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3 Polish Jewish Leaders Arrive on Mission to Aid War Victims; Held at Ellis Island

October 23, 1939
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A delegation of three Polish Jewish leaders, who left Poland shortly before the war broke out, arrived here today from Paris on the United States liner Manhattan for a stay of several months during which they will try to organize a united movement to help war sufferers in Poland. They are the first leaders of Polish Jewry to get here since outbreak of the war.

Since the three leaders were traveling on Polish passports, immigration officials expressed doubt as to their ability to return to Poland and sent them to Ellis Island for a hearing. It is expected, however, that they will be released tomorrow.

Members of the delegation are Jakob Apenszlak, editor-in-chief of Nasz Przeglad, Warsaw Polish-language Jewish daily; Dr. Arjeh Tartakower, a member of the Zionist General Council and president of the Jewish Emigration Aid Society, and Dr. Leib Wulman, a leader of the TOZ, Polish Jewish health society, and of the World Union of Jewish Physicians. A fourth member of the delegation, Engineer Anselm Reiss, president of the Central Palestine Office in Poland, is scheduled to arrive in a few weeks.

The delegation, Dr. Apenszlak said, before leaving Europe conferred with representatives of leading Jewish organizations abroad to shape the outlines of its course in the United States. Members of the delegation were received in a special audience by Social Welfare Minister Stanczyk of the new Polish Cabinet-in-exile, who expressed deep satisfaction with the “humanitarian aims” of the group.

Here through the assistance of the Joint Distribution Committee and kindred organizations, the delegation will confer with leading Jewish groups on ways to facilitate aid to the Polish Jews. Dr. Apenszlak said that questions of sanitary, food and financial assistance would be discussed and that an effort would be made to facilitate emigration of a certain number of refugees from Poland into Palestine.

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