The American Citizens Association here, which represents more than 3,000 Jews who are naturalized Americans, today decided to appeal to the State Department in Washington for one year’s extension of the time allowed them to remain in Palestine without forfeiting their U.S. citizenship.
The appeal became necessary in view of the fact that the one-year extension given last October to naturalized American citizens under the Nationality Act of 1940, expires on October 14 of this year, while war conditions make it practically impossible for most of the American Jews in Palestine to reach the United States by then.
Naturalized American Jews in Palestine were in danger of losing their citizenship under the Nationality Act of 1940 since the majority of them have been living in Palestine for more than the two years provided by the Act for countries where one can become a citizen after two years’ continuous residence. Facing this danger, and lacking transportation facilities to return to the United States, more than 1,000 of them, who are heads of families, last summer signed a petition urging Congress to postpone putting the Nationality Act into effect until after the war. Congress, acting on this petition, passed a bill permitting American naturalized citizens to remain abroad under the Nationality Act until October 14, 1942 only.
It was stated at the American Consulate today that about 8,000 Americans, most of them Jews, were in Palestine in 1940 when Italy declared war against Britain. At that time two-thirds of the American Jews in Palestine were naturalized citizens and one-third were native-born. When the United States proclaimed the Mediterranean “a belligerent zone” barred to American shipping, it became extremely difficult for naturalized Jews in Palestine to return home. Among those who signed the petition to Congress last year were Miss Henrietta Szold, Dr. J.L. Magnes, and other prominent American Jews residing in Palestine.
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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.
