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Good News from the Congo
However muddled the situation
in the Congo may appear in cur
rent wire service news about Ka
tanga, Tshomoe and the United
Nations, there is no mistaking the
happy implications in a dispatch
received from the scene tjy The
Southern Israelite
Israel’s Consul in Leopoldville,
remembered for his vital service
as the Jewish State's Southeast
Consul and for his beautiful and
gracious wife, penned the follow
ing to TSI editor:
“It U our fond hope that we
may have many friends in At
lanta who are interested in our
fate. 1 should therefore be
obliged to you for Inserting the
following announcement in the
nest edition of your paper:
“Mr. *n<J Mrv Moth* Ltihtm are
nappy to announca tna birth ot thair
ton Matty liraal fmbany, Leopold
villa, Jan. 2, )»*3."
The hundreds < i friends the
couple made for themselves and
the country they lepresented in
Atlanta and the South—will in
deed receive this information with
a feeling of Mazel Tov and joy.
By the time most of TSI’s
readers see the announcement in
type, a copy of TSI will be flynig
toward Leopoldville. It took six
days for the registered air mail
letter to reach the editor’s desk
in Atlanta.
(English-Jewish papers in
Nashville, Memphis, Miami,
Greensboro, New Orleans, Hou
ston and Ft. Worth, please copy.)
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
Vol. XXXVIII ~ ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1963 NO 3
Israel Bond Leaders
Set $75 Million Goal
NEW YORK (JTA)—A decision
to provide $75,000,000 this year
for further economic development
of Israel through the sale of Is
rael bonds was adopted here Sun
day at the close of a two-day na
tional planning conference of the
board of governors of the Israel
Bond Organization
The action on the 1963 quota
was taken by more than 300 Jew
ish leaders after Dr. Joseph J.
Schwartz. vice president of Is
rael Bond Organisation, reported
that Israel would require a total
of $186,833,000 for its Develop
ment Budget during the year
from April 1, 1963 to March 31,
1964. In the past Israel bonds
have provided for approximately
one-third of the country’s devel
opment needs.
He pointed out that Israel
bonds, which provided a total of
$591,622,850 for development since
1951, had been “the mainspring
and principal outside source of
—turn to page 5
Many Issues of Jewish Interest
Likely for Action in 88th Congress
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
first session of the 88th Congress,
which opened last week, ; s ex
pected to involve a number of
issues of special interest to the
American Jewish community.
Thew include. Immigration
policy, anti-filibuster measures,
civil rights, Soviet anti-Semitism,
Arab discrimination affecting
Americans, and American policy
in the Middle East.
An early campaign is antici-
Khrushchev 'Explains' Opposition
To Jews in Government Posts
LONDON, (JTA)—Soviet Prime Minister Ni
kita Khrushchev, speaking at a meeting in Mos
cow of leading writers, artists, musicians and high
government officials, expressed his opinion that
it is better for Jews not to hold top positions in
Soviet government offices, because “this only pro
vokes popular resentment.”
The meeting, according to a report in Sunday
Observer, written by Edward Crankshaw, a fore
most expert on Soviet affairs, took place in Mos
cow last month and was called primarily to dis
cuss Soviet writing, art and music. However, it
turned out to have been taken up largely with
bitter arguments about anti-Semitism in the So
viet Union.
The view that it was best to avoid placing
Jews in top government positions was already
conveyed by Mr. Khrushchev to leaders of Poland
and Hungary, back in 1956. That was the year
when the Soviet Premier visited Poland to pre
vent an anti-Communist revolt there and when
the revolt in Communist Hungary was crushed by
the Russian army. Mr. Khrushchev said that, in
his view, the revolts in Poland and Hungary were
largely due to the presence of “too many Jews”
in top government posts.
The Moscow meeting, held December 17, was
widely publicized by the Soviet press, but none
of the details about the debate on anti-Semitism
was made public. The Soviet Government, wrote
Mr. Crankshaw, had been advised by certain
leaders^ satellite governments that at the latest
RussiaSMirive against Jews had created “a poor
impression in the outside world.” The satellite
leaders, according to Mr. Crankshaw, referred to
the arrests of rabbis and other Jewish leaders on
charges of currency speculation, and the contin
ued closing of synagogues in the Soviet Union.
The debate on anti-Semitism, according to Mr
Crankshaw, was caused by an attack by the Com
munist Party’s chief propagandist, Ilychev, against
the composer Shostakovich for using the famous
Yevgeny Yevtushenko poem, Babi Yar, in con
nection with his latest major composition, the
Thirteenth Symphony. Babi Yar had been widely
interpreted in the West as a condemnation of con
tinuing Soviet anti-Semitisim. It dealt with the
ravine in Kiev where at least 40,000 Jewish men,
women and children had' been buried in mass
graves after a wholesale massacre of Jewish peo
ple during the Nazi occupation of Kiev in World
War II.
Not only was Shostakovich attacked during
the Moscow meeting, but there were also violent
personal attacks against Ilya Ehrenburg, the vet
eran Soviet Jewish author. After the debate on
anti-Semitism. Mr. Crankshaw reported, Mr.
Khrushchev assured Ehrenburg that the attacks
were not directed personally against the writer.
“You must understand,” the Premier reportedly
told Ehrenburg, “that, as a professional politician,
I must take things as I find them, and warn against
dangers.”
Mr. Khrushchev, was also quoted by Mr. Crank
shaw as asserting, “half defensively and half ag
gressively,” that there was no more anti-Semitism
in Russia because “the nationalities question has
been solved.” “There is only individual anti-
Semitism” in Russia now, Mr Khrushchev was
quoted as saying.
