The 47th national convention of Hadassah opened here today to formulate a program of the organization’s activities in this country and in Israel for the next year. A message from President Kennedy was read at the opening session to the 1,500 delegates attending the four-day gathering by U.S. Secretary of Labor Arthur J. Goldberg who was one of the principal speakers at the session.
In his message, addressed to Mrs. Siegfried Kramarsky, national president of Hadassah, President Kennedy said: “The common language among all those who speak for freedom is that of compassion which knows no country, no race and no creed. It resides in the human spirit. It is the most easily understood but the most difficult to attain.
“Hadassah has a history of such compassion especially in Palestine and in the democratic State of Israel, ” the message continued. “For almost fifty years it has eased the pains of the distraught, sheltered the homeless and guided the weak. This is the only true posture for a free society and for the citizens of that society. Your efforts in behalf of assistance for underdeveloped nations for medical aid, for elimination of illiteracy and for vocational education in emerging societies have helped show the way to freedom. In these critical days you play a large part in our battle for men’s minds. I congratulate you upon both your goals and your achievements.”
Mrs. Mortimer Jacobson, Hadassah’s national treasurer, reported-that during the 1960-61 fiscal year Hadassah chapters and groups raised $10, 936, 209–more money than was ever raised in any previous year of Hadassah’s 49-year history. Of this, $8, 691, 322 was used to advance Hadassah’s medical youth rehabilitation and vocational education programs in Israel.
Secretary Goldberg said in his address that he hopes that “in conference and by final action, the Congress will give substantial approval to the foreign aid bill preserving in amount and in principle what the President has rightfully proposed. ” He stressed that “we can no longer exist as an island of affluence and contentment in a world seething with want and change. We can no longer walk the proud path of indifference turning our faces away from those who already resent us too much because of the past.”
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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.
