The four-day annual convention of the National Committee for Labor Israel closed today with the adoption of a $5,000,000 goal for the 1961 Israel Histadrut campaign. The budget approved by the convention included a nine-point program covering health care, economic rehabilitation, social welfare, vocational training, absorption of immigrants, education and culture, service to religious workers, housing in a Histadrut slum clearance project and youth and physical training.
The convention celebrated the 40th anniversary of Histadrut and called upon American Jewry to become “more fully acquainted with the aims and ideals of Histadrut, so that they may better appreciate labor’s role in the establishment and maintenance of the Israeli democracy.”
The convention expressed gratitude to the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations “for maintaining close fraternal bonds with the Israel labor movement, a relationship that is fruitful not only for the labor movements of both countries but for all humanity.” The 2,000 delegates noted particularly the support given by George Meany, AFL-CIO president and his associates for the newly formed Afro-Asian Institute for Labor Studies in Tel Aviv.
The convention officially approved the launching of the American Histadrut Development Foundation, which will mobilize millions of dollars in the form of wills and bequests, insurance policies and other long-term commitments. At a luncheon of the founders of the Development Foundation held during the convention, $600,000 in commitments were reported and indications of an additional $600,000 were made by delegates.
At the roll call of delegations at the concluding session of the convention, nearly $1,000,000 was presented by communities in the United States and Canada toward the normal income of the Histadrut campaign. Joseph Schlossberg was reelected president of the NCLI; Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein of Chicago, national chairman; Dr. Herman Seidel of Baltimore and Bernard Bloomfield of Montreal, co-chairmen; Charles S. Zimmerman, chairman of the board of directors; Moe Falikman, treasurer; Joseph Kaplow, associate treasurer; Dr. Sol Stein, executive director; Israel Stolarsky, associate director.
SHARETT SAYS ISRAEL EAGER TO AID ARABS WITH MODERN TECHNIQUES
Moshe Sharett, former Prime Minister of Israel, addressing the convention, emphasized Israel’s desire to aid the Arabs with its modern techniques as it was doing in the case of the new African and Asian countries. He paid tribute to Histadrut for its role in building up Israel and declared that the same techniques were already bearing fruit in the Afro-Asian world.
“Histadrut radiates its influence far beyond Israel’s borders,” he said. “The leaders of social and economic reconstruction in the emergent states find its organization and accomplishments a model and a stimulant.” He pointed out that leaders from 18 new nations were attending the Afro-Asian Institute in Tel Aviv, jointly sponsored by Histadrut and the AFL-CIO. “They are learning the techniques of communal administration, soil care, crop development and hone industry,” Mr. Sharett said.
Israel Consul General Binyamin Eliav told the delegates that Israel owed her present existence to the physical labors of its early 20th Century pioneers who for lack of funds and hired hands were forced to till the soil of Palestine by themselves. “Out of the ranks of these early worker idealists,” said Eliav, “came forth such leaders as Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Israel President Izhak Ben Zvi.”
Mr. Eliav traced the dynamic growth of Israel following its 1948 War of Independence to the fact that the country had adhered closely to a policy of equality for all of its citizens old and new and had resisted the temptation to establish a privileged class.
Other principal speakers included Ambassador Michael S. Comay, Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations; Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein, national chairman of the National Committee for Labor Israel; and Baruch Zuckerman, former president of the Labor Zionist Organization of America.
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