President Kennedy last night lauded the spirit of Passover as emphasizing the fight for freedom in a message sent to the “Third Seder” of the National Committee for Labor Israel. The Seder was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and attended by more than 2,000 persons. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Ogden R.Reid, was guest of honor at the fete.
The program of the Seder also included the lighting of six memorial candles in honor of the 6,000,000 Jews annihilated by Hitler in Europe. Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein of Chicago, national chairman of the committee, presided over the Seder proceedings. Dr. Sol Stein, executive director of the organization, introduced a modernized version of the Passover story. Isaiah Avrech, American representative of the Histadrut executive, was the principal speaker.
President Kennedy’s message to the Seder reads:
“I am very pleased to have this opportunity to send my best wishes and warm greetings to the Third Seder of the National Committee for Labor Israel.
“For many, the world seems to have little changed in the thousands of years of man’s hoping and man’s suffering. Tyranny walks abroad, and there is fear on the doorsteps of many houses. Yet this much has changed. Freedom has greater strength than in the past.
“And the conditions toward which men have aspired for centuries–the dignity of mind and expression, the attainment of economic security without the loss of individual integrity have been historically demonstrated as realities. It is well for free men everywhere to taste again of the suffering of the past through memory and celebration, for this makes present conviction firmer. A stern heritage is a good teacher.
“Confident that nothing of man’s travail is lost, that the moment of trial is necessary to the moment of victory, and that our path leads out from the City of Man to that of God, the alliance of free men will persevere. In that spirit and kinship, I offer my good wishes.”
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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.
