Three thousand Jews, gathered at the Public Theatre, Wednesday evening, to commemorate the twenty-sixth anniversary of the death of Theodore Herzl, heard the great Zionist leader extolled, and received the promises of prominent Zionists that peace and unity would exist in Zionist ranks as a result of the agreement reached between the Brandeis-Mack and Lipsky factions at the recent Cleveland Congress.
The meeting was marred by a twenty-minute disturbance caused by a small number who took violent objection to criticism of Zionist leaders made by Mordecai Danzis, Revisionists’ leader, who was one of the speakers. He was frequently interrupted and was compelled to leave his speech uncompleted when resentment at his statement that the Zionism of Herzl was not the Zionism of some present-day leaders, nor was it the “Zionism of Pinsk,” was manifested.
The entire meeting was thrown into a turmoil when argument between those approving his statements and those objecting threatened to terminate the proceedings. Order was only restored with great difficulty when Cantor Josef Rosenblatt began to sing, and the argument arose anew after he had concluded.
Harry J. Kahn, acting president of the New York Zionist Region, opened the meeting and introduced Emanuel Neuman, president of the Keren Kayemeth, who acted as chairman.
MEETING HAPPY OMEN
After paying tribute to Herzl and his principles, Mr. Neuman referred to the “happy circumstances” under which the meeting was being held and said, “There began in Cleveland nine years ago, a rift in the ranks of Zionists. There were principles involved, differences in ideology, methods and psychology. This year in Cleveland the rift in Zionism has been healed and for the first time in nine years there is a reunion of all Zionist forces in the country, a reunion of forces over which there presides the finest intellect and spirit in American Zionism—Justice Louis D. Brandeis.
“Surely it is a happy omen that the meeting is taking place in such a fashion tonight.
“There is a new administration in the Zionist Organization. It will recognize no groups, no divisions, no former condition of servitude. There will be henceforth, in the administration of the committee of eighteen, one goal and one purpose. We have had a peace without victory. Out of this meeting will come a message of peace, amity and unanimity.”
Jacob de Haas, chairman of the Committee on Organization of the Z. O. A., intimate associate and biographer of Herzl, dwelt on the personality of the man and the greatness of his accomplishments.
“He had the magic of compelling men to stand with him,” Mr. de Haas declared. “There is no mystery about him except that you, the vast majority of Jews, pay him the tribute of greatness, yet you do not read his works. No book has had such a profound effect on the Jewish State as his ‘The Jewish State,’ yet few of you know the book or read it.”
DE HAAS PLEADS FOR UNITY
Declaring that the greatest need today is for unity, Mr. de Haas pleaded for the abandonment of minor differences in recognition of the essential unity of the race, and referring to the disturbance that had taken place earlier in the evening, advised the audience they would do better in the “tumult of action in behalf of the Jewish State” than in tumult among themselves.
Other speakers included Louis Lipsky, honorary vice-chairman of the Zionist Organization, who described Herzl as “the symbol of all that is contained in the hearts of the Jewish people regarding the Jewish State, and the reflection to them of all their ideas.”
M. Rudansky made an appeal for aid for the Keren Kayemeth, and Cantor Rosenblatt, a choir led by Leon Kramer, and Yehuda Bloch, who read two poems, completed the commemorative program.
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.
