Sixteen thousand dollars in cash and $5,000 additional in pledges was raised yesterday afternoon at a luncheon at the Hotel Waldorf Astoria by the Women’s League for Palestine, which has launched a drive for the completion of a Tel Aviv home, now being built, for Jewish refugees from Germany and elsewhere.
Addressing the league, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise urged the 400 members and guests present to redouble their efforts in aiding refugees who are now flocking to the Jewish homeland. He made the statement he would rather be dead than share the fate of a German exile.
Professor Albert Einstein, former Governor Alfred E. Smith and Samuel Untermyer, were among the notables who sent messages stressing the necessity of public support for the work the League is doing in sheltering and training German refugees and other pioneer girls in the League’s hostels in Palestine.
Mrs. William Prince, president of the League, who presided at the luncheon, declared that the hostel for which the League is seeking funds is similar to the home which the Women’s League had built in Haifa, the port city of Palestine, in 1931, and which has since sheltered more than five hundred girls from sixteen different countries, including America and England.
A letter from Mayor Dizengoff of the all-Jewish city of Tel-Aviv, was read describing the great need for the home in Tel Aviv, where the influx of thousands of German refugees had made it necessary to erect temporary barracks for shelter. The plot of land for the building has been donated by the municipality.
In his message, former Governor Smith said: “Generous public support is essential for the furtherance of this very necessary work of preparing refugees from Germany to take care of themselves in the new life into which they are forced through no fault of their own.”
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.