“These words do not ring quite true,” wrote
Mr. Crankshaw, "in view of the sustained attacks,
increasing all through 1962, against Jewish cul
ture and against Jewish religious observances. At
least 10 important centers of Jewish population
have had their synagogues closed down in recent
months, making a total of at least 60 closings of
synagogues since 1959. More than 60 per cent of
the publishtxi total of persons shot for ‘specula
tion’ and similar activities have been Jews.”
In some of the trials for “economic crimes,”
Mr. Crankshaw noted, “synagogues were described
as meeting places for crooks and speculators.” In
addition to the very recent shutdown of the syna
gogues at Lvov, stated Mr. Crankshaw, other Jew
ish houses of worship closed last year included
the one at Sverdlovsk, where there are 40,000
Jews; Zhitomir, with 30,000 Jews; Kazan, with
25,000 Jews; Grozny, with 12,000; and many others.
In many places, Jews who had met for religious
services in private homes were “dispersed” by
police and “pilloried," Mr. Crankshaw reported.
Yevtushenko, meanwhile, has denied reports
that ho had re-written his Babi Yar poem to fit
Communist Party line. “I have not changed the
poem." he was reported as saying, "I have ex
panded and supplemented it a little.” A new sec
lion of his poem, according to a Moscow report,
tells about a Russian, non-Jewish woman who had
sacrificed her life to save the lives of two Jewish
children during the Nazi occupation. The Soviet
Premier, in making his comment on anti-Semitism
in Russia, told (he meeting that Babi Yar had
magnified the “isolah'd cases" of anti-Semitism
all out of proportion.
pated for implementation of the
Keating-Halpern amendment of
the Mutual Security Act. This
amendment opposes aid to na
tions, like Egypt, which use their
resources to purchase Soviet
arms. Congressmen may seek to
terminate aid to Egypt not only
because of Nasser’s diversion of
Egyptian resources to buy more
Soviet Jets, but out of anger
caused by the active participation
of Egyptian forces in Yemen.
One Senator, declining to be
identified, said: ‘I don’t see why
we should pick up the tab for
Nasser’s expansionist aggression
It endangers the pro-American
governments of Saudi Arabia and
Jordan, while financing Nasser’s
acquisition of Russian jet bomb
ers to menace democratic Israel.”
He said that he and others, who
were previously lukewarm on the
Keeting-Halpern measure, had
now “had enough of the State De
partment’s appeasement of Nas
ser.”
A duel between the State De
partment and Congress on Egypt
appears inevitable. The State De
partment is advancing plans to
increase loans and grants to Nas
ser, who incurred a huge debt in
his Yemeni adventure. Congress
will challenge such aid every step
of the way. Legislation will be
sought to bar further aid to Egypt
in a mandatory provision, unless
the Executive Department im
plements the discretionary Keat
ing-Halpern clause.
Jewish organizations will watch
the anti-Filibuster fight, aware
that civil rights, immigration re
vision, and other legislation is
contingent upon victory. If suc-
—turn to parr 4
New Wave of US
Emigration to Israel
By DAVID HOROWITZ
NEW YORK, (WUP)—Judging
by the first reactions of a group
of some one hundred and fifty
retired and semi-retired Ameri
can Jewish men and women who
jammed a Jewish Agency Hall
here last week to get first-hand
information on a pew Israeli
"Retirement Club” venture, one
may be safe in predicting that a
new wave of U.S. emigration to
Israel will get under way within
a few months.
And for this new trend—cer
tainly very much welcomed by
the Israeli Government—Premi
er David Ben-Gurion will have
to give thanks and extend con
gratulations to the renowned
Rassco Israel Corporation which
has already done so much in the
rebuilding of the Hebrew Com
monwealth.
Rassco has just completed the
first of a chain of modem re
tirement clubs at Kfar Shmary-
ahu—named after Dr. Shmarya-
hu Levin—situated some 9 miles
north of Tel Aviv. And it is ex
pected that thousands of Ameri
cans will place their names on
the reservation lists.
Named Neve Aviv, the new
Club—-situated in one of the
most beautiful spots of the State
and judging by the slides shown
at the Jewish Agency meeting—
has everything that either Flori
da or Arizona might offer the
lucky families seeking a happy
retirement.
The colorful and attractive
building — with a connecting
wing housing the dining hall,
lounges, synagogue, hobby and
game room, infirmary, library,
etc.—contains spacious single
and double rooms each with a
private balcony, bath and tele
phone. The ClutwiSv actually, a
combination of residence hotel
and home. It is a stone’s throw
from the seaside resort of Her-
zlia.
At the New York meeting,
Rabbi Mordecai Kirshblum, head
of the Jewish Agency Aliya De
partment, hailed the Rassco pro
ject as a most hopeful and prom
ising venture for American-
Jewlsh couples and individuals
seeking to retire in Israel
Mr Abraham Frank, special
Rassco representative from Is
rael, in explaining the many
benefits the Neve Ariv Retire
ment Club offered its members,
told the enthusiastic group of
prospective settlers that the pro
ject was a strictly business en
terprise despite the reasonable
cost of membership in compari
son to the cost of membership
in similar clubs elsewhere.
Fr. Frank announced that the
all-inclusive monthly payment
of $165 for a single occupancy
and $260 for a married couple
covered not only the apartment
and full board, but also medical
insurance and hospitalization,
and all the recreational and
cultural activities that the Club
offered. Of course, there is an
initial membership fee—a fairly
moderate sum considering one
acquires a life-long home.
This writer was very much
impressed with what be saw
and heard at the Ranco meet
ing last week, live Neva Ayiv
Club is an answer to • dream.