High tribute is paid today in leading New York newspapers to Dr. Chaim Weizrmann following his inauguration yesterday as President of Israel. The New York Times, in an editorial reviewing the role of Dr. Weizrmann in the establishment of the Jewish state, emphasized that “few men of our time have dreamed a dream so long and lived to see it fulfilled” as did Dr. Weizmann.
The N.Y. Herald-Tribune said that while shadows still remain over Israel “as ##its first President is being inaugurated, none of these can loom large in contrast with the positive achievement which that inauguration symbolizes. Israel is a nation, recognized by its friends and grudgingly acknowledged even by its enemies. The broad basis for statehood has been laid.”
The N.Y. Sun declared that Weizmann has become the embodiment of Zionism. “None probably knows better than he that the ship of which he holds the helm is afloat on very stormy seas,” the editorial said. “But he has not bowed his head before any gale thus far. The extent to which his passengers forgot their differences in demanding that he become the pilot must give him added confidence to face whatever may be in store.”
Editorials lauding President Weizmann also appeared in the Yiddish daily newspapers. The Jewish Daily Forward compared Weizmann to George Washington, stating that “Washington devoted his whole life to the liberation of America from British rule and. to the establishment of a democratic state.” The Day said Weizmann was “the last of a generation of giants who belongs to the heroic figures of our history, like Berzl, Nordau, Jabotinsky and the others who gave their lives that the people of Israel might live.” The Jewish Morning Journal said: “Weizmann as President does nor represent any more a faction, a party, but the entire Jewish people.”
Drs. Abba Hillel Silver and Emenuel Neumann today cabled felicitations to Dr. Weizmann at Rehovoth upon his election as Israel’s President.
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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.
