Dollars for Israel

ORGANIZATIONS Dollars for Israel Beneath the warm smile of Israel's visiting Foreign Minister Golda Meir, some 300 U.S. Jewish leaders met in Manhattan's Savoy-Plaza Hotel last week to plan a great new outpouring of American dollars for Israel. Before Feb. 28, said the Israel Bond Organization, it hoped to raise $20 million; before the end of 1957 it hoped to raise a total of $75 million designed to improve immigrant housing, speed up industrialization and "fill the gap in Israel's development budget created by the loss of other sources of economic aid [e.g., a slowdown of U.S. economic aid] during the present crisis."

Since Israel was created eight years ago, American Jews have sent more than $700 million in charitable contributions and more than $270 million in cash from bond sales. The bond sales alone amount to an astonishing 35% of Israel's special development budget, and match the federal expenditures of the U.S. Government for the first 26 years of its existence. Foreign Minister Meir, just back in Manhattan after touring the U.S. on behalf of Bonds for Israel, was both grateful and impressed over the current outpouring of funds. "I have found that everyone recognizes that Israel's position in seeking assurances with regard to its security and other vital interests is fully justified," said she, adding that "the central role in building our economic strength has been played by Israel bonds."

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