The German Zionist Federation tonight made a bid for complete control of Jewish life in Germany, demanding national autonomy for the German Jews and indirectly defying the Nazi appointment of Georg Kareski as head of the Jewish Cultural Union.
In a proclamation by its executive board, the federation asked that the Jews be permitted to “settle their own affairs in the Reich, independently and as a solid national group.”
Demanding that the German Government recognize the Zionist federation as “the only instrument for the exclusive conduct of the work of nationalizing German Jewry,” the statement maintains that all Jewish communities throughout the country and the Reich representation of Jews in Germany “should be dominated by the Zionist spirit.
The statement declares: “The German Zionist Federation is convinced that it has recognized the clearest needs of German Jewry today and that it has the power to meet them. Therefore, it does not see how it can possibly limit itself solely to special activities, but demands definitely, and considers it absolutely necessary, that it should play a reading role in all central and local bodies engaged in carrying out the adjustment of Jews in Germany to their new existence.”
The statement outlines a five-point program which is to be submitted for discussion and adoption at the first all-German Zionist conference since Hitler came into power, which will take place on February 2. The program provides:
1) That all efforts to change the structure of German Jewry be made within the framework of present German laws.
2) That there be created economic, cultural and social conditions which will give the German Jews possibilities for existence.
3) That German Jewry be converted into an organized, national conscious, solid Jewish nation.
4) That large scale facilities for educating Jewish children be provided.
5) That activities in the field of adjusting Jews to new professions and artisanship and to emigration be extended.
The statement also appeals to Great Britain against restrictions on Jewish immigration into Palestine and protests the “endangering of Arab Jewish conciliation by premature parliamentary experiments,” referring to the recent announcement by the Palestine High Commissioner of a representative legislative council.
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