President Nixon and Sen. George McGovern today pledged continued commitment to Israel. The occasion of their pledges was a ceremony at the International Synagogue of the John F. Kennedy Airport where 25 prominent Americans of all faiths lit a 25-branch candelabra launching the American celebration of Israel’s 25th anniversary. Mayor John F. Lindsay, one of the 25 participating in the ceremony, later in the day at City Hall, issued a proclamation designating the period through August 1973 as “Israel’s 25th Anniversary Year” and announced the appointment of a special mayor’s committee of 75 people for the anniversary celebration. Jack D. Weiler was named temporary chairman of the committee.
Nixon, in his statement read at the airport ceremony by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, declared that the commitment of the United States to Israel “is an article of American faith.” He stated further that “a keystone of my foreign policy is, and shall remain a relentless search for peace in the Middle East: a lasting peace that will guarantee Israel’s survival and the future of all peace-loving people of the Middle East; an enduring peace that will enable today’s celebration of Israel’s nationhood to echo down the centuries.”
In a statement read by Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D. Conn), McGovern pledged “continued commitment to Israel’s progress and prosperity and to the right of Jews in the Soviet Union to join their brothers in Israel, free from ransom.” He hailed Israel as “a courageous country” and expressed the hope that “the years ahead bring lasting peace to Israel and the entire world.”
The candle lighting ceremony was conducted by the American Committee for Israel’s 25th Anniversary Celebration and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, A torch kindled in Israel by President Zalman Shazar on Sunday was brought to the US by Moshe Kol, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, one of the 14 survivors of the 31 men and women who signed the Israel Proclamation of Independence on May 14, 1948.
In bringing the Torch of Independence to the United States “on behalf of Shazar,” Kol urged Jews to make the 25th anniversary year “a year of pilgrimages to Eretz Israel.” He said that the torch he brought from Israel is a “token of the expression of Israel’s appreciation to the people of the United States and to its large and most devoted Jewish community. May this torch symbolize the strong bonds which bind our two democracies.”
In his short address, Rockefeller, calling this an “inspiring anniversary,” expressed the solidarity and admiration of the people of New York with the people of Israel. “We share with you in the pride, the sense of achievement, the victory of the human spirit that Israel’s very existence represents.” Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s Ambassador to the US, praised the American Jewish community for the role it played during the 25-year history of the State of Israel.
Presiding at the ceremonies was Jacob Stein, chairman of both the 25th Anniversary Committee and the Presidents Conference. He said, “We celebrate, conscious of the somber events of recent days, a quarter of a century of human courage, of devotion and faith in the face of incredible odds of the will of a people to live and build as free men, no matter what.”
The lighting ceremony was accompanied by a narrative detailing Israel’s twenty-five-year-old history. The twenty-five branched candelabra used for the lighting ceremonies was specially designed for the occasion by the noted sculptor Ludwig Wolpert, resident artist of the Jewish Museum of New York City.
The lighters of the candelabra, in addition to Rockefeller, Ribicoff, Stein and Kol were: Albert E. Arent, National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council; Rabbi William Berkowitz, president, New York Board of Rabbis; Rev. L. Maynard Catchings, associate general secretary National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States; Melvin Dubinsky, United Israel Appeal; Abraham Feinberg, New York City Committee to Celebrate Israel’s 25th Anniversary; Father Edward H. Flannery, Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish Relations, National Conference of Catholic Bishops; Samuel Hausman, treasurer, United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York; Moses Hornstein, treasurer, Synagogue Council of America; Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, chairman, American Section of the World Zionist Organization; Mrs. Mae N. Matzkin, president, Hadassah.
Other lighters were Rabbi Israel Miller, chairman, American Zionist Federation; Rabbi Israel Mowshowitz, member of the board of trustees, American Zionist Youth Foundation; Jacob Potofsky, president, Amalgamated Clothing Workers; Samuel Rothberg, general chairman, Israel Bonds; Bayard Rustin, executive director, A. Phillips Randolph Institute; Rabbi Solomon Sharfman, vice chairman, New York Board of Rabbis; Charles Silver, president, International Synagogue; Jacqueline K. Levine, vice president, Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds; Meyer Weisgal, Rehovot, Israel, Chancellor, Weizmann Institute of Science; Norbert Wolheim, vice-president, World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Survivors; and Paul Zuckerman, general chairman, United Jewish Appeal.
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.
