Harry Hurwitz, Israel’s Minister of Information in Washington, today voiced Israel’s optimism and confidence in the upcoming Reagan Administration.
Speaking at the midwinter conference of Bnai Zion at the America-Israel Friendship House here, Hurwitz said that President-elect Ronald Reagan’s statements during the election campaign and since his election, particularly his belief that Israel’s West Bank settlements are legal, gives Israel “much confidence.” he said Reagan’s “rejection of a PLO state are encouraging.”
Hurwitz also had praise for the departing Carter Administration. “Israel will be forever grateful to President Carter” for the “success of the Camp David accords,” he said.
Later during the one-day conference, Rabbi I. Usher Kirshblum, spiritual leader of the Jewish Center of Kew Gardens-Hills in Queens and chairman of the conference, declared that the Begin government “has served the Israeli nation well through the peace accords.” He said it also “rightfully declared the legal status of Jerusalem” despite the nations which moved their embassies out of the city “under duress of the Arab lands blackmail” that they would cut off oil “if they remained in Jerusalem.”
JTA, JEWISH WEEK HONORED
At a testimonial luncheon, Bnai Zion presented plaques to Murray Zuckoff, editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and to the Jewish Week for their contributions to the Jewish community. The presentations were made by Paul Safro, Bnai Zion president.
The plaque to Zuckoff cited him for “extraordinary public service” under whose direction the JTA “serves as a first hand source of information on all major events affecting the welfare of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.” It also stated that Zuckoff’s “own courageous stand in his articles on crucial problems confronting the American Jewish community constitutes an invaluable contribution to the climate of public understanding and alertness which is so vital for Jewish survival.”
The plaque to the Jewish Week, which was accepted on its behalf by Deborah Hart, a staff member, cited the newspaper for “exceptional public service” and its role “as a valuable weekly publication” for the “dissemination of vital and newsworthy information setting the highest standards in journalism affecting the welfare of the American Jewish community, world Jewry and the State of Israel.”
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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.
