The general assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, attended by 500 Jewish welfare leaders at the Southern Hotel, today elected Sidney Hollander, of Baltimore, as president in a day of business sessions which followed last evening’s opening session featuring a symposium on emigration problems. Mr. Hollander succeeds William J. Shroder, of Cincinnati, who was elected chairman of the board. William Rosenwald, of Greenwich, Conn., Henry Wineman, of Detroit, and Ira M. Younker, of New York, were reelected vice-presidents. Elias Mayer, of Chicago, was elected secretary, succeeding Dr. Solomon Lowenstein, of New York, who was named treasurer.
New members of the board of directors are Jacob Blaustein, president of Associated Jewish Charities of Baltimore; Henry Monsky, of Omaha, president of B’nai B’rith; Jesse Steinhart, San Francisco, president of the Western States Region of the council; Edward M.M. Warburg, New York; A. Richard Frank, Chicago; S. Mason Ehrmann, Portland, Ore.; Joseph Goldstein, Rochester, N.Y.; David Watchmaker, Boston; Mrs. Sidney C. Borg, New York; Mrs. Irving Metzler, Los Angeles; Donald Kaffenburgh, Hartford, and Robert J. Koshland, San Francisco.
Today’s four business sessions were devoted to discussion of “Welfare Fund Policies in Time of Crisis,” aimed at arriving at a consensus on local funds’ responsibilities and the degree of emphasis to be placed on the various programs of aid; council affairs, including changes in the by-laws and discussion of the budget, as well as elections, and, in the evening, “Community Relationships” was the subject of discussion.
Varying viewpoints on the advisability of one large Jewish colonization project or several small ones were presented last night in the symposium on “The New Dispersion — Promised Land.” The need of “a large enough suitable undeveloped country where Jews could come as Jews” was stressed by Dr. Joseph A. Rosen, president of the Agrojoint, who said that British Guiana gave the most promise. George L. Warren, executive secretary of the President’s Advisory Committee on Political Refugees and director of the International Migration Service, said that colonization in many small areas would minimize the risks of failure in one place. Others on the speakers’ list for the opening session were Jan Masaryk, former Czechoslovakian Minister to London; George Backer, vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, and Mr. Blaustein, presiding.
Dr. Rosen said that “no accumulation of so-called infiltration settlement projects into various countries offers a tangible solution” of the refugee problem. “There is,” he declared, “an urgent and crying necessity to find a large enough suitable undeveloped country where Jews would come as Jews — not to be smuggled in disguise to develop the country, and not to run the risk of being asked to get out after they have helped to develop it, and where permission to come in would not depend on the good will of somebody else, but on our own ability to build up the country.”
Eliminating Palestine because of “political difficulties,” and terming the several colonization projects under consideration as “more or less promising,” Dr. Rosen declared that “preference must be given to a territorial project if such should become possible.” British Guiana, he said,
“seemed to be the only bona fide territorial proposition. It therefore deserves at least a thorough investigation by a group of competent experts whose terms of reference would be to determine whether and how and what could be done with the country in spite of the obvious well known difficulties.”
In addition, he stressed the necessity of settlement on land of refugees coming to the United States and establishment of a central bureau for coordination of settlement, with one branch for coordination of projects outside the United States and one for coordination of projects in this country.
Mr. Warren took the position that many areas might have to be located, capable of absorbing comparatively smaller numbers. “Such areas,” he said, “might be those in which pioneer settlement has already begun and in which sufficient experience has developed to warrant the infusion of new settlers who might advance the settlement further into uninhabited areas under the advice and leadership of those already living there. One advantage in favor of the consideration of many small areas is that the risks of failure in one place for substantial numbers of emigrants would be greatly reduced.”
While cooperation between governments and private agencies has been impressive, Mr. Warren said, “the problem is so vast that it will require even greater effort on the part of governments and private agencies to achieve a solution.” He emphasized that the United Jewish Appeal could not be expected to provide the capital for any mass colonization project which would emerge, such plans requiring the raising of capital on an investment basis.
Mr. Masaryk urged the delegates to help several hundred thousand people to settle in Palestine and “get away from the clutches of the devil.” He said that Palestine could absorb a large number of new settlers. “The Jews,” he said, “are merely one of the many groups on the spot. Germany needed an outlet for the ‘new heroism’ which follows the line of least resistance. The Jews were the first victims, the Czechs the second. We are both suffering from this same blizzard of cruelty, selfishness and megalomania. I am sure both of us will survive it.”
Mr. Masaryk called upon “the genius of American advertising” to sell democracy to the American people in order to counteract “the magnificent propaganda of totalitarian states.”
Mr. Backer urged the uniting of all Jewish forces to assist the European Jews. He asked the submerging of all differences of opinion in the light of the needs of the emergency.
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.
