Dr. Nahum Goldmann criticized today the behavior of the present Jewish generation during the slaughter by the Nazis of European Jewry, and a “tendency” to forget the catastrophe at the present time.
The world Jewish leader spoke at a huge gathering at a ground-breaking ceremony for a projected Beth Hatfutzot, a House of the Diaspora, planned for Tel Aviv University. Among those attending the ceremony were Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir and Police Minister Boris Shitreet, leaders of the Jewish Agency, Walworth Barbour, the American Ambassador to Israel, and other envoys and delegations from various Jewish communities.
Dr. Goldmann said that the activity of the present generation during the European holocaust did not add any heroic chapters to Jewish history. “We did not foresee the danger and we did not react according to the danger,” he said, adding that he was “ashamed” of the reaction of the Jewish people now “in tending to forget the Jewish centers that perished.” He said Beth Hatutzot would perpetuate the memories of the Jewish communities crushed and annihilated by the Nazis. The communities will be commemorated in a 25 hall museum. Another goal of the center will be to link the new generation of Israeli Jews with Jewish communities outside of Israel and to handle research about those communities.
Dr. George Wise, president of Tel Aviv University, thanked Dr. Goldmann for his initiative on behalf of the project, saying it would not compete with memorial statues but would instead be a center to safeguard Jewish values and for the fight against forgetting them.
O. Valinsky, chairman of the American Committee of Friends of the House, said Jews outside of Israel would raise $3,000,000 to build the structure.
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.
