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Clearwater, Fla., Bank Buys
Israel Bonds—First in State
CLEARWATER, Fla.—The City
National Bank of Clearwater has
become the first Florida bank to
purchase Israel Bonds.
Announcement of the sale was
made this month from the new
ly established office of the State
of Israel Bonds in St. Petersburg
at 4320 Central Avenue.
Harry Sanders, who is man
aging the office, said the $5,000
of bonds acquired by the bank
shows confidence in the Jew
ish States and the deep interest
of the institution’s officials in,
Jewish communal activities.
Israel Bond Committee officials
welcomed the purchase and hail
ed the action of the bank as a
real example of brotherhood and
interest in Jewish causes by non-
Jewish leaders.
This is a great step forward,
the Bond leaders said, and we
trust that it will be the first of
many such purchases by Florida
banking institutions.
I'lio Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
tr ~^(xXj r v
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1963
NO 4
LATE NEWS
NEW YORK (JTA)—The So
viet Government has informed a
shipping agency here that Soviet
Jews will be permitted to re
ceive gift parcels of matzoh from
relatives and friends abroad, it
was reported Monday. During the
past two years when the Soviet
state bakeries were barred from
baking matzoh. such gift parcels
were not delivered to the ad
dressees.
Gabriel Reiner, president of
Cosmos Parcels Express Corpora
tion, a shipping agency licensed
by Intourist, the official Soviet
travel organization, said that he
was notified of the change in
Soviet policy towardt the ship
ment of gift parcels of matzoh
following negotiations between
his firm and the USSR Govern
ment. It was assumed here that
the Soviet customs authorities
would be authorized to receive
matzoh parcels from any shipp
ing agency or through the United
States Parcel Post service.
TEL AVIV (JTA)—An Egyp
tian air force captain Sunday
landed his airplane at an Israeli
airfield, and asked for asylum.
He turned his aircraft over to the
Israeli seniorities. The pilot, Capt.
Muluunfl Abbas Hilml, was fly
ing a piston-engined YAK-II.
Egyptian army planes tried to
intercept Hilmi. But the Egyptian
interceptors fled back to their
own territory when Israeli air
force fighter planes rose to pro
tect Hilmi and escor' him to a
safe landing at an Israeli airbase.
This was the first instance of
an Egyptian pilot surrendering
voluntarily, together with his
ship, to Israeli authorities. His
intention of landing in this coun
try had evidently become known
to the Egyptians. But the Israeli
fighters were also on the alert,
and assured the pilot’s safe ar
rival and landing.
NEW YORK (JTA)—The Zim
Israel Navigation Company this
week announced plans to increase
the sl*e of its merchant fleet this
year by 20 vessels tc a total of
68 ships with a combined dead
weight tonnage of 55,844 tons.
Passenger traffic on the line’s
ships Increased by nine per cent
during the past year compared
with 15)62, the company report
ed.
The new vessels to be acquired
this year include the passenger
liner s. s. Shalom which will be
put into transatlantic service this
spring, and 19 new Cargo vessels
aggregating 154,200 deadweight
tons.
Arab League Conference Ends Without
Communique; To Meet Again on Water Issue
WASHINGTON (JTA)— Ger-
shom Schocken, editor and pub
lisher of the Tel Aviv daily “Ha-
aretz,” has completed a brief visit
to Washington where he met with
leading figures in the White
House, the Congress and the State
Department. At the conclusion of
—turn to page 5
LONDON (JTA)—The five-day
Arab League summit conference
in Cairo ended this week without
an official communique on plans
to counter Israel’s projected Jor
dan River diversion for a huge
Negev irrigation project.
The 13 rulers at the conference
agreed to meet again in Alexan
dria. The five days hod been de
voted to patching up internal
Arab differences and to study of
plans to divert tributaries of t^ie
Jordan River and thus cut sharp
ly water from that river now
available to Israel.
The Arab rulers were under
stood to have appro-, ed a resolu
tion denouncing Israel as a “col
onialist” state “guilty of aggres
sion.” It was presumed this pol
icy stand would be disclosed in
a formal communique later.
The apparent long-iange policy
developed at the conference was
to avoid any action on the Jordan
River situation which might lead
to armed conflict with Israel and
to harass Israel economically and
diplomatically.
Israel responded energetically
to the threats emanating from
Cairo. Prime Minister Levi Esh-
kol warned that Israel would foil
any attempt to interfere with Is
rael’s right to draw water from
the river in accordance with a
regional plan developed by the
late Eric Johnston as a special
United States Ambassador. The
Prime Minister also warned the
13 Arab rulers to avoid any “ad
venturous resolutions.’’
He noted that the United States
had granted large sums of mon
ey to Jordan to carry out a water
Nazi Defendantsat'AuschwitzTriar
Defy Court; Refuse to Testify
FRANKFURT (JTA) — Two
Nazi defendants refused Monday
to testify, and a third denied ever
having committed the atrocities
of which he is accused, as the
trial of 22 farmer Auschwitz
guards, officers and medical per
sonnel went into its third week
here. Presiding Justice Hans Hof-
rneyer looked on in apparent help
lessness as two of the accused
challenged the court.
