Bnai Zion Convention Condemns Persecution of Jews in Rumania

A resolution sharply condemning the persecution of Jewish leaders in Rumania was adopted today by the more than 500 delegates attending the 45th annual national convention of Bnai Zion, fraternal Zionist organization of America.

The delegates from all sections of the United States emphasized that “neither the Jewish people nor the governments of the free world can accept in silence a policy of persecution which seeks its only justification in the devotion with which men and women have served an ancient tradition.”

The convention said of the situation in Rumania that “continued persecution of Rumanian Jewry is part of the program to eliminate all remaining vestiges of spiritual autonomy of the Rumanian Jewish community, to complete its cultural destruction, and to sever all contact between Rumanian Jewry and Jewish communities in other parts of the world.”

The three-day convention also adopted a resolution on the present tensions in the Middle East which said: “Peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states, the establishment of free and normal economic and commercial relationships and the development of projects to enhance the economic welfare of the entire region, are the most important means through which permanent stability can be brought to the Middle East. We call on our government to direct its efforts and shape its policy towards these ends.”

Judge Arthur Markewich, of the City Court of New York, was unanimously elected grand master of the order. A campaign to raise $100,000 for the Bnai Zion Foundation for the two agricultural settlements established by Bnai Zion in Israel was approved by the delegates. These colonies are Kfar Bnai Zion and Talmei Zvi.