100-day Israel Bonds Drive Aims at Raising Additional $53,000,000

A 100-day campaign to raise $53,000,000 by the end of the year for Israel’s expanded economic development was inaugurated today at the closing session of the national planning conference of the Israel Bond Organization. The action was taken by more than 500 Jewish leaders from the United States and Canada after three days of meetings at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Israel’s economic needs and development program for under populated areas.

Samuel Rothberg, national campaign chairman, who presided at today’s session, announced that $53,000,000 was needed to meet the Israel Bond quota of $100,000,000 for all of 1965. The fall campaign will be inaugurated, he said, in more than 600 synagogues throughout the United States and Canada, which will conduct a special effort in behalf of Israel Bonds during the Jewish High Holy Days. Mr. Rothberg made public special messages from Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Untermann and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Itzhak Nissim, of Israel, in which they urged American and Canadian Jewry to give the Israel Bond drive their fullest support during the High Holy Day period.

Avraham Harroan, Ambassador of Israel to the United States, emphasized to the conference delegates his country’s belief that the best way to defend freedom is to continue to build up those institutions which lead toward a creative national life.

Announcement was made at the session of the acceptance by Rabbi Irving Miller, former president of the Zionist Organization of America and the American Jewish Congress, of the post of national chairman of community relations for the Israel Bond Organization. Rabbi Miller succeeds Rabbi James G. Heller, of Cincinnati, who had served the Israel Bond drive in that capacity for more than 10 years.

Plans for the Israel Bond High Holy Days effort were outlined by Rabbi Leon Kronish, vice-chairman of the national congregational and High Holy Days committee. Rabbi Kronish, spiritual leader of Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, is president of the greater Miami Rabbinical Association, and chairman of the Greater Miami Committee for State of Israel Bonds. He said that growing response of synagogues to Israel Bonds reflected the special importance which the Jewish communities attach to the program for promoting Israel’s economic growth.

SCHWARTZ REPORTS SALES OF $47,295,000; BOYAR DETAILS ACHIEVEMENTS IN ISRAEL

Earlier, Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, vice-president of the Israel Bond Organization, announced that a total of $47,295,000 was raised for the economic development of Israel through the world-wide sale of State of Israel Bonds from January 1 through September 15 of this year. Of that total, he reported, $39,470,250 was sold in the United States, $2,601,050 in Canada, $2,591,550 in Latin America, and $2,632,150 in Western Europe.

Explaining that the coming months represent the period of greatest activity in the campaign, Dr. Schwartz said that prospects were good for raising the balance of $53,000,000 required to reach the $100,000,000 quota by the end of the year. “The day to day progress of the people of Israel continues to be the most decisive single factor in expanding the wide circle of subscribers to Israel Bonds, who now number more than 1,500,000,” he declared.

Other speakers at the session addressed by Dr. Schwartz included Louis H. Boyar, chairman of the board of governors of the Israel Bond Organization, who presided, and Ambassador Ehud Avriel, deputy director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Mr. Boyar outlined the economic strides made possible with the aid of Israel Bonds. He cited particularly Israel’s outstanding accomplishments in reclaiming and settling many parts of the Negev desert, and of opening up new settlements in the Galilee.

Mr. Boyar stated that Israel had constructed close to 400,000 housing units for its population, which includes more than 1,250,000 immigrants who entered the country since it achieved statehood in 1948. Some 500 new agricultural settlements have been established, he noted, and more than 20,000 new industrial plants and workshops were set up during the past seventeen years. Its exports have grown tenfold, amounting to $665,000,000 in 1964, he said. This year’s Israel Bond campaign represents a great opportunity to bring Israel to a higher level of development, he declared.

ROBERT KENNEDY OUTLINES 3-POINT PROGRAM FOR U.S. IN MID-EAST

At last night’s dinner session, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, New York Democrat, who was the principal speaker, asserted that “the vitality of Israel and the integrity of her borders are a matter of vital concern to the United States.” He urged the United States to (1) affirm its commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East, (2) continue to assure a reasonable balance between Israel’s arms and the arms of those who threaten her security, and (3) intensify disarmament efforts in the Middle East. Pointing to an increased buildup of Arab arms, Sen. Kennedy warned of the dangers facing Israel. He declared that the “dispute over the waters of the Jordan is progressively deepening” and emphasized that any steps taken by the Arab states to divert Israel’s “fair share” of this water would constitute an act of aggression which “must not be allowed to take place.” The United States should reaffirm its commitment to stop this aggression, he declared, because “Israel is trying to live in peace and harmony with her neighbors.”

