The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], February 25, 1949, Image 1

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AW INDEPENDENT WEEKLY SERVING AMERICAN CITIZENS OF JEWISH FAITH
THE OLDEST AND MOST WIDELY CIRCULATED JEWISH PUBLICATION IN THIS TERRITORY
VOL. 26 NO. 5
Behind The Headlines
In Israel
BY ADA OREN
(Copyright, 1949, Jewish Telegraphic
' Agency, Inc.)
TEL AVIV—
According to a draft proposal
now in preparation, government
•mployees will be required to
submit their income and assets to
government scrutiny and to ex
plain any sudden increase in
their fortunes. The purpose of
this measure is the permanent
prevention of corruption after
the committees now investigating
the characters of all former
mandatory employees complete
their task.
It has already been reported
that one of these committees ad
vised the government to dismiss
13 of the 50 Jewish officers of
the former Palestine police, most
ly for having taken bribes, while
the decision concerning another
18 involved in similar offenses
was left to the discretion of the
government.
* * * *
The Israeli Government is
working out extensive plans for
the rehabilitation of underprivil
edged children and their protec
tion by an extension of the ser
vices which have up to now been
operated by the Vaad Leumi.
Most in need of special education
and supervision are young slum
dwellers of oriental origin, who
have been dazzled by the Euro
pean standard of living without
being prepared to support them
selves on such a level.
At present 1,200 boys and girls
are receiving special correctional
education in various types of
government institutions for the
underprivileged. There are also
a number of youth hostels for
young people who left their
homes and are in danger of be
coming anti-social.
Specialists provide necessary
guidance and much care is taken
to find suitable employment for
young people. There is a lack
of qualified personnel although
more than 20 instructors gradu
ate yearly from a special semin
ary in Jerusalem. The youth
probation service is trying to in
terest specialists from abroad in
its work.
* * * *
<( The Haifa City Council has
frozen” some 1,000 dunams of
building plots)in the downtown
area and intends to develop this
area as a new commercial center
worthy of the city’s importance.
Most of the plots are at present
covered by ramshackle build-,
mgs evacuated by Arabs and
since this is the only level area
near enough to the harbor which
ean still be developed it is in
tended to build on it many
storied houses and to pay com
pensation to property owners
rom the expected increase in
value.
The city is also offering the
ewish Agency cheap land for an
unmigraiitg* housing scheme for
r 1 families and participation
111 building costs. Means and
experience were acquired in con
nection with an earlier housing
P'oject for veterans of both na
talities. part of which came to
nothing because of the present
war.
LAUNCH $3,500,000 DRIVE TO PROMOTE BROTHERHOOD
AMONG CHRISTIANS AND JEWS
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NEW YORK, N. Y.—Clendenin. Ryan, (center)
active in numerous industrial enterprises and
philanthropic organizations, has accepted service
as national campaign chairman' of The National
Conference of Christians and Jews, which this
year seeks a goal of $3,500,000 to finance an ex
panded program for improving intergroup rela
tions among Catholics, Protestants- and Jews.
Campaign leaders pictured are (1. to r.) Dr.
Everett R. Clinchy, NCCJ president; Dwight R. G.
Southeast Fund-Raisers To
Meet In Birmingham
Jewish community leaders will discuss means of strengthening
unified national fund raising, and campaign prospects for 1949 at a
special open meeting of the Executive Committee of the Southeas
tern Region of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds,
Sunday, February 27, in Birmingham's Thomas Jefferson Hotel, it
was announced today by Marx Borod, Memphis, Regional President.
Mr. Borod emphasized that
discussion will be based on ac
tions voted by communities at
the recent CJFWF General As
sembly in Philadelphia. He urged
the widest possible attendance
of community leaders as a means
of helping communities take
joint action to meet pressing
1949 problems. A meeting of
community executives will take
place preceding the Executive
Committee Meeting.
Arnold Gurin, Budget Re
search Director of the CJFWF,
will report on Council and com
munity efforts to implement
General Assembly" decisions on
the elimination of multiple, un
coordinated campaigns, creation
of a permanent, national fund
raising structure through local
communities’ joint action, and
representation from local com
munities on governing bodies of
the United Palestine Appeal, ac
cording to the recent agreement
providing for 40 per cent com
munity representation.
Other problems on the agenda
include discussion on creating
more democratic and effective
community organizations struc
tures in local communities, and
creating a favorable 1949 cam
paign climate.
Mr. Borod declared that local
Boards of Directors had been
urged to consider the General
Assembly actions, and methods
of implementing them, before
coming to the Executive Com
mittee.
“We want each community to
present the thinking of their or
ganization on these vital prob
lems,” he declared. “We want the
Council actions to be truly re
flective of the wishes of local
communities, as expressed
through their central organiza
tions and regional structure.”
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1949
Fred A. Kullman, Regional Vice
President and President of the
New Orleans Jewish Federation,
will be chairman of the opening
session on Campaign problems in
1949. Alex Rittenbaum, chair
man of the 1948 campaign of the
Birmingham United Jewish Fund
held in the fall, will discuss cam
paign techniques and problems.
Other speakers scheduled tenta
tively for this session are Mr.
