More than 1,900 guests attended a $100-a-plate dinner given by the American Fund for Israel Institutions at the Waldorf Astoria tonight. The proceeds brought to a climax the Fund’s campaign for $1,870,000 for the support and development of its network of cultural and educational institutions in Israel.
In cabled messages to the assemblage both Israel’s Premier David Ben Gurion and Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett underscored the need for widespread support of Israel’s cultural and educational projects as particularly vital in this period of Middle East tensions. Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Abba Eban, asserted that “all our pressing preoccupations with physical security and economic welfare are aimed at creating the proper conditions for the restoration of our country and our nation on high levels of intellectual, scientific and cultural progress.”
Unique silver Bibles, designed at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts–a Fund beneficiary–were awarded to the three guests of honor. Herbert Katzman, Oscar M. Lazrus and Harry C. Oppenheimer. A star-studded music program presented Leonard Berrstein conducting the Symphony of the Air, opera stars Leonard Warren, Mimi Benzell, Eugene Conley, Regina Resnik and Nicola Moscona and others.
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