A million dollars in cash and $1,500,000 in long-term commitments were brought by delegates to the mid-winter conference of the National Committee for Labor Israel today at the Hotel Commodore. The funds will be utilized to maintain and expand a network of medical, vocational training, cultural and rehabilitation services among Israel’s pioneering forces and new immigrants.
The conference, attended by a thousand delegates from all parts of the United States and Canada, heard Mrs. Agnes Meyer, publisher of the Washington Post and Times Herald, who hailed Israel’s achievements while “enduring a long drawn-out war of independence, incredible hardships and poverty, and the constant threat by far more powerful enemy countries that wish to destroy it. ” Israel’s survival, she stated, “stands before the world as proof that democratic ideals genuinely lived are invincible even when menaced on every side by totalitarianism. “
Dr. Sol Stein, executive director of the National Committee for Labor Israel, which is conducting its 37th annual Israel Histadrut Campaign, announced, the formation of a new fiscal agent of the organization that would administer its funds in Israel. The new agency, known as the “Histadrut Assistance Fund, ” would deal exclusively with the educational, medical and welfare activities supported by philanthropic contributions raised by the committee in this country.
The $1,500, 000 in long-term commitments, channeled through the American Histadrut Development Foundation consists of wills, bequests and insurance policies, which will enable the committee to plan its capital investment program for the coming decade.
Secretary of Labor Arthur J. Goldberg, first general chairman of the foundation, announced his formal withdrawal from this office upon his becoming a member of President Kennedy’s cabinet .At the same time, he expressed continuing interest in its efforts on behalf of the Israel labor federation. Isaiah Avrech, special representative of the Histadrut executive, and Yehuda Yudin, a leader of Mapam and member of the Histadrut executive, were among the principal speakers at the conference.
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.
