A world Jewish gathering to include noted Jewish leaders from every profession and country is now being considered by the Israel Government to mark this State’s 20th anniversary in 1968, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol announced today in the Knesset (Parliament). The agenda of the conference, he said, would be the partnership between Israel Jewry and Jews outside of Israel.
Mr. Eshkol, who presented the budget of the Prime Minister’s Office, dedicated a major portion of his address to the problem of Jewish survival. He said that many Jews in Israel, especially the young ones, are not steeped in the ways of Jewish tradition, nor has Israel developed a culture of its own.
The Premier said that the two major centers of Jewish life outside Israel — the East and the West — “do not come to Israel for opposing reasons. Those who want to cannot, and those who can do not want to.”
Asserting that ties between all three centers of Jewish life are essential for the very existence of the Jewish people, Mr. Eshkol said that Israel’s youth must be imbued with Jewish values, and Israelis everywhere, including students, “must find ways to other Jews.”
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.
