Israel to Rely More on Bonds During Next Five Years, Dr. Schwartz Says

“Israel will have to place greater reliance on its bond drive in the next five years as a source of investment capital for basic development projects concerned with the settlement and integration of newcomers, and with the expansion of trade with the countries of the Far East and other parts of the world,” Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, vice president of the Israel Bond Organization, declared here today following his return from Jerusalem.

Dr. Schwartz, who conferred in Israel with Prime Minister Ben Gurion and Finance Minister Eshkol on the bond campaign in the United States, reported that the Israel leaders expressed satisfaction with the progress of the Israel bond drive, which has sold more than $335,000,000 in cash since May, 1951. “We can take great pride in the share which Israel bonds have had in the country’s remarkable tempo of industrial and agricultural growth. But Israel must continue to concentrate on economic development as the central ingredient of undiminished progress in her second decade of independence,” Dr. Schwartz stated.

A city-wide campaign to raise $500,000 in Israel bond investment funds this year opened today in New York at a tenth anniversary salute to Israel sponsored by Farband-Labor Zionist Order of America in the Assembly Hall of Hunter College. The celebration, attended by 2,200 persons, resulted in the sale of $150,000 in Israel bonds and brought to $6,000,000 the amount of Israel bond capital provided by the 30,000-member Labor Zionist group since the inception of the Israel bond drive in 1951. Speakers included Mordecai Kidron, member of the Israel delegation to the United Nations; Meyer L Brown, president of Farband, and Louis Segal, its general secretary.