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Passover Ushered in Tonight; Will Be Marked by World-wide Interest in Palestine

April 23, 1948
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The traditional Passover prayer "Next Year in Jerusalem" will assume a concrete moaning for the first time in hundreds of years to tomorrow evening when Passover is ushered in with seders at which the story of the exodus of the Jews from bondage in Egypt is retold and the first successful blow struck faints slavery and persecution is commemorated.

The eyes of the Jews throughout the world will this Passover be directed to Palestine where Arab-Jewish fighting continues, and to New York where the United Nations is now in session to decide on the future fate of Palestine. Prayers will be held in synagogues of many lands for the restoration of order in the Holy Land and for United Nations reaffirmation of its earlier decision to establish a Jewish state here this year.

Continuing a 30-year tradition the Jewish Welfare Board has made arrangements for Jewish servicemen in all parts of the world and veterans in various Veterans Administration hospitals and sanatoria to participate in the world-wide celebration. GI’s in Korea, Japan and Honolulu will have mass seders under sponsorship of the JWB, one chaplain has been flown to Alaska and a second to Bermuda to lead services in army installations. More than 6,000 packages of Passover matzohs and 4,000 Haggadahs have been shipped to all parts of the world by JWB.

Saturday has been proclaimed "United Jewish Appeal Sabbath" by the Synagogue Council of America and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of America. The day will be decrypted to special prayers and services to ensure the success of the U.J.A. 1948 drive or $250,000,000.

In every corner of Europe and in lands stretching from Shanghai to Cyprus, nearly 1,000,000 Jewish men, women and children will celebrate Passover with special ?oods, wine, religious supplies and other assistance provided by the Joint Distribution committee. Nearly 138,000 European Jewish children will celebrate the holidays as special guests of the J.D.C.

J.D.C. SENT 6,500,000 POUNDS OF MATZOH PRODUCTS TO JEWS OF EUROPE

Under the J.D.C.’s Passover program — the largest in its 33-year history Europe’s Jews have been forwarded almost 6,500,000 pounds of matzoh and matzoh flour, {SPAN}##00,000 bottles of wine, cooking fate and other foods — this in addition to special provisions made in J.D.C. local budgets to enable distressed Jews abroad to purchase Passover foods locally produced.{/SPAN}At the Hotel Marseilles, shelter for recent arrivals aided by the United Service for New Americans, more than 400 persons will participate in a special seder, while U.S.N.A. has also provided special Passover assistance to some 2,000 immigrant families. More than 300 refugee immigrants will celebrate their first Passover In this country at a mass seder at the headquarters of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, head of the American Jewish Committee, issued a Passover message stating in parts: "The Passover commemorates the deliverance of our forefathers from bondage. Inherent in its celebration is the glorification of human freedom. Is this hour of troubled world conditions the first emotion of every American Jew must be of thanksgiving for the freedom which has cone to us in this American land of the free."

Judge Morris Rothenberg, president of the Jewish National Fund of American, in this holiday message said that the American proposal for a U.N. trusteeship for Palestine "will introduce little cheer into the observance of Passover this year. The int##tes of the DP camps who are still homeless three years after liberation deserve greater consideration."

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