Newspaper Page Text
Eight
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, Oct. 4, 1968
LONDON NEWSLETTER
British Foreign Office
Abolishes Hebrew Service
By S. J. GOLDSMITH
Copyright 1968—JTA
While everybody was arguing
that appeasement never pays, the
British Foreign Office served up
a piece of astonishing appease
ment which could have done
Neville Chamberlain proud- It in
structed the British Broadcasting
Corporation to abolish its He
brew Service, and it told Parlia
ment about it on the last day of
the summer session, when there
was no time to have a debate or
even to ask questions.
The BBC is autonomous in
home politics but under Foreign
Office supervision in overseas
matters. The Corporation tried to
dissuade the Foreign Office from
this act of folly but the F. O.
remained adamant—appeasers ara
surprisingly stubborn—and the
Hebrew Service will have its last
broadcast on October 27. It will
be nineteen years old by then
—almost to the day.
The Foreign Office explana
tions cannot be taken seriously.
They are so lame as to sound
daft. Parliament and the public
were told that the expense was
not justified and, in the same
breath, that the money would be
used in Israel on other cultural
ventures. The total budget of the
Hebrew Service is less than 20,-
000 pounds ($48,000) per annum.
The BBC spends more on paper
clips. As to usefulness, the BBC
told the Foreign Office—accord
ing to the BBC, that their He
brew Service enjoyed a good rep
utation in Israel, despite the fact
that it had been starved of funds,
sent out on short-wave frequ
encies only and kept down to
half-an-hour a day. The Minis
try was also told by the BBC
that the Hebrew Service had nu
merous devoted listeners in Eas
tern Europe and elsewhere in the
world.
All this was subsequently
borne out by a spate of letters
in protest to Erwin Bienenstok,
the Head of the Hebrew Sec
tion. It is a kind of Alice in Won
derland story We are told that
the BBC must keep up its good
work in Eastern Europe — and
OFF THE RECORD by Nathan Ziprin
In Remembrance
(A Seven Arts Feature)
My father, may he rest in
peace, was a great story teller.
When not burdened by the un-
prosaic chores of the day, he
could weave tales of the past
with a lingering charm that had
the true quality of art. He was
at his best however when spin
ning the tales of our childish
lives. He could recall in full de
tails the “chochmes” of all the
children and retell them with
the freshness of a folktale . . .
His favorite story about me was
about the time I got lost and
the frantic moments my parents
went through before they were
finally reassured that their first-
b o r n kaddish-sayer had not
drowned in the plunge he had
taken.
We were visiting with our
paternal grandparents in an ad
jacent town. The day was bright
on the small Ukrainian town.
The distant pastures were green
and plentiful. The scent from
the orchards wafted to the wood
en home which was grandfather’s
residence and the five-year-old
child could not resist the charm
of the world that lay so close
within his grasp though he had
repeatedly been cautioned
against trespassing the Christian
area. The goyische goss held fear
for the small community of Jews
in the town. There had been a
wave of pogroms in the land and
all that separated our Jewish
community from the area of
fear in front of us was a dis
tance of perhaps one hundred
yards.
But to the five-year-old child
the fear and the distance vanish
ed as he stood beholding the
wonders on the other side of
the fence-
By the time my parents real
ized I was missing, the sun had
already begun to set. The peas
ants were returning from field
and market. The goyische goss
was echoing with friendly bark
ing of dogs greeting their re
turning masters, and the sexton
on the other line of the boundary
was already seen wending his
way to synagogue where wor
shippers were congregating for
early mincha. By this time my
parents were beginning to be
come hysterical, speculating the
fate of their first-born apple of
their eyes. If he were kidnapped,
their son, by a band of gypsies
that was known to have roamed
the area at the time, it might
take more money than they had
to ransom him. But he could
also have wandered off to the
pond from which there is no
ransom.
But the child was quite con
siderate of his parents. Before
deep alarm possessed them, he
nonchalantly walked into the
house with mud on face, a cut
above the eye and an unsatiable
appetite.
When the mud on the face was
wiped off, the eye cleansed and
the appetite satiated, there was
the explanation to come. Where
had I been and why? To the very
end of his days my father
laughed to the point of tears
when he recalled my confession
that I had been lured to the
One-Man Effort Helps
Teenagers — 3,500
ENGLEWOOD, N. J. (JTA)
A one-man effort to provide so
cial occasions through Saturday
night dances at Jewish youngs
ters in Bergen County will get
under way for a fourth year on
Oct. 5 at the Englewood Jewish
Community Center.
Morris Magaziner, a Harring
ton Park accountant who or
ganized Jewish Organized Youth,
said he expected between 3,500
and 4,000 such Jewish teenagers
to attend the eight dances sche
duled for the current organiza
tional year.
He explained that he had felt
something should be done about
the problem because the sche
duled social events given by Ber
gen County synagogues and cen
ters were primarily for members
of youth groups affiliated with
these institutions and the unaf
filiated Jewish teenagers were
not being reached.
