Raymond Patt, president of the American Zionist Federation, has called upon Jewish communities across the nation to reserve the Sabbath of November 19 to participate in a national Zionist Shabbat to enhance American Jews’ knowledge of Zionism and Israel.
Patt stressed that for this year’s AZF observance, “It is especially necessary for all congregations and organizations to participate, to help counter negative propaganda reaching the Jewish community.” He said, “To sustain broad-based support for Jewish nationhood, the case for Jewish national existence must be re-explained from the ground up. We are looking for a mass re-education of the Jewish public here.”
November is historically associated with Zionism as the month in which the Balfour Declaration was signed (November 2, 1917) and the month in which the United Nations approved a partition of Palestine (November 29, 1947). More recently November has gained notoriety in the United Nations as a time for launching scurrilous anti-Israel resolutions prompted by the month’s significance to the Zionist movement.
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.
