U.S. Jewish Leaders Make Passover Pledge to Help Oppressed Jews

On the eve of Passover, the Jewish holiday of liberation which will be ushered in tomorrow at sundown, Jewish community leaders meeting in 30 principal cities today pledged themselves to give maximum aid to the United Jewish Appeal to make possible aid to Jews from the bondage of Communist countries and seeking to immigrate to Israel and other countries.

The pledge was given in a pre-Passover National Freedom Mobilization sponsored by the United Jewish Appeal. Participants in mass rallies in 29 cities heard address by Israel Ambassador Abba Eban and Edward M.M. Warburg, general chairman of the UJA, over a special radio-telephone hookup originating from the key rally in the Astor Hotel, New York, under the chairmanship of William Rosenwald.

The Jewish community leaders pledged themselves to “save every life that can be saved and to provide for the strengthening of Israel,” as their answer to the current anti-Jewish campaign of the Soviet Government and its satellites. Adopting a resolution which “noted with deepest concern the campaign of incitement by the Communist regimes” against their Jewish populations, the State of Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the community leaders urged all Americans to give fullest support to the 1953 United Jewish Appeal.

EBAN ASKS THOSE IN BONDAGE BE REMEMBERED

The note of release from bondage, as exemplified in the 4,000-year old story of Exodus, was sounded by Ambassador Abba Eban, who quoted the prayer from the Passover service “This year we are slaves, next year we hope to be free.” He called on all “whose freedom has already been won” not to forget their “special responsibility to those to whom it is still an unrealized vision.”

“The existence of a free State of Israel,” Ambassador Eban declared, “has given us the possibility of providing a clear assurance that never again shall Jews be doomed to roam the world in search of haven and refuge. The consolidation of Israel’s capacity to absorb the immigrants who have already made it their home, and the consequent guarantee that its doors shall ever remain open to those who escape from the conditions now oppressing them, are appropriate resolves at this season.”

WARBURG SAYS SOVIETS ATTACK JEWS EVERYWHERE

Asserting that the Soviet anti-Jewish attack is an attack not only on Jews in Eastern Europe but also on Jews throughout the world, Mr. Warburg declared that the United Jewish Appeal and its agencies represent time-tested instruments for aiding distressed Jews and saving lives. He referred to the Hitler period and reminded his tens of thousands of listeners that “we who are meeting in this National Freedom Mobilization have had some experience before with oppression.

“The dictators of Eastern Europe have acted against Jews in the USSR, have attacked American Jews and American Jewish organizations and vilified the name of the young democracy of Israel and, on a pretext, have broken off relations with it,” he said, adding that “if Israel is to aid the weak, then Israel must be strong.”

Other speakers included Congressman J. Javits of New York, Dr. Israel Goldstein, Judge Jonah J. Goldstein and Rabbi Irving Miller. They joined in urging support of Jewish escapees from behind the Iron Curtain and to Israel as a haven for refugees from persecution.