Israeli youth was chided here today by one of Israel’s most popular war heroes, Brig. Gen. Yigal Allon, now Minister of Labor, for what he called their “coolness” toward non-Israeli Jewish youth. The scolding was voiced at the “American-Israeli Dialogue,” a four-day colloquium conducted here and at Kibbutz Givat Brenner, by the American Jewish Congress.
Mr. Allon’s remarks were made after young American Jewish intellectuals, joined by some Israeli natives, had accused Israeli youth of making little or no effort to understand American Jewish life. A Sabra (Israel-born) himself, Mr. Allon deplored the failure of youth in this country to display enough warmth toward Jewish youth abroad. Declaring such an attitude was “unnecessary and harmful,” he said that many Israeli students who go abroad “prefer the society of non-Jews.” While he welcomes such contacts, he said, the Israelis should “show mutual respect for deepening Jewish awareness of Jewish unity among Jews as Jews, wherever they live.”
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