Dr. Abba Hillel Silver struck out sharply today at Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev for his remarks that Jews were not inclined to work in industries where they had to work collectively or cooperatively.
Addressing a meeting of 2,000 persons at ZOA House here, including 500 delegates from the Zionist Organization of America, Rabbi Silver suggested that if the Russian Jews had proved so unassimilable, they be allowed to leave for Israel. He predicted that Mr. Khrushchev would be “shocked to discover the number of Jews who would welcome the opportunity to leave a Marxist paradise and choose the hard, rugged pioneering life in the Israel democracy.”
Dr. Silver called on the Jews outside Israel to rally to the continued support of the Jewish State. “Without an organized, mobilized world Jewry, Israel would never have been established,” he said, “and without it Israel cannot be sustained.”
The Zionist leader urged the United States to turn its face on the policy of sending jet planes and tanks to “friendly Arab states” in an attempt to compete with Soviet blandishments, and to offer Israel solid security guarantees as the strongest measure in behalf of peace in the Middle East. He warned that there were forces in the U.S., as well as in the USSR, which were prepared to sacrifice Israel to win favor with the Arabs.
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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.
