Congress Elects Nahum Sokolow President of World Zionist Organization; Coalition Executive Without R

Exactly two weeks after the 17th World Zionist Congress began its deliberations in Mustermesse Hall, the Congress tonight elected Nahum Sokolow, the 70-year old veteran of the Zionist movement, president of the World Zionist Organization as the successor to the retiring leader, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who had been at the helm of the Zionist Organization for the past 14 years.

The issue of the future leadership of the Zionist movement, which overshadowed all other questions that faced the Congress, finally came to a head when Dr. Sokolow, who has been chairman of the Zionist Executive since 1920 was chosen to lead the movement, with which he has been associated for nearly 40 years, by a vote of 118 to 48.

Before the steering submitted Mr. Sokolow’s name for the presidency a resolution was adopted which will result in the election of a coalition Executive excluding the Revisionists. The new Executive will be elected late tonight after the opening meeting of the Council of the Jewish Agency is concluded.

The Congress also elected a new Actions Committee consisting of 58 members. The Committee includes Dr. Weizmann, the retiring president of the Zionist Organization, Dr. Leo Motzkin, chairman of the old Actions Committee, Menahem Mendel Ussishkin, president of the Jewish National Fund, all as co-opted members with the voting right, and Isaac Naiditch, Schmarya Levin, and Victor Jacobson, as co-opted members without the voting right.

Mr. Sokolow was supported by the entire Revisionist delegation, which had been most bitterly critical of Dr. Weizmann’s administration, by the Mizrachi, (Orthodox Zionists), and the American delegates representing the Brandeis wing of the Zionist Organization of America. In this group was also included Dr. Stephen S. Wise. The Laborites, Dr. Weizmann’s staunchest supporters, and the German delegation voted against Mr. Sokolow. The group headed by Louis Lipsky, former president of the Zionist Organization of America, and the British delegation under the leadership of Dr. M. D. Eder who fought a losing battle for the reelection of Dr. Weizamann, abstained form voting.

Immediately after Mr. sokolow was declared elected, Berl Loker, of New York, on behalf of the Laborites, declared that the fact that they had not voted for Sokolow should not be interpreted as mistrust of him because they have nothing against him either in principle or personally but they oppose the election of a president before the Zionist Executive is elected. Mr. Locker added that the Laborites cannot vote for a president so long as they are unawere of the program and personnel of the Executive with whom the new president will have to work and of which he forms a part.

CENTRISTS EXPLAIN OPPOSITION

In similar terms Kurt Blumenfeld, speaking for the pro-Weizmannists and the General Zionists, stated that they regret that Sokolow had been dragged into such political maneuvers and thus compelled the General Zionists to vote against him not as an individual but as one who is elected before the Executive was chosen. Both Locker and Blumenfeld protested against the Revisionists, they said, with their vote imposed upon the Congress a new rocedure of electing the president before electing the Executive.

Folllowing these declarations, Deputy Isaac Gruenbaum of Warsaw, Radical leader, suggested that Sokolwo’s election be postponed until after the Executive had been elected. This proposal was rejected by a vote of 99 to 65, the other delegates refraining from voting.

When the result of the election was announced, Dr. Robert Stricker, erstwhile Radical turned Revisionist, speaking on behalf of the Revisionists, asserted that they had voted for Sokolow only out of practical motives and simply because they were of the opinion that the leadership must be changed. He emphasized that the future action of the Rivisionists depends upon the manner in which the future Executive’s activities will develop.

PROTESTS RUSSIAN PERSECUTION

Early in the afternoon Rabbi Stephen S. Wise vigorously condemned the persecution of Zionists and the suppression of the Hebrew language and culture in soviet Russia. The New York Rabbi announced that the American Zionists of Russia who have been exiled to Siberia and elsewhere not because they were counter-revolutionaries but because they had sacrificed themselves for the Jewish national ideal.

