425 Hartford People and 425 Israelis on Mutual Friendship Flights

Over 2000 people are expected to be on hand for the arrival and departure of the Hartford-Tel Aviv Friendship Flight on Tuesday at Bradley International Airport, north of Hartford. Shortly after 3 p.m. on Jan.24, 425 Israelis will land at Bradley Airport to be gin an eight-day peace and friendship visit in Hartford. About four hours later, 425 Greater Hartford people will board the same plane and leave for a similar visit in Tel Aviv.

The Hartford ” ambassadors” will be headed by President Carter’s son and daughter-in-law, Chip and Caron Carter, and by Connecticut’s Gov. Ella T. Grasso and her husband, Dr. Thomas A. Grasso. Gov. Grasso will greet the incoming Israelis in a joint arrival and departure ceremony.

The Governor, Mr. and Mrs. Carter and the departing Hartford ” ambassadors” will be bade farewell by a crowd which will include local officials, families of the Hartford group, and local hosts with whom the visiting Israelis will stay while in Hartford.

President Carter has personally endorsed the national Friendship Force program, of which the Hartford-Tel Aviv Friendship Flight is part. The national program grew out of several exchanges of people from Georgia and Brazil while Carter was Governor of Georgia. Mrs. Rosalynn Carter is honorary chairperson of the national Friendship Force.

The Greater Hartford people going to Tel Aviv represent a cross-section of the area’s populace, coming from different walks of life, income levels, age groups and ethnic backgrounds. All of those going committed themselves to the project before knowing their destination, which was revealed to them by Gov. Grasso on Oct. 29.

The Tel Aviv “ambassadors ” also include a variety of people–diamond cutters, artists, aircraft workers, police officers of both sexes. Included in the group is the Ha’ Maapil Kibbutz Trio, which will entertain in Hartford.