Remarks by William D. Hess, President of AZM
Commemoration of Stephen Theodore Norman
Washington, DC 12-03-07 / 23 Kislev 5768
Mr. Ambassador, Rabbi Wohlberg, distinguished Rabbis, Cantors, Jewish educators, invited guests, fellow Zionists, ladies and gentlemen, Shalom. I am Bill Hess, President of the American Zionist Movement, representing the World Zionist Organization in the United States. I bring greetings from Mr. Ze’ev Bielsky, Chair of the Zionist Executive and the Jewish Agency Executive and Mr. Chagai Meirom Treasurer of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel on this most moving and auspicious day for the Zionist movement.
The Ingathering of the Exiles is a expressed desire for Israel and the Jewish people as old as the formulation of the thrice daily repeated Amidah prayer which states in explicit terms: "Blessed is the One who gathers in the dispersed of the People Israel."
Today we honor Theodor Herzl’s only grandchild and his only descendent to have visited Palestine and embrace the Zionist movement. As were my own grandparents when they visited Palestine from America in the late 1930's, Stephen Norman was stunned at the contrast between the Jews he saw there, tanned, in charge of their lives and seemingly their destinies, and the beleaguered Jewish communities he knew in Europe.
"I want to sleep with my family, with my people, in my own land, a land who wants me." Those are words attributed to Stephen Theodore Norman.
Aliyah, ascending to Israel and Jerusalem, is the highest ideal of the Zionist movement.
Stephen Theodore Norman, the Zionist movement is calling you to the shelter of your homeland today according to your stated wishes. We are bringing you back home; we now call it Israel and we are 60 years into our enterprise in statehood. Your people are no longer homeless. We live freely in own country and settle own affairs according to our own laws and statues. Today, the majority of the Jewish people has settled in and on the land. Most Israelis speak Hebrew, the language the Zionists revived after millennia of limited use. In this year, 5767, 2007 we celebrate 110 years of the Zionist movement founded by your grandfather, 60 years of statehood for Israel and 40 years since Jerusalem was united as our capital. Yes it has been difficult. No, the world does not necessarily want us there; but we intend to remain there with you, your illustrious grandfather and the rest of your family forever.
