Thomas Mann, Novelist, on Visit to Poland. States His Attitude to Zionism

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

Thomas Mann, famous German novelist, who has been staying here as the guest of the Polish Pen Club, described his attitude toward the Zionist movement in an interview in the “Zionistische Welt,” the organ of the Polish Zionist Federation.

Herr Mann began by explaining that he was a member of the German Pro-Palestine Committee. “I see in Zionism,” he said, “a great historical process of the national rebirth of one of the oldest and most civilized nations of the world. Palestine, which is rightly regarded as the cradle of mankind. ought to be transformed into a Jewish national home, so that the Jewish people should be able to live there freely and unhampered and create great cultural and human values both for itself and for the whole world. I see in Zionism a cultural factor of the greatest humanitarian significance. The world is dominated by two tendencies-universalism and nationalism. Hitherto, the Jews have done a great deal for universalism and it is time now that they should look after their own nationalism, for only by means of their own national forms will the Jewish genius best serve universalism. World culture is a mosaic in which every nation must have its own color.

“Zionism is also of great importance to mankind because of its expressly pacifist nature. The Zionists wish to establish a home for the Jewish people by the power of their ideal, their grent faith in human justice and their own self-sacrificing work. If a people succeeds in achieving such an aim by peaceful means, an aim which other peoples achieve by violence and bloodshed, it is certainly a beautiful and a comforting example for the whole of humanity.

“The civilized world must assist the Zionist efforts. The intellectuals of the whole world, the writers and the poets must express their sympathy for Zionism. Zionism is deserving of the support of an organization such as the international organization of authors, the Pen Club.

“I am specially interested in Palestine at the present moment,” Herr Mann concluded, “because I am engaged on a new work which deals with the legend of Joseph and his brethren. I earnestly hope that the country which has so great and rich a past will soon become a country with as great and rich a present and future.”

Legacies totalling $20,000 are bequeathed to charity by the will of Isaac J. Bernheim who died on April 28. leaving an estate estimated at more than $500,000.

A legacy of $5,000 is given to the Mount Sinai Hospital : $2.500 each to the Educational Alliance. Hebrew Orphan Asylum. United Hebrew Charities and Montefiote Hospital, and $1.000 each to the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, Jewish Working Girls Vacation Society, Hebrew Technical Institute, Hebrew Technical School for Girls and the Jewish Hospital Association of Cincinnati.