Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, vice president and executive head of the Israel Bond Organization, returned from Israel yesterday with a pledge of all-out cooperation from the Government of Israel in moving forward on the widest possible scale with the Israel bond campaign in the United States and other parts of the free world.
“There is a unanimous feeling regardless of party that Israel bonds are vital to the sound growth of Israel’s economy,” Dr. Schwartz said, in commenting on his conversations in Israel with Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, Defense Minister David Ben Gurion, Finance Minster Levi Eshkol and other Israel leaders. He also conferred with President Itzhak Ben Zvi.
“After seeing for myself some of the principal economic enterprises that have been developed with the aid of Israel bond funds, I could fully understand why public opinion in Israel is so strongly impressed with their importance in building up the country,” Dr. Schwartz declared.
On his survey tour of Europe and Israel, Dr. Schwartz was accompanied by former New York State Attorney General Nathanial S. Goldstein and Sidney S. Green, financial adviser to the State of Israel. “Even though we arrived in Israel only several days following the general elections, we found that the number one concern of the people in Israel was economic development,” the Israel bond leader said.
“It is interesting to note that so much of the election campaign centered on economic achievement, despite the tense situation with regard to Egypt. This is not only a barometer of sober political action, but of the tremendous strides the young country’s economy has made in the past four years with American aid, particularly through Israel bond sales in the United States,” Dr. Schwartz added. “The Israelis believe that all other problems will be brought quickly to a solution, if the economic structure is made impregnable.”
In his first overseas trip since assuming the direction of the Israel Bond Organization last May, Dr. Schwartz also held conferences with European leaders on the campaign for the sale of Israel Bonds in Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. The Israel bond campaign will launch its peak activity for 1955 at a National Mobilization Conference which will open in Washington, on Saturday evening, September 10th.
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.
