THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

16 Friday, March 5, 1976

A Bicentennial Feature

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Colonial America Also Had Middle East Crises, Writer Says

BY DAVID SCHWARTZ

DRIVEAWAY SERVICE

(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)

9970 Grand River
Detroit,' Mich. 48204

Washington today has its
Middle East problem.
Way back — let us re-
member in these Bicenten-

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nial days — that George
Washington had the same
problem.
The U.S. in George Wash-
ington's day was a little
smaller. It had only three
million people then. We
have almost that many run-
ning for President today —
and there were only 13
states. Yet small as the
country was, the entire
world was affected by its
establishment.

ROOM...

Washington not only
had to fight the British,
but the Germans. The
British, it will be recalled,
hired an army of 30,000
German soldiers from the
province of Hesse to fight
for them. Russia came into
the picture, too. The czar
took advantage of the Bri-
tish preoccupation with
America to seize the Cri-
mea. The United Nations
have never asked Russia
to give it back.

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The American problem as
far as the Middle East is
concerned didn't emerge
until after the winning of
independence. The so-called
Barbary or Arab states,

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Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, Mor-
occo, practiced piracy —
kidnapping the crews of
ships going through the
Mediterranean. Now, they
say they own all the land of
the Middle East, including
the land of Israel, but then
they went further and said
they owned all the water of
the Mediterranean too.
Up to 1776, this was no
problem, as the British paid
the annual tribute, but after
the Revolutionary War,
Adams, the first ambassa-
dor to England, and Jeffer-
son, the first ambassador to
France, were confronted by
it. Jefferson's time was
largely spent ransoming
captives. He finally pro-
posed to his fellow envoys
the establishment of an in-
ternational naval force to
deal with piracy, but noth-
ing came of the proposal. A
few years later, there was a
big outcry when 11 mem-
bers of an American crew
who were kidnapped, per-
ished.
Washington as President
saw the United States hu-
miliated by being forced to
pay the Bey of Algiers al-
most a million dollars — a
huge sum for the release of
some captives and the U.S.
also agreed to pay an annual
tribute.

But in a short time, the
Bey wanted more and in
the next administration,
Commander Preble
headed a little fleet of ves-
sels to teach the Bey a les-
son. It is interesting that
Commander Preble's flag-
ship was named The
George Washington, but
the piracy was not ended
until Commodore Decatur
in 1815 grabbed the Bey by
the neck so to speak, giv-
ing him the option of hav-
ing his harbor city and all
of his fleet destroyed un-
less he promised to stop his
terrorist activities.

It was a good day for
America after that, al-
though European nations
continued to contribute to
the Bey for the use of the
water until about 1830.
So the Middle East prob-
lem was very familiar to
Washington. But with
Washington's birthday just
past, let's talk about nicer
things.
Let's talk about the time
when George Washington
went to the synagogue.
Why did Washington go
to the synagogue? Because
it was Yom Tov?

Well, in a way it was. It
was shortly after his inau-
guration and Washington
felt that he would like to
meet with people in the
different cities of the coun-
try of which he was now
the first President. So he
made a tour of the princi-
pal cities and when he
came to Newport, R.I.,
which was a very impor-
tant city in those days, the

public reception to him
was held at the Newport
synagogue, established
before Washington was
born and which is now a
national landmark.

President Washington
was there presented With' a

most unusual gift — a bot-
tle of water!
But it wasn't ordinary
water. It was water desali-
nated by an invention of a
member of the Newport
synagogue, Jonas Isaacs.
The idea of desalination
has engaged the minds of
many through the ages. If
sea water could have its salt
removed by some easy and
cheap process, the dream of
the prophets might be ful-
filled and the deserts would
blossom as the rose.

Israel has experimented
with desalination but
lately it has made a differ-
ent approach to the water
problem, which offers
much hope. Israeli scien-
tists have devised a
method called "drip irri-
gation," by means of
which the need for water is
greatly minimized. Little
water is necessary by this
method, as the water is fed
only to the roots of the
plants. It has been found
that plants grow as well by
this method.

It was recently suggested
that Saudi Arabia might

fertilize its vast areas of
desert land by this process.
Anyway, we are sure
Washington appreciated the
gift. Washington was very
interested in inventions. He
watched John Fitch's exper-
iment with the steamboat
and was enthusiastic about
the first balloon ascension.

Maybe we need some
kind of method to "drip in-
telligence" to the roots of
the United Nations. I can-
not help remember that
after the first World Zion-
ist Congress, the first pub-
lic building established
Jerusalem by the Zioni
was the Jewish Nation__
Library.

.

If UNESCO, the culture
branch of the UN which
expelled Israel were blessed
with some wisdom, it would
realize that Israel with its
many educational and re-
search organizations should
be encouraged if for nothing
else for the intellectual
fruits it promises to bring.
Jefferson said democracy
without education is hope-
less. Nor will oil alone suff-
.ice.

NYANA Appoints New Executives 1

NEW YORK — The ap-
pointments of Evelyn Cohen
as director of New York
Association for New Ameri-
cans' family service depart-
ment and Bea Curtis as the
department's assistant di-
rector were announced by
Dr. Herbert Bernstein, ex-
ecutive director of NYANA.
Mrs. Cohen, former su-
pervisor of the crisis inter-
vention unit of Jewish Fam-
ily Service in the Bronx,
succeeds Anne Serzane, who
retired after 26 years of
service with NYANA from
the time of the agency's
founding.
Mrs. Curtis comes to
NYANA from Travelers'
Aid Society in Chicago,
where she was a caseworker
and supervisor helping per-
sons "who handle their
problems through flight and
movement."
NYANA has helped some
2,500 Russian Jews resettle
in New York during 1975.
Its family service depart-
ment oversees the six-
month to one year settle-
ment process from the ini-
tial orientation to the time

Observers Predict
Rift Among Arabs

WASHINGTON, D. C.
(ZINS) — Political experts
forsee a deepening of the
rifts in Arab unity during
1976.
The experts call attention
to the widening gulf be-
tween Egypt and Syria
which will lead, in their
view, to the emergence of
two conflicting camps in the
Arab world. Sadat will be
oriented to the Americans,
while Assad of Syria will
come -to represent the pro-
Soviet side.
At the same time observ-
ers predict a long and bitter
struggle between Morocco
and Algeria over control of
the Spanish Sahara, as well
as, between , Chriatiahs ryd,,
NrdsIenis in' Lebahoii:" •

the immigrant families are
expected to be financially
self-sufficient. Through this
period, the families are
provided with housing, med-
ical assistance, vocational
and educational counseling
and job placement. They are
taught English and accul-
turated into New York and
American ways.

U.S. Religion Topic
of Japanese Film

NEW YORK — The larg-
est Japanese television net-
work, NHK, travelled from
Tokyo to Brooklyn in order
to film a Hebrew Day
School in action which will
be seen by some 20 million
Japanese television viewers
as part of an hour-long doc-
umentary dealing with reli-
gion in the United States.

According to Torah Ume-
sorah, the National Society
for Hebrew Day Schools,
which arranged for the film-
ing of the day school seg-
ment, the school selected
was the Magen David Yesh-
iva, a Hebrew day school
organized in 1949, which
serves a Sephardic student
body.

Oil Blackmail
May Die Out

HAMBURG (ZINS)
According to the . Germ
weekly, Die Zeit there Whir
be no further oil blackmail,
the• previous oil embargo
having boomeranged.

According to the German
journal, the oil-producing
countries are now selling 30
percent less petroleum than
they did in 1973. The article
goes on to say that while the
oil-producing countries are
receiving higher revenues,
this income consists of dol-
lars with depressed value, a
condition which the OPEC
eount,ries, •brought :,tion
-therdseNeS.

