Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, today told campaign associates on the eve of his departure for a mid-year survey of Jewish refugee conditions in Europe and Israel that “Israel’s people still stand in mortal danger of a possible mid-summer attack by their Arab neighbors.” He spoke to a group of national officers and national campaign cabinet members.
Rabbi Friedman cautioned “friends and supporters of the UJA against diminished campaign activity during the normally slack months of July and August.” He said that “the facts show that Jews in overseas lands have not been in such serious straits since Hitler assumed power in Germany in 1933.” He reported at the same time that funds from the UJA since the start of 1956 had made possible a speed up in the absorption and the resettlement in Israel of many thousands of recent refugee men, women and children.
“To the extent that we have done this,” he stressed, “American Jews have lifted a tremendous humanitarian burden from Israel’s hard-pressed people, who could not possibly pay for the integration of refugees and for sharply increased national defense programs at one and the same time.”
The UJA executive head said that “the tensions and outbreaks of border violence that led the UN Security Council to take action this spring have not diminished. There is nothing in the behavior of the Russians, the Egyptians and the Jordanians to warrant a relaxation of a sense of alarm. Behind the scenes,” Rabbi Friedman emphasized, “Egypt has been perfecting its use of the weapons it has been receiving from Communist Czechoslovakia, welding the armies of the Arab States into a unified command.
“The training of armies and air forces on this order, with equipment from the Soviets that would be the envy of any first-class battle force, strengthens rather than lessens the impression that the Arabs are near to the day of a blitzlike attack on Israel,” he declared. Rabbi Friedman will depart tomorrow from New York International Airport. His consultations on refugee needs to be met by the UJA during the balance of the year will take him to France, other European countries and Israel.
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