The national Non-Zionist Conference Concerning Palestine will be held at the Hotel Bitimore, New York City, on October 20-21, according to an announcement made last night by Louis Marshall, president of the American Jewish Committee.
The main purpose of the Conference is to determine the participation of American non-Zionists in the enlarged Jewish Agency, in accordance with the terms of the Mandate for Palestine held by the British Government.
The Conference will act upon the report of the Palestine Survey Commission which was created by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, and Mr. Louis Marshall, representing the non-Zionist elements, for the purpose of framing a comprehensive and systematic program for the future upbuilding of Palestine and for the guidance of a reorganized Jewish Agency.
The commission responsible for the experts’ report submitted in London last June was a bi-partisan body c## sisting of Felix M. Warburg, I## K. Frankel, and Oscar Wasse## president of the Deutsche Ba### Berlin.
At the forthcoming Conferer the Biltmore there will be repr## the leading elements of America ## ry movement. Lord Melchet ## Alfred Mond). who arrived ### country, will in all probability the Conference.
Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president the World Zionist Organization pected to arrive here from early in October and will re## New York City during the se## the Conference.
As far back as February, Non-Partisan Conference to Palestinian problems was held York upon the invitation Marshall, Colonel Herbert F ## Dr. Cyrus Adler, and Jud ## M. Stern. That conference ## in the creation of the Pale### nomic Corporation. It was re### early in 1925 at which time ### tion was adopted calling for ## tion and recognition of a Jewish ## pursuant to the Mandate which shall consist of a Council and of an Executive Committee in both of which bodies there shall be substantial non-Zionist representation of responsible American Jewish organizations.
The next step was the designation by Dr. Weizmann and Mr. Marshall in June, 1927, of a body of experts under the leadership of four commissioners. The experts, who conducted an extensive investigation of the resources and economic conditions of Palestine, included Sir John Campbell, formerly vice-chairman of the Greek Refugee Settlement Commission; Dr. Elwood Mead, United States Commissioner of Reclamation; Professor J. G. Lipman, director of the New Jersey State Agricultural Experiment Station; Professor Frank Adams, of the University of California; Mr. C. Q. Henriques, late of the Public Works Department of the Government of India, an authority on irrigation; Mr. Knowles Ryerson, Horticultural Adviser to the Government of Haiti; Mr. A. T. Strahorn, of the Bureau of Soil, U. S. Department of Agriculture; Dr. Leo Wolman, Labor Adviser to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Union; Professor Milton J. Rosenau, director of the School of Public Health at Harvard University; and Dr. Charles F. Wilinsky, Deputy Commissioner of Health of the City of Boston.
“This gathering of representative non-Zionists from all over the country,” declared Mr. Marshall, when interviewed on the subject of the Conference, “is a momentous event in the history of American Jewry. It is the culmination of five years of negotiations between leading non-Zionists and Zionists.
“The hour has come for the Jews of this country to adopt a definite course of action concerning Palestine,” continued Mr. Marshall. “The problem of the Holy Land has long since passed the stage of theoretical discussion. The status of Palestine has been politically defined through the British Mandate and the action of the Great Powers. It will be recalled that in 1922 the Congress of the United States unanimously endorsed the British Mandate for Palestine, favoring the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.
“The enlarged Jewish Agency is not a matter of speculation or of aspiration. The Mandate for Palestine, provisionally recognizing the Zionist Organization as the Jewish Agency, specifically provides that ‘it shall take steps in the consultation with His Britannic Majesty’s Government to secure the cooperation of all Jews who are willing to assist in the establishment of the Jewish national home.’
“The non-Zionist Jews of America have been called upon to lend their cooperation in the work of upbuilding Palestine. It will be the task of the Conference next month to define our responsibility in unmistakable terms and in accord with our position as loyal American citizens. The Jews of America who are not Zionists have a right and a duty to say what we shall do with regard to Palestine and its development, and the Conference next month will say it with authority.”
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.
