The repatriation of Jews in Europe by compulsion of any form of pressure must be resisted by the Jews of the United States, Rabbi James Go Heller, national chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, said yester day addressing a conference of Jewish leaders from various sections of the country assembled at the Biltmore Hotel for the purpose of planning the $35,000,000 campaign of the United Palestine Appeal for 1945.
“Thousands and hundreds of thousands do not want to go back,” Rabbi Heller said. “For them the road back to their former homes is the road to continued anxiety, hatred and insecurity. They must be gotten out of the ruin of a bloodsoaked continent. It is an emergent problem fraught with many dangers for the survival of Judaism as well as individual Jews. Alarming reports have come out of Italy, the Bulkans and France. There have been many examples of the use of the ‘back door’ to safety. Many Jews who lived as Christians to escape the Nazis have refused to return to the fold after liberation. They have gone into permanent hiding to shield their children from the upheavals of the future. That is why the Jewish National Home in Palestine, which saved more Jews than the rest of the world combined during the years of the Hitler scourge, now stands as the only rock of hope for the vast majority of the surviving Jews of Europe.”
Rabbi Heller expressed confidence that the White Paper restrictions of the past five years would very soon be replaced by a constructive plan for the future status of the Jewish homeland.
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