Discontent Surrounds Creation of Israelis New Government Under Rabin By MOSHE RON Jewish News Special Israel Correspondent The new government head- ed by Yitzhak Rabin has only a majority of 61 out of 120 Knesset members, and it is a known fact that not all of the 51. Knesset mem- bers of the Maarakh (Align- ment) were eager to vote for this government. Mordecai Porat, a member of the Rafi group, had an- nounced that he would not do so and would return his Knesset mandate to another B-G's Debate With Churchill `The Greater Man' By MILTON MUTCHNICK The year 1974 marks the centennial of the birth of Sir Winston Churchill. This writer has acquired some anecdotes on Churchill —a particular favorite re- lated by David Ben-Gurion, former prime minister of Is- rael.. In a 1966 interview, Ben-Gurion described the last meeting he had with Churchill in 1963. "For the greater part of our meeting," said Ben-Gu- rion, "Churchill remained fairly .quiet, but when he spoke it was with clarity of voice and thought. We en- gaged in a philosophic con- versation with respect to our individual choice of the greatest man in history." Ben-Gurion presented the case for Moses and Churchill championed the cause of Je- sus Christ. - The discussion closed in a draw, with the battle soon resuming by written corre- spondence. The final letter on the controversy was re- ceived by Ben-Gurion, where- in Churchi11 extolled the vir- tues and enumerated the his- toric consequences of Moses' life. Churchill agreed that Moses was recognized and revered by more of the world's population than was Jesus. Smiling, Ben-Gurion relat- ed how "In a postscript to the letter, Churchill rein- forced his ,reputation as a tenacious debater by ending with the phrase . . . but over all, of course, Jesus was the greater man!' " Ben-Gurion commented on the fact that Churchill was a supporter of Zionism al- though his wartime govern- ment coalition was not. "I recall visiting in Lon- don before World War II and viewing a meeting of the House of Commons when the debate over Palestine was held. Churchill objected to the white paper then being discussed. This white paper was generally unfavorable to the Jews, and I was very an- xious about Churchill's stand. He stood, faced the other MPs and vehemently at- tacked his party's stand. He decried the betrayal of the Jews and declared that there should not be any restriction on Jewish immigration into Palestine. As you know, the white paper was accepted as government policy and indi- rectly aided the Nazis in their plans for the extermi- nation of the Jewish people." "After watching Churchill," continued Ben-Gurion, I real- ized that he was indeed a friend of the Jewish people.' New 'Jeremiah' Translation Features Art of Greek Jew candidate of Rafi. Abba Eban was very angry, about being ousted from the foreign of- fice, and Moshe Dayan told his Rafi group that in his worst dream he did not im- agine that he would vote for such a government. Pinhas Sapir told the party secretariat that had he not already decided not to join the new government, he would have done so as a pro- test against the ousting of Eban. The Eban affair and the hiding of Yigal Allon for two days so that no one could try to influence him to give up one of his two posts—the deputy premiership and the foreign office—have put up a high wall between Mapai and Ahdut Avoda. In the Eban home, a meeting of some Mapai leaders with Sapir, and minister of housing Yehoshua Rabinovics decid- ed to reorganize a faction like the Adhut Avoda and Rafi to avoid having the two minority groups occupy the most im- portant government posts in the future. As the Ahdut Avoda leader, Yigal Allon, has taken over the foreign office from Abba Eban, a closer liaison between the Mapai and Rafi groups is quite possible. Rabin, who had been elect- ed on the quota of Mapai and was supported by Sapir and other Mapai leaders, had lost a lot of prestige in the eyes of the Mapai group. Eban was: hurt very much by Rabin and Allon. When Secretary of State Henry Kis- singer was Eban's guest for supper, he heard from Kis- singer that Allon would be Eban's successor and that Rabin also had decided to make his former commander in the Palmach.(Yigal Allon) deputy premier. Technion's Harvey Prizes Going to British Metallurgist-Physicist and Kabala Scholar in Israel HAIFA — A distinguished British metallurgist-physicist and former science adviser to the British government and a renowned Israeli schq- lar in Jewish mysticism are the 1974 winners of the Har- vey Prizes, it was announced by Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Amos Horev, president of the Tech- nion — Israel Institute of Technology and chairman of the Israel Committee for the Harvey Prize. Each prize bears a cash award of $35,000. The winner of the prize in science and technology is. Sir Alan Howard Cottrell, chief scientific adviser to the Brit- ish government from 1971 to 1974 and, since last April, master of Jesus College of Cambridge University. "Just like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in My hands, 0 House of Israel!" is the title of one of the woodcuts by Nikos Stavroulakis, Greek-born artist now liv- ing in Jerusalem, which embellish the new translation of "The Book of Jeremiah," newly published by the Jewish Publication Society. 48 Friday, June 21, 1974 — THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Leaving the two former members of Ahdut Haavocla Israel Galili and Yigal Al- lon) in the new 'government made a .bad impression on the public. Both were mem- bers of "Golda's kitchen cab- inet" and were held respon- sible for the mistakes before the Yom Kippur War, to- gether with Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan. An awkward situation has come about: In the place of Meir, Day a n, Sapir and Eban, new members like Moshe B a r a m, Shulamit Aloni, Ahron Todlin, Gad Yacobi and Abraham Ofer join the new government headed by Rabin. Sapir ex- pressed his wish to dedicate himself to aliya and absorp- tion problems as chairman of the Jewish Agency. Most Israeli newspapers wrote against the composi- tion of the new government: Maa-riv—The day will come when we shall long for the government of Golda Meir. If occupying seats and port- folios reflects the new style in political, social and party- life in Israel, we are cer- tainly in a bad state. After Rabin has proved himself too weak to withstand pres- sure in his party, it is doubt- ful whether his government will be able to solve the dif- ficult problems facing Israel and hold out for a long time. Yediot Ahronot—It is the first time in the history of Israel that a government will be supported in the Knesset by some non-constructive factions and also by Rakach. Golda Meir's