Hadassah, women’s Zionist organization, planned today to petition Great Britain through the Jewish Agency for Palestine for issuance of immigration certificates to Jewish children in Poland and Germany in accordance with a resolution adopted at the closing session of its 22nd annual convention.
Other resolutions adopted by the 1,200 delegates from 45 states at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel yesterday urged Britain not to halt Jewish immigration into the Holy Land, said Hadassah would continue its work in Palestine with a feeling of kinship to the Arabs and reaffirmed its support of the anti-Nazi boycott.
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, addressing the banquet which closed the four-day sessions, declared that it is “time for the American people to have a moral and political stake in the mandate, to insist that Transjordania be reunited with Palestine.”
Criticizing Britain’s handling of the mandate, he said, “Suspension of Jewish immigration should never have been considered. The demand should have been rejected.”
He read President Roosevelt’s message praising Hadassah’s work in Palestine, adding that the President’s concern for Palestine equalled in fervor that of President Wilson.
Mrs. Samuel W. Halprin said, “The Jews will fight to the last breath to continue Jewish immigration into Palestine. The Jews will do everything possible to prevent the substitution of a political yard-stick for an economic one on the question of immigration. I have faith that the Royal Commission will find Jewish and Arab needs not irreconcilable.”
Other speakers during the day were Mrs. Edward Jacobs, Dr. Israel Goldstein and Ittamar Ben Avi, of Palestine.
Mrs. Jacobs was elected president for the fifth time and the following other officers: vice presidents, Mesdames Moses Epstein, David de Sola Pool, Henry Sieroty of San Francisco and Miss Pearl Franklin of Chicago; Mrs. Herman Shulman, secretary, and Mrs. Samuel Rosensohn, treasurer.
The following budgets were adopted: $200,000 for medical work in Palestine, $100,000 for the Youth Aliyah, $60,000 for the Jewish National Fund and $46,000 for infant welfare and school lunches in Palestine.
In honor of the 80th birthday of Louis D. Brandeis, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, on Nov. 15, the delegates pledged their chapters to plant 10,000 trees in his name in Palestine. Individuals contributed $1,000 in cash. His daughter, Susan Brandeis, was on the platform during a demonstration for Mr. Brandeis.
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