JWB Deplores U.S. Move to Sell Military Hardware to Egypt

The National Jewish Welfare Board yesterday deplored the projected sale of U.S. military equipment to Egypt and declared that "it would be wiser to develop relations with Egypt through economic rather than military means."

In a resolution adopted at the closing session of the JWB’s five-day Biennial Convention at the Fairmount Hotel, the organization which serves Jewish community centers and Ys all over the country and Jewish servicemen and women here and abroad, urged Congress "to object strongly and, to legislatively block the sale of military supplies to countries in confrontation with Israel or to those whose forces or weapons could, in case of war, be turned against Israel." The resolution warned that U.S. arms sales to Egypt would strengthen militarism rather than the forces of moderation in that country.

In another resolution, the convention delegates urged the U.S. not to "retreat from the provisions of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment which was designed to increase emigration by Soviet Jews." It called on Jewish community centers "to increase their efforts to keep the plight of Soviet Jewry before their constituencies."

TACKLING SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN ISRAEL

Israel’s Minister of Education and Culture, Aharon Yadlin, addressed an earlier session of the convention on his country’s efforts to grapple with "the social problems presented by the social economic and educational differences between Oriental and Western Jews." He declared that "our national unity is the basic assumption of our approach to these problems–we are one people."

Yadlin said that the biggest challenge facing the present generation of Jews is the improvement of communications and cooperation between Jews in the diaspora and in Israel. The educational and unifying ties between centers of Jewry throughout the world must be strengthened, he said.

"We in Israel are conscious of our central role in the grand design of Jewish continuity, but we realize that only through a partnership with those in the diaspora can this design become a reality," Yadlin said. "We must move our Jewish youth out of the limited dimension of the present tense. Let them join the idealism of our nation. Let them become imbued with eternal faith."

FOUR AWARDS PRESENTED

Daniel Rose, of New York, who was re-elected to a second term as president of the JWB, reported that centers affiliated with the JWB are located in more than 200 communities in North America and operate out of almost 500 separate facilities. He said new center facilities ranging in cost from $600,000 to more than $12 million have been opened in the last few years. In aggregate, center budgets totalled $100 million a year, he said.

Three Frank L. Weill Awards for 1976 were presented at the convention. The recipients were Dore Schary, author, playwright and former film executive; Jacob Goodstein, vice-president of the JWB; and Isadore E. Millstone, a St. Louis businessmen. The Florence G. Heller Award for professional contributions to the JWB’s work was presented to Louis Smith, of Wilkes Barre, Pa.