Nathan Shainberg, 1949 cam-
Weizmann Institute Announces Plan
For Castor Oil Conversion and
Desalting of Water
TEL AYIV (JTA) —The manufacture of plastics from castor oil
and the desalting of water in huge quantities are two of the many
important achievements revolutionizing industry and agriculture
throughout the world which have been developed by scientists at
the Weizmann Institute of Science, it was revealed this week.
The desalting process will per
mit the use of vast quantities of
subterranean water and make a
vailable for farming huge areas
of the Negev, Meyer W. Weisgal,
executive director of the Ameri
can Friends of the Weizmann In
stitute, and David Bergmann,
its scientific director, told a press
conference at Rehovoth. They
also declared that the cultivation
of castor trees on large tracts of
land in the Negev and the con
version of the oil into plastics
will give employment to thous
ands of Israelis.
They revealed that a plant
has been established near Reho
voth to convert oil into plastics
and that a company has been
capitalized at $3,000,000 in the
United States to exploit the pro
ducts of the castor bean. In ad
dition, Weisgal and Bergmann
Palmer, president. General Cable Company;
Charles E. Wilson, president. General Electric
Company, NCCJ co-chairman; Mr. Ryan; Professor
Carlton J. H. Hayes, former Ambassador to Spain;
Nelson A. Rockefeller, chairman of Brotherhood
Week; and Samuel D. Leidesdorf, well known
Jewish civic and philanthropic leader and treas
urer of the New York United Jewish Appeal.
The nation-wide drive will be launched during
Brotherhood Week, February 20-27.
paign chairman of the Memphis
Jewish Welfare Fund Campaign;
Ben Stark, Executive Director of
the Jacksonville Jewish Com
munity Council; and Philip Shul
hafer, President of the Atlanta
Jewish Community Council, who
will report on Atlanta’s success
ful 1948 campaign .
Following on Executive Com
mittee Luncheon, Mr. Gurin will
lead discussion on the Implica
tions of the General Assembly
actions for local communities.
After general discussion, Edward
M. Kahn, Executive Director of
the Atlanta Jewish Community
Council will summarize. The
group will then act on resolu
tions growing out of the discus
sions. Myron J. Rothschild of
Montgomery, Alabama, will act
as Chairman of this session and
James L. Permutt, of Birming
ham, will act as Chairman of a
Resolutions Committee.
said, organizations in the U. S.
and France had sent technicians
to assist in the production of
various products ranging from
nylon stockings to electrical in
sulators. *
Israeli capital is also interest
ed in the project, they said. The
chairman of the plastics corpor
ation will be an American in
dustrialist, Harold Goldenberg of
Minneapolis. National Plastics
Company of Baltimore and Con
cern Organice of Paris are al
ready making use of the Insti
tute’s plastics. Three million
dollars has been invested in the
Institute itself, Weisgal and
Bergmann revealed, adding that
its annual budget for the main
tenance of the plant and staff,
including 200 scientists, is $2,000,
000.
GROUP LIBEL
LAV PROPOSED
By Dr. Joachim Prinz
The chairman of the Adminis
trative Committee of the A
merican Jewish Congress dis
cusses the Group Libel Bill in
troduced in the House of
Representatives. The Commis
sion on Law and Social Action
of the American Jewish Con
gress assisted in drafting the
bill.
Editor
Defamation of ethnic and re
ligious groups stands revealed
today as a prime cause of discord
in group relations and in the
embitterment of millions of indi
viduals. Fairness and humanity
demand remedial measures. The
group libel bill introduced by
Representatives Dawson, Keough,
Keating, Javits and Klein at
tempts to furnish safeguards
against the established evil with
scrupulous regard for constitu
tional guarantees of freedom of
expression.
The purpose of the bill is to
extend to individuals in their ca
pacity as members of ethnic and
religious groups the type of pro
tection from libel enjoyed by
them in their capacity as unaffil
iated individuals.
The law, which in its present
state provides protection for an
individual defamed as a private
party, not as a member of an
ethnic or religious group, pre
sents an obvious anomaly. It can
no more be justified than a rule
which required the criminal
prosecution of assaults and bat
teries only when motivated by
malice directed against the indi
vidual victim as distinct from
malice against the entire group to
which the victim belonged. Such
a rule is obviously not the law.
Libelous attacks on ethnic or
religious groups as such, touch
and concern each of their indi
vidual component members.
Their insidious effects are clearly
beyond all dispute. Over and
above the personal injuries in
flicted, they have nourished and
sustained ethnic and religious
discrimination, contributed to
civic dissension and enfeebled
the nation at large. Undismayed
by these consequences, ethnic
and religious hatemongers of all
types not only peddle with com
plete immunity their poison but
are abetted in their eforts by the
availability of mailing privileges.
The bill, now introduced, which
offers the best remedies to date,
makes it a federal crime to en
gage in such incitements byway
of printed or mimeographed ma
terial, distributed in interstate
commerce. Truth or reasonable
and honest belief in the truth of
statements made is an absolute
defense under the bill. Respon
sible administration of the sta
tute is assured by requiring the
Attorney General’s approval and
supervision of each prosecution.
In no way does the bill infringe
upon freedom of speech or of the
press. Constitutional guarantees
of both these freedoms were de
signed to encourage traffic in
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