National Convention of American Jewish Congress Opens in New York

The American Jewish Congress opened its national biennial convention here tonight with a report by its president Dr. Joachim Prinz announcing that the organization will sponsor an “American-Israeli Dialogue” in Jerusalem in which American and Israeli leaders will exchange opinions on relations between American Jewry and Israel.

Revealing that 500 American Jews and 500 Israelis, including Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and other members of the Israel Cabinet, will participate in this “dialogue,” which will take place in Jerusalem in June, Dr. Prinz said: “Philanthropy is not enough” to serve as a meaningful link between American Jews and Israel. “The bridges we must construct between American Jewry and the people of Israel cannot be built with dollar bills only,” he declared. “No generosity, however unlimited, and no fund-raising, however successful, will build a lasting link between Israel and American Jewry unless we create personal contacts between American Jews and the citizens of Israel.

“These contacts,” Dr. Prinz cautioned, “dare not be contacts of emotion and sentimentality only. They must consist of mutual interest and understanding, mutual respect and mutual honesty. They must include frank criticism and honest appraisal along with a new concept of tourism to Israel that goes beyond sightseeing and souvenir-hunting and emphasizes a realistic discussion of the factors that keep American Jews and the people of Israel apart as well as the ties that bind them together.”

The leader of the American Jewish Congress expressed hope that “the Israelis attending this unique ‘dialogue’ will, with equal frankness, talk about their own social and cultural problems. Such an exchange of complete frankness will, I am confident, mark the auspicious creation of the kind of vital link between American Jewry and Israeli without which there can be no valid future.”