Memorial Meeting for Ben Gurion

David Ben Gurion, who has been called the father of Israel, was remembered here today, as Ambassador David Rivlin, Consul General of Israel in New York, told the American Zionist Federation that “Ben Gurion’s departure last year was a Jewish national loss. It created a vacuum in our lives since we couldn’t possibly imagine a Jewish state in our time without him amongst us.”

At the public memorial meeting held in the auditorium at 515 Park Avenue, several hundred American Zionist Federation and Jewish organizational leader members and guests were on hand to hear Rivlin, Pinchas Cruso, honorary president of the Labor Zionist Alliance, and Mrs. Faye Schenk, president of the AZF. The meeting was sponsored by the AZF.

Citing what he termed the “sense of a great Jewish and Israeli loss” at the death of Ben Gurion, Rivlin said that the loss “was amplified against the background of the dramatic events of last year, due to the Yom Kippur War and the ensuing developments.” Ben Gurion died December 1, 1973. “There has been no Jew in our time who invoked the respect and admiration of the leaders of the world as David Ben Gurion and there was no one who gave such great dignity and honor to our plagued and battered Jewish people as he did.”

RECALLING ACHIEVEMENTS AND CONCERNS

Rivlin, who knew Ben Gurion, told the memorial meeting, “Let us remember not only his great achievements but also his great and very brave concerns: his deep desire for peace with our neighbors; his dream about Jewish aliyah from the free, Western countries; his call as well as his personal example for the settlement and the revival of the Negev and his faith and conviction in regards to the spiritual and social qualities of our life as a nation.”

Cruso, who also knew the late Premier, said that “it seems that history had chosen Ben Gurion for the great mission and he was conscious of it. He had been preparing himself for the leadership role from his early youth.” Cruso, citing Ben Gurion’s work with halutzim, with the Histadrut, with the World Zionist Movement, declared that “Ben Gurion will be chiefly remembered as a founder of the State of Israel.” He began his life as a halutz and ended his life as such.” Cruso noted that Ben Gurion, “by settling in the Negev, helped to revive the halutzic spirit.”

Mrs. Schenk, who chaired the meeting, cited a number of Ben Gurion’s qualities. She recalled “his love of people, his love of Zionists, his love of all those who shared his love of Israel deserved his personal attention and got it.” Continuing, Mrs., Schenk declared: “A great generation passed on with the passing of David Ben Gurion. A new generation has risen. They and we can do no better than to draw upon the wisdom, the acumen, the faith of this great leader in Israel, as today the American Zionist Federation pays its tribute to a man held in universal esteem and regard.”