Leaders of French Jewry Back Palestine Homeland in Testimony Before Inquiry Group

Leaders of French Jewry, most of them non-Zionists, joined today and yesterday in telling a sub-committee of the Anglo-American inquiry committee that Jews must be allowed to build a homeland in Palestine, and urged that Jewish immigration be facilitated.

Judge Leon Meiss, speaking for the Jewish Consistory and the Central Representation of the Jews of France, told James MacDonald and William Phillips, who are conducting the hearings, that while in the United States and England the committee had heard declarations of principles, in France they are in the midst of Jewish sufferings. The Consistory, he said, favors Zionism, and backs the Jewish Agency demands for abolition of the White Paper. It advocates freedom of immigration and hopes for friendly cooperation between Jews and Arabs. He stressed, however, that the Consistory did not have any solution to propose, nor was it desirous of taking any stand on the Palestine question.

Capt. Guy de Rothschild said that the basic fact that must be considered is that the Jews are a nation. Anti-Zionist Jews, he added, represent “a typical case of misguided selfishness.” Capt. Rothschild called for a Jewish state, as a dominion of the British Empire, pointing out that the Jews of Palestine is not anti-British, but only against Britain’s Palestine policy. He expressed the belief that Jews and Arabs could leave peacefully side by side, if no incitement were permitted.

BUNDISTS STATE SOLUTION OF PROBLEM MUST BE FOUND IN FRANCE

A delegation of the Jewish Socialist Bund said that they felt the solution of the problem of the Jews of France could be found within the country by suppressing anti-Semitism. The position of the Jews, they added, was dependent on the general situation in France, and stated that Palestine was just one of several countries to which Jewish immigration was possible. They reiterated that the Bund has always differentiated between Zionism and Palestine, but believes that the Jewish community in Palestine should be guaranteed its rights. The Jews of Poland, they said, in answer to a question, would find their own solution to their problem, emphasizing that the Polish Government was fighting anti-Semitism.

Edmond Fleg, prominent French writer, who refused to leave France even during the occupation, expressed the belief that there are no Jews today who oppose the opening of Palestine to Jewish immigration. Pointing out that a so-called “realistic” policy resulted in the death of 6,000,000 Jews, he appealed for “a little act of justice.”

Others who were heard included Dr. M. Weill-Hall, president of the Keren Hayesod in France, who said that the Jews’ contribution to the Allied war effort entitled them to independence and liberty in their own homeland; Andre Blumel, head of the French JNF, who said that French Jews feel that a repetition of large-scale anti-Semitism is not impossible, and some haven, such as Palestine, will be needed; and Capt. Pierre Drefuss, who also warned that the menace of anti-Semitism was still present, and stressed that repatriation is an impossibility for many of the surviving Jews.

Also testifying were Chief Rabbi Isale Schwartz; Abraham Raiski, representing the foreign Jews who fought with the resistance; Jacques Jefroykin, on behalf of French Jews who were members of the resistance movement; Dr. Vitale Mediano, president of the French Sephardic community; and Alfred Grant, of the Union of Jewish Societies in France, which takes in Jews from central and eastern Europe. All stressed the Jews’ war contributions and declared that the democracies owed them a homeland of their own.