•1 t
Page 2-The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, October 18, 1974
World News
Former head of Israeli
emissaries is critical of overseas officials
By ROYSTON ALLEN Israel Correspondent
JERUSALEM -
The former headof Is-, _ raeli. emissaries in the United/States and Canada. ■ Yeruham Amitai, has charged that many of this coun^rv'S "shlihim" to North America do not know sufficient; English for their lObs and are unsuitable in other ways. .
In an interview publish -ed here in the Hebrew language Maariv. Amitai added that the Zionist organizations in the U;S. do not"lend a shoulder" to. the need for immigration to Israel and that this ; country's leaders give lectures in the U.S. only : on money and not on/'ali-vah".
Amitai served as head of "shlihim" for just over two years and the Jewish Agency here told me that thev. refused to renew his • contract for a further year because he was."not really suitable: we have had some problems with him." His replacement Yeho-. shua Yadlin (brother of Education Minister Aharon Yadlin and relative by/marriage' - of Jewish .; Age'ucy official Uzi Nar-kis) served for two years V in the'Queens district of New York, a spokesman for Narkis told me, and had an "outstanding" rec-- ord there:. ■
.Yeruham Amitai wrotie a report on his term in the U.S. which was somehow leaked to the pro-goyerhment Maariv. Jew-ish Agency spokesman for immigratibri Naomi Ben Gur said hdwever that. Amitai had refused to officially review his term with Agency officials in Jerusalem.
The report was handed. over to the chairnian of I,the, Jewisti Agency, former .finance minister ■ : Pinchas Sapif. ,
Amitai points out. that immigration from the U.S. . and Canada dropped by. : 36v8%..during the first: ■ months of this year c.om-pared with the.same period in 1973. and that 1973 also showed a drop. .: Official statistics since . the Six Day War of 1967 given to me by the Jewish Agency, substantiate this claim. The numbers given ^ are of North Americans who arrived here with immigrants' visas or • temporary, residents' •permits. They do not ac^ . count for .those who returned to their country of origin for one reason or /another. These yo'rdim are reportedly well over of the total. The figures supplied to me are: 1967 - 665; 1968 -•932; 1969 - 5.739 (cq);. 1970 -6.424; 1971-7,364;
Population
increase is small
JERUSALEM (JTA)-
At thebeginningof Rosh Hashanah the population of Israel was 3.4 million, the Central Bureau of Sta^ tistics said. That figure included some 2.9 million -Jews, and more than 500,-000 non-Jews. .
Nearly all the non-Jews (are; Arabs. According to the bureau's spokesman, the Israeli population rose_ by 2.8% during the out-gmhg Hebrew year, The Jewish population rose by 2.6%, compared to a-4% increase among the non-Jews:
There were 93,000 more Israelis on Aug. 31, 1974, than on SepL/l'rr973x^ Some 75 ;000 of them were Jews, and IsJoOO non-Jews. Some 61%of the additional Jews V (45,500) were the result of natural; growth, and 40% were ol^ im. Alltheadditionalnon-Jews were due to natural
1972-5,515;i973-4.393; and for January-August of this year. 2.095. . According -to : Amitai. _the reason for the drop - apart from inefficient handling of U.S. Jews; is not the security situation here but rather the internal political and financial, postures. He also said that the immigration facilities, especially for: single immigrants are often to blame.
Amitai also charges that the Israeli\ "alivah" department does not pull much weight in the U.S.. giving the over-emphasis on the UJA and Bonds as a possible reason.
There are 36 emissaries in the U.S. and Canada.-Amitai states, 12 in main offices and the other 24 in 17 regional offices.
Beplvmg to the charges m the report: Uzi Narkis
chairman of the Agency's alivah department told tlie :Maariv reporter, that A-mitai s soiourn in the U.S. "was a failure from start to finish;"
Narkis pointed out that Amitar came to the. post in the footsteps of "aper-fect emissary. Nahum Golan, and "from the first moment. Amitai caused problems;" .
I asked Noami Ben Guy why ■Amitai was not removed from his post if he was so bad; :
"Well, he wasn t "so bad.. she .answered, somewhat in contradiction to the words of her boss as reported in the.media:
She told me that Amitai wanted to stay on for an extra vear but that his contract was not renewed •and that Yehoshua Yadlin -had taken over in his stead.
Bestowed by Canadian
Winnipeg's centennial medallion is city's gift to Tel-Aviv mayor
TEL AVIV -
The mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Shlomo Lahat, was the. recipient of Winnipeg's Centennial Medallion and pin, as a gift of Winnipeg's Mayor Steven Juba; - In the absence of Lahat. who was on vacation, the presentation was made to Deputy Mayor Yir gal Griffeli whoalso received a medal and pin.
at a ceremony recently held at Tel Aviv's City Hall _
Representing Winnipeg at the ceremony was Gerald Lasensky. executive-'director of the Winnipeg. -Jewish Community Council. Canadian Jewish Congress (Western Region), who had been entrusted with the task by Mayor Juba.
