Mayor LaGuardia yesterday sounded a plea that Palestine be opened to refugees of Germany adding his conviction that immigration restrictions in the United States be lowered to admit as many of them as are possible. He urged strongly the boycotting of Nazi Germany.
The Mayor spoke at a testimonial dinner given to Charles Edward Russell, leader in a movement among non-Jews to aid the refugees and to support the Zionist program for the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish state in the Town Hall Club. The affair was arranged by a sponsoring committee headed by Jacob de Haas and including a long list of Jewish leaders.
The Mayor referred to Palestine as “the natural home for the Jews” and said that present conditions make it “imperative” that its doors be opened to Jewish immigration.
We are entirely within our rights in demanding that the undue and unnecessary restrictions against Jewish immigration be cancelled,” he said. “The Geman question is not one which concerns the Jews alone but civilization as a whole.
Bluntly and in measured phrases Mr. LaGuardia deplored the “lack of courage of people the world over” to take action in behalf of the refugees.
” We can by repeated protest and by a system of boycotting the German made goods.” he declared, ” impress the German people that they cannot expect the friendship of the world so long as they tolerate the Hitler regime.
“The same type of arrogance that controls Germany today controlled Germany in 1914. The European situation is very similar to that which existed before the war. Germany is a danger to world peace.”
The Mayor called the German government “barbaric” and insisted that the question of fighting the Nazis is “not simply a religious issue but a problem facing civilization. It is a problem we believed was destroyed at the signing of the Versailles treaty.”
Apologizing for his “embarrassment” at being obliged to appeal for an open door in another country than his own, Mr. LaGuardia denouced the “narrow and bigoted viewpoint” of the administration at Washington which “says and does nothing in behalf of an oppressed nationality.”
Mayor LaGuardia insisted that conditions in the Third Reich should long ago have persuaded “those in power” to establish in Palestine “free and easy passage for the refugees.”
RUSSELL OUTLINES PROGRAM
A high point in the meeting was an eight-point program outlined by Mr. Russell, who, following lengthy addresses of praise, said that history has taught him to “love the Jewish people and covet their love.” The program Mr. Russell said, is based on the assumption that “it is utterly impossible for the Jews to do other than to emigrate from Gemany, where anti-Semitism is fixed in the saddle seemingly for good.”
He proposed that Jews make a concerted effort to rescue the Jews from Germany, that measures be taken to improve conditions for the time being by making financial contributions, that “long and loud protests of contempt” be voiced by the Jews; that the government be induced to protest; that letters be forwarded to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations supporting the Tydings resolution which asks for government protest; that letters be forwarded supporting the Diokstein bill for an incestigation of Nazi propaganda in the United States; that the boycott of German-made products be given support, by Jews and non-Jews; that practical aid by the Jews and others in this country and abroad be extended to the Geman refugees.
“If you are willing to forgive the sins of ancestors,” continued Mr. Russell, “who for centuries have been persecuting the Jewish people, if you will honor my intentions which are only to win the love of Israel by aiding them in this their worst trial in history, we shall get together and press our plans to fight this barbaric resurgence in Germany.”
SAYS DEPRESSION CAUSED OUTBREAK
He said that The Pro-Palestine Herald needs the financial aid of the Jews so that “the word may be carried among non-Jews regarding the fight you are making to obtain your homeland again.” He expressed the belief that world economic depression is the “real cause of the outburst of anti-Semitism” and said that “civilization itself is at stake in this world question of Hitlerism.”
Jacob de Haas, chairman of the funcheon committee, said he foresees “a wave of terror in the world against the Jews that will make 1933 look pleasant.” He said he advocates “escape and movement by the Jews” as a means of fighting the anti-Semitic wave.
He deplored the tendency of many to “make ropes of words” and pleaded for action. The saving remnant, said Mr. de Haas quoting Isaiah, “will never permit the Jewish race to peerish,” He asked that an “open door” be given to Palestine.
Federal Judge Julian W. Mack; Mrs. Rose Halprin, president of the Hadassan, women’s division of the Zionist Organization of America; Dr. Frederick B. Robinson, president of City College; Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Jewish National Fund of America; Charles H. Tuttle; Supreme Court Justice Mitchell May, president of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities; Rabbi David de Sola Pool, of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue Shearith Israel; the Rev. Dr. E. C. Russell, pastor of St. Ann’s Protestant Episcopal Church and Rabbi William Margolis, of Oheb Zedek Synagogue also spoke.
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