Minister Lavon Reports to U.S. Jewish Leaders on Israel’s Progress

Israel plans to transfer more than 10,000 families this year to the land In 50 new villages, Pinhas Lavon, Israel Cabinet Minister today told a meeting here of the executive committee of the Israel bond organization. The meeting was devoted to the development of plans for the third year of the Israel Independence bond drive.

The projected transfer of families, Mr. Lavon said, constitutes a significant aspect of Israel’s program to achieve economic independence, with the help of the Israel bond campaign. Israel is already supplying 52 percent of its own food requirements, as compared with 28 percent in 1948, he reported.

Describing other steps which the country is taking to reach self-sufficiency, Mr. Lavon, who is appearing in a number of American communities in behalf of the bond drive during his current visit to the United States, said: “We are going to build a railway to the Negev. We have completed the road to S’dom and are now bringing a new road to Elath which may have the same importance to the future of our country as the building of the trans-continental railway in its time for the development of the United States.”

In a report to the meeting, Julian B. Venezky, chairman of the bond organization’s executive committee, emphasized the importance of intensive effort to speed the sale of Israel bonds during the last year of the drive. The American Jewish community must be alerted, he said, under the banner of “Speed Israel’s Economic Independence by Investing in Israel Independence Bonds.”

Henry Montor, vice-president of the bond organization, reported on plans for national “BIG Day” on Sunday, June 14th. On that date, tens of thousands of volunteer workers in hundreds of communities throughout the United States will visit their friends and neighbors to secure purchases of Israel bonds.