56 Friday, July 8, 1977 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS `A Will to Survive' Phillips' Photo Study of Jerusalem an Honor Book Boris Smolar's 'Between You -... and Me' Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 977,'JTA, Inc.) John Phillips, a former Life Magazine photogra- pher in embattled .Jerusa- lem in 1948, compiled a pho- tographic record of the trag- edy that was perpetrated at that time. It was when Jews were. being rounded up, when the old settlement was being de- stroyed, when the syna- gogues were taken over and Jews were barred from the Western Wall—which be- came noteworthy as the Wailing Wall—and the syna- gogues were lost to a people whose links with the Holy City were of gener- ations. Phillips returned to Je- rusalem in 1976. He corn- piled the historic photo- graphs and they are now part of the history of mod- em Israel in "A Will to Sur- vive," a volume thus appro- priately titled by Dial Press. So deeply moving is this story of Jerusalem the con- quered by Jordan in 1948, now the redeemed by Israel in 1967, fully alive in- 1977, that the book became the Honor Book of the World Jewish Book Fair in Jerusa- lem in May of this year. So significant are these photographs that they have been placed on display at the Jewish Museum in New York and will remain as an exhibition of merit for the coming few months. An American born in Al- geria, John Phillips began his dual career as a writer and photographer in 1936. One of Life Magazine's orig- inal team of photographers, he has been instrumental in establishing the art of mod- em photo-journalism: Phillips covered World War II as a combat photog- rapher and took the famous picture of Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill at Teheran. He went behind German lines to photograph Tito and his partisans in Yugoslavia. After the war he covered the trial of Mikhailovich, Kruschev's visit to Tito, and the Israeli War for Inde- pendence. During the 1950's Phillips spent some time working on films with Mike Todd and later with Jacques Tati. In 1957 he wrote his first book, "Odd World," a photo-journalist's story; and in 1965 he published a second book, "The Italians- Face of a Nation." He has written for Time. Life, Esquire, Holiday, and The Reporter and many for- eign publications including the London Sunday Tele- graph, Paris-Match, Eu- rope, and Stern; and he has also done photographic illus- trations for a number of books. Immigrant USSR Jews in NY Favor Day Schools for Kids BY BEN GALLOB (Copyright 977, JTA, Inc.) A young Jewish girl is shown fleeing the burning Old Quarter of Jerusalem in May, 1948. Twice as many children of Russian Jewish immi- grant families settled in the new York area are enrolled in Jewish day schools as in public schools, according to a rabbi who served as So- viet Jewry chairman for the Board of Jewish Educa- tion of Greater New York. Rabbi Israel Grama cited the figures in connection with a statement by the BJE that the "growing ten- dency" of Russian Jewish imnugrant parents to place their children in day schools was one of the find- ings of a "Needs Assess- ment Study of Bilingual Education Needs for Recent- ly Arrived Russian Immi- grants." Rabbi Graina said the needs assessment study showed that some 400 Rus- sian Jewish emigre chil- dren . are attendmg New York City public schools and that some 800 are at- tending day schools. ZOA AT 80: The Zionist Organization of America, which is now holding its 80th annual convention in Israel is ac- tually older than 80_years. It derives its origin from the "Zion Society" which was organized in Chicago in 1895, and which sent a delegate to the first World Zionist Con- gress in Basle. The delegate was Leon Zolotkoff, the Chi- cago Jewish editor. The Chicago Jewish community was at that time the sec- ond largest in the United States, next to New York. m. ,w York had no organized Zionist group in those years. - ever, Dr. Richard Gottheil, one of the first advocate. of modern Zionism in this country, happened to visit Europe in 1897 at the time when the first World Zionist Congress took place, and he attended. Following his return to New York, he called a conference which resulted in the estab- lishment of the "Federation of American Zionists." Dr. Gottheil, who was professor of Semitic languages at Columbia University for 49 years, was elected president of the federation at its first convention. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise was elected secretary. This was the beginning of the organized political Zionist movement in the United States. For many years—till the issuance of the historic Balfour declaration by Britian promising the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine—Zionism made little progress in this country. The immigrant Jewish masses were followers of the leaders of the Jewish labor move- ment who were anti-Zionist. The Americanized Jews were similarly anti-Zionist. The organization of Reform rabbis, which reflected the mood of Reform Jewry, was rabidly against Zionism. However,. the Zionist sentiments grew stronger among immigrant Jews as a result of the in- spiring speeches by Rev. Zvi Hirsh Masliansky, a fiery Or- thodox folk-speaker who drew thousands of listeners at pub-, lie meetings. Its strength grew also due to Dr. Smaryahu Levin, a world Zionist leader and great orator, who got stranded in the United States when World War I broke out. The Zionist movement developed even greater impetus dur- ing the Louis Lipsky period. Lipsky, who became chair- man of the ZOA Executive in 1912, later dominated the ZOA for about 30 years. Jewish labor elements inclined to Zionism formed their own Labor Zionist groups. THE STORMY PERIOD: The stormy period in 'the American Zionist movement was the period when Lotiis D. Brandeis—who later became a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court—took over the top leadership of the movement in 1914, and involved himself in sharp differences of opinion with Dr. Chaim Weizmann. Brandeis, who enjoyed great popularity as a lawyer—he was known as "the people's advocate," and served as arbi- trator in the great garment workers' strike in 1910—was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1916. He then gave up his position as chairman of the Zionist Provisional Emergency Committee, but retained his deep interest in the Zionist movement. He was made honorary president of the Zionist Orgy nization of America and of the World Zion- ist Organization. However, he resigned from these two hon- orary posts in 1921 after the Zionist movement decided to establish the Keren Hayesod as the Zionist fund-raising arm. The- Brandeis resignation resulted in a split in the ranks of the ZOA leadership with Brandeis becoming in- strumental in the creation of the Palestine Economic Corp. which played a very important role in the economic development of the Yishuv. The "Brandeisists" returned to the ranks of the WA leadership after the Arab riots in Palestine. THE LIMITED OBJECTIVES: Strange as this may sound, but the ZOA began to lose popularity and strength following the establishment of the state of Israel. Premier David Ben-Burion greatly contributed to this de- velopment. Soon after he took leadership of the Jewish state, he proclaimed that a Zionist can be considered only a person who settles in Israel. This was a challenge to American Zionist leadership. Ben-Gurion did. not he .e to declare publicly that following the establishment 4.0. rael, every Jew—not only Zionists—is seeking to helipile fledgling state, and that the practical aid is coming more and more from Jews who were never interested in the Zi- onist movement through the United Jewish Appeal, private investments and in other ways. The ZOA could, naturally, not benefit from such a state- ment. Nor were the leaders of the Zionist movement in the U.S. willing to uproot themselves and settle in Israel. The functions of the ZOA were thus reduced to seek to stimu- late Jewish emigration from the U.S. to Israel and to pro- mote Hebrew culture in the U.S. . The ZOA rias to its credit two direct achievements in Is- rael—the establishment of Mar Silver, a settlement named after the late American Zionist leader Abba Hillel Silver who was ZOA president for a number of years, and the maintaining of the "American Zionist House" in Tel Aviv, which it established as a cultural and social center for American Jews settled in Israel and for Jews visiting Is- rael. The "American Zionist House" is one of the finest Jewish centers in Israel.