Elie Wiesel was the recipient this week of the American Zionist Federation’s Citation of Honor which hailed him as the “conscience of a peoples’ anguish and a peoples’ hope, chronicler of the Holocaust and rebirth, interpreter of soul and spirit.” The award, in the form of a plaque, was presented to Wiesel at the closing session of the AZF convention here by Mrs. Esther Zackler of Chicago, president of the Pioneer Women.
In response, Wiesel disclosed that he has become a member-at-large of the AZF. He said that while he had remained aloof from organized Zionism throughout most of his life, he decided in the past two years to formally affiliate himself with the Zionist Movement because of “viscious attacks on the Zionist Movement both in this country and abroad.” He said his affiliation was an answer to the anti-Semites who “attack our people under the guise of anti-Zionism.”
More than 1000 delegates are expected to attend the Canadian Zionist Federation national convention in Ottawa from tomorrow through Sunday. Maj.-Gen. Chaim Herzog of Israel, Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, chairman of the World Zionist Organization-American Section, and Rabbi David Kirshblum, associate head of the world aliya department of the Jewish Agency will be among the scheduled speakers. The convention will celebrate Israel’s 25th anniversary.
Israel Interior Minister Yosef Burg said today that the government has spent IL 120 million over the last five years to build 2000 air raid shelters all over the country.
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.
