New York U. J. A. Campaign Opens with $12, 000, 000 Advance

More than 800 business and community leaders attended the inaugural dinner of the 1957 campaign of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York here tonight and applauded announcement that the pre-campaign drive had reached $12, 000, 000, a new record for the opening stage of the New York campaign.

Gov. Averell Harriman, Robert Briscoe, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Dov Joseph, treasurer of the Jewish Agency and Jack D. Weiler, general chairman of the New York campaign, addressed the dinner which was a testimonial to Monroe Goldwater, president of the New York UJA. Samuel D. Leidesdorf presided. Gov. Harriman made the presentation of a gold plaque to Mr. Goldwater.

In a scathing review of American Middle East policy. Gov. Harriman charged that “our Government did nothing but pursue its course of Nasser appeasement. ” He said that most free people everywhere “believed that the explicit assumptions upon which Israel acted were agreed to by the United States and supported by the President of the United States in his letter to the Prime Minister of Israel. The honor of our country was universally interpreted as committed. That was three weeks ago. Since then, Israel’s assumptions have been challenged by Arab leaders; the United Nations has been arrogantly elbowed by the Egyptians out of non-Egyptian Gaza; the ugly word ‘betrayal’ has been muttered around the world; and the Middle East has been plunged again into crisis. “

Mr. Harriman asserted that “the honor of our country was committed as it has seldom been in our history. ” He warned that “there can be no favorable solution, however, and no peace in the Middle East without a foreign policy under vigorous full time leadership in Washington. Reference to the United Nations is no substitute for United States policy.

“The main questions before us today are not questions the Secretary General of the United States can answer. They are questions the President of the United States alone must answer. It is his responsibility to see to it that United Nations authority is maintained in the Middle East against the aggressive tactics of the dictator of Egypt. “

Speaking after announcement of the advance contributions to the regular UJA drive and the Emergency Rescue Fund, Mayor Briscoe told the guests that “you have struck a great blow for human freedom and human dignity everywhere, ” He said it is an exciting experience for me to advocate the cause of the United Jewish Appeal because, as I see it, the United Jewish Appeal is a challenge to every man who values his own freedom. There is no better test of a man’s real devotion to freedom than his readiness to help others escape tyranny and injustice. You have passed that test with flying colors here this evening. “

“An avalanche of immigration” is now pouring into Israel. Dr. Joseph declared. He said the Jewish Agency anticipates that 100. 000 immigrants must be brought to Israel within the next ten months from Egypt, which is in the process of expelling its Jewish population, and from other countries which had long cut their Jewish populations off from the outside world but which are now permitting them to depart. He expressed a fear that insufficient funds could delay the evacuation of these Jews to Israel and might result in their being stranded in lands where they live in fear.