More than 1,000 women present at the annual donor luncheon of the New York chapter of Hadassah, the national women’s Zionist organization, held yesterday at the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, heard Charles Edward Russell, president of the Pro-Palestine Federation, declare that “the world owes Palestine to the Jews.” A sum of $30,000 was raised during the Hadassah campaign, it was announced, and will be used for Hadassah health work in Palestine.
Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia addressed the women, explaining the problems confronting him in the municipal administration. He appealed to them to give “just a little bit of your help and cooperation in making New York City a happy city.”
In his address, Mr. Russell declared, “I don’t believe that if I had been born a Jew I would have had a more fervent desire to see the fruition of your ideals as to Palestine.” Discussing the Jewish problem in Germany, he maintained that it is “of no use to sit and fold our hands and think that this cloud will pass. So long as there is a Jew left in Germany he is going to be persecuted and wronged. The only thing to do is to get them out.”
“We must encourage and assist them to come out of the jungle of Germany into the haven of Palestine,” he concluded. Mr. Russell demanded the continuance of the boycott on German goods.
Other speakers at the luncheon were Mrs. David de Sola Pool, president of the New York chapter; Mrs. Abraham Liebowitz, Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman, who brought greetings from the Governor, and Edward Warburg, speaking on behalf of his mother, Mrs. Felix Warburg. Rabbi Milton Steinberg offered the invocation.
Among the guest artists present were Emanuel List, Inga Wank and Mrs. Alexander Bernadik. Officers of the chapter include Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman, Mrs. Rebekah Kohut, Mrs. Felix Warburg, Mrs. Abraham Liebowitz, Mrs. Nathan D. Perlman, Mrs. Louis I. Barst and Mrs. Kaufman Schlivek.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.