The 1949 United Jewish Appeal campaign for $250,000,000 for local and overseas needs was launched here this week-end at the two-day National Rededication Conference of the U.J.A. by 1,200 Jewish community leaders from all parts of the country who presented Henry Morgenthau, Jr., general chairman of the U.J.A., with nearly $27,000,000 in cash to get the campaign off to a flying start.
The assembled community leaders cheered as Moshe Sheratt, Israel’s Foreign Minister, declared that the Jews of Israel will provide for the defense of their state, but added that the Jews outside Israel, particularly those in the United States, must meet the bill for immigration. Pointing out that the Israelis fought and died not only for statehood, but also to open the doors of the country to immigration of Jewish refugees, Sheratt stressed:
“But the gates opened and kept open at the cost of blood can be of no avail for the admission of people if on arrival they are unable to settle and become productive. Here is where the collective responsibility of the entire Jewish people must come into play. If they share in the glory of Israel, they must share in its travail.”
In the ten months that have passed since the proclamation, 170,000 immigrants came in, the Israeli Foreign Minister said. The monthly average for the last five months was 24,000. It is estimated that when Israel celebrates her first anniversary, the number of newcomers will total 200,000 or exceed that many, he said, adding that this figure “is equivalent to an annual total of 44 million immigrants to the United States.”
CABINET MEMBER PRAISES ISRAELI DEMOCRACY, AGRICULTURAL PLANNING
Israel has not disappointed those who gave it encouragement and help, Charles F. Brannan, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, told the U.J.A. delegates. “The fact that three Arab3 were seated in the parliament of Israel is to me a sign of that more perfect democracy for which we all strive, and a clear-cut indication that Israel intends to pursue a course of conduct which shall make her a bastion of freedom and liberty in the Middle East,” he said, “I believe Israel desires peace, and the series of negotiations currently being conducted with the various Arab states is a proof of that desire.” The Secretary of Agriculture also said that he was particularly pleased by the sound agricultural planning in Israel.
TODAY’S GIFTS HAVE AVERTED RESETTLEMENT CRISIS IN ISRAEL, MORGENTHAU SAYS
Commenting on today’s cash gifts–which amounted to more than ten percent of the national goal for this year–Morgenthau declared: “I am happy to say that this extraordinary action on the part of the Jewish communities has averted a serious crisis in the resettlement of homeless Jews in Israel.” Yesterday, the U.J.A. general chair man warned that a lack of funds has created a desperate situation in Israel where “the victory won on the field of battle may be lost in the in the immigrant reception camps.”
He emphasized that unless the generosity of American Jews makes possible the speedy absorption of 250,000 Jewish refugees who will come to the Jewish state this year, the tragic existence of DP camp life will be transplanted to Israel. Unless the necessary aid from America arrives, he declared, “the land of promise will become the land of disillusionment. Fifty thousand Jewish refugees are new in temporary reception camps and 16,000 of them are living in tents, Morgenthau revealed.
MESSAGE FROM WEIZMANN STRESSES MEANING FOUR FREEDOMS TO ISRAEL
In a message to the conference, President Weizmann of Israel said that the late President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms have a special meaning to the people of Israel. He assured the delegates that Israel can guarantee the newly arriving immigrants that they will have freedom from fear, but, the message added, the Jews of America must, through their support of the U.J.A., provide funds for freedom from want.
The message also said: “The financial resources of Israel have been strained to the utmost by the war of defense which was forced upon us. It has never before been written in history that a people was called upon to make an effort of such tremendous complexity under conditions like these. We can stand up to our great task only if Jews throughout the world give us their maximum support.”
A quarter of a million immigrants in 1949 will do more to insure the security of Israel than a large army, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, acting chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, said. Describing Israel as a “Jewish island in an Arab sea,” Dr. Goldmann called on American Jewry to expand its fund-raising machinery for Israel through the U.J.A. until such time as the independence of Israel has been secured beyond the shadow of a doubt “and until such time that every Jew anywhere in the world who wants to live in Israel has been helped to do so.”
“Victories are of ten dangerous in that they induce the victorious group to over-optimism, which causes a psychological let down, Dr. Goldmann said. “Many nations have lost in peace what they gained in war because of their psychologically premature demobilization. The state of Israel in its nine months of existence has performed miracles, but it has much to accomplish in every phase of its existence before all immediate dangers will have been removed and all difficulties overcome.”
