FIRST
IMPRESSIONS OF ISRAEL
Shalom (Peace be with you), the word of
greeting and farewell ever on our lips.
It was four weeks ago last
night that the twinkling lights of Tel Aviv blinked their
welcome to the mechanical bird that brought us from Athens. I dictate this letter as I am starting
the fifth week of my service here in Israel.
What have been my experiences? What have been my impressions?
Sallie and I had a delightful trip out.
We left New York on the
Independence on June 22nd
and reached Naples
on July 2nd. It was a time for rest and preparation.
We enjoyed it to the limit including a brief shore visit
in Genoa. We did not tarry in Italy,
going quickly by train to Rome,
and 5:30 a.m. on June 3rd found our plane being
met in Athens by Marika and
her husband. In the years long ago at Salonika
she had been a pupil of Sallie’ and my secretary. The two
days passed all too quickly with her family of three children. Yet in the relating of their war experience there
came a glimpse of the price of
freedom. A happy Greek family, Athens, the Acropolis,
the Aegean, the mountains,
were all a joy and a delight.
As the sun approached the horizon
on July 5th we left them, boarding TWA’s Constellation named the “The Star of Indiana”. Ere
long the lights of Tel Aviv, along with a new moon welcomed
us before Israel Government officials and our associates
from the American Embassy and the Mission
shared their words and handclasps with us. The press and
photographers were on hand. The great adventure had started.
I had heard that Israel
was a land of activity with a hustle and bustle much like
America. So I have found it. These
four weeks have been very full, as I have met many people,
listened to many words and seen many things. Indeed, so
much has happened that I feel completely at home and the
four seem more like months than weeks. The first day was
typical. As we drove to the hotel from the airport (10
p.m.) my predecessor, Bruce McDaniel, said “I’ll pick you
up at 7 o’clock. We are going up to Jerusalem.” So within 10 hour after I had landed
I went up to Jerusalem. First there was a visit with the
Prime Minister, Moshe Sharett, and before four o’clock, I had seen eight other Ministers
of the Government and been entertained at lunch by Dr. Joseph,
the Minister of Development. It was a rare privilege to
have this opportunity to meet at the outset these leaders
of a young nation,-able, devoted, motivated by a common
dedication. Only this last week was there opportunity to
meet three additional members of the Cabinet and to visit
the Knesset (Parliament). Memories of hours in our own
House and Senate were with me.
The second day was spent meeting
the staff of the United States Operations Mission (USOM),
whose leadership I was to assume. There was time for a
visit to the Embassy. In the evening the Israel-American
League of Friendship held its Independence Day celebration.
It was a farewell to McDaniel and a welcome to Hale. Two
Ministers I’d met the day before spoke, along with the Acting
American Ambassador and McDaniel. I had a brief word at
the end. 300 people. An
outdoor setting. Delightful. Dinner was scheduled for 8 p.m. We concluded
at 12:30 a.m.
So it has gone. Each Monday
is spent in Jerusalem. There have been
six such days. Sallie has shared the trip four times, browsing
in the stores and about the city while I am busy. We meet
for lunch, always shared with others. There have been three
two-day trips to the north and south. Literally I have
been from Dan to Beersheba
and much further south. Sde Boker , a settlement deep in the Negev,
meant an interesting visit with youth who are pioneering
and a brief few minutes with the elder statesman, Ben Gurion.
His first question: “What’s America done with atomic power? It
is the solution to our problem – fuel and providing fresh
water from the sea.”
Sallie made the northern trip
and was with me as we came down from the hills of northern
Galilee to Capernaum and
Tiberias on the Sea
of Galilee. Last week I went to Sdom
on the southernend of the Dead
Sea to study the potash plant (113* temperature) and then
up to a phosphate works deep in the Negev for the night (cool). Next day the Mayor of Beersheba
showed me his city, a modern city with parks, schools, hundreds
of modern concrete houses, children’s recreation center,
and a cinema that would do credit to any American community.
Two weeks before, on the occasion of the Bedouin Market
day at Beersheba,
I had my picture taken with him, MayorTuviahu,
and Sheikh Suleiman, possessor of 39 wives.
