The international Wailing Wall Commission that will investigate Moslem and Jewish claims to the Wailing Wall arrived here today. The Commission is composed of three members, Emil Loefgren, former foreign minister of Sweden, Charles Barde, a Swiss jurist and G. van Kempen, a former Dutch colonial official. M. Sahlin, attached to the Swedish legation in Berne, is the secretary of the Commission.
The Commission was met by Col. Frederick Kisch on behalf of the Jewish Agency, Rabbi Uziel on behalf of the Rabbinate and David Yellin, Mordecai Eliash and M. Blau, the three advocates to whom the presentation of the Jewish case has been entrusted. The Arab leaders were conspicuous by their absence at the station although some Arabs were on hand to welcome Auni Bey, representative of the Arab Executive at Geneva, who arrived on the same boat-train.
The Jews will present a united front in the Wailing Wall question. Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the American Jewish Committee, who had been named by the Jewish Agency to represent it at the Commission’s hearings, found it physically impossible to reach Palestine in time for the hearings. Instead he drafted a thorough memorandum on the Wailing Wall which has been submitted to London, Jerusalem and Geneva. The memorandum was submitted in his capacity as chairman of the Jewish Agency’s Wailing Wall commission.
Rabbinical groups throughout the world have approved the memorandum. The European Rabbinical Union, rabbinical councils in the United States, including the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary have all approved it.
Dr. Judah L. Magnes, chancellor of the Hebrew University, has indicated that his aid will also be forthcoming if necessary.
The Commission announced that the press will be admitted to all public sessions but no decision has been made as to the number of public sessions to be held. Press arrangements will be the same as those at the Inquiry Commission’s hearings, namely one representative each of the Arab, Jewish, foreign and British press.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed today by the secretary of the Commission that its first session will be held privately Monday with Arab and Jewish representatives present.
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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.
