More than 2, 000 guests of the 35th annual Histadrut Third Seder paid tribute to the modern pioneers of Israel and called for the “deliverance” of the Jewish people still denied their rights to live freely as Jews. The Passover celebration sponsored by the Greater New York Histadrut Council at the Waldorf-Astoria was addressed by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and Israel Consul-General Michael Arnon.
Gov. Rockefeller told the gathering that “for too long and in too many places the Jew was prohibited from the labors that sustain other men. Too often, he could neither own land nor work land. But what happened in Israel when the heavy shackles of a history of oppression were thrown off? A desert was made to bloom, the mines were worked, the fields were tilled and a new nation emerged — strong and vibrant and proud.”
Dr. Sol Stein, executive director of the National Committee for Labor Israel, who acted as master of ceremonies, pointed out an empty chair on the dais, “which symbolizes our missing tribe, which is tragically prevented from nurturing our spiritual heritage and from joining hands with us — I am referring to our brethren behind the Iron Curtain.” The audience rose for a moment of silence as a gesture of solidarity with the Jews in the Soviet Union. The fate of European Jewry was also recalled by the lighting of six memorial candles.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
