Israel Seeks to Broaden Friendship with U.s., Sharett Announces

Israel is interested in maintaining friendly relations with the United States and is striving to broaden the friendship between the two countries, Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett declared here last night at a public meeting arranged by the Mapai, Israel’s Labor Party.

The tie between Israel and the United States are the 5,000,000 American Jews who are free to organize and maintain relations with Jews in other countries, Mr. Sharett said. “We call upon all nations to allow their Jews the freedom to maintain contact with Israel,” he stated.

Referring to Jews who live in countries where Jewish activity is not allowed, the Israel Foreign Minister said that from a Jewish point of view these Jews are “strangled, ” while in the U.S. Jews are free to support Israel as well as to provide funds for their own community needs. He stressed the importance for Jews outside of Israel to maintain a link with Israel, emphasizing the fact that this saved Jews from annihilation and assimilation.

Speaking of immigration of Jews from free democratic countries to Israel, Mr. Sharett said that such immigration was essential for both Israel and the Jews living in countries outside of the Jewish state.” It will strengthen the link between the two,” he pointed out.

(The New York Times reports in a cable from Tel Aviv that Mr. Sharett said at the meeting that immigration of Jews from the United States was “the first and foremost problem of Israel.” The report stated that Israel’s Foreign Minister emphasized that American Jews would come to Israel not “to escape but because they wanted to participate in the building of this nation.”)

Mr. Sharett concluded his address hailing democracy which, he said, is “most vital” for the Jewish people. Without democracy, the Jewish people will assimilate, he declared, apparently referring to the situation of Jews in the countries behind the Iron Curtain, where Jewish life is gradually disappearing.