A calm such as did not characterize Congress opening sessions for many years past, pervaded all the utterances at the opening session of the 16th Zionist Congress today.
Beginning with Dr. Weizmann’s keynote address and ending with the address of the representative of the International Labor Office, speaking in behalf of Albert Thomas, head of the International Labor Office, all the speakers launched the pre-Agency Congress without a single controversial or critical note.
Discussing the Agency, Dr. Weizmann did not mention the differences of opinion still prevailing regarding the Agency constitution. He thanked Mr. Marshall and Mr. Warburg, “the leading friends who offered to help.” Regarding the experts’ report, Dr. Weizmann said that the experts’ judgment showed “the basis of our work as sound.” He hurriedly mentioned the unemployment crisis, remarking merely “the crisis did not shatter our faith.”
Citing Sir John Chancellor’s report before the Mandates Commission that the period when emigration exceeded immigration had long passed, Dr. Weizmann proceeded immediately to summarize the progress of private and national colonization. He expressed the friendliest sentiments toward Great Britain and deplored the Wailing Wall conflict. He reiterated that Jews have no designs on the Moslem or the Christian Holy Places and, evidently for the benefit of the many non-Jewish diplomats present, gave a new definition of Zionism as “a movement not merely to nationalize but to humanize the Jews.”
The president of the World Zionist Organization concluded his address with a solemn assurance for the continued existence of the Zionist Organization, although the Jewish Agency will begin to function.
Nahum Sokolow’s speech was a paen to the departed leader, to whom he referred as “founder, leader and prophet.” Rather than a Jahrzeit obituary, the Herzl death anniversary is a day for calling to a greater and deeper Zionist movement. “The Zionist idea was not buried with Herzl. A great man does not die; great ideas are imperishable. We are not saying Kaddish after Herzl, but glorify the ‘Kiddush Hashem’ which he accomplished,” Mr. Sokolow said.
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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.
