President Itzhak Ben Zvi sent a message of “sincere and brotherly good wishes for peace from Zion and Jerusalem” to “all our brethren of the house of Israel in all parts of the Disapora, wherever they may live.”
The President declared that the year just drawn to a close was “a year of difficult and incessant trial and struggle, a year of costly sacrifice for the State and its inhabitants.” He warned that “our struggle for the survival and progress of the State of Israel is not ended. We shall yet have to face days of hard toil and painful trials and additional efforts will yet be demanded of the people that dwells in Zion and of all our brethren and friends the world over.”
Premier David Ben Gurion described the past year as one of “grave anxiety and of deep concern for the peace of Israel” but also as a year “of substantial progress, of steady immigration and of continuous development throughout the country.”
The Israel leader said: “We meet the New Year not without cause for anxiety. But we have confidence in our own fighting strength and in the knowledge that Jewry the world over stands united in our support.
“To all the Jewish communities in the Diaspora we send from Israel our best wishes for a New Year of peace, security, freedom and progress; for a year of intensified Jewish unity in all countries and of a growing sense of international brotherhood. For ourselves, we wish a year of immigration, development and security in Israel. And to all our people in Israel and abroad, may it be a year of spiritual and material advancement, bringing us all nearer to the attainment of our ideals.”
CONTINUED SUPPORT OF WORLD JEWRY NECESSARY FOR ISRAEL, GOLDMANN DECLARES
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization and chairman of the Jewish Agency, declared that “Israel, today, is stronger than ever before. Despite this,” he warned, “the New Year will still challenge us with many vital and difficult problems. The Jews of North Africa are living on a volcano and their security in their countries and their right to emigrate to Israel will have to be secured. The door has been opened between world Jewry and the Jews of Eastern Europe. We still have to do everything possible to build up contacts with the great Jewish communities in the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries and try to bring them back into the active stream of Jewish life.”
“As for Israel,” Dr. Goldmann continued, “it faces crucial economic and political problems and the continued, undiminished support of the Jewish people in all parts of the world will be necessary to help Israel overcome its difficulties. But the experience of the past year gives us the right to hope and be convinced that by continuing to act in solidarity with Israel, by full cooperation of the Jewish communities everywhere, we will help solve the common problems which face us.”
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.
