Avraham Schenker, a member of the Jewish Agency Executive in Jerusalem, was feted yesterday along with his wife on the eve of their emigration to Israel. More than 500 persons prominent in Jewish life honored Mr. Schenker on his 50th birthday and on the occasion of their imminent departure. Mr. Schenker, whose is head of the Agency’s Executive Organization and Information Department, said that Zionism – the “struggle for Jewish national liberation” – is part of the global struggle of small peoples and nations for political survival and cultural continuity. This struggle, he said, was set against a background of efforts by Great Powers to not only dominate but to swallow up minorities.
In the presence of Ossie Davis, movie celebrity and civil rights leader, Mr. Schenker praised the world’s black peoples, in Africa and the United States, for their “struggle for liberation.” He spoke with “sadness and a sense of tragedy” that it was necessary to “condemn anti-Semitism which has spread among black people in America. anti-Semitism from any source means strengthening reaction, and strengthening reaction means playing into the hands of the anti-black elements in America,” he said. Mr. Davis voiced concern as a black leader about attempts to incite hostility between black and Jewish communities.
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.
