Palestine Upbuilding is All-jewish Task, Call Sounded at Weizmann-marshall Dinner

A call to Jews of all shades of opinion to consider the upbuilding of Palestine not only the task of Zionists but as an all-Jewish problem was sounded by Louis Marshall, Dr. Chaim Weizmann and Judge Irving Lehman, the speakers at the Weizmann-Mar-shall harmony dinner held Tuesday right at the Biltmore Hotel.

Nearly 800 prominent New York Jews, Zionists and non-Zionists, attended the dinner which was given by a special committee representing Zionists and non-Zionists on the occasion of the conclusion of the accord in American Jewry.

Details of the composition of the non-Partisan experts Commission which is soon to sail for Palestine to make a survey and report its findings to the Jewish Agency will be made public in a few days, Mr. Marshall stated.

“With the Prophet we say, ‘Peace to him who is far off and peace to him who is near.’ That is our greeting to all the world. Let us be united in good works. We have enemies from without. I am entirely indifferent to them. Let there not be enemies from within. That would be a tragedy. Then let us all unite in this great cause. Let us speed it. Let us feel that it is our work, our problem and another glorious page will be written in the annals of the Jews of the world,” Mr. Marshall declared.

Judge Lehman, who was toastmaster, in introducing the speakers of the evening, addressed himself to Mr. Marshall and Dr. Weizmann, saying: You, as true leaders have called upon your followers to let time decide between conflicting views and in the meanwhile, for all Jews to join after study in work upon which all Jews can and should agree.

“This gathering is the answer to your call. Henceforth through your efforts there should be respect for different viewpoints, but united effort to bring about the realization of Jewish aspirations, to carry out our duty and all our duties to our country, to ourselves, and to our Jewish brothers.”

Dr. Weizmann, who was given a rousing ovation, many in the audience singing “Hatikvah” while they stood, in his address reviewed the development in the Zionist movement since the war. He laid emphasis on the necessity of alleviating the present economic crisis in Palestine and paving the way for further development in accordance with the country’s capability of absorption.

“I think it is my duty to say that this Commission, which is about to set out to go to Palestine and the East to test and to try is not a commission which is to decide whether Palestine is to be built up,” Dr. Weizmann said. “That is a decision which was made thousands of years ago. It is to decide how and what are the best ways and means for building it up. It is not possible, and even if it were possible I wouldn’t presume to anticipate the results of such an inquiry. But it is perfectly clear to me that a great deal might have to be changed, modified, a great deal criticized, a great deal approved. I think I may say on behalf of every consciencious Zionist that we welcome a fair, impartial, unbiased inquiry, knowing quite well the result of it can only be the furthering and the strengthening of our efforts.

“I venture to say the best of the sons of Israel, whether they label themselves Zionists or not have understood and have felt that the time has come when there should not be a single Jew who should withhold his hand from helping to lay a stone in the Yerushalaim Shel Mattah in order to bring about the realization of Yerushalaim Shel Maalah.

“I am addressing myself to you, Mr. Marshall, who has as a leader of American Jewry led the way toward the realization of these fundamental aspirations. It would be banal and trivial for me to attempt to give a vote of thanks to you. During this year you have reached seventy years, and you have added to your record of achievements for the Jewish people one more page which has eternal value.

“Palestine today is going through a difficult time,” he said. “It is perhaps not the inherent fault of Palestine. It is primarily the inherent fault of the situation of the Jews, particularly in the East. The pressure on the doors of Palestine was beyond the possibility of the country’s absorption. A flood of immigration came, which taxed the capacities of the poor country. We must clear this temporary difficulty. I hope the Zionists, also the non-Zionists, will lend their effort to see that this temporary difficulty, a serious difficulty, is removed. And the way is open clear for further inquiry and for further endeavor.

“Jerusalem is a beautiful but hard city, as hard as the Jewish people itself. You go up hard stony roads and become tired, you get up the Mount of Olives, and you look down on Palestine, look down to the Dead Sea, to the Jordan, to all these things–but if you look down on the City of Jerusalem a sort of book is opened up. You see an ancient cemetery. The cemetery is covered with rows and rows of stones, graves of sages and seers and prophets and judges and soldiers, of all those who made us a civilized nation. When you look steadily at it you will see, these rocks move and the spirits of all those sages and prophets and poets arise and speak to you and tell you, ‘Here is a small generation, a generation torn apart through persecution and separation for thousands of years. But it is a generation which is trying its best to redeem an ancient nation as befits an ancient race.’ They tell you, ‘Go on. It is hard, but the God of Israel, a just, severe God, is testing and trying you. He looks upon you, and you will do as it behooves an ancient race to do’,” Dr. Weizmann concluded.

Mr. Marshall, who was long applauded, stated in his address:

“We are gathered here today in goodly numbers, those who in the past have called themselves Zionists, and others who have called themselves non-Zionists. I see nobody here who dares to call himself an anti-Zionist. But we are here tonight in a greater capacity. We have laid aside all labels and handles to our names and we have met as Jews.

