A denial of a report of an interview with Dr. Joseph A. Rosen, head of the Agrojoint, the agency of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, in charge of the agricultural work in Russia, issued by the Rosta, the official Soviet telegraphic agency, was made yesterday in a statement issued by the headquarters of the United Jewish Campaign.
The report, which was circulated throughout Europe and in several American newspapers, including the London and New York editions of the “Jewish Daily Bulletin,” quoted, according to the Rosta, Dr. Rosen as having said inter alia that “the Americans have finally been convinced that the national question in the Soviet countries has been properly solved and that therefore the Zionist demands for Palestine are no longer received sympathetically” and that “the Joint Distribution Committee which is campaigning for $25,000,000 in the United States has secured $20,000,000 within a few months, while the Zionists raised a much smaller sum.”
The newspaper reports also quoted Dr. Rosen as speaking of the posibility of the United States granting recognition to the Soviet government.
The statement issued by the United Jewish Campaign made public the following cable received from Dr. Rosen:
“Moscow, July 6, 1926. Jewish Telegraphic Agency Bulletin London Edition June twenty-ninth carries presumed interview with me with reference to American Jewry and Jewish colonization. Interview partly fabrication, partly gross misrepresentation. Never gave or will give any interviews of political nature. Can accept responsibility only for statements appearing under my signature. Please request Bulletin to publish this statement.–Rosen”
The alleged interview was referred to during the discussion at the Zionist Convention on the Russian colonization plan and was one of the arguments for the adoption of the now famous resolution which caused the controversy between the Zionist Organization of America and the Joint Distribution Committee.
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.
