Several hundred rabbis in New York today adopted a resolution expressing disappointment at the outcome of the Bermuda Conference and asking the governments of the United States and of Britain “to pursue every means to effect the release of Jews from those Axis countries which are still in a position to exercise a measure of sovereignty.”
The resolution, which was sent to President Roosevelt and to Prime Minister Churchill, also asked that “Palestine, which is accesible not only by sea but also by land routes, be opened without political restrictions to all who can be rescued and for whom it is the nearest available refuge.”
“We cannot believe that Bermuda is the answer to the agonizing cry of the millions of innocent victims,” said the resolution. “Evasion and helplessness must not be the way of the United Nations now, any more than concession and appeasement should have been the pre-war policy of the democracies.”
The resolution was adopted at a rabbinical convocation summoned by the New York Board of Jewish Ministers as part of the six-week period of mourning and intercession proclaimed by the Synagogue Council of America. Similar rabbinical convocations took place today in all larger Jewish communities throughout the country. The synagogue of Congregation Kehillath Jeshurun in New York, where the rabbis from all parts of New York assembled, was draped in black and its Holy Ark covered by a black banner bearing a quotation in English and Hebrew from the Book of Lamentations “For these I weep.”
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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.
