One thousand Jewish leaders from communities all over the United States meeting in a national emergency conference at the Hotel Astor, on Sunday, adopted a resolution to raise $2,000,000 during the coming year for the settlement of German Jewish refugees in Palestine. The money is to be raised by the American Palestine Campaign.
The one-day conference also discussed political, economic and financial plans in connection with the settlement of German Jewish refugees in Palestine.
While the conference emphasized that Palestine must be given “preeminent consideration” in finding a refuge for the victims of the Nazis, it protested against the attitude of the Palestine government in issuing restrictive regulations against the entry of Jews into Palestine.
The resolution announcing the drive for the $2,000,000 fund declared that “what has happened in Germany is a disaster unparalleled in
Jewish history during the last four hundred years, causing the expulsion of tens of thousands of Jews and promising the eventual extermination of an even greater number of victims of economic, social, political and religious discrimination and persecution.”
The resolution also stated that the drive for the fund will be in concert with the central bureau for the establishment of German Jews, headed by Dr. Chairn Weizmann.
Judge William M. Lewis of Philadelphia introduced the resolution of protest against the government of Palestine. “The conference declares that in issuing new and restrictive regulations for the immigration of Jews into Palestine, the mandatory government has violated its heretofore guiding principle of the absorptive capacity of the country in regulating immigration,” the resolution stated.
“We demand the removal of the recent obstructions that have been placed in the way of entry into Palestine of Jews who come into Palestine as of right and not of sufferance.
“This conference also urges a fundamental revision of the Palestine immigration laws to the end that immigration into Palestine may conform to the letter and spirit of the mandate.”
Other resolutions adopted by the conference included a pledge of cooperation with High Commissioner James G. McDonald; advocating the creation of a committee of Christian friends to cooperate in raising the fund, and giving authority for the creation of a committee to co-ordinate fund raising activity of all bodies concerned with the relief of German Jews.
Among the speakers who addressed the conference were Morris Rothenberg, president of the Zionist Organization of America; Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the American Jewish Committee; Rabbi Samuel Schulman, Dr. Chaim Greenberg, James Waterman Wise, Mrs. Archibald Silverman, Rabbi Jacob Sonderling and Nathan Straus, Jr. The conference was opened by Louis Lipsky, chairman of the American Palestine Campaign.
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