American Jewish Leaders Appeal in Rosh Hashanah Messages for Intensive and to Israel

Jews throughout the United States were urged today in Rosh Hashanah messages to concentrate during the coming Jewish new year on increased aid to Israel and on helping needy Jewish communities throughout the world.

In a New Year’s appeal issued by Henry Morgenthau, Jr., general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, Jews in the United States were told that “many of the circumstances of Jewish need today are reminiscent of the days of Hitler. Tens of thousands are still flesing–still in danger of being destroyed through wholesale persecution.” Mr. Morgenthau emphasized that “there are deadlines on the great lifesaving job that must be carried on by the U.J.A.”

Stanley C. Myers, president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, said in a Rosh Hashanah message that Jews in the United States “are more strongly organized and more effectively united today than at any time since the beginning of Jewish immigration to America.” He stressed that the Jewish community in this country will need that unity and organized strength even more earnestly in the next year in order to meet its obligations towards Israel and local communal needs.

Jacob Blaustein, president of the American Jewish Committee, said in a Rosh Hashanah message that “we can be confident that Israel will surmount its economic difficulties and other crises, and that the work of its builders will be blessed, given peace and a helping hand from American Jewry. While Jews have taken root all over the habitable world, it is in America that the strongest living branch of the Jewish people flourishes. Together with Americans of every creed we have built our homes and rest our future on the great American traditions of liberty and brotherhood.”

Dr. Israel Goldstein, speaking on behalf of the World Jewish Congress, said in a Rosh Hashanah message that the “heroic sacrifices” made by the state of Israel in order to keep its gates open to hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants have been a “light to the nations.” Thanks to Israel, the problem of the Jewish DP’s in Europe is nearing liquidation, he added. In another message issued by him on behalf of the World Confederation of General Zionists, Dr. Goldstein appealed to the Jews of the United States to give the maximum aid possible to Israel in order to prevent the collapse of its immigration policy.

JEWISH AGENCY EXTENDS NEW YEAR’S GREETINGS TO U.S. JEWS

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, in extending New Year greetings in behalf of the Agency to the Jews of the United States, declared: “The year 5711 will be a climax year in Israel’s battle for economic independence and stability. The Jewish Agency, in extending its warm New Year greetings to the American Jewish community, expresses its utmost confidence that American Jewry will recognize its duties in this regard and discharge them to the full.”

Judge Morris Rothenberg, in a Rosh Hashanah message issued on behalf of the United Palestine Appeal, urged the marshalling of all available resources of American Jewry to help Israel in the absorption of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants who are expected to arrive in the Jewish state during the coming year. He said that the new year “will test the very future and foundations of the state of Israel.”

Dr. Harris J. Levine, president of the Jewish National Fund of America, expressed the conviction that American Jewry “will lavish its resources and manpower on the great but unfinished task of placing the Jewish state on firm and secure foundations.” Similar convictions were expressed in messages issued by Mrs. Israel Goldstein, president of Pioneer Women, the women’s labor Zionist organization of America, and by Joseph Schlossberg, general chairman of the National Committee for Labor Israel.

Messages of greetings to the Jews of America were also issued by Samuel A. Telsey, president of HIAS; Supreme Court Justice Meir Steinbrink, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith; Mrs. Irving M. Engel, president of the National Council of Jewish Women, as well as by the Jewish War Veterans, American Council for Judaism, ORT, and other Jewish groups. Among the religious organizations which issued Rosh Hashanah messages were the Synagogue Council of America, representing Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism in this country; the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the United Synagogue of America and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada.