B’nai Zion Convention Asks U.S. for Continued Aid to Israel

Resolutions calling for "free and untrammeled" passage of ships through the Suez Canal, pledging continuing support for the United Jewish Appeal, the Israel bond campaign, and other "worthy causes," and calling upon the United States Congress to grant continued aid and technical assistance "to the peoples of the Middle East, including Israel," were adopted here today at the closing session of the "Golden Jubilee" convention of the B’nai Zion, American Zionist fraternal organization. Another resolution urged the extension of civil rights legislation throughout the United States.

The delegates elected Hyman J. Fliegel, New York attorney, and long active in Zionist and religious affairs, as their president. Mr. Fliegel was a founder of the American Red Mogen David for Palestine, is on the executive council of the Zionist Organization of America, and a member of the administrative committee of the American Jewish Congress. A former president of Congregation Shaars Torah, in Brooklyn, Mr. Fliegel is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and is chairman of the Brooklyn division of the United Synagogue of America.

Nathaniel S. Rothemberg, retiring president of the B’nai Zion, told the delegates in his address that American Zionists have never believed that American Jewish immigration to Israel was a basic ingredient of Zionist philosophy. "The desire on the part of some Israeli leaders for immigration from the West is understandable, "he said, "but we cannot agree that it is in the best interests of American Zionism or Israel."