With 150 delegates from 40 countries present, the first world conference of the Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal since the establishment of Israel, was opened here last night with greetings by President Izhak Ben-Zvi, Minister of Labor Giora Josephthal and Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization.
Dr. Goldmann told the conference that, if fund-raising drives abroad were to be halted, a vacuum would be created in Jewish life in countries outside Israel. These drives, he declared, “create an emotional link between Israel and the Diaspora.”
Israel, said Dr. Goldmann, will need funds from abroad “for many years into the future.” Should Israel try to become self-supporting now, he maintained, “Israelis would degenerate into barefooted fellaheen, of which the world has plenty.” Israel, he said, “can do its duty of contributing to world civilization only if the country maintains a high standard of culture. If Israel’s glory is reflected on world Jewry, and if Jews abroad were to bask in this glory, they must pay for it.”
Eliahu Dobkin, head of the Keren Hayesod, reported that, in the 28 years preceding Israel’s rebirth, Keren Hayesod raised 27,000,000 pounds sterling. In the 13 years since Israel’s independence was proclaimed, he said, the fund has raised 751,000,000 Israeli pounds.
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