New York Jewish Council Condemns Magnes, Asks Resignation

In a resolution made public through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency the Executive Committee of the Jewish Council of Greater New York, a local body representing 300 societies, lodges, congregations and other associations, repudiated the statements of Dr. Judah L. Magnes, chancellor of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, on the subject of Jewish aspirations in Palestine, and called upon Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, to demand Dr. Magnes’s resignation.

The resolution is as follows:

“Whereas, Dr. Magnes’s negotiations and pronouncements are unauthorized by the World Zionist Organization or the Jewish Agency, and

“Whereas, he has chosen an inappropriate place and the most in opportune moment for circulating ideas which are at variance with those of the Jewish settlers in Palestine and the organizations supporting their aspirations, and

“Whereas, his utterances give an entirely wrong construction to the underlying conceptions and purposes standing for the establishment of the Jewish National Home, and

“Whereas, we consider his utterances both dangerous and inimical to the Jewish cause,

“Therefore now be it resolved, that we deplore and condemn Dr. Magnes’s statements and call upon Dr. Chaim Weizmann as president of the World Zionist Organization, and upon Felix Warburg, as chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency, to disavow these misleading and mischievous statements. It is further resolved that we call upon Dr. Weizmann and the other trustees of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to demand Dr. Magnes’s resignation as Chancellor. It is further resolved that we reaffirm our faith in the peaceful and beneficent purposes of the Balfour Declaration which is intended to conserve the welfare of the Jewish as well as the Arab population in Palestine, and that we record our appreciation of the determination of the Jewish settlement in Palestine to go on uninterruptedly with its labors for the industrial and social development of the country.”