Wise Warns Leaders Not to Scorn World Congress

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, honorary president of the American Jewish congress, and prine mover in ghe convening of the forthcoming World Jewish Congress yeaterday stressed the democratic nature of the elections to be held in th United States to name delegates to the Congress, and the appeal of the World Congress to the broad masses of unorganize Jews everywhere. He warned the Jewish leaders who declined to take part in the Congress deliber ations that the6 were assuming a terrific responsibility, and once more appealed fo unity among all Jewish groups in face of the obvious dangers confronting world Jewry.

In an interview with the Jewish Daily Bulletin in his office in the Institute of Jewish Religion, which he founded, Dr, Wise declared:”We certainly will have democratic elections of delegates ot the World congress wills not to have demorcratic methods of election, it would not be free to do so. It is bound by the resolutions abopted August, 1932, by the Geneva pre-confernce to accept and pursue the democratic method. Only one exception has been made, and that is in those countries in which such elections would not be permitted by the laws of the state. I for my part believe that ninety-five per cent of the delegates to the Congress will be chosen in democreaic election.

MACHINERY BEING CREATED

The machinery of elections is now in process of erection in the United States. There is still some question as to whether we shall have a method of election in America corresponding the electoral college, which would mean that Jews thrughout the country would elect delegates to a convention. The convention would probably be held in May ro June, the number of delegates to be on the basis of the number o votes cast. The decision has not been reached with regard to this procedure, or the alternative method which is the immediate and direct election of delegates. The electoral method offers the additional advantage of having all the delegates to the World Jewish Congress chosen by a convention which would comprise representatives of all the country instead of the delegates for New York or Chicago being chosen solely by Jewish voters in those communities.”

INVITING OTHER BODIES

“By no means a new question”, Dr. Wise replied to a query on the participation of other groups in the Congress, “Before the preliminary conference, as the Jewish Daily Bulletin knows, invitations were sent out to the leading Jewish organizations in the world, which for the most part acting in concert, they declened. It is new the purpose of the American Jewish Congress, before we take a single step in the matter of a general election, to invite such organizations as the American Jewish Committee, the B’nai B’rith an others to join with it in arranging for such elections. What course will be pursued by these bodies no one can safely predict.

“But nothing is nearer to my heart than the hope or possibility of Jewish unity, in American and throughout the world. I can hardly conceive of anything more dismal, not to say tragic, than the incapacity of the Jewish people to unite in self-defense an the furtherance of their hingest ideals at a time of gravest crisis in Jewish history. I venture to predict that unless the Jews of the entire world, unite, there may b nothing but darkness and terror in store for the Jew.

“To me, the tragedy of Jewish indifference in America to what is happening in the Jewish world is no less grave than the tragedy of Hitlerism in Germany. The Jewish cours in America is running paralled to the Jewish course in Germany. The German Jews were unprepared and they were blind, they were indifferent.

“Sometimes I confess I an a lettle nervous about over-indulgence in th use of the term unity, for I find that unity is often used as if it were interchangeable with dominance. There should be and there will be no unity whcih fails to rest upon the basic assumption that Jewish people, let us used the term, the masses in other lands as well a our own, are sufficiently intelligent and undertaking to be consulted by those who are inclined to take upon themselves th burden of leadership. We have not had in the last year any such outstanding and compelling leadership as would justify a Fascist attitude in Jewish life.”

When asked whether the summoning of a world Jewish Congress would not serve as a focus for anti-Semitic attacks, Dr. Wise answered:”A people that is ruled in its judgements and decisions by fear of misunderstanding on the part of other people is not only doomed to perish. but deserves to perish. We Jews know that we are not seeking power or dominance. We are seeking the right to survive, the right to live. It is a terrible responsibility which those Jews will take upon themselves who may declare that they can have no part or lot in the World Jewish Congress. After all, the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ were written long before a World Jewish Congress was dreamed of. That is the answer.” “Naturally Palestine and Germany must loom large on the agenda of the World Jewish Congress”, Rabbi Wise declared in answer to a question. “They must loom large in any envisagement of the Jewish problem. What the exact relation of the World Jewish Congress will be to Palestine it is not easy to say, for while the Geneva conference has virtually decided that Palestine comes especially within the province of the World Zionist Congress and the Jewish Agency for Palestine, if tomorrow the World Jewish Congress were held, inevitably it would utter the mind of the Jewish people the world over in protest against the ever-nar-rowing interpretation of the term “economic absorptive capacity” by the Mandatory power. The same problems as it were of Zionism and the Jewish resetilement of Palestine must remain remain within the realm of the Jewish Agency. On the other hand, it is impossible to conceive of a world Jewish assembly that is not an expression of the Jewish passion for all that relates to Palestine and find some means fo expression with regard to certain phases of the problem of Jewish resettlement.”