Hadassah Debates Relations with Z.o.a.; Rothenberg Heard at Executive Session

Newspapermen were barred from this morning’s executive session of the nineteenth Hadassah convention when the problem of the relationship between Hadassah and the Zionist organization of America was discussed. Morris Rothenberg, president of the Zionist organization, is representing it at the convention.

Fifteen hundred delegates, representing Hadassah chapters throughout the country, convened at the Palmer House where the convention was officially opened on Sunday by Mrs. Rose Halperin, national president of the organization.

The plan to establish a new relationship between Hadassah and the Zionist organization grew out of the difficulties which arose at the Zionist Congress in July when it was necessary to choose the delegates to the World Zionist Congress held in Prague. At that time an agreement was made by which the Zionist Organization of America and Hadassah each named ten delegates to the Prague Congress. The convention then agreed to terminate existing agreements between the two organizations and to negotiate for a new arrangement.

Hadassah, because of its contributions to the upbuilding of Palestine and its membership, demands that it be given the proper share of recognition.

The campaign to raise $200,000 for the Hadassah University Hospital and Medical Center in Jerusalem was launched on Sunday. In an enthusiastic session $30,000 was pledged from the convention floor. Dr. Nathan Ratnoff, president of the American Jewish Physicians Committee, sent a telegram announcing that Dr. S. Goldwater, noted hospital-architect consultant, will draft the plans for the buildings, to be erected at once.

Mrs. Halperin told the delegates that “German Jewry in its hour of need and with hope of despair naturally has turned to Palestine. We are faced with the practical problem of saving one half a million of our people. A protest is not sufficient.” Discussing the development of Palestine as a Jewish homeland, she said, “the Balfour declaration can be firmly established only by unceasing efforts of united Jewry.”

Louis Lipsky, Samuel Untermyer, Governor Lehman and Rev. Dr. John Haynes Holmes sent messages of congratulations to the assembled convention.

Because of the extensive demand for tickets. Dr. Stephen S. Wise’s speech on “Germany and the World Crisis in Judaism” was given at the Auditorium Theatre, instead of the hotel, as planned.

Reports were presented by Mrs. Edward Jacobs of New York, Mrs. David Greenberg of New York, and Mrs. Bertha Berkman of Chicago. Rabbi A. L. Lassen, president of the Chicago Rabbinical Association, delivered the opening convocation.