22 Friday, October 14, 1977
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Slomovitz Chair in Hebrew Language Inaugurated at Technion Dinner
By ALAN HITSKY
and HEIDI PRESS
The Philip Slomovitz Pro-
fessorial Chair for the
Hebrew Language at Tech-
nion - Israel Institute of
Technology was formerly
inaugurated Monday eve-
ning at a dinner at Cong.
Shaarey Zedek by the
detroit Chapter of the
American Society for
Technion.
More than 500 persons
honored Slomovitz, founder,
'editor and publisher of The
Jewish News, with contribu-
tions totalling more than
$200,000 towards the $300,000
permanent endowment of
the chair "for the devel-
opment, exploration and
creative use of the Hebrew
language in all phases of
culture and scientific
communication."
Slomovitz was cited by
the Technion with its Albert
Einstein Award for -his
own financial generosity
and through the tireless
medium of The Jewish
News (he) has created wide
public knowledge and
understanding of the prog-
ress and responsibilities of
the Technion in the present
daily life and future devel-
opment of Israel."
Ullstein Family Role in German
Publishing Outlined on 100th
Anniversary in West Berlin
BERLIN — Early last
month a ceremony was held
in West Berlin on the occa-
sion of the 100th anniver-
sary of the founding of the
Ullstein Publishing house,
which at one time was the
largest in Europe and one of
the largest in the world.
Main speaker at the event
was - publisher Axel
Springer.
The Ullstein company was
founded by Leopold Ullstein
in 1877 when he bought the
failing Neue Berlinger
Tageblatt, later merged it
with two other newspapers,
and soon the new paper's
circulation - reached the
unprecedented figure of
40,000 and made the Ullstein
company one of the biggest
publishers in Germany.
All of Ullstein's five sons
entered the firm: Hans,
Louis, Franz, Rudolf and
Herman. After their
father's death the Ullstein
brothers expanded the fam-
ily's holdings and produced
a series of other news-
papers. In addition, the
Ullstein had their own pic-
ture and news services,
radio equipment, music
division, dress pattern divi-
sion, movie studios, and
even a zoo to serve one of
their children's papers. The
other major ventures of the
Ullstein company were its
book and magazine
empires. In 1919 the Ulls-
teins began publishing on a
large scale, and some of the
greatest names in early 20th
Century German literature
were published by Ullstein.
The advent of Hitler, how-
ever, spelled the end of the
Ullstein enterprise. The
family was forced to sell the
colossal empire to a Nazi-
backed consortium for one-
fifth of its value in 1937.
After World War II the
American authorities in
West Berlin rebuilt the Ulls-
tein plant and appointed
Rudolf Ullstein as chair-
man. By 1957 two news-
papers owned by the Ulls-
tein group had the largest
circulation in West Berlin.
In 1960, however, the con-
trolling interest in the group
was sold to Axel Springer
and the Ullstein family
interest in the concern
came to an end. Springer,
although not Jewish, has
since ' published articles
defending Israel and the
Jews and decrying neo-
Nazism.
The Sept. 9 ceremony was
attended by the mayor of
Weizmann Institute Opens
Jaglom Research Facilities
REHOVOT—Work on the
development of sophis-
ticated methods for the pro-
duction of antibiotics and
hormones will be carried
out in the Abraham Jaglom
Institute for Biomedical
Research, dedicated last
month in the presence of
members of the Jaglom
family from Israel and the
U.S., Weizmann Institute
President Michael Sela. sen-
ior members of the
Institute's staff and a host
of distinguished guests.
Prof. Sela said that the
new facilities, given to the
Institute in commemoration
of her late husband by Mrs.
Nadia Jaglom and her
daughters (Mrs. Gardner
and Mrs. Wechter), would
enable Institute scientists to
do vitally important applied
biological research
involving the thymus hor-
mone factor and the cultur-
ing of human tissue.
Meanwhile, Weizmann
Institute 'scientist Gerald
Tanny thinks he may have
found a new way to help
combat a serious pollution
danger and to save fuel at
the same time.
working plants must regu-
larly dispose of thousands of
gallons of cutting and grind-
ing oil emulsions used in
their manufacturing oper-
ations. If these are dis-
charged untreated into
urban sewage systems, a
nasty ecological situation
develops.
