More than 2,000 Jewish leaders of the United States and Canada arrived here today to participate in the 1964 Inaugural Conference for Israel Bonds which opens here tomorrow at the Fontainbleau Hotel. The conference will last three days.
The highlight of the Conference will be the special tribute Saturday evening to the guest of honor, Baron Edmond de Rothschild of France, who is president of the Israel Bond drive in Europe and who came to the United States to participate in the planning of the 1964 campaign. Baron de Rothschild is the grandson and name sake of the revered “great benefactor” and “father of the Yishub,” the late Baron Edmond de Rothschild who financed the settlement of the early pioneers in Palestine in the 1880’s.
Joining in the tribute to Baron de Rothschild’s devoted efforts in behalf of Israel’s economic development will be Pinhas Sapir, Israel’s Finance Minister. Den. Abraham A. Ribicoff of Connecticut will be a principal speaker on the occasion of the dinner tribute to Baron de Rothschild. In the course of the three-day sessions the major items on the agenda of the Conference will deal with the following:
1. Inauguration of the 1964 campaign to sell $85,000,000 in Israel Bonds to spur Israel’s economic growth, with special emphasis on the development of the Negev and unoccupied areas of the Central Galilee.
2. Launching the new $400,000,000 Third Development Issue of Israel Bonds, whose sale will begin on March 1.
3. Celebration of the Bar Mitzvah of the Israel bond drive, which has provided more than $660,000,000 in development capital for Israel since its inception in 1951.
Consideration will be given at the conference to the decisive role of the new irrigation pipeline from Lake Tiberias in making possible the settlement of the Negev and other areas. The National Water Carrier, being built with Israel bond aid, is expected to begin operation this year. (In Washington, the national executive committee of B’nai B’rith today heard a report from Morris Alexander, chairman of the organization’s Commission on Israel, stating that B’nai B’rith sold $5,400,000 of Israel bonds in 1963.)
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