THE CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW
OCTOBER 13,
Call
FOR AN ECONOMICAL SERVICE FOR WASHING YOUR
PAINTED WALLS, CEILINGS, WINDOWS AND
CLEANING FLOORS.
ScltntJfic � modirn automatic mochino dut �k<tric) � odorUii. Efficient � clioni ftttor � m�n �vinly, ckan�r, without hm or buckets.
ICAL
_ � SAVES TIME, MONEY PAINTING. PAINT SURFACE. For Information, call Fl. 9679. EttimaNi trM.
WALLMASTER SALES AND SERVICE CO. LTD.
I. SINGCRMAN, Prti.
The Coming Face Of Israel
BY JULIAN LOUIS MELTZER
CUSTOM BUILT FLOORS
FOR THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE OR THE HOME
Let us coll and submit on original idea for your Flooring
THE ]\OR4IVfir COMPANY
1 ^ ^FM^rmJLT.U^'
2087 Aylmer Street Lancaster 9613
1
CANADIAN ELECTRONIC SYSTEM
Intercommunication Systems
SCHOLA-VOX ... School � POLY-VOX ... Offices and Factory HA. 6920 - 391 Gilford J. L Poisson
SINGER PLUMBING & HEATING SERVICE
SHOPS on WHEELS FOR your ECONOMY
270 VAN HORNE AVE.
VL 2571-2
C. HOULE
LINOLEUM
i
ORIGINAL DDIQKS FOt KKUATION ROOMS, KfTCNlW, HALLS. ITC THe, MMMtt, rap, ecrtttt, ley<H * iU tyeei ef fleer riwriiji.
4323 Des Erables Avenue Tel. FA. 1933
R. A. FORTIER Limited
BUILDING MATERIALS
12000 Reed Street, Cartierville, Montreal. IY. 4765
Three Rivers Shipping Co., Reg'il
STEVEDORES, SHfPBROKERS
L Paquin, President Tkrat Rivtn, QM.
Neon Signs & Displays GREENE BROS. SIGNS LIMITED
4259 ST. DOMINIQUE STREET HArbour 5558 MONTREAL
The Canadian Jewish Review is still the only Jewish publication in Canada printed in any language reaching the Jewish community which ic able to claim membership in the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
The man accosted me in one of the sandy streets of the immigrants' camp at Beer Ya'aqov, near the former British garrison town of Sarafand in the coastal area east of Tel Aviv. He was short, stocky and paunch-bellied, and had not shaved for several days. His thinning hair was unbrushed, he exuded a sharp smell of perspiration. The collarless shirt was open at the throat. He was a sour sight.
The throng of people who surrounded us � they had all the characteristics of an incipient mob on the verge of hysteria � were clamouring for attention in a variety of languages. There was a pathetic attempt at dignity in the bearing of this man as he sidled alongside and addressed me in Yiddish.
"Are you a commission of inquiry?" he asked. I had come to the Beer Ya'aqov camps � there are three of them, with 10,000 inmates in residence at the time of our visit � with two American correspondents eager to study conditions in which the immigrant newcomers lived.
"No, we're not a commission, we're journalists," I replied.
His eyes lit up with a wild gleam. "Journalists!" he exclaimed. "You write for the newspapers? Which ones � from Tel Aviv?"
"No. Americans."
"Amerikaner blaettel Good, good. They must know the truth." He turned to the crowding immigrants and told them our identity in Spanish Ladinc. Then h* fumbled in his hip pocket, produced a worn and tattered wallet, and extracted a dirty, yellowing visiting-card which he handed me.
My two companions read the inscription over my shoulder. It was a name and address in a suburb of Buenos Aires, a far and unbelievable cry for this shabby, sweat-reeEng man in the collarless open shirt and soiled blue trousers.
"Look at me!" His voice rose almost to shout. "Was I always like this?"
