Jews in U.S. Celebrate Israel’s Sixth Anniversary Today

Celebration of the sixth anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel will start tomorrow in all major Jewish communities in the United States and will culminate on Saturday night with Israel Independence Day balls held simultaneously in 111 cities under the sponsorship of the Zionist Organization of America.

In commemoration of Israel’s anniversary, the Hadassah today announced a new $500,000 project aimed at the education and rehabilitation of underprivileged youth in the Jewish State.

The American Zionist Council, which represents all Zionist groups in this country, has produced a special half-hour dramatic radio program which will be used throughout the United States as part of the anniversary program. A 15-minute documentary film “This Is Israel” will be shown on many television stations.

Statements saluting Israel on her sixth birthday and emphasizing Israel’s achievements during the six years of her existence were issued today by Edward M. M. Warburg, general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal; Samuel Rothberg, chairman of the Israel Bond Organization; Rudolf Sonneborn, chairman of the United Israel Appeal; Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the American Jewish Congress; Dr. James Heller, president of the Labor Zionist Organization of America; Dr. Sara Feder, president of Pioneer Women, and leaders of numerous other Jewish organizations.

A message voicing solidarity with the people of Israel in their “heroic struggle for security and freedom against the aggressive attacks by your enemies” was cabled today to President Itzhak Ben Zvi over the signatures of more than 5,000 ZOA key workers and leaders from all parts of the country. Rabbi Irving Miller, ZOA president, in a statement, noted with profound satisfaction the “great advances that have been made by Israel during the past six years, notwithstanding the most severe political tensions and economic pressures.”

DETAILS OF HADASSAH $500, 000 PROJECT FOR ISRAEL ANNOUNCED

In announcing the new Hadassah $500,000 project, Mrs. Rebecca Shulman, president of the organization, said the new undertaking–tentatively called “Operation Maabarot Youth”–would involve a combined sociological and psychiatric-vocational education-recreation program for the estimated 50,000 youngsters between the ages of 12 and 17 still living in immigrant camps in various parts of Israel.

Mrs. Shulman emphasized that “the presence in camps for immigrants of approximately 50, 000 youths, many of them with too much time on their hands, constitutes a potential threat to the welfare of the nation and should be eradicated if these children are to become healthy, productive citizens.”

The latest Hadassah undertaking–a sixth anniversary gift to Israel–will be inaugurated immediately in Talpiot, Hartuv and Castel, three immigrant camps in the Jerusalem corridor, and will be extended by August 1st to cover other maabarot in the country, Mrs. Shulman said. Hadassah teams composed of psychiatric workers, vocational training instructors and youth rehabilitation counsellors will establish headquarters in each of the camps to implement the program.

Mr. Warburg emphasized that the funds made available by American Jewry to the United Jewish Appeal have helped Israel’s people transform both their ancient landscape and their own life. Calling for further support from all Americans, the UJA leader said: “Israel’s sixth anniversary is an appropriate time for the friends of freedom to renew their support of the free people of Israel–for what is involved is the fate of hundreds of thousands of free men, women and children, and the vitality of the free cause itself.”