Premier Golda Meir took off for Los Angeles today via El AI after three days of official meetings and receptions in New York which she described as “overwhelming… beyond anything I ever dreamt of.” Before leaving, she conferred with executives of three major broadcasting networks and a group of New York Congressional and political leaders. The group included New York Reps. Leonard Farbstein, John Murphy, Joseph Addabo, James Scheuer, Hugh Carey, Edward Koch, Jack Gilbert, and James Delaney, all Democrats. Democratic Mayoralty Candidate Mario Procaccino and other local political figures joined the delegation.
The wind-up event was a kosher dinner tendered in her honor last night by Mayor John V. Lindsay at the Brooklyn Museum. The $20-$25 a plate event, held in a Sukkah erected and decorated by the City, drew 1,400 guests, among them Jewish leaders and city, state and Federal officials and political figures. About 1,500 spectators, many wearing “Shalom Golda” buttons, were outside the Museum when Mrs. Meir arrived escorted by Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay and Gen. Itzhak Rabin. Israel’s Ambassador to the United States.
Mrs. Meir received the longest and most emotional ovation of her visit earlier in the day when she addressed about 3,600 Zionist youths in Madison Square Garden’s Felt Forum. Her address matched the fervor of her receptive listeners whom she urged to come to Israel to find “hardship, difficulty and danger, but a sense of fulfillment.”
The 71-year-old grandmother declared that Simchat Torah this year should be designated an international day of solidarity between Jewish youth in America, Israel and Soviet Russia. She told the cheering youngsters that Simchat Torah was “a day of joy in which our forefathers did not fear to accept the burden of Torah and carried it with pride.” Noting that the holiday would be observed in Moscow by thousands of Jewish youths who would sing and dance in the streets, she said, “let us make it a token of identification with them and with youth in Israel.”
The event was sponsored by the American Zionist Youth Foundation, North American Jewish Youth Council and the American Zionist Youth Council. The youngsters gave Mrs. Meir a 10-minute standing ovation and ended the meeting by forming circles to dance the hora and sing Israeli songs.
Of her meetings with President Richard M. Nixon and other U.S. officials in Washington, she said: “One thing is not debatable. We are sure we have the friendship of the U.S. Government. We know they would not do anything that would be harmful to Israel. But the only possible danger is that the U.S. may do something that they think is good for Israel, but we know is not good for Israel.”
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.