His hands trembled as. he warch-ed through the wallet until he found what he sought � a dogeared postcard photograph of himself, elegant in a well-cut suit, holding a straw hat and silver-headed walking stick, a boutonniere heightening the impression of sartorial refinement.
Dramatically he pointed with a black-nailed forefinger at his pictured former self, a complete un-likeness if ever there were one. His finger tapped the photograph in angry emphasis.
"Look at that, and look at me now! I was well off, I had a business, I was respected. I lived in Argentina twenty years since I came from Poland. But always I wanted to come to Eretz-Israel, always. It was a meshuga'as; my family called me a meshugener. You have a good business, they said. Get married, they said. Forget about Eretz-Israel, they said. Be a Zionist like us, but why go there?
"It was good advice. My brothers are good businessmen. But I didn't get married, I worked only to come to Eretz-Israel. I thought a wife would hinder me, she would not want to go. The State was founded. I became more meshugge. I sold the business to my brother's brother-in-law, and I came.
"What did I find? No houses, expensive hotels, nowhere to stay except in this misery. I am forty-three years old, I cannot work on the land, I don't know anybody here. I am already five months in this camp and I ask for help. But everyone is busy making plans. I try to get an exit permit to go back. They laugh at me. Why should you go if you came all that way to be in Eretz-Israel, they say."
He caught at my sleeve. "Come and see where I live � I, who had three beautiful rooms .and a balcony."
He took me away from the other two newspapermen, who were up to their necks in troubles of their own with wrathful immigrants speaking tongues which they had never heard before. He led me down the tent-lines until we came to a large marquee, with the sides up. He flung his hand out at an iron bedstead planted on a straw-matting carpet, one of twelve beds there, and gave a hollow laugh.
"That is my home in Israel," he said. "There I live, there I suffer. Is this the reward of a lifelong Zionist?"
He paused; and the interlude gave me the opportunity to interject &. .mild, remark.
"But surely you came of your own accord, voluntarily. No one compelled you to sell your business and go to Israel."
"What propaganda? You mean, there was a recruiting campaign in Argentina for people to settle in Israel?"
"No, not a campaign, but Zionist propaganda for all these years telling us what a wonderful place Eretz-Israel is, and how wonderful to live among our own people."
He became my volunteer guide, escorting me though the crammed hutments, down the rows of flap-open tents; showing me the hospital with sick children in bed, and despondent apathetic fathers sitting alongside because there were too few nurses; sardonically trapping me into visiting the noi-
H wot Sep*. 22, 1949. At Uftle Rock, Aric, Tororrto Tip T�p* were matched with the Clearwafer (Florida) Bombar*. Tip Topi hod buttleJ th�4r way un-dafeotad through ftia cream of North American lofrball tea mi�wtfti rh� world HtU at rhoJf goal.
Fa<od with rh� Somber*' act hurior, rh� Tororrto team trailod from th� 3rd to rh� 7fh inning�fhofi Hod H up, 1-1. For th� noxt 10 framot
teamwork Koi won many flrifi for Canadian sportsman. And teomworV, with tportvncruhip, con help you, too� in wtxV and ploy. Together they keep your scope for opportunity in Conoda . . . un-finvted.
lock. Suddenly Tip Top� In the Itfh Hi�y
ttte ATM COBO t��m to win tfM world toflboll chcmplofithiB.
ULIAILE LEGAL EVIDENCE OBTAINED FOR ALL PURPOSES
Induitrial Clvf] er Criminal
MAUttCI L. JU1IEM, HANIY
Dmenvi MJUAU HA. 6123
11 ST. JAMU ST. WIST
P.M. LONGLEY
A CO. LTD.
GENERAL CONTRACTORS 24*0 St. Patrick St. Wl. 2233
MARION & MARIIN
SUMMON STRUT KS1
LINOLEUM
SPECIALTIES
� �L Tin
HARDWOODS FOR "
INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES
^Ito
"PERFECTION" BRAND
HARDWOOD FLOORS
Enhance the appearance with "Perfection" Brand Hardwood Floors and five more value to a dwelling. They cost no more than an ordinary floor.
