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70 years later: the Americans "descend" on the infrastructures in Israel Israel today

2022-12-03T08:26:10.501Z


And also: the sellers in the market are waiting for potatoes, and an important publisher is celebrating a birthday √ This is what happened in Israel this week seven decades ago


A gloomy report on Israel

On December 1, 1952, the American weekly "Foreign Commerce Weekly" published an extract of a report prepared by the American Ministry of Commerce about the State of Israel.

At the beginning of the report, the telephone infrastructure in Israel was reviewed, and it was noted that "the expansion of the telephone network is proceeding lazily, and it is doubtful whether the four-year plan presented in Israel in 1949 will reach its goal." Israel's failure to meet the goal was due, according to the report, to "a significant lag" in the supply of materials and equipment".

In the middle of 1952, no less than 18,000 people in Israel were waiting for a telephone line to be installed, of which 8,000 were from the city of Tel Aviv.

"Israel's inability to develop the national telephone network as required harms almost every area of ​​commercial and industrial life in the country," the report stated.

In the area of ​​transportation and distribution, Israel's situation was no better, according to the report: "The country continues to use cars as the main means of transportation, and it needs a significant expansion of the railroads and transportation services by rail."

The road infrastructure was also found to be problematic in the report. "In the past year, 1,952 km of new roads were paved in Israel and more than 2,300 km of roads were repaired, but 218 settlements throughout Israel are still cut off from some kind of main road, and it is necessary to pave an average of one kilometer of road to each locality, which will connect the place to the nearest road."

In the field of transportation infrastructure, the report also stated that Israel intends to invest most of its efforts in the coming year in the area of ​​road construction in the Negev, "as part of a large-scale plan to move the population from the center of the country to the south."

A good word was nevertheless said in the report, regarding the Kornov (Mashit)-Sodom road (Route 204): "This is a complex and complicated engineering operation, which it is doubtful that many American engineering companies would have been able to respond to the challenges that the wild nature and the enormous height differences posed to the embankments.

The completion of the construction of the northern part of the road by March 1953 will allow the resumption of potash production in the Dead Sea."

Organization for Hebrew: "The immigrant will learn 2,000 words"

A poster to encourage the study of the Hebrew language, the early 1950s, photo: photo courtesy of "Zionists 2,000"

"Our goal in establishing the new organization is to dedicate our time and our ability to the control of the Hebrew language and culture in Israel, and to create fusion postcards in the spirit of the Hebrew language."

This is what Dr. David Levin solemnly declared at the founding conference of the voluntary organization "Teacher of the Language Activists", which took place at the end of November 1952 in the "Ohel Shem" hall in Tel Aviv. Levin spoke as part of his role as the temporary chairman of the new organization, in front of a hall that was full to the brim.

The "Language Activists Member" was the fruit of an initiative by several lovers of the Hebrew language, who joined together in a common vision to establish an organization within the framework of which thousands of volunteers will work to instill Hebrew and its culture in the masses.

"Learning the Hebrew language is indeed part of the duties of the state," Levin told the journalists gathered at the opening of the event, "but we see ourselves as capable of helping the state at this time. By taking on the subject of learning Hebrew - we can free the state's leadership for the many other tasks at hand to her."

More than a thousand volunteers united within a few months around the nucleus of the organization's founders, and most of them came to the founding conference where Dr. Levin presented the main points of the action plan.

"In every city, village and beyond, a branch of the 'Language Activists Member' will be established," said Levin, "and anyone who is concerned about the fate of Israel's Hebrew culture is invited to apply and volunteer. Each volunteer will be called a 'member', and he will follow the branch's instructions within their volunteer hours and will commit in advanced".

Ephraim Lux, the temporary center of the organization's pedagogical committee, reported that "our annual action plan is based on 155 hours of study, during which the immigrant will acquire mastery of 2,000 words in the Hebrew language."

60 years old: celebrating with Shoshana Persits

Persitz in 1952, photo: Teddy Brauner, L.A.M

No fewer than 2,000 people arrived on the last weekend of November 1952 at Shoshana Persitz's home in Tel Aviv, to congratulate her on the occasion of her 60th birthday.

Persits was born in 1892 in a wealthy Zionist home in Russia and married at the age of 18 to Yosef Persits, also a member of a wealthy family.

The couple moved to Paris, where Shoshana fell in love with the written word, bought a printing house and engaged in translating the best works of world literature and publishing them in Hebrew.

In 1925, a few days before they intended to immigrate to Israel, Yosef died suddenly, which did not prevent Shoshana from boarding a ship to the port of Jaffa next to her dead husband's coffin, and to separate them - with their four children and with modern printing presses she had purchased.

