Three-day Zionist Conference Opens in New York in Lieu of World Zionist Congress

Five hundred and fifty delegates from all Zionist organizations and parties in this country and Zionist leaders from abroad will meet in the Hotel Biltmore from Saturday night, May 9, to Monday, May 11 in answer to a call for an “extraordinary Zionist conference” under the auspices of the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs, it was announced today by Dr. Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the Emergency Committee.

The conference, which will determine the direction of Zionist affairs during the war period, is being held in lieu of the biennial World Zionist Congress, which usually meets in Switzerland but was cancelled this year because of the war. Zionist leaders are here for the meeting from Palestine, England, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Belgium, France and South Africa. Many of them are members of the World Zionist Executive, supreme governing body of the World Zionist Organization, and of the Zionist Actions Committee, the legislative body which acts between congresses.

Dr. Weizmann, who arrived from London expressly for the conference, will address the first session Saturday night on political questions affecting the Zionist movement and the future of Palestine. This will be Dr. Weizmann’s first public address in this country. Dr. Wise will preside at the opening session. Judge Louis E. Levinthal, of Philadelphia, president of the Zionist Organization of America, will be chairman of the Sunday morning session, at which David Ben-Gurion will speak on “Palestine as the Solution of the Jewish Problem,” Problems concerned with developments in Palestine, including the Arab-Jewish question, will be discussed during the afternoon and evening sessions Sunday. At the close of the discussion Dr. Nahum Goldmann will speak on “Jewry in the Post-War World.”

The meetings Monday will center on problems and plans of the Zionist movement in America, with special reference to the responsibilities of the movement in this country in the light of the suspension of Zionist activity in Continental Europe. The principal speaker in the evening will be Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, who returned recently from an extended visit to England in the interests of Zionist affairs. He will give a summation of Zionist policy and action for the war and post-war period. The conference will close with addresses by Dr. Weizmann and Dr. Wise.