UJA Parley Hears Mead Demand Anglo-american Committee Make Interim Report Immediately

Senator James M. Mead of New York, speaking here today at the Central Atlantic States Conference of the United Jewish Appeal, insisted that the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine report its findings at once because “the starving and homeless Jews of Europe have run out of time.

“The gates of Palestine must be opened at once,” Senator Mead said. “A Jewish homeland must be established now.” Citing the many delays and broken pledges of the past, the New York Senator pointed out that every now policy with respect to Palestine since 1922 has represented another violation of the Balfour Declaration.

He reviewed the great contribution made by Jews during the war and pointed to the intense suffering and privations still faced by Jews in Europe. “They may have been freed from the yoke of Nazi barbarism, but they still stand on the soil which symbolizes their slavery. They are still ground under the crushing tyranny of poverty, of disease, of homelessness and hopelessness.” The plight of these 1,400,000 Jews is not just another problem tossed up in the backwash of war, he continued, but must be solved within the “framework of the world democratic victory if the peace is to remain indivisible.” The United Jewish Appeal, he added, deserves the support of every American, regardless of race or creed.

The 450 delegates attending the conference represented 38 communities in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia. They pledged this region to raise $8,750,000 toward the $100,000,000 UJA goal.

In addition to Senator Mead, speakers included Captain Robert Gamzon of Paris, former leader in the underground and the Jewish marquis; Dr. Renzo Levi of Rome, president of the Jewish Relief Organization of Italy; Lt. Col. Judah Nadich of Baltimore, former adviser on Jewish affairs to Gen. Eisenhower; U.S. District Judge Phillip Forman of Trenton, N.J.; Harry Greenstein, former UNRRA welfare supervisor in Greece and Yugoslavia; Samuel H. Daroff, prominent Philadelphia business and civic leader; Reuben Resnik, overseas relief worker for the Joint Distribution Committee; Leonard B. Geis, 1946 chairman of the Philadelphia Allied Jewish Appeal, and Leon C. Sunstein, president of the Philadelphia Allied Jewish Appeal and chairman of the conference.