Jewish Trade Unionists Call Upon U.S. Jews to Aid Fund to Buy Tanks, Planes for Red Army

More than 200 Jewish trade unionists, officials of American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations trade union bodies, issued a joint statement today calling upon the Jews of America to help raise funds for tanks and bombers for the Red Army, in response to a recent appeal from the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the Soviet Union which called upon the Jews of the world to help provide one thousand tanks and five hundred bombers for the Russian forces.

The statement declared: “Our Jewish brothers in the Soviet Union do not ask for charity. They do not bemoan their fate in an ocean of tears. They do not cry on bended knee. They are proud and brave fighting men and women, striking back, hitting at the enemy together with all of the gallant and valiant peoples of the Soviet Union. And every blow that they strike is a blow in our defense, in America’s defense. We are one with the stubborn fighters of the Red Army. We have heard the appeal of our Jewish comrades in arms in the Soviet Union end they shall not have cried in vain. The Jews of America will not let them down. The Jews of America will raise the tanks and bombers that they need to carry on their undying fight against the Hitler hordes.

ADDRESS APPEAL TO AMERICAN-JEWISH LEADERS

“We call upon leaders of organized Jewish life in America, we call upon the leaders of trade union internationals and locals, we call upon the leaders of the American Jewish Congress, the leaders of the B’nai B’rith, the leaders of the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham, the Order of B’rith Sholom, the Jewish People’s Committee, the Workmen’s Circle, the International Workers Order, the Jewish Workers National Alliance, the United Hebrew Trades, the leaders of the Zionist movement, the rabbis and leaders of Jewish synagogues and Jewish community centers – we call upon leaders in Jewish life to heed the appeal of our Jewish brothers and sisters at their posts on the most vital front of the war and to rally all forces in Jewish life to help raise immediately one thousand tanks and five hundred bombers for the fighting Red Army.

“We are heart and soul behind our President and the agreement of our government to open a Second Front in Europe and we are eager to participate ourselves in a Second Front now and at the same time to give the stalwart Red Army the tanks and bombers that it needs for our common defense and our common free future.”