English-speaking Groups Added to Fraternal Body, Detroit Parley Told

The thirtieth anniversary convention of the Jewish National Workers Alliance, attended by 600 delegates at the Hotel Statler, today heard Secretary Louis Segal report the Alliance has enlisted English-speaking groups, increased the number of its women’s clubs to 900 and obtained added support among trade unions during the past year.

The Convention voted support of the Palestine Workers’ Bank by purchase of shares after hearing an address of A. Dickenstein, representative of the bank. Other speakers were Aryeh Tartakower, Philip Block of the American ORT Federation and S. Niger, who stressed the need for Jewish cultural values in the United States and deplored the “spiritual impoverishment of the Jewish masses.”

Addressing the opening session yesterday, Treasurer Eliezer Kaplan of the Jewish Agency for Palestine said America was Palestine’s chief hope today. He added that whatever happened the Jewish community in Palestine would continue its work not only for its own preservation but to create homes for numberless refugees.

In a message of hope for a better future, Rabbi Barnett R. Brickner of Cleveland invoked the spirit of Memorial Day, comparing Flanders to Gettysburg and declaring, “we stand with Britain in this hour of destiny.” He urged Britain to invite the Palestine Jews to fight side by side with its forces in the Empire’s cause.

President David Pinski reported in his annual message that the Alliance had doubled its membership to 18,000 since the 1936 convention. Secretary Louis Segal declared that Palestine represented the chief plank in the Alliance’s program. Dr. Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, who was to have delivered the keynote address, was detained in New York illness in his family.