Roosevelt Hails Youth Immigration to Palestine; Hadassah Cables $250,000 As Purim Gift

President Roosevelt, in a message addressed to Miss Henrietta Szold in Palestine, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Youth Aliyah movement, expressed the hope it “will take its place at the forefront” in healing broken bodies and rebuilding shattered lives when Europe will be liberated from the Nazis.

Marking the Youth Aliyah anniversary and the 32nd anniversary of its own founding on Purim in March 1912, the Hadassah today cabled $250,000 to Miss Szold for maintenance and education of Jewish refugee children in Palestine. Hadassah is the Hebrew name for Queen Esther who was victorious in her struggle with the Persian tyrants who sought to annihilate the Jews during the reign of Xerxes (485-486 B. C.). The holiday of Purim, which begins at sundown today, commemorates this victory.

President Roosevelt, in his message to Miss Szold, said: “The ten years of Youth Aliyah’s existence have witnessed an attempted Nazi extermination of whole peoples colder and far more systematic than the mass slaughters of Tamerlane. During those years your organization has freed many thousand children from German hands. the care, training, and useful employment with which you provide them will go far toward redeeming their hearts from terror and their minds from nightmare memory. You have helped redeem the future these children will mold. The coming liberation of Europe will present us all with unparalleled problems. We must heal broken bodies, rebuild shattered lives and faith. I am sure that in this task Youth Aliyah with your guidance will take its place to the forefront, as in the past.”