CHARGING “MISMANAGEMENT, WASTE, EXTRAVAGANCE AND MISINFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC” IN ADMINISTRATION OF THE KEREN HAYESOD (PALESTINE FOUNDATION FUND), ISIDORE D. MORRISON, PIONEER AMERICAN ZIONIST LEADER, TODAY ANNOUNCED HIS RESIGNATION FROM THE FUND’S ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE AND ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS, AND FROM THE UNITED PALESTINE APPEAL BOARD, ON WHICH HE REPRESENTED THE KEREN HAYESOD.
MR. MORRISON’S RESIGNATION, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, WAS MADE KNOWN IN A LETTER TO LOUIS LIPSKY, CHAIRMAN OF THE KEREN HAYESOD ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE.
ALLEGED EFFORTS OF THE KEREN HAYESOD MANAGEMENT TO DOMINATE THE CAMPAIGN OF THE UNITED PALESTINE APPEAL, THROUGH PROPOSED APPOINTMENT OF ROBERT SILVERMAN AS ITS SOLE NATIONAL DIRECTOR IN 1938 WAS AN IMMEDIATE FACTOR BEHIND MR. MORRISON’S RESIGNATION. MR. MORRISON, AN ATTORNEY, HAS BEEN ACTIVE IN THE AMERICAN ZIONIST MOVEMENT FOR FORTY YEARS, HAVING BEEN AMONG THE FOUNDERS OF THE FEDERATION OF AMERICAN ZIONISTS IN 1897.
IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY, MR. MORRISON VOICED THE VIEW THAT THE VARIOUS ZIONIST ORGANIZATIONS HERE HAD OUTLIVED THEIR USEFULNESS AND SHOULD EITHER BE REORGANIZED ALONG ENTIRELY DIFFERENT LINES OR SCRAPPED. HE SAID THE ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, THE MIZRACHI ORGANIZATION AND THE POALE-ZIONIST (LABORITE) ORGANIZATION HAD DEGENERATED INTO POLITICAL, PROPAGANDA BODIES.
FUNDS ALLOCATED TO THESE GROUPS BY THE UNITED PALESTINE APPEAL, HE DECLARED, WERE BETTER USED FOR THE PURPOSE TO WHICH THEY WERE INTENDED BY THE GIVERS, NAMELY, UPBUILDING OF THE JEWISH NATIONAL HOME IN PALESTINE. THE ABOVE-NAMED GROUPS SHOULD BE DISBANDED IF THEY CANNOT BE MADE SELF-SUPPORTING, MR. MORRISON SAID.
“AMERICAN JEWS,” HE ASSERTED, “ARE NOW AND HAVE LONG BEEN PALESTINE-CONSCIOUS. WHATEVER PROPAGANDA IS NECESSARY FOR THE RAISING OF FUNDS ON BEHALF OF PALESTINE CAN BETTER BE TAKEN CARE OF BY THE UNITED PALESTINE APPEAL ITSELF.”
MR. MORRISON, IN A LETTER TO DR. STEPHEN S. WISE, CHAIRMAN OF THE UNITED PALESTINE APPEAL, RESIGNED FROM ITS ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE AND ITS FINANCE AND BUDGET COMMITTEE. HE VOICED HIS REGRET THAT, HAVING BOTH ENLISTED IN THE ZIONIST CAUSE AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME, HE COULD NOT “IN THE EVENING OF OUR LIVES… CONTINUE SERVING WITH YOU AND UNDER YOU.”
MR. MORRISON INDICATED THAT HE WOULD CONTINUE HIS FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF PALESTINE UPBUILDING EFFORTS.
HIS LETTER TO MR. LIPSKY FOLLOWS IN PART:
“SINCE THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE, WHICH WILL SET UP THE ADMINISTRATION (OF THE UNITED PALESTINE APPEAL), IS TO BE HAND-PICKED BY YOU, IT SEEMS CERTAIN THAT YOUR MAN (ROBERT) SILVERMAN, REGARDLESS OF HIS PAST RECORD IN AND OUT OF THE UNITED PALESTINE APPEAL, WILL BE ENGAGED TO CONDUCT THE 1938 CAMPAIGN AND THAT THE ADMINISTRATION WILL BE MADE UP ONLY OF SUCH MEN AS ARE AGREEABLE TO YOU, WITH THE INEVITABLE RESULT THAT THE MISMANAGEMENT, WASTE, EXTRAVAGANCE AND MISINFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC WILL CONTINUE. THUS, IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE FEARS I EXPRESSED IN MY LETTER OF SEPT. 25 TO DR. WISE THAT YOU AND YOUR GROUP WILL SEIZE CONTROL OF THE 1938 CAMPAIGN WERE FULLY JUSTIFIED.
“AS YOU KNOW, I AM ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF ORGANIZED ZIONISM IN THE UNITED STATES AND HAVE GIVEN FORTY YEARS OF EFFORT TO THE CAUSE BUT I AM UNWILLING TO HAVE MY NAME ASSOCIATED WITH A MANAGEMENT SUCH AS I HAVE OUTLINED ABOVE AND I, THEREFORE, HEREWITH RESIGN AS A MEMBER OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE OF THE KEREN HAYESOD AND OF ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS TO TAKE EFFECT IMMEDIATELY.
“I AM TAKING MY PLACE IN THE RANKS OF THE MANY EMINENT MEN OF ABILITY WHO HAVE FROM TIME TO TIME BEEN PUSHED OUT FROM ZIONIST ACTIVITIES ONLY BECAUSE THEY INSISTED UPON EXERCISING INDEPENDENT JUDGMENT AND WOULD NOT BECOME ‘YES MEN.'”
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.
