August 22, 1957 Thursday

Naharia is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. It is north of Haifa and Akko and just south of the Lebanon border and Rosh HaNikra. It was established in 1935 mostly by German Jews who were looking to make it an agricultural settlement and a summer resort. When my father visited in the 1950’s, there were only a few thousand living there. By 2020, its population exceeded 50,000 and is considered the capital of the Galilee.  
Though Naharia was relatively quiet in the 1950’s, by the 1970’s its location on the northern border rendered it susceptible to terrorist attacks, causing many economic hardships.   The North New Jersey Federation adopted Naharia as a sister city, raising funds, delivering and donating food to the needy. They also established a library, funding programs for youth at risk and helped build a beautiful boardwalk which is popular with the locals and with tourists.

“I am now in Naharia which is a resort and industrial city north of Haifa. It is a typical Catskill Mountains in all respects”
The Catskill Mountains is a summer resort in upstate New York where many New Yorkers migrated for a vacation in the summer. 

“Every soldier is required to take two weeks of rest at the seashore resort in nice tents on the beach at Government’s expense. After the type of training they underwent, they deserve it.”
  This seems like a good policy, and it should be renewed. Israeli soldiers should be given a short vacation at government expense while in the army, and a subsidized tour inside Israel when they are discharged from the army. (This might discourage the trips abroad that many soldiers love to take after their army service) 
 
“As I look up now I see a full flight of Israeli jets zooming overhead and flying past. They look great”
Nothing made my father prouder than seeing a strong Jewish army.