Sets $250,000,000 As Goal for 1948 Drive; Morgenthau Drafted As Chairman

A minimum of $250,000,000 was today set as 1948 goal of the United Jewish Appeal by the 1,200 delegates attending the UJA’s ##onal conference here. The decision was reached following an all-day discussion which leaders from Jewish communities throughout the country participated.

Henry Morgenthau Jr., former Secretary of the Treasury, was drafted by accla##on to serve again as general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal for the coming ##.

The conference also adopted a resolution urging that all sums above the ##0,000,000 “shall be devoted to the establishment of the Jewish State.” The resolution urges all communities to conduct their campaigns as early in 1948 as ##sible because of the urgent requirements in the first half of the year.Referring to the opportunity created by the U.N. decision on Palestine, the resolution emphasized that the greatest challenge any generation of Jewry has ever ##ed stands before the Jews of the world. “In order to achieve the historic task ##ch destiny has assigned us, the whole of American Jewish communal life in the year ##8 must mobilize all resources of devotion, manpower and funds for the supremely ##ent needs of the United Jewish Appeal,” the resolution said. “May we be equal to ## responsibilities and privilege which Providence, our people and the peoples of ## world have now given us.”

LEHMAN SAYS EVEN QUARTER-BILLION GOAL FALLS SHORT OF ACTUAL NEEDS

Gov. Herbert H. Lehman, in presenting the resolution for adoption of the {SPAN}##gest{/SPAN} quota in the history of American Jewish philanthropy, stated that in any {SPAN}##her{/SPAN} year such a goal by the U.J.A. “might have been fantastic.” However, he point{SPAN}##{/SPAN} out, for the Jews all over the world the year 1948 is far from an ordinary one, {SPAN}##ce{/SPAN} a Jewish National Commonwealth is to be rebuilt within that year on a vastly{SPAN}##celerated scale.{/SPAN}”We must not lose sight of the fact that the goal which has been recommended, however large, is still seriously short of the demonstrated needs of the Joint Dis{SPAN}##bution Committee, the United Palestine Appeal and the United Service for New Americans–the three agencies whose programs we must finance through the U.J.A. The record sum which you are asked to approve is the absolute minimum required to carry ## the life-saving and vitally necessary programs of these agencies,” he said.{/SPAN}Gov. Lehman expressed the hope that the British Government will maintain law {SPAN}##{/SPAN} order in Palestine during the life of the Mandate and that the United Nations will effectively exert its authority until the Jewish State can, under its own sovereign{SPAN}##ty,{/SPAN} assume its police powers. “But pending the time its sovereignity and its authority are implemented, it is certain that means must be provided to make the security of its people effective.”

WEIZMANN STRESSES NECESSITY FOR ACHIEVING PEACE WITH ARABS

Dr. Weizmann made a strong appeal to the American Government to provide the ## in Palestine with arms and equipment for defense. He also asked for a “token ##e” of the United Nations to be stationed in Palestine. He announced that the Jewish Agency will ask the nations of the world to finance the transfer of displaced ## from Europe to Palestine and at the same time appealed to U.S. Jewry to give ##mum support to the U.J.A.

Thanking the American Government, especially President Truman, for influencing ## partition decision, Weizmann said the U.N. action offers their greatest oppor##ty to the Jews. “This may very well be our last chance and if we do not make the ## of it we will miss our rendezvous with history,” he declared. He also thanked ## Soviet Government for its vigorous support of partition.

“It is my firm conviction,” Weizmann said, “that with the help of the United ##tes we can bring lasting peace to Palestine and to the entire Middle East. What ## ask for is the right to organize our own defense. We ask for the right to obtain ##arms and equipment that will enable us to ward off any attack. We are prepared to ##fend ourselves, and we are prepared to make any sacrifices that are asked of us. ## are prepared to fight to make secure the scaffolding of the Jewish State. But I ## that a token force acting for the United Nations stationed in Palestine is need## to show the world that the U.N. is determined to see its plan for a Jewis State ##rried through to realization.

MCNARNEY SAYS NATIONS OF WORLD MUST INSURE IMPLEMENTATION OF PARTITION

Gen. McNarney reminded the conference that there are still tens of thousands of displaced Jews in camps and hundreds of thousands more Jews in Europe who wish to ##grate. “To the vast majority, home is Palestine; most of the remainder look ## America,” he said. “The Palestine emigration problem should now be resolved ## a reasonable period. The Stratton Bill permitting immigration of DP’s into the United States appears to have a good chance of passing. But even so your people in Germany face an extended period of waiting before they actually embark for their ##mes, and this period of waiting will be difficult for them.“Only those who are familiar with the German scene can imagine just how diffic##t it will be. You must continue to help them. It would be tragic indeed if the were to be let down now.”

GEN. HILLDRING BELIEVES PRESENT VIOLENCE IN PALESTINE WILL NOT SPREAD

Maj. Gen. John H. Hilldring, former Assistant Secretary of State and a member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N., predicted that the present violence in Palestine with not spread and will be of short duration. Reviewing the deliberations of the General Assembly on the Palestine question, he denied that there had ever been any difference of opinion between the State Department and the U.S. delegation on the Palestine policy or that the U.S. used any undue pressures to influence other countries to go along with its position on partition.

