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fridov, October 30. 1953 .
U. N. NEWSLETTER by Arthur lewis
The Israel - Arab Conflict
THE SOUTHERN- ISRAELITE
PANORAMA by David Schwartz
FINDING JEWS
It was the Americans who ini
tiated the Palestine debate in the
Secretary Council, the British and
French tagging along for moral
support. They did so because of
the “increasing concern at the
mounting tension along the front
ier between Israel and the neigh
boring Arab States,” and, it must
be said that, at least, they did not
prejudge the issue by confining
the debate to the Kibya incident,
as the Arabs wanted to do.
Still .there is no doubt that the
Kibya incident set off this ac
tion .and without it, the Big Three
would not have called for a Se
curity Council meeting. The
Israelis would have welcomed
such a debate and any action tak
en here to prevent what Prime
Minister Ben Gurion has descri
bed as a “one-sided war” in
which more than 400 Israeli citi
zens have been killed and wound
ed by Arab marauders since 1950,
and 130 in the past year alone.
However, conning as it does im
mediately after the attack on the
Jordanian village, and as a result
of It. the Israeli delegates find
themselves inhibited and pat in
the worst possible light.
At the same time, the State De
partment in Washington has made
it known that the Kibya incident
and other Israeli attacks on the
Arabs have been the reason for
the administration holding back a
grant of $13,000,000, the first pay
ment on an allocation voted for
Israel by Congress. Yet, it has
been common knowledge for many
weeks, long before these inci
dents occurred, that the United
States was holding back this
money.
To observers here, it seems that
there have been misunderstand
ings between the Israeli Govern
ment and the administration in
Washington with its announced
“New Look” pdlicy in the Middle
East, and these misunderstandings
have been exacerbated by recent
events. The State Department has
everal grouses. It is obviously
miffed that the Israeli Govern
ment did not reply to one of its
recent notes.
But what has annoyed the
American administration most is
that the Israeli Government “has
shown no interest” in co-operating
with the United States and the
United Nations in developing the
water resources of the Jordan
River for the benefit of the coun
tries on both sides of it. This is
what is known as the Tennessee
Valley Authority (T. V. A.) project
whose purpose is not only to pro
vide irrigation and electric power
for the neighboring states of
Israel, Jordan and Syria, but also
to resettle some 200,000 Arab re
fugees.
The T. V. A. Jordan River pro
ject, which was given an official
imprimatur by being disclosed at
a press conference here, would ir
rigate some 400,000 dunams (a
dunam is about a quarter of an
acre) of land in Israel, around
500,000 dunams in Jordan, and
about 30,000 in Syria, although it
would provide Jordan with al
most twice as much water as
Israel. However, there is a catch
to this project, and a very signi
ficant catch; it would require
minor adjustments in the frontiers,
and Israel would be expected to
give up some of its territory. Now
such adjustments cannot be made
without a Palestine peace settle
ment — and who, but the Arabs,
are holding up a settlement?
Although it is distressing, there
is nothing irrevocable about the
present situation which has been
caused by misunderstnadings that
can be resolved. Undoubtedly,
Ambassador Abba Eban, in his
conversations with the State De
partment, has been able to clear
up some of the irritations. It is ex
pected here too that the visit of
Eric Johnston, President Eisen
hower’s personal representative
and “trouble shooter,” to the Mid
dle East, should help to improve
relations between Israel and the
United States.
The other day I was listening
to Jack Benny at an Israel Bond
function tell the story of his visit
to Israel. It seems that some non-
Jew ish friend kept Benny faith
fully supplied with copies of
Variety, the theatrical journal,
while he was in Israel. Benny
wrote him a note of thanks. He
related how that very morning a
Jew in Israel “with a beard reach
ing almost to the sidewalk had
stopped him and asked if' George
Raft was still going out with that
New Orleans rhumba dancer.
“Now,” wrote Benny, “if you
hadn’t sent me Variety, I wouldn’t
have been able to answer him.”
Benny can be humorous about
anything and Benny is a good
Jew. We have reason to be proud
of our Jewish thespians. Benny is
not the only Jewish figure in
Hollywood to visit Israel. Edward
Robinson, who presided at the
great Jerusalem festival in Madi
son Square Garden sponsored by
Israel Bonds, had also been to
Israel. Melvyn Douglas has even
done a picture there. The narrator
at the Jerusalem Festival was an
other great Hollywood star—Cary
Grant. I certainly was surprised to i
hear that Cary Grant was Jewish.
You can never tell where you
will find a Jew these days. It
reminds me of the story they used
to tell about the gerat music critic,
James G. Buneker. He was not a
Jew, but was always discovering
Jewish celebrities. One day, after
he brought the story of another
Obituaries
Raines Unveiling
Friends and relatives of Mr. and
Mrs. H. Newman are Invited to
attend the unveiling ceremonies
in memory of Mrs. Newman’s
mother and father, Fannie and
Louis Raines, Sunday, Nov. 1, at 2
p.m. at Greenwood Cemetery. Rab
bi Harry H. Epstein will officiate.
Isadore Wachstein
SAVANNAH—Funeral services
for Isadore Wachstein were held
October 19 at Sipple’s Mortuary.
Rabbi A. I. Rosenberg officiated.
Interment' was in 'Bonaventure
Cemetery.
A native of Savannah, he is
survived by a sister, Mrs. Ray
Chaffee, Philadelphia.
