FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On August 8, 1951, The Jerusalem Post reported that the ministries of Health and Agriculture had issued a joint statement on the milk situation which denied press allegations that unpasteurized milk was used in certain milk products and that bottle sterilization was often ineffective. They claimed that the incomplete and alarming publicity given this matter was regrettable and that the bottles passed through a special sterilization process.
The vital role of the Jewish National Fund in the development of the country was highlighted at the opening of a fiveday world conference in Jerusalem in the presence of members of the cabinet, Knesset, national institutions, 150 JNF representatives from 50 countries and more than 1,000 guests. Outlining the fund’s accomplishments, Dr. Avraham Granott, chairman of the fund’s board of directors, said that “the land holdings of the Jewish people totaled today two million dunams [200,000 hectares], through various reclamation works which actually created new soil we have ameliorated 300,000 dunams, we have planted 15 million trees, we have built many water supply installations, and have developed new water resources.”
50 YEARS AGO
On August 8, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that president Zalman Shazar came home from his visit to the Americas. Greeting “all citizens of Israel, irrespective of creed and race,” Shazar noted the honors accorded the State of Israel during his visits to Uruguay, Chile and Brazil. Regretting that the political developments in Argentina precluded him from meeting Jews of that country, he noted with satisfaction that the new president of Argentina, Gen. Juan Carlos Ongania, had renewed the invitation to the president of Israel.
The cabinet approved a draft basic law on the government, which would be the country’s third basic law dealing with the branches of the government. The bill incorporated existing laws on the subject, but also included some new features. It laid down that the prime minister must be a Knesset member, something which was not previously required. The bill also authorized the president to begin his round of negotiations with representatives of the Knesset factions as soon as the official election results are published.
The Post’s editorial dealt with the problems of El Al and the pilots’ demands that they should be paid on the level of cabinet ministers.
25 YEARS AGO
On August 8, 1991, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli and US negotiators sat down for the first session to draw up a memorandum of understanding (also known as a letter of assurances) which would serve as a foundation for Jerusalem’s participation in a Middle East peace conference.
Restoration of Soviet ties with Israel was not likely before September 1991, and probably not until just before the Middle East peace conference opened in October 1991.
What was believed to be the earliest Jewish prayer room ever found had been uncovered on the Shuafat ridge in northern Jerusalem. The small underground enclosure from the first century BCE predated by a generation the earliest synagogues hitherto known at Masada, Herodion and Gamla – all of the Herodian period.
The US ambassador in Kuwait, Edward Gnehm, wrote in a letter dated May 30, 1991, to senator Ernest Holdings that Kuwait had publicly announced that it no longer required companies to produce documents such as certificates of origin which were previously used to police the boycott against Israel. The letter was released by the World Jewish Congress.