In order to combat the anti-Israel hostility demonstrated by the recent votes in the United Nations and to assure Jewish survival, Dr. Judah J. Shapiro, president of the Labor Zionist Alliance, today urged his organization and all Jewish organizations to launch drives to actively seek new members.
Dr. Shapiro addressed the opening session of the 23rd National Convention of the LZA at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel which also marked the 70th anniversary of the Labor Zionist Movement in America. He told more than 500 delegates from the United States and Canada that “Jewish organizations should not wait for the inactive to come to them, but should go out and bring them within the activity on behalf of a constructive and creative Jewish life.”
Dr. Shapiro said that among the issues “which belong to the core of Labor Zionist concern and action on the American scene” are unemployment, inflation, help and welfare programs, neglect of the poor and “government policies which favor the exploitation of people and of natural resources for the benefits of the few.” He added that there is also a need for Labor Zionists “to be a factor in the determination of the nature and the quality of Jewish life in America. In the new circumstances. Jewish education becomes the very highest priority for Jewish survival.”
FORD PRAISES THE LZA
Jacob Katzman, the LZA’s executive vice-president, said that the anti-Zionist attack is aimed not only at the existence of Israel but also at its social-democratic character. He said Israel’s free society and the progressive forms it has introduced are precisely what the dictators and the oppressors of the Arab Communist-Third World fear most.
President Ford, in a message praising the LZA, said; “The commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Labor Zionist Movement in America at a time when we are also marking our tow-hundredth year of independence as a nation evokes not only in you, but in countless fellow citizens, the valuable contributions of your fine organization in our democratic society and way of life. Your efforts are a proud reflection of the diversity, commitment and spirit of America.”
The four-day convention will and with a luncheon Sunday at which former Israeli Premier Golda Meir will speak.
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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.
