A decision to provide $75, 000, 000 this year for further economic development of Israel through the sale of Israel bonds was adopted here today at the close of a two-day national planning conference of the board of governors of the Israel Bond Organization.
The action on the 1963 quota was taken by more than 300 Jewish leaders after Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, vice-president of Israel Bond Organization, reported that Israel would require a total of $186, 833, 000 for its Development Budget during the year From April 1, 1963 to March 31, 1964. In the past Israel bonds have provided for approximately one-third of the country’s development needs.
He pointed out that Israel bonds, which provided a total of $591, 622, 850 for development since 1951, had been “the mainspring and principal outside source of funds for Israel’s impressive economic growth.”
Dr. Schwartz emphasized that the redemption of the first Israel bonds issued twelve years ago would begin on May 1st and that during the ensuing months of 1963 the Israel Treasury would pay out in principal and interest the sum of $24, 500, 000 to American holders of Israel bonds that nature this year. Israel bondholders will receive $150 for every $100 they invested in 1951.
“1963 as the first year of redemption testifies to the economic coming-of-age of the State of Israel and to the fact that aid to Israel is not a one-way street but a two-way highway of give and take, faith and performance between American Jewry and the people of Israel,” Dr. Schwartz said.
RECORD TOTAL OF $58, 125, 650 IN ISRAEL BONDS SOLD IN 1962
Abraham Feinberg, president of the Israel Bond Organization, reported at the conference that a total of $58, 125, 650 was realized from the sale of Israel Bonds in 1962. He pointed out that this was the largest amount ever sold in any single year of the existence of the Israel bond drive. Of this sum, $46, 428, 500 came from sales in the United States; $3, 859, 100 from Canada; $4, 319, 550 from Latin America and $3, 518, 500 from Western Europe. In 1961 the total sales of Israel bonds amounted to $57, 214, 300.
Israel Ambassador Avraham Harman, addressing the conference, underscored the continuing need for economic development in Israel as a basis for the prompt and effective absorption, of new immigrants and for the realization of Israel’s full potential as a free and creative nation. In this connection he stressed the significance of Israel bonds as a productive partnership between the people of Israel and the people of other lands.
Samuel Rothberg, national campaign chairman who presided at the closing session, said: “We must never forget that the money that has come into Israel through Israel bonds has been the backbone of economic revival, in trade, in housing, in the exploitation of natural resources, in the development of industry and agriculture, in the absorption of the great numbers of immigrants who are continuing to enter. Israel could not possibly have come out of its economic swaddling clothes without the very substantial aid that Israel bonds have provided.”
Leon H. Keyserling, the noted American economist, told the Conference that “the overall economic growth rate of the State of Israel in real terms has averaged probably the highest of any country in the world.” He asserted that the Israel economy is being built on sound foundations and termed its growth “doubly significant because it has emerged, not under the lash of dictatorship, but under conditions of political, economic and human freedom.”
Characterizing the forthcoming redemption of Israel bonds as “still another landmark in the coming of age of the Israel economy,” he pointed out that the growing purchase of Israel bonds in this country “reflects the native sympathy in the United States for the problems and purposes of Israel and their relevance to the worldwide struggle between freedom and authoritarianism.”
DR. SILVER HONORED AT THE CONFERENCE ON HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY
On the occasion of his 70th birthday, tribute was paid to Dr. Silver for his distinguished leadership in behalf of Israel. A birthday gift consisting of the first 15 volumes of the Hebrew encyclopedia being published in Israel was presented by Dr. Schwartz who hailed Dr. Silver’s place of eminence in the American rabbinate and in the movement for the establishment of the State of Israel. Dr. Silver will also receive the rest of the volumes of this work as they come off the press.
“The central thread of Dr. Silver’s life,” Dr. Schwartz stressed, “the driving purpose of his existence has been the militant espousal of the cause of a Jewish State, which he has served with vision, indomitable will and courage, and a great and incomparable gift of oratory.
“If American Jewry has achieved a high degree of maturity, if it has learned to assume its full share of responsibility for the well-being of the State of Israel, if it has carried the burden of rescuing the surviving remnants of European Jewry, if it stands now as the central force, together with the people of Israel, in determining the future of the Jewish people, much of that achievement can be credited to the life and work of Dr. Silver who now enters the septuagenarian ranks,” Dr. Schwartz said.
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