A record shattering crowd, estimated at some 40,000 persons. overflowed the Mall in Central Park here today to participate in a huge open air festival in a salute to the State of Israel on its ninth Independence Day. They enthusiastically applauded the speakers who hailed Israel as a bastion of democracy in the Middle East and called for adequate safeguards of its security.
Mayer Robert F. Wagner, addressing the huge audience, vowed that “this brave little nation is there to stay and we will back it with all the resources at our command.” Vice President Richard Nixon, in a message to the celebration, announced that President Eisenhower has conveyed to President Ben Zvi of Israel “the good wishes of the American people on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of Israel.” The celebration was sponsored by the American Zionist Council representing all Zionist groups in this country, in cooperation with the New York Board of Rabbis and the Jewish War Veterans of America.
“United States interest in the development of the new state has been given tangible form through technical cooperation and economic matters. We have a continuing interest in the far-reaching efforts of the Israel Government and people to create conditions of stability and progress,” Vice President Nixon said in his message. Speakers included, in addition to Mayor Wagner, Israel Ambassador Abba Eban, Mrs. Rose Halprin, acting chairman of the American Section of the Jewish Agency, Rabbi Irving Miller, chairman of the American Zionist Council, Jacob Glatstein, noted Yiddish publicist and poet, and Paul L, Goldman chairman of the anniversary committee.
Highlighting the celebration were bi-partisan pronouncements by top leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States Congress, as well as the Governors of many states pledging, in messages, wholehearted support to the State of Israel in its struggle for permanent security and peace and stressing the need of greater aid for its economic development.
GENEROUS U.S. AID TO ISRAEL STRESSED BY NEW YORK MAYOR
In his address, extending the greetings of the City of New York to the State of Israel, Mayor Wagner cited the “phenomenal development” recorded by Israel since its inception. “In the short span of less than a decade; Israel has trebled her population, providing a home for more than a million people who sought and received refuge,” he said.
The Mayor referred to “the generous financial and technical aid extended Israel by our own government — which was the first to recognize the new State,” and which, he said has been in a considerable measure responsible for much of Israel’s phenomenal development” At the same time he voiced disappointment that “this assistance has not, in recent years, been accompanied by an awareness of any corresponding moral commitment on our part to strengthen the hand of the only democracy in the Middle East. “He criticizing” what he termed “the failure of our State Department to bring about a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
“In view of the position taken by Egypt that it will not renounce its state of belligerency with Israel — a belligerency shared by other Arab states — and in view of the reluctance of the United Nations to take effective action, we feel that Israel is entitled to some responsible guarantee that her citizens can live in the same security and that her ship ping will have the same rights as those enjoyed by all other rations,” he said.
AMERICAN ZIONIST LEADERS EMPHASIZE U.S.-ISRAEL TIES
Rabbi Irving Miller, in his address, said that “In a world torn between the forces of oppression and freedom,” Israel has introduced a democratic way of life into an autocratic, feudal Middle East. The Zionist leader then addressed a call to “our own United States, which has traditionally espoused Israel’s right to live in peace and security and has time and again extended the hand of friendship to its sister democracy in the Middle East, to recognize and support Israel’s right to a continued existence and, what is more to the right to further develop the country so that its own population and the people of the entire Middle East may enjoy the fruits of peace, freedom and democracy.”
Mrs. Halprin, in her address, declared that “Israel, the youngest democracy looks with confidence and a sense of kinship to the United States, the oldest democracy, for understanding of its precarious position.” She pointed out that “there are many ties that bind Israel to the United States. The American Republic was founded on political and social principles laid down in the Bible. This alone creates a community of ideas and ideals between Israel and America,” she said.
A 30-minute film on “Ben Gurion–Builder of a Nation” was shown on television in the New York area and some 20 other key cities tonight. The interview program was recorded and filmed in Israel by Drew Pearson, noted American commentator. It was directed by Baruch Dienar, who produced “Tent City,” the film about Israeli immigrants which won a first prize at the Venice Film Festival.
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.
