Wide attention was focused in Jewish circles in the United States today on a New York Times reprint of the complete text of the address delivered ten days ago in Jerusalem by Israel’s Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, before the 25th World Zionist Congress. Today’s Times devoted nearly two full pages to the entire Ben-Gurion text.
Zionist spokesmen here and in Jerusalem had contended that the Times, in its original report from the Zionist Congress on December 29, had quoted Mr. Ben-Gurion “out of context” in regard to a statement by the Israeli leader, charging Orthodox Jews with “godlessness” if they do not settle in Israel.
Today’s full quotation of the entire text by Mr. Ben-Gurion was seen as an effort of the Times to set the record straight. The complete text of Mr. Ben-Gurion’s speech, originally delivered in Hebrew, was in the English-language version furnished by the World Zionist Organization. According to the Times, today, “the theme of the Israeli leader’s speech is that Israel and Jews outside of Israel are interdependent” and that both depend for survival on “pioneering and productive” Jewish immigration to Israel and on “Jewish education for the younger Jewish generations outside Israel.”
The space allotted by the Times to Premier Ben-Gurion’s address is usually accorded only to major addresses by the United States President or other world leaders speaking on major issues of international importance.
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