Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
Vol. XLIV
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1Q° r
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Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, March 7, 1969
No. 10
° ^iaei s
Eshkol Laid to lies! Golda Meir B*
On Mount Herzl Interim Prime minister
Urges Negroes Emulate Jewish
Drive for Excellence
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Inter
ment for Prime Minister Levi
Eshkol was held Friday on
Mount Herzl between the
graves of Eliezer Kaplan,
Israel’s First Finance Minister,
and that of Joseph Sprinzak, the
first speaker of the Knesset. The
bier of Israel’s third Premier and
first to die in office lay in state
at the Knesset Plaza for a .full
day before the interment and
nearly 300,000 Israelis passed by
it in tribute. '
The mourners included many
leaders but it was mostly the
plain people who came — young
office girls in mini-skirts and old
women in long coats, groups of
whispering school children and
dignified turbaned Sephardic rab
bis, tourists, laborers in overalls,
cassocked priests, Arabs in tra
ditional garb and army officers
in dress uniform. A few Arabs
from East Jerusalem and the oc
cupied areas also came. Two of
their leaders — Jordan’s former
Defense Minister Anwar Nusei-
beh and Hebron Mayor Sheikh
Mohammed Ali Jasbari — pub
licly expressed sorrow over Mr.
Eshkol’s death.
The burial proceedings began
when leaders headed by Presi
dent Shazar and delegations
from abroad set out for the
Knesset Plaza shortly after dawn.
They included the President of
the Bundesrat, West Germany’s
Upper House,, Prof. Herbert
Weichmann, ancF'^Robert Finch,
the American Secretary of
Health, Education and Welfare.
Six Major Generals of Israel, the
commanders of the Navy and
Air Force, approached the coffin.
Sixty officer candidates lined up
behind them. A woman officer
bore the late Premier’s medals
and decorations on a blue cush
ion. Flowers placed by visitors
filled the whole Knesset Plaza
front.
The late Premier’s family took
positions — his widow, his four
daughters, and his brother Ben
LEVI ESHKOL
Zion Skolnik, who came from
the Soviet Union a few years
ago. On the other side were
grouped Israel’s dignitaries —
President Shazar, Knesset Speak
er Kaddush Luz, Acting Premier
Yigal ALlon, Cabinet Ministers,
the Supreme Court president,
Chief Rabbis Untermann and
Nissim, as well as the official
delegations from abroad. Be
hind them stood the members
of the diplomatic corps and dele
gations from every town and
village, from institutions and
organizations, from the army and
the police. Maj. Gen. Shlomo
Goren, the army chief chaplain,
intoned the verse “A prince and
a great man has fallen in Israel.”
Chief Rabbi Untermann read a
chapter of the Psalms. Ben Zion
Skolnik recited the Kaddish.
President Shazar briefly de
scribed the Prime Minister’s
career, remarking that “the blue
veins” of underground water had
become a vision to Mr. Eshkol
which “gave wings” to his
Continued on page 5
By Adolph Rosenberg
Golda Meir, a well-known fig
ure in Atlanta before and after
the creation of the Jewish State,
has assumed the provisional di
rection of the Israeli Govern
ment.
She became interim Prime Min
ister upon the decision of the
ruling Labor party leadership
which voted 40-0 In her favor.
Moshe Dayan, who possesses
great popularity among the gen
eral population, and several of
his close associates abstained
from voting.
Decision of Mrs. Meir remain
ed in the air for several days
after talk was engendered upon
the death last week of Prime
Minister Levi Eshkol because, as
she put it there were matters of
“personal health.”
Mrs. Meir herself is a former
Milwaukee school teacher who
long before World War 11
chose to cast her lot with the
Zionist cause. She settled in Pal
estine and made many trips to
America in behalf of the Hista-
drut and Pioneer Women.
It was on one such trip to At
lanta as the guest of Pioneer
Women that she was offered as
a Friday night speaker for the
Ahavath Achim Congregation.
The crowd at the “Big Shule” on
Washington Street was at the
time quite slim, compared to the
crowd she was later to attract,
barely approximating 200 per
sons.
As Gloria Meyerson, as she was
known when she assumed a He
brew name, grew in stature arid
thd State of Israel came into exis
tence, the charisma she. possessed
became more and more glamor
ous.
Her succeeding visits to At
lanta drew huge crowds. Mostly
she made her appearances in At
lanta in behalf of the United
Jewish Appeal.
In January of 1956, she appear
ed at the Mayfair Club in be
half of a national UJA effort to
raise n special fund of $25,000,-
000.
Persons closely affiliated with
Atlanta fund raising efforts re>
call that during the dinner held
for around thirty of the top
leaders in the community, an out-
skirt kind of argument arose be
tween two of the business men.
At first the argument was sot to
rocc, then spilling over into a
crescendo which threatened to
drown out the speaker.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen,” inter
rupted the distinguished visitor,
"I’ll be delighted to solve your
local problems over rentals if
only you will take over the trou
bles of my country in matters of
defense and immigration and ec
onomics.” She got the silence and
the proper attention among the
audience.
