May 3, 1996
From “El Al will launch flights to Israel from S.F.”
Travelers joke that El Al passengers don’t fly to Israel, they walk — up and down the plane corridor, kibbitzing. Beginning June 30, they can start trekking from San Francisco.
For nine weeks, El Al Israel Airlines will have Sunday flights from San Francisco International Airport to Tel Aviv, with 45-minute stopovers in New York.
El Al’s West Coast regional manager Rami Fischer says the airline added those peak-season flights because ridership on nonstop flights from Los Angeles rose 70 percent last year. Many of those passengers — a great many of whom were teens — were Bay Area residents.
Fischer says if the SFO flight proves popular — and profitable — El Al will add it to the airline’s permanent itinerary, which includes departures from New York, Newark, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, Dallas and Los Angeles.
El Al’s Northern California sales manager Ingrid Oaks says that making the flights permanent “depends on the demands and support of the Bay Area community — which we anticipate will be overwhelming.”
April 30, 1965
From “Camp Tawonga Drawing Heavy Registrations”
Camp Tawonga, the new mountain resident camp for children, sponsored by the United Jewish Community Centers, this week reported heavy initial registration for its first season opening June 27. The response confirms conclusions reached in the community study made by the Jewish Welfare Federation six years ago, in which the need for such a a camp was indicated.
This week John Blumlein, president of the Centers, announced the election of Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Jr. as president of the newly formed 26-member Camp Tawonga board of directors.
Dinkelspiel reports that the third session for children 8 to 14, which runs from Friday, August 6, to Thursday, August 19, already has been closed.