U.N. Will Reconsider Its Decision to Internationalize Jerusalem, Dr. Silver Predicts

The prediction that the United Nations will before long realize that its decision to place Jerusalem under international trusteeship was a mistake and that it will proceed to reconsider its action, was made here today in a statement issued by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver. “This will not be a new experience for the United Nations in connection with its handling of everything connected with the Palestine problem,” he said.

“Friends of the United Nations,” Rabbi Silver declared, “hope that reconsideration will come speedily before resistance to any attempt to impose a universally unwelcome regime develops. Such attempts are doomed to failure from the very start, and will only serve to exacerbate a situation already very grave and very tense.”

Senator Herbert H. Lehman last night termed the United Nations decision providing for the establishment of an internationalized Jerusalem an “unjust and unworkable action and urged correction of this “grievous mistake.” Sen. Lehman spoke at a special convocation called by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America at which Israel Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett was presented with an honorary degree of Doctor of Hebrew Letters.

Mr. Sharett declared at the convocation that “all eyes are now focused on Jerusalem and we pray that our state will fulfill its great mission, that we shall achieve a life of peace and security and that we shall, in turn, secure the peace of the Holy Places that are contained within her walls, and shall be established in our times as the capital of the state of Israel and the spiritual center of the Jewish people.”

Louis Lipsky, chairman of the American Zionist Council, said in a statement that the Council expressed its “complete and unqualified solidarity with the Jews of Israel in whatever steps they may take to defend the integrity and centrality of Jerusalem as their national capital.”

The national administrative board of the Mizrachi Organization of America, at an extraordinary session last night, issued a statement declaring it “greeted with rejoicing announcement of the decisive action of the Israel Cabinet in establishing Jerusalem in fact as capital of Israel.”