Z.O.A. Convention Opens Today in Atlantic City; Roosevelt Will Support Jewish State

President Roosevelt, in his message to the 7th annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America which opens here tomorrow, will pledge his support of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine in accordance with the Palestine plank of the Democratic Party adopted at its Chicago convention, it was indicated her today.

Messages pledging support for a Jewish Palestine were received today by convention headquarters from Sumner Welles, former Under-Secretary of State, and from the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, Congressmen John W. McCormeck and Joseph W. Martin, Jr. respectively.

“The record of the Jewish people during the past quarter century has been outstanding,” Mr. Welles said. “Their faith and persistence in the face of grave dangers and notwithstanding innumerable obstacles have been superb and a cause for inspiration to all who believe in democracy and in the principles of human liberty. I earnestly hope that the great cause which the organization upholds and for which it has strived so zealously since the time of its creation may ultimately triumph, and that in the peace settlement to some there may be established in Palestine a Jewish commonwealth to whose inhabitants will be guaranteed all of the individual liberties in which people of the United States so fervently believe.”

Majority leader McCormack, a Democrat, in his message addressed to Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the ZOA, voiced confidence that when decisions will be made regarding the peace to come “full justice will be done to the Jewish National Home” whereby “the Jewish people will be granted the opportunity of unrestricted immigration to Palestine and the complete freedom for the acquisition of land, so that on the banks of the Jordan the rebirth of the Jewish nation will take place in the land of its forefathers, to become with the help of God, an equal member of the family of nations.” He emphasized his conviction “that our responsible leadership in Washington will make an effective contribution towards the achievement of this Godly goal, for the sake of the Jewish people as well as for the good of all mankind.”

Minority leader Joseph W. Martin, Jr., a Republican, declared that “following the victorious conclusion of the war, the only country that will be capable of receiving and absorbing large numbers of these unfortunate people of Europe will be Palestine, which country was made ready for that very purpose.”