“Don’t take anything for granted in Israel. Always remember that we live in a miracle.” This advice was offered by President Yitzhak Navon to 600 Israel Bond Organization leaders from the United States, Canada and Western Europe who are attending the 30th anniversary conference of the organization. He noted that although the history of the Jewish people is measured in thousands of years, a short period of time can be decisive. If Israel had been established 10 years earlier, hundreds of thousands or millions of Jews could have been saved, Navon said.
The President was introduced to the conference by Sam Rothberg, general chairman of the Bond Organization, and long time Bond leader Julian Venetzky. Hal Linden, the star of ABC-TV’s “Barney Miller,” who was a delegate to the conference, was presented with the Israel Bond Freedom Award.
The delegates visited the port of Ashdod last Friday where three veteran Israel Bond leaders unveiled a commemorative plaque marking the role of the Bond Organization 20 years ago in the construction of the port. “Nothing, absolutely nothing was here when we saw the first stone being lowered into the water to start the building of this port 20 years ago,” said Alice Peerce, national chairman of Israel Bond’s Board of Governors, who attended the inaugural in 1961. Ashdod is now the largest port city in Israel with a population of 70,000.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
