A $12,000,000 development program for the completion of the new campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will be carried out by the American Friends of the Hebrew University over the next five years, it was announced by Philip M. Klutznick, president of the organization, at a dinner in his honor held tonight at the Harmonie Club here.
The dinner marked the inauguration of The Society of the Founders of the New Campus of the Hebrew University. Fifty-three contributors of $25,000 or more to the university’s building program were honored at the event by being inducted into the new Society, which will function as a permanent body. Former Senator Herbert H. Lehman, who presided at the dinner, hailed the development program as “tangible evidence of the role which we in America are playing in enabling the Hebrew University to fulfill its destiny.” He described the Hebrew University as “the source of Israel’s future leadership in every walk of life.” Senator Lehman is chairman of the National Council of the American Friends of the Hebrew University.
Daniel G. Ross, chairman of the board of directors of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, and Bernard Cherrick, executive vice chairman of the university’s board of governors, addressed the gathering of community leaders representing all sections of the United States. Mr. Ross described the ever-widening scope of the university’s teaching and research programs. Pointing out that “the Hebrew University must continue to grow both physically and spiritually,” he stated that “the completion of the new campus is an urgent and immediate need–one that we are called upon to fill.”
Reviewing the progress of the University in vital fields of research, including the study of solar energy and experiments on arid soils, Mr. Klutznick declared: “If the Hebrew University is enabled to continue its remarkable contributions on these fronts, we may all witness realities that can bring peace to the Middle East more certainly than conference and parley and military force. Harnessing the energy of the sun, making fertile the arid soil and producing water for a waterless desert–these are the potentials of a sound, well-financed Hebrew University which can change the turbulent area of the Middle East into a place of peace, progress and happiness for Israeli and Arab alike.
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.
