The 1954 campaign of the Joint Palestine Appeal was launched here this week-end with initial contributions of 530,000 pounds ($1,984,000) toward the goal of 2,000,000 pounds. The half-hour appeal at a banquet at Grosvenor House which brought in this sum was led off with a 75,000 pound contribution by Sir Simon Marks, chairman of the JPA.
Mrs. Golda Myerson, Israel’s Minister of Labor, the featured speaker at the banquet, told the 1,000 diners that not for many more years would the State of Israel have to ask Jews abroad to help carry its financial burdens. She underlined that the cost of defense and preparedness was heavy on Israel, beleaguered as it was among hostile states. Israel had decided to carry on its work as if no enemies surrounded it, she added, insisting that Israel’s neighbors must be made to understand that the existence of Israel did not depend on their whim.
Prior to the banquet, the Agudist youth movement in this country called off its planned demonstrations against Mrs. Myerson’s presence at the JPA affair. However, a few Agudists attempted to disrupt another meeting addressed by Mrs. Myerson at Woburn House, center of Jewish communal institutions in London.
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