Following Dr. Wise’s address the Congress adopted a resolution protesting against the persecution of Zionists in Russia. The resolution as finally voted included an amendment proposed by the Mizrachi (Orthodox Zionists), to the effect that the Congress protests not only against the persecution of Zionists and Hebrew culture but also against religious persecution.

The election of Mr. Sokolow to the supreme position in the World Zionist movement, a post which also carries with it the title of president of the Jewish Agency, climaxes a long career of distinguished achievement on behalf of the Jewish people. Born in Poland, Mr. Sokolow is regarded as the virtual founder of modern journalism in the Hebrew language. For many years he was the editor of the Warsaw Hebrew daily, Hezekiah, and contributed over a long period of years innumerable articles and essays in a dozen or more languages to Jewish publications throughout the world. He is also considered one of the greatest living Jewish linguists.

The new leader of the World Zionist movement joined the cause almost immediately after Dr. Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionnism, appeared on the Jewish scene. Mr. Sokolow participated in the first Zionist Congress at Basle in 1897, and now at the 17th Zionist Congress meeting in the same city he received the highest Zionist honor.

ACTIVE SINCE 1897

Since 1897 he has held practically every important office in the Zionist Organization and has played an important role in all major Zionist accomplishments. Together with Dr. Weizmann, he initiated during the World War an energetic political campaign for the inclusion of the Zionist aims in the British war policies and thus helped in the issuance of the Balfour declaration.

During the peace negotiations at Versailles in 1919 Mr. Sokolow was the president of the Committee of Jewish Delegations. In this capacity he succeeded in having Jewish minority rights in various European countries recognized and included as integral parts of the peace treaty. Through his efforts the governments of the United States, France, Italy, Poland, South Africa and other countries endorsed the Balfour Declaration.

At the conclusion of the first international Zionist Congress held in London in 1920, after a lapse of seven years during the stormy period of the World War, Mr. Sokolow was the only member of the Zionist Congress the last before the War, to remain. He symbolized the continuation of the movement and it was he who carried it through the difficulties of the World catastrophe.

It was this conference which first elected him president of the World Zionist Executive and all Congresses since than have reelected him. At every Congress since the War, with the exception of the present one, Mr. Sokolow had been the opening speaker.

Besides his political and journalistic activities, Mr. Sokolow found time to write numerous books of importance the greatest of which is his two volume “History of Zionism” published in 1919, and in which he endeavored for the first time to give an historic explanation of the evolution of Zionist thought.

The political commission’s resolution reporting that Premier MacDonald’s letter in explanation of the White Paper of October, 1930, is not a basis for cooperation between the Jewish Agency and the British government but declaring it to be “the basis for further negotiations between the Jewish Agency and the mandatory government with a view to the effective implementing of the assurances in the letter” was adopted by a large majority Tuesday afternoon.

A minority resolution introduction by the Revisionists, who called for the rejection of the letter as inadequate, was voted down by as vote of 114 to 71. Among those supporting this resolution were dr. Stephen S. Wise and Abraham Tulin, as wee as the Mizrachi delegates. The American delegation was divided, some voting for the political commission’s majority report and others abstaining form voting at all.

The text of the resolution as approved by the Congress is as follows:

“The Congress takes note of the British Premier’s letter to Dr. Weizmann of February 13 and of his statement as to the authoritative character of this document, and expresses its appreciation of the assurances and definitions of the letter which indicate a desire on the part of the Mandatory government to meet the just demands of the Jewish people.

At the same time the Congress declares that the letter contains restrictions and principles which afford ground for justified apprehension, and omits any reference to a number of important questions that were dealt with in the White Paper of October, 1930, in a manner endangering the development of the Jewish National Home and unacceptable to the Jewish Agency.

“The Congress regrets to point out that the Palestine government has to yet implemented the assurances contained in the MacDonald letter, as exemplified in particular in the continuous difficulties attaching to the Jewish purchase of land, Jewish immigration and the employment of Jewish labor on public works. Moreover, the Protection of Tenants Ordinance has been amended in manner seriously impeding Jewish purchase of land.

