Jews everywhere are disappointed in the Labor government of Great Britain which is “striving to trim the Balfour Declaration so that nothing should remain of it,” declared Jacob Fishman, managing editor of the New York Jewish Morning Journal, in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency upon his return this week from Europe where he spent two months. Mr. Fishman participated in the Berlin sessions of the Zionist Actions Committee and the Jewish Agency.
“The bitter truth is that the British Labor government, because of political opportunism has placed Jewish interests on one scale and the imperial interests of England on the other. It weighed the fate of the Jewish Homeland with the measure of India and other British colonies,” said Mr. Fishman. “The Jews are also disappointed in the fact that the leaders of the Labor government are not sincere when they wish to make us believe that their concessions to the Arab side are not in contradiction to the Balfour Declaration.”
With regard to the internal situation in the Zionist movement, Mr. Fishman said:
The Zionist Congress which will take place in January will have to react to the new situation. It is important that we do away with the impression that when the Zionist leadership is changed the situation in Zionism will also change. Today it is no more a question of individuals. I believe that the coming Congress should create an ’emergency cabinet’, which during these difficult times should work in such unison as to arouse the whole world.”
Questioned about the situation of the Jews in Europe, Mr. Fishman said:
“Recent political happenings in Europe have clearly shown how defenceless the Jew is. This has been especially shown in Germany, where the Jewish situation has become particularly serious as a result of the victory of the Hitlerites in the Reichstag elections. German Jews are not telling the world about their heavy suffering. They are too proud to do it. But they are fighting anti-Semitism with cultural weapons. The spirit of German Jewry has undergone a revolution and one notes there a tendency toward united Jewish action.”
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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.