Oswald Kaduk, 57-year-old
former butcher, came to the wit
ness stand when summoned by-
Justice Hofmeyer and, in a clipp
ed, sharp voice told the court:
“I want to make use of my right
to decline to testify.” He stood
rigidily at attention as he utter
ed this defiance. Then, clicking
his heels, and executing a smart,
military about-face, he marched
back to his seat in the defense
In Panama
Rabbi Reports ‘All Quiet’
At JWB Servicemen’s Center
BALBOA, Canal Zone— Rabbi
Nathan Witkin, director of the
National Jewish Welfare Board’s
Armed Services Center here, who
serves as USO area director for
the Canal Zone, has reported that
the situation at the Center is
quiet and there is n cause for
concern. In a tele;;: am sent at
I he height of disturbances be
tween Panamanians and U. S.
forces in the Canal Zone, Rabbi
Witkin reported that martial law
had been declared and matters
were under control.
Through its sponsorship of the
Outer, JWB is the only mainland
national Jewish organization op
erating in the Canal Zone.
The Center serves U S. mil
itary and civilian personnel in the
area and in addition has been a
focal point for communal activ
ities involving citizens of the Re
public of Panama. It was pic
tured on a recent postage stamp
issued by Panama as one of a
series of religious edifices on the
Isthmus. In the Canal Zone there
are some 9,750 U. S. military per
sonnel plus 11,800 GI dependents,
as well as 1,380 civilian em
ployees with 2,525 dependents.
The Center conducts a full-scale
religious, cultural and recrea
tional program.
Despite tensions which have ex
isted between Panama and the
U. S. over the Canal Zone issue,
the Republic of Panama has from
time to time recognized the con
tributions made by the Center. In
1962 Rabbi Witkin leceived the
Order of Balboa, the nighest dec
oration given by Panama, in hon
or of his’ 25 years of service. The
citation accompanying the award
paid tribute to his “social wel- •
fare activities which benefit both
the Panama and Canal Zone ci
vilian communities” and hailed
him as a “silent ambassador who
has been able to solidify the ci
vilian and religious groups within
his mission f 4rt the Caribbean
section of Frankfurt's City Hall,
where the marathon proceedings
are being held.
The court had no better luck
with Franz Hoffmann, another of
the accused, who had preceded
Kaduk in the witness stand. He
had been on the stand at the last
session, last Friday, when he
broke down and wept, as he
denied charges of murdering
Auschwitz inmates. Justice Hof
meyer told him: “It seems you
withheld the truth in your tes
timony. You weren’t very truth
ful.”
Hoffmann, who is already serv
ing a life term after having been
convicted at Munich of atrocities
at the Dachau concentration camp,
yelled back at the court: “Always
it’s Hoffmann; I am to blame for
everything. If this starts all over
again, I won’t say anything more.”
Justice Hofmeyer sighed, and told
the man to go back to his seat.
Kaduk was indicted for the mur
der of 1,200 Auschwitz victims,
and accused of choking many to
death through a special device
which he had invented.
The overall denial at the ses
sion came from the third defend
ant called to the stand, 44-year-
old Stefan Baretzki. When the
prosecutor accused him of having
developed “a special blow” with
which to kill Auschwitz inmates,
he replied: “I don’t know what
to say to that allegation. I never
used a so-called ‘special blow’
He admitted that at times he did
strike “unruly inmates,” but he
had only slapped them lightly in
the face, he maintained.
In reply to another charge,
which specified that he had par
ticipated in selecting inmates for
the gas. Ovens at Birkcnau, Bar-
etzki said that, having been only
a private, he would never have
been assigned to such duty “to
whifh only officers were assign
ed.” Shown a photograph of a
private working with officers at
the Birkenau death ramp, he in
sisted “that never happened to
me.”
Baretzki conceded that, “once,”
he shot a man who tried to
escape, but said he had not kill
ed the man, declaring “the man
fell on the electric wires and was
electrocuted.” He denied other
charges which accused him of
forcing a group of 11 newly ar
rived inmates onto the electric
wires, and of having shot a
woman who, upon arriving in the
camp, exclaimed because she saw
her brother there.
In Hoffmann’s case, the pros
ecution charged, although he re-
tused to talk further, that he
plied newly arrived inmates with
alcohol to keep them quiet and
“orderly” as they awaited their
turns to enter the gas chambers.
BONN (JTA) — A former SS
—turn to page 5
diversion plan, tapping the Yar-
muk, one of the Jordan River
tributaries and that Syria also
was tapping the river for irri
gation.
Later, Eshkol met with U. S.
Ambassador Walworth Barbour
to discuss the situation. The
United States has indicated it sup
ports the Israeli plan because it
is within the framework of the
Johnston plan. United States and
British embassies remihded the
rulers at the Cairo conference
that the two Western Powers con
tinued to stand by their previous
position on regional use of the
Jordan River waters.
The-- conference did yield two
: teps toward Arab unity. One was
resumption of diplomatic relations
between Egypt and Jordan. The
other was a unified military com
mand to strengthen the Arab pos
ition on problems related to Is
rael.
The Soviet Union was playing
a trouble-making role in the sit
uation. An Arabic broadcast on
Radio Moscow urged the 13 Arab
rulers not to transform the pres
ent “state of war” into “a bloody
battle” over the Jordan River.
But the broadcast also called the
project “criminal” and declared
that if “Israeli extremists” suc
ceeded in completing the proj
ect, “thousands of Arab peasants”
would be forced “to abandon their
villages in the Jordan River,” a
prediction wholly unsupported by
any known facts. The broadcast
also asserted that “the Tel Aviv
rulers” had started massing arm
ed forces along the border. How
ever, none of the Soviet broad
casts promised Soviet support to
the Arabs if there was military
action against the Israeli irriga
tion project.
Trees for 'Tu Bishvat ’
(See Page 4)
Children Plant a New Tree for a New Year in Israel