Situation in Israel Regalled As American Jews Celebrate Passover

More than 5,000 Jews representing trade unions, business and professional groups and fraternal organizations tonight attended the 18th annual Histadrut Third Seder, sponsored by the National Committee for Labor Israel.

Bringing greetings from President Truman, whon he represented at the affair, Federal Security Administrator Oscar R. Ewing declared that the birth of the Jewish state following the “tragic ordeal of the Jews of Europe” was “in truth a latter-day Passover story, but on a far larger scale.” Lauding the Jewish state as a “labor democracy,” Mr. Ewing said that “it may well turn out that the kind of state which the Jews have set up in Israel is even more important than the fact that a state was set up in the first place.” However, he warned that the struggle in Israel is not ended and that it is still important to assure its safety while at the same time building a firm and durable economy.

Henry Morgenthau, Jr., national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, told the gathering that “the Jews of America haven’t begun to give enough.” Reviewing the security, economic and resettlement situations in Israel, he stated that “under these conditions, the Government of Israel cannot meet the needs of immigration and settlement.” He pointed out that in less than two years Israel has welcomed 400,000 Jews from 40 countries throughout the world. He added that there were still 85,000 men, women and children in transient immigrant camps in the Jewish state.

At special shelters maintained by the United Service for New Americans and the Hias, some 1,400 former DP’s who recently arrived in this country as immigrants participated in mass seders. One thousand attended the USNA fete, while some 400 persons participated in the 65th annual soder held by HIAS.