He reported that there had
been a steadily increasing num
ber of participants in the dance
programs—2,500 in 1966, and 3,-
000 last year. This year, for the
first time, an identification card
is required for admission, plus
a one dollar admission charge.
The cards are obtainable from
any of the participating syna
gogue offices or community cen
ters, through the Hackensack and
Westwood YMHA, from presi
dents of Bergen County Jewish
youth groups and from the local
B’nai B’rith Youth Organization.
Each card is to list the dance
schedule, dates, location and
time.
Mr. Magaziner said that the
participating organizations pro
vided facilities without charge
and that JOY paid the orchestra
fee. Live music is provided for
each dance and the dance is
chaperoned. In the first year, a
surplus of $700 was netted, which
was distributed to the United
Jewish Appeal and other Jewish
charitable groups- If a similar
surplus developed this year, a
similar distribution will be
made. The other participating
institutions are Congregation
Beth Sholom of Teaneck, Ber-
genfield Jewish Community
Center, and Temple Sholom of
River Edge, N.J.
goyische goss by a shiksele.
Judging from the way this in
cident lingered in my father’s
mind I suspect it had deeper
implications for him than its
surface meaning. ,
If this confession ever reaches
my father, he will rest eternally
in the knowledge that the tents
of Jacob held greater lure for
me always than the blandish
ments of shikses.
I have chosen this theme in
this my last column only because
I hope that I have transmitted
that credo in more than a quar
ter of a century of columnizing
as editor of the Seven Arts Fea
ture Syndicate. However, the
inkwell is not yet dry nor the
quill and parchment seared and
hopefully I will continue to add
my voice to the chorus of Jewish
living.
close down one of its outlets there
just as the Czechoslovak crisis
boils up.
There is a tale about an Amer
ican tourist who asked a police-,
man on patrol duty in Whitehall:
“On which side is the Foreign
Office?” The officer replied: “On
our side, I hope.”
It is no secret any longer that
the BBC Hebrew Service was
closed down to please the Arabs.
Sir Harold Beeley, the British di
plomat who was sent to Cairo to
make up with Nasser, a compul
sive appeaser of the Arabs and a
pathological hater of Israel, told
the Foreign Office that the He
brew Service was “an embarass-
ment” to him. Incidentally, he
hasn’t made much progress since
the announcement about the
abolition of the Hebrew Service.
Israel survived Beeley when he
was secretary to the Anglo-Amer
ican Committee of Inquiry on
Palestine; she can take him in
her stride today. But it is to the
eternal shame of the Labor Gov
ernment that it closed down the
Hebrew Service at the request of
a third-rate appeaser in Cairo
who has never had a diplomatic
success, and who has caused trou
ble — to Britain — wherever he
went.
This incident, in itself of no
great importance, has much wider
implications. The submission to
Arab blackmail shows clearly
that Arab romanticism is still
very much alive in the Foreign
Office. It was dormant for a
time; it is active once more. Law
rence of Arabia rides again . . .
Avoid the Jews, squat on the
floor with corrupt and lecherous
sheikhs, ride a white charger to
Jedda—and all will be well in
the Middle East.
The managers of Shell-Mex
and British Petroleum have dis
covered that oil nowadays is
bought by different methods. But
the odor of Arab romanticism
hangs over the Foreign Office
palace like the smell of stale Ha
vanas the morning after. It is
this atmosphere which produced
the decision to close the Hebrew
Service.
Now only Moscow and Cairo
broadcast in Hebrew.
Suppose Israel was not as cool
and civilized as it is and decided
to close the British Council offices
in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on
October 27, 1968.
That much for the Foreign Of
fice. There is also an Anglo-Jew-
ish aspect to the saga. After wait
ing for six weeks, the Board of
Deputies of British Jews decided
to take a hand in the matter. It
seems they could not see the
Foreign Secretary, Michael Stew
ard, or even one of the Ministers
of State, Lord Chalfont or Gor-
onwy Roberts. So they had to
make do with Maurice Foley, an
under-secretary, the sixth man in
rank at the Ministry. To see this
minor politician, the following
Board delegation was mounted:
The President, one vice president;
the chairman of the Israel Com
mittee; the press officer, one
member of the Executive Com
mittee and one other official.
Needless to say, some British
Jews consider such goings-on
rather undignified. They are an
noyed when such things are done
in their name (the Board is the
representative body of British
Jews).
The delegation was told that
the F. O. decision must stand.
This was to be expected. They
never amend a decision before
the damage is done. Generally,
the Board has seldom persuaded
the Government to change a
course of action, and never in the
sphere of foreign politics or re
lations with Israel. “The Israel
Committee of the Board would
be much more usefully employed
in organizing Hebrew classes,”
said an angry member of the
Board.
Foley repeated to the Board
delegation the irrelevant story
that a “link between the BBC
and Kol Israel might be possi
ble.” But Kol Israel does not
seem to want it. No self-respect
ing radio network would accept
a service provided by other —
most probably biased—people, to
judge from the treatment of the
Hebrew Service, in order to save
a paltry 2,000 pounds ($4,800) a
year, if that.