A first-hand report on conditions of Jewish life in South Africa was given here by Rabbi M.C. Weilor, leader of South African Jewry and a member of the executive of the World ORT Union, at a luncheon tendered in his honor by the American ORT Federation. Rabbi Weiler, now on a visit to the United States, is honorary president of the South African ORT-OSE and is active in many Jewish causes in South Africa.
Rabbi Weiler, who recently visited Israel, urged that the ORT coordinate its work in the Jewish state with the programs of the Jewish Agency and the Histadrut. “Israel has had an anormous effect on the growing tendency of Jews to enter industrial trades and agriculture,” he said.
The South African Jewish leader, who also surveyed the situation of the Jews in North Africa, stressed that the work of the ORT there must be expanded. “It is very important to send English-speaking Jews to North Africa, to become emissaries to our brothers there, just as the J.D.C. did in Europe,” he stated, adding that expanded ORT programs in North Africa, in cooperation with the Joint Distribution Committee, “can materially improve the lot of our people.” Israel is in great need of reservoirs of Jews who are healthy in body and capable of doing productive work, he pointed out.
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