U.J.A. Study Mission Calls Emergency Meeting on Israel Situation

The 60-man study mission of the United Jewish Appeal concluded its visit to Israel this week-end with a call to the leadership of the American Jewish communities to attend an extraordinary session on November 18 to plan action that “will meet the needs of the times.”

The statement issued by the mission declared that “while the Israelis are responsible for their own defense, American Jewry must assume full responsibility for the settlement and colonization of newcomers.”

Leaders of the mission said that the call to a special conference came as a last-minute decision of the entire mission. William Rosenwald, general chairman of the UJA, said that “it was felt that we must seek to bring together immediately persons in a position to formulate a special program which would result in aid over and above the anticipated results in 1956. Originally, the UJA mission was to have made recommendations for the annual goal-setting UJA conference scheduled for December 16-18, but they were moved to call the meeting for November on account of the crisis in the country.”

(In New York, Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, returning from Israel today, called for the widest participation of American Jewish leadership in the extraordinary meeting to be held in New York November 18. The UJA session, Rabbi Friedman said, will focus on the mobilization of American Jewry for an extra effort to fill the gap in welfare and settlement financing caused by the forced diversion into defense channels of Israel’s own resources. While the one-day session will act on the immediate problem, broader and longer-range programs will be dealt with at the three-day National Conference starting on December 16.)