In order to meet this chal-
lenge, Dr. Tanny has pro-
duced an improved plastic
holldw fiber which can effi-
ciently separate water from
the oily components of such
emulsions by a process
known as ultrafiltration.
Once isolated, this water
can be safely discharged
into plant sewage lines or
reused, and the concen-
trated oil burnt as fuel.
Berlin, the president of the
West German House of Rep-
resentatives, other digni-
taries from the fields of
German politics, culture
and religion, and Frederick
Ullstein.
In his speech at the Ulls-
tein building, Springer gave
an historical overview of
the Ullstein company and
recalled the days of Nazi
intimidation which forced
the Ullstein to sell:
"An episode in Heinz Ulls-
tein's life highlights these
years. Together with others
sharing a similar fate, he
had to wash railway cars at
the Lehrter Bahnhof
(railway station) — the Star
of David displayed on over-
coat and jacket.
"An SS man supervising
operations came up to Heinz
one day and said, 'Not quite
the occupation for an Ulls-
tein, is it?' On the coun-
trary,' was the reply, 'it is
just the right occupation—
these days."'
further
Springer
remarked on the fall of the
German Reich in 1945:
"Adolf Arndt, the SPD's
(Social Democratic Party)
forgotten top legal man, 11
years ago commented on
the event in words that are
still valid today: 'It was not
in 1945 that the German
state was broken when its
unrightful rulers were dis-
armed: the real collapse —
real because it was the
intellectual collapse — of
Germany took place in 1933
when the foundatioas of
inter-human solidarity were
shattered.'
"I should like to add that
when the light of freedom
went out, the German-Jew-
ish symbiosis was also bro-
ken, to which we Owed so
much and which had been
one of the most important
focal points of the house of
Ullstein. Leaving aside the
wrong done tg millions, our
nation suffered a loss of
substance which—especially
in journalism and liter-
ature—will take more than
a few generations to
remedy.
"We must search our own
hearts and recognize
the fact that even after 30
years after ,Au,schwitz, rela-
tions between Germany and
the Jews in Israel and else-
where are not normal, but
special in all respects."
The major' addresses of
the evening were given by
Major General (res.) Amos
Horev, president of the
Techion, and long-time
friend Dr. Abraham Katsh,
president emeritus of The
Dropsie University.
In a special tribute, com-
munal leader Mrs. Emma
Schaver led the singing of
the national anthems,
accompanied by Mrs.
Rebecca Frohman, and Sal-
man (Sam) Grand gave the
invocation and Hamotzi.
Following remarks by
David Pollack and Louis
Milgrom of the Detroit
Chapter of Technion, Ann
Hammerman, representing
the American Jewish Press
Association, and Mike Zel-
tzer, vice president of the
Jewish Welfare Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit,
paid tribute to Slomovitz's
efforts to develop the Jew-
ish press in the U.S. and
other Jewish causes.
Zeltzer
credited
the
Detroit Jewish community's
outstanding national reputa-
tion in fund-raising and
interest in Jewish causes to
the dedication of Slomovitz.
The non-Jewish commu-
nity was represented at the
dinner by Rep. James Blan-
chard (D-18th District), for-
mer TV personality George
Pierrot and suburban news-
paper publisher Phil Power.
Dan Kahn, chairman of
the board of the Detroit
Chapter of Technion,
introduced Gen. Horev, who
spoke of Israel's situation in
the international arena.
Horev said Israel's posi-
tion as a nation is "clearly
more threatened" than it
was a year ago, and he
pointed to "the agonizing re-
appraisals in Washington"
and the continuing Arab
propaganda.
"Israel is a showcase for
the world," he said, "but in
physical fact we are a mere'
speck on the world." Turn-
ing to the Middle East situa-
tion the general asked, "Are
we seriously to consider
returning to the pre-1967"
borders on the east and
bring the Syrians, Iraqis,
Jordanians and the PLO to
within 16 miles of Jerusa-
lem? Are we to strip our-
selves of our defenses?"
He cited historic prece-
dents for the existence of
the Jewish state and dis-
missed Palestinian claims
by reminding the audience
that the Jews were consid-
ered Palestinians as late as
World War II when they
fought for the British.
"There is no history of a
Palestinian nation, no
Palestinian
language,"
Horev said.
