The Hebrew-language alphabet was used for the first time today in transoceanic radio news communications when the Jewish Telegraphic Agency opened a new radio facsimile circuit between its New York headquarters and the Tel Aviv office of the Israeli News Agency, its Israel subsidiary.
The new service was formally opened with the transmission of a message from Eleazar Lipsky, president of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion of Israel. Mr. Lipsky’s message stated:
“I take great pleasure, on behalf of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in addressing to you this first message ever transmitted across the seas by radio in the characters of the Hebrew language. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is proud to have pioneered in this area of communications and to have created, for the first time, the possibility of radio communication between the United States and Israel in the alphabet of this ancient language.
“We hope and trust that this new method of communication will permit the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and its sister agency, the Israeli News Agency, to make a new and important contribution to understanding between the United States and Israel and to strengthen the bonds between American Jews and Israelis. We believe it will be of considerable value to the newspapers of Israel.”
ISRAELI PRESS FEATURES THE INNOVATION; METHOD EXPLAINED
Israeli newspapers today featured reports on the new communications system designed by the JTA and Press Wireless, Inc., to meet the special requirements of the Israeli press for a method of overseas communication in its own language. Previously, Israeli newspaper correspondents wrote their dispatches in a transliterated Hebrew, using English characters to represent the Hebrew sounds.
Israeli correspondents stationed in the United States will now be able to write their messages in Hebrew for transmission in the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew copy is transmitted on facsimile equipment in the JTA New York office over Press Wireless transmitters. The signals are received by the Israeli News Agency’s radio station in Tel Aviv and converted into printed copy there on facsimile reception equipment.
The facsimile system, which will supplement the JTA regular radio printer system on the 6,000-mile New York-Tel Aviv circuit, is considered by engineers to be less subject to atmospheric disturbances than the radioprinter. It cannot, however, transmit at the same speed as the radioprinter. John McGivern, European vice-president of Press Wireless, Inc., was present in the INA radio station in Tel Aviv today when the first facsimile transmission from New York was recorded.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency established the first direct radioprinter circuit for news transmission between New York and Johannesburg, a distance of nearly 8,000 miles, three years ago. A year later, it established the first direct New York-Tel Aviv radioprinter circuit.
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