimens
of the locust had been seen in
previous years, but over the last
few years. their numbers are
, steadily increasing.
Actually, the build-up of the
' Moroccan locust population was
discovered outside Jerusalem, just
• off the road to Jericho
• Keeping down the growth rate
of the Moroccan locust are their
natural enemies. which include,
in addition to vertebrate preda-
tors. praying mantids, long-horned
grasshoppers, spiders and flies.
w th
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