The industrial, commercial and political status of Palestine is constantly improving, declared Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Zionist Organization, at a reception tendered to him Thursday night by the Zionist Organization of America and the United Palestine Appeal. Judge William M. Lewis, of Philadelphia, National Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, presided.
Speaking of the place of Dr. Weizmann in the Zionist movement, Louis Lipsky, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said: “His personality seems to have the effect of effacing provincialisms in our movement, and raising us to a glimpse of the universal aspects of Jewish life. The ideal for which we labor, and which Dr. Weizmann, as no other man, represents, fuses all differences, establishes unity of purpose and interest, out of which are forged the corporeal elements of our great enterprise.”
Commenting on the situation in American Zionism, Mr. Lipsky said: “There are elements among us that seek to retain their hold on the accidental features of that life which has been created in this Diaspora of ours. They refuse to become a part of the soul of the race and associate themselves with our problems as if they represented elements never to be fused, under any circumstances, with that renascence which is to be Zion. Out of this refusal comes a great part of that difference which seems to have arisen once more in American Zionist circles. It takes the form of attacking every Zionist position from the point of view of that particular difference which obstinately refuses to amalgamate. There cannot be a true building of Zion with the trans-planted tribes of Israel insisting that the tent of one shall through force become the tent of all the others.
“We, who represent the creative forces in American Zionist life, who feel our own territorial peculiarities with a sense of discomfort, have entered into the Zionist covenant without. reservation and without restraint. What the creaton of the Jewish commonwealth may bring is accepted in advance, knowing that out of a united effort of liberated Jews, only that which is Jewish and that which is everlasting will emerge out of the struggle. We who have borne the brunt of a continuous thirty year devotion to the building up of an ideal are not to be disturbed by forces seeking to separate us from the brethren across the sea, to establish in a Zion rebuilt a vassal people maintained by those who remain undisturbed and unconverted and unchanged in the midst of a Galuth accepted.
“We had thought that in 1921, the overwhelming sentiment and feeling of an angry Zionist constituency had made clear the issue and had fixed, for all time, the line that divides the Zionism that is self-sufficient and the Zionism that is an accident, or the occasion of a transitory interest. We had thought that there, under public observation, a decision had been made which was irrevocable. There are those who seek, through manoeuvre, the creation of depression and doubt, to bring about a revocation of that solemn decision,” Mr. Lipsky declared.
Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal for Greater New York, said that Zionism is a platform upon which every American Jew can stand. He was followed by Judge Grover M. Moscowitz, Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal for Brooklyn, who referred to Dr. Weizmann as “the greatest Jew in the world.” Rev. Hirsh Masliansky stated that the crisis in Palestine is indicative of the pain of growth. For 2,000 years the Jews had no crisis in Palestine, he said.
In introducing Dr. Weizmann, Judge Lewis stressed the eagerness with which American Jewry has been looking forward to a cool appraisal of the actual situation in Palestine, with regard to unemployment, the political situation, the industrial development and other phases of Palestine’s reconstruction progress. He expressed the hope that Dr. Weizmann would also clarify the situation with regard to the status of the Jewish Agency.
Dr. Weizmann presented an exhaustive survey of conditions in Palestine today, stressing the fact that he was reporting only facts, without attempting to gloss over the bad or the good.
Dr. Wiezmann repeated the statement made upon his arrival in this country that the crisis is in visible decline and that it is unfair to continue speaking of a state of events which does not actually exist. In this connection, he quoted from an eminent Jew whom he had met in Poland, while traveling through the Jewish communities there recently. That gentleman radiated a new optimism, unusual in Poland, which had a year previous been the source of much of the criticism of the Palestine situation. Asked by Dr. Weizmann what had caused this enthusiasm, the Polish Jew replied: “The Jews of Poland have heard so much bad news from Palestine that we are tired of it. We don’t want to hear any more about it. We realize that things are difficult, and also remember that when the meraglim sent by Moses returned from Palestine, our ancestors too accepted the ‘minority’ report.”
Dr. Weizmann reported a revival in economic and industrial development. He pointed out that Palestine actually has substantial assets, though they have been frozen, referring to the fact that buildings, for example, owned by Jews in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Haifa aggregate from four to five million pounds. He declared that he had seen an official report from the Colonial Office on the day before his sailing for the United States, and that the number of unemployed was constantly decreasing. At the height of the crisis, the officially registered unemployed, to whom doles were being paid out by the Zionists amounted to 7,000. Today there are only 3,000 registered unemployed who are receiving doles. All of these are in Tel Aviv, none in Jerusalem or Haifa.
“There is a certain amount of building going on,” Dr. Weizmann stated. “Take the industries in Palestine. Very considerable progress has been made chiefly owing to the fact that the tariff and the customs have been altered. One is not entirely happy about all the alterations in the tariff and customs but there is a sufficiently marked improvement. The smaller industries, which today occupy about 5,000 or 6,000 hands in various parts of Palestine, particularly in Tel Aviv, have all, owing to the new fiscal policy of the Government, shown considerable progress. And there has been also, owing to the crisis, a case of the survival of the fittest. A great many weak enterprises have gone. What has survived is stronger, and developing much more normally than before.
“Then there are a series of works which have been undertaken by the Government. Partly under the pressure of the Zionist Organization, the Government has hastened up these works which give a considerable amount of work to a number of people.”
Dr. Weizmann declared that if the budget decided upon at the last Zionist Congress in Basle were raised in full, there would be no necessity of paying doles to the unemployed. A thorough examination of the situation by the Zionist Executive disclosed that the sum of £25,000 would not only secure the liquidation of unemployment but enable the Executive to launch upon new, constructive work.
Reporting on the political situation, Dr. Weizmann said that there was growing evidence that the British Government was beginning to realize its obligations in Palestine as far as the Jewish National Homeland is concerned. This was evident in tariff revisions, co-operation in unemployment projects and similar problems.
“It is our sacred duty to go on,” said Dr. Weizmann, in concluding his address, after referring to criticism that had been made upon the achievements in Palestine. “Despite mistakes, which will be corrected, despite reverses, which will be overcome, the work in Palestine is substantial, considering that it has been going on for only eight years.”
Samuel Blitz, Director of the campaign for the United Palestine Appeal in New York, reported that close to $600,000 had been raised in pledges and cash. Fifty thousand dollars in cash from various sections in New York was presented at the reception as a tribute to Dr. Weizmann.
The Bellanca-Wright monoplane Columbia in which Charles A. Levine and Clarence D. Chamberlin flew across the Atlantic to Germany will be put in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington when its flying career is over, according to an announcement by Mr. Levine.
The work formerly done by the Department of Information and Statisties of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research in New York has been taken over by the American Jewish Committee, which has set up a statistical department under the direction of Doctor H.S. Linfield, who directed the work at the bureau.
The laying of the cornerstone of the Jewish Community Center, of Jersey City, New Jersey, took place on March 18. The stone was laid by Harry Goldowsky, president of the Center, who was assisted by Isaac Gershonowitz, chairman of the building committee. The speakers included Dr. B.S. Pollak, member of the State Y.M.H.A., Executive Committee. Dr. Harry L. Everett, prominent local Congregational minister, and Sidney Marous, executive director of the Center. Rabbi Charles Bloch pronounced the invocation.
It is expected that the Center will be completed in the fall of this year. It will represent an investment in land, building, and equipment of an amount execeding $600,000.
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