Lessing Rosenwald Received by Truman; Urges Admission of Refugees to Palestine and U.S.

Lessing J. Rosenwald, national president of the American Council for Judaism, called on President Truman today and urged adoption by this government of all the recommendations of the Anglo-American inquiry committee, plus temporary liberalization of American immigration laws to help resettle displaced persons of all faiths. Sidney Wallach, member of the Council’s executive committee, accompanied Rosenwald.

In a letter submitted to the President, Rosenwald declared that “the situation of the displaced Jews of Europe remains as tragic as ever,” and in fact has worsened, and, without mention of Palestine, appealed for “prompt action” to implement all recommendations of the Anglo-American inquiry committee. Answering reporters’ questions, he denied any contradiction between his consistently stated opposition to establishment of a Jewish state and the inquiry committee report. Point three of the report, he said, opposes creation of either an Arab or Jewish state in Palestine.

Rosenwald urged that the United States do its share in the solution of the problem of all displaced persons by immediate pooling, for a pre-determined period, of the unused monthly quotas of all countries, to be made available at once to DP’s “with out regard to the limitations of national origins.” The quota pooling would ease the tense Near Eastern situation and “make an invaluable contribution to solution of a world-wide humanitarian problem,” Rosenwald said, at the same time demonstrating “the capacity of our democratic society to cope rapidly with a problem of world dimensions affecting suffering men and women of many national origins and races and creeds.”