40 Friday, December 31, 1976 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Jerusalem Growth May Lead to Decline BY UZI BENZIMAN (Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.) Economic Branch Agriculture, forestry and fishing • Industry (mining and manufacturing) Electricity and water Construction (building and public works) Commerce, restaurants and hotels Transport, storage and communication Financing - business services Public and community services Private and other services JERUSALEM - For the first time since the es- tablishment of Israel, the state's capital is also its largest city. The Central Bureau of Statistics re- cently announced that by the end of 1975, Jerusalem's population numbered 356,000, corn- pared to. 354,000 in Tel Aviv. During 1976 this trend has apparently con- tinued, enlarging the numerical gap between the two cities' popula- The table clearly re- tions to 7,000. Jerusalem finds itself in the throes of flects the relatively high an intensive growth proportion of Jerusale- process while Tel Aviv mites employed in public faces the beginning of its and community services in comparison with the decline. • national average or with It is consequently im- the parallel rate in Tel portant to question at Aviv. On the other hand, this time whether a much higher proportion Jerusalem has estab- of Tel Aviv's employes lished proper procedures work in industry, com- that will enable the cap- merce and business serv- tial to avoid the dangers ices. that threaten to blight An analysis of this em- life in Tel Aviv: . ployment structure indi- .Jerusalem's objective cates that the Tel Aviv problems are, if anything, population enjoys a even more daunting than higher standard of living, Tel Aviv's, as a look at the an assumption that finds comparative statistics its confirmation by com- shows: 31 percent of the paring the number of Jewish families • in motorized vehicles be- Jerusalem and 34 percent of the Arabs are large families (more than five persons) while the parallel figure in the Tel Aviv population is only 19 per- cent ; 53 percent of all Jerusalemites born BY MOSHE RON abroad came from Asian (The JeWish News Special and African countries (i.e., Israel Correspondent) TEL AVIV - A few of Sephardic origin) corn- pared to 31 percent in Tel yearS ago an American Aviv; and 45 percent of the yeshiva, Yeshivat Tfuzo, Jerusalem population is was transferred to Mount included in the labor force Zion in Jerusalem. The compared to 49 percent of mountain, according to the tradition, is the site of Tel Aviv's. The following table King David's tomb. On gives a breakdown of the Shavuot, religious Jews employment structure by come in masses to the tomb, light candles and economic branches: recite Psalms. The yeshiva became popular. as hippies from the U.S., other countries and Israel joined it to learn Talmud. But in the course of time controver- sies 'broke out about the yeshiva. It was learned that Torah scrolls were spoiled and scholars be- aten during clashes in the yeshiva. Some needed medical help and the manager of the Yeshiva, Rabbi Mordechai Golds- tein, was called to the police station. The members of a Sephardic . synagogue on Mount Zion accused Rabbi Goldstein of trying to expand the territory of his yeshiva and taking over all institutions on the mountain. These ac- cusations were shared by the members of an Ashkenazic synagogue. The Sephardic synagogue was estab- lished 29 years ago after the War of Liberation: The Old City of Jerusalem-was in the hands of Jordan and armed Jordanian soldiers guarded its walls. Mount Zion was the nearest place to the Old City and the Wailing Wall in Jewish hands. On Shabbat and Israel Jerusalem Tel Aviv 8.5% 0.4% 0.2% 24.1% 13.0% 24.6% 1.1% 0.8% 1.1% 8.9% 9.7% 6.7% 12.7% 13.7% 19.3% 7.4% 6.1% 8.2% 5.7% 6.7% 10.7% 24.3% 41.8% 21.1% 7.3% 7.8% 8.1% tween the two cities: 23 percent of the Tel Aviv residents compared to 7.5 percent of the Jerusalem population. The following data, moreover, underscores the inferiority- of Jeru- salem (in comparison to Tel Aviv) with regard to economic and social re- sources: the number of families receiving wel- fare in Jerusalem, 14 per- cent, in Tel Aviv 9.5 per- cent; allowances for large families in Jerusalem, 32.8 percent, in Tel Aviv, 9.9 percent; sub-standard housing in Jerusalem, 48 percent, in Tel Aviv, 22 percent. The significance of these figures is quite clear: .Jerusalem is by far the poorer city. Yet, Jerusalem must cope with urban problems that are much more severe than Tel Aviv has ever had. The experience of the last nine years, since the post-1967 unification, in- dicates that the mistakes that brought Tel Aviv to its present miserable situation may be re- peated in Jerusalem, too. The city's municipality does not devote sufficient attention to town- planning problems. The municipality has ap- proved the erection of new suburbs on the periphery of the city without balancing this decision by strengthen- ing the infrastructure and service facilities of the city center. The municipality -does not allocate enough funds to improve the conditions of the population living in old and neglected sub- urbs. When taking decisions concered with long-term planning, the mayor and his councilmen must bear in mind the dangerous re- sults of planning wrongly a fast-growing city, as the Tel Aviv experience has so clearly demonstrated. Mt. Zion Yeshiva Spurs Battle Between Worshippers, Scholars . Holy Days, masses of reli- gious Jews climbed 'the mountain to say their paryers near the Old City. They opened a synagogue on the mountain. Afterwards, . new groups came regularly to pray in this synagogue. But the Ministry for Re- ligious Affairs and the public committee for Mount Zion demanded to close the synagogue since it was established with- out an official license. When the synagogue was not closed, the scholars of the yeshiva came in. They tried to dis- turb and stop the prayers in the Sephardic and Ashkenazic synagogues. One of the participants in the prayers, Dr. Shmuel Abelson, an immigrant from the U.S. told us how old and sick people, who climbed the mountain with strenous efforts, were disturbed during their prayers: Torah schrolls were stolen from the Ashkenazic synagogue. The troubles started in 1968, when Rabbi Golds- tein