Israel Received One Billion Dollars from Jews Abroad; Most of It from U.S.

Fund-raising abroad has brought Israel one billion dollars in the eight years of its existence, Eliahu Dobkin, member of the Jewish Agency executive, reported today to a world conference of the Keren Hayesod, fund raising arm of the Jewish Agency, which was held in Beersheba. Several hundred delegates, representing Jewish communities in 38 countries, were at the parley.

Half of the billion dollars came from the United Jewish Appeal, $57,000,000 came from Malben, the Joint Distribution Committee’s welfare program in Israel, and $270,000,000 was raised through the sale of Israel bonds, Mr. Dobkin reported. The sum of $230,000,000 came from appeals outside the United States including the Jewish National Fund.

The conference adopted a resolution expressing satisfaction with the meshing of UJA and bond campaigns in the United States and urging American Jews to increase their contributions. The resolution asked American Jews to consider their contributions to Israel causes as a “national tax.”

Mr. Dobkin, who asked that every contributor to the UJA or any other Israeli campaign at least double his regular contribution, called for the immigration to Israel within the next four years of 250,000 of the 500,000 Jews remaining in Arab lands. A sum of the neighborhood of $250,000,000 was needed to settle 15,000 families in the Negev and Galilee, including bringing them the water for irrigation, he said.

The Jewish Agency leader called for all fund-raising campaigns in countries abroad, except for the United States and Canada, to hold united, purely Israel campaigns, pointing out that Israel’s emergency needs must have priority over all other causes. He asked for an end to separate campaigns and hoped that UJA-bond drive coordination would continue.