Dr. Chaim Weizmann, former president of the World Zionist Organization and of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, outlined a program Wednesday evening, for the colonization of 250,000 victims of anti-Semitism in Germany and in other lands. He was guest of honor at the first public reception for him since his arrival in the United States last Friday.
“Such a program would require the whole-hearted cooperation of the Mandatory Power, which will in turn need the encouragement of the League of Nations and the United States,” he declared.
“A minimum of $25,000,000 would be required, to be raised with the assistance of the Jews in the interested countries.
REQUIRES UNITY
“It must also be stressed that such a large-scale program demands unprecedented unity among the Jewish people. Its objects might easily be wrecked by the opinionated selfishness of that die-hard group which refuses to recognize the existence of Palestine. As never before there is expected of all Jews a subordination of their preconceptions to the broad demands of a crucial period in Jewish history.
“If we continue to develop Palestine along those lines which we have followed from the day of Theodor Herzl, we shall have reason to be proud of our achievement. We shall be bringing Jews into a country where the dignity of human labor will be paramount. We shall be building a country where the worth of the individual will be measured by his contribution to the creation of a happy people. We shall have a community that will strive to enrich the many and not the few. We shall show the world that Jewish idealism and Jewish vision, when given full play, can bring forth a civilization as noble and as fructifying as any which history has known.”
The meeting was under the auspices of the American Palestine Campaign, the Zionist Organization of America and the Jewish Agency for Palestine. Samuel Untermyer, chairman of the Weizmann reception committee, acted as chairman.
Among the other speakers were Louis Lipsky, national chairman of the American Palestine Campaign; Morris Rothenberg, president of the Zionist Organization of America and Rabbi Samuel Schulman of Temple Emanu-El.
PALESTINE CENTRAL SOLUTION
“More and more,” said Mr. Rothenberg, “the eyes of Jewry must turn to Palestine as the central solution of the Jewish refugee from persecution.”
“The problem of the Jewish people is an international problem and not the concern of the Jews alone,” declared Mr. Lipsky. He predicted Dr. Weizmann’s speedy return to the center of world Zionist activity.
Rabbi Samuel Schulman said, “There are various ways of helping our Jewish brethren in lands in which they suffer, but there is no door in any country which seems to me to be so hospitably open as is that of Palestine. Therefore non-Zionist as well as Zionist, anti-nationalist as well as nationalist, within Jewry should give unstintingly so that we are able in a spirit of justice and peace, in cooperation with the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, to make as large and secure a home as possible for the Jews who are to go there.”
Dr. Weizmann came to the United States as guest of honor at Jewish Day at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago on July 3.
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