Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of Israel, who arrived here this week for a two-week stay in the United States, will go to Washington in about 10days to meet with President Truman on a number of problems confronting the Jewish state. His visit to Washington will be made following the testimonial dinner in his honor to be held at the Hotel Waldorf Astoria April 23 under the auspices of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science at Rehoboth.
The Israeli flag is now being flown by the Waldorf Astoria, where President Weizmann will stay until his return to Israel on May 1. The 74-year-old chief of state presided at a Seder service held in the home of Meyer Weisgal, executive vice-president of the Weizmann Institute, where he and members of his family were the guests of honor.
Arriving Wednesday on his first visit to the United States since his election as President of Israel., Dr. Weizmann paid tribute to President Truman and to the American people for their contribution to the establishment of the Jewish state.
Declaring that Israel had reached the threshold of peace after great sacrifice, he emphasized that the most pressing problem confronting Israel at present was the mass immigration of hundreds of thousands of Jews from the DP camps and other parts of the world. He estimated that 1,000,000. Jews would be brought to Israel’ within the next five years.
Asserting that Israel alone cannot shoulder the financial burden of caring for the newcomers, he appealed to American Jews to give the fullest support to the United Jewish Appeal to make the necessary funds available for the reception and housing of immigrants who are now arriving at the rate of 30,000 a month. He offered every assistance to Henry Morgenthau, Jr., general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, which Dr. Weizmann declared “must command the wholehearted and dedicated service of every Jew who is interested in the future and well-being of the Jewish state.”
Dr. Weizmann was greeted at the airport by Ambassador Ray Atherton who welcomed him in his capacity as personal representative of President Truman and the State Department; Mayor William O’Dwyer; Henry Morgenthau, Jr.; ELiahu Elath, Ambassador of Israel to the United Staves; Arthur Lourie, Consul General of Israel in New York, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, acting chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and Judge Morris Rothenberg, a national chairman of the U.J.A.
Included in Dr. Weizmann’s party wore Mrs. Weizmann; their son, Benjamin; the President’s Aide de Camp, Major David Arnon; Dr. Samnel Zondek, his personal physician; Dr. David Bergmenn, scientific director of the Weiznann Institute in Rehovoth; and other aides, including Yigal Kimche, his personal secretary.
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