More than 500 top American Jewish leaders jammed the grand ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel here tonight to bid a warm farewell to Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Avraham Harman, and Mrs. Harman. The dinner was sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, composed of 21 national Jewish groups. George Maislen was dinner chairman.
Rabbi Herschel Schachter, chairman of the Conference, presented the Harmans with an engraved Steuben glass bowl. The gift, he said, was “a modest expression of our deeply felt tribute to a couple whose warmth of personality, devotion to the cause of American-Israeli understanding and commitment to Jewish peoplehood have made a profound impact on the American Jewish community.”
Rabbi Schachter also announced that the American Friends of the Hebrew University had launched $1 million scholarship endowment in honor of Ambassador Harman. The Israeli diplomat, who will Washington early next month after serving as ambassador since 1959, will assume the presidency hebrew University later this year.
Ambassador Harman will be succeeded by Major Gen. Itzhak Rabin, former chief of staff. The Presidents Conference, which sponsored the dinner as the American Jewish community’s adieu to Ambassador and Mrs. Harman, is regarded as the representative spokesman of U.S. Jewry on international issues affecting the security of Israel and the Jewish people.
JEWISH AGENCY TENDERS FAREWELL LUNCHEON
The Jewish Agency-American Section tendered a farewell luncheon to the Harmans today with some 40 friends and associates of the couple in attendance. Mrs. Rose L. Halprin, chairman of the American Section, presided and the speakers included Rabbi Israel Miller, chairman of the American Zionist Council and the Ambassador and Mrs. Harman.
Mrs. Halprin acclaimed the Harmans for having “contributed greatly to the development of Zionism in Israel” and for having “jointly made an impact on America that will be long remembered.” She pointed out that the Harmans had been “born and brought up in Zionism” and were dedicated to Zionism from early childhood.
Both, she said, “have contributed greatly to the development of Zionism and Israel — the Ambassador as one of his country’s leading diplomats and Zena as an outstanding figure in the field of international social welfare. Together, in the many years they have spent on their assignment in this country, they have ably represented Israel and have jointly made an impact on America that will be long remembered. We bid them a fond farewell.”
Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, will hold a farewell brunch in honor of the Harmans next Sunday, at 11:30 a.m. in the Empire Room of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Mrs. Mortimer Jacobson, national president of Hadassah, will present Ambassador Harman with a special scroll of honor. Mrs. Siegfried Kramarsky, national chairman of the Hadassah Medical Organization Committee, will present Ambassador and Mrs. Harman with a personal gift. Dr. Abram Leon Sachar, president of Brandeis University, and Rep. Ogden R. Reid, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, will speak.
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