By SAM MOBMS
ISRAEL COMMENDS AND COMMANDS OUR SUPPORT 1%}
IN preceeding articles I hkve out-' lined israers political,' sociaJi f military .and economic' problenis I and its ih^iMlity to cope- w i massive burden .without help from jthe Jewish ^communities abroad. JAnotlaer UJA drive is now upon us and- places increased responsi-^ bilities on the shoulders of people already taxed with domestic pressures.
Many of us may question the feasibility of giving from a strained poclcetbook. After all Israel is only a speck on this vast land sui^ace ; and its population is only about a twelfth of the world's total Jewish population. The majority of world Jewry will live out their lives in the land of their birth and Israel will remain for them only a dream and a prayer from the intangible past. Then what sense is there for a Jew in Johannesburg or a Jew in Vancouver to contribute to such a vagueness as Israel represents in our personal well-being? What significance in social insurance, security and national dignity does Israel augrur for the Jews of the world?
Israel is the barometer of our social acceptance. It mirrors to the gentile world the Jewish people as they really are and not as they are imagined or spoken of.That tiny land enables the Jew to enter into all human efforts as Jews which can only reflect to our greater good^ The advent of Israel once and for all ends the myth of a people that have been cast in a common clay of character and occupation ;that have been strait-jacketed in many minds in a single mold, physically, mentally and politically. Israel portrays us to the world as a nation with a background. Israel portrays us to the world as a nation with the background, history and traditions of a nation and mainly as individuals both good and bad ;with a variety of physical, mental and political attributes. This new^ ly resurrected State is the measure by which we are normalized,in,the| family of nations.
★ ★ ★ IN THE I.AND OF THE JEWS I became well aware of this fact as I observed the strong,. healthy youth and the neat, modern dressed population as they walked the boulevards, shopped in the mar-^ kets or sat ih the coffee houses, of their cities and villages. They are a proud and democratically aggressive people.
There no one heard the v/ord' "Jew" uttered indiscriminately. No door was barred to any individual because of Jewishness. There a man may be a derelict, a beggar, a nobody; he may be the lowliest of the low. Yet he feels himself to be one of the highest, for he is a king in his own land. There the name "Jew" rings like a joyous bell on the clear air; there the
name "JewV is synonymous wiUi freedom, progress^ industriousness and strength; there the name "Jew" is spoken of with pride and reverence and men revelcin :their kinship with Jewishness.
What a difference all this makes psychologically on the youth who grew to manhood free from the poisonous air of anti-Semitism. Nowhere in that land amongst those whose roots were deep in the soil of Israel was evident the meek submission and passive acceptance-that being a Jew was a burden and indignities something inevitable. There we are accepted for what we- are, both good and bad. Only a man's character and personality, his integrity and capabilities are taken into account. The Jews I saw and spoke to were all shapes, sizes and colors. Some were dishonest, others were simple, hiEirdwOrking people and many were idealists. They represented every shade of political opinion that existed in the world and wrangled bitterly for their convictions. In fact the Jews of Israel were the exact counterpart of any gentile community anywhere on this earth.
AS I WANDERED the scrubby rock-strewn mountains, plus valleys and bleak deserts of this ancient landj the physical and mystical indestructibility of the Jews dawned upon me. Off Israel's shores had once anchored. Phoenician and Egyptian warships. Rome had conquered its most holy citadel and visited destruction upon Israel's people. Invader after invader had strode across the country and despoiled the ' laiid. Yet where were all these great nations of old. The Phoenicians no longer existed. The present Egypt was no longer the Egypt of bygone days. Once it had been a land of cultiire, prominent for its knowledge and vigor as a nation.' Today it is merely a ragged peasant country led by a pompous king in a van-glorious adventure. Jewish children had lived to hear the tale of an ancient Pharoah that had tried to destroy their fathers while that same Pharoah's bones now mouldered in a desecrated Egyptian tomb.
foundation: that has becomethe basis of man's laws and thus light^ ed a beacon of freedom in human values-fori all on earth. Today that flame has been relit. Can we,then deny assistance to those who carry the torch of redeemed .self-respect for us? In view of all that Israel once was, can we accept failure and draw the scorn of the world upon us? Can we be traitors to our past physical and spiritual in-destructability and make truths of all the untruths because we were selfishly weak?
