More than 700 leading figures in Jewish life attended tonight a dinner in honor of Dr. Israel Goldstein, noted Zionist leader, tendered to him on the occasion of his retirement from public life and the Rabbinate after 42 years of service. Dr. and Mrs. Goldstein will settle in Israel.
“Having devoted years of my life to helping to build the bridge between America and Israel, it will now be my privilege to work on the other end of the same bridge,” Dr. Goldstein said at the dinner. He expressed the conviction that the future of the Jewish people will depend “on the feeling of mutuality between Israel and Jews elsewhere.”
Leaders of religion, government, education, philanthropy, labor, civil liberties, world brotherhood and the Zionist movement attended the dinner. Israel was represented by Avraham Harman, the Israel Ambassador to the United States, and in a message from Israel’s President, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.
Mr. Harman told the dinner guests that Israel would receive Dr. and Mrs. Goldstein “as distinguished leaders of America and American Jewry whose presence among us will serve to make the ideals of America and the character of American Jewry more fully known to our people.” Many messages, including those from President Eisenhower, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas lauded Dr. Goldstein’s contributions in many areas of American life.
Other speakers included Dr. Everett R. Clinchy, former president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews; former U.S. Senator Herbert H. Lehman, Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Mrs. Rose L. Halprin, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel; Dr. Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress, and Rabbi Max D. Davidson, president of the Synagogue Council of America.
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.
