David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Jerusalem executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, proposed last night that 100,000 young and strong American Jews be sent to Palestine "as soon as possible" to aid the Jewish homeland in this critical hour.
Addressing about 100 Zionist leaders and workers at dinner at the World’s Fair in honor of Lion Feuchtwanger, which marked the closing of the Jewish Palestine Pavilion, Ben Gurion said that one of every 50 American Jews should be sent to Palestine as a "living exhibit" of American Jewry. Speaking on behalf of the Palestine Jewish community and the Zionist Organization, he asserted that such an American Jewish force could accomplish important work now and after the war.
Feuchtwanger asserted it was a "mathematical certainly" that the Palestine Jewish homeland would survive. He said: "What was built in Palestine before the war is significant and important, but it was only the beginning. The great period of national Jewish renaissance and constructive work in Palestine will come after the war."
The exiled German Jewish author, who recently arrived here after escaping from a French concentration camp, said that during Palestine’s crises he had sometimes wondered whether he had not been too optimistic about the future of the Jewish state, but "the war has created a psychological situation apt to revive the idea of Zion for many years to come."
Jacob Sincoff, chairman of the pavilion’s finance committee, reported that the pavilion had operated at costs substantially below budegtary estimates both in 1939 and 1940. Other speakers were George Backer, president of the pavilion; Louis Lipsky, Mayer W. Weisgal, director of the pavilion, and Dr. Israel Goldstein, chairman of the board, who presided.
The Italian air attack on Tel Aviv only served to strengthen the determination of the residents to do their utmost to further the cause of democracy and help win the war against the Axis powers, Mrs. Bessie Gotsfeld, Palestine director of the Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America, said in a letter to the executive board here.
Life speedily resumed its normal course after the heavy air attack and its attendant numerous casualties and active steps have been taken to help the families left destitute, she said.
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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.
