Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey called here tonight for “peace and security” in the Middle East and for “freedom from outside agitation” in that region of the world. He voiced those sentiments in delivering the principal address to 1,200 guests attending a dinner celebrating the 21st anniversary of the initiation of the basic plans for the Weizmann Institute of Science, at Rehovot, Israel.
The event, conducted by the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute, under the presidency of Abraham Feinberg, turned into a glowing tribute to the late Herbert H. Lehman, former Governor of New York and U. S. Senator. An announcement was made that the Weizmann Institute is establishing a research chair in theoretical nuclear physics for peaceful purposes in the name of Mr. Lehman. One of the honored guests was Mrs. Lehman. George Backer, dinner chairman, presented to the late Gov. Lehman’s widow a scroll citing her husband’s accomplishments as “a humanitarian, statesman, legislator and champion of Jewish interests.”
Citing Israel’s leadership in the field of science for peaceful purposes, the Vice-President said: “I speak about Israel, that free and democratic society, and the environment in which that nation lives. Israel spends some 33 percent of her total budget for national defense. Elsewhere throughout the Middle East, equally intolerable arms burdens are carried by nations which can even less afford to bear them.
“We, all of us, must continue working toward the day when the nations of the Middle East may live securely in peace with each other, to their common benefit. Peace and security, freedom from outside agitation, the bending of man’s efforts toward man’s well-being and happiness — these surely are the things we seek for tomorrow.”
He lauded Israel for having emerged “with a first-rate scientific and technological apparatus.” He noted that “characteristically, Israel did not husband her good fortune to herself. Limited in her financial resources, she could not give much in material aid to other developing countries. Instead, she put her technologists to work in over 50 countries, an effort second in scope only to that of the United States.”
During the dinner, Dr. Dewey D. Stone, chairman of the board of governors of the Weizmann Institute, presented a special award to Theodore R. Racoosin, a governor of the Institute and chairman of the American Committee’s executive committee, on the occasion of Mr. Racoosin’s 70th birthday. An artistic program featured the famous Jewish violinist, Mischa Elman, the Palestine String Quartette, and other prominent artistes.
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.
