Communist Countries Urged to Permit 182,000 Jews to Leave for Israel

The Soviet satellite countries were urged tonight to permit the emigration of 182,000 Jews who have registered for exit visas for Israel. The request was voiced by Governor Theodore R. McKeldin of Maryland in the course of an address at a dinner here sponsored by the American Jewish Congress at which $1,250,000 was raised for the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York. The speaker also urged the Soviet Union to resume diplomatic relations with Israel and to cease its anti-Israel and anti-Zionist propaganda.

Governor McKeldin told the 500 guests at the dinner that such action would be considered one of the “tokens of sincerity” by which the rulers of the Soviet Union can show that they have genuinely repudiated the recent anti-Semitic campaign conducted in the USSR and in other Communist countries Behind the Iron Curtain.

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, one of the principal speakers at the dinner, said that the recent agreement by Germany to pay reparations to Israel and to Jewish victims of Nazi persecution gives Israel the opportunity to get heavy capital goods which will enable it to consolidate its agriculture, industry, communications and transportation system and help set its economy on a sound basis within a few years Meanwhile he pointed outline reaped funds are needed at once by UJA agencies working in Israel to speed the absorption of 240,000 recent immigrants Whose unproductively is a basic cause of Israel’s current economic crisis.

Dr. Goldmann, as chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency and acting president of the World Jewish Congress, praised leadership given to the Canadian Jewish community by Samuel Bronfman, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, who was the guest of honor at the dinner.” Mr. Bronfman was presented with an American Jewish Congress citation for distinguished public service. The presentation was made by Dr. Israel Goldstein. AJC president. Tribute to Mr. Bronfman was also paid by Francis Cardinal Spellman, Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York.

Responding to the presentation address, Mr. Bronfman outlined what he believed to be the three major responsibilities facing American and Canadian Jewry These are, he stated, the responsibility to save “endangered and distressed Jews overseas and to welcome those who succeed in immigrating to the U. S and Canada, the responsibility to fight bigotry and intolerance in bur own countries and to build our communities, and, the responsibility to help Israel achieve economic self-sufficiency, security and democracy as part of the “destiny of our generation.”