Record $8.1 Million Raised for Labor Israel; $10 Million Fund Goal for 1971

A record $8.1 million was raised by the National Committee for Labor Israel during fiscal 1969-70 for Histadrut supported health, educational, vocational training and social welfare institutions in Israel, Dr. Sol Stein, the organization’s national executive director, reported here. Dr. Stein presented his annual report at the National Committee’s 47th annual convention attended by 2,000 delegates. The convention, which opened Friday ended today. He said $4.2 million in cash had been raised in the United States, Canada, and Latin America through the Israel Histadrut Campaign and an additional $3.9 million came in the form of bequests and other long term commitments to the American Histadrut Development Foundation. Dr. Stein, who was re-elected to another term as national executive director, said that since its inception in 1923, the National Committee for Labor Israel and its affiliate, the Pioneer Women, raised approximately $94 million for the needs of Israeli youth, women, new immigrants and pioneers. He said funds raised by the organization aided over 1,500 enterprises, from hospitals and clinics to cultural centers, children’s villages, vocational schools, libraries, synagogues, sports centers and retirement homes. “We are entering an unusual decade which was full of grim developments and momentous achievements, climaxed by the Six-Day War,” Dr. Stein said. “We enter the 1970s knowing that the fruits of that victory have eluded Israel, that the day of peace is not yet in view,” he said.

Leon H. Keyserling, former chairman of President Truman’s Council of Economic Advisors, who was re-elected to a third term as president of the National Committee for Labor Israel, claimed that the United States “could learn from Israel and its people, if only we had the perception to learn,” how to meet political, economic and military crises. Mr. Keyserling devoted a large part of his address to deploring what he regarded as permissiveness and a deterioration of “responsibility and discipline” in the U.S. “We are losing the sense of responsibility which requires that we bear the cost of a national defense second to none,” he said. In contrast, according to Keyserling. “Israel is supporting, without a whimper, a larger national defense burden than any nation on earth relative to its resources.” He claimed that “Israel is not permitting this national defense burden to interfere with social services and human progress….Israel is combining great political freedom, and the right to political differences, with the maintenance of political decorum and decency in public affairs.” he said. Jacob Bar-more, a member of the Israeli mission to the United Nations, told the convention that Russian naval expansion was an indicator of the increased appetite of the Soviet Union for a dominant role on the sea as she has on the great Eurasian land mass.

Yehoshua Levy, treasurer of Histadrut in Israel, described the trade union federation as the largest voluntary body in that country engaged in health and welfare programs. He said approximately $16 million would be required for those programs in 1971. Lillian Roberts, associate director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, described her impressions of Israel where, she said, “there is dignity…Whether a person washes the floor or cleans the kitchen or sweeps the streets or drives a bus, he knows his work is worthwhile and everyone respects everyone else for the part he plays in building the country.” Jean Beaudry, executive vice president of the Canadian Labor Congress, praised Histadrut for demonstrating that “the labor movement must be concerned not only with the well-being of its members, but also with the security and well-being of all classes of society.” The convention re-elected Charles S. Zimmerman as chairman of the board of the National Committee for Labor Israel. Messages of greetings were received from President Zalman Shazar, of Israel, Premier Golda Meir and Yitzhak Ben Aharon, secretary general of Histadrut. A $10 million fund-raising goal for 1971 was adopted. The convention also adopted resolutions saluting Histadrut pioneers of an earlier era; hailing U.S. government aid to Israel in the present crisis and urging “all our friends….to respond to the challenge of the coming decade to help us assure the success of the Histadrut campaign we launch today.”