★ ★ -k THE ANSWER has already been given by our young men and wo-; men. They have come from all over the world and many have left- the comforts :of settled civilizations-to eke out a'menial existence on a barren soil. They have reflected on all tha.t has happened to ■ Jews in the hundreds of past, tbrtiired years that caused Israel to break tipoh the world scene like a loving mother enfolding her children in soft carresses and to level at humanity an accusing finger of moral consciousness. It was all the hatred and vileness, all the contempt and dirty insinuations, all the ghettoes, torture chambers and crematoriums of the centuries that was embodied in that revolt of the children of Israel.
At the UJA Women's Division Initial Gift» liUncheon held in the Hotel Vancouver last week we se& women's committee member, ' Mrs. MorMeCharkow (standing) checking car& with Mi^D. ' Toban, timsurer^ light.- Mrs. P. Obtover, is checking figures.
Al's Photo Service;
Sam Rolhstein Praises Work Of Women in Israel
In the city of Rome I stobd beneath Tituis' Arch. Titus had conquered Jerusaleni and had carried spoils and Jewish slaves back to Italy. Yet I stood as many other Jews have in the recent past, uri-conquered beneath Titus' Arch while Titus and Rome were nO more. This invincibility is our might before the world; it commands respect. :
In the days of Abraham and Moses the Hebrews gave the world a social vision of equality and justice before God and man. They established the ethical and moral
There in that tiny corner of Asia, centuries of oppression had burst the bubble of pent up anger and moral indignation culminating in Jews asserting themselves as free men' and fighting against man^s inhumianity to man, to establish their rightful place in the world family. -Those who went to fight and to settle realized the significance of the Jewish State, because they understood the cycle of our history; two thousand years of hbmelessness, of wanderings, of hounding and persecution, pogroms, violence, slavery, crematoriums and death camps fiooded with the blood Of our six million dead; our youth, our culture, our fighters for humanity' aixid great men- in every ^ field of endeavbur, and our little peo^ pies assiniilated into the patterns of a hundred civilizations working for the betterment of society, unknown to the world as Jews, asking only to live and let live; and our reward discrimination, segregation, crematoriums and six million dead.
Sam Rothstein, ardent veteran Zionist of Vancouver and a leading UJA campaign worker, who recently returned from a, trip to Israel, voiced particular praise of the work being done by the women of Israel when he;; addressed the Initial Gifts Luncheon of the-Women's Division, last week.
He told of a trip that he, took with Mrs. Kaplan of the WIZO, the Women's International Zionist Organization, with which the Canadian Hadassah is affiliated. He visited a WIZO home where Yemenite children are taken to be given a new start in life. The Yemenite mothers are also brought to this home and given proper training on how to bring up their children. He also related how inspired he was by his visit to Hadassim, the children's village sponsored by Canadian Ha^ dassah, which now provides a home for over 200 children.
Mr. Rothstein; explained that after the age of six the children are divided among the schools of different party groups. They go to these schools until they reach thel
age of 18, then all of them, both boys and girls, enter the service of the Israer Army for a .specified ■period,'; '■■---;:;:.■■.■■:;■•, -
"The Jewish women of Israel are doing holy and sacred work," Mr. Rothstein emphasized,--! ^ : He also spoke of a trip he took with Rivka Yaffe of the Pioneer Womeh. They visited a Pioneer home for jroung women where young: newcomers • are:; helped to establish themselves^'and a home for children-vof'working mothers, ' age two to six. is also maintained;
Mr. Rothstein spoke, of; the ideep impression made upon him by the evidence of the inspiring': and heroic manner in which the people of Israel had fought for their inde-' pendence.
He told the women that it was littlefenqugh, they were being asked to do when fthey were upon to redouble' their; efforts3-in con-tiibuting : financial supportlto :the United ;^ewishi Appeal, < for the sus-tenajice^Koft the extremely vital workr:, being- done by their: sisters in Israeli" i:^ • ■ ^
This has been the pattern of our history we have all fought to bring to an end.
Now that -victory is at last in sight can .we turn our back on Israel? Can we desert thl^ struggling nation in her. hour of need especially when all that has been achieved there is our safeguard against the humiliation and death of the past?
(To be continued next week.)
