Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews, forgetting their religious differences, will unite in a nation-wide series of memorial meetings, beginning next Sunday evening, to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of 125 Jews in the Palestine riots of last August, according to a complete program for the services prepared and issued by the Zionist Organization of America through its chairman of organization, Jacob de Haas.
The purpose of the nation-wide memorial services, the first of their kind since the World War when services of a similar type were conducted for the victims of East European pogroms, is to pay homage to the valor of the Jewish martyrs of Palestine, who were pioneers in the upbuilding of Palestine as the Jewish National Home. It is emphasized by the Zionist Organization that the exercises are not restricted to Zionists but are to be conducted by the entire Jewish community in a body. The principal memorial service in New York will be held at Temple Rodeph Sholom, of which Dr. Louis I. Newman, member of the Zionist Administration, is Rabbi.
In instructions for the conduct of the services which were forwarded last week to the officers of all Zionist districts, it is requested that the services be held in synagogues and temples and that they should not be conducted in the form of mass meetings, where it might not be possible to “create a sense of that solemnity, earnestness and reverence with which we should approach the memory of the victims of the Palestinian excesses”, says Mr. de Haas in his outline of the program.
In urging that the services be conducted in a spirit of utmost reverence, Mr. de Haas says that “there is more than one way of winning Jews to our cause, and there is more than one way of expressing indignation. A protest from all parts of the United States, couched in the language of the Bible, will be as well understood at this time as any set of resolutions.” Mr. de Haas referred to the indignation among American Jews at the policy that has been followed by Great Britain in Palestine ever since the August disturbances.
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