“We absolutely refuse to believe Great Britain will cut up Palestine,” Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, chief rabbi of the British Empire, said last night in commenting on reports the Royal Commission was considering partitioning the Holy Land.
“Tearing out its heart, Jerusalem, and making it an international city is too horrible to contemplate, he said at a farewell dinner to Isaac Herzog, former chief rabbi of Ireland, who is returning to Palestine to assume his new duties as chief rabbi of the Holy Land.
Prof. Selig Brodetsky, of the Jewish Agency for Palestine Executive, pointed out that Dr. Herzog would have “a difficult task from the political viewpoint.”
“He is going out when we are expecting political difficulties to reach their highest level,” Prof. Brodetsky declared. “Many rumors are current about the future, but for no Jew of Palestine has the conviction diminished that we will stay there.”
Lady Reading, just returned from the Holy Land, and Captain Victor Cazalet, Conservative Member of Parliament, were among the other speakers. Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency, said in a message: “I sometimes wonder whether Britain is conscious of her historic mission in connection with the Jewish people.”
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