As Jews throughout the world ushered in the New Year tonight with prayers for world peace in general and for the security of Israel in particular, leaders of all national Jewish organizations called for the strengthening of continued aid to the Jewish State as it faces unprecedented diplomatic, social and economic problems in the immediate future. All voiced high praise for the dramatic response shown by American Jewry this year as Israel faced what one American organization called “the costs of victory.”
That formulation was expressed on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal by Max M. Fisher, of Detroit, general chairman, and Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice-chairman. Voicing the hope that Rosh Hashana, “called the birthday of the world,” may bring world peace this year, Mr. Fisher pointed out that “the gallant people of Israel paid a heavy price for winning the struggle for survival.” Israel’s crisis, he stated, “is not over; it has merely entered a new stage. The people of Israel have won victory but not peace. They are forced to maintain a mobilization which continues to affect their economy and their progressive development program.”
Mr. Fisher pointed out that UJA’s humanitarian mission “is still the major responsibility of the United Jewish Appeal as we enter the New Year. We are also inspired to deepen our concern for the additional hundreds of thousands of Jews in need, in 30 countries other than Israel, many of whom have been adversely affected by the recent conflict, and who are served by the UJA-supported Joint Distribution Committee.” Rabbi Friedman added that “it is clear to everyone that we have many difficult months ahead.” While this year’s Jewish responses to Israel’s grave needs have been “glorious” and “magnificent,” he said, and Jewish generosity resulted in outstanding “humanitarian achievements,” Israel now faces further Arab intransigence, backed by the re-supply of Soviet armaments, territorial problems, the issue of integrating the Arab populations in the conquered areas, domestic unemployment and “old social problems that the war did not solve or cause to disappear.” “It is clear,” he declared, that the forthcoming UJA campaign “will require tremendous output of devotion and energy to produce a result that will give Israel the strength to hold out until the solutions begin to emerge.”
FEDERATION LEADER SEES PAST YEAR AS PRODUCTIVE, GRATIFYING
On behalf of the Council of Jewish Federation and Welfare Funds, its president, Louis J. Fox, of Baltimore, noted that the past year “has been a productive year, a gratifying year” when the American Jewish people “poured great energy into meeting great needs. The crisis and war in Israel,” he stated, “attracted the greatest philanthropic response in Jewish history.” But our task at this particular Rosh Hashana is more solemn than to simply review recent accomplishments with self-satisfaction. We must look forward to assure that the objects of our help continue to be supported and sustained. This year, for the first time in 19 years, the Shofar will be blown at the Western Wall. For the first time in 1,900 years, the Jews control the site of Solomon’s Temple. We can feel some small part of helping to make these dreams a modern reality. But, more important, in facing the future, we must hope and pray that there will be a lasting peace in the Middle East and all the world. We must seek a way to help man to live with his neighbor and his brother in understanding.”
Dr. Dewey D. Stone, chairman of the United Israel Appeal, noted that, this year, High Holy Day services were being conducted “at the spot most sacred to our tradition, the Western Wall in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem.” “No other event,” he said, “could highlight so poignantly the historical continuity of the Jewish people. In this continuity of Jewish identity and mutual responsibility, the United Israel Appeal has been privileged to play a significant role. As the arm of American Jewry and the principal beneficiary of the United Jewish Appeal, it has been instrumental in the rescue and ingathering of over 1,000,000 Jews from the four corners of the earth. As we approach these High Holy Days, we pledge to continue this vital philanthropic program. We join our brothers in Israel and throughout the world in their prayers for the welfare, safety and peace for all mankind.”
Mrs. Rose L. Halprin, chairman of the Jewish Agency-American Section, also stressed prayer for peace in her New Year greeting. “The peace we yearn for,” she declared, “can be accomplished only by direct contacts and negotiation; no peace can be imposed on the Middle East. We also wish for peace in other troubled areas. In our beloved America, we must work and strive for a racial peace built on mutual respect and understanding. We trust that the New Year will see the end of hostilities in Vietnam. We are hopeful that the leaders of the Soviet Union will see the justice and wisdom of granting cultural, religious and educational equality to its Jewish minority.”