cabinet had a golden government compared with Rabin's government. The new Rabin government will have to face a strong opposition of 54 of 120 mem- bers of the Knesset. The leader of the Likud opposi- Prof. Cottrell is being awarded the prize for his "comprehensive theories con- cerning the mechanical prop- erties of materials," and for relating "the role of gov- ernment to advanced tech- nologies," and for "his bold- ness in harnessing the knowl- edge of science to the wis- dom of government which has been an inspiration to the scientists of his time," according to the prize cita- tion. The other winner is Prof. Gershom Scholem, professor emeritus of the Hebrew Uni- versity, a pioneer and lead- ing authority in the field of Jewish mysticism and Kab- ala, who was selected for the prize in Literature of Pro- found Insight Into the Life of the Peoples of the Middle East. Prof. Scholem's citation reads: ". . . His mind which was trained in mathe- matics and philology has focused rational analysis, scholarly investigation and historical imagination onto a strange and esoteric manifes- tation of the human spirit. He has inspired a new disci- pline and revealed historical roots pertaining to 20th Cen- tury Jewish religion and political thought." Israel President Professor Ephraim Katzir will present the prizes to the Harvey laureates at a ceremony at the Technion Wednesday. The Harvey Prizes bear the name of the late Leo M. Harvey of Los Angeles, leader of the American Technion Society. The , prize fund was established by a gift of $1,000,000 from the Lena P. Harvey Foundation in Los Angeles to the Ameri- can Technion Society in 1971. tion, Menahem Begin, has ment with non-confidence declared that the new govern- votes, and the members of • ment is an affront to the peo- the coalition hardly would be ple, and everything should able to leave the country be done to get rid of it as even for a short time. It soon as possible. It looks as could be that the government though the opposition bloc of would save itself at times Likud, 'Mafdal (Religious) only with the support of the and Aguda would try each two Communist factions, time to oust the new govern- Moked and Rakach. Boris Smolar's 'Between You .1 . . . and Me Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, XV" (Copyright 1974, JTA Inc.) - I FEDERATIONS AND SYNAGOGUES: The Jewish Fed- erations are the bastions of Jewish philanthropy in this country. The approximately 3,000 synagogues of all three denominations -- Reform, Conservative and Orthodox — are the bastions of Jewish religion. Both are the central sources of Jewish strength and commitment. There is cooperation among the two in some fields of Jewish activities. Synagogues are usually cooperating with the Federations in their fund-raising efforts. Federations in some communities are subsidizing congregational schools but this is not the case in all communities. There are congregations where no member can be elected to the board of the synagogue if his contribution to the Federation, or to the United Jewish Appeal, is not considered satisfactory. And there are federations where a local rabbi, or synagogue leader, must be a member of the board of the federation. The practice differs in various communities. Of the approximately 3,000 synagogues .functioning throughout the country—not counting small Orthodox "shtiblach" whose' number is not known — some 1,000 are in New York City. In the other larger Jewish communities the number of synagogues is much smaller. Los 'Angeles, the second largest Jewish community in the U.S., has only about 150 Jewish houses of worship. Chicago has about 100 synagogues. Boston has 80; Philadelphia numbers 65; Mia- mi counts 40; Cleveland 20; Baltimore 33; Detroit 25; St. Francisco and St. Louis about a dozen each. These figures include only cities with—ovem40,000 Jew- ish population. In cities 'where the Jewish population is smaller, the number of synagogues hardly reaches a dozen. In a city like Atlanta, or Buffalo, or Minneapolis there are onL six synagogues in each community. In the smaller com- munities the number of synagogues is naturally smaller. NEW LOOK: The Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds has taken a new look at the relationship between the federation and the s:,-nagogues. It created a, special task force on federation-synagogue relations and it conducted an inquiry to which 74 federations responded. Of the responding federations, 31 reported holding regularly scheduled meetings among its executives and rabbis for discussion of mutual concerns. This practice was somewhat more frequent in large cities and in small cities than in intermediate cities. Nineteen communities were convening regular meetings betAen federation lay leaders and synagogue officers. Some of the federations emphasized that such liaison was maintained on an ad hoc basis, in relation to specific issues. Thirteen of the participating federations reported re- cent direct allocations to their local board of rabbis for general programs and chaplaincy services. The New York Federation—which maintains a full-time consultant on re- ligious affairs—allocated last year $120,000 for chaplaincy services and mila board. The Chicago Federation allocated $113,500 to the local board of rabbis and the chaplaincy services. In Los Angeles the sum of $73,000 was allocated, and in Philadelphia $39,600. The allocations by the remaining nine federations was from $5,000 to $150. Twenty federations reported some sort of relationship to synagogue capital financing. On the other hand, syna- gogue meeting room facilities were available and ir federation and the general community in two-thirds responding 74 communities, on a'rental basis in some cases. The use of more specialized synagogue facilities, such as camps, gymnasiums, swimming pools was reported by less than five per cent of the responding federations. The federations now spend more than $11,000,000 a year on Jewish education. However from the data collected by the Council of Jewish' Federations no clear-cut picture emerges on how much of this sum is spent for synagogal Jewish education. This is because of conflicting interpreta- tions by federations as to their role in synagogal education. Almost half of the federations provide funds for day schools. In the 10 larger cities the day schools have received from the federations in 1971-72 more than $1,345,000. This is about $250,000 more than in 1970. These cities include Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Newark, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, St. Louis and San Francisco. In the 10 - large intermediate cities the federations granted more than $400,000 to local day schools in 1972 as compared with $321,000 in 1970.