6
JAN 111981
Cont. Copy.
The Canadian English'Jewish Weekly
VOL
GARDENVALE, QUEBEC. DECEMBER 16, 1960
Ribicoff, First New U.S. Cabinet Member, Is Son Of Poor Jewish Immigrants; Known As Nonpartisan, Efficient Administrator; Dislikes Pomp
When United States Presidentelect John F. Kennedy announced at a press conference that he had selected Gov. Abraham A. Ribicoff, of Connecticut, as his Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, in the first Cabinet appointment for the new Administration, he said:
"Gov. Abraham Ribicoff, of Con-neeticut, has agreed to become the Secretary of Health, Education v and Welfare. It is with great pleasure that I name Governor Ribicoff, an old friend and distinguished public servant, to this first post in the Cabinet.
"There is no agency of the Government whose services more directly concern a greater number of Americana than this most vital responsibility, There are over 62,-000 employees in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and its budget last year and the funds which it distributed throughout the country amounted to over three and three-quarter billion dollars.
"It has great responsibilities in the field of education, and I cannot think of any more important domestic responsibility than that this department and the Federal Government give leadership in improving and strengthening the American educational system and providing opportunity for all Americans to realize their talent in this field.
"Secondly, the Secretary of H. E. W. has great responsibilities in the field of -the nation's health. Health and education are two matters of great concern to the citizens of this country. As Governor of Connecticut for the last six years, on the average over 74 per certt of the budget of Connecticut has been devoted to health and education. Governor Ribicoff has had long: �nd successful experience in both of those fields.
"I name him to this position with complete knowledge of its great responsibilities which fall under this department and of his capacity, and I think the country is fortunate to have him. He has two years to go in his term of office, and he is most reluctant to leave Connecticut, but I think the people of Connecticut will agree that in these very difficult and challenging times it is important that all citizens make themselves available for service to our country-
"I am therefore proud that Governor Ribicoff has agreed to assume that responsibility, and I am delighted that this" is the first of the Cabinet to be announced and appointed,"
Governor Ribicoff, who was present at the news conference, said:
"I really accept this appointment with mixed feelings. I recognize the great honor and the great privilege it will be to work under the leadership of President Kennedy in the days ahead. And yet I have a deep affection for the State of Connecticut The people in Connecticut have always been most Icind to me. I like Connecticut. It will be with great reluctance that I would have to leave the state.
"I have always told the President-elect that I never sought a job and I have never asked for a job in his administration. I have worked in his cause since 1956 because I recognize his greatness and that he can bring to America the great leadership it needs in the years ahead. However, no man or woman has a right to refuse to do anything the President of the United States may ask. Apd I recognize that there is much that can be done in this field.
"My philosophy in the field of health, education, and welfare is on all fours with the philosophy of President-elect Kennedy. As you analyze the problems of health, education, and welfare, you realize that there is a great deal of cooperation necessary between _ the
states   and   the   Federal  Government.
"In the state of Connecticut alone 74 per cent of our general fund budget is given over to the fields of health, education, and welfare, and I imagine that the same percentage probably prevails throughout the United States among our fifty states. There is much co-operation because many of these pro--frrams involve grants. And I look forward with pleasure toward this opportunity in the days ahead, working under the leadership of a
Sreat President, President Kenne-y."
No Cabinet officer had ever been named under such circumstances as attended the announcement of Governor Ribicoff's appointment The Governor called on Senator Kennedy at the letter's home at 3307 N Street in Georgetown. Senator Kennedy let reporters know that he would make an announcement on his front stoop at 3.15 p.m.
Promptly at 3.16 the white door of the old red-brick house opened, and the President-elect and Governor Ribicoff appeared hatless and coatless in windy, 37-degree weather. Senator Kennedy was wearing a single-breasted gray suit, white shirt and blue tie with red-and-white stripes. Governor Ribicoff was dressed in a blue suit and blue tie.
