The 24th annual convention of the Mizrachi Organization of America last night adopted resolutions calling for the establishment of a Jewish army, arming of the Palestine Jews and eventual creation of a Palestine Jewish Commonwealth.
A resolution urged the British Government to set up “a specifically Jewish force to fight as an equal and an ally with the armies of the other nations who are fighting at the side of Britain” and “to provide the Jewish community in Palestine itself with all necessary arms for purposes of self-defense in case of need.”
Another resolution, declaring that the Jewish problem could be solved only by absorption of great numbers of Jews in Palestine, asserted that “on the precedent of the Greco-Turkish population transfers which followed the last war, the resettlement must be under intergovernmental auspices.”
The convention decided to raise $50,000 this year to complete a $100,000 fund for land redemption for the Nachlat Herzog colony for orthodox Jews, named for Palestine’s Chief Rabbi.
The convention received with enthusiasm messages from Menachem M. Ussishkin and Rabbi Meir Berlin in Palestine declaring that the Jewish community would defend its positions and urging steadfast support and material aid from American Jews.
Rabbi Wolf Gold, president of the Mizrachi World Executive, declared in an address last night: “Repentance is incumbent upon us all. We must offer our own atonement before the rest of the world can atone. Now the enemy stands at the gate of the Holy Land. Millions of Jews are imperilled. White papers plague us from high places. We are forbidden to arm against the invader. There is chaos and disruption in Jewish life everywhere. Our responsibility is great.
“We must ourselves turn back to the ways of righteousness are all the nations become just and tolerant. For it is within ourselves to bring healing to our people. In thought and deed let us give recompense for our transgressions of the past — so that a new and glorious future may be assured us in a world purged of barbarism and hatred.”
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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.
