Newspaper Page Text
Vol. XLVIII
TCD I VI f W
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
Established 1925
Atlanta, Georgia, August 3, 1973
One Section — 12 Pages
NO 32
Agency Chief Pincus Dies in Sleep;
Facile Speaker With U.S. Jewry
LOUIS PINCUS
JERUSALEM (JTA) — With
temperatures climbing over 95
degrees, some 1500 families in the
Beit Hanina suburb of north
Jerusalem have been sweating
through a heat wave without a
regular supply of water. Many
families in the suburb have been
without water for five or more
days. The immediate cause of the
shortage was the breakdown of a
well pump in Jerusalem. But the
situation is aggravated by the
strain on water supply throughout
bv CRAIG ARONOFF
Part III: The Local Scene
FINAI IMSTAI I MINI
The daily life of the Atlanta
Jewish community has been less
dramatic than that of Jews in other
parts of the world during the past
49 vears, less triumphant than that
of Israel and less tragic than that
of Europe.
Still, there was plenty lor The
Southern Israelite to cover on the
local scene Its pages are filled
JERUSALEM, (JTA) — Louis
A Pincus, chairman of the Jewish
Agency Executive and of the
World Zionist Organization and
newly-elected chairman of the
Conference of Jewish
Organizations (COJO), died in his
sleep on July 25. He was 61.
Though he had suffered some
heart trouble last year, he was
the country and by the heat wave
itself
The regular water supply to the
neighborhood was about 1500
cubic meters of water per day But
last week the amount was cut by a
third with the water distributed
rolationally among residents.
However, the shortage has been so
bad that some people have been
drinking soft drinks instead of
water for almost a week.
The city said the problem would
with reports of Jocal Jewish ac
tivities, events, meetings, wed
dings, honors, births and deaths.
A journalistic technique used b\
newsmen everywhere is the "local
angle story" relating to national or
international events. Such stories
report on how distant happenings
effect the local community or how
the local community responds
World War II gave ample oppor
tunity to find such stories in the
Atlanta Jewish Community
thought to be in reasonably good
health. His wife, Chasya, found
him dead beside her when she
woke Mr. Pincus was huried at
the section of Mount Her/I
graveyard reserved for prominent
Zionist leaders.
The bier was brought to the
Jewish Agency head offices early
on July 27 and lay in state at the
Jerusalem Convention Hall where
the public paid its respects.
Premier Golda Meir delivered the
eulogy at the funeral service there.
Mr. Pincus was born in the
Orange Tree State in South Africa
in 1912 and was graduated from
the Witwatersrand University Law
School in 1934 and opened a law
practice in South Africa.
One of the founders of the
Habonim Movement in South
Africa, he served as chairman of
the South African Labor Zionist
Movement from 1939 to 1948 and
as vice chairman of the South
African Zionist Federation, which
he represented at the Zionist
Congress at Basle. Mr. Pincus
settled in Israel in 1948 and for one
year served as legal advisor to the
Transport Ministry of the fledgling
State.
In 1949, he was appointed
managing director of El Al and in
be solved in a day or two when the
pump is repaired. But Jerusalem is
threatened with a continuing water
shortage during the next month
Water consumption has been
steadily rising because of
Jerusalem's enormous develop
ment during the last few years. A
master plan after the Six-Day War
projected a consumption of 30
million cubic meters of water bv
1980. Jerusalemites have alreadv
used 27 million cubic meters of
water this year.
On March 13, 1942. TSI
reported “B'nai BTith Sponsors
Rally On Effects of W ar on Home
f ront." Such headlines were com
mon as Atlanta Jewry sought to
aid in the war effort. Sometimes it
was by making life brighter for
Jewish boys in uniform as on Rosh
Hashana of 1944 when this
newspaper told "South Prepares
Holiday Celebrations for Men and
Women in Uniforms." At other
Turn to Page .3
the next seven years laid the foun
dations of the country's proficient
and profitable national air carrier.
In 1957, he joined a leading Tel
Aviv law firm. He was a member
of the Central Committee and
chairman of the academic section
of Mapai, the Israeli Labor Party,
and a member of the Executive of
the World Union of Poalei Zion.
His association with the Jewish
Agency began in 1956 when he was
elected chairman of its finance and
budget committee. He was elected
treasurer of the Agency in 1961
and chairman of the executive in
1965. Since 1968 he also held the
aliya and absorption portfolio on
the Agency Executive.
