President Chaim Weizmann of Israel, Premier Ben Gurion and Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan have Jointly appealed to Henry Morgenthau, Jr., to accept for a third term the general chairmanship of the United Jewish Appeal, it was revealed here today in connection with the U.J.A. national conference which is to open in Atlantic City on Wednesday.
A similar appeal was addressed to Morgenthau by Edward M.M. Warburg, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee. A committee to draft Morgenthau has been formed under the chairmanship of Milton Kahn, president of the Associated Jewish Philanthropies of Boston. The text of the cabled plea by the government leaders in Israel to Morgenthau reads:
“We find it difficult to convey to you our deep distress and anxious concern caused by your withdrawal from the United Jewish Appeal, which you have raised to such unprecedented heights during your chairmanship. Your labors and statesmanship in organizing and inspiring American Jewry to unique achievement during the past two years form an integral part of the very foundations of the state of Israel. We are now facing a stupendous task while still fighting for our very existence and of filling the framework attained by the past two years of labors and sacrifice. Our first objective during 1949 is the absorption of 300,000 homeless Jews who cannot continue in their present untenable position. This tremendous task, with all its ancillary problems, can be solved only if American Jewry continues during the coming year to contribute on the scale which you have taught.
“No one familiar with the true facts of the situation can have any doubt that you and you alone can organize the decisive effort demanded by this historic hour. You who were with us a few weeks ago have seen our achievements and our struggles. None other than you can convey to American Jewry the sense of the stupendous mission which is theirs to perform in 1949. We cannot conceive that you should permit the unique effort you started during the past two years to suffer. For the sake of Israel, for the sake of our young state, and for the sake of the long-suffering homeless Jews, we beg you to rise above the ephemeral difficulties and to come back to resume the reins of the United Jewish Appeal. We cannot believe you will fail us in this crucial hour.”
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