Fifty American Jewish community leaders from 31 cities pledged $9 million–more than these leadership gifts represented in 1976–to launch the 1977 United Jewish Appeal campaign last evening in the home of Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog.
“I don’t feel you in the American Jewish community understand the alarming degree to which international anti-Semitism is increasing,” Herzog said. “I feel it every day at the UN. You just can’t imagine the intensity of this new anti-Semitism. It’s geared not just at the people of Israel, but at the Jewish people.”
Continuing, Herzog declared: “The reliance on one part of the Jewish people for the other is a message the world understands, for it says that ‘we, the Jewish people,’ are one–that we will stand up and fight back–that we can revitalize ourselves–and face the future strong, meaningfully and with confidence. That is the message of Entebbe, and it will echo throughout the world.”
Frank R. Lautenberg, UJA general chairman, responding to Herzog, stated: “The moral standard of excellence and concern for life expressed by Israel demands a response which we must answer.”
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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.
