The two day national emergency conference of the United Jewish Appeal concluded here today with contributions in cash totaling $20,391,000 toward the special cash drive for $25,000,000 proclaimed by the UJA.
The 750 leaders from Jewish communities throughout the country who attended the conference, voted that the cash balance be raised by the end of this month. They also called for “uninterrupted campaign activity” during the Summer months and throughout the Fall to help meet in full the UJA’s total 1953 requirements for financial, welfare and rehabilitation programs in Israel and other countries.
Mutual Security Administrator Harold E. Stassen commended the UJA delegates for “the remarkable effort” they have made through the years, but declined to discuss the “many difficult and complex controversies and policy problems” in the Near East whence he recently returned with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Mr. Stassen told the UJA that it was not the occasion nor was he the spokesman to take up “any of these specific policy problems.”
ISRAEL AMBASSADOR DISCUSSES ARAB-ISRAEL ISSUES
Israel Ambassador Abba S. Eban expressed apprehension over efforts now being made to work out the “security problems of the Middle East.” Mr. Eban said a nation’s claim for freedom deserves respect “but a claim to deny or resent or restrict or mutilate the sovereignty of another people merits firm rebuke and specific disassociation especially by those who seek to help our region heal its wounds and forget its anger and its hates.”
The Ambassador told UJA delegates that he could not understand “why American support for Arab independence in eight countries should merit praise, while American support for Israel’s independence justifies resentment.” With obvious reference to the radio report of last week by Secretary Dallas, Mr. Eban said there was “no just comparison between Israel’s valid fear of Arab assault and the alleged Arab fear of Israeli aggression.”
Mr. Eban pointed out that while he considered it correct that international guarantees against aggression, such as the 1950 tri-partite declaration, be formulated in terms of mutuality and reciprocity, “this does not signify any admission by us that the figment of an Israel threat to the Arabs and daily reality of the Arab threat to Israel have an equal reality or imminence.”
The Israel Ambassador stressed that while Israel wanted peace it would not be forced into a settlement which would modify its “full territorial integrity and political sovereignty.” Israel’s boundaries, he said, rest not only upon valid treaties approve by the United Nations but also on the fact that these treaties were brought into being at the UN’s direction. He charged that the Arab states have masked their refusal to make peace with Israel with “slogans” alleging “fear of Israel aggression.”
Senator Herbert Lehman, addressing the conference, said that the U.S. Government will “serve no high purpose” by suggesting that Israel be deprived of territory or by proposing that significant numbers of Arab refugees be resettled in Israel. Referring to the radio report by Secretary Dulles citing the plight of the Arab refugees, Sen. Lehman said that “these refugees can and must be absorbed in the great land spaces of the Arab countries of the Middle East.” He urged U.S. and United Nations assistance to advance their resettlement.
DR. GOLDMANN EMPHASIZES URGENCY OF ISRAEL PROBLEMS
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the Jewish Agency, told the delegates that Secretary of State Dulles’ Middle Eastern report indicated the urgency of problems facing Israel and called for American Jews, united in the UJA, to pledge themselves above ideological differences to support Israel in all spheres in which their support may be required in the very near future.
Stressing the necessity for primacy of the UJA, Dr. Goldmann said Israel’s “delicate and complex” economic and political problems must be solved in the right way or Israel’s survival will be jeopardized. He said that the importance of the UJA “both financially speaking and in cementing relations” between America and Israel “cannot be over estimated.” The UJA “has proved to be the largest source of income as far as Jewish support of Israel is concerned,” Dr. Goldmann declared.
Edward M.M. Warburg, general chairman of the UJA, said that more than 500,000 persons in Israel, the United States, Europe, and elsewhere require varying forms of direct assistance and pointed out that additional numbers of Jews “may at any moment” require similar direct aid “especially if the Soviet and satellite countries open their borders to Jewish emigration.”
Mr. Warburg called attention to the 1953 nationwide UJA campaign and announced that from the date of the UJA’s establishment in 1939 through April 30 of this year the Appeal has raised more than $800,000,000 to save and aid nearly 2,250,000 persons. He called upon the conference to set the stage for raising additional large-scale funds in the months ahead.
Other speakers included Mrs. Golda Myerson, Israel Minister of Labor; Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, executive vice-chairman of the UJA; William Rosenwald, a national chairman of the UJA; Rudolf G. Sonneborn, chairman of the United Israel Appeal, and Mrs. Albert Pilavin, chairman of the UJA’s Women’s Division. Mrs. Pilavin reported that American Jewish women in the first five months of 1953 contributed $6,410,000 to the UJA.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
