Page 7 - HaShofar 5709 1948
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-HAPOEL HAMIZRACHI . IN 5708
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By RABBI HAROLD P, SMITH
.The .yeat 5708, that historica.l turn of the calen. tzim has been kept alive because ·of our .year's
work, then our entire year has been a glorious
dar, which brought to world Jewry the partial re- . success. And you may be sure ·that .the money we
alization of a two thousand year old dreani, was have sent has saved not one, but dozens of our
also concomitantly tl'!e most successful year in the Chaverim.
history of Hapoel ·Hamizrachi of Chicago.
aAt this glorious -time· in Jewish histo;y, the ~ery
Our colonies, together · with the entire .Yishuv,
. found themselves in the. greatest emergency crisis first year, after 2;000 Galut years, that. Jewish
State factiially exists in Eretz Y1srael,' there can
certainly be no better feeling . than that; the feeiing
athat we have made contribution, in either small
or large 'measure, to,.the cre_ation. of t~at _State.
This year demonstrated -to us a very important
point in terms .of_ "Hashkafa"~outlook. The year
before we had raised $50,000 plus over $10,000
in concrete .Overs.eas Relief food and clothing, and
about $15,000 for. Jewish National Fund. It was
felt by some that . we had reached our top , that
Hapoel Hamizrachi hardly had the capacity to- ex-
ceed these amounts. This past year has demon:.
.strated what many of us sincerely _believe and
preach, •that Hapoel Haniizrachi has no · top. Our
top is Heaven. . When we get there, we'll sto~·
but not until then. We greatly' exceeded last year'~ ·
totals in -every department. · ·
in the history of the -Yishuv, and the response of We have demonstrated to ourselves and to all ·of
Chicago Jewry that we are · no longer an.."up-and
o'ur Chicago chaverim was ·gratifying. · Whether coming" Zionist organizatiop. We have definitely
arrived. We are now a major organization in Chi-
what happened to K:far Etzion is to some extent cago's Jewish life, and nobody can ever again
ch~llenge that statement.
our fault or not, is hard to say, but it may safely
·be asserted that our. Chaverim met their responsi- theThre~ years ago we· ~rranged for an opening
bilities this year with a considerable measure ·of affair at the Gold Room of Congress Hotel
with such trepidation that the collective heartbeats
conscientiousness. . of our members well-nigh caused ·earth tremors.
Since that time, every opening _and closing affair,
.It is unfortunate .that ~me of the primary .gauges some of them under conditions of miserable
weather, have been in·.much larger places than the
of success should have to be in terms of nioney Gold Room of •the Congress Hotel, and we have
had overflowing crowds in each instance, last year
raised but, alas, in -these critical hours it cannot at the Terrace Casino of the. Morrison Hotel and
this year at .the Grand Ballro~m of the Hamilton
be otherwise. Possibly-the years to come may bring Hotel. And everybody knows that our Culmination
Affairs certainly are those of a major organiza-
a situation wherein all financing of Israel's devel- tion that lives up to its reputation. · .
opment may be done-on government level, without
outsi_de assistance, . -but ·at the · present time •you · · It is my feeli~g that ou~ reputation and p~estige
have risen to · greater heights than ever before.
-must in addition to other criteria judge your su9- Chicago Jews are no -longer teHing us they never
heard of us. They are no .longer speaking of us
cess or failure by the amount of money you have
as the group with· the funny sounding name. They
raised to bolster the position ·of the Yish'IJ,v. Thank
are speaking of . us as Hapoel Hamizrachi_ of
G-d, by this yardstick of measurement as· by oth- Chicago, an organization with active and devoted
ers, Hapoel Hamizrachi of Chicago has not failed. workers, ·one which raises large sums of money for
Israel, . and which has thos,e many - classes.. and
We can honestly -say that ·we have worked con- all those junior groups; that organization of ideal-
ism and consecration, the one group that suffers .·
scientiously and diligently. We can truly feel that from 'lack of . space ?t Sabbath ·and _holiday ser-
the money we have --sent over this past _year in
· days when it was :m,ost critically needed has cer.:
tainly.. saved the •lives of .many of our Cha'verim
in the Yishuv.. Very often do I. think qi some of
the wonderful young people l have inet in _our
colonies, and feel tli.at if only one of those Cha~u-
. OCTOBER, ·.J948 5
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