A bitter denunciation of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia was delivered here today by Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon in the course of a eulogy of the late Charles H. Jordan, former director-general of the Joint Distribution Committee, who died under mysterious circumstances in Prague in August, 1967. The occasion was the dedication of the Charles H. Jordan Student House at the ORT Technical High School in Natanya. Attending the ceremonies were Mrs. Ellie Jordan, widow of the deceased. Gen. Chaim Herzog, president of ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation and Training) in Israel, Mrs. Golda Meir, former Foreign Minister of Israel, and Dr. A. Bar Menahem, mayor of Natanya.
Addressing an audience of 1,000 students. Gen. Allon said “the murder of Charles H. Jordan is not the fault of the Czech people but of the tyrannical regime. Only a year after Mr. Jordan’s tragic disappearance, the Czech people are fighting a desperate battle for their independence. Such tyrannical regimes have no qualms about intervening in the affairs of a smaller nation. As citizens of a small nation we must remember that only by our steadfastness and readiness to defend ourselves can we build an effective deterrent.”
Gen. Allon said there was “not a country where Jews were oppressed that Charles H. Jordan did not come and bring them a word of encouragement and sometimes help. He fell as a soldier in the front line of Jewish existence and he fell behind the enemy lines. We can do nothing but express our condemnation of a regime that forcibly revokes the freedom of small nations, ” he said.
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.