These trips have been made
in two or three cars with several of my associates and appropriate
representatives of the various ministries of the Israel
Government. There have been constant
inspection of joint projects and abundant opportunity
for discussions leading to a rapid appreciation of the problems
involved and the achievements made. For example, General
Benarzi, a leader in the total water development plan, shared
the day with me as we visited the upper Jordan, but discussion included the
whole problem of irrigation and the current status of their
plans.
In between times I have been
busy at my desk, gradually coming to understand the operation
of U.S.O.M., to know more intimately my associates and to
assume the administrative direction which is my function
in the total task. Problems to solve and decisions to make
are there aplenty, but all goes well.
There has been time for other
things too. A concert by the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra with four guest soloists (two from
America) was tops.
In Jerusalem we saw a performance of the Inbal dance group (Yemenite dancers). Unusual
and splendid. Hurok plans
to bring them to America
next year. There have been several good visits with Mr.
Jofre, Marion Anderson’s manager,
who left Sunday to return to the States. The Anglican Church
in Jaffa
is a worshipful place and we enjoy tarrying there awhile
on
Sunday. The Israeli
students who were at Evansville College have been a joy.
And what are my impressions?
I was asked that question last Monday by Mrs. Golda Myerson,
Minister of Labor, and my answer after a pause was one word
“Dynamic”. This is a young nation – only six years old
– afire with passion for freedom, independence and self
expression such as our country once knew back in the days
of ’76 and onward. There is activity everywhere. To see
men running to get into work trucks in the hot climate of
the Middle East speaks
volumes. As we drive up to Jerusalem,
men and women in the fields are working, not leaning on
their shovels. New areas of land are being cleared houses
built and industries started. There is faith and there
is courage. They are tackling a difficult task and daring
to build a modern nation against difficult economic odds.
Yet all creative activity is a venture into the land of
“it’s never been done before” and so it seems to be in this
Holy Land where faith has
from time to time across the ages lifted its beacon aloft.
I believe Victor Hugo once said something like this: when
an idea grips the lives and hearts of a group of men and
women they become an irresistible force.
It’s again a land of beginnings.
You see the young trees, the young vine, the house abuilding,
the new furrow in a neglected field. Industries I have visited
are in the fourth, fifth, sixth month of production and
started often with workers who knew little of mechanical
processes. It’s a land of youth and pioneering.
It’s a land of confidence.
I spoke of the birth of a nation and was reminded that it
was the rebirth of a nation even as it was the birth of
a state. I was in Jerusalem just two days after the last serious exchange of
firing and was amazed at the sense of “business as usual”
even though a large plate glass window in the King
David Hotel
showed several bullet holes. The people’s concern is to
get on with the building and development of the State, conscious
of their international position but confident their leaders
will find a way short of war.
I have been pleasantly surprised
by the weather. It is hot yet the combination of heat and
humidity in Evansville is much more uncomfortable than here.
A good breeze that brings cool nights is truly enjoyable.
Food is excellent. We drink water from the tap in Tel Aviv
and water is safe in many places. Bottledcream
from pasteurized dairies has appeared on the market, although
there is as yet no bottled milk. Fruits and vegetables
are plentiful. All these things represent tremendous progress.
It is a country that has welcomed
America’s
hand of friendship and has made good use of the economic
and technical assistance we have extended. I have been
proud of the work that has been done by the associates who
have preceded me or with whom I am working now.
One wonders. Can it be that
this little land will successfully survive the birth pangs
of statehood and demonstrate, as it makes the desert bloom,
that fullness of life can come to all the people and nations
of the Middle East?
Shalom,
October 4, 1954
OLDER
THAN THE STATE OF ISRAEL
How rapidly the weeks have passed for Sallie and
me. As I pick up
my pen to write it is three months since TWA’s “Star of Indiana” set us down in this land which is
a bewildering yet fascinating blend of the new and the old. I am writing mid-way between the holidays of
Rosh Hashana (New Year 5715) which
fell on September 28th and Yom Kippur (Day of
Atonement) which comes on October 7th.
These are holy days which remind one vividly of spiritual
realities that undergird our civilization, for therein are the early traditions
and values from which evolved not only
Judaism but also Christianity and Mohammedanism. With the
coming of the first two stars in the heavens on Wednesday
evening, which ushers in Yom Kippur, there will follow 24
hours of fasting when all transportation stops, including
private cars, and a nation in home and in synagogue turns
its thoughts to God in prayer and fasting.
