Three decades of service to Zionism on the part of Jacob de Haas were lauded at a dinner arranged in his honor on Wednesday evening at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.
Messages of felicitation were received from Professor Felix Frankfurter, Louis Lipsky, Robert Szold, Dr. H. Pereira Mendes, Nathan Straus, Jr., Louis S. Posner, David M. Bressler, Judge Jonah Goldstein, F. Julius Fohs, Rabbi Israel H. Levinthal, Dr. Joshua Bloch and A. H. Fromenson.
Carl Sherman, president of the New York Zionist region, presided. Addresses were delivered by Judge Julian W. Mack, Morris Rothenberg, Mrs. Zip Szold, Jacob Fishman, Dr. Nathan Ratnoff, Morris Margulies, Isaac Allen, Abraham Tulin, Abraham Goldberg, Bernard G. Richards and Dr. I. L. Bril.
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise who came to the dinner, was compelled to leave because of illness.
Responding to the tributes paid him, Mr. de Haas made an appeal for adherence to the fundamental ideals of Zionism.
“More Jews have settled in Palestine this year,” he said, “than in any since 1922. More orange groves have been planted. More business started, more money poured into the country. The action is spontaneous and world wide. It has asked no sanctions; it has no official aid; it claims no subsidies; it requires no schnorring; the only red tape that checks it is wound by British officialdom. Not a few have managed even to avoid the courteous but inquisitive attentions of immigration officials.
“Herzl wanted spontaneity of settlement. It has come. Even the quid nuncs of the Colonial Office will understand this and understand it better than all verbal discussion. They checked the labor pioneers; the middle class have taken their place.
“Thirteen years ago I ventured to say that the job was to create bread and butter opportunities in Palestine. Show the Jew the way to the scantiest livelihood there and he will go, and there he will always, everywhere, take care of the rest. Today families in Palestine are calling their relatives from abroad. That is the old natural Jewish way of settlement. All we have to do is to stimulate it and facilitate it and to back it in all its struggles with Administration and Arabs,” Mr. de Haas said.
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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.
