Calling upon “democratic forces within Poland” to help restore Democracy in that country, and denouncing the anti-Semites there for their oppressive program against the Jews, the thirtieth annual convention of the Federation of Polish Jews in America adopted plans here yesterday for increasing “political, moral and economic aid” to Poland’s 3,500,000 Jews.
The convention denounced the Polish Government’s Camp for National Unity as “the Polish advance guard of international Fascism which is attempting to make of Poland a vassal state.” It scored the Camp’s program on the Jews as resting “upon the ideology of brutal might against all democratic development.” Declaring the Federation would not be intimidated by the Camp’s threats to use force against the Polish Jews if they did not disassociate themselves from international ties, the convention asserted: “We are tied together for the purpose of defending to the very end the interests of the 3,500,000 Jews of Poland. And by being tied together in this manner, we take pride in pointing out that we are associated for the purpose of aiding Poland –all of Poland.”
Six hundred delegates representing 70,000 individual members, eleven districts, and 160 Polish Jewish organizations in the United States and Canada, attended the convention. Benjamin Winter of New York, president for 12 years, was reelected at the concluding session and Zelig Tygel was appointed once more executive director.
The convention, in a series of resolutions, called for intensification of the work of the American Committee Appeal to Aid Jews in Poland, which has contributed $200,000 for constructive relief among the Polish Jews; issued an invitation to the Joint Distribution Committee to help achieve unity among Jewish organizations; and congratulated leaders of the American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, Jewish Labor Committee and B’nai B’rith for the Pittsburgh agreement attempting to achieve unity among Jewish organizations in combating Fascism, Nazism and anti-Semitism.
Another resolution of the convention pledged the Federation membership to aid the boycott against German goods, and other resolutions called upon the British Government to “open the gates wide for Jewish immigration into Palestine,” and thanked President Roosevelt for leading the democratic nations of the world in the move to find havens for political refugees from totalitarian countries.
Two recommendations by Mr. Winter in his annual message were adopted unanimously. One authorized the federation to establish a national committee to consolidate relief committees of the several hundred Polish Jewish organizations in this country which send relief to towns and villages in Poland from which members had emigrated. The other extends an invitation to the World Federation of Polish Jews Abroad, which have headquarters in Amsterdam, to hold its third international conference in New York during the World’s Fair 1939.
A warning “to anti-Semitic elements in Poland” that they will have to “annihilate Polish Jewry in the United States before we permit them to exterminate our 3,500,000 brethren in Poland” was voiced at the opening session by Benjamin Winter, president of the Federation. A survey of the Federation’s thirty years of activity was given by Zelig Tygel, executive director.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
