Resolution of Zionist Congress on German Crisis

The following resolution on the German-Jewish situation was adopted by the Eighteenth World Zionist Congress meeting at Prague

“The Eighteenth Zionist Congress considers it its duty to raise its voice in expressing consternation at the tragic fate of German Jewry and indignation over the deprival of Jewish rights after a century of Jewish emancipation and guaranteed equality of status for all nations and individuals within the framework of the state.

“It has gone so far in present Germany that a half-million Jews are robbed of their elementary human rights and by official sanctioning, racial prejudices have insulted Jewish dignity and honor and by policy and legislation have destroyed the basic foundations of Jewish existence.

“The Zionist Congress, bearing in mind the principle of freedom and equality of all nations, races, religions and opinions, and the postulates of human justice which have ever formed the bases of the Zionist ideal born of self-realization, and feeling pride at the national renaissance movement of the Jewish people, free of animosity against the German people but penetrated by its duty to protect the rights of the Jewish people the world over, raises its solemn protest against the terrible injustice done to German Jews and the systematic policy of deprival of social and economic citizenship rights and the defamation of social and human rights and interference with religious rights through schechita (ritual slaughtering) prohibition.

“With all means at the disposal of the state, the deprival of Jewish rights has been carried out in Germany to such a degree and extent that it is peculiar and unimaginable in the twentieth century, causing new and acute reappearance of the centuries-old Jewish problem as foreseen by the great creator of Zionism, Dr. Herzl, whose solution, in aim and essence, constitutes the Zionist movement.

“Convinced of the truth of the Zionist solution of the Jewish problem and the Zionist fight for the realization of the Zionist ideal, it can, however, never be linked up with the readiness to renounce the claim for the equality of rights and security of the Jewish communities in various countries.

“This Congress therefore considers it its duty to declare that the entire Zionist Organization will not remain silent until the deprival of rights and the indignity to German Jews comes to an end.

JEWS ELSEWHERE MENACED

“Apart from the fact that the German occurrences aim at the destruction of one of the most valuable parts of the Jewish people and civilized humanity, in its existence are possibilities that the destruction of the Jewish community in one country constitutes a menace to the existence of Jews the world over. It is therefore the obvious duty, for the self-preservation of the Jewish people, to conduct this fight as the common concern of the Jewish people. By this recognition the Congress considers it necessary, alongside with its protest, to make the following demands.

“Firstly, the Congress considers it the duty of the entire civilized world, particularly the League of Nations, to help the Jewish people in the fight to establish the rights of German Jews. The Congress expects the nations and governments to adopt all measures to facilitate the entrance of German Jews and the creation of possibilities for their existence.

“Second, the Congress considers it the duty of the Mandatory Power (Great Britain) to open the doors of Palestine to the largest immigration possible of German Jews and to facilitate their settlement in Palestine so that the upbuilding of the Jewish national home in Palestine, which constitutes the main purpose of the mandate, should proceed in the quickest tempo and on the largest scale and in this way form the unshakeable basis of existence for the Jewish people, whose existence has not been menaced for centuries as it is today.

SUPPORT OF POWERS ASKED

“Third, the Congress appeals to all Governments which expressed solidarity with the contents of the Palestine mandate and to the League of Nations which supervises the execution of the mandate, to give active support to the Jewish people and, above all, to give international, political and financial cooperation for the upbuilding of the Jewish national home.”

The second part of the resolution declares that “in view of the catastrophe which has befallen the German Jews, the Congress considers it its duty to address an appeal to the Jewish people the world over. Never in the history of Zionism has the complete accuracy of the Zionist analysis of the Jewish situation in the Diaspora and justification of the Zionist solution of the Jewish question been manifested in such a tragic and convincing manner.

“The catastrophe has put the seal upon the definite collapse of all those illusions which beheld a solution of the Jewish question in civil emancipation alone or even in deliberate assimilation, the collapse of all attempts to deny the solidarity and common historic destiny of the Jewish people.

ZIONISM ONLY SOLUTION

“The German catastrophe shows that Zionism and the Jewish national home are the only solution of the Jewish question.

“The Zionist ideal in all its manifestations gives the Jewish community and all its members inner strength and ability to offer resistance to all attacks upon their honorable existence.

“No other land in all the world today can afford even approximately equal measure of asylum and the possibility of existence for tens of thousands of evicted and uprooted German Jews.

“In the tragedy of the German Jews there is only one ray of light and that is Palestine.

“The Eighteenth Zionist Congress therefore calls upon the Jewish people irrespective of party differences to arouse within itself a new conscience of a common historic destiny and devote all its energies, means and capacities to the realization of the ultimate Zionist aim.

“The speediest establishment of the Jewish national home is the de### cisive task of the hour.

“In conjunction with our protest against the unspeakable wrong that is being done the German Jews and with our vow not to rest until this wrong has been righted, the determined will of the Jewish people to rebuild its national home and the creation of a great achievement as its manifestation, will represent the strongest proof of our national solidarity with the Jews in Germany.”

The Jabotinsky Resolution, which was defeated, appears on page 3 of this issue