Dr. Israel Goldstein was unanimously re-elected president of the American branch of the Keren Kayemeth Le’ Israel at a meeting at Zionist headquarters, 111 Fifth avenue. Representatives of the different Zionist groups heard a plea by Dr. Goldstein for expanding the work of the American branch of the Zionist land-redeeming agency, with a view of arousing the interest of American Jews to a full realization of the importance of the land problem.
Reporting an increase in the American receipts of the Fund amounting to about forty per cent as compared with the preceding year, Dr. Goldstein warned that the normal growth and development of the Jewish National Home will be thwarted unless greater resources are placed at the disposal of the Jewish National Fund to extend considerably the National Jewish land possessions in Palestine.
DEPLORES SMALL SUM
He {SPAN}dep#ored{/SPAN} the fact that such resources were not available in a year when Palestine absorbed 40,000 new Jewish immigrants, twenty-five per cent of whom were refugees from Germany, whose primary need is land on which they may gain a foothold in the Jewish National Home. Commenting on the total of contributions received by the Fund between the period of October 1, 1933 to September 30, 1934, amounting to $200,379.46, Dr. Goldstein stated:
“The charge that American Jews are not supporting the Jewish National Fund as vigorously as other Jewries becomes accentuated this year in the light of the comparative table of figures. English Jewry with a population one-tenth of ours has, during the past year, produced a greater amount than we have produced for the Keren Kayemeth. South African Jewry, with one-twentieth of our population has yielded almost as much as we, Polish Jewry, economically crushed, has given an #nount almost as large as ours. The devaluation of the dollar accounts only partly for the comparison in fervor of these other countries. Actually and intrinsically they are doing more, the Keren Kayemeth commands them more effectively than it commands us.
“Because of the key position which the Keren Kayemeth holds in the upbuilding of our homeland, it is all the more regrettable that its resources have not been as great as its importance. For that the blame attaches to all Jews, and particularly to American Israel for American Jewry has done less in proportion to its numbers and its means than the Jewry of any other country.”
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