Traveling aboard two special El Al Airline planes, 300 Israel Bond leaders left from Kennedy Airport last night (Wednesday) to take part in an international economic conference which opens Friday morning in Jerusalem and ends August 23. The ten-day conference will be attended by 475 delegates from the United States, Canada and other parts of the world who have been invited by Israel’s Finance Minister Pinchas Sapir to deliberate on ways to expand and strengthen Israel’s economy at a critical turning point in its history. The conference will also be the occasion for the observance of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Israel Bond Organization at a similar conference in Israel in 1950. Since the start of the Israel Bond drive, more than $1.5 billion has been raised for the promotion of major industrial and agricultural projects in Israel.
The delegates will include the first representatives of American Jewish communities to meet with government dignitaries in Israel since it announced its acceptance of Secretary Rogers’ proposal for establishing a cease-fire and initiating negotiations for a peace settlement in the Middle East. During the ten-day conference, the leaders will study plans for dealing with Israel’s immediate and long-range economic needs. In sessions with Prime Minister Golda Meir, former Premier David Ben-Gurion. Foreign Minister Abba Eban, Finance Minister Sapir and other top figures in the government of Israel, they will discuss how American Jewry can extend the most effective aid to promote economic development as a basis for strengthening its democratic, social and cultural progress. Mr. Ben-Gurion will be the principal speaker at the opening session, at which Samuel Rothberg, Conference chairman, will preside, and Abraham Feinberg, president of the Israel Bond Organization, will introduce the former Prime Minister. The opening ceremonies will be held in the presence of Israel President Zalman Shazar at the Rothberg Amphitheater on Mt. Scopus.
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.
