The recruiting drive was intensified today as it was announced that 700 Jews enlisted in the British forces during May. Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv Municipal Council approved allocations for a further 2,500 air raid shelters in private homes.
The Palestine Broadcasting Service is introducing special programs for Jewish soldiers, including personal messages from relatives to men serving all over the Middle East.
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ben-Zion Usiel urged every young Jew to join the fighting forces, in en address at the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv, where 500 Jewish troops and officers gathered for the ceremony of presentation of a Torah scroll to Jewish soldiers in the Middle East by the Tel Aviv Jewish community council.
Captains Rabinovits and Ravitz, chaplains, offered prayers for Jewish soldiers who have fallen or been taken prisoner in recent campaigns. Accepting the scroll, Chaplain Raffalowitz offered prayers for the King and royal family. The ceremony concluded with the singing of “Hatikvah” and “God Save the King.”
Meanwhile, a measure of optimism is being to return to Palestine industry. The pessimism which followed the outbreak of the war has been shown to be unfounded, declared Siegfried Hoofien, manager of the Angle-Palestine Bank, addressing a meeting of the Tel Aviv Chamber of Commerce.
Some industries are not only showing profits, but have even established hew capital reserves, Hoofien said. Some industries are rapidly expanding and manufacturers are expressing regret that there are only 24 hours to the day, he said. He expressed hope that the Government would assist in problems of raw material and transport facilities.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
