Daily Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

A new movement which is on foot in New York to help the Russian Jews to settle on the land and which is to be definitely organized on Dec. 21 at a conference of “all Jewish labor, progressive and landsinanschaft organizations”, according to an announcement issued by the proponents of this movement, is severely criticized by Dr. K. Fornberg in the “Day” of Nov. 28. Referring to the statement issued by those who have started this work, Dr. Fornberg says:

“This document, bearing the names of men who pride themselves on being ‘non-partisan’, represents a jumble of obscurities and in a certain sense even falsehoods. The organizers of this movement are calling a ‘general’ conference and they speak in the name of ‘all Jews, without regard to party or social tendency’, yet the whole statement is written in the style and tone of a piece of publicity for the Soviet government’s policy toward the Jews. These ‘non-partisan’ men are even in a position to promise the presence of representatives of the Soviet commission at the conference. But why did they not invite leaders of Russian Jewry, who might give a different report of Jewish conditions in Russia than that which will be rendered by these official representatives?

“The movement represents a good cause, but this work cannot have the support of the American Jews unless it is to be really ‘non-partisan’ and representative of all classes and elements of Jews.”

EUROPE FOLLOWS AMERICA’S EXAMPLE

The “Day” of Nov. 28 points out that the present agitation against aliens in England can be traced to the influence of America’s anti-immigration policy.

“America’s anti-immigration policy has affected the attitude of European countries toward immigrants and aliens,” says the “Day”. “If it is permissible for America, the land of traditional democracy, of liberty and toleration, to enact restrictions against immigrants, and even to harbor the idea of the Czaristic scheme of registering and spying on aliens, then why not the same thing in the countries of Europe? France has already taken steps in this direction, and now a movement against ‘aliens’ has been started in England. The British fascists and Jingos find in America’s example a perfect justification for hounding the aliens.”

PALESTINE AND THE EGYPT AFFAIR

The intention of the British government to appoint Major General George Fletcher MacMumn in place of Sir Herbert Samuel, as High Commissioner of Palestine, very possibly has a relation to the present situation in Egypt, according to an editorial in the “N. Y. Times” of Nov. 28. In analyzing the Egyptian affair the “Times” remarks:

“British prestige was at stake not only in Egypt but in the whole of the Middle East. It may be only a coincidence that Sir Herbert Samuel is now replaced by a military man. Palestine has been regarded as the first line of Egyptian defense against invasion from the East.”