Anxious to have as many Jewish soldiers as possible in the ranks of the military forces which be the first to enter the liberated countries of Europe, the Jewish National Council today held a mass-meeting here at which Jews in Palestine were told that it is their national duty to intensify voluntary enlistment for the Jewish units now fighting on the Italian front.
“The Jewish fighters,” Isaac Ben-Zvi, president of the Council, said, “will be the first to break down the ghetto walls in European lands and to liberate the remnants of the Jews there.” Delegations from the Jewish settlements in all parts of the country came to Tel Aviv to attend the meeting in order to report its resolutions to the settlers in the various colonies.
Moshe Shertok, head of the political department of the Jewish Agency who is now in charge of the Jewish enlistment campaign, told the gathering that the Jewish Agency has decided to establish a special department to deal with colonization of discharged soldiers after the war. He also announced that “honor lists” will be granted to every Jewish institution and enterprise where the national duties have been fulfilled.
The meeting adopted a resolution calling upon every Jew in Palestine to support the campaign for increased enlistment to strengthen the Jewish units in Italy. At present there are five Palestine Jewish units fighting against the German armies in Italy. Two of them were among the first Allied troops to land on the continent.
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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.