From such are the sinews of men fashioned.
These weeks have been a continuation of the busy
days we knew during the first four weeks.
There was a delightful visit to Nazareth with Hannah and Benjamin Machnes,
who received their degrees from Evansville
College
two years ago. Nazareth seemed strange from my memories of
the 1930 visit until I realized that the 9,000 population
of 1930 had grown to a present 27,000.
However, it is the center of the Arab population
of Israel,
which numbers 150,000 with 4 Arabs sitting in the Knesset
(Parliament). Last Thursday night we heard a brilliant rendition
of Beethoven’s Second Symphony at the opening concert of
the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (19th Season).
I
have found a place in the Tel
Aviv-Jaffa Rotary Club, founded 25 years
ago. A special luncheon,
including Rotary Anns was a farewell
to Sir Francis Evans, the British Ambassador, who is transferring
to Argentina, and Lady Evans, and a welcome
to Sallie and me. The
French Ambassador offered the toast to Evansville
and to Buenos Aires.
Sallie and I continue to go to Jerusalem
each Monday morning. My
meetings with government officials further the cooperative
task in which we are engaged. There is also time for us to share other valuable
experiences – a collection of pottery some 5,000 years old
from excavations near Beersheba exhibited at the National
Museum; luncheon with Mr. Gershon
Agron, the founder and editor
of the Jerusalem Post Printed in English and established
by him following his coming to Palestine some 30 years ago
and Mrs, Agron; the Sandhedrin Tombs
(catacombs recently excavated) shown us by the Director
General of the Ministry of Religion, Rabbi Z. Cahane,
whose father and grandfather each in turn had been the Chief
Rabbi of Warshaw; luncheon with President Benjamin Mazar of the Hebrew University and several of his associates.
You may have seen the column by Harry Gilroy in the
New York Times of August 29 which told of our trip to Haifa
arranged by the Ministry of Communications.
We travelled by train from
Tel Aviv to Haifa in the former High
Commissioner’s car, a relic of the Mandate days. Our tour included the extensive railway repair
shops (soon to be abolished as diesel engines replace steam),
the Haifa Port,
which we travelled by fireboat,
car and foot, and lunch on an Israel Zim
Line freighter. I was deeply impressed to find a modern efficient
shipping center. The
docks have been lengthened and modern equipment installed
with FOA and Export-Import Bank assistance, but it was the
cleanliness, the organization, the housekeeping, the efficient
administration that I particularly noted; another excellent
example of the good use which has been made of the help
the United States
has extended.
This is a land where sunshine, hard work and water
will let arid land bloom. Of the three water
is a must. Plans
to distribute water have a high priority.
The day I inspected the Yarkon-Negev
pipeline was a revelation of a modern engineering accomplishment.
It will take water from the springs of the Yarkon
River east of Tel Aviv and carry it south through a 66 inch
pipeline approximately 75 miles long for use at many places. The system includes 3 pumping stations with
5 power units of 1,000 horsepower each, and 3 reservoirs
of large capacity. We drove by jeep cross-country along the line
to view construction. We
stopped at Ashkelon of Samson and Delilah fame and saw the making of
these large cement pipes.
Water will flow next May or August.
A large area of additional land will come under intensive
cultivation. It typifies the solution to the food problem
of Israel.
As the weeks have passed, along with an appreciation
of the significant developments since the establishment
of the State of Israel in 1948 has come an understanding
of what was here in this land before that date. There is a rich background of experience and
activity which provided a foundation upon which recent growth and development were
erected.
Of interest was the visit to the wine cellars at
Rishon. The settlement was established in 1890. In 1892 Baron Edmon
Rothschild of France
provided the money which built the vaulted tunnels, created
the glass lined vats and large wooden drums, and installed
equipment which through the years has transferred grapes
into excellent Kosher wines that
find their way into the American market.
In the last 2 years modernization of equipment has
improved quality and also brought into being a splendid
pasteurized grape juice which is bottled without the use
of a preservative. We
keep a supply in the refrigerator – truly delicious.