“For many years the subject which has been so ably discussed by Dr. Weizmann, has challenged the best thought of Jews and non-Jews throughout the world. We have passed through various stages. There has been a stage when the first idea of a Jewish settlement in Palestine, the thought of Zion revivified, was discussed and presented to the Jews. There has been a period when it was necessary to indulge in propaganda with a purpose of interesting the Jews in the poetry and in the sentiment and in the idealism which was entertained by the projectors and promoters of the idea. We have come from that period to the days of experiment, of the making of settlements, of the introduction of colonists and of those who made Palestine their home, and we have today reached a further stage, that of practical planning, construction and building. It is a very important movement in the history of Palestine and in the history of the Jews,” he said.

“I am not a Zionist and have never been one. Some people think that it is a joke and I may repeat that remark as I frequently have repeated it, but I have always felt that I am something better than Zionist or non-Zionist; I am a Jew. I can stand on that platform. You can all stand on that platform. Our ancestors stood upon that platform. They died upon that platform and they lived upon that platform. The time has come when we should forget everything but the fact that this problem of Palestine is a Jewish problem. There have been differences in the past. There may be differences in the future. It would be a most uninteresting world if we all agreed on all points at all times. There should be differences of opinion because out of differences of opinion can eventually come truth. We forget the differences of the past. They are unimportant. A man who is always looking backward sees nothing. Let’s look forward and act,” Mr. Marshall declared.

“I wish, however, to have it understood that from the moment the Bal-four Declaration was enunciated the American Jewish Committee placed itself upon the platform of contributing and cooperating to the best of its power in the upbuilding of the land, in the development of the country’s great resources, in the preservation of that idealism which gave occasion for all that has since taken place.

“And so when something over two years ago, Dr. Weizmann, who is an idealist, who has a poetic imagination, who has sentiment, who has tact and diplomacy, who has humanity, came to us and said, ‘Are you willing as non-Zionists to cooperate with the Zionists by going into the Jewish Agency and establishing it on a non-partisan Jewish basis?’ we said. ‘Yes.’ We called meetings which were well attended and we decided that we would go into the Agency. It is unnecessary to go into the causes which deferred final action. Nobody ever thought for a moment of abandoning the idea, but it was discovered that in order to enter into such a wide-reaching undertaking it was necessary, as Dr. Weizmann has so well expressed it, to take stock, to understand the problem, so that it might be dealt with intelligently and efficiently. Dr. Weizmann again with his marvelous insight came to us with the suggestion that it would be desirable in anticipation of the launching of the Agency to have a thorough investigation and survey made of everything that pertained to Palestine and the adjacent countries so that we might know wherewith we were dealing and would be able to formulate ideas and plans and methods of approach which would be more than a mere utterance of pleasantry, of loud-sounding glittering phrases, but would mean realities. We accepted that idea and today we have arrived at the point when our plans are pretty nearly complete and we shall be able within a few days to announce exactly what is to be done and who is to do it.

“It will not be an idle ceremony. It will not be a holiday journey to Palestine and to view it as a tourist. It will be what it has been intended that it should be–a thorough, practical survey and inventory of assets, obligations and liabilities.

“I know there are some who are impatient when you speak of practical things with regard to Palestine. I would consider it a misfortune if we continued to live in the air, suspended like Mahomet’s coffin. To us Palestine is something living. It is a reality not a mere dream. We have passed through the dreams. You can’t live on dreams. You can’t live on cake. I would rather have bread–the real thing. That is what Palestine now needs.

“There could be no nobler ambition than that. Dr. Weizmann has said that there has been a crisis in Palestine. Yes, there have been crises everywhere. We have had crises in this country frequently. The Puritans, the Pilgrim Fathers so-called, we will adopt them–because they had a great many good Jewish ideas–the Pilgrim Fathers had crises during the early part of their settlement in New England. But you can’t get rid of a crisis by closing your eyes and not realizing that it exists, and by calling a crisis prosperity and growth. The crisis must be visualized, and you must cure it by practical methods and by avoiding the mistakes which brought about the crisis.

“I have tried to indicate that those who are cooperating and who are desirous of cooperating with the Zionist organization in connection with the Jewish agency have no axes to grind. They are merely seeking to do their duty as Jews. It is not necessary to admonish them. They understand what is needed, moral support, and eventually material support to a great cause, and I would certainly not have studied the Jewish people of the United States as I have for a life time if I myself understood them. Even as they that come from Missouri, so they who came from other countries have to ‘be shown’. They have to be shown the merits of an undertaking. They must be shown what can come of it. When they are satisfied that the methods employed are sound methods they will not be backward. Their record is imperishable, written in the history of Judaism. No people since the world began are more generous and kind, more brotherly in their feelings, more sentimental in the best sense of the word, more idealistic than the Jews of America. They have gotten into the habit, many of them, of feeling that after all, the most important thing in Jewish life is what it was in the days of old, that what we need is not conflict, but peace, peace and unity,” Mr. Marshall declared.