An open letter to Judge Julian W. Mack was made public yesterday by Isidore D. Morrison, New York attorney and chairman of the finance committees of the Zionist Organization of America and the United Palestine Appeal.
Other than to acknowledge receipt of the letter, no reply from Judge Mack was made public.
In his letter, in which he replies to some of the charges against the present Zionist Administration contained in the resolution adopted by the opposition conference Mr. Morrison expresses his surprise that a judge had consented to preside over the proceedings in Washington.
“For the past four years,” Mr. Morrison continues, “I have devoted myself assiduously to the work of the Zionist Organization and its subsidiaries. My work has not been sporadic but continuous and was frequently done at the sacrifice of my health. You have done me the honor of stating that you believe in my integrity and sincerity of purpose and that you know that I had no axe to grind. Associated with me in this work are many men of prominence in the Jewish community of New York, such as Mr. Abraham L. Liebowitz, who occupies first rank among our Jewish merchants, Mr. Philip Wattenberg who is a prominent builder and who has contributed $100,000 to the Hebrew University, Dr. David J. Kaliski, a prominent physician with whom you have been long associated in Palestine health work, Mr. Morris Rothenberg, an attorney of prominence and of ability, in whom, I know, you have confidence, and many other men of equal standing. If rumors of mismanagement or diversion of funds were brought to you, the fair thing, the judicial thing to have done would have been to send for me or for any of the other gentlemen prominent in the administration and say to them, ‘Gentlemen, such and such allegations have been brought to me, such and such accusations have been made. What are the facts?’ You would have gotten them. You could have gone further and said, ‘Gentlemen, my many years of labor for Palestine entitles me to know what is being done with the collections that are being made in this country and I, therefore, demand that you permit a committee appointed by me to examine your books and records.’ That request would also have been acceded to, but you did neither of these things. Instead, you presided at a conference which culminated in a barrage of mud. This conference had neither facts nor figures before it; its deliberations were based upon hearsay evidence furnished by men known to you to be prejudiced and you did not lift a voice in protest but on the contrary lent this proceeding the dignity of your name and your position.
“Let me point out to you that a prominent figure in the conference was the former chairman of our Finance Committee who received the full backing of the organization while occupying that position but who now criticizes the very acts for which he was responsible. A great portion of those present were persons who have never been identified with Palestine work and have never, as far as it can be ascertained, contributed to Palestine funds.
“Mr. Felix Frankfurter, the chairman of your Committee on Resolutions, expressed pride in the fact that he has not been a member of the Zionist Organization for seven years and yet the opening sentence of your address to the assembly was as follows: ‘We have gathered here today to take counsel with one another as members of the Zionist Organization of America.’
“Permit to take up, one by one, the resolutions adopted by your conference:
“(1) This deals with the American Zion Commonwealth. The situation in reference to the Amzic has been sufficiently explained in the statement of Louis Lipsky, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, which appeared in the daily press. That statement clearly shows that the Zionist Organization of America has made itself morally responsible for the Amzic as long back as 1918 when you were president of the organization. I am not going to discuss the Amzic situation any further except to add that even assuming, but not conceding, that the expenditure of large sums of money for the rehabilitation of the Amzic constituted a diversion of funds, it should be borne in mind that the Commonwealth was instrumental in establishing several flourishing colonies in Palestine and acquiring large tracts of land surrounding Haifa Bay, which land is considered of tremendous value even by the Palestine Economic Corporation. It would have been short of criminal for the Zionist Organization and the U. P. A. to stand aside and permit this property, settled by Jews, to be lost to those who are developing it.
“(2) This point deals with the deficit of the Palestine Securities, Inc. This was a corporation organized for the purpose of selling the bonds of the General Mortgage Bank of Palestine in the American market. After the organization of the corporation it was found that certain technical difficulties prevented the marketing of the bonds on a large scale. The attempt entailed an outlay of money and the deficit was less than $10,000. This amount is called in the resolution ‘relatively enormous.’
“(3) This states that the reason remittances have not been made regularly to Palestine is because the present administration has lost the confidence of the public. That, of course, is a conclusion based upon no facts at your disposal and a statement that the reason for the falling off in our collections was due to south winds would have been entitled to equal weight. As a matter of fact, however, our collections have not fallen down and by the end of the year we shall have remitted in full, notwithstanding the fact that all our field directors report that the campaigns have suffered tremendously by reasons of the mud slinging indulged in by some of the leaders of Hadassah and some of the persons who attended your conference.
“(4) The statement is made that by reason of its inexperience, incompetence, etc., the American organization exercised no influence on the World Zionist Organization or the Palestine Zionist Executive. The facts are to the contrary. The American delegation at the last Zionist Congress dominated the proceedings of that gathering and carried through the program decided upon at the last Zionist Convention. The reforms instituted in the administration in Palestine are directly due to the influence of the Zionist Organization of America.
“(5) The Zionist organization is accused of having failed to utilize the available resources for the economic upbuilding in Palestine. How it failed to do this does not appear. No one can point to a serious proposition for the upbuilding of Palestine that ever came to the Zionist organization that was not properly considered.
“(6) The accusation was made at the conference that the Zionist Organization of America has lost in membership. To that accusation we must plead guilty. But, my dear Judge Mack, if you were sitting in our committees, as you had a right to if you chose to do so, and heard read the almost daily cables from Palestine reciting hunger, starvation, unpaid wages and general distress and you were confronted with the problem of either devoting the personnel of the organization for increased membership or gathering of funds for Palestine, which course would you have pursued?
“The mountain has labored and gave birth to a mouse. Well meaning people from all over the country were called together and instead of appealing to them to help in the tremendous work that is before us they were filled with a lot of vague, indefinite and untrue accusations. You, as presiding judge at a trial, would not permit such flimsy and unsupported evidence to be submitted to a jury and yet you permitted this great undertaking of Palestine upbuilding to be unscrupulously lashed and besmirched at this lamentable conference.
“No, my dear Judge Mack, Palestine will not be built by conferences of this kind. It will not be built by using the public press to instil suspicion and animosities against those who have labored hard and conscientiously to give to the work of upbuilding the best that was in them. If our best men, among whom I count you, lend a hand to such destructive work, what can be expected of the general public?”
LAY CORNERSTONE TODAY OF NEW TEMPLE EMANU-EL
The laying of the cornerstone of Temple Emanu-El at Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fifth street, will take place today at four o’clock.
Louis Marshall president of the congregation, and Dr. H. G. Enelow will be the speakers. Dr. Samuel Schulman and Dr. Nathan Krass will offer the opening and closing prayers.
Trustees of the temple, officers of affiliated organizations and rabbis of other congregations will be present at the ceremonies.
The new Temple Emanu-El representing an amalgamation with Temple Beth-El is being erected at a cost of $3.000.000.
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