Inquiries made by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today in authoritative quarters here elicited the reply that American Jews are barred from immigrating to Palestine as of tomorrow when the British White Paper ban on all new Jewish immigration to Palestine becomes effective.
No distinction will be drawn between American Jews and Jews of other countries with regard to the ban on Jewish entry to Palestine, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was told. The State Department could give no information on this subject while the British Embassy refused to make any official statement.
A petition signed by 1,500 American university professors urging President Roosevelt to act in behalf of free entry of Jews into Palestine was submitted to the White House today. The signatories included 71 college presidents and faculty members of 180 schools of higher learning in 41 states.
Declaring that “on the basis of legal right no less than of moral obligation, the Government of the United States is entitled and is called upon to intercede on behalf of the Jewish people,” the petition calls on President Roosevelt “to use the influence and power of your high office to the end that the doors of Palestine shall be opened for free entry of Jews into that country, and that there shall be full opportunity for colonization, so that the Jewish people may ultimately reconstitute Palestine as a free and democratic Jewish Commonwealth.”
President Roosevelt’s distinction between the military and civil aspects of the Palestine situation at his press conference Tuesday “gives reason to expect that when the military situation crystalizes the problem will be resolved in keeping with the traditional policy of the U. S. Government and the people as expressed in the Palestine resolutions introduced in Congress,” Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said today, at a press luncheon held at the Hotel Statler here. “If the military advises deferment, we accede but at the first available moment when the military situation becomes improved we expect the resolutions to be considered on their merits,” he said.
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.