Discussing the present disturbances in the Middle East, Gen. Hilldring said that “even more violence would have occurred if no decision at all had been taken.” ## declared that the events that have followed in the train of the U.N. decision ##de “no cause for despair. On the contrary, there is every reason to be op##stic about the future of the Jewish State in Palestine.”

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION TO ADMIT DP’S FORECAST BY REP. FULTON

Congressional legislation to permit greater numbers of displaced persons to {SPAN}##{/SPAN} the United States in 1948 was forecast by Rep. James G. Fulton of Pennsylvania, {SPAN}##rman{/SPAN} of the House Foreign Affairs special sub-committee on the International Re{SPAN}##{/SPAN} Organization.

Congressman Fulton, who returned last month from a visit to 150 D.P. camps in ## American, British and French occupation zones of Germany and in Austria and ##ly told the U.J.A. leaders that legislation facilitating the admission of additional numbers of displaced persons would “entail added responsibilities for the ##ted Jewish Appeal and its constituent agencies,” which will be charged with the ##k of providing for the needs of the Jewish newcomers.

Terming the problem of the DP’s “one of the world’s greatest moral and humani##ian issues,” he called upon the democratic states, particularly the United States, ##take the initiative in finding a solution to the problem. “Establishment of a Jewish State will open the way to settlement there of the majority of the Jewish ##s,” he said. “There is one more major step which can clinch the victory over ##elessness and insecurity. That is for our own country to accept its fair share ## the displaced people.” Rep. Fulton declared that action taken thus far by the ## on behalf of the DP’s has consisted of “half measures.”The belief that “establishment of a Jewish State and increased immigration to Palestine will help solve the problem of anti-Semitism in Europe” was expressed by Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, European director of the J.D.C. He emphasized, however, that the emigration of 75,000 Jews to Palestine in 1948, and additional thousands to other countries, will not reduce the JDC’s burden.

SCHWARTZ WARNS PLIGHT OF NON-DP JEWS IN EUROPE MUST NOT BE IGNORED

“More than 600,000 Jews in Europe are waiting for the opportunity to emigrate to Palestine,” he said. “While the U.N. recommended that the 250,000 Jewish DP’s {SPAN}##{/SPAN} given priority, we must not lose sight of the plight of Jews in other parts of {SPAN}##pe{/SPAN} who must be considered potential emigrants.” He added that 400,000 Jews in Rumania, 200,000 in Hungary and many thousands in Poland and Bulgaria are anxious to emigrate to Palestine.

Explaining the reasons for the urgent need for the mass emigration of Jews ## eastern Europe, Dr. Schwartz pointed out that the “world-shaking economic changes have made it very difficult for the Jews to adjust themselves to the new way of life and the new economic system of eastern European countries.” The fact that Jews were engaged in business enterprises doomed by the new regimes is driving many of them to seek a home in Palestine, he declared.

SHERTOK SAYS FUNDS CAN OVERCOME BRITISH NON-COOPERATION, ARAB HOSTILITY

Moshe Shertok, Jewish Agency political chief, said that Arab hostility, British non-cooperation and a critical shortage of funds are the three major factors which must be considered in relation to the implementation in 1948 of the U.N. decision on Palestine. However, he added, if the Jews of the U.N. raise, through the United Jewish Appeal, the funds necessary for the upbuilding and defense of the Jewish State, the obstacles represented by Arab hostility and British non-cooperation would be easily overcome.

“There must be a maximum mobilization of Jewish strength and resources,” he said. “A call must go out from this great gathering that will signify to the Jews in Palestine, to the DP’s in Europe, to the Arab world and to the British Government, that the whole organized might of American Jewry is now behind the Palestine decision and that all the efforts of American Jewry are now harnessed to this great task to take the dream a reality.”

Shertok described the present Arab disturbances as “localized,” but warned that “we must be prepared for worse trouble and we must be strong enough to nip this ##tial trouble in the bud in order to prevent its spread.”

ROSENWALD TERMS 1948 “YEAR OF HOPE” FOR DISPLACED JEWS OF EUROPE

William Rosenwald, national co-chairman of UJA, said that 1948 is “the year {SPAN}##{/SPAN} hope” during which the gates of Palestine and probably the United States will be {SPAN}##ened{/SPAN} wider to European Jews. “There is room for optimism that the gates of America {SPAN}##ll{/SPAN} soon be opened wider,” he stated. “Taking their lead from the United States, {SPAN}##her{/SPAN} lands, too, are preparing to give haven to larger numbers of the homeless.”

He emphasized that the UJA program for 1948 “is more than one of emergency ##scue or temporary relief which will have to be done all over again next year, and ## year after that, and the year after that. We can now help our fellow Jews to ##ild towards security and permanence. Whether 1948 will be a year of hope ful##illed, depends first, upon our decisions at this conference, and then upon the ##ness and generesity and brotherly spirit with which we carry out those decisions in the months to come,” he concluded.