Jews throughout the world will start celebrating the eight-day Passover festival at sundown tomorrow with traditional seders at which the story of the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery more than 3,000 years ago will be told, and the memory of the 6,000,000 Jews killed by the Nazis will be commemorated-with a special prayer. The Passover themes in synagogue sermons and prayers will be–liberation from bondage, freedom and peace for the entire world.
Jewish men and women in the armed services of the United States, stationed in this country, at bases and installations around the world, and on all Naval facilities, will attend special seders arranged by the National Jewish Welfare Board. The JWB is the agency authorized by the United States Government to serve the religious needs of Jewish servicemen and women and their families, as well as of Jews who are hospitalized veterans of the U.S. armed services.
Officiating at the special services arranged by the JWB will be 370 full-time and part-time Jewish chaplains. Additionally, 265 Armed Services Committees and the field staffs of the JWB and the United Service Organization will work closely with the Jewish chaplains. Passover services and seders will be conducted under this vast program not only in camps and installations in the United States but also in Korea and Japan, in Panama and at missile and radar stations in the Arctic, in North Africa, Turkey, Greece, throughout Europe, in Iceland and the Caribbean, at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and at Thule, Greenland.
WARBURG STRESSES J.D.C. PASSOVER AID TO NEEDY JEWS ABROAD
Special Passover messages were issued today by leaders of many Jewish organizations devoted to overseas aid, domestic communal activities, religious causes and the Zionist movement. Joseph Meyerhoff, general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, which, in 1961, is aiding nearly 600,000 distressed Jews in 27 countries, pointed out that, “by a happy coincidence, this Passover comes in a month in which the young democracy of Israel will mark its 13th year of independence.”
Edward M.M. Warburg, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, said: “Through the JDC, the Jews of America this year will be host at the seder table to tens of thousands of needy Jews overseas. Many among them have been provided this Passover with matzot and other essentials for the traditional observance. In addition, mass sedorim will be conducted in a number of European cities for Jewish refugees en route to Israel and other free lands. For them it will be their first Passover in the free world.
“It is only the concern and generosity of American Jewry which will make possible for these and others the celebration of Passover. It is this concern, expressed through gifts to the United Jewish Appeal, which enabled the JDC once again this year to send hundreds of thousands of pounds of Passover food and supplies to needy Jews overseas,” Mr. Warburg pointed out.
LEADERS APPEAL FOR INTENSIFIED AMERICAN JEWISH AID TO ISRAEL
Dewey D. Stone, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc., and national chairman of the United Israel Appeal, declared: “As we approach this Passover holiday, the world’s oldest festival of freedom, we rededicate ourselves to those high ideals of liberty, justice and charity which are the mainsprings of our heritage as Jews as well as Americans.”
Mr. Stone expressed the hope that “it be given to us in the years to come to see in Israel the continuation of the great ingathering, and to welcome to the shores of Israel those for whom today this land is but a hope and a silent prayer.” “May we live to see Israel grown to full maturity,” he concluded, “secure and at peace with all its neighbors, fulfilling the ancient prophecy ‘and thou shall be a blessing.'”
Israel’s 13th anniversary was also emphasized in the Passover statement issued by Abraham Feinberg, president of the State of Israel Bond Organization. The Jewish State’s Bar Mitzvah anniversary, said Mr. Feinberg, “represents a coming of age in a world of unparalleled progress in the fields of economic and scientific development. In the space of 13 years, Israel has many achievements to her credit.
“But all this has been achieved without utilizing the full potentialities of the country. The people of Israel, as they recall the wanderings of their forefathers, are keenly conscious of the fact that the Negev Desert, comprising half of Israel’s area, is still largely a wilderness. This year, one of their most vital activities will be the establishment of industrial towns in the Negev. Sharing a common history, it is most fitting that we also share in the development of every part of Israel through our purchase of Israel bonds in greater amounts.”
JEWISH DEDICATION TO THE CAUSE OF EMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES STRESSED
Murray I. Gurfein, president of United Hias Service, pointed out in his Passover statement that the festival is “a time for rededication to the cause of the wayfarer, the migrant and the refugee.” United Hias Service, he said, “with a record of assisting more than 3,000,000 Jewish migrants during the past 77 years, pledges to remain on the alert to fulfill the hopes and dreams of every possible Jewish refugee.”
Special messages calling attention to the relation between the Passover festival and the striving of all people to peace and freedom were issued by Herbert B. Ehrmann, president of the American Jewish Committee; Rabbi Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress; Label A. Katz, president of B’nai B’rith; and Mrs. Charles Hymes, president of the National Council of Jewish Women.
Max Bressler, president of the Zionist Organization of America, pledged the ZOA in the spirit of Passover, to dedicate itself “anew to the ideal of Zion reborn, the unity and cultural regeneration of our people everywhere through a common bond of faith, tradition and heritage, and to the centrality of Israel and Jewish life.”
Mrs. Rose Halprin, as co-chairman of the Confederation of General Zionists, emphasized “the duty of Zionists in the Diaspora to rededicate themselves to the unfinished tasks of the movement–the ingathering of the exiles, the unity of our people throughout the world and the perpetuation of Jewish values in the Diaspora.” Other Zionist leaders who, issued special Passover statements included Mrs. Siegfried Kramarsky, president of Hadassah; and Albert Schiff, president of the Jewish National Fund of America.
A Passover message was issued by Rabbi Max D. Davidson, president of the Synagogue Council of America, the central national agency representing the rabbinic and congregational organizations of Conservative, Orthodox and Reform Judaism in the United States. Leaders of the rabbinical and lay organizations of the three denominations also issued individual statements.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
