Unless Project Renewal is quickly expedited, human expectations will explode,” Nessim D. Gaon, president of the World Sephardi Federation (WSF), advised Premier Menachem Begin today. “We counsel patience, but there is just so much suffering people can endure.” Begin responded that how “we expedite efforts like Project Renewal is what confronts as now. But my efforts will not be in Vain, and will not take a generation.”
Begin said that since assuming his office his priorities have been peace instead of war, and a war on “poverty” do complete the task of immigrant absorption.
Gaon said, “We don’t suggest there are injustices, but declare that unless human problems are rectified, there could be a social explosion.” He added: “I speak out of love for Israel but see and feel and know that Sephardim are denied opportunities and representation at too many levels of Israeli society.”
Liliane Winn, president of the American Sephardi Federation, and Stephen Shalom, a WSF vice president and a United Jewish Appeal national leader, accompanied Goon to see Begin. Project Renewal seeks to rehabilitate 160 poverty neighborhoods in Israel comprising some 350,000 persons.
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