The Zionist Organization of America will hold its 52nd annual convention the week-end of May 28-30 in New York, it was announced here today by the Z.O.A. executive committee. The convention date was set at a meeting or the committee attended by members from all parts of the United States.
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, Z.O.A. president, addressing a dinner meeting of the executive committee, warned that the chief danger now facing the Zionist movement “is a premature and unjustified feeling of complacency.” He emphasized that it is the duty of responsible Zionist leadership to warn that Israel is not yet out of the woods” and that “it is well to bear in mind that Israel is the product of half a century of unremitting struggle and organized Zionist effort.”
Asserting that “the real, crucial test lies ahead,” Dr. Neumann said: “If the Republic of Israel is to, survive, overcoming its present and future difficulties, it can and will do so only with the help of the Jewish people the world over. In the trials, which I am convinced still lie ahead, we will need a great, powerful and disciplined Zionist movement.”
Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, addressing a meeting of the Economic Commission of the Z.0.A., emphasized that American Jews will be called upon “for many years to pour into Israel their resources–through public gifts and private investments–to make possible the absorption and resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants”
“Israel calls upon American Jewish businessmen to invest their efforts, business acumen, technical know-how and capital–on a sound, practical basis,” Dr. Silver said. He lauded the Israel Corporation of America which, he said, has “dedicated itself to the objective of promoting the economic building of Israel through private-investments aimed at the furtherance of a many-faceted program, including the enlistment of private capital for the building of industry, housing and agriculture.”
Twelve presidents and past presidents of Zionist regions, speaking in their own behalf, today issued a statement urging Daniel Frisch to become a candidate for the presidency of the Zionist Organization of America at the forthcoming convention. Lauding him as a “man of action and practical experience,” the Zionist leaders voiced the belief that he “can bring about greater cooperation in the Zionist movement.”
It was reported at the executive committee meeting that since the beginning of a Z.O.A. food for Israel campaign, some three thousand tons of food, valued at $2,500,000 have been collected by all Z.O.A. branches throughout the country.
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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.
