American Jewish Committee Leaders Leaving for Israel at Invitation of Ben Gurion

At the invitation of Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, Jacob Blaustein, president of the American Jewish Committee; Irving M. Engel, chairman of its executive committee; Dr. John Slawson, executive vice-president; and Dr. Simon Segal, director of the New York office of the AJC’s Foreign Affairs Department, are leaving this week for Israel.

Engel is scheduled to sail today, Drs. Slawson and Segal will fly on March 25 and March 29, respectively, while Blaustein will sail Friday. They are scheduled to meet in the Paris office of the American Jewish Committee on April 2, at which time they will he presented to the President of France, Vincent Auriol. French Jewish leaders have also announced Plans to tender receptions to the A.J.C. delegation.

On April 3, the delegation will fly to Tel Aviv, where they will he guests of the Israeli Government. While in Israel they will be received by the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, labor and industrial leaders and will make a government-escorted tour of Haifa, Galilee, Jerusalem and the Negev. A meeting with James a. McDonald, the United States Ambassador to Israel, is also scheduled. Blaustein expects to include a tour of North Africa and Western Europe to survey the situation of the Jews in those areas during his stay overseas.

The main purpose of the trip, the A.J.C. president announced, is to study physical and economic conditions in Israel as they pertain to that country’s ability to absorb the 150,000 immigrants who are expected to reach Israel within the next eight months. Pointing out that Israel was created as a haven for those Jews who find it necessary or desirable to go there, as well as for the welfare of its inhabitants, Blaustein said that “we of the American Jewish Committee feel, as do all American Jews, that Israel must be rendered capable not only of supporting its existing populations but of acquiring and maintaining facilities for extensive immigration.”