Development of Palestine as the Jewish homeland would not have been possible without the activity of the Polish Jews, Dr. Nahum Sokolow, president or the Jewish Agency and the Zionist World Organization, said at a meeting held by the Federation of Polish Jews.
“If it had not been for the Polish Jews,” he declared, “there would be no Eretz Israel.”
The most important element in Palestine is the working class, Dr. Sokolow said. There may be Jewish merchants in Warsaw and Jewish factory owners in Lodz, he went on, “but in Palestine we have created a working class.”
POINTS OUT DISABILITIES
Presenting what he described as “my program,” Dr. Sokolow asserted:
“The Jewish nation must live. We cannot bring all Jews to Eretz Israel. But whether they speak Yiddish or Hebrew, whether they live in Eretz Israel or not, the first condition is, ‘They must live.’
“One has to preserve the Jewish life.
“The life of the Polish Jews is in danger. There is the danger that Polish Jewry may die out. There is hunger and sickness among them. Our brethren and sisters in Poland are in danger. We must unite and take counsel to help them.”
Another speaker, Rabbi Professor Schorr, said that during recent years Polish Jewry has been suffering from an inferiority complex.
“Others have tried to make us inferior,” he said, “but this reputation is wrong. Polish Jewry is one of the healthiest branches of the Jewry of the whole world.”
Turning to the present desperate plight in Poland, Rabbi Schorr asserted:
“Day by day Jews in Poland are dying of hunger. Hundreds of thousands of doctors, lawyers and teachers are without livelihood. It is necessary to make collections for lawyers.
“Doctors are unable to practice. They come to me and ask me to give them any work at all.
CALLS FOR SUCCOR
“But I have not come here to cry. Our history is a tragedy, but we do not cry. We come to you with this word: The life of Polish Jewry is endangered. This concerns the whole of Jewry.
“There is grave moral depression in our country. The government, with the best of intentions, makes efforts to improve the situation of the country, but we Jews are not affected by the improvement.
“These are the exterior factors. The interior factors are the unhealthy social structure of Jewish life. The great masses in Poland have only the way of self-aid open to them.”
SMALL TRADERS SQUEEZED
Dr. A. Singalovsky said that the very efforts made by European governments today to control and systematize industry made it impossible for thousands of Jews to continue as small traders.
“They must make up their minds that their traditional vocations simply do not fit into the modern scheme of things,” he advised.
“Without dealing with the political aspect of the question, we must turn our attention to that other surplus of Jewish troubles which can be removed by organized economic measures.
“The legalization and rationalization of Jewish artisan workshops, help to increase the possibilities of finding a market for the Jewish producers, and juridical and cultural help for tens of thousands of apprentices engaged with private masters—that is the minimum of our tasks for the near future.”
Barnett Janner, M. P., also spoke. A resolution was adopted urging the leaders of Anglo-Jewry to launch a campaign for Polish Jewry.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
