“I have been a Zionist for many years, and it is a great pleasure to me to see Israel growing so rapidly and playing a leading part in the affairs of the Middle East only ten years after its birth, “Sir Winston Churchill declared at his Chartwell country home.
Sir Winston made this statement at a ceremony at which he presented a golden key of the auditorium which bears his name at the Haifa Technion to British industrialist Isaac Wolfson, Israel Ambassador Eliahu Elath and Michael Sobell, president of the British Friends of Technion.
Noting that Israel is “faced with great difficulties,” the famous statesman added: “But if you maintain your lead in education and especially in technical education, it will go along well towards improving your position. I am glad that the Technion is taking in students of all nationalities, and I am convinced that it will be a great influence for the development of the Middle East, and in the interest of all the people who dwell there.”
Ambassador Elath, who accepted the key, said that “the friendly and generous words” of the British statesman “will be received with gratitude by the people of Israel who so greatly respect and admire him.” Mr. Wolfson presented Sir Winston with an album of photographs taken during the opening of the Churchill Auditorium and said he hoped that Sir Winston would be able to visit Israel soon.
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.
