Poale-zion Organization and League for Labor Palestine Merge; Ask Aid for Haganah

The Poale Zion Organization and the League for Labor Palestine, the two leading labor Zionist bodies in the United States, merged over the week-end at a special conference here. The merger was approved by 300 delegates from the United States and Canada.

In a joint statement issued by Prof. Hayim Fineman, national chairman of the Poale Zion, and Dr. Herman Seidel, president of the League for Labor Palestine, the unified movement was called on to mobilize full support for the beleaguered Jews of Palestine. Prof. Fineman urged the creation in the U.S. of an inter-racial committee to assist the Haganah. “If Americans of all faiths give moral and financial support to the Jewish pioneers, the British cannot win,” he said.

Eliahu Epstein, political representative of the Jewish Agency in Washington, called on the delegates to rouse the 5,000,000 Jews in the United States to the necessity of “getting into the trenches to fight British policy in Palestine.” He said that Zionism is in grave danger since the Labor Government is using tactics which the Tories would be ashamed to use.

Dr. Berl Frymer, executive director of the Poale Zion, reported that the Labor Zionist bloc exceeded all expectations in the elections for delegates to the World Zionist Congress. Latest unofficial reports indicate that the Labor Zionists are running neck and neck with the Zionist Organization of America, he said.

Dan Pines, co-editor of Davar, Palestine Labor daily, told the delegates that “Zionism is not only a struggle for Jewish freedom but for human freedom. Our struggle is for Socialism as well as Zionism. The British Labor Party must insist upon pro-Zionist policies if it desires to fortify democracy in the Middle East.”