Israeli Ambassador to Washington Eliahu Elath, in an address to the conference, insisted that “the responsibility that you shoulder now is in many respects even greater than that of the crucial years preceding our rebirth as a nation.” He continued: “The contributions that you are asked to make are not to help maintain the state of Israel or its administration. These needs are covered by our own taxpayers, who in addition to their lives, are ready to give a large measure of their material wealth. It is the additional responsibilities that we have to carry in new construction, in new settlements for our returning brethren, that cannot be met solely by taxes and the trade activities of our country which has had, from its inception, to fight a war of life and death.”
IMMIGRATION WAVE TAXING J.D.C. FACILITIES, WARBURG DECLARES
Edward M.M. Warburg, chairman of the Joint Distribution committee, predicted that if adequate funds are available some 40 DP camps in Europe housing thousands of Jews will be closed down this year. He asserted that the present rate of refugee immigration from Europe to Israel was taxing the J.D.C. facilities to the point of breakdown. As an illustration of this point, he revealed that there are some 9,000 Jews waiting for transportation from Marseilles to Israel who are living in camps intended for 3,000-4,000 persons.
Dr. Morris Rothenberg, acting national chairman of the United Palestine Appeal and national chairman of the U.J.A., said that there is a “false belief that ##r task is done,” He warned that Israel still has to settle the-war and face great economic problems.
William Rosenwald, president of the United Service for New Americans, reported that the United States Displaced Persons Commission is anticipating an influx of between 10,000 and 12,000 DP’s per month during the coming summer. Rosenwald said that ## addition to providing for the newcomers who enter the United States this year his organization must continue to provide assistance to the 75,000 immigrants already in the country who need USNA. aid.
GRANOVSKY, ESHKOL REPORT ON AGRICULTURAL RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM
Dr. Abraham Granovsky, world president of the Jewish National Fund, declared ?at a toy factor in the development of Israel is the establishment of a series of border settlements which will provide security for the country without the necessity for the maintenance of a large standing army. At the same time, he pointed out, such settlements will absorb tens of thousands of new immigrants.
Levi Eshkol, chief of the agricultural settlement department of the Jewish Agency, who arrived in the United States last week to assist in the U.J.A, campaign, disclosed that 60 new settlements have been established in Israel in the past ten months, ## that present plans call for the establishment of another 100 in the coming 9 months.
Yacov Zerubavel, chief of the Middle East department of the Jewish Agency, returned that “Jews in some Moslem lands are threatened with death, or imprisonment and ##fiscation of their property unless they can flee to Israel.”Former Gov. Herbert H. Lehman said that “unhappy refugees in certain European countries have a very limited time in which to find a new home in Israel.” He cited the political situation in North Africa and Arab states. “The schedule of emigration into Israel is in truth an urgent timetable of survival,” he added.
The existence of Israel will dissipate anti-Semitism in the United States, ?mes G. McDonald, American Ambassador to Israel, predicted in a message from Tel Aviv. Israel will not only make secure the future of your brethren, it will also help to have as other Americans from the grievous sin of brute prejudice. Israel will help us ##l, Jews and Christians, to be bettor Americans,” the message said.
Neumann Pledges Support of American Zionists to U.J.A. Drive
In a message to the conference, to which he had been invited but which he could not attend because of prior engagements, Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the Zionist organization of America, stated that he had asked Rabbi Irving Miller, chairman of the J.C.A. administrative council, to represent the organization, and added: I trust that the rededication conference of the United Jewish Appeal will succeed in its high purpose. The teak laid upon us all in this critical year is greater and more compelling than ever before and must command the support and devotion ox all sections of American Jewry. American Zionists will of course do their duty in these days of fulfillment as they have done throughout the long years of heartbreak and struggle.”
Five trains–to be mown as “U.J.A. Caravans of Hope”–will be dispatched on April 3 to 150 communities throughout America of the fund-raising campaign, it was announced at the closing session this afternoon. A special car of each train will carry Israeli officials, U.J.A. worlds, and others who will help carry the drive into the homes of the nation. Each car is planned to be a sort of Jewish combination of the Freedom and Friendship Trains. The caravans will be on tour for three weeks.
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