FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

February 5, 1953 A bulldozer knocked down the earthworks in the Jordan River in the Tiberias area south of the Hula drainage area, and water three meters deep from Lake Hula streamed swiftly into the new channel. The completion of this stage in the drainage project was expected to make the lake shallower by spring. Visitors were taken by boat to watch the removal of the bulwark and the release of the water into the new channel four and a half kilometers long, 10 meters wide and six meters deep. At the northern end of the lake they also saw the steel-plated shields that would prevent the water level from dropping too fast and eroding the banks.

Nearly 500 lirot was received by the Netherlands Legation in Israel for the relief of Dutch flood victims within 24 hours of the opening of the fund. Some 10,000 items of clothing, an emergency gift by the Jewish Agency in Israel for children and babies, was sent to the Netherlands via El Al. In spite of the urgent needs in Israel, the Jewish Agency regarded this as a matter of duty, to express, in this way, the solidarity of the Jewish people with the suffering population of Holland.

50 YEARS AGO

February 5, 1968 “The customer is always right” became the adopted slogan of Hamashbir Lezarchan, the cooperative department store chain. “We always believed this, but did not always practice it,” Hamashbir’s general manager, Raphael Marinov, said. In its campaign for better service Hamashbir claimed that “every complaint will receive an answer, and every just complaint will be redressed.” It said its model was Chicago’s famous Marshall Field department store, which pioneered the customer-is-always-right attitude.

The Israeli Navy submarine Dakar and her crew of 69 were formally listed as “missing” and search operations by the Navy and the Air Force were called off. This marked the end of a futile 11-day search for the vessel which was presumed to be lying irretrievably at the bottom of the sea – somewhere between Cyprus and the Israeli coast. The announcement was made by the chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Haim Bar-Lev to parents, wives and other relatives of the crew at a Navy base in Haifa. After a few seconds of stunned silence many of the mothers and wives broke down and had to be led out of the hall. Others stood up to shout demands for continuing the search and insisting that they be told “the whole truth and nothing be held back.”

10 YEARS AGO

February 5, 2008 Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign descended on Brooklyn ahead of a crucial primary to turn out the Jewish vote. But before they could take to the streets, they had to modify their approach to the ultra-Orthodox constituency. First, female campaign staffers had to be sent to the back of the line of marchers so that there would not be any untoward mixing of the sexes. And then volunteers wearing Hebrew Hillary pins worked fast to remove the blue Stars of David stuck on their signs, lest they be confused with Israeli flags, a definite no-no in the anti-Zionist Satmar enclave.

– Daniel Kra