Work in all but essential industries stopped today in Jerusalem in accordance with a V-E day proclamation by the Jewish National Council, Between four and seven p.m. all urban traffic came to a halt, and this evening public prayers were said in all synagogues.
Schools were open, but regular classes were suspended while teachers explained to their pupils the significance of the occasion. Flags flew from public and private buildings and lighted Mogen Davids and manorahs shone forth from the roofs of the higher structures. A procession headed by leaders of the Jewish community, followed by servicemen and members of civil defense units bearing placards recalling the millions of exterminated Jews and other appropriate slogans marched through the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other places.
The Palestine Symphony Orchestra was giving a concert last night, under the baton of British guest conductor Louis Cohen, when word of the German surrender was received, The orchestra broke off its soheduled program and, as the audience stood, played the Allied and Jewish national anthems.
The Jewish Agency for Palestine today issued a manifesta in which it pointed not that the war cost the destruction of one-third of world Jewry and three-quarters at the Jews in the formerly Nazi-occupied portion of Europe. The Jews of Europe, it said, are, in the main, homeless and broken and thousands of children are or phaned, These Jews, the manifesto continued, must find a new home and chance for rehabilitation in a Jewish state in Palestine.
Urging the Jews of the democratis world to rally to the Zionist cause, the Agency, at the same time, appealed to the great powers to heed the urgency of the Jewish problem and support efforts to attain full nationhood in Palestine, so as to avoid my possibility of a recurrence of the disaster which befell the Jewish people in the past decade.
The Agency stressed that Jews have not only been victims in this war, but have played a significant and great role in the armies of the United Nations. Besides the Jewish Brigade, composed mainly of Palestinian Jews, it said, there were hundreds of thousands of Jews in the various Allied armies.
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.
