18,000 Attend Purim Festival in New York; Hear Report on Israel

More than 18,000 persons tonight attended the Purim Victory Festival arranged by the New York Committee for State of Israel Bonds, at which Golda Myerson, Israel’s Minister of Labor, was one of the principal speakers.

Mrs. Myerson, making her first major address in New York since her arrival in the United States three weeks ago, said that “it would be foolhardy to set a time when Israel will win economic self-sufficiency, but we are well on our way and should be there within the next six or seven years.” Noting that the results of the investment of Israel bond dollars have given Israel strong foundations for economic growth, “Mrs. Myerson said: “We have begun to speed up our production so that there will be more of everything for our own people, and so that we may compete with other nations in the export trade.”

Describing Purim as not only the happiest holiday in the Hebrew calendar, but also the one holiday that more than any other is “responsible for the survival of the Jewish people. “Henry Morgenthau, Jr., told the audience that the story of Purim has given the Jewish people throughout the centuries the confidence that it will outlive all oppressors.

The former Secretary of the Treasury assured his listeners that it is wrong to think of Israel as poor in natural resources, citing the new towns and villages that are rising on every hand as evidence of “tremendous development.” They are a direct result, he asserted, of Israel’s achievements in pushing back the desert and discovering such resources as kaolin and glass sand, which he had held in his hands in Israel’s new mining regions.

Referring to Israel’s progress with Israel bond drive receipts as “a glorious beginning,” Mr. Morgenthau urged the necessity of contiming support for Israel’s battle for economic independence, and emphasized that “the State of Israel $500,000,000 bond drive will go on until the whole issue has been subscribed.”