MRS. SOL MINNER
Mrs. Sol Minner of Milwaukee,
Wis., died October 22. Funeral
services were held in Atlanta in
the chapel of Henry M. Blanchard
& Son, October 25. Rabbi Harry
H. Epstein and Cantor Joseph
Schwartzman .officiated. Inter
ment was in Greenwood Ceme
tery.
. Mrs. Minner was the former
Sarah Kolodkin of Atlanta. She
moved to Milwaukee in 1933,
where her husband is a retired
hide buyer.
Besides her husband, she is sur
vived by a daughter, Mrs. Libbie
Witt, Columbus; a son by a for
mer marriage, Pvt. Alvin Rich-
man, Chicago; three sisters, Mrs.
Philip Singer, of Columbus, Mrs.
II. Ruden of Atlanta, Mrs. I. Katz
of Danville, Ill.; three brothers,
Nathan Kolodkin of Atlanta, Char
les Kolodkin of Columbus, Felix
Kolodkin of Lenoir, N. C., and two
grandchildren.
HENRY LIND
SAVANNAH—Henry Lind died
October 20. Funeral services were
held October 21 at the chapel of
tipple’s Mortuary. Rabbi A. I.
Rosenberg officiated. Interment
was in Bonaventure Cemetery.
Mr. Lind, a retired bookkeeper
for Slotin and Company, had re
sided here for the past 40 years.
Surviving are his wife, Mrs.
Freeda Lind; three daughters, Mrs.
Larry Karp, Savannah; Mrs. S. L.
Shick, New York City and Miss
Helen Lind, New York City; and
several grandchildren.
such discovery to his mother, she
said to him, “Jimmy, one of these
days you will be telling me that
the Founder of Christianity was
a Jew.”
All peoples have a little of this
weakness of discovering that
everyone great is of their kith and
kin. Woodrow Wilson, who was of
Scotch-Irish extraction, once re
marked that nobody could be
great without a little Scotch-Irish
in him.
In the case of the Jews, per
haps this tendency was accented
as a compensation for Jewish in
security. We are apt to find more
of these surprises too for many
Jews take on protective colora
tion, fearing the handicap of being
identified as Jews.
There is the old wheeze about
the late Otto Kahn. He was once
showing the famous crippled sci
entist, Steinmetz over his vast
estate and pointed out that there
was a little Episcopalian chapel
on his grounds. “Don’t you think
it is funny I should have this
here?”
“Why?” asked Steinmetz.
“Because I used to be a Jew,”
replied Kahn.
“I used to be a hunchback,”
commented Steinmetz.
The implication of the story is
that once you are a Jew, you can
never get away from it. Your
Jewishness is never entirely lost.
I suspect that this is not as true
as is commonly supposed. The
Jews have lost plenty of their peo
ple. The old Russian Czars used
to make it a policy to seize Jewish
children and have them raised as
non-Jews. Many tens of thousands
of Russians Jews were thus lost.
During the Inquisition in Spain,
many thousands of Jews sur
rendered themselves to their en
vironment and Spain today has a
large infiltration of Jewish blood.
There is the quasi-historical story
that when the King of Portugal
decreed that every Jew or part
Jew must wear a certain kind of
cap, his Minister offered the King
a cap.
Then there were the lost Ten
Tribes. Some people say the Brit
ish are the lost tribes. Others
would have it that the Indians
are. My friend Harry Simonhoff
once suggested to me that it would
make an interesting study to find
out what became of the early
American Jewish families. There
was the famous Franks of Revolu
tionary days and the Gratz’ who
maed so much history. Most of
these early Jews see mto have
been lost to Jewry. When some
Pope 5
non-Jews say some of their best
friends are Jews, they may not
know how "truly they speak!
Book for Children
A. J. P. Review of
"Miriam Comes Home"
Already famed as war cor
respondent, as author of the story
of the battle of Jerusalem, of
which he was an eye-witness dur
ing Israel’s war for liberation, and
now as Counsellor of the Israel
Embassy in Washington, Yehuda
Harry Levin now has to his credit
another achievement: an unusual
ly fine children’s book about
Israel, published by L. C. Page &
Co. ($2.50, 53 Beacon St., Boston)
under the title “Miriam Comes-
Home.”
The mere fact that the conserva
tive Boston publishing house in
cluded this book among its very
important children’s stories is in
itself a tribute to the author. The*
Page Co., as publishers of the
Pollyanna books and “Anne of *
Green Gables,” view with great'
pride their varied titles, "Miriam
Comes Home,” the “story of our
Israel cousins,” is a worthy addi
tion to the best in children’s nar
ratives.
Mr. Levin has caught the spirit
of Israel’s children. His Miriam
story is akin to Blandford’s “The
Juggler,” which describes the dif
ficulties of a newcomer to Israel
who, in search of his lost wife, is
maladjusted, is troublemaking,
until he learns that the Israelis
are his friends who desire to have
him as a brother.
In “Miriam Comes Home” there
are maladjusted children. The
horrors they experienced made
them suspicious of their new en
vironment. Instead of fitting in
promptly into the environment of!'
Na’ava, as the author chose to call,
his mythical village, they became-
destructive. Their leader set the
barn on fire and fled the scene.
But in the course of time the*
young olim—the refugee youths—
recognized the importance of co
operation. They accepted their
benefactors with better grace,
began to organize their own ef
forts and to become integrated in
Israel’s economy and cultural life.
Mr. Levin’s book is remarkable
from many points of view, in ad
dition to the value it has as a
story. In the course of his narra
tive, he describes Israel’s growth,
he reviews the Jewish state’s bat
tle for existnce and presents an
tie for existence and presents an
and their problems.
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