The leadership of the national United Jewish Appeal has issued at call for a demonstration of Jewish unity and solidarity at the UJA 1980 National Conference Dec. 6-8 at the New York Hilton.
“A Time To Be Together” is the theme of the annual event, UJA national chairman Irwin Field said in an invitation to American Jewish community leaders to join in “celebrating freedom, honoring courage, understanding the challenges and opportunities of the decisive decade ahead and, in the face of the divisive pressures in the world today, planning the largest peace-year campaign in our history.”
The conference keynote address, a comprehensive presentation on the human impact of the current negotiations for peace in the Middle East, will be given by former Israel Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan at the opening luncheon Thursday, Dec. 6. Shimon Peres, leader of Israel’s Labor Party, will deliver the annual Louis Pincus Memorial Lecture on Saturday, Dec. 8.
Major conference honors will go to Henry Ford, Jacobo Timerman and Boris Penson. Ford will receive the first UJA Humanitarian Award in recognition of his years of support for the people of Israel and friendship for the UJA. The 1979 David Ben Gurion Award will be presented to Timerman, the Argentinian Jewish editor freed last month after years of imprisonment and house arrest. A public tribute to Penson, recently released Prisoner of Conscience, will highlight a rally in support of the Soviet Jewish freedom movement on Friday, Dec. 7, in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.
A Friday morning plenary meeting will feature an overview by Jewish Agency treasurer Akiva Lewinsky of the vastly Increased human needs to be met by Agency programs in 1980 with the help of UJA/Federation campaign funds. The Agency’s rising responsibility for crucial absorption, resettlement and Project Renewal rehabilitation services in Israel, according to Field, is a major factor in creating a national UJA 1980 goal calling for a 20 percent increase in regular pledges, plos an all out additional effort for Project Renewal.
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