Various Zionist festive affairs scheduled to take place here today were cancelled as expressions of mourning over the sudden death of Eliezer Kaplan, Israel’s Deputy Premier.
The opening of the Israeli exhibition at Rockefeller Plaza this Thursday will be converted into a memorial for the late Israeli statesman. A public memorial meeting, arranged jointly by the Israel Consulate and American Zionist groups, will be held on the Day of Shivah, the seventh day after Mr. Kaplan’s death.
A memorial meeting of the Israel embassy staff was held today at the Embassy in Washington at which Ambassador Abba Eban eulogized the late member of the Israel Cabinet. A similar meeting, with the participation of Mr. Eban, will be held tomorrow at the Israel Consulate here.
The officers of the United Jewish Appeal issued a statement expressing their “deepest sorrow and sense of personal loss” at the death of Mr. Kaplan. The statement, signed by Edward M.M. Warburg, general chairman of the U.J.A., William Rosenwald, Rudolf G. Sonneborn, Jonah B. Wise, national chairman and Joseph J. Schwartz, executive vice-chairman, said in part:
“The officers of the United Jewish Appeal, and the great army of U.J.A. volunteers and contributors, came to know Eliezer Kaplan not only as the Treasurer of the Jewish Agency, and after 1948 as the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Israel, but as that one man who more than any other fought for and mobilized the great and necessary funds that in their time helped make possible the unprecedented reflowering of a desert land, the matchless victory of 1948, and all those miracles of achievement which since 1948 are recorded in the rescue and movement to Israel of hundreds of homeless men, women and children from lands of danger and oppression.”
The United Israel Appeal, in a statement issued by Rudolf Sonneborn, national chairman, and Ellis Radinsky, executive director, said: “On Eliezer Kaplan’s shoulders weighed the unprecedentedly formidable task of financing the doubling of a country’s population in four years’ time with a bare minimum of natural resources. He was concerned chiefly with human needs and fiscal problems; when they clashed, as they did because of Israel’s vast immigration program, he threw his authority behind human needs and worked continuously to cope with the manifold problems of bringing in needy newcomers from depressed areas throughout the world.”
The American Zionist Council, representing all Zionist groups in the United States, issued a statement declaring that Mr. Kaplan’s services to the establishment of Israel would go down in history as “one of the most brilliant, dedicated, and exemplary contributions.” The statement was signed by Louis Lipsky, chairman of the Council, and Judith Epstein, vice-chairman.
Mrs. Samuel J. Rosenschn, Hadassah president, said in a statement that the Hadassah mourns Mr. Kaplan’s death and that “he will be sorely missed by the Government and the people of Israel, by the Zionist movement and the Jewish people throughout the world.” The statement emphasized that “as a courageous and wise statesman, Mr. Kaplan won international admiration and respect” and that “his nobility of character, his integrity, simplicity, and the complete selflessness of his lifelong service to his people, will always be an inspiration to those who knew him.”
The National Committee for Labor Israel and numerous other Jewish organizations cabled messages of condolence to Premier David Ben Gurion. Henry Montor, vice-president of the State of Israel Bond Issue, left by plane to attend the funeral services for Mr. Kaplan. Mr. Montor was closely associated with Mr. Kaplan during the past 15 years in the mobilization of American financial support in behalf of Israel.
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.
