Major U.S. Jewish Groups Ask Truman for Unconditional Transfer of 100,000 Jews

The American Jewish Conference, the American Jewish Committee and the American Zionist Emergency Council–three national Jewish organizations representing the great majority of the Jews in the United States–today telegraphed appeals to President Truman to insist on the immediate and unconditional transfer of 100,000 displaced Jews from Europe to Palestine.

The messages were signed by Henry Monsky, chairman of the interim committee of the American Jewish Conference; Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, co-chairman of the American Zionist Emergency Council; and Joseph M. Proskauer, president of the American Jewish Committee, and Jacob Blaustein, chairman of its executive committee.

All pointed to deteriorating conditions in the assembly centers in Germany and Austria, where displaced Jews have been confined since V-E Day, warned against catastrophe if these first victims of Hitlerism are not permitted to go to Palestine, and urged the United States Government to aid in their transportation and resettlement.

The American Jewish Conference assured the President that America’s Jews are united in support of his position that the transfer should be accomplished with the greatest dispatch. “We earnestly hope that our Government will continue to press for action, that it will express its desire and readiness to give substantial aid in moving these people and in resettling them. For our part, we pledge ourselves in our private capacities to continue to do our utmost to share in the cost of this humanitarian undertaking,” the conference wired.

The American Jewish Committee pointed out that “procrastination threatens the health, morale and very life of the displaced Jews now in Europe.” It called upon the President to urge the British Government to permit without delay the entry to Palestine of 100,000 Jews, and that “our Government further expresses its readiness to provide transportation and care for these people while in transit, and extend financial aid and other economic assistance in their resettlement in Palestine.”

The American Zionist Emergency Council’s telegram, emphasizing the need for immediate action, pointed out that “every additional week without action strengthens the hands of the obstructionists and makes possible such shameful and indeed barely credible developments as the reported arrival in the Near East of that arch murderer and satellite of Hitler, the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem. Only immediate and decisive action can remedy a situation which conflicts with elementary justice and decency.”