The American people have a stake in the success of Israel both morally and because of the fact that Israel is spreading the concept of democracy in the Middle East, Vice-President Alben W. Barkley said last night at the annual dinner of the Mizrachi Organization of America at the Astor Hotel.
“We people of America and the people of Israel have inherited and live in a common tradition — the tradition of the essential dignity of man. We are working toward a common goal — the goal of independence and democracy, “the Vice President stated. “So, it is natural and right that the people of this nation should encourage and aid the democracy of Israel. We cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of fostering and building up the democratic ideals in that part of the world as an example to all other people. It would be unthinkable that the State of Israel should be permitted to lag or fail to perform its mission, either because of economic weakness within or because of opposition from without.”
At the dinner former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., general chairman of the Israel Independence bond campaign, presented citations to Abraham Mazer, Morris Morgenstern and Philip Stollman for “contributions to Israel and religious Zionism.” Mr. Morgenthau said the $500,000,000 State of Israel bond issue was meeting with a ready response from Mizrachi and other major American Jewish organizations.
At a session earlier in the day of the extraordinary Mid-Year conference which preceded the dinner, delegates formally endorsed the projected Mizrachi Gollede of Arts and Sciences in Israel and urged American religious Jews to give full support to the project. The college will be built on a 30-acre site provided by the Jewish National Fund at Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, and its program is now being prepared by a national committee of American educators, organized under auspices of the American Jewish Conference of Academicians for Israel.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