Governor Ribicoff, 50 years old, is midway in his second four-year term as Governor of Connecticut, having been re-elected in 1968 by a record plurality, says the New York Times. He said he would resign as Governor in favor of Lieut. Gov. John N. Dempsey after his nomination for the Cabinet post had been confirmed by the Senate.
Governor Ribicoff was holding his own state budget hearings on health and educational matters In Hartford when he waa summoned to Washington for the conference with Senator Kennedy.
As the fourth Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare � a post created in 1953 under the Eisenhower Administration � Governor Ribicoff will be taking charge of a department with 62,-000 employees with an annual budget of about $3,750,000,000. His predecessors are Mrs. Oveta Gulp Hobby, Marion Folsom, and Arthur S. Fleming.
The department choice was Governor Ribicoff's own and came as something of a surprise to Senator Kennedy, who had originally included him in consideration for the post of Attorney General.
The norop and circumstance of political life mean little to Abraham Alexander Ribicoff. Since his election as Governor in 1955, he has conducted Connecticut's affairs with simplicity. He has no press secretary and issues no press releases. When he has an announcement to make, he usually does it in person. He sees reporters at 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. every day when he is in Hartford.
He prefers a state policeman's small sedan to the big, official Governor's limousine. He rides in the front seat with the driver, who is under instructions to obey speed limits and to stop at all traffic lights. And he dislikes the term "executive mansion" for,the nine-teen-room Georgian house assigned to the Governor on Prospect Hill in Hartford. He refers to it as his "residence."
Other trade-marks of Governor Ribicoff, have been nonpartisan-ship and efficient government, says the New York Times. Until his identification with the Presidential campaign of Senator John F. Kennedy, the 50-year-old Governor had Seen such a discreet Democrat that Connecticut residents were aware of his party affiliation only secondarily.
.Seeking his first term in 1954, Governor Ribicoff declared: "A man runs for the office of Governor as a partisan, but, once he is elected, he becomes the leader of
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all the people," His success in reaching that objective was demonstrated in 1968, when he was re-elected by the greatest majority in the state's history, 246,368 votes.
He carried into victory with him a United States Senator, all six Connecticut seats in the House and a Democratic majority in both houses of the State Assembly. It was the first time the State Assembly had been controlled by the Democrats since 1874.
There is nothing in the record to indicate any specific experience of the Governor in health, education or welfare, except that he has directed those who have been in charge of such services in Connecticut. However, one of the principal requirements for a head of the department to which he has been named is that he be an able administrator.
Governor Ribicoff has led successful moves to abolish outmoded county government and eliminate more than two-score state agencies. He has instituted a new lower court system and has put through a $360,000,000 bond issue to finance a highway program. His highway safety program, entailing the mandatory suspension of drivers' licenses for speeders, has attracted national attention.
Mr. Ribicoff dresses carefully and conservatively. He is nearly six feet tall and weighs about 170 pounds. His black hair is turning gray at the temples.
The Governor was born in New Britain on April 9, 1910, and was educated in the public schools there. He attended New York University V for one academic year, 1929-30,\ and went on to law school at the University of Chicago, says the New York Times.. He received his law degree in 1933 and enterffU^ practice in Hartford that year.
He served as a member of the State Assembly from 1939 to 1942 and became a judge of the Hartford Police Court in 1941. He served on the bench until 1943 and then for another term from 1945 to 1947. In 1949, he was elected as a Representative from the First Congressional District. He was re-elected in 1952.
He is the son of poor Jewish immigrants and the first Jew to become Governor of the.state of Connecticut His political philosophy is moderation. "I'm no wild and woolly liberal," he has said. His success, according to his friends, is due to the "magic" of his personality. He had worked as a newsboy, and then for a hardware company, before he went on to University.
He is a member of Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford. He is married to the former Miss Ruth
(Continued^ on Page   Twelve)
Beloved First Citizen Raised Cultural Tone Of His City
Isaac Louis Myers, of Memphis, Tenn., head of the I. L. Myers Paper Company, and a %yide|y known patron of the arts, died in New York at the Mount Sinai Hospital of a heart attack. He was 62 years old.
Mr, Myers was a beloved figure in his native Memphis for his work in developing cultural activities there for the benefit of the city's residents, often at considerable financial loss to himself.
For fifteen years he supported the annual visit to Memphis of the Metropolitan Opera Company, says the New York Times. He was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Association's national council. The opera company was to have performed in Memphis next May, but as a result of Mr. Myer's death its appearance there now is uncertain.
His bachelor apartment in Memphis was famous for its collection of paintings, sculptures, classical records, rare bookj, and other objects of art. A shy, retiring individual, Mr. Myers nevertheless numbered among his friends and admirers many of the great personages in the world of art and music.
He was a guiding force in the establishment of the Memphis College of Music and the Memphis Academy of Arts. He also played a major role in establishing in Memphis the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, the Symphony Orchestra, and the Open Air Theatre. He was a member of the Memphis Civic Center Advisory Committee. Mr. Myers was particularly fond of the Memphis Youth Symphony, wh?ch he supported in its annual i >gram of concerts designed to give young musicians experience in ensemble playing. He was reported to have said that he would provide in his will for the continuation of the orchestra.
He was known to the children of his native city as "Uncle Ike", says the New York Times. They wrote to him frequently, thanking him for the free concerts and art exhibitions that he sponsored for (hem as founder of the organization known as Arts Appreciation. Among others who wrote to him in appreciation of his work for the arts and his other contributions were Albert Spaldihg, the violinist; Sir Thomas Beecham, the conductor; Sigmund Romberg, the composer; the Rev. Dr. Ralph W. Sockman, Minister of Christ Church, Methodist, in New York; Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, of India, and Rudolf Bing, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera.
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A.J.C. Urges Kennedy To Implement Mid-East Pledges
The American Jewish Congress in a policy statement urged President-elect Kennedy to name as Secretary of State a man who would work to reduce Mid-East tension. The Jewish group declared that the President-elect should search for a person "best equipped" to carry out "a. vigorous and creative" foreign policy.
In a resolution adopted at a meeting of the group's national governing council in the Stephen Wise Congress Housie, 15 E. 84th Street, New York, Mr. Kennedy Was admonished that only a Secretary of State "fully committed" to the policies he himself had advocated in the last Congress and in the Presidential election campaign could "redeem the President-elect's specific pledges for solving the Middle East dilemma and implementing his constructive proposals for a new approach to Africa."
Spelled out, these proposals called for the ending of the Arab boycott of Israel and of Egypt's refusal to permit Israeli shipping to use the Suez Canal, says the New York Herald Tribune. Samuel Hendel, a professor of City College and chairman of the American Jewish Congress* commission on international affairs, said the major task of United States policy in the Mid-East should be "to end
(Continued on Page  Twelve)
No. 11
U.o. ^moists Want Ex-Premier Of Israel As World Leader
A leading Zionist spokesman urged Moshe Sharott, former Israeli Premier and Foreign Minister, to assume active leadership of world Zionism. "We must insist upon it and druft him, even against his wish, if need he." said Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the World Confederation of General Xionists, reports the New York Times. Dr. Neumann addressed more than 1,000 Bursts at the annual dinner of the Xionist Organization of America, in N'ew York, at, the Astor Hotel.
Mr. S ha ret t, who guided Israeli foreign policy from 19-18 to lU5t> and who is now in the Knesset (Parliament), was present. He was premier in 1954 and 1955.
The $100-a-plate event celebrated the thirteenth anniversary of the United Nations decision to create the State of Israel. It was also a tribute to Abraham Goodman, long a Zionist leader and now head of the organization's administrative committee, on his seventieth birthday.
Dr. Neumann said Mr. Sharett should assume Zionist leadership at the World Zionist Congress, which opens in Jerusalem on December 27, He called Mr. Sharett "one of the foremost leaders of Israel" and indicated that the former Premier could help to solve the "cardinal problem" of assuring
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