New York Governor Assails Britain for Closing Palestine to Jewish Immigration

The demand that “the doors of Palestine be opened and opened permanently” was voiced here last night by Governor Thomas E. Dewey, addressing a dinner at the Hotel Plaza opening the 1944 campaign of the United Jewish appeal of Greater New York.

Assailing the action of the British Government in halting Jewish immigration to Palestine by putting the White Paper immigration ban into effect, the New York Governor said.

“I do not underestimate the difficulty of the present situation, but a way can and must be found by our government, working with the British, to bring an end to the operation of the White Paper. For more than twenty years every President of the United States has supported Palestine as a Jewish homeland. The failure to find a home for the helpless victims of Nazi oppression must be regarded with abhorrence by Jews and Christians alike.

“With fine vision the Jewish people founded a homeland in Palestine. The evil ideology planted by Hitler and inculcated in the youth he has dominated for twelve years will not easily be eradicated in the years ahead. Many thousands of European Jews will want to go to Palestine after the war and build a new life for themselves and their families. The doors of Palestine must be opened and opened permanently.”

Rabbi James G. Heller, of Cincinnati, national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, declared that the Jews in many parts of the world are living through a veritable “Thirty Years’ War,” but that the Jewish response to “the greatest calamity in our history” has been a “magnificent effort.” The result has been “an achievement of which we ought to be intensely proud,” he added. “Both in administration and in the generosity of the giving of the American Jewish community, it is a noble task nobly met,” he said.