The Jewish links to Israel,
however, are documented
for 3,000 years.
Horev called Israel an
emerging nation, and asked
if she should be condemned
for "taking in our own" ref-
ugees because the Arabs,
conversely, have main-
tained the "Palestinians" as
refugees.
"Israel has twin prob-
lems," the general said,
"military strength and eco-
nomic stability." He said
Israel cannot bow to the iso-
lationists who would ask her
to be completely independ-
ent of others. "Even the
U.S. depends on others for
oil and trade," he said. "In
our efforts for peace we
have asked not only for an
end to hostilities, but also
the normalization of rela-
tions, cultural trade and all
other peaceful exchanges.
Technion has a major con-
tribution in this."
Louis Levitan, national
executive vice president of
the American Society for
Technion and former head
of the Israel Bond organiza-
tion in the Detroit area, led
the solicitation of pledges in
support of the Slomovitz
Chair.
Sam Rich, who is out of
the country, announced by
cable a gift of $25,000 for the
Slomovitz Chair and Nor-
man Allan personally
announced a pledge of
$50,000.
Justifying
the
estab-
lishment of a language
chair at a technological
institution, Dr. Katsh
recalled the beginnings of
the Technion when a dispute
arose over what should be
the language of instruction,
Hebrew or German.
Hebrew was decided upon
because, according to
Katsh, "from the very
beginning of the Hebrew
Bible to the current ver-
nacular in Israel, Hebrew
was never a 'dead'
language."
Katsh stated in part:
"Even during the vicissi-
tudes of the Jewish people,
when as a result of neces-
sity the people adopted vari-
ous dialects, such as Ara-
maic, Judeo-Arabic, Ladino,
Yiddish, etc., the Hebrew
alphabet and Hebrew
idioms became part of daily
usage, and the scholars as
well as other literati, made
a point of using Hebrew, not
only in discussing religious
subjects, but also in their
daily life. The Hebrew
tongue always remained
with the Jew, an inspiring
and uplifting force.
"While - the medieval
world was spiritually frozen
and most of the ruling
princes were unable even to
sign their names, the Jew-
ish boy, of three or four,
was sent to Hebrew school
to learn his `national'
tongue.
"The Jewish community
was ensconced in Hebrew
learning and all their
records were preserved in
Hebrew. As a matter of
fact, only those literary
writings which were written
in Hebrew or translate' --
during the Middle Ages in
Hebrew survived (some ot
the originals disappeared)
and the translations only
became part of the national
heritage."
Dr. Katsh said that it was
politically important for
Israel that Hebrew became
its national language since
it represents "our title deed
to the soil of Israel.
"It is the language in
which the land was prom-
ised to our forefathers, and
only be preserving and
deVeloping the language of
the Bible, could we have
secured recognition as the
legal claimant of the Holy
Land."
He recalled that the early
American settlers looked to
the language of the Bible on
which to base their demo-
cratic way of life. -
"Mastery of Hebrew
intensified the Puritans' and
the Pilgrims' roots in Jew-
ish ethical idealism. By
knowing the Hebrew lan-
guage, they acquired the
letter and the spirit, the
meaning and understanding
of the Hebrew Bible. The
idealism not only dominated
their theology but also pat-
terned their practical,
everyday life. It disciplined
their minds, fortified their
will and confirmed their
principles."
Slomovitz, in his extempo-
raneous response, thanked
the committee for his award
and the acknowledgement
given his wife, Anna.
He described his interest
in Israeli and U.S. educar-
tional institutions and
remarked how his interest
in the Technion began with
the battle between Hebrew
and German as the lan-
guage of instruction at the '
fledgling school after it was
founded in 1912.
He paid tribute and recog-
nized the people at the din-
ner who honored him and
reminisced about his expe-
riences. He asked the
audience to remember its
duty, "the obligation" to aid
Israel and described how
Techion's training pro-
grams for the Israel
Defense Forces made. it --
"the backbone of Israel."
Shown at the Technion dinner Monday evening honoring Philip Slomovitz are,
from left, guest speakers Dr. Abraham -Katsh and Technion President Amos
Horev, American Technion Society national board member Sam G r and, Slomov-
itz, dinner chairman David Pollack, American Society for Technion national
executive vice president Lou Levitan, and Detroit Chapter president Lou
Milgrom.