A plea to the U.S. Government and to leaders of the United Nations and of neutral lands to take speedy action to save the Jews in Europe from Nazi extermination was voiced here today in a resolution adopted by the 58th annual convention of the Hias, the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, attended by 2,500 delegates representing 1,000 religious, labor and fraternal organizations.
The convention also adopted a resolution pledging itself “to raise the sum of $1,000,000 for the conduct of Hias activities at home and abroad during 1943 and to prepare plans and an apparatus for the solution of Jewish emigration problems after the war.” A pledge to “give their all to the cause of America’s and the United Nations’ victory” was given by the delegates in a resolution which saluted President Roosevelt “with reverent affection.”
Impressive memorial exercises for the Jews massacred by the Nazis were held during the meeting which was addressed by U.S. Senator James M. Mead, Congressman Emanuel Celler and other prominent speakers. Mr. Abraham Herman, president of the Hias, moved the audience to tears when he told of the plight of the Jews in Nazi countries and how the Hias was responsible for helping thousands of them to reach the United States and other countries of safety. Isaac L. Asofsky, executive director of the Hias, reported on the activities of the Hias here and abroad.
DECIDES TO CALL CONFERENCE ON POST-WAR EMIGRATION
A conference of interested and qualified organizations to consider the problems of Jewish emigration that will arise after the war, will be called by Hias according to a resolution adopted by the convention in which the “formulation of a suitable and effective program of action and undertaking the training and equipment of the necessary apparatus which is to commence its large scale rescue work when the hour of victory and deliverance strikes,” were urged.
The role which Hias machinery will be called upon to play in the solution of the post-war Jewish emigration problems was discussed in a paper submitted to the convention by Mr. Max Gottschalk, director of the Research Institute on Peace and Post-War Problems of the American Jewish Committee and president of the Hias-Ica Emigration Association. He emphasized that the Hias will have an extensive organization in readiness to step in immediately after the war is won. Hias committees, he said, are still in existence in some countries now under Nazi domination. “We know they exist in Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Belgium, France, Shanghai and probably in some other countries also,” he declared.
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.
