About 1,000 rabbis arriving here this morning from various Eastern seaboard cities slowly marched from Union Station to the Capital where they were addressed by leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. The demonstration was arranged by the Zionist-Revisionist Organization of America.
The rabbis delivered identical petitions to Congress and the White House and to the British Embassy for Prime Minster Attlee. The petition called for the admission to Palestine of 100,000 Jews from Europe as requested by President Truman, the repudiation of the British White Paper, the creation of a Jewish National Homeland and the release of Jews deported from Palestine to prison camps in Africa and the Near East.
At the White House, a delegation of ten rabbis were received by Presidential secretary Matthew Connolly. Then the demonstrators marched to the British Embassy, where Dr. Samuel Friedman read the petition to Minister John Balfour, second cousin of Lord Balfour. The Minister promised to refer it to Attlee and the Foreign Office. Following this the rabbis went to the temb of the unknown soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
Carrying the banner of the Jewish Legion, which fought under the British in the first World War, and led by canters, the rabbis sang the Star Spangled Banner, Hatikvah and sacred songs as they marched. At the capital they were received by Senators Kennoth McKollar, president of the Sonate, James M. Mead of New York and Arthur Capper of Kansas and by Representatives John W. McCormack of Mass., majority leader in the House, Emanuel Celler, John J. Rooney and John J. Delaney of New York.
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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.
