Week-long World Congress of Jewish Studies Opens in Jerusalem

The Fourth World Congress of Jewish Studies opened here today in the presence of President Zalman Shazar and Education Minister Zalman Aranne with scholars from throughout the world participating. The Congress which will continue through Sunday, will deal with the basic problems of scientific Jewish studies and will seek ways for the advancement of cooperation in teaching, graduate studies and the exchange of scholars.

In his address stressing the importance of the Congress, President Shazar, in a clear reference to Soviet Jews, said: “We know who are missing here–those thirsting for Judaism. But the day will surely come when they will come here and sit in our midst.” Dr. Ben-Zion Dinur, professor of modern Jewish history at the Hebrew University, said that the task of Jewish studies today was to reexamine the question of “What is Israel?”