Cash gifts amounting to $850, 000 were presented today and an additional $200,000 was pledged by delegates from 75 communities throughout the United States at the mid-winter roll call conference of the National Committee for Labor Israel here. The thousand delegates also adopted a resolution calling for all-out aid to the special emergency campaign of the 1959 United Jewish Appeal, the Israel bond drive and the Israel Histadrut campaign.
Mayor Gershon Agron of Jerusalem, who was one of the principal speakers at the conference, stressed the significance of organized labor in Israel which, he said, has not only contributed to the economic and social progress of the young democracy, “but serves to bridge the small nation with the great, but underdeveloped, free states of Asia and Africa.” Lauding the “cooperative and venture some spirit of Histadrut,” he said the Histadrut has brought new industrial life, as well as numerous medical institutions, to Jerusalem, where half the population of 160, 000 are affiliated with the labor federation.
Other speakers included Simcha Pratt, Israel Consul General in New York; Dr. Dov Biegun, national secretary of the Histadrut campaign; Louis Segal, executive member of the Jewish Agency; Alexander Kahn, general manager of the Jewish Daily Forward, and others. The resolution greeted “with enthusiasm” the reports from Israel that the rate of immigration to that country has once again been accelerated and promises to reach the highest levels since the establishment of the state.
“This renewed immigration, from many lands,” the resolution continued, “will bring to Israel large numbers of Jews who have long dreamed of this opportunity to reconstitute their lives as free, dignified citizens of an independent Jewish State. The responsibility of transporting the immigrants and their initial absorption, which requires staggering amounts of money, is primarily that of the United Jewish Appeal, which also shares with the Government of Israel the task of housing the newcomers. The sale of Israel bonds provides the means for economic development that creates work for the newcomers.”
A memorial service for Joseph Sprinzak, Speaker of the Knesset, was conducted at the opening of the afternoon session. Anshel Reis, representative of the World Federation of Labor Zionists in Tel Aviv, delivered the eulogy for the 74-year-old Israeli statesman who had been a founder and former secretary-general of Histadrut. “Mr. Sprinzak was a man of universal interests who was responsive to all matters affecting the fate of the Jewish people,” Mr. Reis stated.
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