Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Two-day Conference of Intellectuals Urges Cooperation Between Israel and U.S. Jewry

December 19, 1950
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

A call for incresed cooperation between Israel and American Jewry was issued last night by the National Assembly for Labor Israel at the conclusion of a two-day conference. The Assembly, which was sponsored by 1,200 rabbis, educators, social and communal workers from all parts of the United States, hailed the increasing role of the State of Israel in the United Nations.

The Assembly expressed the hope that the “forces of freedom, righteousness and peace will prevail, and that humanity will be relieved of the fear of war and its attendant evils which are pressing upon the hearts and minds of mankind.” In reviewing developments in Israel in the first 30 months since the state’s establishment, the Assembly declared that “today, as in the past, the foundations upon which Zionist upbuilding must rest are the principles of Labor Zionism.”

It urged American Jewry to support the “four-point program” for economic aid to Israel, Referring to Israel’s foreign policy, the Assembly noted “with appreciation” the new state’s program “of world peace through the United Nations, of friendship with all powers on the basis of independence, mutual interest, reciprocal respect and the rule of justice and international law, and of peace and enduring friendly relations with its neighbors, the Arab countries.” The Assembly also expressed the hope that the United Nations and the United States will “contribute to the conclusion of peace in the Near East, and encourage Israel-Arab cooperation with United Nations support, in a regional plan of economic development.”

Discussing the relationship of American Jews to Israel, Prof. Horace M. Kallen, of the New School for Social Research, emphasized that American Jews “have an obligation of patrictic loyalty to the American ideal, as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to see that the growth of Israel as a strong citadel of freedom shall not be endangered, but shall be facilitated in every way.”

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement