U.S. Social Workers Told of Reluctance of Young Men in Israel to Take Up Farming

Young men in Israel are reluctant to take up farming, the convention of the National Conference of Jewish Social Welfare here was told today by Dr. Ervin Arnstein, director of Hadassah’s Vocational Guidance Bureau in Israel. The convention, which concludes tomorrow, elected Charles Zunser, of New York, as president of the organization to succeed George M. Rabinoff.

Dr. Arnstein said that “scientific vocational education and guidance is playing an increasingly significant role in Israel’s economy by providing youth with the skills, necessary for the country’s industrial and agricultural development.”

In a pioneer nation like Israel a comprehensive system of vocational education is imperative, Dr. Arnstein emphasized. “Although there is an acute shortage of vocational guidance personnel, there is such a pressing need for a trained corp of industrial and agricultural technicians that our approach to this problem cannot be of the hit-or-miss variety. The stakes are too high,” he pointed out.

One of the chief vocational problems faced by Israel is “to induce young men to go into agriculture,” he reported. At present only 10 percent of them show any inclination to take up farming, he said. “Yet Israel’s agricultural program and drive for ultimate self-sufficiency together with the urgent necessity for settling the land will need more and more manpower,” he added.

The National Association of Jewish Center Workers and the National Council for Jewish Education, which are holding their conventions here concurrently with the social welfare conference, today elected new officers for the coming year. Emanuel Berlatsky of New York was named to head the center workers and Samuel J. Borowsky of New York was elected president of the education council.