More than 2,000 guests, who packed the grand ballroom of the Hotel Commodore last night, took the first steps to restore the ancient birthplace of the Maccabees, heroes of the Hebrew War of Liberation of the second century B. C., as a tribute to Yitzhak Ben Zvi, President of Israel, on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
The celebration took place under the auspices of the Labor Department of the Jewish National Fund, in cooperation with all Labor Zionist groups in the United States – Poale Zion, Pioneer Women and Farband-Labor Zionist Order. Louis Segal, member of the executive of the Jewish Agency and secretary-general of the Farband, was the guest speaker. Others who spoke were Mendel N. Fisher, executive director of the Jewish National Fund; Jacob Katzman of the Labor Zionist Organization of America and Mrs. Rivka Bugatch, national fund chairman of Pioneer Women. Every guest at the celebration was a subscriber to the fund for the restoration of the birthplace of the Maccabees.
The birthplace of the Maccabees, known as the village of Mod’in, is today a collection of hovels in the midst of a wasteland of barren rocks. It is the plan of the Labor Zionist movement of the United States to reclaim, through the Labor Department of the Jewish National Fund, about 2,500 acres in the area of Mod’in and to build a modern village on the site after linking it with the rest of the country by a new road to be named “Derech Hanassi” or the “President’s Road,” in tribute to the President of Israel.
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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.
