Two hundred delegates to the 39th annual Hadassah national convention here today visited various Connressmen to protest the State Department’s suspension of economic assistance to the State of Israel.
The delegation, headed by Mrs. Ezra Shapiro of Cleveland and Mrs. Betha Hammerman of New York, told the Congressmen that as American citizens "we are deeply concerned with the action of the United States in withholding economic aid to Israel which prejudices the issues now before the Security Council of the United Nations. It seems to us to be a denial of fundamental American justice and democratic procedure." The delegation asked the Congressmen to intervene with the President and the State Department over this matter.
Later in the day, the convention adopted a resolution condemning use by Congressional investigating committees of methods "which though they may be intended to protect our way of life, limit freedom of speech and expression, attempt to control thought and interfere with free exchange of opinion. " The resolution said Hadassah was concerned "by the growing practices and trends which tend to undermine the American tradition. " It asked a return to ideals and practices "which discourage the alarming tendency to spread doubt, suspicion and fear throughout the land and which protect the individual against invasion of civil liberties and civil rights."
Thousands of Israeli and Arab lives that might have been saved through regional medical health cooperation are lost annually because of the persistent refusal of Arab states to negotiate a peace with Israel, Dr. Kalman J. Mann, director general of the Hadassah medical organization in Israel, told the convention Monday night. Establishment of Arab-Israel peace would be followed by organization of a regional health body free to call upon the vast facilities of the Hadassah medical organization, Dr. Mann said.
Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson of the Supreme Court spoke in tribute to the late Justice Louis D. Brandeis at a ceremony at which a portrait of Mr. Brandeis was presented to Hadassah for the Brandeis vocational center in Jerusalem.
In cabled greetings to the convention, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion of Israel said the work of Hadassah "reflects the vision and devotion of American Jewish women and their determination to become even more effective and fruitful partners in our great adventure of rebuilding an ancient land and regenerating an ancient nation."
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.
