The 1958 campaign for Israel bonds was launched here last night with the sale of $14, 601, 200 in bonds at the conclusion of the three-day International Conference for Israel Bonds. The conference decided to sell $75,000,000 in Israel bonds during 1958. Ira Guilden, leading New York businessman, was elected national chairman of the 1958 campaign.
In a cable to the conference, Israel’s Prime Minister David Ben Gurion stressed that “fast-moving events” in the Middle East “underscore the need for strengthening the bonds between Jewish communities of the world and Israel,” and called for “intensive participation in fortifying Israel’s economy and speeding her development through increased efforts on behalf of Israel development bonds.”
In a similar cable. Israel’s Finance Minister Levi Eshkol warned that unless investments through Israel bonds are increased, the economy of the country may suffer, even though record advances have been achieved during the first ten years of statehood.
Although recent developments in the Middle East, notably the union of Egypt and Syria, have introduced new elements of concern about Israel’s future, both Israel Ambassador Abba Eban and Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, chairman of the board of governors of the Israel Bond Organization, struck an optimistic note at the conference.
In an indirect reference to the formation of the United Arab Republic, Ambassador Eban emphasized that “irrespective of their internal or regional policies. Israel’s neighbors are obliged to respect the independence and integrity of all states, including Israel, and to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force.”
Dr. Silver expressed concern that Israel might find herself in a “military nutcracker” as a result of the unified pressure which the United Arab Republic might seek to exert on the Jewish State. However, he pointed out that these hopes of Presidents Nasser and Shukri al Kuwatly “are doomed to disappointment as have been similar anti-Israel conspiracies on their part.”
The coming ten years will be “Israel’s decade of consolidation,” Samuel Rothberg, national chairman of the Bond group’s trustees, aid. “If Israel’s first ten years may be described as years of large-scale immigration and basic economic development, the coming decade must be a period of economic consolidation.”
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.
