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Rabbi Miller Stresses Israel’s Only Security is Aliya in the Thousands

May 31, 1978
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Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the American Zionist Federation, told 200 members of the Association of Parents of American Israelis (API) here that the future of Israel and the Jewish people will be secured only when aliya numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

Addressing the second annual convention of API, made up of parents of children who have emigrated to Israel Saturday night, Miller, himself a member of the organization, said that Israel “took a licking” in the aircraft package deal voted by the Senate two weeks ago. “I am scared that the security of Israel has been compromised by putting Saudi Arabia in a confrontation position” through the sale of F-15 jets to that country, he said.

Dr. Nahum Weissman, founder and president of API, told the closing session of the convention yesterday that “As Americans, together with fellow parents in the countries of the free world, we will assert our right to demand the protection of our children who have chosen to build their lives in Israel.”

Weissman stressed the need for API members to be in touch with the parents of olim from other countries. “On an international scale, the contact between parents of Israelis of various origins will not only strengthen the world Jewish community but will also result in the strongest support base that Israel has ever had,” he said. He announced that the API plans to hold its next annual convention in Israel and would include parents from Canada, Britain and France.

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