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Israel Gratified by U.S. Jewry’s Response

October 18, 1973
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Gratification that the United Jewish Appeal has accepted a $750 million quota for its 1974 campaign was expressed by Leon Dulzin, Acting Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, while here on a brief visit in the interests of fund raising for Israel.

“The UJA and the communities of the United States, through the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds,” Dulzin said, “unanimously accepted an unprecedented quota to meet Israel’s immediate and pressing needs. The response to the appeals made by Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, General Hayim Laskov and myself was overwhelming. It demonstrated the solidarity of the American Jewish public to Israel and its sense of great responsibility and urgency in this moment of Israel’s dire need and peril. I am confident that American Jewry will meet its commitments fully.”

The American quota for Israel’s emergency needs, Dulzin explained, is part of a $1.2 billion goal set for the world, the additional $450 million to be raised through the Keren Hayesod campaigns outside of the United States. In addition to the $750 million goal in the U.S. for Israel needs the community leadership agreed to seek $150 million for urgent Jewish needs in both the U.S. and elsewhere for a total campaign goal in the U.S. of $950 million. Dulzin also said that Israelis, in addition to their high taxation, have accepted a compulsory loan of $250 million.

While expressing optimism about the ultimate victory of Israel. Dulzin painted a portrait of great emergency. He said that the first week of the war cost the Israel government more than 2 billion dollars, and that every hour of shooting costs the country about $10 million.

RUSSIAN OLIM STILL ARRIVING

“The cash being collected now,” Dulzin continued, “and the $750 million to be raised by the UJA, plus the additional $450 million to be raised elsewhere throughout the world, will make it possible for the Jewish Agency this year to take over most of the services in Israel in the fields of health, welfare and education, as well as continue its program of immigration and absorption, which, of course, is highlighted by the housing needs of the new immigrants.”

Dulzin reported with great pride that 164 Russian olim arrived in Israel on Sunday, bringing “the total for two weeks since October 1st to two thousand. The Russian olim are continuing to come, and be received, even in the emergency stress of war. The total for the first half of October is at a rate higher than any previous month this year.”

Dulzin, Sapir, and General Laskov, a former Israeli Chief of Staff, visited Miami on Monday in behalf of the campaign effort, were in Los Angeles yesterday and in Chicago today. They will go to Toronto and Montreal before returning via London, Paris and Geneva, to Israel.

CORRECTION

Wednesday’s News Bulletin inadvertently reported that Premier Golda Meir told the Knesset that development would be cut by IL 250,000. The correct figure should have been one-quarter billion Israeli Pounds.

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