“The Congress accordingly regards the Premier’s letter as a basis for further negotiations between the Jewish Agency and the Mandatory government with a view to the effective implementing of the assurances in the letter and the carrying out of the justified Jewish demands regarding the questions unsatisfactorily cealt with and those that are still oper, and the creation of such conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish National Home.”

LABORITE ACCUSES GOBERNMENT

Prior to the adoption of this resolution, Eliezer Kaplan, Palestine labor leader, accused the Palestine government of exploiting child labor and women by employing them 15 hours a day at a daily wage of 35 cents. Mr. Kapland’s charge was made in the course of his report on behalf of the colonization and labor committee. He emphasize that the Palestine government was bringing in Arab labor from Transjordania for use on public works, while Jewish labor is unemployed. Mr. Kaplan cited numerous instances in which the Palestine government was deliberately discriminating it from employment.

Following his report the Congress approved a resolution to the effect that notwithstanding Premier MacDonald’s letter, which obligates the Palestine government to employ Jewish labor proportionately on public works, this obligation and duty has so far not been fulfilled by the Palestine government. By the terms of another resolution the Congress obligated all institutions supported by Zionist funds to observe the employment of Jewish labor.

PROTEST RUSSIAN PERSECUTION

A resolution protesting against the persecution of Zionists in Russia and a request that the Zionist Executive take all necessary steps to facilitate the immigration into Palestine of those persecuted in Russia because of their Zionist convictions was approved.

A storm of applause greeted Dr. Michale of East Galicia when he expressed the hope that General Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, high Commissioner designee of Palestine, would bring peaceful development to Palestine and that he would help in the realization of the Jewish .National Home, “thus restoring the shattered confidence of the Jewish people in Great Britain.”

On Monday evening the Congress was the scene of a new disturbance when a minority resolution, offered by the Revisionists, which stated that the Congress disapproves of the spirit of the renunciation of the nation idea by the administration of the Hebrew University and instructed the Zionist Executive to safefuard the national spirit in the Unibersity administration was adopted by a vote of 87 to 74.

This resolution was obviously aimed at Dr. Judah L Magnes, chancellor of the University, whose views on the Palestine question have been bitterly assailed by various Zionist groups. In the course of the vote on this resolution, Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, Palestine Laborite, shouted across the hall that it was a cultural disgrace and a violation of academic freedom. Eliezer Kaplan who was presiding ordered Dr. Arlosoroff to withdraw his remarks.

The plenary session also voted $1,350,000 as the income for the next year from the Keren Hayesod, and an expenditure of $1,800,000, the difference to be made up out of extraordinary income. The expenditure was divided as follows: debts, $455,000; administration expenses, $240,000; education, $285,000; colonization, $350,000; immigration and labor, $77,500; health, $275,000, including $25,000 for the Workers’ Sick Fund compensation; salaries in arrears, $75,000; religion, $5,000; and unforeseen expenditures, $15,500. For the first time the Congress also included in the budget subsidies for small industrial enterprises.

As an outgrowth of Monday’s disturbance when Zionist flag was pulled down by Abraham Lang, chairman of the Basle Revisionist organization, during the scene that resulted from the withdrawal of the Revisionist delegation, the Congress Court sentenced Lang to abstain from all Zionist activities until January 1, 1932.

Shortly after the opening of Monday evening’s session, to which the Revisionists returned after their dramatic exit of the previous night, Meer Grossman, British Revisionist leader, read a declaration from the platform. He said “in order to fulfil the mandate of their electors the Rvisionists are returning to participate in all activities of the Congress. We shall endeavor to save everything that can be saved for constructive Zionism.”

The Revisionist statement, which was received in silence, declared that the Revisionists “will define their attitude toward the factors which they will find fit.” The returning Revisionist by Vladimir Jabotinsky.