Rep, Peter W.Rodino (D.NJ), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, last night cited the “democratic institutions” in Israel as an example to the free world. adding that “it is from without that Israel is threatened and we who have made our own democratic experiment a success must stand firmly with Israel as it briefly faces a difficult future.”
Rodino made this statement during his address to some 1700 persons, including leaders from Zionist, religious and civic organizations in the metropolitan area, at the 68th annual Award Dinner of Bnai Zion honoring the organization’s president, New York State Supreme Court Justice Abraham J. Multer. Dr. Harris J. Levine chairman of the Bnai Zion Foundation, presented Multer with the group’s 1976 America-Israel Friendship Medal for his “outstanding contributions in all major areas of public service in behalf of our country. the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Rodino stated that Israel “has been created from the desert by men and women who thirsted and hungered for a land of their own where they could be free. They have, as the Prophets foretold, made the desert bloom. But more than that, they have made hope, and equality and human dignity bloom as well,”
Now, however, “Israel is being challenged by those who would destroy it.” the Congressman warned. “Arrayed against it are not only military forces, but also the political foes of those who voted in the United Nations for the resolution that called Zionism a form of regimes.” That acts, he said. “more than any other action in regent years, served to undermine the integrity of the institution (the United Nations) that was created to serve the interests of peace and justice for all people.”
President Ford, who was the recipient of the America-Israel Friendship Medal in 1974, sent a telegram to Multer lauding his “tireless efforts to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the people of our country and Israel. ” Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin, in a cable from Jerusalem, praised Multer’s “staunch championship of Israel’s cause during his 20 years in the United States Congress and his half-century of public service.”
Multer was also praised by other speakers at the dinner, including Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz, Israel Consul Azariah Rappaport, and Mayor Abraham Beame, Messages of greetings were also sent by Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, former Premier Golda Mier, and Governor Hugh Carey. The dinner also commemorated America’s bicentennial.
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