U.J.A. Conference Concludes with Appeal to Communities to Raise $170,000,000 Goal

The national conference of the United Jewish Appeal concluded its four-day session here today with a call to the Jews of the United States to raise $170,000,000 during 1947 for relief and rehabilitation of Jews overseas, for the upbuilding and settlement of Palestine and for aid to refugees arriving in the U.S.

The $170,000,000 goal was agreed upon after it was explained that the balance of the funds required to make up the full $215,000,000 needed by the United Jewish Appeal organizations would be sought from Jewish communities outside the United States such as Canada, Latin America, England, South Africa and Australia.

The budget committee debated the quota figure for eight hours yesterday. Henry Morgenthau, Jr., former Secretary of the Treasury, who served as co-chairman of the resolutions committee, presented the resolution requesting proclamation of the $170,000,000 quota to the general session of the conference and urged its acceptance. It was adopted together with a “statement of principles” calling on every Jewish community in the United States “to summon with renewed strength and consecration all the forces of energy, devotion and resource so that American Jewry may live up to the destiny that history has entrusted to it.”

The speakers at the closing session included Charles J. Rosenbloom, national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, Dr. Joseph Schwartz, Mr. Morgenthau, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, Herman Gilman of Boston, and Harold J. Goldenberg of Minneapolis.

CHARGES BRITISH RESPONSIBLE FOR DEATHS OF BOTH JEWS, SOLDIERS

An impressive report on Jewish defense activities in Palestine was given to the conference by Reuben Dafni, one of the leaders of the Haganah. Mr. Dafni said that responsibility for the death of every Jew who has died in Europe since the Anglo American Commission of Inquiry asked for the admission of 100,000 Jews to Palestine, as well as responsibility for the death of every British soldier in Palestine must be placed upon the British Government.

“There will be no peace in Palestine,” he said, “except on two conditions. First, that the British open the gates of Palestine; or second, that the British kill every single member of the Haganah which practically means every Jew in Palestine. We have not chosen to fight, we have been driven into it by the British.

“There is no terrorism in Palestine except that of the British,” Mr. Dafni continued. “Those boys and girls who are called terrorists are not doing what they are doing for personal gain. They have been driven to desperation by the British and they are so mad that they do not realize they are playing the British game. But in any case, they are a tiny little minority of the people of Palestine. I have yet to meet the Jew in America who is more opposed to them then I.”

A “solemn pledge” that Europe’s Jewish survivors reaching this country will continue to receive kindly and understanding help in adjusting to American life was voiced yesterday by Mrs. Irving M. Engel, chairman of the board of United Service for New Americans. “These people come to the United States in the belief that the Jewish community of America, which has been so fortunate, and so helpful to them over seas, must find place for them. They are right. We must find place–place within the capacities of the individual as we can develop them with kindness and helpfulness and understanding. Their experiences have given them a will to live–to live in freedom as we revere it. The task of our communities today is to help them make their contribution to our life as their predecessors’ brilliant record indicates they can.”