Wise, Bohn Attack Proposals for Exodus of German Jews

Proposals for exodus of German Jews were attacked today by Dr. Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, and Dr. Frank Bohn, chairman of the Emergency Committee for Aid to German Refugees, addressing 800 persons at a luncheon of the congress women’s division in the Commodore.

“There is to be no exodus from Germany,” declared Dr. Wise. “The German Jews have the right to remain in Germany. The thing we will oppose with every part of ourselves is a plan to save Jewish money at the expense of Jewish honor the world over,” He continued:

“We of the American Jewish Congress are not interested in saving Jewish wealth, but in preserving Jewish security and honor. Any plan to strengthen Nazism through the establishment of a Schacht bank and sale of Nazi goods will meet with our determined opposition.

“We will help the Jews of Germany, but first of all we will go on with our opposition to the Nazis, and we will not surrender the right of the Jews or of any other group to live as free men in Germany.”

At the same time he stated that Jews who were exiled from the Reich should be aided in going to Palestine.

Rabbi Wise took occasion to attack reports of a newspaper interview with Avery Brundage, chairman of the American Olympic Committee, in which he had said that if other means failed, federal subsidy would be sought for the American Olympic team.

“Not one dollar will he ever have from our Federal Government,” Dr. Wise stated.

Dr. Bohn criticized the plan for expatriating 100,000 Jews from Germany as an “enormous folly” on the grounds that it was “impossible of execution” and that it would be impossible to find room for that many refugees. He proposed instead that the 175,000,000 English-speaking people protest to the Nazis.

Carrie Chapman Catt, women’s leader, denounced persecution of minorities. Mrs. Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the women’s division, urged intensification of the anti-Nazi boycott.