Agricultural villages were established 25 to 40 years
ago, the first even earlier, Petah Tikvah (1878) – Deganea (1911) south of the Sea of Galilee from which we had
a grapefruit when we made our 1930 visit – Ayelet
Hashachar (1921) near Hulah
Lake, where we spent a night in a comfortable guest house
last July, - Ma’ale Hahamisha (1920) in the hills
approaching Jerusalem
where we has lunch during an inspection trip. These are typical of many villages where a diversified
agricultural program has been carried on for years. Here the experience was gained for the widespread
agricultural
program has been carried on for years. Here the experience was gained for the widespread
agricultural developments of the past six years. Indeed from these villages younger men and women
have gone to the new settlements to provide leadership and
“know-how”.
Again there was the visit to the Jaffe (Brother of
Marian Anderson’s manager who came to Palestine in 1905)
farm where before our eyes was spread out a veritable garden
spot of citrus orchards, vineyards, gardens, and a formal
garden with cacti, flowers and trees.
Fifteen years ago it was a sand dune.
Individual initiative, hard work planning, vision,
love and water were the ingredients that worked the transformation.
These agricultural accomplishments are older than
the State of Israel and have pointed the way for the newcomers.
The transformation of sand dunes, which still goes
on, is no better illustrated than in the creation of the
city of Tel Aviv.
Mayor Chaim Levanon and his assistant,
Yehudah Nedivi, Town Clerk, so well
described it to us during a conference and tour of the city. In 1908 a group from the Jewish community in
Jaffa
came into the sand dunes north of that city and built the
first houses. Little did they realize that within 45 years
a modern city of 360,000, with fine homes, parks, gardens,
theatres, splendid shopping centers and an ever growing
industry would result. The suburb has engulfed the city from which
it sprang, and is called Tel
Aviv-Jaffa. It is another of the amazing developments that
is part of the pre 1948 post 1948 story.
Haifa and Beersheba have had similar development, although
their beginnings were in the long ago.
In education, the Hebrew
University
founded in 1925 and the Weizmann
Institute of Science (1947) founded as the Daniel Sieff
Research Institute in 1934, are indications of the growth
of educational strength of a high order before the state
was founded. The
Hebrew University’s excellent Medical school, Hospital and
Library, with a fine book collection, located in a demilitarized
zone north of Jerusalem, in the Jordan sector, have gone
unused since 1948, although the expanding activities of
the university have proceeded in temporary quarters in the
new city and with the development of a new building program.
Yet the celebration here in Israel
of the 300th Anniversary of the founding of the
first Jewish communities in America,
was a reminder of the well nigh ageless tradition that lies
back of this modern development.
Between Haifa and
Nazareth several weeks ago
we visited Beit Shearim with Dr. Mazar, President of the Hebrew University
as our guide. Here
on a hilltop overlooking the Esdraelon
plain and in the catacombs at the base of the hill, has
been revealed a great seat of Jewish culture which flourished
from 200 to 400 A.D. With
the decline of Jerusalem
the center had moved to this part of Galilee. Here came leaders from all over the Near Eastern
world.
Standing amid the ruins, blending my thought with
those that I have of Jerusalem as I am coming to know her,
and remembering and hour’s conference with Dr. Isaac Herzog,
Chief Rabbi of Israel, there came an acute awareness of
the great spiritual tradition which with renewed vitality
is now a strong creative force unifying and undergirding
the life and development of this new state.
To understand this land is to understand that which
existed both in the span of the centuries and also in the
span of the decades that proceeded the emergence of the
modern State of Israel.
Would that each of you who read this message could
be sharing the experience with us.
Shalom
Address:
C/o American Embassy
Tel Aviv, Israel
January 5, 1955
THE BEAUTY OF
ISRAEL IN THE
WINTER
Shalom (Peace be with you), the
word of greeting and farewell ever on our lips:-
Six months ago tonight in the midst of summer,
on the day after July 4th, Sallie and I arrived
in Israel.
I write you now after the New Year in the midst of winter.
Tomorrow the Christians who belong to the Eastern Church
will cross over into old.Jerusalem
to have their Christmas celebration at Bethlehem
as the other pilgrims of the Western
Church
did on December 24th. Such is the difference
that calendars make.
