The $170,000,000 United Jewish Appeal drive has so far netted only $52,000,000, it was disclosed today by Henry Morgenthau, Jr., national UJA chairman, addressing an emergency conference here of the United Palestine Appeal. It is understood, however, that outstanding pledges bring the total to $115,000,000. Mr. Morgentan revealed that only $36,000,000 had been collected up to Labor Day and $16,000,000 since.
The 1,500 delegates who attended the two-day session, which concluded this evening, heard from Mr. Morgenthau, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, Dr. Emanuel Neumann, Gen. Joseph T. McKarney, former commanding general of U.S. forces in Europe, Dr. Israel Goldstein, Judge Morris Rothemberg and many others. Most of the speakers voiced their gratification at the support given partition by the United States, but warned that the battle was not yet won and that funds will be required from American Jewry to make the dream of Jewish statehood a reality.
Mr. Morgenthau, speaking at the luncheon session, expressed his personal satisfaction with the United States declaration supporting partition and said he thought a “great debt of gratitude” was due to President Truman, to Secretary of State Marshall, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, and to the “magnificent job done by General Hilldring. But,” he warned, “we can’t count on success until the last vote is cast.”
Declaring that efforts to raise funds for the agencies supported by the United Jewish Appeal were particularly important during the period that the U.N. is meeting, Mr. Morgenthau said that last year the Jewish Agency, functioning with a $15,000,000 deficit for its work in the Holy Land, had been unable to carry out its housing commitments, with the result that new immigrants often have to spend “weeks and weeks” in reception centers. Other programs such as the Youth Aliyah, the settlement program and the program to help ex-servicement have been severely restricted by lack of funds.
MCNARNEY SAYS PALESTINE DOMINATES THOUGHTS OF DISPLACED JEWS
Gen. McNarney, who spoke this morning, declared that he thinks the Jews have “every right to be hopeful that the UNCOP report means the beginning of a new deal for the Jewish people.” Describing at length the plight of the Jewish DP’s, McNarney said the solution of the DP problem can be found only through resettlement.
“This action must be taken in the near future,” McNarney said, warning that trouble would flare up because of frustration among the DP’s. “While in Germany,” he added, “I talked with literally thousands of Jews. They have but one thought and that is to go home. To them home is not their former places of abode — home to them is Palestine. Come what may, hunger, hardship, breaking up of families or even death, they are sustained by the single hope which can be expressed by the single word — Palestine.”
IF UNSCOP REPORT APPROVED, AGENCY MAY LAUNCH “JEWISH LIBERTY LAON”
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, addressing the afternoon session, told the delegates that the implementation of the UNSCOP report, if approved and adopted, may require the Jewish Agency to launch “in the near future a Jewish Liberty Loan running into hundreds of millions of dollars, as De Valera did, prior to the establishment of the Irish Free State.” The Keren Hayesod, he said, “will provide a strong basis for such financial operations as the Jewish Agency may find it necessary to engage upon.”
“If the nations of the world recognize Jewish aspirations and sanction the establishment of a Jewish State, implementation of such a decision will devolve chiefly upon the Jewish people themselves,” he said. “The Jewish people must not, cannot and will not default. Today more than ever before, it is our immediate obligation to strengthen and fortify the Palestine Foundation Fund, for it is upon that foundation that we must now build the great superstructure of the future.”
SILVER HAILS “CLEAR, FORTHRIGHT DECLARATION” BY U.S. AT U.N.
Praising as “American statesmanship at its best and noblest” the U.S. declaration at the U.N. yesterday, Silver told the delegates last night that the “clear, forthright declaration” was “a tribute to President Truman and Secretary of State Marshall as well as to the members of the United States delegation.”
Referring to Arab threats to use armed force to gain their objectives in the Holy Land, Dr. Silver pointed out that “the manner in which the U.N. will react to this outrageous panic-propaganda of the Arab states will enhance or destroy the future effectiveness of the U.N. as an instrumentality for the solution of international problems and for the maintenance of peace.” Britain must cooperate in the implementation of the U.N. decision on Palestine, Dr. Silver said, and must “assume along with others its proper share of responsibility during the brief transition period to ensure as far as possible a peaceful transition from the present mandatory status of the country to the setting up of two independent states.”
At the morning session today, Robert Nathan, economist and author, said that if the Jewish state retained substantially the same boundaries as proposed in the UNSCOP report, it could still support the immigration of an additional one million Jews during the next ten years. He estimated that the movement of 150,000 refugees plus the cost of settlement and enlargement of economic facilities such as factories, schools and stores to support them would require an outlay of $400,000,000 for the next two years.
SINCOFF AND ROTHENBERG REPORT ON FINANCES AND LAND ACQUISITION
Jacob Sincoff, associate treasurer of the United Palestine Appeal, said UPA agencies had spent a total of $48,701,132 in the first eight months of this year, and expect to have spent over $73,000,000 by the end of the year. Of the $33,675,939 collected from all sources in the first eight months of the year, he said, American Jewry had provided about 75 percent. He warned, however, that the $15,000,000 deficit would seriously hamper the Jewish Agency activities, if it is not wiped out.
Judge Morris Rothenberg, president of the Jewish National Fund, reported that the land-buying agency had acquired more than 63,000 dunams of land in Palestine during the past year, bringing total JNF holdings to more than 928,000 dunams. In the coming year, he said, the Jewish National Fund intends to begin the building of an urban center in the Negev and “to participate in the acquisition of another very valuable holding in a part of Palestine which for the present must remain undisclosed.”
The meeting adopted a resolution welcoming the U.S. position at the U.N. and chanking President Truman and Secretary of State Marshall. Other resolutions praised Mr. Morgenthau for his leadership of the UJA, and Dr. Israel Goldstein for his work as head of the UPA and stressed the role of the latter body as the fund-raising instrument for the establishment of the Jewish state.
Other speakers today included Dr. Bernard Joseph, Rabbi Max Kirshblum, and Rayim Greenberg. Dr. Goldstein, and Rabbi Phillip S. Bernstein, formerly advisor on Jewish affairs to the commanding general of the U.S. forces in Germany, spoke last night.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
