Israel Puts Emphasis On Care Of Children

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27369, 7 June 1954, Page 2

Israel Puts Emphasis On Care Of Children

Youth, vitality, deep religious fervour—these are three outstanding impressions of the new Israeli State which were gained by Mrs O. C. W. Fuhrman, wife of the Australian Minister to Israel, who has returned to Sydney with her husband after spending five years in Tel Aviv. “Children have the first priority in absolutely everything in Israel,” Mrs Fuhrman said. “Everywhere, throughout the length and breadth of the land, special care of the children is in evidence. Education occupies a small army of scholastic experts drawn from almost every country in the world. It is now well past the experimental stage and is progressing on planned lines. “There is planning, in fact, to a degree hardly known to us. “Children in the farm settlements, or kibbutzim, go into a creche at once, almost as soon as the mother leaves hospital, so that she can go back to work. “The mother goes to the creche to feed the child, then it is under the sustenance and care of nurses and teachers until it is 12 or 14 years old, “This system does not mean that the parents are divorced from the children. It means rather a dual growth and development in the community of parents and children. The children are scientifically brought up. “There appears to be no question of the mother not wanting this arrangement,” said Mrs Fuhrman. “Everything is subordinated to the needs of the State—-and this means,- of necessity, that the children are well looked after.

“Citizens, men and women alike, are

working with such ,a fierce intensity of purpose to establish the State of Israel as a solid economic national entity in the Middle East that it is almost unheard of for a woman not to want to work outside her home.” 4 Mrs Fuhrman said that in the pountry settlements each family Occupied one and a half rooms. The villages were usually a collection of small family pre-fabs with communal dining T room kitchen and laundry. Very few members of this kibbutzim seemed ito wish to leave, their little communities, Mrs Fuhrman said. • * *‘They are free to go if they wish,” she said, “but despite the hard work —and they work from dawn to dusk — the Jews seem to have gained a sense of CQliectiyQ happiness and safety in these settlements. T l . “The bld are cared for just as well as the ghildren when their working days are done.” Aid for Yemenite Refugees r Mrs Fuhrman described some of the measures being taken to help the poverty-stricken Yemenite refugees, from the south of the Arabian . peninsula. “They arrived often in a pitiful state;” she said. “We saw one plane load bf 10© of them land, and I don’t think their average weight could have been much more than 4| stone. “Thby are being encouraged, under guidance, to continue their traditional metal crafts, the products of which are ’ being imported both by Britain and ’ America/ she said. “In this way they i are made self-respecting, producing members of the community while, they : are being educated.”