Yom Kippur Starts Tonight; U. J. A. Leader Issues Appeal to U.S. Jews

Jews in the United States were urged today to remember their “duty to tens of thousands of Jews in lands of tyranny and hopelessness who pray that next Yom Kippur finds them in Israel or other free lands.” The message was issued by Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, on the eve of Yom Kippur which will be ushered in tomorrow evening.

Rabbi Friedman said the plight of these Jews lends added poignancy to the words of the Yom Kippur service, “who shall live and who shall die; who shall be at ease and who shall wander about; who shall be at peace and who shall be molested.” He called for the swift completion of the UJA’s current special drive for $30,000,000 in cash so that “we can help save the lives of the endangered help give ease to the wanderers and help bring the molested into a haven of peace.”

Rabbi Friedman said the American Jewish community can take pride in “its great achievement of the past Hebrew year–providing the main resources for the rescue, transport and initial resettlement of more than 100,000 Jewish refugees from Egypt, Eastern Europe and North Africa.” He emphasized that more than 80,000 of that total were given haven in Israel.

The Rabbinical Council of America, representing 750 orthodox rabbis, said in its Yom Kippur message: “Yom Kippur ushers in a sacred day of self-examination into the derelictions of our moral actions during the past year. It is the most solemn and holy season in the Jewish calendar of events. Our repentance does not consist exclusively of the recitation of forgiveness prayers, but is built on the solid foundation of the moral and ethical implementation of the good life in the realm of our manifold daily pre-occupations. Our holiday supplications must be realized in the course of all of our human relations.”