The need for the “continued support” of American Jewry for the state or Israel was emphasized here today at the opening session of the five-day national convention of Hadassah by Eliahu Epstein, Israeli envoy to the United States.
Addressing the 5,000 delegates representing 250,000 numbers in 47 states at Convention Hall, Mr. Epstein said that “without your continued support, the existence of the state of Israel is and will remain in jeopardy.” He added that “without the tremendous work of Jewish and Zionist organizations in the United States, our statehood would never have been achieved.”
Asserting that “a share in the effort to make the Jewish state reflect Jewish ideals falls to the Jews outside Israel,” Epstein declared: “There is no doubt that their contribution cannot be of the sans nature as that made by the people of Israel. At the some time no one can ignore the fact that they have both the duty and the desire to make a contribution. Discussions now going on in American Jewry show that the question of how that contribution is to be made is being seriously considered and explored. Many useful contributions have already been made by individuals and groups. I believe it would be wise, however, not to rush at once to final conclusions, but to let the course of events and time work it out, gradually and pragmatically.
“Jewry outside Israel will no doubt to a very large extent rely for cultural inspiration on the Yishuv. The Jewish state and its citizens, their work and their achievements will inspire them and will represent for them the living expression of Judaism and the essence of everything Jewish. In a more real sense than ever before in modern history will the eyes of the Jewish people be turned toward Zion. They will feel linked there not by political bonds, but by religious, cultural and spiritual ties. Their desire to help in the effort that goes on in Zion, their wish to be associated with it and to be proud of it, will outlast the material requirements of the moment.
“What will be required now is Jewry’s help in preparing the Jewish people everywhere for Zion,” the Israel envoy asserted. “Israel has no desire to weaken its link with the rent of Jewry. A mutual relationship of interdependence must be created in which no one side will be only the receiver and the other the giver. American Jewry and the Zionist movement in this country is facing a great challenge to rice to the responsibility which history has placed upon then.”
Dr. Nahum Goldman, member of the World Zionist Executive, reviewing the United Nations sessions on Palestine, stated that the U.N. role in helping to solve the Palestine dispute “can be helpful — and it can be harmful. It may hasten the final settlement and it may delay it,” he said, “but it won’t decide it. The best that the U.N. can do is to prevent the renewal of war,” he declared.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
