Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 April 1963 — Page 13

^•wawwiinwr

Ministry of Immigration Needed in Israel

By M. Z. FRANK The government of Israel has a Minister of Police, who is in charge of a ministry — roughly the equivalent of a government department in Washington. No other government I know of has such a ministry or department. The police in any non-to-t a 1 i t a r i - an country (and Israel is a democracy) are part of an internal M. Z. Frank ministry or department. On the other hand, there is no Ministry of Immigration in the Government of the most immigration-minded country in the world. There is a Department of Immigration and Naturalization in Washington. There is a Ministry of Immigration in Ottawa. Canada early this century used to do very much what Israel does now: send out emissaries to Europe to recruit immigrants. WHY IS ISRAEL different from Canada and the United States? Why does it have a Ministry of Police, although the proportionate cime rate in Israel is not as high and not as severe as in most countries? Why does it not have a Ministry of Immigration, when the whole world knows that Israel's leaders have tied up the destiny of their country to immigration? The reason why Israel has a Ministry of Police may seem trivial and unworthy of discussion. But it throws a light on the atmosphere in which the more important fact of the absence of a Ministry of Immigration can happen. WHEN the Provisional Government of Israel was formed in the spring of 1948 — in preparatkm of the Declaration of Independence — Isaac Gruenbaum, former Member of the Polish SeBook Reviews By Burstein NON — CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS A TO Z, edited by Horace L. Friess, $2.50 (Grosset and Dunlapb For the Universal Reference Library, Prof. Friess has supervised the English adaptation of a work by Helmuth von Glasenapp. The scope is from American origins, through Babylonia, Buddhism, China, Greece, Islam, to Zoroaster. The article on Judaism, with few errors, combines scientific rationalism with tradition. JEWS IN THE MODERN WORLD, edited by Jacob Freid, 2 vols., $10.00 (Twayne). Dr. Freid has completed a grandiose plan to depict modern Jewry in every aspect but the purely religious. More than a score of writers, including Dr. Freid himself, have supplied chapters on extermination and persecution in Hitler’s Europe, the USSR, Moslem and LatinAmerican lands; American youth and the Marxist delusion; church and state anti-Semitism; Judaism in the arts and education; the impact oi Israel; demography, and all related factors. Among the authors are Ben Gurion, Sharett, Gordis, Baron, Allport, Wuxman, and Lestschinsky.

jim (Parliament) was made the Minister of Interior. Gruenbaum, being a Polish Jew, said he was allergic to policemen and insisted that police should not be included in his jurisdiction. Thus a separate Ministry of Police was set up. The government found a minister for it who is much more qualified to handle police matters than any politician in Israel. It was Behor Shitrit, a native Jew of Moroccan ancestry, who had served under the British in police and related matters. After the first general elections of January, 1949, Gruenbaum was eliminated from public life — thiough his owm fault: he made up a new oneman party, ran and lost the elections. THE SPECIAL REASON for having a Police Ministry was now gone. But there still remained special and not-so-special reasons for not abolishing it. It is difficult enough even now in Israel to dislodge an official: it was more difficult in 1949. To give Shitrit another post would mean dislodging somebody. Besides, he did not have enough backing. To demote him might hurt his feelings. It might be interpreted as a slight to the North African Jews, who are touchy enough as it is anyway. Besides,, strange as it may seem, dynamic Israel is rigidly conservative and undynamic in constitutional forms in government and office procedure. It may be a good tiling, on the whole, for a country like Israel, in which so many changes take place daily, to retain stability in the skeleton or backbone of its public life. If Israel were to change its political parties and government system as rapidly as it changes the complexion of its population and landscape, it would become too fluid and might dissolve in chaos. Well, that's the good side of it. Needless to say, efficiency suffers. IT IS this stick-in-the-mud attitude which explains why Israel, has no Minister of Immigration. The Jewish Agency has a Department of Immigration; it has a Department of Absorption and a Department of Colonization. The same crazy agreement which “released” Gruenbaum from the unpalatable task of handling police matters pays homage to w r orld Jewry by entrusting the Jewish Agency with handling immigration. The same provincial East European mentality, exploited by certain vested interests, accepted the preposterous idea that, alongside a dynamic government which runs the country, a parallel government or quasi-govern-ment can be operated by world Jewry, represented by the World Zionist Organization, which elects the Jewish Agency. It is a system worthy of the Wise Men of Chelm. BUT LIFE has a logic which differs from that of the staleminded theoreticians of the Zionist movement. The system is a dead letter. The real boss of immigration, colonization and absorption is the government of Israel. It sets the general policy and world Jewry, insofar as it cooperates with Israel in the above-mentioned tasks, accepts it as natural that the government should exercise control over the x very tasks in which world Jewry gives its financial assistance and a good deal of emotional involve-

ment. The Jewish Agency, formally under the control of the World Zionist Organization, is, in fact, a thoroughly Israeli body, in which all the officials, from the highest to the lowest, are Israelis, elected or appointed by Israelis. THE LEADERS of the Jewish Agency belong to the same roster as the leaders of the government, the Knesset, the histadrut, the local political parties and the municipalities. Examples: the Director of the

By CARL ALBERT HAIFA — It could happen only in Israel. Random notes from the local press. Ah advertisement in The Jerusalem Post: “Bi-lingual dog seeks new, sympathetic master or mistress. Present masters leaving country. One - year - old, medium size, female shep-herd-terrier. House-broken, affectionate, handsome, lovable. No

fee.”

