WZO Launches World-wide Campaign to Emphasize Israel’s Achievements

With Independence Day approaching, the World Zionist Organization has launched a world-wide campaign to emphasize Israel’s achievements in face of its many difficulties. Information material and personalities such as Minister-Without-Portfolio Gideon Hausner and MK Esther Herlitz will try to reach every Jewish community to promote understanding of Israel’s position on its 27th Independence Day.

A mobile exhibit has already reached many Zionist federations and Jewish communities abroad. It depicts several aspects of Israel’s achievements: portraits of scientists and academicians including Russian immigrants; visual demonstrations of the new settlements throughout the country; and the achievements of the younger generation of Israelis within the Establishment.

The WZO information division has also produced ten documentary films highlighting some of the more important events in Israel during the past year, from the Kissinger missions to such cultural events as the first appearance of Valery and Galina Panov before the Israeli public.

Moshe Gilboa, director of information of the WZO, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that because of financial difficulties, copies of the films were sent only to Jewish community centers “from Bombay to Montreal.” However, every community interested in the films can apply for them through the local Zionist federations or directly to the information division of the WZO in Jerusalem, Gilboa said. Several Publications For Speakers, Media.

The visual depictions of Israel 1975 will be supplemented by several publications intended primarily as background material for speakers and Jewish media. One publication, prepared by the WZO organization and information department and the Israel Information Center includes reports on the economic consequences of the Yom Kippur War, an article by the late David Ben Gurion, and another on the Palestinian problem by Prof. Moshe Maoz, a Middle East expert of the Hebrew University.

A special press service pamphlet was published in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Yiddish for use by Jewish news papers in their Independence Day editions. Another pamphlet will be sent to Jewish communities immediately after Independence Day to note the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Holocaust survivors from concentration camps and the end of World War II.

The pamphlet contains articles comparing the world atmosphere in the late 1930s and today This pamphlet, published in French, Spanish and English, proves, according to Gilboa, “that the fate of Judaism is linked to the fight for world peace.” He added: “The intention is to turn both Independence Day and the 30th anniversary of the end of World War II into a serious information drive based on facts.”