Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, today appealed to the Jews of America to supply manpower – chalutzim – for the building of the Jewish Commonwealth after the war. The appeal was made in a message to the convention of the Zionist Organization of America being held here.
Emphasizing that “European Jewry, decimated, impoverished, physically and spiritually broken, will not be able to supply even a small part” of the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to fill quickly and securely the structure of Jewish national life in Palestine, Dr. Weizmann said:
“Of all the Jewish communities in the world the burden of the coming days, as in the past, will fall largely on the free and prosperous American Jewish communities. But money alone will not suffice. We shall also need the manpower of the American Jewish community. We shall need a new form of “Chalutziut” from western shores of the Atlantic; a “Chalutziut” of sturdy young men and women who by their experience and skill and by the example of their patriotism and devotion will be able to cooperate in the building of a Jewish Commonwealth, and thus aid, guide and comfort the destitute remnants of European Jewry, who will press against the gates of Palestine to build a new life for themselves. It is a Chalutziut, called for not, heaven forbid, by personal need or interest, but by a higher and greater urge – the urge to participate in the redemption and emancipation of Jewish life.
“In this grave hour of national responsibility I appeal to my fellow Zionists of America and to American Jewry at large, to think of the providential circumstance that has given them this great opportunity perhaps the last, to rescue and restore out of the wreckage, the lives of hundreds and thousands of our people whose only hope today is Palestine, not only by organizing for the gathering of the large national funds that will be required by the Keren Hayesod and the Keren Kayemeth, but also by their personal participation. If the Jewish Commonwealth is rebuilt in our day it will come to pass only through the toil and sacrifice of Jews in America joined in a sacred partnership with the remnants of Jewry who are about to regain their freedom.”
AMERICAN ZIONISTS WILL ESTABLISH A “WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE”
A resolution adopted at today’s session of the ZOA convention greeted the formation in the United States of a national committee for the purpose of marking Dr. Weizmann’s 70th birthday. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter will serve as honorary chairman.
The resolution also called upon all Zionists to cooperate in a project under the co-chairmanship of Edmund I. Kaufman and Samuel Zemurray for the establishment in Palestine of a Weizmann Institute of Science as a living tribute to Dr. Weizmann. (Other resolutions will be published in tomorrow’s issue.)
Dr. Israel Goldstein was re-elected president of the ZOA for his second term last night. Daniel Frisch of Indianapolis was named chairman of the national administrative council, succeeding Rabbi James G. Heller of Cincinnati.
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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.
