The United Nations decision in favor of the creation of a Jewish state marked “the classic turning-point in the fortunes of Israel,” Abba Eban, Israel Ambassador to the United States, said tonight at the Waldorf-Astoria dinner celebrating the 76th birthday of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of Israel, and the third anniversary of the United Nations partition decision which led to the creation of the state of Israel.
General George C. Marshall, Secretary of Defense, was the guest of honor and principal speaker at tonight’s dinner, at which more than 1,500 persons, including government officials, United Nations delegates and world diplomats, were present. (At the time the Bulietin went to press, General Marshall’s speech was not available.) Henry Morgenthau, Jr., chairman of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, introduced General Marshall, and Abraham Feinberg presided.
“November 29, 1947, marks the classic turning-point in the fortunes of Israel,” Ambassador Eban said. “Before that date we achieved no victories. Since that date we have suffered no defeats. Before the establishment of the state of Israel, we were supplicants and mendicants before the civilized conscience of mankind. The United Nations decision of November 29, 1947, marked the emergence of the Jewish people from anonymity and its entry and full acceptance into the world family of nations.”
The dinner was sponsored by the American Committee for the Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute of Science and Technion, organized early this year under the presidency of Professor Albert Einstein for the advancement of higher learning, science and technology in Israel. Tickets to the dinner were $500 per person, and the proceeds will go to the Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute, and Haifa Technion, which are currently engaged in a campaign to raise $5,500,000 in the United States.
PROF. EINSTEIN APPEALS FOR ISRAEL’S INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING
Support for Israel’s institutions of higher learning is a primary concern for the Jewish people, Prof. Einstein wrote in a statement read at the dinner. “Thanks to the devoted efforts of their scientists and scholars, these institutions have already attained great importance in the technical development and the intellectual standard of Israel,” Dr. Einstein’s statement said.
“The cultivation of scholarship and intellectual pursuit always came first to our forefathers and has been a mainspring of our strength and vitality,” Dr. Einstein emphasized. “We must not be guilty of squandering the intellectual bloom of our people by lack of perception or unwillingness to sacrifice for the furtherance of our talented youth.
“If our people realized to what extent the welfare of the Jewish state, and with it the position of all Jewry, depends on the development of these institutions, they would count them their most precious possessions and support them generously. I shall feel happy indeed to see the day when the entire Jewish people will provide for these institutions of higher learning and research in such plenitude as to allow for a free and unhibited development of our intellectual potentialities.”
The dinner was preceded by a musical program and tableau during which the Robert Shaw Chorale and Orchestra presented portions of Mendelsohn’s “Elijah” oratorio. The dinner program was arranged by Meyer W. Weisgal, chairman of the executive council of the Weizmann Institute.
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