Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, Zionist leader and chairman of the board of governors of the Israel Bond Organization, declared tonight that Israel “has linked its political destiny with that of the free peoples of the earth” and that the Jewish State, now marking its 13th year, “intends to be a peaceful society, seeking peace and pursuing it.”
Dr. Silver’s address was delivered before more than 500 communal and religious leaders at the Statler-Hilton Hotel, who joined to pay tribute to him at an Israel Bond reception. More than $500,000 in Israel bonds was purchased in his honor at the event, which was addressed by Mayor Robert F. Wagner and Binyamin Eliav, Israel’s Consul-General in New York.
Mayor Wagner, in hailing Dr. Silver’s services to the cause of Israel, praised New Yorkers for supporting the Israel bond drive. Mr. Eliav, representing the Israel Government at the tribute, reported that unemployment had been virtually wiped out in Israel and that “the national income is filtering down more and more to the strata of new immigrants who, for years, suffered from chronic unemployment.” This progress, he declared, has been achieved, thanks to Israel bond capital, “through the industrialization of the new urban centers in the outlying parts of the country.”
Dr. Silver was presented with the first annual Israel Bond Fraternal Award, a silver and ebony plaque with a carved Lion of Judah on it, surrounded by a set of coins of modern-Israel. The award was presented to Dr. Silver “who by his friendship and love for the people and the State of Israel and by his long and distinguished record of leadership in that nation’s historic struggle to achieve economic security and independence, has won the hearts of all who serve the cause of Zion reborn.”
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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.
