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—1947—
Dear Nelson,
Fuderp P.P. [?] your appointment. Your friends are sorry to lose you ([?] I left the other day at [?]) but generally speaking are glad that you came out and reform will be with your family. My own feelings you know and I need not waste your time reading my poor handwriting. I hope that you will attain the goal for while you will strive and that this will be some confirmation for the [?] of some of [?] which you can get only from being and working in Pal. (2) It has been a quiet week and to Yeshuo in preparing for the next shock. And the attack on [?] was a shock for our Yeshuo which generally speaking connects this feeling of Arab commands and [?] of ten Jews (ten others [?] and some of whom will be hung) as useless. They say that they have done more to cement Arab Jewish [?] Ship than any other act in the last 30 years. The cynics call this a “Magnes Operation – using the military term.
My kindest to you: yours in which [?] from me.
Cordially,
Harry
—
NELSON GLUECK
162 GLENMARY AVENUE
CINCINNATI 20, OHIO
May 26, 1947
Dear Harry,
I have your note sent through Helen telling me you had read my appointment in the Palestine Post. I also received the previous note that you sent me through her, which I haven’t at hand at the moment.
It was a terribly difficult decision to make and I am far from being sure that I made the correct one. The only thing I am certain about is that it is well to be together with Helen and Charles Jonathan. The longing to be in Palestine, however, is so desperately strong within me that I frequently find it impossible to contemplate the future without the feeling of deepest regret that I ever thought of leaving it for more than a few months. However, the die is cast and I shall set my hands to the best of my ability to the terribly difficult task that has been entrusted to me. I did tell the Nominating Committee, however, to which I spoke most bluntly, that I couldn’t conceive of cutting myself off forever from Palestine and that I would undertake to do this job only for a reasonable period, which we more or less mutally conceived to be of about five years. They hope, I am sure, that by that time it will be impossible for me to withdraw and I of course know that no one can really tell what one will want to do or be able to do five years hence. I also told them this. That should the presidency of the Hebrew University be offered to me that I should feel free to consider and accept it.
I have no idea that it will be offered to me but for something like that I would be prepared to ask Helen to uproot herself from Cincinnati, which I wasn’t prepared to do for the sake of the School.
Helen is busier and more successful than ever in her practice and Charles is growing and developing lustily in every way. He reads every morning from six to seven fifteen when he has to get up to go to school. Yesterday morning I found him reading “A Child’s Biography of Benjamin Franklin.”
Your Helen will have written you that I tried hard to see her when in New York but we were unable to get together.
With love to you and Rose, in which Helen and Charles Jonathon joins me,
As ever,
—
17.6.47
Dr. Nelson Glueck,
162 Glenmary Avenue
Cincinnati 20, Ohio
Dear Nelson,
I hasten to acknowledge and reply briefly to your note of the 26th ultimo which Rose and I were glad to have. In these days it is a little optimistic to plan 5 years ahead. I am still convinced that from the point of view of our own people your decision was the right one.
Your letter does not reply to my note asking about the status of the negotiations with the non-Zionists about their joining the Executive and again becoming active in the J.A. You will recall our several conversations about this question and that under certain conditions I would be prepared to answer the call if it were made, though I had refused such a call on two previous occasions.
We are continuing as usual. Last week I spent a day in the Negev when they were renewing the laying of the water pipes. 300 men and women have been recruited from all of the settlements in the south and Negev and from 3.30 a.m. to about 5 p.m. had finished over 10 km. of pipes. You would not recognize such colonies as Doroth, Ruchama and Nir Am which you visited with me when they were first established. My own work is getting on, but we are very much handicapped by the shortage of funds. In fact all of the Kvutzoth and Kibbutzim are suffering a very serious shortage of financial resources which may very much weaken them unless something is done. The Agency with the heavy expenditures for the new colonies in the Negev, and which I think is essential under the present conditions, and with the large amounts which have to be spent for immigration, does not have the resources with which to consolidate the settlements already established. The Kvutzoth and Kibbutzim have absorbed over 5000 people during the last 5 years, but they cannot continue this unless they are given at least the resources for housing and other minimum requirements. When I say given, I mean long term loans at low interest rates and not donations.
We are anxiously waiting for Helen who expects to leave New York about the middle of August.
I hope you and your Helen will have a chance to see her before she leaves.
With warm personal regards to you and yours in which Rose joins me,
As ever,
Harry
—
July 8, 1947
Mr. Harry Viteles,
- O. B. 238,
Jerusalem, Palestine
Dear Harry,
In my last letter to you Id did not discuss the status of negotiations with the non-Zionists about their joining the Executive because the entire matter is dormant again, I believe. Should I learn of any new developments, I shall apprise you of them.
It must have been a wonderful day in the Negev, witnessing the laying of 10 km. of pipes between 3:30 A.M. to 5 P.M. I am literally going through the agonies of the damned because of my homesickness for Palestine, I shall plan to return there next summer.
At the Central Conference of American Rabbis in Montreal two weeks ago, I met a young rabbi named Pearly who is, I believe, a relative of yours. He made a nice impression upon me.
Helen and Charles and I will probably be going out west next month.
Sincerely,
Nelson Glueck
—
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
BROADWAY AT 120TH STREET
NEW YORK 27, N.Y.
April 28, 1947
Professor Nelson Glueck
The Hebrew Union College
Cincinnati, Ohio
My dear Professor Glueck:
It is a matter of the keenest gratification to learn from President Morgenstern that you might find it possible to accept the invitation of the Faculty of Union Theological Seminary to give a series of lectures in the academic year 1947-48 on the Jeannette Miriam Goldberg Memorial Foundation. At a meeting of the faculty of the Seminary sometime ago, it was unanimously voted that this invitation should be extended to you, and I was instructed to convey to you in behalf of the Faculty their urgent hope that you would find it possible to accept.
We should hope that you would choose a subject most congenial to your own interest. Any theme which is in the forefront of your thought just now would, I am sure, be most welcome.
With regard to dates, I would suggest a week in late November or early December, possibly the week of November 17-21, or of December 1-5, or of December 8-12. Will you let me know your preference in this matter?
With eager anticipation of your visit, and the assurance of a most cordial welcome, I am
Faithfully yours,
Harry