From 1962 to 1971 Mr. Pincus
was chairman of the governors of
Tel Aviv University and from
NEW YORK (JTA) — Louis
A Pincus was described here Fri
day as a bridge-builder between
Jewish communities throughout
the world, as a man of selfless
devotion to the cause of Zionism,
and as a person who displayed a
remarkable capacity to bring
together individuals and groups of
differing views and establish har
mony between them. These
tributes were paid by Jewish
leaders at a memorial meeting in
the auditorium of the Jewish
Agency building attended by more
than 200 people who came to pay
their last respects to the world
Zionist leader who died in Israel
last Wednesday at the age of 61
Simcha Dinit/, Israel's Am-
basador to the United States, said
Mr. Pincus was a bridge-builder
from his early days inthe Habonim
Movement in his native Tree
Orange State in South Africa and
from the moment he came to
Israel. "He built links and bridges
between Jews everywhere," Dinit/
said. "He traveled all over the
world to bring the Zionist message
to Jews not only in large com
munities but in small communities
as well. In Israel he built bridges
between the various communities.
Some are remembered for what
they said. L.o u is will be
remembered lor what he did "
Mrs Rose I Halprin, a former
chairman of the American Section
of the Jewish Agency and a past
president of Hadassah, presided at
the memorial service describing
Mr Pincus as totally devoted to
the cause of Zionism, she noted
that he was the first W estern born
and educated Jew to become a
world Zionist leader and to play an
influential role in Isrel. "He met
1971, president of Yad Chaim
Wei/mann. His major achieve
ment as Agency head was the
reconstitution of the Jewish Agen
cy which he finally brought about
in 1971 after years of effort. Under
the reconstitution, major Jewish
organizations which had not been
members of the World Zionist
Organization became members of
the Jewish Agency.
Mr. Pincus was re-elected chair
man ol the WZO Executive in
1972. The post of president,
however, eluded him. It has been
vacant since Dr. Nahum Gold-
rnann's retirement in 1968. Mr.
Pincus was an accomplished and
sometimes rousing public speaker.
He left his widow and two sons,
David and Alon
Jews everywhere, from continent
to continent, from mind to mind,"
Mrs. Halprin said "He felt es
pecially at home with American
Jews. We meet here today to recall
the sense of bereavement that has
come to all of us. W e are overcome
by the overwhelming realization
that Louis is no more. He is gone."
Dr. emanuel Neuman, who also
served as chairman of the
American Section and is a past
president of the Zionist Organiza
tion of America, said Mr. Pincus
“took to his duties with great
energy At times he overdid it.”
Dr. Neuman noted that the late
Zionist leader "had the capacity to
understand other points of view"
and this “enabled him to build a
bridge and make it easier for
others to join the Zionist
movement." This capacity, he add
ed, was of immense value in
reconstituting the Jewish Agency.
Pinchas (ruso, honorary presi
dent of the Labor Zionist Alliance,
observed that "Pincus was the first
non-European Jew, born and rais
ed in one of the new diasporas,
who was elevated to the highest
position of world Zionist
leadership." HE noted that Mr.
Pincus "never pretended to he a
theoretician or an ideolgue, but as
a practical visionary he helped to
mould and strengthen the Zioist
movement His major achievement
was the creation of the
reconstitued Jewish Agency"
(ruso added that Mr. Pincus had a
hgih regard for the American
Zionist movement and he “never
associated himself with the views
of some Israelis who criticized
American Zionists for not going
on aliya "
We're Curious About
Historical Souvemir
With one more installment <>/ Umr pages to go in next week's
issue. The Southern Israelite is wondering if we’ve been spin
ning our wheels by devoting so much space for the Historical
Souvernir — or has it really been worthwhile
The "lam.'' the favor oj those IVI6 times with emphasis on
the Progressive Club history could have been achieved with a
maximum of six to eight pages, without lavishing all that other
space by reproducing all 36 pages. This involved a considerable
expense which a newspaper can easily justify if the reader in
terest is high.
Frankly, the stall suspects it is. Hut noone locally or regional
ly has written in to say so. The project has however drawn
national attention Here just as curious to know if anybody at
all is saving the pages, so carefully and spaciously presented.
It would help to let us know so that we could weigh whether
features of similar interest might be presented in the future.
Touch base by postcard, dear readers, and let us know.
— THE EDITOR
Parts of Jerusalem Have Drought
■.■■■■Through the Eyes of The Southern Israelite—«*** : *|
49 Years of Jewish History
W ar Years
Pincus—Bridge Builder