opened the yeshiva on Mount Zion. The yeshiva was transferred from the U.S. on the re- quest of the Israeli Minis- try for Religious Affairs. The ministry transferred to the yeshiva the right to supervise the holy places on the mountain. The participants in the prayers accused Rabbi Goldstein of harassing them with the yeshiva scholars. Once, these scholars "occupied" the Ashkenazic synagogue and established in it a li- brary. They stopped ad- mission to the synagogue. Only after intervention with Rabbi Goldstein did he agree to let people pray at certain hours on Mount Zion. The same happened •to the Sephardic 'syna- gogue. One room turned into a war-object between the people coming to pray in the synagogue and the yeshiYa scholars. Rabbi Goldstein announced that according to the con- tract with the Ministry for Religious Affairs he has all the rights over the rooms near King David's Tomb. "We didn't occupy the room of the synagogue. A synagogue has free access to all. Why shouldn't my yeshiVa scholars be allowed to pray in it?" The people who pray in the Sephardic school turned to the chariman of the Committee for Foreign and Security Af- fairs of the Knesset, Yit- zhak Navon, and asked him. for help. They ac- cused some of the yeshiva scholars of using drugs and taking - girls to the synagogue, turning a holy place into a night club. Rabbi Goldstein strongly denied these ac- cusations. The people of the Sephardic and Ashkenazic synagogues are waiting for the au- thorities to intervehe'and torn. z restore order on Mount Zion. Boris ,Smolar's 'Between You . . . and Me' Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.) THE ZIONIST ARENA: Many books are appearing (/ now relating to the Zionist movement and to the his- tory of the creation of the state of Israel. The latest of them - and one- of the best - is Dr. Emanuel \I Neusnsi. ann's "In the Arena," just published by Herzl Pe A veteran Zionist leader, Dr. Neumann reveals .Y now quite a number of interesting "behind the scene" \ I facts concerning the Zionist movement in the United cr States, inner developments within the world Zionist \, movement, and events at the United Nations preced- ing the adoption there of the historic Partition RP ''Qlu- te. tion which led to the establishment of the Jewisi . - He is the man competent to disclose these which could not be told until now - because he par- ticipated in all of the events as a member of the Jewish Agency Executive. His role in the Jewish Agency is well known, and so is his role in helping - together with Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, Moshe Sharett and others - to bring about the adoption of the Partitition Resolution at the UN. His book is a great contribution to Jewish history in general. It provides new dimensions to many factors in American Zionism prior and after the establish- ment of the state of-Israel. SECRET DEAL: One of the important revelations in Dr. Neumann's book is the agreement he brought about in 1932 with King Abdullah, ruler of Transjor- dan - now Jordan - under which the Arab ruler sold part of his personally-owned land to the Jewish Agency. This was at a time when no Jew was permitted to settle in Transjordan or to possess land there, under regulations of the British Mandatory Administration. It is a fascinating story of how King Abdullah, in need of money, decided quietly to offer part of his land for sale to the Jewish Agency. The offer was naturally made in great secrecy, and the Jewish Agency Execu- tive appointed two of its members- Dr. Neumann and Dr. Heshl Farbstein - to conduct the negotiations with the Arab ruler, to sign the agreementwith him, and present him with the amount he asked. The deal was top secret for anybody except for members of the Jewish Agency Executive. It was sup- posed to have been the first breakthrough in the British ban on Jews to possess- land in Transjordan which was earlier a part of ,Palestine. The ruler of Transjordan wanted to present the British Manda- tory government with an accomplished fact thereby asserting himself of his ownership of his own land. He knew that the British would resent it, but he preferred that the resentment should come after the deal was concluded rather than before. It so happened that I was in Palestine at that time. I was a trusted friend of MoShe Shertok - he later Hebraized his name to Sharett, when the state of Is- rael was established - and of other. leading memberF, of the Jewish Agency Executive, including Dr. Neumann. Although no editor of the newspapers in Jersualem aid Tel Aviv knew of the negotiations with Abdullah, Dr. Neumann nevertheless entrusted me with detailed infoi'mation and imAted me to join him and Dr. Farbstein in the "secret mission"-to 'Transjor- dan SECRET MISSION: Our car left in the early morn- ing hours when people were not yet in the Jerusalem streets. Within two hours we were over the Allenby Bridge and on Transjordan soil. An emissary of King Abdullah met us at a prearranged place somewhere in Transjordan and joined us in our car to take us to his ruler. All was shrouded in mystery. The historic trip concluded in a small peasant house where Dr. Neumann and Dr. Farbstein on one side and Abdullah on the other signed an agreement under which the ruler of Transjordan "leased" to the Jewish Agency 70,00 dunams of his land with the pro- vision that the agency had the right to renew the "lease" twice for a period of 30 years each. Everybody was happy and I took a photo of the house whel.^ the historic agreement was signed. The deal, however, never came to fruition. late the strict secrecy in which it was conducted, the de- tails of the agreement. leaked out and appeared in an Arab newspaper in Lebanon. The British administra- tion was angry. The Mufti of Jerusalem, an arch-- enemy of the Jews, was furious. Arabs were excited. The ruler of Transjordan notified the Jewish Agency that he could not go through with the deal because he was threatened with assassination. In the Jewish Agency a suspicion prevaileed that the "leak" came from Abdullah himself after he re- ceived the money from the agency. He never repaid the money. However, the text of the agreement - with his signature - can still be found in the Jewish Agency political archives. Dr. Neumann reproduces the document in his book.