An individual who worked close
to the soil, she had gone as a
young woman to Palestine and
joined a settlement. She tilled the
soil like a man. She also did all
Continued on page 5
Israel Bond Campaign UnderWay
With Unprecedented Initial Sale
MIAMI BEACH (JTA)— The
1969 Israel Bond campaign was
under way this week with an un
precedented initial Bond sale
totaling $61,1224,000. More than
2,500 delegates from the United
States and Canada who partici
pated in the international inau
gural conferences of the Bond
Organization endorsed adoption
of a quota of $200 million for the
Bond drive throughout the free
world. The Bonds will be sold
in tribute to the late Premier
Levi Eshkol who died Wednes
day. Mr. Eshkol was termed by
Louis H. Boyar of Los Angeles,
chairman of the Bond organiza
tion’s board of governors, as the
“chief architect” of Israel’s ec-
Groundbreaking Ceremonies In Augusta
onomic program.
Mr. Boyar said that the de
cision to raise $200 million as a
“worldwide tribute" to Mr. Esh
kol was made after the organiza
tion received numerous inquries
from persons across the country
who wanted to buy Bonds in his
memory.
The record-breaking $61,124,-
000 result of the initial Israel
Bond sale was announced by
Samuel Rothberg, national cam
paign chairman, who character
ized it as “a lasting tribute to
Levi Eshkol” and as a “demon
stration of our solidarity with the
people of Israel in their struggle
for a just peaoe.” An air of sol
emnity hung over the inaugural
dinner which was converted into
the first nationwide memorial tri
bute to the late Premier by Jew
ish communal leaders from all
sections of the country. The sor
row of American Jewry was ex
pressed by Dr. Joseph J.
Schwartz, vice president of the
Bond Organization, who said,
“This is a solemn and dark day
in the life of the Jewish people.
Israel has lost its Prime Minister.
The Jewish people has lost a
great leader. We have lost a dear
friend who inspired and guided
us in our efforts to promote the
building of Israel.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the
United States, Itzhak Rabin, paid
a warm personal tribute to M».
Eshkol. Gen. Rabin recalled Ms
1 inn association with the IitmS
Premier in the tbree-end-e-bsdl
years during which Idr. Eshkol
also headed the Ministry of De
fense and Gen. Rabin was his
Chief of Staff. The envoy de
clared that Israel was now en
gaged in three struggles for sur
vival: the political struggle for
peace; the military struggle for
physical survival; and the strug
gle for national consolidation
through development Deploring
the failure of the Arab states to
enter into direct negotiations
with Israel, he said he was pessi
mistic about prospects for an
early settlement but emphasized
that Israel was confident that It
has the means to maintain its de
fensive position.
Gen. Rabin placed great stress
on the role of development and
consolidation of the economic
and social structure of Israel as
the most decisive factor in its
capacity to survive. He empha
sized the “crucial importance of
the Bond campaign in giving
Israel the economic strength to
convince the Arab states "to giv®
up any hope of destroying Israel
and to make them realize that
they have many benefits to gain
from true cooperation in the
Middle East”
A new $170,000 education building for Adas Yes’iurun Synagogue in Augusta is expected to be
ready for occupancy in August. The building, of brick and concrete block construction, will house
six classrooms, a chapel, administrative offices, exhibit gallery and kitchen. It will connect to the
existing library which will be enlarged.
Taking part in the February 19 groundbreaking ceremony (above) were Rabbi Maynard C.
Hyman spiritual leader of the congregation; Hill Silver, building committee chairman; Philip
Daitch,’honorary chairman; Dr. Ira Goldberg, congregation president; Abe Fogel, building commit
tee co chairman; Sydney Carter, architect; Harry Peihl, building contractor; Mrs. Dave Levy, rep
resenting Daughters of Lwael Sisterhood.
CHICAGO (JTA) — A Negro
editor called upon proponents of
Black Power to emulate the
Jewish drive for success and go
after “Black excellence.” Louis
Martin, editor of Sengstacke Pub
lications, said in a column in the
Chicago Daily Defender, a Negro
newspaper, that “there is some
thing to Jewish culture, some
dynamic factor that seems to im
pel them to excel.” The Jews
“have a passion for excellence,”
which has carried them to the
top in the arts, science, business
and professions despite a long
history of persecution, he said.
Mr. Martin dismissed alleged
Negro anti-Sefhitism as some
thing “deliberately manufacured”
by a handful of Black nationalists
and a few Jewish unionists in the
recent New York City school
strike. He accused the press of
giving it disproportionate cover
age. “The big time journalists
grabbed this story with all the
glee of a hungry dog in a meat
house. The prospect of Jews and
Negroes beating each other over
the head is a Christian delight.”
Mr. Martin said there was not a
Black man in America who was
not a direct beneficiary of Jew
ish Interest and investment in lib
eral causes. “It would be an
example of Incredible stupidity
for Blacks to single out of white
society the Jews for special
scorn.”