EAGLE LUMBER CO., LTD.
&S86 ST. URBAIN ST. CR�aceoti4810
\
10600 Francis Street
Nap. and his 6 sons
DU. 5729
FLOOR C
Over 26 Years Experience Hardwood Flooring � Tile � Asphalt � Rubber � Linoleum � Carpet
\
General Radiator Specialty Reg'd.
Radiator Core* for can, trucks, etc. Diitributor* of the famtnu "HARRISON RADIATOR"
Cleaned � Repaired - Re-cored 8451 COLONIAL AVE. PL�te�n_ 87M
^-^^-^^-^^^^^^^^^^^^^g^^^^^^^^^p-^^-^^--^--------------�--------�------ � � ^^^^^^^^aE^BBgaBBBaBBOBaBtji
SMITH MARBLE
AND CONSTRUCTION CO. Interior and Decorative Marble, LIMITED
Tile Bathrooms and Floor*, G. M. STEVEN, General-Ua**9*r Fireplace Work 207 Van Home Ave.�CRot. 8121
\
SHOP: ELwood 6658
4669 DECARIE BLVD.
ACHARD & FRANC INC.
Plumbing - Heating - Repairs
A. AdUrd: Re*. AT. 5975
O. Franc: Re*. AT. 7682
Auto-Electric Service Corp.
DAY AND NIGHT SERVICE
1C* SHERRROOKE ST. W. MA. 2211
Ml MOUNT ROYAL AVL L PL
^
414� Clft St. LiiieeM Mfl,
KILN DRIED LUMKR OF ALL KINDS
L VIUIMEUVl & CO. UNIED
CtMCMt
LUMKR, DOOtS eerf lASHa , MA
INTERIOR TRIM and DOCKS In OAK, ASH and �RANCH, CHARLIMAGNI, QUL
CLe*r�Ol flB
<<
G. LUCAS
CONTRACTOR
BOILER SETTINGS - FURNACE REPAIRS
WATERPROOFING AND CEMENT WORK WIIbonk 7878 464* St. Catherine St. W.
some latrines, a long line of privy sheds in which obviously the cesspools had become choked. He took me into the big kitchen, and pointed to an electric vat in which soup was bubbling; pointed at the meagre portions being made ready for the midday meal. He kept looking at my face to observe the effect on me.
"Write that in your newspaper!" he kept crowing triumphantly.
BOMAC (Montreal)
LIMITED
Phone UNiverrity 1861
770 St. Antoina Strwt
Cut* For y<mr Catalo0rv��
"Write about that so that other people should not be lured into coming here."
It is a sad situation, indeed. The immigrant camps, with their unavoidable congestion, their choked latrines, the enforced idleness of their occupants, the aimless days and months, the bitterness and discontent and moral deterioration: they are undoubtedly the most dis-(Continued on Page Seven)
ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES
srorriNQ oooos
HOUSEHOLD FUtNISHIMM
R. T. S. Company
M. Hitart St. ML 4M1-4
The B. B. Glove Mfg. Co., Ltd.
*� "� AYER'S CLIFF, QUE.
Ajk foe tompta & Wcei Cotton, Jcrity, rubberlceri Cotton, and Leather Focerf Glovts and MJtti for tM trodt
Al�o Cettan Mailing Bagi
BLUE PRINTS LIMITED
U� N 40*120 lecttn ()e M�
�40 LAGAUCHITIItl ST. W. UK. 2M1 MOMT1IAL
FUNERAL DIRECTORS
If TO 1114
JEWISH
FOW1AL SOrvKB
or DISTINCTION
4011 ST. UK IAIN STIIfT
BELAIR 3O5I
NATIONAL AUTO BODY
COMPANY
JACK Ttnuna
AnU
m lAutm
MONTUAL
Jean Capra
THJ. TBtAIZt e^ MAttU W
T770 CAdORAJN IT.
Til. CH S65I