World Jewish Conference Proclaims $10,000,000 Campaign for Relief Activities

After prolonged deliberations the Finance Commission of the War Emergency Conference of the World Jewish Congress today recommended to the conference that it proclaim a $10,000,000 world-wide campaign for relief and rehabilitation, of which $4,000,000 is to be raised in the United States.

The $10,000,000 is to be placed at the disposal of the coordinating Committee of the three major Jewish organizations – Jewish Agency, Joint Distribution Committee and world Jewish Congress – if such a committee is formed. Should the JDC reject the proposal for the formation of a central committee, the funds will be expended by the World Jewish Congress for relief activities in Europe.

It was learned today that in addition to the amount to be raised in the United States, the Congress will raise $1,500,000 in India; $800,000 in Egypt; $500,000 in Argentina; $500,000 in Great Britain; $500,000 in South Africa; $300,000 in Canada; $300,000 in Brazil; $200,000 in Mexico; $100,000 in Palestine; $100,000 in Australia; $50,000 in Peru and the remainder in other Latin American countries.

Meanwhile, the plenary session of the Congress today adopted the resolution appealing for the coordination of the leading bodies concerned with Jewish post-war relief and rehabilitation. The resolution calls upon the World Jewish Congress “to make a maximum effort in order to secure this coordination as quickly as possible.” It emphasizes that “the tremendous task involved and the complexity of the problem of Jewish post-war relief and rehabilitation require the full cooperation of all forces in Jewish life.” It appealed to affiliated branches of the Congress to initiate action to secure for it the funds necessary for work “in all fields of activity which look to Jewish rebirth.”

WISE UNANIMOUSLY NAMED PRESIDENT OF WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS

Dr. Stephen S. Wise was today chosen unanimously as the president of the World Jewish Congress “as a tribute to his outstanding leadership and services for the Jewish people.” Up to now the World Jewish Congress has had no president and was led by Dr. Wise, as president of the executive committee, and by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, as chairman of the administrative committee. In accepting the new post, Dr. Wise expressed the hope that Jews will soon be secure all over the world and that Palestine will shortly become a Jewish Commonwealth.

A resolution adopted by the conference today urged that “no Jew who has escaped from Germany ought to be compelled, whether by legal means or by any kind of moral or material pressure, ever to return, and no former Jewish citizen of Germany ought ever again to acquire German nationality, except at his own direct and personal wishes.” The resolution invites the Rabbinate of Palestine to proclaim to the entire Jewish people an annual day of national mourning for the Jews who have been annihilated by the Germans.

Another resolution demands that Jews who are or who have been citizens of Axis countries should not be considered or treated as enemy aliens in the countries of the United Nations, but should be regarded and treated as allies. The resolution suggests that the property of such Jews should be saved from seizure regardless of their residence, and that no administrative restrictions imposed on enemy aliens be applied to them.

OTHER RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE CONGRESS URGE THAT

1. Abrogation of anti-Jewish legislation and the restoration of the legal status of Jews and Jewish communities should be a precondition to the granting of armistice terms to any Axis country.

2. Governments established in liberated territories should undertake the immediate abrogation of all anti-Jewish legislation and the full restoration of the legal status of the Jews under the provisions of international law.

3. Abrogation of all discriminatory measures should be made retroactive to the date of their enactment and should include the restoration of citizenship except in the case of persons who have in the meantime acquired another citizenship.

4. No nation shall be admitted to membership in the World Security Organization unless it is certified by an appropriate committee that it has assured compliance with the restoration of Jewish rights and that the enforcement of these measures has been guaranteed.

A resolution on the punishment of war criminals, offered by A, L. Easterman, a member of the British delegation, provides that representative of the World Jewish congress shall be admitted to the tribunals set up by the United Nations for the prosecution and punishment of war criminals, as “amici curiae.” The resolution demands that full consideration shall be given in the prosecution of war criminals to the evidence with respect to crimes against the Jewish population, and that these criminals shall be indicted and tried on these grounds.

“In the prosecution of crimes against the Jewish population,” the resolution says, “provision should be made for representatives of the respective Jewish communities in the investigating and prosecuting offices.” The resolution also recommends that the United Nations War Crimes Commission shall receive and give due consideration to all material which may be submitted to it by the World Jewish Congress.

DEMAND PROMULGATION OF INTERNATIONAL BILL OF RIGHTS

Emphasizing that “the Jewish people look to the United Nations for the establishment of a new international democratic order based on the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter,” the Congress adopted a resolution asking for the promulgation of an international bill of rights securing full protection of life and liberty for the inhabitants of all countries without distinctions of origin, nationality, race, religion or language, and that enforcement of such a bill of rights shall be carried out by adequate international machinery.

The resolution also demands the adoption and promulgation of national laws and other appropriate international legal instruments providing that anti-Semitic and anti-racial activities, and similar acts of incitement to racial and religious hatred and discrimination, are violations of criminal laws and public policy. The resolution also calls for,

1. The establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth.

2. The recognition of the particular needs of the Jewish people in the application of relief and rehabilitation measures within the scheme of post-war reconstruction.

3. Restitution and reparation for the losses suffered by still existing Jewish communities and individual Jewish victims of Nazi and Fascist murder and spoliation.

4. The recognition of the principle that the Jewish people is entitled to a collective reparation for the material and moral losses suffered by it and its institutions.

The plenary session of the conference also adopted a resolution welcoming “the establishment of united Jewish front in the United States in relation to post-war problems through the creation of the American Jewish Conference.” The resolution endorsed the working agreement between the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Conference which provides for a joint planning committee for post-war problems.

The resolution urges the reestablishment in each liberated country at the first possible moment of an organized Jewish community on democratic lines and affiliated with the World Jewish Congress.

The conference also adopted a resolution warmly welcoming the cooperative relations established by the Congress with Jewish organizations in Soviet Russia. The resolution expresses “the confident hope that the development and extension of these relations will lead to ever closer cooperation and the ultimate return of Russian Jewry to full participation in the affairs of world Jews.”

A delegation from France is expected to arrive late today and will participate in all future sessions. The delegation is composed of Guy Alphonse de Rothschild; Acting Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan; Leon Meiss; president of the Representative Council of French Jews and Joseph Fischer, secretary of the Council, who is also secretary general of the Jewish National Fund in France.