Baron Edmond De Rothschild Hailed for Leadership in Israel Bonds

Baron Edmond de Rothschild of France, chairman of the Israel Bond campaign in Europe since 1957, was honored by more than 300 Jewish leaders tonight at the New York Hilton at a dinner sponsored by the international Board of Trustees of the Israel Bond Organization. Samuel Rothberg, national campaign chairman of the Israel Bond drive, presented to Baron de Rothschild a silver Torah breastplate of the symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel in tribute to his leadership as chairman of the Israel Bond campaign in Europe. The citation hailed the Baron’s contributions he has made to the development of Israel “with the generosity and devotion which have been the hall-mark of his illustrious family’s generations of service to the Jewish people.” Jack D. Weiler, secretary-treasurer of the Israel Bond Organization, served as chairman of the dinner, and the invocation was delivered by Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the American Zionist Federation and vice president of Yeshiva University. The Rothschild dinner inaugurated a campaign for the sale of $17 million in Israel Bonds in November and December towards New York’s goal of $50 million for 1970.

Proceeds from the sale of Israel Bonds help finance the expansion of industry and agriculture, the exploitation of natural resources and the increase of the country’s export trade. Since the inception of the Israel Bond drive in 1951 a total of more than $1.5 billion has been channeled into every phase of Israel’s economic development. Baron de Rothschild has been a major investor in many aspects of Israel’s economy. In recent years he has launched large-scale projects in land development, the chemical industry and tourism and has pioneered in a wide variety of new investment programs in Israel. The grandfather and namesake of the present Baron de Rothschild was a prime mover almost a century ago in the development of Jewish settlement in Palestine. Long before the creation of the political Zionist movement by Theodor Herzl in 1897, the first Baron Edmond financed the building of Jewish agricultural communities in Palestine and laid the foundation of its economic growth through the establishment of the famed wine cellars of Rishon le Zion and other industrial enterprises. To this day the people of Israel revere the memory of the elder Baron Edmond who is known throughout the country as “Father of the Yishuv” (the Jewish community in Israel).