[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does indicate approval-Editor.]
Wide comment in the Jewish press of Poland was caused by a recent incident in Tel Aviv, Palestine, when Dr. M. Glickson, editor of the Hebrew daily, "Ha’aretz," was slapped in the face by a Polish Jewish immigrant.
The incident was a result of an article published in that paper, in which Jewish immigrants from Poland, particularly Jewish girls, were criticized. Reflection was cast in the article upon the morality of some of the immigrants. It was stated that the act of the Polish Jewish young man in slapping the editor was the climax of a reaction among Polish Jews who recently arrived to the attitude of the older Russian Jewish settlers which often resulted in discrimination.
Urging the Zionist Organization of Poland to intervene in the matter, the "Lodzer ###ageblatt" of July 6 declares: "We are not in any way in agreement with the manner of protecting the honor of Polish Jews adopted by the young man who has insulted Dr. Glickson. Indeed, the Organization of Polish Jews in Palestine on the following day condemned in the sharpest manner the avenging of grievances in such a manner. Notwithstanding this, the unfortunate incident was magnified and has provided a new opportunity for speaking disrespectfully of Polish Jews. Naturally the other party, the attacked Polish Jews have not remained silent. As a result, there has been created in Palestine a union of all Central European groups consisting of Jews from Poland, Roumania, Germany, Austria, etc, and all are joined in common action against the present Zionist Executive in Palestine and against a protectionism which prevails in certain departments there."We see thus at a time when an economic crisis prevails, a crisis which must be alleviated at any price and at a time when the energy of all forces of Jewish Palestine must be applied to improving the situation and to helping the continuous development of the country, at such a responsible moment when the unity and cooperation of the entire population is necessary, the ‘Hishub’ was divided into hostile camps. The campaign of the Palestine press is being continued and has brought Jewish Tel Aviv to a ‘state of war.’
"There must prevail a calmer attitude of mind. And end must be put to the campaign which is now being conducted by some Hebrew papers in Palestine, for this is not the way to reconstruct the Jewish homeland," the paper concludes.
The same question is the subject of an editorial in the "Israelite Press" of Winnipeg, Canada, which states:
"The truth of the matter is that there prevails among us a strong feeling of unjustified hatred between one part of Jewry and another; Jews of one country have an antipathy toward their brethren of another country. Harmful as such a phenomena may be in Diaspora countries, it is a thousand times more harmful in Palestine, where unity and harmony in the work of reconstruction must prevail and where every Jew who comes to Palestine to build up the country must be considered as one of the people. It is regrettable that also in Palestine there are people who divide the returning Jews according to the geographical locations of the countries from which they come, and instead of a unified Palestine Jewry we have there Polish Jews, Russian Jews, etc., a circumstance which leads to a split, instead of unity and peace.
"Such a state of affairs is not permissible, particularly in Palestine, where geographic divisions must be erased-divisions which have cost our people so much. To act otherwise, would mean-following false paths."
WHAT IS MEANT BY "CONCESSIONS"?
The connection between the extension of the Jewish Agency and the attitude towards the Russian Colonization plan is the subject of an editorial in the "Day."
Commenting upon recent London despatches that Dr. Weizmann has promised the members of the Actions Committee not to grant "further concessions" to American non-Zionists, the paper observes:
"If there was any bargaining between the non-Zionists and the Zionist World Organization concerning the conditions of creating the Jewish Agency, it centered exclusively around the question of control of the new organization. The matter was settled at the last Zionist Congress in Vienna, where the principle of equal participation of both parties was adopted. Now, there can be no question of any concessions, if by ‘concessions’ is meant the acceptance of important points which touch the very core of the Zionist work in Palestine. There can be a question only of purely personal and narrow party disputes, which both sides-certain American Zionists and leaders of the non-Zionist elements of America, may want to push to the foreground as dividing lines in American Jewry. This controversy, which has assumed a distinct form since the Jewish colonization in Russia has begun to attract more and more the attention of Jewish public opinion, is now to serve as the trench-line from which Weizmann must not retreat for one step nor make the slightest concession.
"If this is the sort of concession against which the warning was sounded, we hope that Weizmann will make this concession all the sooner and in a more thorough manner. For, neither the Zionist Organization of America nor even the non-Zionists of the Marshall group, the Joint Distribution Committee, of the Reform temples, of the Centers, and of the other groups which have lately come nearer to Zionism, can gain anything from continuing this harmful controversy which now divides American Jewry. The sooner ‘concessions’ in the direction of peace are made–and by both sides–the better for the welfare of the Jews in America and the Jews in other countries," the paper states.
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.
