Gratitude to the Jewish and non-Jewish communities of the United States for their moral and material assistance to Israel was expressed here tonight on behalf of the Israeli Government by Eliahu Epstein, special representative of Israel to the United States, at a Red Mogen Dovid dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria, at which Herbert Bayard Swope acted as toastmaster.
More than 1,500 guests attended the gathering at which messages were read from President Truman, President Chaim Weizmann, and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gimion. The event highlighted the current drive of the Red Mogen Dovid to enroll 250,000 members as a means of providing a fleet of ambulances, medical and first aid supplies for Israel.
Emphasizing that the people of Israel “have great trust in the American people and their devotion to the principles of justice and democracy,” Epstein said: “We in Israel are grateful beyond words for the support given to our state by Americans generally and by the Jewish community in particular. Your efforts in the Red Mogen Dovid are an integral part of the kind of constructive assistance which we cherish so dearly.”
The Israeli envoy bitterly attacked the British Government for its present efforts to deprive Israel of the Negev. “The Labor Government,” he said, “which under the banner of a socialist program, is nationalizing the production of steel in their country, has, during the war in Palestine, continuously supplied this steel in the forms of rifles, tanks, and planes to their feudal Arab allies to fight and destroy the only democracy in the Middle East. This same Labor Government is now desperately trying to deprive Israel of its legitimate territory in the Negev, where pioneer spirit and enterprise may create a flourishing garden of social and economic progress.”
Other speakers at the dinner included Mayor O’Dwyer, Joseph M. Proskauer, Louis Lipsky, former Secretary of War Robert Patterson, Ted O. Thackrey, editor of the New York Post, Rep. Emanuel Celler of New York, Mrs. Wendell Willkie, and Brig. Gen. Julius Klein.
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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.