In 1929, the construction of a spacious building was completed in Tel Aviv at the intersection of Shinkin and Melchet streets (later, "Beit Devar"), which was used as the family's residence - along with the printing house and the offices of the Amanot publishing house.

For 30 consecutive years, Persitz published an average of 44 titles each year through "Amanot", and a total of 1,321 books that contributed substantially to the development of young Israeli culture.

Along with her activities in the field of publishing, she was active in the public sphere, and over the years she served as a member of the Tel Aviv City Council and later as a member of the Knesset on behalf of the "General Zionists" party and chairman of the Education Committee for a decade. In this position she promoted dozens of initiatives and legislative activities on education and status advancement The woman in Israel.

Persitz died in 1969, at the age of 76, leaving behind a large and magnificent family.

One of her grandchildren is Amos Shokan, publisher of Haaretz newspaper.

"Amno" printing house and publishing house, photo: "Pikiwiki"

"more potatoes"

The Minister of Agriculture, Peretz Naftali, announced at the beginning of December 1952 that his office was working on a new agricultural program, "for the benefit of the housewife", as he defined it.

The minister added that he intends to "act immediately to expand the areas where potatoes are grown by thousands of additional dunams, so that the housewife will not have to wait months until she gets to see the potatoes on the jade shelves, which last year reached the market for only a few months."

The minister promised that "soon it will be possible to find potatoes in their skins on the market, either in powder form or peeled in cans".

canned potato label,

The fainting session

A meeting accompanied by fainting took place on December 2, 1952 at the Mandelbaum crossing in Jerusalem, which at the time was the border point between Israel and Jordan.

On one side of the crossing came two Jewish brothers who live in Jerusalem, while from the other side came their sister from Jordan - who converted to Islam six years earlier and married an Arab.

The meeting, which was held under the roof of the sky, was arranged after many efforts, with the intervention of the United Nations Commission in Jerusalem. It was watched over by Israeli and Trans-Jordanian policemen, who administered first aid whenever one of the brothers or sisters fainted from excitement.

The Philips factory was closed

At the end of November 1952, after months of rumors, the light bulb factory of the Dutch Philips company in Netanya was finally closed.

All the workers were sent home, and guards were posted at the factory gate.

The question regarding the fate of the lamp manufacturing equipment and machinery remained open, and rumors claimed that they would be sold in Israel or returned to the Netherlands.

The company issued a statement, according to which "the Philips factory is closed, because it is impossible to maintain a reasonable level of efficiency due to the Israeli government's non-compliance with its obligations regarding the allocation of foreign currency that is required for Philips. This currency is necessary for the purchase of raw materials abroad and bringing them to Israel for the needs of current operations." The factory operated for about two years and 55 workers worked there. Informed circles explained that since then another factory for light bulbs ("Yesh Or") was established in Israel, Philips' henna sir in the eyes of the government, but Yesh Or stated that "when the stock of materials for production runs out - we will close We are also for the same reasons that Philips closed."

Will the stage theater become urban?

After the debate on turning the stage theater into a municipal institution occupied the Tel Aviv City Council for a long time, at the beginning of December 1952 it reached the decision stage.

The decrease in the number of viewers, due to the economic weakening experienced by Israel in those days, made the theater managers justifiably anxious, in addition to the fact that the salary for the approximately 120 actors and technical staff members decreased significantly as a result of the permanent lack of pocket money.

In the municipal discussions, there were some participants who supported the idea of ​​turning the Bima into a municipal theater, "from the prestige to the city as a theater owner", but the voice of the opponents prevailed - and the Bima continued to operate under many difficulties, until the "National Theater" was announced in 1958.

In the photo: the actors of the play "The Taming of the Shrew", which first appeared on the stage in 1952.

The disappearing / factories that were

Asker

A factory that was established in 1938 in Kibbutz Kfar Masarik, and initially produced tar and cold asphalt for companies that during the mandate period were involved in road construction and rehabilitation of existing roads.

From 1953, Eskar supplied the cold asphalt needs in the establishment of the national carrier.

Later, the factory was expanded and also produced adhesives, in addition to paints for the shipping and metal industries, and later also for the ceramics industry (pictured).

In 1974, Askar and Tambor merged, and since 2014 they have been owned by a Singaporean corporation.

The consumer / food products from the past

Cocozin

A white colored spread, which is made from a little milk and a lot of coconut oil.

These were processed together into a product similar to margarine or butter, which households used to make sandwiches or fry during the austerity period.

The name of the product was a combination of the words "coconut" and "nourishing", and it had many fans, against those who swore with all their heart that "cocozin" would never come to their mouths.

The advantage of the product was not precisely in its taste, but in the fact that it was preserved without the need for refrigeration.

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Source: israelhayom

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