Palestine Land of Hope Sir Herbert Samuel Tells Audience at Pageant

Characterizing Germany as a land of grief and Palestine as a land of hope, Sir Herbert Samuel, former British Home Secretary, first High Commissioner of Palestine, and leader of the British Liberal Party, declared that “constructive Jewish work” is the best answer to racial intolerance in the Reich, in an adress to the audience that viewed the Jewish pageant, “The Romance of a People” Sunday evening at the Kingsbridge Armory.

The Jew has persisted because “he is the vehicle of an idea. He feels, he knows that he is the body in which there lives a soul — a spiritual conception which, from the time of the patriarchs, he has known to be useful, essential to the welfare of mankind” stated Sir Herbert.

“Once again racial intolerance, religious persecution raises its head”, he continued. “As in the Roman Empire, in Spain, in Russia, so it arises again in modern Germany, a land which has held a foremost place in the ranks of civilization — thanks we must add to the achievements of Jewish scientists and doctors, philosophers and poets, who have added lustre to the intellectual life of Germany. What then is now to be done? The best answer is constructive Jewish work. The best immediate solution is to help those oppressed to seek their welfare in other lands. And here it is that the question of Palestine links with the question of Germany.

“I had the privilege to be for five years the Governor of Palestine; the first Jew for two thousand years to fill that office, the first Jew, in fact, since Herod. I hope that I did better than my predecessor. The land has developed well. There are no unemployed today in Palestine. There is a surplus in its budget. The Jewish agricultural colonies are prospering….. Under prudent, honest, progressive administration, benefitting by the long Colonial experience of Great Britain with the Jewish combination of the idealist and the practical, the land makes rapid progress. For this, thanks are also largely due to world Jewry and particularly, to the Jews of America from whom Palestine has derived greater material help than from any other section of the community.

“There then is the hope for many of the Jews from Germany. Some thousands have gone to Palestine already. Thousands more are eager to go. Artisans, agriculturists, commercial men, intellectuals. That is what can be done about it. Palestine and Germany — the good in the one can help to cure the harm in the other.”

Sir Herbert will be the guest of honor at a dinner to be given by Felix M. Warburg and Judge Irving Lehman this evening at the Harmonie Club. Among the guests will be members of the American executive committee of the Hebrew University.

Sir Herbert will speak on “The Relation of the German Situation to the Hebrew University”

Among the guests who have accepted invitations to be present at the dinner, in addition to Judge Lehman and Mr. Warburg, are Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, president of the American Friends of the Hebrew University; Dr. Cyrus Adler, member of the Board of Governors of the University, and president of the American Jewish Committee; Judge Julian W. Mack, Hon. Nathan Straus, jr., Jefferson Seligman, Sam A. Lewisohn, Roger W. Straus, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Maurice Wertheim, Eustace Seligman, Sidney Blumenthal, Sol M. Stroock, Alvin Untermyer, Samuel Bloomingdale, Arthur M. Lamport, Paul Block, Dr. Emanuel Libman.

Others who are expected to be present include Carl H. Pforzheimer, Dr. Solomon Lowenstein, James N. Rosenberg, Charles Strauss, Ira M. Younker, Eugene Untermyer and D. Samuel Gottesman.

Sir Herbert will also be the guest of honor at a luncheon tendered by Dr. Rosenbach on behalf of the Philadelphia Friends of the Hebrew University on October 12.