FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

September 19, 1952 Torah scrolls and prayer books would be distributed freely by the Religious Affairs Ministry to be used in distant new immigrant communities for the celebration of their first New Year in Israel when 5713 would be ushered in. Throughout Jerusalem, jammed with local tourists and visitors from abroad, everyone seemed to be carrying a chicken under one arm and a melon under the other.

Trade was brisk at shops selling prayer-shawls and skull caps, but the wine shops were not doing so well. The last-minute delivery the day before of low-priced sweet wine was snapped up, for most people refused to pay more than IL 1 for a bottle. Flower shops, too, were full of gladioli wilting at 200 prutot each.

On the occasion of Rosh Hashana and in consideration of the crowded conditions in prisons, the police minister decided to free 59 Jewish prisoners.

The Arab League accepted recommendations to extend the economic blockade of Israel and to tighten existing blockade machinery. Also under consideration was applying the death penalty or hard labor for infringements of the boycott.

A Safed restaurant owner went running through the streets with a pot of meat in his hands and control inspectors on his tail. He was finally caught and his establishment closed in a crackdown on black-market activities and profiteering.

50 YEARS AGO

September 19, 1967 Two students from the village of Taiba left Israel to study medicine in East Germany. One of the youths, Rahim Jibali, said that he would have needed “pull” to gain admission to the Hebrew University Medical School. “But as a member of the New Communist Party, I have no trouble at all enrolling in East Germany.” The conversation was cut short when his companion advised him not to talk to journalists.

Labor minister Yigal Allon said that it would cost more to re-equip the armed forces after the Six Day War than was spent in all 19 years of the state’s existence.

“Prayer services cannot be considered a nuisance in a Jewish city,” Tel Aviv District Court judge Yosef Lamm said, in dismissing the request of a group of tenants for an order forbidding the opening of a synagogue in their building.

15 YEARS AGO

September 19, 2002 Citizenship would be granted to the non-Jewish parents of IDF soldiers who had immigrated from the former Soviet Union, prime minister Ariel Sharon said. The growing problem of non-Jewish parents of immigrant soldiers from the FSU gained media attention a year earlier when German Rojykov wrote to Sharon begging permission for his non-Jewish mother to stay in the country. Before he had a chance to mail the letter, he was killed leading a charge against terrorists on the northern border. In the letter, Rojykov noted that a clause in the Law of Return granted immediate citizenship to non-Jewish parents of soldiers killed in the defense of the country and asked if he had to be killed so his mother could stay in Israel.

The army issued a new regulation providing glatt kosher food to haredi soldiers. During the shmita (sabbatical) year, haredi soldiers would be given vegetables that didn’t come from fields that were fictitiously sold so they could be cultivated.