The 23rd annual convention of the Mizrachi Organization of America, after appealing to the British Government to open Palestine’s doors to free immigration, today voted to raise $100,000 for immediate establishment of a colony bearing the name of Dr. Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Palestine.
The project was endorsed by Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Jewish National Fund, who said at a session tonight: “If the war should spread to the Mediterranean countries, the 500,000 Jews of Palestine will be ready to defend Palestine with their lives. They belong to the battle line fighting for the very life of democracy.”
Other speakers today were Dr. Pinchas Churgin, Ephraim Caplan, Rabbi Abraham Epstein, Chicago; Rabbi I.M. Kowalsky, New York; Eliezer Lerner, New York, and Rabbi D.D. Burack, New York.
A manifesto adopted by the 500 delegates at the Hotel Southeran addressed to American Jewry, “at the most critical period in the life of our people,” declared that “the democratic nations are fighting for right and justice and the deliverance of the small, brutally conquered nations.”
The immigration resolution pledged “every moral and material support for enlargement of immigration opportunities in Palestine, which has proved itself not only the foremost refugee haven but also a great pillar of hope for the future of Israel.”
The convention sent a telegram of “warmest felicitation” to President Roosevelt, lauding his “humanitarian leadership.” The meeting closes Tuesday with elections.
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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.
