The Anglo-American conference on refugee problems which recently concluded in Bermuda was termed “a tragic disappointment” today by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, addressing 1,000 delegates at the Victory luncheon of the Council of Organizations of the United Jewish War Effort held at the Hotel Commodore. He also declared that “Britain has slammed the door of Palestine in the face of Jews clamoring for admission.”
“We had hoped that our government together with the government of Britain would find a way of meeting the problem of the refugees, about which they had said so many kind words, but about which they had done nothing,” said Rabbi Wise. “But all these fond hopes on which hung the fate of the millions of victims of Nazism and Fascism are now blasted. Particularly grievous is the stand taken by the British delegation in slamming the door of Palestine in the face of Jews clamoring for admission. The White Paper has been built up into a wall to keep Jews out of the Jewish homeland.”
The luncheon marked the completion of the Council’s drive to raise $100,000 towards the $3,000,000 Allied War Relief program of the United Jewish War Effort.
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