Dr. Chaim Weizmann, head of the Commission for the Settlement of German Jews in Palestine, who was expected to arrive in the United States this month, will be unable to come on account of illness, according to an announcement yesterday by Morris Rothenberg, president of the Zionist Organization of America.
The news was conveyed in a trans-Atlantic conversation Mr. Rothenberg had with Dr. Weizmann several days ago, and is confirmed in a letter received yesterday by Mr. Rothenberg from Dr. Weizmann, in which he states that he had been ordered by his doctor to abstain from all work for a period of three months. It is believed that Dr. Weizmann’s condition is due of his strenuous labors during the past year in connection with the task of setting German refugees in Palestine.
Dr. Weizmann wrote in part:
REAFFIRMS FAITH IN PALESTINE
“Perhaps there is one thing I might have said had I been able to come: it is that I have just come back from Palestine, where I have seen for myself the work that is being done for the re-establishment of some of the German exiles, and I am more than ever convinced that it is to Palestine that we must look for the main contribution towards the solution of this problem. Not that Palestine can, or ought to absorb the whole of the German refugees: it is, as we are always being told, a very small country: but it has already absorbed a large proportion of them, and can continue to absorb them on an even larger scale, provided that the necessary means are found for their installation. That is our responsibility, and I have complete confidence in the ability of the Jewish people to rise to it.”
Mr. Rothenberg stated that the decision of Dr. Weizmann not to come to the United States will be greatly disappointing to American Jews.
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.