THE PAZ OIL CO., operated by London’s Isaac Wolfson, has available at all its gasoline filling stations in Israel a neatly printed pamphlet containing the Hebrew prayer f o r travellers free for

the asking.

Where professional ethics clash with the 1 a w, the law is supreme, declared a Tel Aviv judge. A local physician had reported his annual income to the income tax authorities and had shown records listing his patients by initials only. The tax collector insisted on seeing records with

By Rabbi Maurice Davis Passover is ended, and I have discovered an intriguing fact. In looking back over the various sedarim of my life, it seems as if a quotation from the Haggadah could stand as the title of each of them. The seder does not change very much from year to year but we do. And that, I suppose nakes all the ifference. I remember Rabbi Davis the seder of “Dayenu”. That was the year, in Providence, R. I., when I found the afikomen. My grandfather, alav ha-sholom, in mock solemnity offered me the option of 50 cents then and there, or a white pony sometime in the future. I unhesitatingly chose the white pony. I knew I would never get one, but it was a lovely dream, worth far more than fifty cents. And Passover, after all, was the time of miracles. I remember the seder of “Song

Jewish Agency Department of Immigration, Zalman Sharagai, is a former Mayor of Jerusalem; the Director of the Department of Absorption, Aharon Zisling, is a former Minister of Agriculture (in the Provisional Government); the Director of Colonization, Levi Eshkol, is also Minister of Finance in the government; Dr. Dov Joseph was Treasurer of the Agency between ministries in the government. Avraham Harman, after serving with distinction as Consul General in New York, accepted the position as Director of

the full names of all patients. The tax collector won. BOTH PRESIDENT BEN ZVI and Prime Minister Ben Gurion refer to him only as Mr. Amitai as part of their campaign to Hebraize names. However, Mr. Eorah W’ahrhaftig, Minister of Religion, refuses to change h i s name, for personal and family reasons. “Amitai” is the Hebrew equivalent of “Wahrhaftig.” A Jewish gasoline filling station operator in Herzlia applied to the municipal authorities for permission to keep his station open on Saturdays on the grounds that he would close all day Sundays. Permissions denied. MANY EYEBROWS were lifted when the press carried a conspicuous classified advertisement worded as follows: “Help Wanted: Outstanding calesman wanted by leading businessmen to promote Israel-made goods in American. Must be personally known to at least one out of every four Jewish families in the USA. Reply, stating full qualifications to Boj^. . .” A subsequent ad let the cat out of the bag. The only qualified applicant was “The Hadassah Magazine,” personally known to one out of every four Jewish fam-

of Songs”, and the Passover melody “Behold it is the Springtime of the year”. That w'as the year in Cincinnati, at the home of Rabbi and Mrs. Abraham Cronbach, when their daughter and I announced our engagement. Passover, after all, is the time of spring, with all that that implies. I remember the seder of “Haller and the opening of the door for Elijah, that was the seder for Hillel at the University of Cincinnati, when I saw for the first time a real, live “Elijah”, equipped with beard and robe and baleful glance; who is now the Rabbi in Waco, Texas. I remember the seder of “Ho lochmo”. That was the seder in Lexington, Kentucky, which was interrupted by a phone call from an itinerate passing through town, and in need of money. Dr. Charles Schwartz and I left the seder, drove into town, found the stranger, gave him what he needed, and invited him (in vain) to the seder. Passover, after all, is the time to say “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” I remember the seder of

Information for the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem and is now again in Israel’s government service as Ambassador in Washington. THE JEWISH AGENCY is, more or less, a civilian Israeli organization closely connected with the government and maintaining contact with world Jewry, but no more than the government, if that close a contact. The Zionist Congress and the Zionist Actions Committee are tied to the Agency with ropes made of sand.

Happen? dies in the United states.

The mos* comprehensive Rosh Hashonah greeting published in the Hebrew press last fall read as follows: “To the Prime Minister, the Ministers of the government, Israel s defense forces, to all mayors, vice mayors and members of municipal councils, to theatrical actors, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Haifa Orchestra, the Israel National Opera, the press critics, to my friends and members of their family, to my relatives, to proprietors of public halls and all their employees: best wishes for a Happy New Year. Signed — Kalman Gilsburg, Impresario.” ISRAEL'S income tax collectors received a letter from a former Israeli who had left to settle in Australia. He claimed he still owed back taxes and wanted to settle up. How much? The bill

was sent to him.

A big display advertisement in the Israel dailies proudly announced that the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Chief Rabbi J.Y. Unterman. had seen to it that the Lieber factory had been properly koshered for Passover, under supervision, and that Bajooka Bubble Gum was certified as kosher for Passover.

“Moror”. That was the seder at the Narcotics Prison Hospital outside Lexington. Kentucky. My mother, whom I had invited, listened to the conversation of inmates, and wept to hear them laugh. The words of those prison sedarim still ring in my ears; calling upon the youngest to recite “The Four Questions.” and t h e youngest being a drug addict scarcely sixteen; or finding a new dimension to the words, “Next year at this time map the whole household of Israel ba free.” And finally. I remember the seder of, “Lshono habo-o”. That was the seder, a few years ago in Indianapolis, when Major Shmuel Shavitt was our guest. It was his first Pesach away from Haifa, and when he said, “Next year-in the land of Israel”, he meant it literally and fervently. These are film clips from home movies, with words that stand out. They are pe;&onal, and they are mine. But we all have them, because seder is a “home" movietaken in the home. And it is a Tery moving picture!

1 Write as 1 Please

Random Notes in Israeli Press:

Where Else Could It

Alpert

Sedarim of My Life - A Drama of Its Own