“The Jews in Palestine are carrying on despite Mandates from Britain, despite anything. There were Jews in Palestine long before the Balfour Declaration. The Jew is so firmly rooted in Palestine that no external force can uproot him.”
This was the statement made by Miss Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah and member of the Jerusalem Zionist Executive who is now in this country, at a tea given in her honor Wednesday at the Hotel Commodore by the New York Chapter of Hadassah. Mrs. Edward Jacobs, newly elected national president of Hadasasah, referred to Miss Szold as “the great teacher” and asked her to remain in this country to breathe a new spirit into Hadassah.
The memory of Mrs. Nathan Straus, who was honorary vice-president of Hadassah, was eulogized by Dr. David de Sola Pool of the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the United States. In his eulogy of Mrs. Straus, Dr. Pool said that Mrs. Straus’ devotion “came to its fullest expression and most concordant fulfillment in her labors for her Jewish people and its homeland.”
Mrs. Felix Warburg was also lauded at the meeting for her services on behalf of Hadassah. In a letter to the organization, Mr. Nathan Straus regretted his inability to attend the meeting and expressed his appreciation for the services rendered to Hadassah by Miss Szold and Mrs. Warburg. In his letter Mr. Straus also declared that he will continue to devote his life to the work that Mrs. Straus and he had started.
Two thousand Hadassah members were present at the tea which was presided over by Mrs. David de Sola Pool. Mrs. Warburg received a certificate of the inscription of her name in the Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund. Among the speakers were Felix Warburg; Robert Szold, chairman of administration of the Zionist Organization of America; Mrs. Rebekah Kohut and the Rev. Dr. Louis I. Newman.
Referring to the British White Paper on Palestine, Mr. Szold declared that it “struck at the very heart of the Balfour Declaration.” Mr. Szold attacked particularly the restriction placed on immigration to Palestine because of unemployment there.
Mr. Warburg struck a note of hope as far as the White Paper and the Simpson report are concerned. He felt sure, he said, that things will come right in the end.
Some time in the future Britain would be confronted by the united front of Arabs and Jews in Palestine, declared Rabbi Newman.
“Patience is the keynote of Zionism. The task of building up the Homeland is not a matter of one generation,” declared Mrs. Edward Jacobs.
Sir Harry Gloster Armstrong, British Consul-General in New York, and Lady Armstrong, who were expected as guests of honor at the Hadassah tea, failed to attend.
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.
