Leaders of U.S. Jewry Hail Israel’s Opening of Giant Pipeline

Leaders of American Jewry sent messages of congratulations to the Israel Government on the occasion of the opening of the giant Yarkon-Negev water pipeline.

William Rosenwald, general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, said in a cable to Israel President Itzhak Ben Zvi: “This magnificent achievement will serve to bring life-giving water to redeem thousands of additional acres from the barrenness of centuries. The United Jewish Appeal is proud it has served as an instrument through which millions of Americans in all parts of the United States have provided a major share of funds for this irrigation project. The UJA pledges continued maximum effort to advance the work of making the desert bloom and to open new lands and new lives for immigrant Jews who have found a haven of liberty in Israel and the thousands still to come.”

Mrs. Rose Halprin, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency, said in a statement: “Today is a great occasion for the people of Israel and their friends throughout the world. The first half of the project harnessing water resources from an area beginning north of Tel Aviv and bringing them down to the Negev desert has been completed and is today being inaugurated. This is a great engineering feat by all standards. It is a demonstration of the imagination, ingenuity, determination and energy of which the people of Israel are capable. When the whole project is completed, sometime in 1958, tens of thousands of additional farm families will be making their living from the soil of the Negev.

“The Israel Government and its people are to be congratulated on this important date in the development of their country. The Jewish Agency is modestly, and justly, proud of its contribution, for some 65 percent of all the funds that made the project possible have come from the Jewish Agency, and most of these funds have come from the United Jewish Appeal. The philanthropic dollar of the United Jewish Appeal, the bond investment dollar, and the U.S. Government’s grants-in-aid have all contributed towards the achievement of a glorious victory of man over nature,” Mrs. Halprin emphasized.