News Brief

The Union of Orthodox Rabbis today proclaimed a day of fast and prayers for next Monday, throughout Canada and the United States, for the victims of Nazi persecution. The Union also proclaimed a “Hakofer Nefesh” (redemption of souls) campaign for the month of Kisdev (November-December), during which all Jews are urged to give one week’s wages to the Joint Distribution Committee for relief of refugees.

An emergency conference of the American Jewish Congress at the Hotel Commodore last night, attended by about 2,000 representatives of organizations in the metropolitan area, adopted resolutions opposing settlement of Jews in any former German colony, called on the General Council for Jewish Rights to call a meeting of Jewish organizations engaged in refugee work to formulate a common policy on the refugee problem and called for an intensified anti-Nazi boycott.

Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Jewish National Fund, who returned yesterday on the Normandie with other Zionist leaders from the Zionist sessions in London, stated today that the J.N.F. was prepared to provide land immediately for settlement of 100,000 German Jewish refugees. He also announced that Dr. Chaim Weizmann had accepted an invitation to open the Jewish Palestine Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair next year.

Palestine labor is ready to receive German Jewish refugees with open arms, Levi Shkolnik, a delegate of the Palestine Jewish labor federation, tonight told about 2,000 delegates and guests at the opening session of the fourteenth annual convention of the National Labor Committee for Palestine at the Hotel Pennsylvania.

Thirty thousand grocery, drug and other retail stores in New York City closed their doors for an hour Wednesday in protest against German persecution.