More than 1,200 delegates assembled here tonight to launch the national assembly of the Jewish National Fund at an inaugural dinner sponsored by the JNF Foundation. The five-day conclave will be the occasion for announcing of a new master plan for development of Israel’s wastelands.
The dinner tonight was the occasion for the presentation of citations to 66 supporters of the JNF, including special awards to Dr. Theodore K. Lawless of Chicago, Negro philanthropist, and to Dr. Ernest Vamos of San Francisco. The presentations were made by Meyer Pesin, chairman of the Foundation. Benjamin Swig, JNF western region president and philanthropist, served as toastmaster. Speakers included Gen. S.L.A. Marshall, military analyst, Dr. Emanuel Neumann, Zionist leader, and Rabbi Irving Lehrman, Miami JNF Foundation chairman.
Gen. Marshall urged the United States Government to help restore the Mideast balance of power upset by Soviet renewal of weapons to Egypt. Dr. Neumann said that the new situation in Israel created by the June, 1967 war had imposed on the JNF “new tasks and challenges of vital importance.” He added that “not only all Zionists but all true friends of Israel are called upon to give these efforts their whole-hearted support.”
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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.
