Jabotinsky is Honored at Farewell Dinner

A note of defiance to the administration of the Zionist Organization of America and plans for the future campaign of the League of Zionist Revisionists in the United States in the coming fall were sounded by Vladimir Jabotinsky, leader of the League at a farewell dinner given at Libby’s Hotel in his honor Thursday night, prior to his departure yesterday on the steamer Minnetonka.

The gathering was opened by Mr. Sol Friedland, Nasi of the Order Sons of Zion. Judge Jacob S. Strahl acted as toastmaster. Addresses were delivered by Dr. Feldman, Mr. Kumerowski, Elias Ginsburg, I. Posnansky, S. Dingol, Dr. Johan Smertenko and Mr. Jacob Fishman.

Mr. Jabotinsky, who was the last speaker, declared in his address:

“At Long Branch we defeated Mr. Lipsky in his presence. He was invited to attend the Order Sons of Zion Convention, was granted the floor whenever he asked for it, and was seen to indulge in lobbying till 3 o’clock in the morning. This is partly why the Revisionist victory at Long Branch has been so convincing; it was won in the face of the opponent’s main forces.

“Buffalo was quite a different thing. It was decided not to invite me to the Zionist Organization of America Convention. Mr. Lipsky prefers to fight me in my absence. This is a proof that he is not sure of his majority or of his machinery.

“From what I have seen, I think he is right. His machinery strikes me as a very provincial contrivance, which will fall to pieces under the first onslaught. And the majority of American Zionists are tired of being led by men who have neither ideas nor courage. At the next convention of the Zionist Organization of America this regime must end.

“The Buffalo Convention has, however, accomplished three good things. It has proven beyond question that the only problem engaging Zionist attention today is Revisionism. Secondly, it has disposed of the foolish pretense that Revisionism demands nothing which is not demanded by the official Zionists too; where we Revisionists demand the use of waste lands, an agrarian reform, a tariff reform, a legal Jewish self-defence, the officials see the solution of all our needs in the grant of such odds and ends of Crown lands as the Arabs may not want, and in a school subsidy amounting to fifteen thousand pounds. Thirdly, the Buffalo Convention, by attacking the Crimea colonization, put a new and formidable obstacle in the way of that mad and nefarious adventure, the pseudo-extension of the Jewish Agency to the detriment of Zionism” Mr. Jabotinsky stated.

“The threat to exclude the Order Sons of Zion, used by Mr. Lipsky as his main weapon at Long Branch, proved to be, as we foresaw, a mere bluff. Now it is the Order’s opportunity to begin an energetic membership campaign. The Order, proud of its constructive work in Palestine and of its sweeping political program, is now entitled to ride, in collaboration with the American League of Revisionists, to a dominant position in American Zionism. To give effect to this predominance shall be the task of the next Convention of the Zionist Organization of America.

“I hope to be privileged in personally assisting the League and the Order in their membership campaigns during the next fall and winter. Moreover, I hope that this second time, I will not come alone. The great task before us in Europe and Palestine is to combine the forces of the opposition in a joint effort, and also to include in the common bond the best elements of the sporting Zionist youth.

“The annual Convention of the World League of Zionist Revisionists will take place in September; America will be represented. Our Central Committee will propose to the Convention to add to our political program a platform of economic work centering around two ideas: to divert the savings of the Diaspora toward Palestine through the channels of life insurance and to foster the buying of Palestinian produce by the Diaspora.

“It is also probable that the Revisionist Convention will launch a campaign for creating a world-wide movement under the name of Ha-Shomer, reviving the glorious tradition of those Shomerim who protected the Yishuv in the days of the Turk, and in that case, we will appeal to world-Jewry for raising an Otzar Ha-Shomer, a fund to finance the new movement.

“Next season’s campaign in America will have another purpose: to save the sovereignty of the Zionist Congress in the Jewish Agency. Since the Vienna Congress, experience has proved that all hopes in the speedy conversion of non-Zionists to Zionism have been futile. Moreover, the Vienna Congress made it an essential condition of the “extension” that no change in the mandate be involved in the reform. It has now been proved that the reform would automatically lead to a change in the text of the Mandate. In very loyalty to the Congress, this must be prevented and it will,” he declared.

“I thank all my friends in the League, in the Order and in the Legionnaires’ organization. It was a pleasure to work with them. I also thank my colleagues of the independent American Jewish press which, if not without exceptions, has treated our work here with fairness and often with sympathy,” Mr. Jabotinsky concluded.