A festive atmosphere and a warm welcome by their Israeli hosts marked the opening here last night of the annual conference of Young Judea, the American Zionist youth organization. Some 45 delegates who came from the United States who were joined by 15 Young Judea members attending courses here are taking part in the first such conference of an American Jewish youth group to be held here.
Eliahu Dobkin, head of the Youth and Hechalutz Department of the Jewish Agency, warned the delegates that the “sickness” of assimilation was all the more dangerous because it was painless. In another address, Dr. Hanoch Rinnot, director general of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and president of the Israel Scouts Organization, said that more contact was needed between the rank and file of the Diaspora and the Israelis “and not only among the leaders.”
Greetings were brought by Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, president of Hadassah, the American women’s Zionist organization, and Harold Carmely on behalf of the Zionist Organization of America, two sponsoring organizations of Young Judea. Others on the program included Jerusalem Mayor Theodore Kollek and Aryeh Koch, Israel’s chief scout.
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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.