B'nai British Ladies Endorse Resolutions
The Pacific r^orthwest Conference of B'nai B'rith Women held recently in Vancouver under the auspices of the Vancouver B'nai B'x'ith Women No. 77 and the Louise Mahrer Chapter B'nai B'rith No, 568, and attended by delegates from Washington and Qregon heartily and unanimously endorsed the two emergency resolutions as passed at the Women's ' Grand Lodge Convention held in San Diego in August. Texts of: the resolutions follows "1.—Whereas, the present international situation has recalled to the minds of many people the shortages which prevailed during World War II and this has resulted in the hysterical buying of foodstuffs, clothing, electrical appliances and other commodities; and
"Whereas, the B'nai B'rith Women of District No. 4 are cognizant of the fact that such action is inimical to national welfare, safety and strength during a period of abundance; ; we, the women of B'nai B'rith, in convention as-
sembled in San Diego. California on the 9th day of August, 1950, wholeheartedly condemn this practice and deprecate such a tendency during times of national emergency; we pledge ourselves find urge our entire membership to heed the admonitions of the president of the United States to purchase in quantities to fill only our normal needs.
★ ★ ★
"2.—Whereas, in the words of the president of the Supreme Lodge, Frank Goldman, our country has taken the leadership in joining forces with free people of the world in fighting for the cause of international law and order; and
"Whereas, this country at the behest of the United Nations is presently engaged in a bloody conflict in opposition to the lawless invasion of South Korea, making it clear that aggression will be resisted with force; we, the B'nai B'rith Women of District No. 4 having in, the past given unstiht-ingly of our time, energy and. re-
sources in support of our country and its aim;
"Hereby resolve, that the B'nai B'rith Women of District No. 4, in convention assembled in San Diego this 9th day of August, 1950, re-dedicate ourselves to the cause of democracy as opposed to totalitarianism and are prepared to swing into action the full woman--power of this District, in any'field where women are called upon to serve.
★ ★ ★ ■.■ ■ The sessions were conducted by Mrs. I. J. Barer of Walla Walla, Washington, who is president of the conference.
One of the highlights of the conference was the interesting review of local Hillel activities on the UBC campus by Rabbi David C, Kogen, counsellor of Hillel. '
The local membership of Hillel is 130 to 170 students.
Local delegates were Mrs. E. Zacks and Mrs. E. Yacht of the Vancouver B'nai B'rith Women No. 77 and Mrs. S. G. Ruskin and Mrs. Ben Lerner of Lbuise Mahrer Chapter No. 568 B'nai B'rith.
YOUTH ALIYAH CHAPTER —-
At, our recent executive meeting, which was held at Mrs. Bernice Groberman's, plans were made for our dessert luncheon to take place at the home of Mrs. Sophie Freeman, 1109 Devonshire Crescent, on October 18, 1 p.m. As this is the first liuncheon meeting of the season, let's all turn out and make it a success. We need lots of help to make our dolls' clothes for the bazaar. So please, girls, phone Mar-jorie Groberman and offer your assistance.
HENRIETTA SZOLD Chapter is holding a "rummage sale on Wednesday, November 15, Mrs. H. Salt-^ man, the convenor, urges all mem-j hers to bring their articles to the respective depots as soon as pos^ sible.; Mrs. A Miller will be very glad to receive all the knitted gar-^
ments f:for. thci bazaar ... Please
■ S'-:":'..'' ? ■;.< '4 * ,■ 'S . watch the Bulletin news for our
plans .for the next Aid To Israel!
affair to be held at the end of this,
iftonth. 4
tSATIONS aRANTEE)
UNITED JElVIvSH APPEAL — OCTOBER NO MORE ENDORSA'nO^NS FOR TmS'MONTH
HADASSAH COUNCIL — THEATRE AJJl) FASHION SHOW
— October 16, 1950
JEWISH HOME FOR THE AGED — LADIES AITXI^
SUCCOTH TEA — Oct 18, 1950
PIONEER WOMEN'S COUNCIL — BANQUET & PLITING
CARAVAN — Oct 31, 1960
HERZLIA CHAPTER HADASSAH BARN DANGE
— November 11, 1950
NATIONAL COUNCIL dF JEWISH WOMEN
FUN NIGH — November 13, 1950
GORDONIA PIONEER WOMEN —
ONE! DAY RESTAURANT — November 42, 1950
B'NAI B'RITH CHAPTER 77 Raffle — Nov. 16 to Dec 16
HADASSAH COUNCIL — BAZAAR November 29, 1950
VANCOUVER LODGE, B'NAI E'RIMI
GOQPWH^ DINNER — Dec. 6, 1960
LOUISE MAHRER CHAPTER, BW^ B'RITH — RASTXE
— December 16, 1950, to January 16, 1951
SGHABA TZBDECH MEN'S CLUB
— RAFFLE & DANCE, Nov. 5 DINNER DANCE — Dec 31
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