Initial contributions of $2.4 million in a $20 million development campaign for Bar-IIan University, an American-chartered institution in Israel, were announced here tonight by the University’s chancellor. Dr. Joseph H. Lookstein, at a 13th anniversary dinner,
Major objectives of the campaign are the establishment of a law school, a school of business administration, an Institute for Higher Jewish Studies, and the construction of a science center, according to Dr. Lookstein, spiritual leader of New York’s Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun. About a third of Bar-Ilan’s 3,800 students are studying careers in science. The university has been encouraging Arabs to enroll, with 12 Arabs now in attendance. Eight extension courses are now available providing adult education and credit courses.
Part of the new funds. Dr. Lookstein said, will support special activities related to the June war. One of these is the expansion of the university’s units in border cities and settlements for Israeli military personnel serving with occupational forces in nearby Arab areas, in another war-related activity, he reported, the university has given scholarships to 100 young men and women from various parts of the world who came to assist Israel in the conflict and stayed on. To prepare these students for their regular courses, which are taught in Hebrew, the university first provided "ulpan" courses, a concentrated six-week program in Hebrew developed by the army.
A series of plans for exchange visits of Jewish religious personnel between the United States and France was disclosed in a Joint announcement issued at the conclusion here this weekend of the visit of the Baron Alain De Rothschild, president of the Consistoire Central of France. Baron De Rothschild made the week-long visit at the invitation of Rabbi Joseph Karasick, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. The plans will include visits of American rabbis, youth leaders and social workers to France, where they will seek to establish community and youth organizations along the lines of the American communal efforts. At the same time, there will be instituted a program of graduate study and apprentice training for French rabbis in the United States. Grand Rabbi Schilli, the director of the French Ecole Rabbinique, is scheduled to visit the United States to develop the detailed plans, the announcement declared.
The Jewish leaders pointed out in their joint statement that the Jewish communities of the United States and France are now the largest in the free world outside of Israel.
The current state of Jewish religious life in France," they said, requires that it draw upon the experience and resources of the American Jewish world. The Orthodox Union, with the full cooperation of the president of the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbi Pesach Z. Levovitz, will undertake a program of arranging visits of American-trained rabbinical personnel, youth leaders and social workers to France. There, working with the French community and particularly its young people, in the larger centers and in smaller provincial areas, they may share their Torah learning and administrative expertise. Such experiences will serve to encourage these same leaders in their work in their home communities. These efforts will add a new dimension to the work of the Orthodox Union and its overseas commission. The measure of the Orthodox Union’s success in its efforts in Francewill serve as the pilot project for its fulfillment of its overseas responsibilities in other parts of the world as well.
"We have also set in motion plans to give French rabbinical students graduate training and apprentice experience in the United States. Here, we hope that they will gain some measure of understanding of the American Jewish experience in forging a synthesis of religious tradition and secular culture which has proven so vital in the renaissance of Jewish life over the past several decades. Perhaps these Joint and reciprocal efforts may lead to American assistance in the further expansion of French Jewish educational institutions."
President Johnson today sent a telegram to Dr. Joachim Prinz, chairman of the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations, reaffirming this country’s stand against genocide. "We fervently hope that, as we build a structure of peace in the world, we can also build a lasting peace between all peoples, and that the world never again will be witness to the horror of 25 years ago," President Johnson wrote.
The telegram marked the 25th anniversary of a Tri-Partite Declaration issued by the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain, deploring the persecution of the Jews In Nazi Germany and condemning those guilty of perpetrating it, "I can assure you that this Administration feels no less strongly about the crime of genocide than did President Roosevelt when the declaration was issued in 1942," President Johnson stated.
(A Convention Against Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, but has not yet been ratified by the United States Senate, In London today, the Earl of Avon, formerly Sir Anthony Eden and ex-Prime Minister, sent a telegram noting the 1942 declaration to A. L, Eastman, of the World Jewish Congress office. The British statesman’s wire declared that the 1942 action is not without its message even today,")
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