Weizmann, Brodetsky, Melchett, Other Jewish Leaders in Britain Laud JTA Services

The services of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency were highly praised here today by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Prof. Selig Brodetsky, Lord Melchett, Sir Robert Waley Cohen and other prominent Jewish leaders, in messages congratulating the JTA on its twenty-fifth anniversary.

“I am delighted,” Dr. Weizmann wrote, “to hear that the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, and I would like to offer it my warm congratulations on the many years of unfailing service which lie behind it, as well as my best wishes for the future.

“The history of the past quarter-century, for which the J.T.A. Bulletins provide so admirable a source-book of contemporary happenings in the Jewish world, has seen great, as well as tragic, events for Jewry. If the J.T.A. has been forced to record the vileness of Hitler, it has also been able to tell of the steady progress of the Jewish National Home which has followed from the Balfour Declaration. If, so far, the dark pages have been more numerous than the bright, I am convinced that this will not always be so, and my wish for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is that the future may compensate for the past, bringing, as the months and years go by, a steadily decreasing quota of sadness and suffering, and an ever-increasing proportion of good news, for the pages of the Bulletin.”

JTA HAS PLAYED AN INVALUABLE ROLE, SAYS PROF. BRODETSKY

Prof. Selig Brodetsky, president of the Board of Jewish Deputies and member of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, in a message to the J.T.A. says:

“As a regular reader of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Bulletin for many years past, I gladly avail myself of the opportunity of sending the Agency my warmest congratulations on the occasion of its Silver Jubilee. The J.T.A. has played an invaluable role in keeping public opinion, both Jewish and non-Jewish, informed of what has happened to the Jewish people throughout the world. By focussing public attention on the sufferings and injustices inflicted on the Jews, it has often enabled remedial action to be taken. But the record of Jewish history in the last quarter of a century has not been one of unrelieved gloom, and the Bulletin has devoted a substantial amount of space to the chronicle of Jewish achievements in Palestine. When I review what the work of the J.T.A. has meant to journalists, and to those who have to play an active part in Jewish affairs, I can hardly imagine a time when its services were not available.

“In sending you my hearty congratulations, I would like to add my best wishes for the future. I can only express the hope that it may be the good fortune of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to report, when victory has been won, the opening of a brighter chapter in Jewish life – when the Jew will everywhere be regarded as a free and equal citizen, while the Jewish people is enabled to work out its national destiny in its ancient Homeland.”

ALL LOVERS OF FREEDOM MUST APPRECIATE THE JTA WORK, MELCHETT STATES

Sir Robert Waley Cohen, prominent Jewish leader, sent the following message: “I congratulate you most warmly upon entering the 25th year of your history. To all those who are interested in seeing the members of the Jewish faith rendering to the world all the service of which they are capable, your steady flow of news has been a great boon. Even in the tragic years of the Nazi attack on civilization, with Jews as the foremost victims, your detailed history of the unfolding tragedy has been unique and most valuable. May the times not be too far distant when you will again be concerned with records of achievement and of services rendered to the civilized world.”

Lord Melchett, in his message, declared. “The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has performed the most valuable services to the Jewish people, and indeed to the world, in its constant and fearless publication of news in regard to Jewish affairs in every corner of the world. The period during which persecution and oppression could be practiced in dark corners disappeared with the establishment of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on a firm foundation, and all lovers of freedom and good will must appreciate the work that it has done.”

Messages of congratulations were also sent by Lord Wedgwood of Barlaston, Lord Strabolgi, Commander O. Locker-Lampson, Dr. Igancy Schwartzbart and many others.