Sen. Kennedy drew attention to Israel’s record of growth and development, and paid tribute to the Israel Bond program for its outstanding contribution to its progress. “For 14 years,” he told the conference, “you have been privileged to share in the building of a nation–small in size, yet great in spirit; young in years, yet faithful to an ancient heritage.” He stressed Israel’s progress despite adversity, and noted the important benefit which her advances had brought to nations in many parts of the world.

“Throughout Asia and Africa,” he said, “the new nations have turned to Israel for example and guidance, precept and performance. Israel has shown them that development and democracy are not incompatible, but natural partners.” However, he added, despite the substantial advances made with the aid of Israel Bonds, “there can be no relaxation.” “I come here tonight to say that all of us who are concerned with the fate of Israel must now redouble our efforts; for we are now in a critical time, one as full of danger and promise as any that Israel has yet seen,” he said.

Sen. Kennedy shared the platform with Haim J. Zadok, Minister of Commerce and Industry of Israel; Abraham Feinberg, President of the Israel Bond Organization, who presided, and Mrs. Jan Peerce, chairman of the national women’s division.

ZADOK STRESSES ISRAEL’S NEEDS; FEINBERG RECALLS FOUNDING OF BONDS DRIVE

Mr. Zadok, in his first address in the United States since entering the cabinet of Israel earlier this year, emphasized that the State of Israel faces a triple challenge of maintaining full employment, narrowing the gap between imports and exports, and populating its under populated areas. He said that Israel could not achieve these aims without increased resources from the Israel Bond campaign. A strong economy, he added, was essential not only for the country’s national life but its security, as well, in a period of increased threats of Arab attack.

Discussing the need of creating wider employment opportunities, Mr. Zadok, who serves also as Minister of Development, noted that the country expects to pass the 3,000,000 mark in population by 1970, an increase of 500,000 over the present figure, counting both immigration and natural increase.

Mr. Feinberg, who presided at the dinner session, called attention to the fact that the weekend conference marked the 15th anniversary of a meeting in Jerusalem in September, 1950, where 50 American Jewish leaders formulated plans for the first Israel Bond issue ever to be floated in the United States. Describing the origin of the Israel Bond program, which has become the backbone of almost every phase of the economic development of Israel, Mr. Feinberg said:

“Fifteen years ago, only two years after they had fought a war to preserve their Declaration of Independence, the people of Israel issued what was in effect a declaration of economic independence. It was in September 1950 that the Prime Minister of Israel called on some of us to attend an urgent conference in Jerusalem. Out of that conference that met in an atmosphere of crisis and anxiety emerged the idea and the proposal for the flotation of an Israel Bond Issue, the very first Bond issue to be offered outside its borders by the infant state.

“If I were asked to characterize the role of this new program, I would say that it was launched as a life raft for a frail economy that was being swamped by a flood of homeless and penniless immigrants. During the intervening years the life raft has become the cornerstone of a dynamic and rapidly growing country. And the frailty of its economy has been replaced by robust muscles of progress.”

Noting that there has been “a population explosion” within the United Nations since the admission of the State of Israel in 1949, with its membership more than doubling to a record number of 114 countries in that period, Mr. Feinberg said: “In the great wave of liberation that has swept the continents of Africa and Asia, Israel has had the vision and statesmanship to become a source of technical assistance and close cooperation for practically all of the newly emerging countries.”

The importance of the partnership between Israel Bond purchasers and the people of Israel was stressed by Mrs. Judith Beilin, consul for Israel in New York, at a special campaign seminar of the national women’s division of the Israel Bond Organization. “The success stories of development in Israel are there for everyone to see,” Mrs. Beilin said, “and Israel Bonds are making them possible.”