Lasensky was in Israel as the only Canadian a-mong 25 invited participants at a seminar held at Tel Aviv University during August on. Violence and Defence in Jewish History and Contemporary Life. _
The seminar was conceived, and later initiated, by the Tel Aviv University Chancellor. Dr. George S.:.Wise, during
the first week of the Yom Kippur War, and marked the official inauguration-of the Chaim Rosenberg School of JewisJrStudies at TAU. Itwas under the chairmanship of the distinguished Jewish historian and scholar. Professor Salo W. Baron, professor emeritus of Jewish History. Literature and Institutions at Columbia University.
Gerald Lasensky (right), representing Winnipeg Mayor Steven Juba, presents city Centennial Medallion and pm to Deputy Mayor YigalGriffel of Tel Aviv. Lasensky is executive-director of the Winnipeg Jewish Community. Council.
'His voice rang aavss Jewish worW
Shazar was giant of Zionism
JERUSALEM (JTA)-
Israelis and Jews ar- ■ ound the world last .week mourned Shneur .Zalman Shazar whose voice rang out across the Jewish world, as poet, biblical. scholar. Chabad Chassid. socialist. Zionist, diplomat and statesman. .
The third .president, of Israel wais buried in The Presidents' Plot on Mt. Herzi in Jerusalem. He died at theageof 84"frbm a general deterioration of. the body brought on by bid age."
No -one who eyer heard Shaz'af. speak ~ and. in his prinie he could hold ■ an audience enti-anced for., three or four hours on end ~ can ever, forget his warmth and ardor " f.which made-hini one of : the finest orators of ZionismHis addresses were aiway's filled with learning and .with fervor and emotion in equal part- He would often begin, like a rabbi, with a biblical or talmudic text, and would so expound it and build upon it as to harness its own message and invest It. too. with his own thoughts and ideas.
At home in. poetry as-well as prose, his public addresses and private conversations always had the. wealth of style of the rounded literateur. and he brought to bear his scholarships in many fields, secular as well as Jewish, to further enrich his spoken and written word. His 10 years as
president of Israel(1963- ■ 73) welded strong elements of Jewish tradition and.: Jewish pride to the^ national and scholarly heritage whith. his two predecessors. Dr. Chaim Weizinanri and Itzhak Ben Zyi. had already built into the presidency.
Shnieur Zalman ..Shazar.. whose original name was Shneur Zalman Ru-. bashow, was born in 1889 in Mir, Russia, At home he imbibed bothtradition-al Judaism — in the mbuld of Chabad Chassidism which was his family's allegiance --and Zionist
■idealism. Influenced .by the .writings of Ber Bb-rochov.' the father of So-cialist-Zionisni. he .joined' the Poalei iion (Labor Zionists) early in this centurv. He was active in writing., and. publishing works for this iribvement, together with Borochov; Ben Zvi. and Rachel Yan-. nait (she later married Ben Zvt) and was tailed for it for two months in
■ In .V1911 he spent the; summer in Palestine on a kibbutz, .falling: 'in love with Rachei Blausteih. -a poet from Galilee "and
came under the influence . of Berl Katznelsoh. a Labor Zionist leader. He • spent the World War. I years in Germany, studying, and working for the, local Zionist movement. He married Rachel Baii-stein in 1920 and returned to V Europe for four more years of academic and political work, and settled permanently in Palestine in 1924. . ' .
He was appointed to th^ executive committee of Histadrut. and in 1925, he joined ; the ; editorial hoard of Davar. .the hew-ly established labor daily. . of which he became edi- . tor-in-chief in 1944 after Katznelson's death and served until 1949; Diir-
. ihg these years he was active in the World Zibn- . ist Organization andtour-ed the worrld repeatedly; his oratorical qualities gaining him fame and respect wherever he appeared.
Earlv in 1948. Shazar drafted the resolution passed by the Zionist General Council on Apr. 12 announcing that Jewish
■independence would be established at the; end of the Mandate. In 1949. he was appointed minister of education and culture and . promulgated the Compulsory Education Law of the fledgling state; Following the Soviet Union's
refusal AO accept him as
ambassador/he became
a member of the Jewish
years headed its education department. Froni. 1956-60. he headed the Agency's Jerusalem exis-cutive. ■
His literary output was^ enormous, with by no means all bf it yet pub-: lished. His first re'cord-ed effort was a magazine he edited at the age of. 10. He was at home in' Yiddish piiblicism as well; as Hebrew prose and poet-try. His main field of research was Shabbatean-ism — the study of the ,Shabbetai: Zvi and subse-. qiient messianic mbyisr ; ments which swept Euro- .i pean Jewry .in the nth and 18th centuries. His studies here won him acclaim as a scholar and innovator. :
He was also one of the first to introduce Bible ; criticism to the Hebrew-reading public with his A History of Biblical Criticism (1925) in collaboration with Max Solo-veitchik. He also wrote on socialist, philosophy, < and his book of. biographical vignettes Morning Stars (1967). is full of first-hand accounts of the early giants of the Sor cialist - Zionist movement. His writings also included On the Ruins of the House of Frank (1923), a study of the Frankist movement;: The Light of Personalities (two vol -umes. 1955); and several translations of .Hebrew
r'One of the finest orators in Zionism."
Agency executive and for poetry into Yiddish.
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