Hadassah Adopts $9,840,000 Budget; Supports Civil Rights Bill

The four day national convention of Hadassah closed here today with the adoption of a $9,840,000 budget for 1963-64 programs in Israel and in the United States, and approved resolutions on American policy in the Middle East and on civil rights. Mrs. Sigfried Kramarsky was re-elected national president.

Of the $9,840,000 earmarked for Hadassah’s activities, $8,340,000 was budgeted for the organization’s programs in Israel. The goals set for Hadassah projects in Israel were $3,470,000 for the Hadassah medical organization; $2,300,000 for Youth Aliyah; $1,000,000 for the building fund of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem; $700,000 for the Jewish National Fund; and $600,000 for Hadassah’s vocational educational program in Israel.

In a resolution, the convention recorded its support of “the President’s civil rights bill.” Another resolution urged the U.S. Government to take the initiative with other major powers to provide firm guarantees against aggression in the Middle East. The resolution also called for U.S. assistance to promote economic development and stability in the region while maintaining “vigilance against an arms imbalance.”

Israel Ambassador Avraham Harman said in an address that “Israel is encouraged by the growing understanding throughout the world that aggression and the threat of aggression must not and cannot be tolerated and that the road to peace in the Middle East as is other parts of the world, lies through negotiation and agreement based on mutual recognition of every country in the area of its neighbors rights and existence.” He added that Israel did not “blind itself” to the danger of outright aggression.

LIPSKY CALLS FOR ACTIVE ZIONIST ROLE IN CIVIL RIGHTS

Eleazar Lipsky, president of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, called for one voice for the Zionist movement in an address stressing that “the real goal of Zionism is the redemption of the Jewish people.” He said that the Zionist Organization and its adherents have the urgent and continuing responsibility to defend and advance the welfare of the Jewish people wherever it is under attack from without or within.

“What I call for,” he declared, “is a re-examination not of Zionist ideology–which remains as valid as ever–but of Zionist action and re-examination of our structures and our functions. As to those functions, I suggest that the Zionist organizations take the forefront in every action for civil rights and civil liberties all over the world, not only for Jews, but for all peoples entitled to our help and sympathy.”

The defect is not Zionism but the Zionist Organization which has in this country divested itself of work and responsibility for the Jewish people in the mistaken notion that the entire goal of Zionism begins and ends with the establishment of the State of Israel,” Mr. Lipsky said. He pointed out that “above all, Zionism is a specific application of a universal philosophy which speaks for all mankind and all who might find themselves in the predicament of the Jewish people.”