FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

October 30, 1952 Man-hour output was dropping. Foreign investments were not used productively. Cement was plentiful while thousands lived in tents and huts. All these resulted from the fact that not even the beginning of economical production existed in Israel, according to Dr. S. Trone, adviser to the finance minister. “Skill is not needed here, since you can make money without skill.” Israel was the only country in the world where real production costs were not considered. “Any junk will be bought. The profits are only on paper, which impoverishes the country, although individual manufacturers may become richer,” Trone asserted. He pointed out that all new countries were developed through foreign investments. Immigrants, once consumers, became producers and paid back the investments. This was not the case with Israel. Here foreign investments were eaten up, dozens of factories produced nothing or little, and those which did produce did so at high costs. “If foreign investments are not used to teach Israel to produce economically, the flow of money will stop. No nation can live as a beggar for long,” he said.

50 YEARS AGO

October 30, 1967 The Soviet radio “Peace and Progress,” which was a department of the Moscow Radio complex, announced two daily broadcasts in Yiddish and Hebrew. It was explained that the purpose of these transmissions was to acquaint Jewish listeners with all aspects of Soviet life. It was clear from the wavelengths, an expert said, that these transmissions were designed for foreign listeners.

Military hardware captured in the Six Day War went on display in Tel Aviv as part of the annual Armored Corps exhibition. Set up in Hamedina Square, the exhibition featured tanks, half-tracks and light and heavy weapons of types used by the corps in the June battles. In Jerusalem, hundreds of children swarmed over the dozens of armored vehicles parked in an encampment in a field opposite Mount Herzl in the Yefeh Nof section.

25 YEARS AGO

October 30, 1992 In an opinion piece, Elli Wohlgelernter wrote that Jerusalem city councillor Moshe Amirav hit it right on the head, shortly after city officials decided that this would be the first and last Jerusalem Marathon. “The marathon can only be described as a failure, at least with regard to its organization,” Amirav said. Wohlgelernter wrote that the map of the course looked like one of those shirts with a picture of the Milky Way on it with a sign saying “You are here.” There was no toilet paper in the bathrooms at the starting line. In front of the Foreign Ministry, runners had to cross over from the running lanes through traffic to turn onto Nordau Street.

Village civic committees were beginning to pop up all over east Jerusalem. Members worked quietly for fear they would be seen as trying to usurp the political role of intifada activists. Those activists, while answering nationalistic desires, were failing to address dayto-day issues confronting the population, largely civic problems related to community development. Those problems, in fact, became worse with the intifada, as sewer lines were left clogged and streets uncleaned by city crews, who were met by stones and firebombs when they entered the villages.

– Daniel Kra