World Jewish Congress Hails Establishment of Israel As Fulfillment of Jewish Hopes

A declaration greeting the state of Israel in the name of “broad masses of Jewish people throughout the world” was read here tonight at a special Palestine session of the second convention of the World Jewish Congress.

The declaration, read by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the executive committee of the W.J.C., hailed the establishment of the Jewish state and offered “boundless gratitude to our fellow Jews in Palestine for the fulfillment of a millennial hope for national restoration in the land of our fathers.” The heroism of the Haganah, “whose military achievements in the face of fearful odds has added another chapter in the history of Jewish valor,” was emphasized in the declaration. “We salute the courage of Israel’s Jews who permitted neither military aggression nor political pressure to stop them in the valiant battle for defense and consolidation and for international recognition of their new state,” the document said.

The declaration also called on all sections of the Jewish people to support the Jewish state’s struggle for independence and against all attempts to “diminish its sovereignty or reduce its territory.” It hailed the United States and the Soviet Union for their assistance to the new state and urged other nations to follow their example. In conclusion the declaration pledged the Congress to support by every lawful means the state of Israel in its “struggle for independence and integrity.”

The session also received a message from Israeli President Chaim Weizmann who is now in Switzerland. He expressed regret that the “pressure of work and unforeseen obligation” would not permit his attendance at the convention. The message stated that he was certain that the Congress would dedicate its worldwide organization and strength to aid Israel.

GENERAL DEBATE ENDS; 82 DELEGATES DISCUSS ISSUES

The general debate wound up earlier today after 82 speakers representing almost every one of the 64 delegations represented at the parley had expressed themselves on one aspect or another of the major problems facing world Jewry.

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, who was the last speaker, took issue with the opinion expressed by a number of delegations that national and international developments must be Judged by the standard of “what is good for the Jews is automatically good,” and vice versa. He insisted that such interpretations are apt to prove harmful in some Jewish communities. It would be quite wrong, he said, to advise Jews in America how to behave since “the Jew in America goes to the polls not as a Jew.”

The opposite point of view was expressed by Praesidium member Zerubavel, a representative of the left-wing Poale Zion, who criticized the American Jews for supporting a government which prevented Jews from going to Palestine” and who also declared that “Jews cannot be neutral toward warmongers.” Dr. Leon Kubowitzki, praised the British Jews for “standing up to” their government’s anti-Israel policy and criticized a Rumanian delegate who charged that Rumanian Jews who fled their native land during the past year or so were “exploiters.”

Last night Alex Easterman, political secretary of the British section of the W.J.C., attacked anti-Semitism in the United States, Britain and South Africa and contrasted the situation in these countries with-that of the Eastern European nations which have outlawed anti-Semitism as a crime. He stated that the Jews in the Eastern European countries “no longer fear the dread of anti-Semitic terrorists” and “are more free than the Jews of Great Britain where the fascist anti-Semitic forces of Mosley and his gangsters are at this moment legally permitted to propound and propagate the poison dogmas of anti-Semitism.”