Is “Tel Aviv” a Nazi Steamer?
The Jewish press in America has been stirred by the news this week that the steamer Tel Aviv, the so-called first Jewish steamer in Palestine, carries the Nazi flag. Cables flew to Jerusalem and back to establish whether the report was correct. A reply reached New York saying that the Tel Aviv does not fly the swastika.
Whether or not the swastika is being flown on the first Jewish steamer is perhaps not so important as it is to establish whether the profits which this steamer will yield are to remain in Palestine or in Nazi Germany.
A VESSEL RENAMED
The Tel Aviv is nothing more than a former German boat renamed from “Hohenstein” to Tel Aviv.” It is true that it is owned by Arnold Bernstein, but it must not be forgotten that the Arnold Bernstein Company is a German company with headquarters in Hamburg. The profits of the Tel Aviv may therefore remain in Hamburg rather than in Palestine.
Should the latter be the case, sailing on the Tel Aviv will amount to a new breach of the boycott which the Jews have proclaimed against Nazi Germany. There is, after all, no reason why Jews in America should refuse to sail on German steamers such as the Bremen, the Europa or the Hamburg and should not refuse to sail on the Hohenstein just because it was renamed Tel Aviv. The Nazis may not like the Jews, but to help their shipping industry they would give ten of their steamers Jewish names.
A NAZI CAMOUFLAGE?
Whether Jews should patronize or boycott the first Jewish steamer, the Tel Aviv, therefore depends not only on whether the liner displays the swastika, but on a clear and a definite statement as to whether this Jewish-named steamer is really a Palestine vessel or whether it is one of the German steamers camouflaged by a Jewish name just to attract new income to the German shipping industry.
The fact that the first passenger to land in Palestine from the Tel Aviv was none other than the correspondent of the Voelkischer Beobachter gives ground for belief that the Tel Aviv is more German than Jewish. It may be true that Arnold Bernstein’s company of Hamburg has bought this vessel, but as long as it is not officially registered as a Palestine ship it remains part of the German commercial fleet.
THE TEL AVIV IN NAZI WAR
In the face of the present war ambitions displayed by Nazi Germany this week, there is no doubt that every steamer registered with Germany’s commercial fleet will in the very near future be mobilized for military purposes. The vessel now named Tel Aviv—provided it is still a part of the German marine—will therefore be compelled soon to change its name again to Hohenstein or some other German name. The Jews will then not only be disillusioned, but they will actually feel like fools for having made a fuss about a steamer which is a part of the Nazi fleet.
A clear cut statement from the Arnold Bernstein Company as to who is the actual owner of the steamer Tel Aviv and as to whether or not the income from this steamer must be deposited in the German Reichsbank, just like the income from any other German steamer—and only such a statement will clarify the matter. It is for such a statement that the Jews of the world have a right to ask now, when the boycott against Germany has been acknowledged by all elements of world Jewry, including those who hitherto opposed it.
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.
