A resolution urging the United States Government to help preserve peace in the Middle East by seeking formal security treaties with Israel and the Arab states was adopted here today at the concluding session of the 24th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. The 500 leaders from Jewish communities in all parts of the country who participated, elected Herbert R. Abeles of Newark president of the CJFWF, the central body of the Jewish communities of the United States and Canada.
The resolution cited the “great danger to Israel brought about by Egypt’s massive armaments purchases” and declared that attainment of peace in the Middle East is “imperative to promote the security of the free world and to enable the people of the region to concentrate on economic development and the raising of living standards.”
The resolution expressed appreciation of the “constructive proposals for security guarantees” made by Secretary of State Dulles in an address on August 26, and it added that if the U.S. can gain security treaties with Israel and its neighbors such action “would have a decisive effect on the maintenance of the peace. ” It pointed out that this development would be in harmony with the treaty system which the U.S. has arranged with 44 other nations.
JEWISH COMMUNITIES URGED TO HELP EMIGRATION FROM NO. AFRICA
In another resolution the delegates urged Jewish communities throughout the United States to undertake maximum philanthropic efforts to aid thousands of Jews who wish to migrate from North Africa to Israel and other parts of the world, because they “believe their rights, security and economic survival are gravely endangered.”
The resolution was adopted following a report presented to the General Assembly by Herman M. Pekarsky, executive director of the Jewish Council of Essex County, N.J., who returned from a UJA study mission to Europe and Israel. Mr. Pekarsky told the Assembly that emigration to Israel of 45,000 Jews from North Africa within the next 12 months is “a necessary answer to their economic poverty and critical emergency needs.
Mr. Pekarsky emphasized that actually 60,000 Jews in Morocco and Tunisia are awaiting transfer to Israel. Reports on Israel were also presented at the Assembly by Semah Cecil Hyman, Israel Consul General in New York, and Bernard Bell, of Washington, former economic adviser to the Israel Government. Mr. Hyman said that what was being accomplished in Israel represented a partnership between the settled Jews of Israel and the other Jewish communities of the free world, especially of America, to provide homes and a dignified human life for the Jews from dictator or primitive countries.
Mr. Abeles, who was elected the fifth president of the Council for 1956, succeeds Julian Freeman of Indianapolis, who has been president since 1950. Mr. Abeles was formerly a vice president of the Council and chairman of its executive committee and its national-local relations committee. In Newark he is president of the Jewish Community Foundation of Essex County.
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