Judge Julian Mack, of the U. S. District Court, returning on the Bremen Tuesday from a tour of Palestine and Europe, hastened almost directly to the offices of the Zionist Organization of America to confer with Robert Szold, president of the American Zionists.
“I’m seeing my family and then I’m going to the Zionist offices,” said the Judge as the boat drew up against the pier. “”But I want this made clear. I did not attack Chaim Weizmann in my Vienna speech. Neither in my Vienna nor in my London speech did I offer any opinion as to whether Chaim Weizmann’s resignation should or should not be accepted by the World Zionist Organization.”
Judge Mack stated to a representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he had acted as the spokesman of American Zionists when he declared in London that no action should be taken upon the Weizmann resignation until the Zionist Congress. “The acceptance of his resignation, if it should be accepted, is a question that only the Congress may decide, and no committee should act upon the matter before the Congress meets.”
ENTHUSIASTIC OVER PALESTINE
Judge Mack was more willing to talk about his impressions of Palestine than about his official Zionist work in Europe. He exuded enthusiasm as he spoke of Palestine. His short, stocky figure, wide shouldered, became alive with the energy of his enthusiasm.
“What I saw in Palestine was permanent, while political situations are temporary. I left Palestine on October 17, just a few days before the news of the White Paper was issued. When I left, a great spirit of work and achievement prevailed among the Jewish settlers.
“I had not been in Palestine for nine years. On this trip, I was struck with the actual material evidence of Jewish accomplishment within that time.
SETTLERS SPIRITED
“But the first and most important thing, the most impressive thing, was the spirit of the settlers. In the agricultural settlements and in the towns, it was overwhelming. It wasn’t the dark brooding spirit of hopeless determination, but the live spirit of a people who saw that their determination was bringing them that which they had sought.”
Judge Mack was waiting in the passport line. Even a Judge of the U. S. District Court has to do that. His bailiff had already come on board the boat and handed him a huge envelope filled with important papers that needed his immediate attention. The judge shifted his wife’s fur coat from one arm to the other, trying to be free to look at the papers.
MATERIAL ADVANCE
“Second, in Palestine, was the impression made by the material advancements in the orange-growing district. All we read about the Jewish success in orange growing can give us no idea of the immense development that has taken place along the coastal plain. Huge settlements have grown up. Jewish orange plantations reach as far as the eye can see. And the area of newly planted trees increases every day. That is perhaps the most effective sign of the Jewish settler’s spirit. New beginnings are everywhere.”
Judge Mack, as most every traveller, found that he had been waiting in the wrong line. When this mistake was adjusted he continued.
INDUSTRIAL IMPROVEMENT
“Thirdly, I was impressed in Palestine by the industrial developments and the general colonization work. When I left, Mr. Ruttenberg said to me that he would be ready within a few weeks to turn the waters of the Jordan into the huge pipes that feed his hydro-electric generating plant. That will mean the realization of the greatest project so far undertaken in Palestine.
“By the Dead Sea, I saw the first loads of salt that have been extracted under the Dead Sea concession, another Jewish undertaking, and a big thing, in our own American sense of things that are commercially big.
“The small industries in Palestine are increasing, and are doing well. All sorts of new little factories are opening, particularly in Tel Aviv, and they seem to establish themselves soundly.”
Judge Mack, who is honorary chairman of the Zionist Organization of America, was delegate extraordinary of the Zionist Organization to the meetings of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, held in Berlin in August, 1930. After that he visited Palestine. On his return to Europe he took part in the storm of protests against the British White Paper, addressing meetings in Vienna and London.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
