An appeal to the Jewish people to bear witness to their loyalty to the Jewish National Home in Palestine by heightened energy and redoubled achievement, despite the crushing blow dealt to Zionist hopes by the British statement on policy and the report of Sir John Simpson, was issued here tonight by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who yesterday resigned the presidency of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency.
Dr. Weizmann declares that he decided to resign the two offices and has informed the government of his action. The fact that he has taken this step after twelve years of leadership of the Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency, “in itself expresses the view that I take of the government statement,” he said. “It is my emphatic protest against the one-sided and unjust criticism of our work and of my refusal to accept a policy which is a direct contradiction to the solemn promises of the British nation and of the text of the Mandate,” he added.
AGENCY WILL REPLY
The Zionist Congress and the council of the Jewish Agency will be given
an opportunity without delay to answer the statement of the government in the name of the Jewish people, Dr. Weizmann asserted. He said he was convinced that their reply would be a worthy one.
On relinquishing the leadership of the Zionist movement, Dr. Weizmann declared, he was impelled to address a word to the Jewish people, “to the countless legions which adhere in unswerving loyalty to Zion. A stern test is before us, a time of struggle against new resistances and obstacles, but these fall upon a nation inured to adversity fit and ready to overcome them, a nation which has learned to rely on its own unaided strength.
“For what else has been the work on the Jewish National Home than a new chapter in that unique struggle extending over thousands of years which the Jewish people waged for its future and its immortality with sacrifices innumerable? And when we survey our work in Palestine isn’t it our pride that by our own strength we have built up an agriculture, that by our own labor we have created an industry while our university is an expression of our own spirit?
APPEALS TO CREATIVE POWER
“I appeal to the creative power of our people which believes in itself and in its great destiny, I myself cherishing these beliefs to the depths of my soul. To the Jewish community in Palestine I say stand fast in the tempered strength of your will and build on. We shall continue our work undaunted and single-minded.
“To the friends of Zion in all lands I say close ranks and bear witness to your loyalty to the Jewish National Home in word and deed by heightened energy and redoubled achievement. Prove to the world what Palestine is to us. We shall stand by it undismayed and bring to it our tribute of love and devotion.”
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.