STRENGTHENING ISRAEL’S FOUNDATIONS URGED AS KEY TO PEACE
“Strengthening the foundations of Israel’s future” was urged by Abraham Feinberg, president of the State of Israel Bond Organization, Noting that Israel’s entire economy had come to a halt during the year’s Arab-Israel war and crisis, he stated: “It is of vital importance that the heartening and overwhelming response of American Jewry through Israel Bonds in recent months should go forward with the same spirit of unity and dedication in years ahead. Israel has written an historic chapter for peace. We can write the sequel in an historic chapter for economic development through the success of the new $500 million fourth Development Issue of State of Israel Bonds.”
HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE JUSTICE, GOALS TO BE ACHIEVED
Morris B. Abram, president of the American Jewish Committee, pledged on behalf of the Committee, “in its seventh decade of service to Jews and to all mankind, a continuation and reaffirmation of the goals for which we have striven since our inception: The preservation of our American democracy, the protection of the civil and religious rights of Jews everywhere, the improvement of human relations among all people, the safeguarding of the right of every man to be secure in his homeland, and the establishment of peace and justice everywhere.” Noting that the Jews of Israel this year “had been put to the test of fire and sword,” he declared: “We pray for peace and stability in the Middle East and throughout the world. We are hopeful that all of the states and all of the peoples in that area will now recognize that only through direct settlement of their differences and the forging of permanent peace settlements can security and progress for all be assured.”
Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld of Cleveland, president of the American Jewish Congress, declared that, “in our joy over the fact that those who would destroy Israel have been dispersed and the peril to her existence removed, we cannot diminish our efforts in behalf of our fellow-Jews seeking to practice their faith and express their culture in the Soviet Union. Nor can we reduce our participation in the struggle for racial and economic justice in America.”
Samuel Bronfman, vice-president of the World Jewish Congress and chairman of the WJC’s North American executive committee, called on Jews “to strengthen Jewish life and defend Jewish rights everywhere, regardless of economic, social or political system. We must make intolerance, reason and justice our allies, and always we must be mindful that, in the ultimate analysis, the fight for Jewish rights is indissolubly linked to the fight for fundamental human rights, for the dignity and worth of the human person, for the rights of all nations and peoples, large and small.”
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the World Union of General Zionists, said that “the new challenges and staggering burdens that Israel has assumed cannot and must not be borne by its citizens alone but call for redoubled effort by all Zionists and all friends of Israel throughout the world.” Dr. Israel Goldstein and Mrs. Halprin, co-chairmen of the World Confederation of General Zionists, voiced their “fervent prayer that the uneasy calm achieved in the Middle East may be turned into lasting and permanent peace. In this solemn hour, Jews throughout the world are united and resolute on behalf of security for Israel and the continuation of Jewish survival in the Diaspora.”
Other New Year messages expressing, among other sentiments, continued staunch support for Israel, were issued by Rabbi Israel Miller, chairman of the American Zionist Council; Jacques Torczyner, president of the Zionist Organization of America; Mrs. Mortimer Jacobson, president of Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organization of America; Joseph Schlossberg, president of the National Committee for Israel; Dr. Milton Aron, executive vice-president of the Jewish National Fund of America; and other Zionist leaders.
Rabbi Jacob Philip Rudin, president of the Synagogue Council of America, expressed the hope that in the New Year, “the Jewishness of the community will be deepened and reenforced; a New Year for America, a year in which the sense of community will burgeon forth.”
Other New Year messages were issued by Carlos L. Israels, president of United Hias Service; Dr. William Haber, president of the American ORT Federation; Louis Stern, president of the National Jewish Welfare Board; and the heads of virtually all other national Jewish organizations in the United States.
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