Winter in Israel! It gives
you the priceless gift of Christmas in the land
of Jesus. As our Christmas tree was lighted
in the somber quiet of the Jewish Shabueth (Friday) Eve and we sang carols in the courtyard
of the building where many of the American staff live,
it seemed that one could hear the angel choir – “Peace on
Earth, Good Will Among Men”. We remembered that a babe
of Jewish parentage was born in the long ago, not so far
from where we stood – a Babe whose life has changed the
destiny of a world. In the quiet of the night we, as your
representatives in this land, dedicated ourselves anew to
that purpose of old “Peace on Earth, Good Will Among
Men”. Such is our mission.
Christmas was a beautiful time. This year
Chanukah the feast of lights came
at the same time. On Sunday afternoon before Christmas
Sallie and I went to share in a refugee community kindergarten,
the lighting of the first of the 8 candles to be lit on
successive nights. Some 40 children and their parents who
had come from many different countries crowded into the
all too small a room. Would you could have seen the varied
racial features and the smiling faces as they sang and danced.
One of the kiddies’ grandfather
lit the candle, the first on the 8 branched candelabra.
On Tuesday we were invited to a home where
a group of American children shared in a Chanukah party
with a group of Israeli children and lighted the candles.
So it was that on Christmas Eve a candle, the 6th,
was lighted in each Israeli home. And for us there was
the baptism of Peter Wanamaker two weeks before Christmas,
a carol service in the Anglican Church the Sunday before,
and our Christmas turkey shared with three new members of
the staff whose wives were still in the States.
We didn’t go to Bethlehem
and remembered, but one day we drove out to Ramat
Rahel, and looked toward Bethlehem
and remembered that a demarcation line was there. It could
not be seen, but if an Israeli or an Arab had tried to cross
in either direction he might have been killed. Read now
in part the words of an Israeli newspaperman who also went
out to Ramat Rahel and wrote these thoughts for Christmas Eve: “One has
to remind oneself all the time that mortal beings are like
that. I don’t suppose they want to be like it but there
it is. They act in hatred or silliness when all they would
really like to do is hold in their hearts forever the sweet
feeling that comes when they light the candles for the purified
Temple or adore the Holy Babe in the Manger.”
“Religion is a marvelously pretty thing: deep
and rich too, and very solemn. But every now and then it
is a marvelously pretty thing with the soft yellow candles
in the window and the children singing beside them: or
with the star rising over Bethlehem and the bells ringing
out because Mary bore a son in a manger of that town, there
being no place at the inn.”
So men grow closer together and the great hope
leads us on “Peace on Earth, Good Will Among Men.”
Life has been very full. Indeed it is the
reason for the long interval since my letter of October
4th. I rejoice that Sallie and I can do so many
things together. There was the night we attended the dinner
meeting in Jerusalem of the
Study Group of the United Jewish Appeal from America,
and I gave my first official address (Washington
approved). Or the day we shared with the ladies of Hadassah,
visiting their extensive medical work and the girls’ vocational
high school in Jerusalem.
Archeological interests have taken us back to Beit
Sherim, to an old Canaanite temple
site at Nahariya 3600 years old,
to Askelon, and at Nobi
Reuben we found an old coin (500 A.D.?) The Israel Philharmonic
is a joy about every third week,
and in a lighter vein was a musical comedy “The Rose of
Istambul” (sung in Hebrew). A
play in Hebrew called “Casablan”
dealing with the problem of integrating people from many
countries into Israel, was extremely interesting. We spent several delightful hours
visiting the Technion in Haifa
with President General Dori as
our host. It is the M.I.T. of Israel. They
are building a new campus high up on Mt. Carmel.
Only two weeks ago we were in Beer Sheba to dedicate
a new vocational school, a joint venture of the U.S.O.M.
and the Israel Government. Sallie cut the ribbon. The
American Ambassador Edward Lawson, Mrs. Golda Meyerson,
the Minister of Labor and I spoke. A special highlight
was the 25th anniversary dinner of the Jerusalem
Rotary Club. They celebrated their Silver Anniversary and
the Golden Anniversary of Rotary International with honored
guests from Holland. So it goes week
by week.
As for me, these are some of the highlights.
I was a member of Ambassador Lawson’s official party that
went with him to Jerusalem when he presented
his credentials. After we left our cars at the President’s
residence and I stood in formal attire just behind the Ambassador,
a spine tingling experience never to be forgotten came when
in a foreign land the military band of the host government
started “O Say Can You See…..” A two day visit of Congressmen
John M. Vorys and James P. Richards
included an all day trip to Galilee
and dinner with the leaders of the Israel Government at
the Ambassador’s home. Visits to industry continue including
ATA, a modern textile plant; Fertilizer and Chemicals,
a most interesting chemical complex; and this week comes
an all day visit to the citrus industry from grove, to packing
plant to canning factory. I visited Ben Machnes’ (Evansville
College
graduate) 2,000 acre sisal plantation in the southern part
of the country, and on another occasion saw 20,000 chickens
in one of the villages. I’ve visited five of the Rotary
Clubs in Israel, speaking to each and will
include the other five in the next two or three months.
Winter came to us in an aeroplane
on the way to Athens in mid-November. A few minutes of blinding
rain at 18,000 feet as the plane bounced up and down made
the difference. The warmth and sunshine we had left an
hour before turned to cold and clouds as we landed in Greece. So the west wind brought
winter to Greece and to Israel. A conference of F.O.A. Country
Directors of the Middle East
took me there. Sallie and I enjoyed a week’s visit with
Marika, her family and a number of old friends. Late in the
week sunshine bathed the Acropolis, the mountains, and old
familiar Athens to temper the cold and make it a memorable
experience.
In all our comings and goings we have been
enjoying the beauty of Israel in the
winter. All about us is a lovely flower world against the
green of the grass and the blue of the sky. Never have I
seen such poinsettia – 8”, 10”, 14” in diameter and standing
on stems four and five feet high. On the low hills are
white narcissi, which is the biblical “Lily of the Valley”.
On the hillside are the scarlet anemones, which is the “Rose
of Sharon”. Along the hedges before many homes are walls
of bougainvillaea, and here
and there brilliant banks of hibiscus flowers. And in a
few weeks even as you may read this letter the fields and
hillsides will be covered with red poppies, cyclamen and
oleander in scores of varieties in gorgeous profusion.
Flowers never seem to be out of our sight..
We are close to the sea in this land and almost
daily we see the white breakers crash on miles and miles
of firm golden sand, the foam the whiter in contrast to
the clear blue of the Mediterranean winter
sea and sky. In our imagination we see again Crusaders
riding along these yellow sands with their banners flying
and we remember that for centuries the pilgrims marched
this way beside the sea. Yes, beauty, beauty everywhere
mingled with a great host of men and women of yesteryears.
Never has the road to Jerusalem
looked more beautiful as we travel it week by week. It
winds first through the plain where the rains have brought
a fresh green hue to field and tree now bordered by the
groves of lemons, oranges and grapefruit ready for the picking.
And lo -- an unusual sight at Christmas time – for here
are baby lambs with their mothers. (In Greece
the lambs come at Eastertime).
The first slow rise brings us into the valley where Samson
had lived, and we have a glimpse of green pines against
the mountain gray. Then come those
majestic views as we climb the higher mountains where vistas
are to the right and left. Here and there brown soil either
dark with age or light as newly turned,
sparkles in the sun. Terraces show tree and vine. Barren
mountains challenge your judgment to determine whether the
rocks you see are terraces or natural outcroppings. Along
the roadside are the smiling faces of men and women busily
engaged in work. Overhead the fleecy clouds weave their
patterns against the blue of the sky. Then at last up through
a mountain gorge one sees the city set on a hill, Jerusalem,
its turrets etched against the sky. And again emotion mingles
with reality “Jerusalem
with Milk and Honey Blest”.
So I would share with you the beauty of this
land in the winter. Flowers, sea, Christmas, mountain roads
with majestic valleys, radiant children, purposeful men
and women, memories – all mingled together to give a joyous
lift to life.
And finally, my greatest surprise! Israel is a land
of rainbows. Again and again they appear after the winter
showers to shed their soft blended colors across the sky
for men to behold. They seem to me to be a promise and
a benediction when it is winter in Israel.
Shalom
Address:
c/o American Embassy
Tel Aviv, Israel
Lincoln
Barnard Hale was born in 1898 in Ansonia, Connecticut to Orlando Barnard
Hale and Elizabeth Dewey Gale. According to a publication from Evansville
College which later became Evansville University he served the College
as President from 1940 to 1954. 
